almost all of the guys in my department used to go to a local strip club and get totally bombed and then come back to the lab and try to act normal.

Hey, my advice is to do it. If people in academia were emotionally well developed you wouldn't even give this a second thought. What you are worried about is how the prudes are going to react and how the sicko guys who will abuse you are going to react.

Forget about it. The guys who see you in the bar should be liberal enough to not give a damn and if they are sending pictures around to their friends, fine---what do you care? Might even be good for business.

In my mind, there is nothing of real value to lose. And your credit rating staying healthy is worth it.

I have a friend who does tax returns for strippers. He would tell you to take a few weeks off, go to a distant town, earn a lot of money, and come home to finish off your education. He would definitely advise you not to strip within driving distance of where you go to school. As he puts it most of the nude dances in St. Louis are from Chicago or Kansas City and most of those dancers in those cities are from towns equally far away. That prevents them from dancing in a bar where the fathers or brothers might walk in. Or in your case, fellow students and faculty.

....it would be nice if that was always true!

There are always going to be people who will criticize you for something you do, or have done, that doesn't fit in with their idea of what you should be. You may well suffer some fallout from others and it may negatively affect your emotions, your academic achievements and any future career. Everything you do can have consequences: perhaps you get a visible tattoo, but you accept that some people will disapprove and that it may affect how some people view you.

In the end you can't please everyone so you do what you have to do as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. In a perfect world your academic record would stand by itself - but as Cary suggested you may want to plan in advance for any negative fallout. If you feel you are treated differently at grad school because of your dancing you may have some legal recourse.

Good luck to you! (I guess wearing a wig and veil is out of the question?)

The chances of your students, your peers, and your professors (people who will have to write you letters of recommendation before too long) seeing you work as a stripper seem pretty high. Even the money can't be worth that.

Is there anything wrong with doing it? No

Is life fair? No

This will haunt you, people will post pictures to MySpace or FaceBook pages, they will put it out on the net where future employers will find it. You are getting a PHD -- probably to teach or research, two of the most conservative, and negative publicity adverse types of employeement. Future students will find it and not take you serious. The many of males in your life will not treat you as a real human being if they knew. Is that fair? No -- but look around you, listen to them, and really think about.

You can't keep this secret, it might already be to late -- not to mention your tax records are public, and leaving off employeement is fraud... how do you explain this to future employers? So how are you going to put these jobs on your resume, and its is a risk to leave them off, if the job checks

your history -- and people who hire PHD's tend to check.

Dancing is a temptation to a lot of poor female college students -- it sounds good. But it doesn't go away, and will be used against you later in life, bad divorce -- it will come up, child custody -- it will come up,, even if you stopped long before having kids. It will have an impact. You will be judged for it. They will never want you for a foster parent, odds are it will be an issue in adaption.. and when your boyfriend finds out he'll either be turned on for the wrong reason, or turned off. It is never worth the price for the short term gain.

It only empowered you in the short term. It only enriches in the short term -- but life is long.

Forget it. You have students. Students talk to other students, and pretty soon your ratemyprofessor or Myspace evaluation will have lots of comments about your "other" profession. Facebook, anyone? Do you see the potential damage that this might cause when you go out on the job market? Despite its much-ballyhooed liberal credentials, academia is inherently conservative (I'm speaking as someone with a PhD in the humanities), and you better believe that if there is even a whisper of a rumor about your being a stripper, it will make the rounds and quite possibly cost you a potential job (assuming that you want to teach). In short, there's a big difference between an undergraduate stripper and a PhD candidate stripper--you have many more responsibilities now to your professors, peers, and especially to your students. You are graduate faculty now, and while you may make more money in the long run, the tarnishing of your image in academia is simply something you cannot afford.

Once upon a time - as I say to people, "ten years and thirty pounds ago" - I, too, was a stripper, to supplement an insufficient income in an intellectual-sounding field, working in a big city. Before I turned to stripping, I sought out and did some freelance writing...and it turned out to be a poor return of money for time. Stripping was a much better return of money for time. Neither my family, nor anybody with whom I had work or academic connections, found out. (This was before cellphone cameras, mind.) But I did run into a few acquaintances, and yeah, it was awkward.

I was a poor salesstripper. And something about it interfered with my enjoyment of my own sexuality and, literally, how I felt and sensed my own body. It wasn't for me in the long run - but it did whittle down my credit card bill and pay for having my wisdom teeth out.

If I was you, I'd ask myself the following questions:

* Do I have the psychic energy and boundaries to do this and also do my academic work?

* What are the good things I will get out of this?

* What is the social atmosphere at my university? If my colleagues find out I am an ecdysiast, will they say, "How cool!" or will it lead to problems?

* Can I cope with a "worst case" social scenario? You know what your personal "worst case" is.

* It sounds like you have found a particularly good place to dance at and work. Do you want to explore other options in your area, too, as a backup? It might be useful to dance a few nights at your favorite place, and also have a few shifts at another place some distance away. This way, if you have to stop at your favorite, for whatever reason, you'll still have income.

Lastly - if you do have long term concerns - stay off of film/video/the internet! And good luck, whatever you choose.