Research by the University of Leeds has discovered that one quarter of lap dancers in the United Kingdom have university degrees. The same study says that a majority of the lap dancers enjoy work and earn up to 48,000 pounds ($74,500) per year.

In a Reuters report, Dr. Teela Sanders, one of the researchers, said, "These young women do not buy the line that they are being exploited, because they are the ones making the money out of a three-minute dance and a bit of a chat."

Now that just seems to conjure scenes from the Woody Allen short story, “The Whore of Mensa” (Without Feathers, 1972).

In the Woody Allen story, a man would call a certain number when he wants to discuss Pound, Eliot, Meville, or what have you. Costs vary. Symbolism costs extra. Flossie would send someone over with the chops to talk about The Waste Land or Styles of Radical Will, so the story goes.

The satirical piece by Woody Allen conflates the sex industry with academic pursuits and is structured around a private investigator named Kaiser. Flossie is the “madam with a Master’s in Comparative Lit,” promising intellectual discussions. For fifty bucks, you can “relate without getting close.”

The lap dancers in Britain may not necessarily discuss Wallace Stevens or give "the works" where they pretend to be picked up in the Museum of Modern Art or lend clients Bartok records. But Dr. Sanders also said that the lap dancers “have got to have a certain way about (how they) do it. They say 80 percent of the job is talking. These women do work hard for their money -- (they) don't just turn up and wiggle (their) bum."

The study was prompted by new rulings governing strip clubs. Until recently, strip clubs were not required to apply for a “sex establishment license.” With the new rulings, residents now have a right to protest a club on the basis of being inappropriate. Previously, residents may only question the licensing of strip clubs if they caused disorder or noise.