Elle Stanger is a mom, stripper, sex writer and often refers to herself as an “unlicensed underwear therapist.” There are some people who believe that strippers are therapists and help others feel better, giving them a shoulder to cry on and giving a lonely person a date for the night.
Like other moms, she works hard and loves to spend time with her daughter.
She said: “The nature of my work is varied. I work in a strip club three days a week, I’ve done webcam on and off, I write erotica, and I sell my own porn, me and my partner just made our own – that was fun.”
The 31-year-old from Portland, Oregon, has a five-year-old daughter and despite other views, her life is devoted to raising her child.
“I feel like being a sex worker makes me a better mommy because I’ve developed a greater sense of empathy,” Elle told Barcroft TV. Plus, there are dozens of other sex workers who feel the same way. Whether it’s the best escort Paris has or a webcam girl from the UK, sex work has made some women, including mothers, feel more empathy towards others and has made them all round a better person.
“It means that I am responsible to make a human being that is better for the world,” she added. “I think it’s just my job to kind of raise a little human that’s going to make the world a better place.”
Elle has also worked as a webcam girl and an escort but knows she’s a good mother, despite what others may think. Working in the adult industry for companies such as Tube v Sex does not compromise anybody’s ability to be a great mother to their children.
“I’ve been telling my daughter since she was three that mommy dances, talks to people and tells jokes for money,” Elle said.
She currently strips three times a week at Portland’s Lucky Devil Lounge.
What is more, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Portland State University. After what she preferred working in the world of sex to being a police officer.
First, she began doing such work to make money but quickly realized this industry had so much more to offer than guys that normally perused websites such as hdpornvideo.xxx or elsewhere, there were also plenty of men looking for easy conversation as a form of therapeutic release.
She explained to Barcroft TV: “I became a sex worker for economic reasons, but I realized about six months into stripping that I was learning more about human beings than I’d ever learned in anything – any psychology class – and I was like, “Wow, there’s really a whole lot here. This feels like healing, this feels like helping, this feels like giving therapy.”
“So I know that my work is healing to people because they tell me and I see it,” she continued.
“A lot of the reason that people go into adult establishments is not just because they want some kind of arousal, which is great. A lot of people don’t have it in them to seek out therapy because they’ve been ashamed to.
I think it’s a lot easier for the blue-collar guy to talk to the pretty girl in her underwear for 20 bucks a song.”
Elle is proud of her girl and tries to separate work from family. However, she doesn’t even think about leaving the big earning job: “I have raised a great kid. She is really smart, and she is really happy.
I see myself as a healer and a giver of touch and a motherly figure and not just motherly to my kids, but motherly to my clients because I want to care for them, I want them to feel happy and safe, and they will treat me better when they are happier.”
