They are probably right. When I left Big Al's at about 11:30 p.m., the party was just beginning. The place was packed, and, on the stage, a dancer was being auctioned off to a customer willing to bid at least $75 for 30 minutes alone with her and a bottle of champagne.

"Get yourself more pleasure for the dollar--a little more bang for your buck," the emcee said, cajoling two customers into a frenzied bidding war.

That final image of a woman being auctioned off to satisfy some male ego was more than enough to discredit any arguments in favor of strip clubs that Lloyd Hendricks and Al Zuccarini made in our hour-long discussion. More than enough to reserve my right to be disgusted by the success Big Al's has found in Peoria--this supposed cradle of middle American values and attitudes.

Neither manager could respond to my concern, voiced as a feminist, that a strip club undermines any progress our society has made toward gender equality over the last 30 years. Or that the very use of the term "gentleman's club" is a return to an era that most women would rather leave behind.

Big Al's employees might have chosen to become strippers, and in that sense they are upholding a lot of what the women's movement fought for. We've come such a long way, baby, that we can get naked if we want.

But by becoming strippers, they also reinforce the idea that it is okay to judge a woman based on her body alone. I doubt any of the customers are interested in learning the group's average SAT score. By going to Big Al's they pursue some still existing male fantasy that somewhere out there at least some kinds of women are meant to be leered at and ogled.

Welcome to Peoria, this mecca of mediocrity. Many Peorians are happily married, raising children in thriving communities, taking them to county fairs, packed village hall meetings, minor league baseball games, soccer tournaments and Bible study classes.

And on weeknights and weekends, a few choose to strip and a lot choose to leer at the world famous Big Al's, the city's neon-lit tribute to gender equality.

Georgia Alexakis '00 is a government concentrator in Winthrop House. She is working as a reporter this summer for the Peoria Journal Star and has no plans to go back to Big Al's.