A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment , predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret -style. American-style strip clubs began to appear outside North America after World War II , arriving in Asia in the late s and Europe in , [ 1 ] where they competed against the local English and French styles of striptease and erotic performances.
Profitability of strip clubs, as with other service-oriented businesses, is largely driven by location and customer spending habits. The better appointed a club is, in terms of its quality of facilities, equipment, furniture, and other elements, the more likely customers are to encounter cover charges and fees for premium features such as VIP rooms. The strip club as an outlet for salacious entertainment is a recurrent theme in popular culture.
Clubs themselves and various aspects of the business are highlighted in these references. Popular Internet sites for strip club enthusiasts also have lists calculated from the inputs of site visitors. The legal status of strip clubs has evolved over the course of time, with national and local laws becoming progressively more liberal on the issue around the world, although some countries such as Iceland have implemented strict limits and bans. Strip clubs are frequent targets of litigation around the world, and the sex industry, which includes strip clubs, is a contentious issue in popular culture and politics.
Some clubs have been linked to organized crime. The term "striptease" was first recorded in , though "stripping", in the sense of women removing clothing to sexually excite men, seems to go back at least years. For example, in Thomas Otway 's comedy The Soldier's Fortune a character says: "Be sure they be lewd, drunken, stripping whores". The third day, dedicated to ball and dance, was used for the finest entertainment to divert the men; their eyes were given the opportunity to see all the pleasures nature could offer; and if the pleasant aspects of a well shaped young lady are able to arouse the mind, one can say that our princes enjoyed all the delicacies of love.
Other possible influences on modern stripping were the dances of the Ghawazee "discovered" and seized upon by French colonists in 19th century North Africa and Egypt. The erotic dance of the bee , performed by a woman known as Kuchuk Hanem , was witnessed and described by the French novelist Gustave Flaubert. In this dance, the performer disrobes as she searches for an imaginary bee trapped within her garments. It is likely that the women performing these dances did not do so in an indigenous context, but rather, responded to the commercial climate for this type of entertainment.
