For the struggling dancers, students, and laid-off marketing flacks who worked alongside me at the club, pouring ourselves into dresses was just the most accessible means to an end. Each of us had ambitions outside of inspiring lewd gestures from intoxicated men. Service work is rarely fun, but I couldn’t shake the idea that according to many of the customers I served, my position was right where women belonged. When Steinem suited up in the Playboy Club, even her journalist friends didn’t recognize her. A woman is expected to be in a magazine or write for one, but not both.