Eunice Oh at People reports:
Before settling down as a wife and mom, Kendra Wilkinson admits there were moments in her past that she's not exactly proud of – but they never defined who she was.
"I kind of lost myself for a little bit," the reality star, 25, said on Tuesday's Today show, while discussing her new book Sliding into Home and how she once experimented with drugs as a teen and also became a stripper.
"I wasn't a druggie stripper. I was a very good person doing it. [But] I was kind of still embarrassed about it," she clarifies.
"I always knew that it was wrong. [But] the drugs and everything, that's what found me and accepted me," she says, explaining that her behavior came from a painful place when she had to cope with her father leaving the family.
After trying drugs, Wilkinson realized she was "that tomboy, I'm that kid that loves sports. That wasn't me."
Deciding to get back her life wasn't a swift decision. "It took a while," she admits. "A good couple of weeks to think about, okay, the time is coming. I don't know when yet. [But] this isn't me."
A few years later – and her Playboy Mansion days and sex tape scandal behind her – Wilkinson now says she finally feels "safe."
"I've been through a lot. I've gotten through it," she says. "I'm home, where I've always wanted to be."
I am always skeptical of I am a good person defense. Yet, I feel Kendra does surround her 'good person' defense in the reality of drugs, emotional distress, and abuse.
I think 99% of sexy job workers would rather be doing something else. Yet drugs, emotional distress, and abuse make the the fast money of sexy jobs seem very appealing.
I am a stripper, and I am sober, and I have been since I began stripping 5 years ago. I don't drink, I don't do drugs, I do smoke cigrarettes though. I really dislike how everyone assumes that I dance because of "emotional problems" or "drug use". I was raised in the Midwestern suburbs by a loving family with parents that were happily married and still are, after 35 years. Not once was I abused, or hurt in any way. My family has ALWAYS supported me, even when I told them I was a stripper. Although they obviously don't like it, the fact that I am put together, that I handle it well makes it ok to them. I ENJOY my work, and I feel that the main reason I dance is because of the lack of other high paying jobs in my chosen career field (Pyschology). I could work for 20 years and still not make what I make as a stripper AND not only that, I'd be subject to the constant sexism that is RAGING in corporate America. I'd make .75 to every male dollar. NO THANKS. I'd rather make ALL MY MONEY, and be self employed, and make my own schedule and be free to live my life as I see fit; to have crazy hair, tattoos, and what not and still have a job, and not only that, but to have a job NO MATTER WHERE I GO, always, all the time. I save and invest and yes, PAY TAXES on my income and have a nice nest egg building for when I retire at 30, not to mention 2 rental properties as well as my own home.
ReplyDeleteSo my point is: don't automatically assume that because Ms. Wilkinson stripped due to emotional issues (or was forced to rationalize her perfectly acceptable choice of occupation for the sexist media) that we ALL dance because of that reason. Sterotypes aside, there are MANY girls, like me, who dance because it's the BEST option in this patriarchal society for a woman who wants to get rich quick and be in control of her life.