Carnival Strippers Book

I read a review on the BBC website about an exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles festival which featured the photographs from this book. The brief description of the work interested me, so I managed to track down an old, crumbling copy through interlibrary loan. It is a fascinating, and often sad read about a time long ago before internet porn was free and plentiful, and the girlie show at the summer carnival was one of the places that rural men who wanted to look at naked women could indulge this desire. The stories of the women and men ("carnies") that work the shows are told in their own words. Sometimes, those stories are what you would expect, sometimes not: for people from hard upbringings or bad relationships with nowhere else to go, the carnival is a place to earn a living and find a sense of belonging. Women who were never given love or attention by their parents get that "love" and attention from the baying crowd, and feel empowered by the lust they inspire. Some of the strippers see the carnival as a launching pad for a lucrative show business career; others hope to find a man who will love and take care of them, a man that they can raise children with. Some of the women will do anything on stage to feel accepted, or because "this was their career, this was what they did, and they did it very well." A quote from one of the men working the show sums it up: "There's one overall quality which I seem to notice among all the girls...The girls are what I call usable. They're unable to defend themselves and a strong man or woman can take such ridiculous unfair advantage of them." A powerful, moving work.