Expose Yourself by Erin Louis Book Tour and Giveaway :)
Expose Yourself
by Erin Louis
Genre: Non-Fiction, Self Help, Humor
After her first two books about the stripper world and her memoirs, Erin Louis offers us her new self-help book promoting critical thinking and self-confidence through humor, challenging insights, and her own true stories. A cross between "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "The God Delusion", Ms Louis titillates as she enlightens readers. You will learn how to find the freedom to be yourself, find confidence to take risks, and change your life. This book will show you how. As she says, you don't even have to get naked to do it, she's done that for you.
**There will be a Kindle countdown deal starting on May 20th and ending May 27th, the starting price will be $.99 and will end at the original price of $4.99. !!**
Chapter
1
Take
It From a Stripper
How
Being a Stripper Taught Me to Take Risks, Stop Pretending, and
Challenge Norms
You
might be asking yourself, “What could a stripper possibly say that
would relate to me?” In fact, I’d be terribly disappointed in you
if you weren’t asking that question. It’s a perfectly valid one.
After all, what does my twenty years of public nudity have to do with
you? Well, now that you ask, quite a bit.
While
common stereotypes often portray strippers as amoral, drug dependent,
uneducated, and broken human beings, this is not always the case. A
common misconception is that most strippers are driven to the
profession out of desperation, a last resort, or simply lacking the
cognitive ability to make it in the real world. I would say that
description is much more fitting of today’s reality TV stars than
your average stripper. Actually, most strippers are smart,
independent and happy to be on the fringe of society.
My
time in the adult industry has given me a unique perspective on not
only sex, but also on taking risks, questioning norms, thinking for
myself, and so much more. I knew I would likely learn much about sex,
but my job actually taught me so much more about life itself. How to
ask unwelcome questions, how to accept other people, and how to let
go of limiting thoughts and beliefs. I’ve essentially performed an
informal sociological study on humans. Granted my knowledge is
limited to the context of the strip club, but I’ve come up with
some interesting findings, including, of course, how it relates to
human sexual behavior. For example, sex shaming, especially from
religions, seems to be the driving force behind the whole sex
industry itself. I firmly believe that if sex and nudity were not
deemed to be wrong or dirty, strip clubs, porn, and the like wouldn’t
exist at all. While I’d like to think I might qualify as a subject
matter expert, I have no formal education in the field. My expertise
comes strictly from twenty sober years working with strippers, strip
club staff and customers. My advice and opinions all stem from that
experience.
While
I have made it out of the industry with my cognitive faculties mostly
intact, I must admit I have a slightly twisted view on a few things.
As most of us are taught to conceal our inner selves for fear of
judgement, I see it mostly in the open. Thirty seconds in someone’s
lap for instance, can give me a wealth of information about that
person. I can tell pretty quickly someone’s feelings toward women
and whether he calls his mother regularly or not. Things like
fetishes, or the way someone talks or touches, are each a little clue
into someone’s mind. On the surface it seems like all I do is
provide live masturbatory material, while in reality I’m collecting
information. I have insights that can only come from my work, and
that includes other dancers as well as staff. The way people interact
in the strip club can be very different from the way they act in what
I will refer to as the real world.
When
you expose yourself both literally and figuratively, you are casting
a light on reality. The lessons I learned in the strip club apply not
only to other people but also to myself. I was forced to face certain
things about myself that I may have missed had I taken a more
mainstream path in life. Seeing yourself for who you really are on
the inside is in my opinion the only way to true happiness. To be
able to reach your goals, you must first be honest with yourself, and
that includes everything that makes you uncomfortable. Whether
suppressed feelings, desires, or insecurities, refusing to face
uncomfortable truths about yourself and the reality you live in, is a
terrific way to end up a bitter, unfulfilled and miserable person.
Frankly, that sucks for not only you, but everyone else you come in
contact with.
As
a stripper, exposing my outside to public scrutiny also eventually
led to exposing the uncomfortable feelings and doubts about the world
around me and what I was taught to believe. Getting naked on stage
forced me to come to terms with the inadequacies I felt I had
physically. As I grew more comfortable confronting my fears about
aesthetic judgements, I was able to turn that into acknowledging the
uncomfortable feelings I was holding inside. Dancing showed me how to
present a fantasy, which in turn gave me the tools to recognize when
I myself was presented with a fantasy, as well as the fantasies I was
presenting to myself.
I
was taught that living a happy life meant living a normal one. Stay
in your lane and go with the flow. Be what society considers
acceptable and respectable. When I was finally able to let go of the
image of what people thought I should be and started to investigate
the world around me, what I found was far more profound and beautiful
than anything I had ever thought it could be.
I
hope to help you live your best life, learn to take risks, question
everything, and find yourself. Also, I hope to show you that a life
without risks is ultimately boring and unfulfilling. The good news is
you don’t have to get naked in public to do it, as I’ve very
generously already done that for you.
Growing up in Southern California, surrounded by beautiful people, I struggled to find my identity. Every one else seemed to know who I was supposed to be, and how I was supposed to act, but their Idea of who I was didn’t quite fit with how I felt inside. I knew I was just different somehow. Expressing my true self came with criticism which caused me to question myself, and so began my search to find myself and the life I wanted to lead. Years of taking risks, enduring judgments, and self-doubt taught me that to be truly happy meant rejecting mainstream society’s idea of who I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to believe.
Somehow through all this, I have found the courage to show who I really am to the world. I hope to help lead others down the path to their own self-acceptance. My mission now is to help people live their best lives without the need to please other people who may be miserable in their own. Whether it be discarding dilapidated belief systems, unrealistic ideals, or simply the fear of judgment, finding the courage to be yourself can be daunting. By sharing my stories, I hope to show that you are ultimately in control of your own life, and that you alone have the power to control your own happiness. I hope to provide that little nudge you may need to tell the world to kiss your butt, because you are awesome just the way you are.
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
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