Daryl Woodward went by Woody at Mettler’s. He was a bartender and manager. From what I personally witnessed and experienced, he engaged in many behaviors that would be considered feminist. That means he roughed up and threw men out for merely using the term “bitch” to describe women. He immediately had men thrown out for touching me. About 90% of the time, he became violent and protective if a customer threatened me in any way. Woody never tried to flirt with me, harass me, or ask for anything in return for his protection. He never punished me for not socializing with certain people. He never blamed me for negative behaviors that other people exhibited toward me. He never pressured me to have a conversation with him. I barely spoke to the guy unless I needed to complain about someone, but I usually knew he would be there for me if I needed him. He misclassified me by imposing rules that legally made me an employee, but working at Mettler’s was still easier for me to deal with than most other jobs. In my personal experience, he was one of the best, most feminist managers I have had in any occupation, in my life. I felt more comfortable with him as a manager than I have working in manufacturing, legal services, food service, and in most other strip clubs across the United States. All of my personal experiences with Woody caused me to feel great disappointment in him when I heard about what other dancers experienced.

One dancer at Mettler’s had a heavy menstrual cycle, and occasionally had to leave work early because of it. When she tried to talk to Woody about it, he threatened to fire her for leaving early. A few times, she was fired or otherwise suspended. Threatening to fire a dancer for leaving early, while calling her an independent contractor, is a thing that people do when they misclassify workers. It is also just misogynist and gross given her circumstances. Woody’s behavior toward her opened up the possibility of a class action lawsuit. Sometimes if he had a crush on a dancer, he would be more lenient with the rules by letting his crush leave early.

Woody and other Mettler’s staff would occasionally buy lap dances from the dancers. That made most of the dancers uncomfortable, because the boundaries of authority they had as coworkers became grey.

Harley was a young dancer at Mettler’s who had never worked at a strip club before. One night after work when Woody had been drinking, he followed her out to her car to flirt with her. It made her very uncomfortable. In subsequent shifts, Woody began crying and apologized for his behavior.