She's been in the business for 16 years, first as a stripper and now serving drinks behind the bar at Northern Dreams.

It hasn't always been easy, but the money is good, and despite what others say, she doesn't find the work degrading.

For the people who criticize what she does, Kelly Dormoy has a simple message: Don't judge the business until you see it for yourself.

"It's entertainment," says Dormoy, a 37-year-old Casper resident. "You come, you have a good time, you have a few drinks and you leave. That's basically what it is."

Controversy over strip clubs in the Casper area arose this summer when Sonny Pilcher, a prominent bar owner, revealed plans to open a "Gentleman's Club" west of the city. He ultimately received a permit for the business over the objections of opponents who argued strip clubs degrade women, cause crime and ruin relationships.

But the women who work at Northern Dreams, currently Natrona County's lone topless bar, said the critics have it wrong.

"I'm proud of who I am. Period," says "Burgundy," a 36-year-old mother who prefers to go by her stage name. "I am proud of my tattoos. I am proud of being a mother. And I am proud of being a dancer."

Burgundy has been dancing at Northern Dreams -- a modest bar north of Casper along Interstate 25 -- for more than seven years. She started as a fluke when the previous owner hired her on the spot while Burgundy stood at the bar in her pajamas.

"I plan to be in this industry until I'm 80," she jokes.

Her 13-year-old son has been aware of her job since he was 5. He's proud of her, she says, and appreciates the things she can buy him from her work as a dancer.

"He flat out tells me, 'You are a good-looking woman,' " she said. " 'You are my mom and a I love you, and you do what you have got to do.' "

Others in the community don't see strip clubs as benign businesses. One of them is Maria Antonovich, a stay-at-home mom from Casper. Antonovich was one of the roughly 70 people who attended a Natrona County Commission meeting in opposition to Pilcher's new club.

In her opinion, strip clubs degrade women's dignity and harm community morals.

"People have the right to choose," she says. "I respect that. But we as a group choose not to have an establishment like that in our community."

Antonovich worries that a man who visits a strip club will come to view women as objects with one purpose: sexual gratification. Over time, that carries long-term ramifications, she says.

"If a man gets into the habit of viewing a woman as merely an object, then what happens to him?" she asks. "He stunts his growth in regards to being in a proper relationship with women."

The impact of a new strip club won't be felt immediately, Antonovich says. Instead, she anticipates a slow, persistent decline in moral integrity.

"It is a subtle, quiet darkness that just seeps into a household," she says.

Antonovich doesn't want people to view the opponents as radicals, and she insists opponents are not out to make personal attacks against Pilcher.

"We are people who have very healthy marriages, healthy inmate relationships with our spouses," she says. "We don't view the body as bad. It is about looking at the other person and seeing it in the right ways, as made in the likeness and image of God."

Despite community concern, commissioners approved Pilcher's permit by a 4-1 vote after the county attorney advised they had little basis on which to deny it.

Commissioner Matt Keating cast the lone vote in opposition.

"I'm more than happy to stand with these hundreds of parents that are willing to stand up and draw a line in the sand and say, 'Not in Natrona County,' " he says. "Why? Because we call Natrona County home."

"Lola," a 24-year-old blonde who's been paying her way through college by stripping, winces at the notion her job spawns negative feelings toward women.

"I'd say this had done wonders for my self-esteem to begin with," she says, sitting inside the bar about an hour before customers start to arrive. "You stop viewing yourself as a comparison to what you see in the magazines. I actually hold myself to be a feminist.

"You stop comparing yourself to those airbrushed models in Playboy and you start to view all women as beautiful, as opposed to viewing a typical Hollywood body type as being the only thing that can be beautiful," she explains.

Lola acknowledges there are negative stereotypes about strippers as prostitutes and drug addicts. But she calls those gross misconceptions.

"Most of the girls I have met in this industry are clean, straight girls, well educated, nice people," she said.

That isn't to say dancing topless in front of an audience is an easy job. Dormoy has heard customers make jokes about a dancer's body or watched as men walk away when a heavier stripper takes the stage.

"You have to have a very strong sense of yourself and not be insecure, because there are guys who can tear you up and not even say a word," she said.

As for Burgundy, she doesn't have any plans to end her career as dancer. She laughs as she explains that, because she's been doing it so long, the work feels normal to her.

"I am in a relationship and very happy," she says. "I do this to support my child. I am not strictly in it for the money ... but the money helps. Everybody needs to get paid."

Reach crime reporter Joshua Wolfson at (307) 266-0582 or at josh.wolfson@trib.com.