Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

In her life as an exotic dancer, Helen insists that all workers are “exploited” (Line 17) and she has “a choice of how” (Lines 18-19) that will happen. If she must make money, she will do it this way rather than be stuck “one place for eight hours [. . .] bundled to the neck” (Lines 8-10). While others insist she should be “ashamed of [her]self” (Line 2), Helen disagrees. Although men use her for their wide-ranging fantasies of reduction or slaughter, objectifying her into the “components” (Line 68) of an “abattoir” (Line 69), or lose themselves instead in a blind worship, Helen herself remains distanced from her immediate surroundings. She locates herself instead as a “foreigner” from “the province of the gods” (Line 57). Whether Helen is really a misplaced Greek figure, imagining the strip club as a contemporary Troy, or a stripper who imagines herself as Helen, this character chooses to envision herself as someone above those who surround her. She floats above them “in the air” (Line 78), haloed in a “blazing” (Line 79) spotlight. The clientele thinks they can define Helen and/or the meaning of her job but she realizes they really do not know her at all.