hostess bar

last night, i worked for aaaza as a johnny walker girl at a hostess bar. it was my very first time in a hostess bar, and i was apprehensive for a few things: one, i was afraid of the area because it was in gang territory; two, i was afraid that some guy would try to come at me and i would have to break his face; three, if i broke the guy's face, he'd probably try to stab me... that or i would have a tiff with aaaza... but aaaza has seen me get in someone's face for disrespecting me, so they know how i am. nevertheless, apprehension. i was relieved to find that the actual job for promoting the product was extremely laid back -- we found that customers dont like to be bothered, so we "sampled" the product and reminisced with our clients. honestly, i was ancy -- like making a child with adhd sit still. to amuse myself, i people watched.i took the night in as a cultural experience: the bad music, drunk kareoke, the young girls and elder men. it was pretty much all dark -- it was actually lighter outside the club even though it was in the middle of the night; i guessed they did this more or less so they couldnt see what the girls looked like or how old the men were.  a friend at the table broke down the culture for me: men in the household, have all this money but no one to talk to because no one listens to them at home. their wives are too brutally honest and neglect the man's word. instead, men go to a hostess bar where somebody will listen. i said that was sad, because to me, i would assume in a romantic partnership, people should be there for each other. the person i was talking to disagreed. it amazed me that this was a way of life. i understood hostess bars as establishments for socially acceptable sexual harrassment/assault, but i didnt comprehend the idea as little emotional band aids to stick onto hum-drum marriages. to me, why even get married? besides the fact that it is engrained in conventions of most cultures, but whats the point when you need outlets...perhaps thats just me as a romantic, or maybe you can blame it on my generation. i was also told that these girls can make up to $600 a night... it made me want to cry. there's a story about a woman who owned a hostess bar for about twenty five years. she had daughters that go to uc berkeley, one of them is a doctor, the other a pharmacist. when they work at a hostess bar, they dont want to go back to medicine because they make too much money a day at the bar. amazing. at the rate that im going as a starving artist, and just for a second, i wanted to sell a little piece of my soul. but as i looked over, i watched a drunken man smushing his face of a girl over half his age. the man next to them was talking into a girl's ear, while she placed her hand on his thigh. on second thought, i know i cannot be bought.

in american culture, we dont really have those types of outlets, except for bars, strip clubs, etc. what do women get? to meet men through online communities (mmmMMM virtual cheating!),  lifetime movies and maybe about five in the afternoon they can rush over to pick their kids from summer camp but they take their time just so they can stare at the almost legal boy next door counselors. not a fair trade, but i guess its something? i dont know.