By GEMMA ASKHAM
“Old guys, young guys and creepy guys are all going to be looking at your bits. If you don’t mind that, then I guess it’s OK.”
We’re not describing the pap test from hell. This is one woman’s job description of what it’s like to be a ‘skimpy’ – a barmaid who travels to the most remote parts of Australia to serve drinks to locals while just wearing lingerie.
Yes, that terrifying dream of leaving the house and realising you’re only dressed in your knickers is an actual job.
On paper, the ‘bikini barmaid’ role is to pour drinks for the largely male community in agricultural and mining towns. In reality, the role is to smile in the face of sexist remarks and duck wandering hands (or worse), while wearing the kind of synthetic, asset-enhancing undies that will at best disintegrate after one use, at worst give you an intimate rash.
So far, so ‘no thank you’. But here’s the catch: you could get paid $6000 for doing it. Which makes the situation a whole lot more… confusing.
Picture this – and many of you won’t have to imagine hard as it’s probably the exact life circumstance some of you are in right now. You’re smart, educated, ambitious, and broke. You want to go to university/further education/buy a house – but resources are saying no. So the options are: work your ass off and earn just enough to get by, or work your bikini-bared ass off and earn sh*t loads.
Which is a seriously depressing thought, considering we’re nearly in 2015.
But it’s a thought that will be on your radar soon, too, as ABC2 is airing ‘Skimpy’ tonight at 9.30pm – a documentary focusing on 29-year-old Shae, who’s been pouring beers in her briefs for nearly a decade, and two colleagues – one of whom is trying to weigh up if wearing less is really the answer to earning more.
As Shae told Daily Mail Australia, “We meet a lot of weird characters who will pick on you for personal things like if they don’t think you’re the right body shape. So you really have to have a thick skin.”
“I remember when I first started I’d have a complex. Some shifts I’d run off to the bathroom to cry because of someone saying something to me,” she said. “We do get hit up all the time for ‘extra’ stuff.”
A quick look at forums about the industry tell a similar story. One 20-year-old admits, “I’m glad I got out because I started drinking a lot on the job, which is common. Plus, even in a bikini, you are treated like an object.”
Another woman believes the enormous heels they’re told to wear may have caused lasting damage: “I stood for seven hours in heels on Wednesday night and crushed the nerves in my toes. I’ve had pins and needles ever since… really hoping those go away soon.”
But for every negative story, there’s a positive – and, of course, it boils back to the money.
As one woman explains, “I have recently started bikini waitressing to put myself through vet school. Everyone I mention it to turns up their nose; but I get treated far, far better working in a bikini in a pub than I do waitressing fully clothed. If I can work for just a few hours to get enough money to help feed myself and pay the rent, then it’s better than nothing. I would happily do another job, or fully cover up for this one, if I could earn the same amount of money in the little time I have.”
I guess the part that makes it harder to swallow is that this isn’t a one-off situation happening in a one-off seedy bar. It’s mainstream. It’s happening in regular bars, in regular towns… in fact, we could go now.
Young women are exposed to ever more sexualised advertising, music and media; many conveying the idea that they merely exist for men’s entertainment. And then there’s a bar – a decent bar – telling women that if they come in their knickers they’ll earn more money than any pretty much any job on the planet.
And that money is addictive.
Despite Shae studying a dress-making design course, she admits, “I can’t just walk away from this lifestyle and the money.”
Could you?
Top Comments
I know Courtney and Shae and they are absolute legends! Loving all the chicks comments on here who aren't skimpies but are comfortable enough with themselves and their relationship with their partner to support the girls. Skimpying is what made me the confident chick I am today, to the people who see the job as degrading, We grow up in a world where your dog could of just died and you are having a walk to let out these emotions and guys are staring at your tits and wolf whistling out the window regardless of your situation. This shit makes me mad and I tell them to fuck right off when I'm not at work. To me this is degrading. Being able to book a shift where I know I'm going to get these comments at a venue where there are rules and security that protect the girls from inappropriate comments is great! I'm a social bird and love to have a yahn with the guys (old and young) at the pub, they help to simplify my life when it's chaotic and often just take the piss out of each other's haircuts and shit and tell jokes and just have a giggle. The men at the pub are usually locals who know the rules and are paying for your attendance whilst appreciating the body you get to flaunt when your there! It's a good paying job but it's also helped me realise that some people like apples and some like peaches, you can toss what ever nasty comment you have at me and I'll handle it with balls of steal cos Iv been told the opposite from other guys who can't wait to see me at the pub. To be able to dismiss nasty comments from people and focus on the positive ones has got to be one of the hardest but best life lesson Iv ever learnt. No longer am I a girl that trips over her feet when walking past guys fully clothed, but one who could sprint across a footy field and be completely nakey and feel completely comfortable with all Ma jiggles that I was born with and find the funny side of it. I can't even explain how happy this job has made me over the last 6 years, it may not be the job that every women needs to improve herself, but it was for me and from my experience it's helped me gain confidence in myself and appreciate men for who they are and who they will always be.... men 😉
I live in a mining town and feel somewhat jibbed when I'm served by someone wearing a shirt. I think I've been here too long.
Haha Bec. Time you got out of Kal!