Stripped Down: A Naked Memoir

Let me begin with a disclosure and a confession: The disclosure is that I am acquainted with Ms. Keith via social media. However, we have never actually met and, given my general antipathy for the Houston area, are unlikely to ever do so. The confession is that I don't generally like memoirs. So hopefully my prejudice in favor of the author is balanced by my dislike for this particular literary form into something like an objectively enthusiastic evaluation.That said, I liked this book much more than I expected. Ms. Keith tells her story of navigating her way through a fairly toxic surface area of the demi-monde, yet somehow keeping her soul intact through a combination of chutzpah, wit, intelligence, and pure dumb luck. At the same time, Ms. Keith successfully weaves her very personal and intimate tale between the Scylla of judgmental finger-shaking and the Charybdis of self-absorbed look-at-me-ism. The result is a view from the inside-out of various dialectics of power and helplessness, desire and revulsion, feminism and patriarchalism, that never oversimplifies its topic or degrades its players, even as the topic invites simplistic pronouncements and the players often engage in gratuitous self-degradation.Ms. Keith achieves this goal through her considerable empathy and her command of language. For this latter, she often enjoys tossing out little gems with sharp edges such as, "if those are G-strings, someone must have left off a few letters," or, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that in a roomful of suits, the naked chick holds all the cards." These phrases are at time reminiscent of Raymond Chandler's writing, although at times they seem to come a little too close together to fully appreciate them. But even here, there is a deliberateness in Ms. Keith's language. The opening chapter comes at the reader in almost breathlessly staccato bursts, but as becomes obvious as the book progresses, this is a technique Ms. Keith is deploying in order to decenter the reader and display in all its lurid egregiousness the world of strip clubs and the thornbush-lined "garden paths" that might lead one into the full-blown porn industry.Throughout, Ms. Keith plays with her readers expectations, and so the reader is well-advised buck-up in the seemingly dark patches, and bunker-down in seemingly light and giddy ones. This is a tale worth reading, not least of all because it is true, but especially because the author is such a thoughtful architect of the story.

I don't remember how or why I decided to read this book, but reading it ended up being a complete waste of my time.The author Stacey Keith/Dakota Kelly/whatever her real name is doesn't offer one bit of insight in the entire book. You may be SHOCKED to learn that 1)men in the sex industry are one level above pimps 2) a lot of the girls do drugs and 3) guys like to stare at women with large breasts.There is nothing new or different about this woman that didn't happen to hundreds of others in the sex industry. She make think she is different, but she's not.What's most fascinating about this human train wreck, is that throughout the book she keeps reminding us what a giant intellect she has and how much smarter she is than everyone else in the industry. If that is the case, how, after 5 years in the industry, does she end up broke and almost gang raped at a construction site?Instead of investing in herself by actually learning a marketable skill, she takes the easy way out by stripping at sleazy bars throughout the South and then displays nothing but contempt toward the people who come out to see her. And she's just getting started. The list of people she hates, and I mean HATES, is endless. In her entire career in the industry, she never met one person she liked? I'd say the problem lies within.Never takes responsibility for her own bad decisions. Her very first gig, she is tricked into stripping at some bar in Florida. The other girls at the club, half of whom she claims are coked out, sprinkle broken glass in her shoes but she luckily spotted it right before going on stage. Then the two people who got her the job, tried to talk her into videotaping sex with them. When she refused, they tried to cheat her out of her cut.After all this horrible behavior, nowhere does she indicate that she had second thoughts about continuing to pursue a career in the sex industry. Instead, its one steady stream of one incredibly poor decision after another....all compounded by hooking up with a boyfriend who spent virtually the complete length of their relationship on drugs.And its not as if she became fabulously rich or famous. She's a complete failure. A nobody. I kept waiting to read about the huge breakthrough that vaulted her out of her sorry state. But alas, it was not to be.

Stacey Keith's memoir, "Stripped Down - A Naked Memoir", is not the sort of book I would have normally chosen, had it not been recommended it to me by a friend. So, if it's not the sort of thing you'd choose, either, this is me recommending it to you!This intimate invitation to share a part of Stacey's career as a young exotic dancer and glamour model leaves her soul exposed and bare. A misfit wherever she went, a woman with high morals and superior intelligence, whose beautiful exterior was an obstacle preventing people from seeing the human being inside, this brave woman entered a career - largely out of desperation - which could have destroyed her. This professional had always seemed so glamourous to me (as a child Linda Lusardi from my father's "Scope" magazines was my idol). Instead, the misogyny, humiliation, multiple violations, and degradations endured by Stacey - a woman who was barely out of her teens at the time! - reveals an industry that dehumanises women and is all about power and male ego. It was a humbling read. Beautifully written, funny, tragic, and hopeful, I would recommend this book to anyone. Stacey Keith survived something most of us couldn't imagine with her integrity and self-worth intact. She is a feminist, a survivor, a "naked nerd"! I have the deepest respect for this remarkable and inspiring woman.

Esperaba mayor cantidad de anécdotas, pero no es así por que estuvo poco tiempo en la industria, pero las que comparte son entretenidas, libro para pasar el rato.

Stacy Keith writes eloquently about the sort of life not many people encounter. It's the sort of career where one's appearance is everything and one's brains aren't valued at all, but without some smarts it's all too easy to be exploited. The sort of career where, just because the goods are on display people think they're entitled to them. Roles suddenly involve going topless without prior warning, and an unwillingness to play along harms one's prospects.A read that's both compelling and engaging, and more relevant than ever, since the predatory nature of certain producers and senior figures is being made increasingly public. Don't let the cover fool you -- this woman's story is worth reading!

an manchen Stellen etwas wirr

Interesting but unfortunately a sad tail of what happens to women in this industry.

Very interesting read.