The business of image girls in nightclubs: "The mission is to smile and make men drink more"

Paula Trejo worked from Monday to Sunday.

Every night, heels, dress and smile until five in the morning.

She is always forced to accept drinks from strangers at tables in the VIP area to collect 50 euros in cash.

At 19 years old, Paula has been an image girl, although she says that at times she has felt like "a company girl".

“Your mission is to smile and get men to consume more.

If you are invited to a drink, you are obliged to accept it.

If you don't want it, you go to the sink and throw it away,” she says.

The phenomenon of image girls in nightlife venues is not new.

They are young people who enter the discos for free every night, with the benefit of hanging around the reserved area and not paying for a single drink.

Its mission is to be a publicity claim, that the room is full when the boys enter and get more people to join the party.

They must announce on their networks, such as Instagram, that they are going to the club that night.

Some girls, like Paula, even charge for it, although they have an extra objective: that the boys consume more.

The general secretary of the Barcelona Nightclubs Guild, Ramón Mas, explains that the profile is usually of “university girls who want to earn extra money or spend a free night”.

As the owner of the Wolf nightclub (Barcelona), Mas assures that the latter do not charge and "have no obligations", they just have to "give a good image".

For Alba Alfageme, a psychologist specializing in sexual violence and a professor at the University of Girona, "the system takes advantage of the age and gender gap of young women", which produces a "normalized objectification and hypersexualization" of girls.

“The woman is the claim.

And when you are a claim, you go from subject to object, ”says Alfageme.

“Virtually all the VIP tables are reserved by men and they want girls around them,” explains the commercial director of the Twenties nightclub, Joan Sans.

They are the ones who contact the promoter to attend the party, and the requests have increased at the Sans nightclub: "We have 150 image girls every night without charging, and the requests are more than double."

Three filters must pass: having followers on social networks —especially on Instagram—, being attractive and a university student.

Sans adds that in Barcelona every night there are between 10 and 40 image girls who charge for discotheques, with a salary of about 50 euros.

The girls behind the image

Paula lived the Madrid and Barcelona nightlife until she was drugged in a private room.

“They put drugs in my drink and I woke up in the hospital.

I didn't remember anything."

She stopped working.

Her day began at midnight, when she arrived at the club an hour before it opened, forced to wear heels and a dress or skirt.

She signed in and they gave her a drink and a wardrobe.

She waited with the rest of the girls until the customers entered.

She spent the night from table to table, unable to sit down.

“The head of image tells you which boys' tables you have to go to.

If you refuse, they kick you out."

Until five o'clock arrived: the disco closed and the girls lined up to receive the money from her.

Her role: get the guys at the VIP tables to spend double.

Or triple.

Some even take a commission for this extra expense.

“They have even invited me to bottles.

They have offered me sex for money, but I have never done it”, explains Paula.

Sans says that most clubs try to get the client to spend on champagne, since it is "more expensive and runs out quickly."

Laia, 22, has acted as an image girl, but without getting paid.

At the age of 20, she used to go out to the clubs in Barcelona to save the money for the entrance.

She knew that the locals "took advantage" of her to "attract boys", although once inside her, she went her own way.

Meritxell Peña, 21, also played that image role to get in for free, even when he was a minor.

“You know that you are there for beauty, not to enjoy.

When you are little you do not think that you are being a claim for men, but they are objectifying you.

Meritxell explains how it felt to be surrounded by older men who were trying to flirt with her: "I remember going in and thinking: I'm in a brothel."

Nerea Giménez, 21, was contacted by a promoter on Instagram.

She is now in various WhatsApp groups of image girls who receive calls from different clubs.

In these groups, which have between 20 and 30 girls, invitations to private parties are also sent, confirm both Nerea and Paula, who have attended several.

“You send a photo of yourself, and those who pay for the party decide which girl she goes to.

It's a catalog."

At some parties, according to Nerea, the girls go "with the option of an escort."

For Paula it is not something new: "Many of my colleagues were

, the majority managed by image managers."

According to Mas, the image girls "are not related to

services ."

He explains that the

is a figure "with a tour in different Spanish cities", and that not all clubs have her.

She also confirms that there are image boys, but Sans assures that "they don't exist because it doesn't make any sense."

For the director of Twenties, "there is an excess of men in the VIP", and the

appear as the result of "positive discrimination to create equality".

He stresses its importance as advertising for the club and attracting more customers, something crucial for the club's billing.

Alba Alfegeme criticizes that this phenomenon is linked to the "freedom of women, but business is done with it."

"The claim of the woman's body is somewhat anachronistic: it is a reflection of the patriarchy's ability to adapt to changing times," says the psychologist.

Alfageme comments that "alternative claims for patriarchal nightlife" should be found, and that "aesthetic pressure" is created on girls by promoting "a single type of beauty."

She also explains that this phenomenon is closely related to the "culture of money laundering", and removes the focus from the girls: "The problem is the values ​​of the companies and the type of masculinity that seeks this claim."

For one of these girls, Paula Trejo, it was difficult to leave this world.

“You go out to parties, you make friends and you meet people.

You don't notice anything."

Now she just wants other girls who are about to enter this world to rethink it.

"It's not all flares in bottles."