Strippers are paid to pretend men they normally wouldn't look twice at are sexually appealing. Belly dancers are paid to provide light entertainment. There's a huge difference. A belly dancer is more like a pop idol or starlet, she performs primarily for herself and those who like what she does pay to watch. A stripper can't perform primarily for herself if she wants to make any money. There's club fees, bribes to the bouncers and bartenders, protection money to the cops, you name it. ( That is if she's got the proper papers. If she doesn't have a work permit or was trafficed she's got even more problems and less legal recourse.) A stripper has to do what her clients want regardless of if she finds it stupid, gross, or just plain boring. She can't walk away or refuse to dance her shift if she wants her pay. She can't demand pay up front. Most strippers who've left the trade and gone on to write about it say that's why the job sucks, the pay is usually crap and you can't be yourself when you're being paid to be someone else's fantasy. A lot of strippers don't want to be strippers, it's just a way to make the rent. I've never heard of a belly dancer who didn't really want to belly dance. the pay is usually crap in belly dance, but most belly dancers feel that dance gives them a means of being creative and expressing themselves. Basically, belly dance and stripping are different because the socioeconomics are different, because the pressures faced by strippers and belly dancers are different, because the incidence of on-the-job harassment is different, because the emotional outcome is different. Essentially saying belly dance and stripping are the same because "sexy" women are paid to do both is like claiming a raven is the same as a writing desk because both have an "r". You don't need to try writing on a raven to see the massive hole in that logic.