Sarah Tressler, giornalista di giorno spogliarellista di notte

Sarah Tressler, Houston Chronicle Reporter ,Fired For Moonlighting as Stripper

Sarah Tressler, a 30-year-old reporter who was fired by the Houston Chronicle because of her second job as a stripper, has filed a formal complaint against her former newspaper employer, alleging sex discrimination.
Tressler was working as a society and general assignment reporter for the Chronicle and writing an anonymous blog entitled "Diary of an Angry Stripper" when another paper, the Houston Press, revealed her part-time profession.
She said the major newspaper fired her "because of a claim that I did not disclose on my employment application that I worked as an exotic dancer."

"I feel that women should not be denied other employment because they have worked as an exotic dancer," said Tressler, in response to her dismissal.
Tressler has hired high-profile attorney Gloria Allred and filed a charge of gender discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Allred said Tressler was stripping as an independent contractor, not an employee, so she had no reason to list exotic dancing on her job application.
"Most exotic dancers are female, and therefore terminating an employee because they had previously been an exotic dancer would have an adverse impact on women, since it is a female dominated occupation," Allred said.

Stripping, Prostitution and Journalism: The Sarah Tressler Kerfuffle

For those of you who haven’t heard about Tressler, here’s a primer: Up until this week she was the “society” columnist for the Houston Chronicle… while secretly moonlighting as a stripper. Her double life was exposed this week by the Houston Press and made national news. She was subsequently fired from her Chronicle gig and went on Good Morning America to talk about the whole ordeal.

But back in 2009, before all the current craziness, Sarah was an intern at the LA CityBeat when I was the senior editor there. Sarah was smart, she was determined, and to say she was eccentric would be putting it mildly. She was an odd duck. I remember her nearly constant smirking and dismissive eye-rolling during our editorial meetings, particularly (for some reason) when editor-in-chief Will Swaim would speak. Sometimes she’d call us (including Swaim) out for how terrible our ideas were–without offering the slightest hint of constructive criticism. We’d all be tossing ideas around and every-so-often we’d hear a loud grunt or groan from Sarah’s corner of the table.

Pretty, pretty ballsy. Your average alt-weekly intern is there to position herself for a job. Or at least to line up routine freelance work. Dismissing the ideas of the EIC and his staff in the least helpful way possible would seem to defeat that purpose. But her fearlessness cracked us up. Pretty much the entire CityBeat staff had spent time working under Village Voice Media, where sycophancy was the norm. I loved working with Swaim, but even I couldn’t help but admire someone at the bottom of the pyramid calling out the boss on occasion and getting away with it–particularly back then, when executive bonus culture and CEO worship were still thriving unchallenged in America. Not to mention Sarah did have some promise as a writer. She wasn’t in the paper that often, but she wrote a couple of great pieces during her CityBeat tenure (which I would gladly link to were the paper and its website not deceased).

sarah tressler

Periodista-stripper, doble empleo

Desde Estados Unidos donde ocurrió el suceso, hasta Europa, y por supuesto a nuestra América latina, ha rebotado el escándalo de una colega nuestra que, para aumentar sus ingresos con una ocupación ajena al periodismo, se semidesnudaba en público, por lo cual ha sido despedida del medo donde laboraba.

Sarah se prepara para actuar

Sarah Tressler, periodista de 29 años residente en Houston, Texas, perdió su empleo en el conservador Houston Chronicle, luego de descubrirse que trabajaba por las noches, fuera de su horario habitual en el periódico, “en un club como stripper”. Además tenía un blog titulado Diary of an Angry Stripper (Diario de una stripper enfadada)”, que ha sido cerrado, quizá por voluntad de la autora, ante el estrépito del escándalo.

Quizá Sarah Tressler, redactora de las páginas de Sociedad donde escribía sobre turismo y consejos para la gente común, sacudió los ánimos en las propias entrañas del lobo.

Los medios de Estados Unidos y Europa informaron que ella “comenzó a escribir en el diario en abril pasado, como colaboradora externa” pero después fue “incorporada como empleada de planta”.

El Houston Chronicle no hizo ningún comentario sobre el asunto pero su rival, el Houston Press informó que Tressler ”ya había sido despedida”.

En su cuenta de Twitter, Sarah envió el mensaje que incendió la pradera: "Tengo una confesión que hacer: ¡Era una reportera! Por favor no usen eso en mi contra". En su blog fue más explícita: "Soy stripper para gente loca y después escribo sobre eso, así podemos reírnos juntos. Eso es amor, gente".Confesó su doble vida en su blog

Más allá de si el desnudismo profesional o striptismo –si se lo quiere llamar de alguna manera más actual– es o no una ocupación al margen de la moral como cierta gente la entiende, debo recordar –con su venia, lector, lectora– que en mis años de periodista he tropezado con similares episodios, no tan cercanos al striptismo pero de modestia lindante con la vergüenza si se le mira con ojos de no ver la realidad ni con la debida generosidad.

En tiempos “revolucionarios” conocí por lo menos a dos reporteras que combinaban su tarea con otras ocupaciones.

Una llevaba a la redacción mañanas y tardes un gran paquete de sánguches que vendía a sus colegas quienes pagaban al contado o abrían un crédito. Otra coleguita, luego de finalizada su jornada en la redacción, se iba por las tardes y parte de la noche a restaurantes y bares del centro de Lima para ofrecer a los caballeros cigarrillos, chicles, caramelos de menta. Nunca supe si el negocio adicional en que andaban les era productivo.

Otros colegas y yo mismo, teníamos trabajos adicionales. Algunos tenían suerte y conseguían trabajo nocturno en la televisión que pagaba mucho mejor que los periódicos. Otros tomaban medios tiempos en empresas para redactar notas infomativas en las entonces llamadas oficinas de relaciones públicas y prensa.

Hubo quienes hacían taxi de noche y otros abrían oficinas propias que ofrecían servicios de prensa o enseñaban en universidades o institutos.

Colgó sus fotos en la red y escandalizó al mundo

La naturaleza del trabajo adicional de Sarah Tressler, de ningún modo ortodoxo, ha causado un escándalo que parece ajustarse a normas medievales, pero como en este siglo todo tiene una compensación, creo que ella será considerada la pionera de la búsqueda de mejores condiciones económicas para el periodista, sobre todo en un país como Estados Unidos, donde todo el que consigue un empleo se cree feliz.

Texas journalist outed for leading double life as stripper

A New York University graduate, who is a reporter by day and becomes a stripper at night, has been outed for leading a double life.
Sarah Tressler, a 2008 graduate of NYU's School of Journalism, is not ashamed of stripping her clothes.
In fact, until recently, the 29-year-old brunette blogged about her after-hours gig and posted pictures of herself in scanty outfits on a Facebook page entitled "Diary of an Angry Stripper."
Since the outcry, that - and her titillating Twitter account - have been moved to a protected site.
Before Tressler went underground, one of her juicier postings was about an alleged and "somewhat disappointing" sexual encounter with "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven.
The ink-stained siren also talked about dancing at local strips joints and about some of the hazards of that profession, like customers who want their nipples "um ... bothered."
"The nipple guys freak me out the most," the New York Daily News quoted her as writing.
At her day job with the Houston Chronicle, Tressler wrote about "ladies who lunch" and rich do-gooders and society events.
One of Tessler's postings on Friday was about the "Golden Evening" gala at The Crossroads School where "about 230 guests dined, nibbled, gambled and bid the night away at the Houstonian Ballroom."
Tessler also covered a reception at the Japanese consulate where "guests mingled along the Consul-General's neatly kept grounds and enjoyed sushi, sake and wine from Japan."
Tressler, who was an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Houston and an US Weekly freelancer before landing at the Chronicle, was outed Monday by the rival Houston Press.
The paper reported that Tressler's colleagues were furious with her for undermining the paper's reputation - and for flaunting the designer clothes she purchased with "stripper money" while regular reporters struggle to make ends meet.

La doppia vita di Sara: giornalista di giorno, stripper di notte

 «Giovedì scorso ho lavorato dall'1:30 alle 11:30, abbastanza per uscire con alcuni amici, farmi nuovi contatti, mangiare e guadagnare circa 750 dollari», ha scritto di recente su Facebook. Evidentemente la giornalisrta texana Sarah Tressler non era in redazione. Reporter di giorno e giornalista di notte, la sua doppia vita è venuta alla luve e sta facendo ora il giro del mondo. Sarah, 29 anni, lavora da aprile dello scorso anno al quotidiano conservatore Houston Chronicle, occupandosi di costume e società. I colleghi la descrivono come una collega "molto competente". Il suo predecessore, peraltro, lasciò la scrivania del giornale per dedicarsi a tempo pieno alla sua seconda attività di gigolò. Secondo il suo profilo Linkedin, Sarah si è laureata alla University of Houston, dove lavora come professore associato. La notte, invece, balla la lap dance, e racconta il suo lavoro senza censure nel suo blog Diary of an Angry Stripper (Diario di una spogliarellista arrabbiata).