When the last war broke out the bugle heralded another type of action - stripping. Nudity on stage flourished in the 1940s to keep the troops entertained. But nude shows were never part of the mainstream until the shooting stopped.

The new film Striptease, starring Demi Moore, exploded onto the big screen on Friday. It is a comedy set in the twilight world of American strip clubs, where anything goes and nobody blushes. We took a look into the local aspect of this secretive, fascinating world to talk to the people who shed their layers to make a fast buck. SHE works three, maybe four, nights a week and earns £52,000 a year.

At 21, she owns a semi-detached house and drives a flashy sports car.

Julie is one of the new generation of strippers who class themselves as businesswomen and are not ashamed of their profession.

"I'm not embarrassed by what I do," said Julie, who performs on stage before getting to know the customers with a private dance at their table which lasts as long as it takes to boil an egg and costs the onlooker a fiver.

Julie is a product of today's society where male strippers The Chippendales are a household name. Page Three girls have celebrity status and signs in pubs advertising "exotic dancers" have become as eyebrow-raising as a Cumberland sausage on the menu.

Julie says the sort of table dancing she does is "much more classy" than old-style stripping.

But to feminists, strippers are the lowest of the low - at best, bimbos exploited by men.

"If I can earn that sort of money by doing virtually nothing, I'd be a bimbo not to do it," Julie retorted. "I"m exploiting men. I can get them to part with £150 in two hours.

"Page Three girls like Sam Fox are treated as celebrities but she is doing exactly the same job as me," said Julie, who works for Platinum International in Manchester.

Julie began as a fashion model but her catwalk contract was torn up when a photographer sold one of her pictures to the Sunday Sport.

"This job is much more fun," she said. "What other job allows you to work when you want, start at midnight, drink and dance all night and pays a lot of money? It is ideal.

"My friends say 'How could you do it?' I answer 'How can you work behind a desk nine to five every day?'

"I love the attention. My aim is to have all eyes on me by the end if the night. It is flattering and makes me feel attractive."

A 25-year-old Lancashire lass who strips in pubs and clubs under the name of "Juicy Jane" believes that a lot of prejudice against strippers stems from misconceptions. "Only a very few strippers are actually prostitutes but all the girls are tarred with the same brush," she said. "Because of this minority, many see us as sleazy when the majority are just doing a job.

"Wives or girlfriends think that if their partners watch a strip show they are going for sex but they go to be entertained."

Some women can get abusive during an act.

"They are jealous that men are looking at me and not them," she said. "I usually socialise first to get to know the women. It makes it easier on stage. One woman was abusive to me and then dragged her husband out of the club. But that isn't my problem. They should sort their problems out behind closed doors."

Jane, who took part in a debate on stripping on the TV show Kilroy, said: "Those against stripping said we were responsible for rapes and sexual abuse but that is a load of rubbish. If people are that way inclined, they had that thought in their mind when they are younger even before they saw a stripper."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.