Ch. 5 Community services
Author's notes:
1. This story follows on from my previous story 'Mixed Emotions' in which the characters are introduced and developed. It is strongly recommended that 'Mixed Emotions' is read first.
2. This is a work of fiction. The activities and practices described in this series are neither condoned nor recommended. If you choose to do anything described in real life with real people you do so at your own risk.
3. All characters are fictional and any likeness to any living person is purely coincidental.
4. The chapters are numbered in a sequence for a reason. It is recommended that they be read in numerical order.
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It was several weeks since Becks had joined the group. During that time she had learned the ropes, was now an accomplished pole dancer, had lost her newbie gullibility while retaining her freshness and enthusiasm, and was enjoying her life and her work. She had not found Emma, which continues to be a great concern. As they sat in the spa pool for the Sunday brunch that seemed to have become a tradition, flapjacks and maple syrup cooked today by Todd, a discussion was under way regarding their role in sex education and the possibilities of offering this service to the community.
"You know, there will be many out there who would think a strip club and brothel would be the very worst place to learn about sex," commented Trudi. "After all, many people even in this liberal community consider such places to exploit women, casting them as helpless victims who get into sex work then find they cannot get out."
"That's true. In many brothels that is the case because the organisers seek only to exploit the women. How many of you feel like helpless exploited victims and want to get out but cannot?" asked Marcie looking at her beloved group members.
Several of the group chuckled and nobody said anything or raised a hand.
"I rest my case," continued Marcie. "However, I realise that is not the point. The point is that communities think that is how it is. So as well as taking sex education to the masses, we first have to sell ourselves. Has anybody got any ideas how we could do that?"
"Well, for a start, we could try to demystify this place," began David. "I suspect that there are two groups of people out there; those who think this place is evil, a lair of sinners committing atrocities with each other and charging people to watch some of these, who will all go to hell. Then there is the other group who believe that we have liberal ideas about sex, consider a healthy sex life to be good and wholesome, and enjoy coming here to celebrate their and our sexual wholeness. There probably is no middle ground. So maybe we need to work on the first group and challenge them to check us out. After all, they are basing their prejudices on their imaginations; can we not let them gain some facts about us so that they can then begin to change their prejudices, or if they feel they cannot change them, at least have them confirmed by their own observations and judgements."
"That's a good thought," agreed Dana, "But how to implement it? We have established a reasonably consistent repeat clientele, presumably of David's second group, but those in the first group wouldn't be seen dead in this place. So it's not as though we can just throw open our doors and expect people to come wandering in. Most people feel very happy and secure with their prejudices and certainly don't want them to be examined when faced with their own observations. Besides, people tend to see what they expect to see, so for them their observations may reinforce their prejudices, not change them."
"One area, which is frequently in the news and is probably of concern to parents of teens, is the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of the sex education taught in our schools," said Gabby. "It is well known that there are two schools of thought here; the first is to teach abstinence, telling young people that sex is bad until you reach the magical age of 18, then it is good and you should know all about it, presumably by a mental download that occurs on your birthday," she continued cynically. "The second is based on the assumption that kids will engage in sex regardless of the law and the best thing to teach about is contraception and to put the fear of God and the law into these kids about becoming pregnant. Both groups base their teaching on the assumption that a stable monogamous marriage is the only structure in which sex should be practised. So even if you're 30 you shouldn't have sex unless you're married. Both these schools of thought appear to be very presumptuous and limiting. I wonder if we could do any better."
"Are you suggesting that we start teaching sex education in schools?" asked Julie.
"Not as such," replied Dana, "But now that you mention it, why not?"
"Yeah, I can just imagine it," said Becks with a smirk, "'OK kiddies, go get your gear off for a start then we'll each pair up with a member of the opposite sex and see what fits where'; 'But miss, I'm gay, what do I do?'" A few chuckles went around the group. "We'd really have to be very careful that we didn't tread on peoples' toes. I feel that we would need to maybe make the offer and see if we were invited into any school. It would also be up to the school community to tell us what they wanted us to teach and what we must not mention."
"So really there are a couple of issues here," summarised Pam, "There is the issue of us being accepted by the community and the issue of possibly teaching sex education in schools. We would need to gain the first before attempting the second."
"What if we had an open day?" asked Chris. "There would be no charge, people could come in and have a look around, even seeing the private areas as well as backstage in the show room and downstairs in the Dungeon. Maybe a Sunday afternoon would be a good time."
"It would also be a good marketing ploy," surmised Greg. "I think most of the people who came would be those who were curious. The ones who were regular customers might come along and see how we lived our lives off stage, but many or most, I feel, would be those who were marginally afraid of coming to such a place for a show or private session, feeling it was immoral or something, but who were curious to see how we live. Sort of like a reality show or a non-virtual social network. Once they realised we were people just like they were, then maybe they would lose their fear of us and the place and be more inclined to visit a show."
"We've already had several people come here who had relationship problems and from what I've heard from them they were very happy about the counselling and coaching we provided," said Marcie. "So we do have a foot in the community in some small way already."
"Not wanting to change the subject," said Todd from poolside, "The flapjacks are ready."
He began handing them out on warmed plates, and two jugs of maple syrup were passed around the group in the pool. He grabbed the last plate and jumped in between Trudi and Dana, who both snuggled against him.
"You're cold," said Trudi.
"Well, the air's cool and the barbecue's hot. I thought you'd prefer me cold to cooked."
"Yes, sweetheart," grinned Dana, "Your sausage is a lot better for me cold than cooked."
Todd laughed. Everyone ate in silence for a few moments, considering the discussion they had had earlier. After they had finished their meal and placed the plates on the side of the pool, Marcie summed up.
"I guess we won't know until we approach the community. Really, there is nothing to lose by doing this and everything to gain. I like the idea of trying to demystify the place and ourselves by holding an open day. That's probably a good place to start and we can see what comes of it. Once people have had the opportunity to meet us and see how we live, maybe some will allow us to teach some aspects of sex education to their kids or to them for that matter."
"So the next thing is when and how to publicise it," said David.
"Well, for a start, we can make a banner for the front of the place. We can also place an advertisement in the local paper and if we do that we are very likely to get an interview and have that written up in the paper. We can get a lot of the main points of our philosophy towards sexual freedom into that. If you like I'll handle that end of it," offered Marcie.
"So when is the next question. I suggest about two weeks from now. That will give us time to advertise and stimulate community discussion but not time for it to become yesterday's news," suggested Greg.
Everyone agreed that as a realistic time frame. The girls said they would arrange a banner which Chris and Todd offered to hang across the front of the building. The meeting was adjourned and they went off to indulge in their own free time activities.
"Hey, Becks, do you want a pain challenge?" asked Julie. "It's probably time we had another one as we haven't had one for a few weeks."
