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The straight dope on striptease Lindalee Tracey was back in town this week. Montrealers may know her as an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. And there are those of us who fondly remember her as Fonda Peters, the outspoken, charming, outrageous stripper who, in the '70s, organized the yearly Tits for Tots charity, collecting money for the Montreal Children's Hospital through a stripathon. >> Tracey documents her "years in bump-and-grind" in her new memoir Growing Up Naked, and what a refreshing perspective it gives to the industry "when it was a culture, not an industry." Tracey wanted to write about her days in striptease because she says "people were always getting it wrong." Her account is truthful and intelligent, never giving way to the pathetic victim stereotype people use to justify their own prudishness. Growing Up Naked is not just a seedy account of the underbelly; Tracey's powerful yet subtle prose moves beyond mere titillation and shows a side which will surprise. >> The book also tells her side of the story on the film Not a Love Story, which documents the dark side of pornography and, according to Tracey, used her as "a sacrificial lamb. I did not see myself as part of that world. Little did I know that they did." The film shows a very skewed perspective of Tracey, never mentioning once that while she was dancing she was a published poet and fearless shit disturber: --Alex Tigchelaar
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