Ivy League Stripper

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAY 1, 1995

From a working-class family, Mattson was seriously in debt after two years at Brown University, where she wanted to remain to achieve her dream--an Ivy League education. Having tried her hand at a series of jobs that still left her unable to make ends meet, she took a shot at stripping, which, she quickly discovered, generated enough income to finance her education and then some. Moreover, she asserts, this career, which she embarked on with some trepidation, proved to be immensely empowering: drawing on the work of Camille Paglia, Mattson argues that men's desire for the female body empowers women who exploit this. While not all readers may agree with her version of gender politics, Mattson's account of how she negotiated an often bizarrely disjunctive double life during her remaining time at Brown is interesting and inspirational, and her commentary on the worlds between which she moved is clear-eyed and astute. Photos not seen by PW.