Should strippers have a best before date? Kimberlee Ouwroulis, a 44-year-old exotic dancer, emphatically says not.
The Stouffville burlesquer has filed a complaint with the Human Rights
Tribunal of Ontario alleging her former boss, the owner of Mississauga
strip club New Locomotion, fired her simply because she was too old.
“He told me that the club is going in a new direction with younger girls,” Ouwroulis, a.k.a. “Kristy,” says in the Mississauga News. “That’s age discrimination to me.”
Yes, on first blush it sounds like she’s right. But none of the allegations have been proven before a tribunal hearing, so without all of the facts it’s impossible to say.
Kristy has been dancing for four years, and worked at Locomotion most of that time. She’s self-described as one of the most-liked and hardest-working employees at the peeler bar. “I was the older girl but the girl who looked great,” she said in the story.
“I was never in trouble at work. I’ve never been reprimanded. I don’t have a criminal record . . . I am just a professional worker who takes dancing very seriously.”
The bright spot is she has been hired on at a Pickering strip club since her hoofing.
This is a surprisingly tough one. It’s as easy to dismiss Kristy with an eye-roll, as it is to argue for the other side. It will be interesting to see how the tribunal rules.
No one should lose their job just because they’re considered too old. But then again, should an employer be forced to retain an employee if the very talent that got them hired in the first place, isn’t up to snuff anymore? (We stress we don’t know one way or the other about Kristy’s assets, but she looks fine for any age in her photo.)
But let’s say for argument, it’s not quite like when the old guy in the corner office, who while he’s still competent, gets replaced by a whippersnapper for no other reason than the numbers on his birth certificate.
It’s like a storeowner whose “product” has become too ripe for sale. So, should said storeowner be forced to sell his blackening bananas? Or, can he remove them from the shelf before they attract flies?
It’s not that a stripper is too old for service, but rather it’s her “talent” that isn’t what it once was due to the aging process. Hollywood directors for example don’t typically burn our retinas by having “mature” actors prance in nude scenes - even though some of their parts may not even be 18.
It’s like a newspaper editor whose writing ability is not what it once was because she’s getting forgetful. She still does the job adequately, but . . . Or a 42-year-old NHL hockey player who was once a star, but now lets pucks the size of beach balls into the net. Shouldn’t the boss be able to bench them?
Some would say, ‘It’s life, it was a good run, now tape it up and move on.’ It happens to the best of those who earn a living riding on a so-called talent. Kristy could apply her abilities as a hard worker and most-liked by becoming a choreographer or mentor to the other “girls.”
The problem is, if Kristy’s right, that’s not what she was told. And it probably isn’t a case of a sensitive boss sugar-coating worse news. So, if it’s as Kristy says, she wins. But if it emerges she was actually fired because her ears now hang low, then the club does.
Meanwhile, we’re still stuck on the revelation that Kristy raked in $8 grand a month. Too bad there isn’t a stage somewhere for 40-something editors with ballet training . . . Who are getting forgetful.
- Gretchen Drummie
