The door opens and a customer steps in. He looks like he is trying to keep a low profile; he is wearing a baseball cap and coat and his eyes are fixed straight ahead as he walks into the club. It is about 2 in the afternoon at Xhibition Gentlemen’s Club on Court Street in the City of Binghamton, and few people are trying to be seen — except the dancers.

They are what people come to watch.

“I love it,” said Jessie, who has been dancing since 2001. “I love dancing.”

It may seem embarrassing for someone to dance in front of others without clothes, but Jessie (who asked to be identified only by her stage name) said dancing makes her feel excited and in control.

“I had low self-esteem issues,” Jessie said. “I was molested by my dad and step-dad, and my childhood wasn’t very good. When I’m on stage I feel like I’m taking that back, that I’m in my own little world. It’s an escape, an outlet.”

Trinity, who has been a dancer for three-and-a-half years, views dancing a little differently. When she is on stage, she said she feels dirty.

“If I have a busy day, I feel my body’s dirty,” Trinity said, giving only her stage name. “But I love pleasing my customers.”

Despite her feelings, Trinity still enjoys her job and wishes there was more income. Even though dancers generally make “a lot” of money, she said, the profession is not as profitable in Binghamton as it is in other places.

Strip clubs have an interesting place in popular culture and are becoming less taboo, as many men consider their first visit to be a rite of passage. But the dancers seem to have varying opinions on the people who come to watch them.

“I think they’re nice,” Jessie said. “They come here for a lot of different reasons. I think they need a little spice in their life or their relationship with their significant other. I think they’re looking for their fantasy girl.”

Trinity, on the other hand, does not hold such a positive view.

“They’re dirty people,” Trinity said. “How else could you think of them? Customers come here for one thing.”

She said some of the customers are perverts, but it doesn’t stop Trinity from dancing. She said sometimes she doesn’t even notice them.

Jessie also thinks that some customers are less desirable than others, and because of the occasional “weirdo,” the girls watch out for each other.

Still, Jessie thinks it might be best that people who are sexually driven come to see her dance, because of what they might do if they could not see dancers. She hopes that by dancing she can help save a child from what she experienced as a young girl.

“If I can save a little girl from being molested by them watching me dance it’s worth it,” Jessie said. “I figure if they come in here first they can fulfill their fantasy.”

Despite the unorthodox environment, a strip club is still a workplace. Just like people who work in offices, Jessie feels close to the other dancers.

“We’re together a lot,” Jessie said. “It’s like a surrogate family. We’re like sisters.”

Like every job, many dancers are in it for the money and like every job, some places pay more than others. Being a dancer pays the bills for Trinity, but she still wishes the club had more business.

And while dancing nude is a sure way to make some kind of income, the profession also lends itself to the possibility of complicated relationships.

Some boyfriends take issue with Jessie’s career.

“I’m sort of dating someone now,” she said. “I think he is cool with it, but I also think in the back of his mind he might have issues with it.”

The girls know that some people disagree with what they do, but neither of them is apologetic.

“A lot of people think bad[ly] of us,” Trinity said. “I bet you 90 percent of strippers do nothing wrong. Of course, you have dirty ones, but most are good.”

Jessie thinks it shouldn’t matter to people what her job is.

“All my life I always worried what people thought about me,” Jessie said. “As long as I’m not hurting anyone, I don’t really care what people think because I have my own reasons and beliefs.”