Single Mom Stripper: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

[[The Unfair Sex|Your nasty husband has cheated on you and left.]] You're out of work, you've got a baby to feed and you're one missed rent payment from the street.

You realize that the boys at school really liked you. Maybe you could make some quick fast cash waiting tables-in a bikini. Or pole dancing.

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* This trope proves to be a godsend for Godai, the male lead of ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]''. The young man is trained in early childhood education and hoping to work in a elementary school, until he' laid off and the only work he can find is a strip joint. After a humiliating period as a street barker, things turn around when one of the dancers, who is a single mother who couldn't afford daycare, is forced to bring her toddler to work. In this situation Godai is ordered to take care of the child safely out of sight in the back, and does so well that the other dancers, predominately single mothers themselves, ask him to take care of their kids. Pretty soon Godai is running an excellent daycare centre at the strip joint and is deeply valued by the rest of the staff.

* Mako Nakarai's mother in ''[[Bokurano]]'' is this. Unusually she was a prosititue before she had her daughter but genuinely loves her.

 

 

* ''[[Watchmen]]'': In the [[Flash Back|flashbacks]], Rorschach's mother is a single mom prostitute. Perhaps an [[Inverted Trope]], in that she ''hates'' him because he inadvertently drives away business. The woman living in the next apartment from him in the present is also a prostitute, but successfully keeps her secret from her children. Rorschach doesn't kill her because her children are present.

** And also because her efforts to hide what she does from them indicate that, unlike his own mother, the landlady cares enough about her children to protect them from the ugliness of her life.

* ''Dangerous Beauty'' was about a 16th century woman who becomes a courtesan to support herself and her mother.

* Vivica Fox's character in ''[[Independence Day]]''. Unlike most examples however, she does it by choice (being in a long-term relationship with a well-to-do <s>soldier</s> Marine Corps aviator) and the film deserves credit for not making her any less sympathetic.

* Arlene McKinney in ''[[Pay It Forward]]''.

* [[Demi Moore]]'s character in ''Striptease,'' though she starts out not to support her daughter but to get money to appeal the custody decision against her.

* "Cassidy", Marissa Tomei's character in ''[[The Wrestler]]''.

* Heather Graham's character in ''[[The Hangover]]'' is both a single mom stripper ''and'' a single mom prostitute. She says that she works at a strip club as a way of meeting clients.

'''Alan:''' "How dare you, she's a nice lady!" }}

Now I look smashing [[Public Exposure|on live TV!]] }}

 

 

== Literature ==

* Central to the premise of ''Striptease'', both the Carl Hiaasen book and the movie.

** That's what happens in the musical, in the book she is fired for having lied about not having any children, as lying was the one thing the owner of the factory (aka Valjean) wouldn't tolerate. She is also not arrested for prostitution, but becomes ill from wearing a revealing dress outside in cold weather.

*** Actually, in neither case is she arrested for prostitution. She's arrested for attacking a john.

* Sharona [[Public Exposure|posed]] for a [[Playboy]] magazine [[Expy]] in ''[[Monk]]'' in the past.

* Miss Pasternak on [[Two and A Half Men]].

* Hilda on ''[[Ugly Betty]]'' once ended up working at a [[Brand X|Hooters analogue]] for this reason.

* It's the back story for Catherine on ''[[CSI]]''.

* Bill's mom in ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' used to be this.

* Frederico in ''[[Six Feet Under]]'' had an affair with a stripper who was a single mom. He didn't really have that much sex with her, as much as he just bought her lots of nice things she never asked for in the first place.

* Gillian Darmody on ''[[Boardwalk Empire]]''.

* A few victim-of-the-weeks in ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' are these. One uses it to [[I Have a Family|attempt to garner pity]] (as expected, it doesn't work).

* ''What Would You Do?'', the song that's used as the page quote

* Savaged mercilessly in [[Bloodhound Gang]]'s "A Lap Dance Is So Much Better When the Stripper is Crying"

when I found out she was doin' me to buy baby formula." }}

* Cher's "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves" is about the daughter of a tent show dancer (not a single mom; papa's a tent-preacher or snake-oil seller and would have protected his daughter if he'd known what was going on, and helps support his grandkid) who becomes a Single Mom dancer herself. Stripping may or may not be involved.

 

== Music Videos ==

* Madonna was one of these in one of her videos; at first, the little boy trying to get in to see her was sort of weird, before you realize it's her son.

*** Seems like the kid was just impatient to see his mother at the end of the day. Since they literally dance off into the night together, it's reasonable to imagine that family time is appreciated after the days she has.

* In Juvenile's video for "Rodeo", the camera goes "behind the scenes" at a strip club. The dancers are all [[The Woobie|sympathetic]], facing such issues as overdue bills, jealous boyfriends, schoolwork, breakups, crass treatment from patrons, and all that, but [[The Show Must Go On]]. One of the dancers has a baby with her backstage.

 

== Western Animation ==

** And, in a later episode, Hayley herself had to do "some things" to pay for food when Stan went crazy for the 900th time.

** And Hayley working as a strip club waitress (then as a stripper after her boss and a patron tell Hayley that being a stripper isn't exploitative) in "Stan Knows Best" after Stan takes her credit card and stops paying her way through community college

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Parent Trope]]

[[Category:Sex Tropes]]

[[Category:Always Female]]

[[Category:The Oldest Profession]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]

[[Category:Single Mom Stripper]]