A Day in the Life of Actress Jenna Lane (A Short Story)

3 - Stripping is Empowering

She met her costar, Owen Lucas, in the hall and they sized each other up. He was wearing jeans and a sports jacket over a t-shirt. She narrowed her eyes. "Did you have to fight to wear the jeans?" Jenna asked.

Owen looked perplexed. "No...?"

Jenna turned and followed the aide. "Did you have to fight to wear the t-shirt?"

"Also no?"

Jenna sighed long and deep, then stopped short before running into the aide, who had also stopped short. Owen's makeup artist, a woman, stopped beside him and brushed something into his hair to keep his bangs looking artfully messy. Jenna's hair looked artfully artful.

"Why do men always have women makeup artists and women always have men makeup artists?" She asked suddenly.

"Because men are better at it," Rodrigo replied from behind her. "But male actors freak out about having a man in their face, putting makeup on them." He pranced around and slicked a tiny bit of clear gloss on Owen's lips. Owen dutifully remained still, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.

Jenna suspected that, in itself, was a confirmation.

And then the show's hosts were introducing them, and they were being led onto the set amid cheers and applause and the ending theme music to their movie. Jenna and Owen sat side-by-side in chairs across from the co-hosts, who also sat side-by-side. The female host, Kristen, was wearing a dress, as she always did. The male hosts, Gavin and Miles, wore dress pants, button-down shirts, and neckties. At least they're dressed consistently, she mused.

They all turned to look at the screen behind them as a few clips of the movie were played, then Kristen turned to Jenna with a warm, friendly smile.

"Jenna," she began. "I like your boots."

Jenna looked down at her boots, surprised. "Oh! I got these at Wal-" she stopped. "Wait, no, Lisa – that's the stylist – took my Walmart boots and made me wear these."

Kristen's smile didn't fade. "They're very utilitarian."

"They're very blingy," Jenna pointed out.

Kristen chuckled her signature warm, throaty chuckle then switched focus. "So tell me, what was it like to play a rape victim turned stripper? What did you have to do to prepare for this role?"

"I died my hair blonde," Jenna immediately answered, having forgotten her part of the script. At Kristen's confused expression, she caught herself. "Oh, you didn't mean physically. You meant... mentally." She chuckled deprecatingly at herself.

"Well, I have never been raped. I've been groped several times by strangers and, even worse, non-strangers, as pretty much every woman is from time to time, but that's obviously not the same experience as rape. So since I didn't know what the experience was like, I talked to some rape victims.

"I went to, to a support group. And I was kicked out, actually, because I didn't belong there." She tried to do the same smile-grimace combo that Kristen and the other hosts were doing. She was pretty sure she nailed it.

"So I went to this support group to hear about other women's experiences, and learn what they went through, and I was kicked out, which kind of seemed fair because a small part of me thought maybe I was exploiting their experiences. But I didn't want to do that at all, you know? I just wanted to help them be heard, to help them get their message out. So I left my business card with a note saying, 'I don't want to exploit your experiences. I just want to help you be heard' and my email address. And some of the women emailed me later and told me their stories.