Stripping Away Stereotypes and Changing Nightlife - Striptopia Spotlight
After experiencing Striptopia during last June’s Pride in Eindhoven, I was fascinated by the concept. This past month, I had the chance to dive deeper and ask its creator some key questions. 🔥
Maggie Saunders, a designer, entrepreneur, and former professional stripper, is the visionary behind Striptopia—a pop-up strip club reimagined for the modern era. Born in the U.S. and now based in Eindhoven, Maggie saw firsthand the deep-seated issues in traditional strip clubs, from imbalanced power structures to sexism and racial discrimination. With four years of industry experience and a background in both Fine Arts and Social Design, she set out to challenge these norms.
Striptopia isn’t just a strip club, it’s a revolutionary experiment that fuses technology, transparency, and empowerment. It offers performers full political, financial, and bodily autonomy, creating a space that is inclusive and radically different from the conventional strip club to ensure that everyone—performers and audiences alike—can thrive. With ‘Making the (ab)normal’, it’s Maggie’s mission to bring the mainstream into contact with marginalized subcultures. Not only is this evident in Striptopia, but also in her other projects, such as Peep Show Hoes, Moulin Rough and Drag Charity Bingo. With projects such as these, Maggie is reshaping nightlife, giving sex workers a voice, and offering strippers the tools to create their own working conditions.
In this interview, Maggie Saunders talks about her journey from growing up in a conservative family to navigating stigma and reshaping the narrative—all of which were necessary to create Striptopia. She shares the challenges, inspirations, and experiences that fueled her mission to revolutionize the strip-club industry.
Drive for Autonomy
Ever since she was young, Maggie had a desire to be her own boss and was always trying to figure out how to turn something into a business. Her independence became important because she wanted to rely on herself for work. This drive for autonomy influenced her interest in stripping: “I think that's also partially why I was interested in stripping—because you make your own hours, you go to the club you want, and you talk to the clients you choose.”
Pushing Boundaries
Maggie grew up in a family, at least on her mother’s side, that was very concerned with how the world saw you—how to act, dress, and conform to certain Southern social norms—which always felt restrictive to her. “I think that always bothered me a lot, and I never really understood why one needed to behave a certain way just to fit in. I just found it very old-fashioned.”
From a young age, she had to take manners classes like etiquette, theater, and dance, but it all felt like an attempt to shape her into what was considered "appropriate" for women. She always questioned why she couldn’t pursue her own interests, which led her to push back against these norms. Topics like sex were especially taboo in her conservative environment, making it difficult to have open conversations about it—whether for birth control, health or in terms of relationships. Which is what made Maggie find out herself so that she could educate friends regarding these topics. “Our parents aren’t going to talk to us about it, and the school isn’t going to educate us.“ Maggie took it upon herself to encourage open conversations about these taboo topics, especially when no one else was willing to.
Navigating Stigma
After a brief sex education class in middle school when Maggie was about 12, the topic was never brought up again, even in high school. “Which I found to be just insane, especially going to a boarding school with men and women living on the same grounds.” It seemed obvious that something would happen among teenagers, yet no one addressed topics like safe sex or birth control. “I think it’s a big issue that schools tend to avoid. They’d rather ignore it than talk about it because they find it awkward.”
Queerness was another topic that wasn’t addressed at all. “Growing up, I didn’t know anyone was gay until, I don’t know, after high school.” Maggie’s journey of understanding her bisexuality took years and involved judgment. Coming from a conservative family, these conversations were difficult. Maggie’s brother came out to her when he was 21, but even then, it was hard for him to discuss because of the stigma. “This really close person in my life didn’t even want to talk to me about it because of how taboo being gay is in the South.” These experiences fueled the desire to explore and understand sexuality more openly.
Inspiration from Abroad
At 18, Maggie visited the Netherlands and was surprised by how different the attitude towards sex work was. Compared to the U.S., walking through the streets and seeing women in the windows was shocking. “I mean, I just thought it was mind-blowing in the best sense.” For Maggie, it felt like a powerful statement of freedom, especially coming from a country where sex work is heavily stigmatized and sex workers are often treated “like trash.” The contrast was striking—these women were confidently in control, standing in windows above the public, instead of being looked down upon.
That sense of visual freedom stayed with her, and later, when she met a stripper in a college French class, her eyes were further opened to the realities of the profession. Seeing women take control, even in less-than-glamorous settings, inspired her and felt deeply empowering.
Spark Behind Striptopia
This experience, combined with the challenges she faced after starting stripping, became part of the spark behind Striptopia. “I lost a lot of friends. My mom wouldn’t speak to me for a while.” It was isolating but also eye-opening. Maggie realized how conditional people’s support could be, and it pushed her to connect with others who had faced similar struggles.
By 2018, when the sex worker movement gained traction, she felt compelled to share her knowledge and experience. Maggie wanted to fight the stigma and show the human, vulnerable side of the profession—not just the negative stereotypes. “I had a lot of really great experiences stripping, obviously some bad ones too, just like anybody does with any job.” With her vision, she wanted Striptopia to highlight the beauty of the profession that people often miss, and hoped to change perceptions.
Turning Negatives into Positives
Striptopia originally started as a graduation project. “I really needed to graduate, and sometimes I got swept up in the possibilities of what it could be.” Though many around her said it would just be a hobby and that Maggie needed a “real job,” she felt determined to explore its potential.
The more events she organized, the more demand she saw. Strippers reached out, eager to perform. “A few months ago, we had 80 applications from people who wanted to dance with us.” That kind of interest fuels Maggie to keep pushing forward. “How can I not be passionate and have a vision to keep going with this?”
During COVID, her determination to support the community grew even stronger. Many sex workers needed help and connection during that time, and it reinforced the commitment to making Striptopia a success. There were times when she questioned whether it would ever take off, especially with the workload she was juggling, “but I just kept going. I just love what I'm doing and I really would like for it to work out“. “Sometimes when you're so deep in it, you can't really see like where it's going“.
Defining Success
For Maggie, fully committing to Striptopia ultimately comes down to financial stability. “The only way I can commit myself 100% is when I see it making enough money that I can slowly stop working at this other job. Realistically, everyone has to pay their bills.” However, there has been progress. “I was finally able to hire a few other people to help with booking venues and managing social media,” which has been a relief. Though things are moving forward, it often feels slower than expected. “Which is usually the case, with entrepreneurship, you know, surprise after surprise“.
Trusting Intuition and Community Support
As an entrepreneur, Maggie has to make many decisions. She finds that the more she trusts her intuition, the better her decision-making becomes. As a community-oriented person, Maggie believes in giving back to those who have supported her, creating a cycle of mutual support. “Give what you get within the community, but also give back to people who need help when you can.”
It’s one of the reasons Maggie loves Eindhoven—the strong sense of community, especially within the international crowd. Entrepreneurship, like stripping, can be isolating, but her friends (many of whom share her interests) have been incredibly supportive. To have amazing people around you that just want to collaborate and help each other has been “the most supportive thing ever“ for her.
The Next Inclusive Chippendales
Ultimately, Maggie’s goal is for Striptopia to become something like “the next Chippendales”—accessible to everyone and able to change people’s minds about the profession and experience it in a positive way. She would love to bring the concept back to the South, “because those people have a lot to learn.” For now, she’s exploring venues outside Eindhoven and hopes to make something happen by 2025, which would be really exciting.
Rewarding Moments
It’s easy for others to praise her concept when there’s a big crowd or a line at the door, but Maggie sees what’s still missing. “I just keep seeing milestone, after milestone, after milestone“. It’s hard for her to appreciate them sometimes because she’s so close to the project. However, she felt genuinely proud this past summer at Down the Rabbit Hole festival. Long lines of people waited for hours, not even knowing if they’d get in. “That really hit me in a positive way.” These weren't people they had marketed Striptopia to—they chose to see the show out of countless other options. Seeing that interest from a larger audience felt like a significant thing for her.
The first time she truly felt rewarded was during Dutch Design Week in 2019, right after graduating. That’s when she realized, “I want to do this for the rest of my life.” What really stands out is seeing the audience’s reactions. “When I’m on stage watching the audience, I feel nothing but happiness and excitement.” It confirms that this is exactly what she should be doing, and it’s incredibly gratifying. “I want to see that every day.”
As a big fan and believer in Maggie’s vision of turning Striptopia into “The next inclusive Chippendales,” this article is my way of helping spread the word so more people can experience an empowering strip club (and turn negative perceptions into positive ones!).
But don’t just take my or Maggie’s word for it—see for yourself what all the hype is about during the upcoming Dutch Design Week 2024. Striptopia will be hosting two shows per evening, from Thursday to Saturday, October 24th to 26th, at Dynamo in Eindhoven.
Now, I'd love to hear from you. Which industries do you think are long overdue for a change? Or…
When have you ever had to navigate stigma to fight for something you believe in?