THE COMMODIFICATION OF DESIRE: SEX, STEREOTYPES

AND STRIPPING

______

A Thesis

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University, Chico

______

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Arts

in

Anthropology

______

by

Allison M. Casanova

Spring 2017 THE COMMODIFICATION OF DESIRE: SEX, STEREOTYPES

AND STRIPPING

A Thesis

by

Allison M. Casanova

Spring 2017

APPROVED BY THE INTERIM DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES:

______Sharon Barrios, Ph.D.

APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

______Guy Q. King, Ph.D. Jesse Dizard, Ph.D., Chair Graduate Coordinator

______William Nitzky, Ph.D. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the State University of Chico’s graduate school for

accepting me as a student in order to enrich my education and base of knowledge. I would also

like to thank California State University of Chico’s Anthropology Department for kindly

welcoming me into their prestigious program. I owe a debt of appreciation to all of the faculty

and staff of the Anthropology Department. To Dr. Georgia Fox and Dr. Colleen Milligan, I thank

you for standing as the Anthropology Graduate Coordinators and for providing me direction as I

navigated through my graduate experience. To Dr. William Nitzky, I am ever so grateful for your

willingness and openness to accept the responsibility of becoming one of my committee members for this research. The final individual I would like to acknowledge from this department is Dr. Jesse Dizard, towards whom I cannot express the level of gratitude that I have.

Thank you for acting as my committee chair member, but more so, thank you for your constant kindness, for your compassion towards women and worldly issues, and for helping me each step of the way through the development of my thesis.

I also thank my interviewees, mentors, friends, , and loved ones. To the women who participated in this study, I would like to say thank you and that this research could not be possible without you. I am fortunate to have met each-and-every one of you and I thank you for sharing your most personal stories in order to shed light on the experiences that you regularly endure. To my former teacher Cindy Peters and former professor Dr. Anita Jain, I thank you for believing in me and encouraging me to apply for college and later graduate school. For my parents Dr. Robert Wolgat and Maureen Shea I hold nothing but love and gratefulness to the both of you. You have always believed in me and have nurtured me into the individual and

iii scholar that I am today. Finally, I would like to thank my husband, Anthony Casanova, for being my strongest foundation of love and support throughout my college career. Thank you for always being by my side.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Acknowledgments...... iii

Abstract...... vi

CHAPTER

I. Introduction...... 1

II. Historical Accounts: Objectification of Women...... 7

III. Contemporary History: The Commodification of Desire ...... 32

IV. Method and Theory: Symbolic Communication and the Hypersexualization of the Feminine Body ...... 41

V. Findings & Discussion: Stripping for a Living...... 72

Dancer Demographic ...... 72 The Strip Clubs ...... 75 Promotion and ...... 78 A Dancer’s Typical Day at Work ...... 80 Why Do Women Become ?...... 96 New Girls...... 101 Veteran Dancers...... 103 Career Dancers...... 108 Power-Relationships Between Exotic Dancers and Customers...... 112 Establishing Personal Rules and Boundaries at Work...... 117 Precautions Made to Protect Dancers Outside of Work ...... 121 Verbal Abuse Within the ...... 127 and ...... 129 Sexual Assault and Rape Within the Strip Club ...... 132 Responses to Sexual Assault and Rape...... 141 Consensual Sexual Acts Between Dancers and Customers...... 143 The Emotional Toll of Stripping...... 151 Positive Emotional Responses to Dancing ...... 160

VI. Conclusion: Where Empowerment meets Exploitation...... 167

v CHAPTER PAGE

References Cited ...... 186

Appendix

Informed Consent Form...... 193

vi ABSTRACT

THE COMMODIFICATION OF DESIRE: SEX, STEREOTYPES

AND STRIPPING

by

Allison M. Casanova

Master of Arts in Anthropology

California State University, Chico

Spring 2017

This is an anthropological study of the motivations and experiences of exotic dancers residing- and working in- the southwestern . Data and findings are based on previously published material, original ethnographic research conducted over a three-month period among twenty current strippers working at three different venues in California, and my own personal experience while working as an exotic dancer for three years. The goals of this paper are to describe the organizational culture of strip clubs and to better understand why women choose to become exotic dancers and continue to work in what is commonly considered a stigmatized occupation. The variety of dancers’ life histories, attitudes, and experiences illustrate the wide-range of emotional responses and perspectives that exotic dancers have about their work. This research shows that when it comes to , stigma is in the eye of the beholder. Exotic dancing can be quite lucrative and is often a plausible option for women who may be uneducated and/or unskilled. There is no clear cut binary of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ in sex work, but rather there is a fluid spectrum of good-through-bad feelings that depend on- set and setting. Exotic dancers are sexually objectified, yet also have power and control over significant

vii aspects of their working conditions such as who they for or with, when they dance- and precisely how they perform. And finally, exotic dancers are highly susceptible and vulnerable to emotional and physical abuse because of the work that they perform. Open discussion and better understanding of in general and exotic dancers in particular is necessary in order for American to move beyond gratuitously cruel and damaging stereotypes that limit freedom of expression and restrict opportunity for safer, healthier forms of fulfilling social interaction without threats of violence and approbation which contribute to warped values and undermine the well being of individuals and society.

viii CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this research is to investigate the occupational culture of exotic

dancers. In exchange for money, they perform and sell hyper-sexualized fantasies to a

predominantly male audience. Over a three-month period, I visited three different strip clubs and

was able to gain the confidence and trust of twenty different women working in the southern

California area. These women candidly shared their thoughts and feelings with me, and their

stories provide direct insight into the world of exotic dancing.

I was first introduced to the nontraditional setting of exotic dancing when I turned

eighteen and attended my first strip club as a legal adult. I went to the club as a celebratory

“coming-of-age” moment and was immediately fascinated as I watched beautiful women strip

down to nothing. There was a palpable sense of discomfort being in such a unique environment, but there was also a high level of energy and excitement that overwhelmed me. While I was

sitting alongside the a dancer pulled me up from my chair onto the stage and, in a fun

sexual manner, she removed my top, exposing my to the audience. I remember in that

moment a whirl of thoughts and feelings overtook me. On the one-hand I thought “oh my god,

what would my mother think?” but on the other-hand, I had an adrenaline rush that affirmed

every inch of my body and person was alive.

As an undergraduate, my fascination with stripping continued to grow. I took a friend

to a strip club in Ontario, California where I was offered a job which I was quick to refuse. But I

spoke with several of the dancers that night and they seemed content with their job and assured

me that the job “wasn’t as bad as many think.” Shortly after this second strip club experience, I

1 became friends with a neighbor who had been a dancer for seven years and she shared with me exciting tales of all the wonderful aspects of dancing, reinforcing my curiosity. This individual had come from and did not receive a high school diploma, but bragged about the

Mercedes automobile and designer that she was able to afford while working as a dancer. Hearing her countless stories I became utterly captivated by my imagination of what it would feel like to become an exotic dancer myself, seductively stripping away clothing and conformity to norms, and in doing so, rebel against an oppressive and boring set of social expectations imposed upon me by my parents, peers and influential people.

This friend became my mentor as I entered the world of exotic dancing. She taught me how to , how to fix my and make-up, how to interact with customers and how to keep my money safe. She coached me when times were tough, and she celebrated with me when times were good and money was plentiful. Over a three-year period, I became an accomplished exotic dancer and met more people than I could ever remember. I met women and men from all over the world, from all different backgrounds, who were diverse ethnically, physically, politically, religiously, and socio-economically. I danced because it was exciting, different from a traditional job, and doing so presented a social opportunity to interact with a wide variety of individuals that would otherwise be inaccessible to me. Throughout the duration of my dancing career, I experienced moments where I felt sexy and confident as well as moments where I felt violated and insecure.

This part of my life ended for reasons that had to do with changing priorities. By virtue of those experiences, I found myself in an excellent position to revisit some of the circumstances that once meant so much to me. Only this time, I went with questions rather than conquest on my mind. I wanted to learn about the world I thought I knew so well from a more

2 abstract, analytical perspective. I began to wonder why, for instance, do women enter the profession of exotic dancing, to begin with, and why do they continue to dance? I have asked twenty dancers to share their background from their childhood leading up to the moment that they decided to start dancing. Combined with my own life experiences, these life histories illuminate the personal experiences and socioeconomic aspects that coax women into the profession.

I was also keen to understand the power dynamic between customer and dancer, and how each participant negotiates this relationship. The participants in this study were asked to describe the daily interactions, both positive and negative, that they had with customers. Each encounter is unique and these women’s experiences provide insight into a broad spectrum of feelings from empowerment to feelings of exploitation.

And I wanted to know how exotic dancing influences the individual dancer physically and emotionally. In terms of physical impact, the dancers were asked what/if they had made any physical changes to their body, if they actively use drugs and alcohol while working, and whether or not they have experienced any while on the job. The dancers were then asked how they were emotionally impacted by such cases of body modification, drug and/or sexual abuse. Physical and emotional responses are relevant to each individual experience and can be either positive or negative.

With these research questions in mind, the ultimate goal of this project is to determine if, to what extent, exotic dancing empowers women, and to what extent might it be an exploitative profession. Do exhilaration, freedom and even perhaps the perception of control outweigh the tawdry and sometimes dangerous aspects of this work, often in the penumbra - if not in fact part - of the broader world of sex work in general? The only possible way to address

3 this is to speak with exotic dancers and listen to their individual experiences. The subjective results from in-depth interviews and correspondence with individual dancers will reveal that, by virtue of participation within the specific organizational culture of strip clubs, there are common themes and experiences that all exotic dancers encounter due to the collective nature, and the unwritten, but socially understood and enacted behaviors of all those who participate in what I have chosen to call the commodification of desire.

I have done my best to describe my methods and conclusions in a formal sense, but to also include the voices and linguistic characteristics that are unique to the strip club environment.

I regard the women that I spoke with as participants, interviewees, and subjects as well as exotic dancers, dancers, and strippers, not to mention human beings. I do refer to the participants mostly as women; however, the term “girls” is applied as it is highly prevalent in the dancers’ reference to one another. I speak formally about other members who work in the and the men who frequent the establishments unless describing a dancer’s direct experience with an individual. I avoid most slang terms unless providing a direct quotation or a generalized statement relevant to a participant’s response. The establishments to which I have occasion to refer are identified by a pseudonym that I have assigned to each of them, or simply as an exotic dance club, strip club, or club. The terms I employ and concepts I explore might be uncomfortable for some, but it is necessary to neither avoid nor ignore perceptions, and conversations common among the exotic dancers I came to understand.

This research contributes new knowledge to the discipline of anthropology by illuminating the real experiences of female exotic dancers as opposed to the all too common ethnocentric and prejudiced perspectives historically applied to people who live and work in so- called marginal communities and occupations. Exotic dancing is a nontraditional form of labor

4 that emulates sexuality and that regularly takes place on the outskirts of “respectable” society.

The legal profession of exotic dancing has been attacked for its immorality because the job simultaneously provides a public space where women can express their sexual nature and flaunt their body freely. But while exotic dancing can provide an adequate income to some dancers, there is the omnipresent potential cost of physical and emotional discomfort and even traums, not to mention the added opprobrium of participation in a stigmatized occupation.

This paper is divided into six chapters. This first chapter has been provided to explore my interests and personal role as an exotic dancer in the past, and my hope that this research will aid a better understanding of the women who participate in the world of sex work, through a critical and anthropological lens. The second chapter investigates several historical examples, by which the female sexual body has been objectified and presented as a spectacle for viewers through various forms of and performance. This section highlights the subordination of women, especially women of color, in male hegemonic society. The third chapter transitions to focusing on the historical development and contemporary standing of the exotic strip club industry in the United States of America. Strip clubs have endured a recent history of social stigmatization, hardships with legislation as well as activism for their continuance from strippers themselves. The third chapter pertains to my applied methods for this research and addresses the theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism and performativity. The fifth chapter is my findings and discussion segment, which is further broken down into a variety of subsections that focus on the lives and experiences of strippers. Here, I will address my research questions according to the responses from my interviewees. The sixth, and final chapter is my conclusion section. My conclusions are based on the empirical evidence gathered from qualitative data, in order to enrich the anthropological discourse regarding the

5 empowerment and exploitation of women in general and the sex work industry in particular. I

will note, in order to better understand the experiences of women who work in the

and their attitudes towards their jobs, more ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews of current and ex-dancers, as well as comparative analysis needs to be conducted. It is my hope that this research conducted with a critical and anthropological lens will aid in the effort to achieve a better understanding of the women who participate in the world of sex work.

6 CHAPTER II

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS:

OBJECTIFICATION OF

WOMEN

In this chapter, I will be discussing several historical accounts, whereby women

actively participate in the entertainment and (sexual) service of men. In addition, I will examine

how the female body has been objectified as a sexualized form and put on display at the expense

of public interest and ridicule – and, where such social ideologies about the notions of what defines ‘’ and her sexuality, have been internalized by the categorized gender and performed through their daily appearances, actions and behaviors. My primary focus is investigating women who have been put on display, who have been subject to entertain, and who perform, primarily through the medium of dance, to a dominant audience of power and privilege

– often being, but not limited to, white-heteronormative-male persons. The consequences of such historical accounts include the objectification and exploitation of women at-large, and especially

women of color. Ultimately, this has resulted in the suppression of female sexual expression, whereby women are confined to the socially dominant attitudes, in which they reside. This, in turn, requires women within this social-sphere, to suppress their sexuality and conceal their physical self, or otherwise be ridiculed and condemned.

In order to discuss how women have historically prevailed as entertainers, specifically

to a male audience, I start by providing the example of the Kisaeng entertainers. This example is

used to demonstrate the cultural values of a specific Asian , and how the female

gender is pronounced as domestic and subservient. After, I discuss how Western society has

7 come to understand the Asian woman as submissive, exotic and sexually available to white men.

Finally, in this portion that discusses female entertainment, I present the occupation of and its means to socially and sexually satisfy the dominant male population. Female entertainment is often intended for a (white) male gaze, where the performances are constructed around male ideologies of what is considered pleasing and pleasurable – such as domestic servicing and sexual sufficing.

The Kisaeng, are a group of Korean female entertainers that appeared during the

Three Kingdoms Period from 57 BCE- 668 AD (Lee 1979:75). For the Kisaeng, up until 1392,

Buddhism was the primary religion in this area (Lee 1979:75). Women in Korea had freedom and social mobility until a shift occurred in the Yi Dynasty (1401-1910), at which point

Confucianism became the dominant religion, based on strict rules of hierarchy and male superiority (Lee 1979:75-76). Ronald Takaki (1993:209) writes, “Confucianism defined the place of a woman: she was instructed to obey her father as daughters, her husband as a wife, and her eldest son as a widow.” Women were inferior to all men regardless of their class status

(Takaki 1993:209), and as second-class citizens to men, some women accepted roles as subservient entertainers, hosting the dominant male clientele. Kisaeng are trained at a young age and would serve the majority of their life performing for aristocrats (Lee 1979:76). The opportunity to become a Kisaeng allowed for these women to receive a valuable education. In addition to their knowledge of fine arts, they were trained in medicine, drug prescription, and tailoring military and royal family clothing (Lee 1979:76). Gradually the social status of the

Kisaeng shifted away from the status of aristocratic accouterment and towards a less respectable role of mere property and concubinage (Lee 1979:78). By the seventeenth-century, a new male

8 profession arose, and these working men were termed Kibu, who were the “pimps” of the

Kisaeng (Lee 1979:78).

At the fall of the Yi Dynasty, the Kisaeng’s was that of a street prostitute and was frowned upon by normative society. The entertainers, once gifted and respected, were now sexual deviants. In the early 1920s, the Kwonbon, or private training school, was established to recruit and train women as a means to refurbish the ancient custom of courtly entertainment, but with a decidedly populist and pecuniary purpose (Lee 1979:80). These schools merely reinstated a social hierarchy where women are subordinate to men, and their new performances took place in and bars rather than royal palaces (Lee 1979:80). The devalued Kisaeng did manage to clear their reputation as explicit prostitutes, but by the mid-

1900s, their occupational status had dwindled from courtesan to that of a servant as a mere cocktail host, or waitress. The changing role of the Kisaeng over time, adds value to understanding women’s socially diminishing role and status, as well as the gradual social devaluing of women entertainers as respectable artists and performers.

Western perceptions of Asians prompted the establishment of the “Orientalist trope;” a viewpoint of the sultry, swarthy “other” and perception that Asiatic and Arab cultures are more licentious then the so-called civilized European only exist, “by virtue of the European imagination” (Said 1977:167). Beginning in the early eighteenth century, European understandings of Oriental and Islamic cultures were ignorant regarding then “hostile” and threatening (Said 1977:169-170). Over time, attitudes towards the Orient changed, Said

(1977:205-206) describes:

To the West, had once represented silent distance and alienation; was militant hostility to European Christianity. To overcome such redoubtable constants the Orient needed first to be known, then invaded and possessed, then recreated by scholars, soldiers,

9 and judges who disinterred forgotten languages, histories, races and cultures in order to posit them- beyond the modern Oriental’s ken- as the true classical Orient that could be used to judge and rule the modern Orient…so too the Orient was transubstantiated from resistant hostility into obliging, and submissive, partnership.

Wong and Santa Ana (1999:175) assert that the developing racialized identity of various Asian

ethnic groups’ also included particular gender and sexual themes based on historical conditions.

Such themes include the emasculation of the Asian male, the hyper feminine and submissive

female Asian, and the heteronormative sexual Asian partnerships.

Asians within the United States have endured a troubling past of racism and

exclusion. Asian immigrants were seen as a threatening labor force, which President Rutherford

Hayes warned America in 1879 about the growing and apparent “Chinese problem” (Takaki

1993:206). In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act, passed by Congress, prohibited the entrance of

Chinese immigrants into the United States (Takaki 1993:206). The Chinese Exclusion Act would remain active for sixty years before being repealed in 1943 when the target of social racial animosities would become the Japanese (Lee 2007:472). Immigration rendered the

Chinese population in America to be virtually womanless, according to Takaki’s (1993:209) statistical findings that in 1852, only seven out of the 11,794 Chinese in California, were women.

Later, addressing that in 1900, only five percent of the 89,863 Chinese were female (Takaki

1993:209). Wong and Santa Ana (1999:176), observing how “the ‘bachelor society,’ [and] the shortage of women, abnormal female-male ratios, male sexual deprivation, enforced childlessness, ‘paper sons,’ etc.-are pervaded by heteronormativity.”

From the 1850s to the 1950s Asian gender and sexuality, as understood by the dominant white society, was perceived “exotic” and “freakish;” Asian men were feared as sexual deviants and predators, and simultaneously emasculated based on their ‘feminine’ occupational labor in Laundromats, as waiters in restaurants and other service sector work (Wong and Santa 10 1993:178). The Chinese gender demographic in the United States was largely disproportionate at this time, Takaki (1993:211) notes that many Chinese women emigrated to America by themselves and became prostitutes; in 1870, sixty-one percent of the 3,536 Chinese women residing in California, identified their occupation as “prostitute.” Women managed to provide sex services in agricultural areas and Chinatowns in major cities including Sacramento,

Marysville and (Takaki 1993:212). The life of Chinese prostitutes in California consisted of fine clothing and jewelry, but the downside of this occupation lead to opium and substance abuse, physical violence, murder and suicide (Takaki 1993:213).

The 1890s marked a wave of immigration for Japanese women into the United States

(Takaki 1993:246). Unlike the Chinese women who only accounted for five percent of the

Chinese population in America in 1900, the Japanese government negotiated with United States officials and established the 1908 Gentlemen’s Agreement Act, which allowed women to emigrate as family members (Takaki 1993:248). This promoted the use of Japanese men marrying “Picture Brides,” which is essentially based on the cultural custom of arranged (Takaki 1993:248). By 1920, women represented forty-six percent of the Japanese population in California, and thirty-five percent in California; sixty-thousand Japanese women came over to the United States, and many of which were “picture brides” (Takaki 1993:247-

248). The arrangement of women coming over to fulfill their role as wives asserts the Confucian beliefs of a woman’s role of servitude and submission to her male counterpart.

Wong and Santa Ana (1999:179) discuss the difficulty for Chinese persons living in the United States, to become legal citizens of the new land by writing, “Up until 1870, American citizenship was granted exclusively to white male persons; in 1870, men of African descent could become naturalized, but the to citizenship remained for Asian men until the repeal acts

11 of 1943-1952.” After the attack on Pearl Harbor, there was an effort from white Americans to try to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese persons; racial tensions began to target Japanese and policies, restrictions and discriminatory attitudes towards Chinese started to lessen (Lee

2007:470-472). Chinese and Japanese alike were forced to assimilate to American customs and beliefs in order to not be recognized as a suspicious person of a potential threat to the dominant white privileged group. The “ Minority Myth” recognizes ethnic assimilation of Asian

Americans as an indicator of success in social acceptance (Lee 2007:473). In 1952, Congress passed the McCarran-Walter Immigration and Nationality Act, which, “dismantled racial prohibitions on immigration and establish an Asian-Pacific Triangle with an immigration quota cap of two thousand visas” (Lee 2007:475). This limited Asian immigration, but presented an effort to open the doors slightly for Asian immigrants to enter the United States, who have managed a long discriminative history in their relation with Western societies.

The roles of Asian women being emphasized as daughters, wives, and mothers within their own culture, have been interpreted through the narrow and sexually domineering scope of

Western society where “Asian women are rendered hyperfeminine: passive, weak, quiet, excessively submissive, slavishly dutiful, sexually exotic, and available for white men” (Pyke and Johnson 2003:36). In addition, historically Asian women are a secondary citizen to white women - who quite oppositely, are perceived as independent, self- assured, outspoken, and powerful (Pyke and Johnson 2003:47). The societal attitudes that present Asian women as submissive, sexually available, secondary citizens both men and white women and the

“conformity to stereotypes of Asian femininity serves to symbolically construct and affirm an

Asian ethnic identity. Herein lies the pressure that some respondents feel to comply with racialized expectations in ethnic settings” (Pyke and Johnson 2003:48). The Asian woman must

12 negotiate between her cultural values as a domestic caretaker, her role as a secondary citizen as

an ethnic and gendered minority, and either assimilate to a submissive and oppressed “Model

Minority,” or be an outcast who implements independence and liberation.

A “woman’s place,” is often an expression that implies her servitude to men. I

provide another example of women occupying a profession primarily to appease men in the form

of prostitution. Male entertainment is in the form of cultures, specifically geared to

socially entertain and provide sex to paying customers. and prostitution have long

prevailed in human history. I refer to the example of ’s Five Points district, because

historians and archaeologists have discovered evidence that from 1830 to 1850, this New York

district was a flourishing brothel area, housing many prostitutes (Yamin 2005:8). Large numbers of immigrants moved to in the 1830’s providing labor to feed America’s industrial revolution (Crist 2005:20). Taking advantage of the influx of cheap labor, New York’s

manufacturing enterprises grew and the many jobs offered social opportunities which attracted

many young women (Crist 2005:20.) From 1830-1840 there was a rise of urban working women

who earned their own money, endured harsh labor for meager , and were in high

competition primarily for seamstress work (Crist 2005:21). High competition for work and low

paying income led many women to resort to prostitution for additional .

Brothel sex workers not only would sell their bodies for sex but would also entertain

their guests by other domestic and social means. The Five Point’s red-light district shows the

socio-historical prevalence of sex workers in the United States, and the existence of brothels as

centers where women are paid to sexually comfort and entertain men. Excavations of New

York’s Five Points district reveal a variety of artifacts such as table ware, tea sets, alcohol

bottles, smoking pipes and oyster shells (Yamin 2005:14-15). These items indicate that alcohol

13 was consumed, smoking was prominent, and in addition to these recreational activities, the excavated dishware ceramics portray another component of brothel culture; that of fine dining.

The discovered ceramics were elegant, decorative, and used for entertaining (Yamin 2005:11).

Of the assemblages recovered, there was a beautiful porcelain Chinese tea set, and several serving plates with detailed shell on them (Yamin 2005:5, 9). These are indicators of luxury items that brothel employees used as means to attract middle-class men into the establishments (Yamin 2005:11).

While brothels presented the image of an upscale living, the reality is that there was a definitive separation between the prostitute’s lives in the public versus in the private sphere. This has been suggested on two accounts. The first account being that there are two noticeable sets of dishware. There is a contrast between the tableware and the tea sets found in the brothels (Yamin

2005:14). It has been interpreted that the tableware would be most commonly used by brothel residents in private, but while entertaining clients, tea sets would be used in order to serve meals.

The second component pertaining to the duality of brothel life is found in the analysis of food remains on tableware versus tea sets. Similar to the archaeological findings in adjacent neighboring Irish tenements, cheap meats such as fish, ham, and ham hocks were commonly consumed in the prostitute’s private life (Yamin 2005:14). In the public realm of entertaining, food analysis reflects the stature of fine-dining cuisines such as oysters, hard and soft shell clams, and veal (Yamin 2005:14). Through the excavation and analysis of differentiated dishware and quality of meats, one may interpret that while brothel culture gave the illusion of high-class status in public, the reality is that in private these women are of a lower-class status than what appears.

14 An important difference separating the sex work that took place in New York’s Five

Point’s district and European from the display of Saartje Baartman and Arabic raq

sharqi, is that the former are private displays of sexual expression and the latter are public displays. The women whose behavior is pecuniary or otherwise, in Western society were at least somewhat protected because they were able to perform sex work in pockets that centered on socially stigmatized behavior. By 1850, nearly every building in the Five Point’s district was a brothel, and due to the popularity of prostitution, Five Points became infamously referred to as the, “most notorious slum,” in New York (Crist 2005:21-2).

Women entertainers and prostitutes may not themselves, have been able to adjust into

the normative society based on a negative reputation, but they had the power to hide within the

walls these unique borders and take on whatever identity they so pleased. Because customers

were not tied down to the profession they could come and go as frequently as they liked, could never speak about their moment of sexual indulgence, and be gladly welcomed back and respected in the outer society. Even if denigrated, Western female sex workers during the 1800s were able to conceal their identities, choose their customers, make a decent living, and be sexual beings.

For example, Hill (1993) explains the personal story of prostitution in the nineteenth century by focusing on the known and documented , Helen Jewett. Ms. Jewett, born

1813, was introduced into the world of prostitution at age seventeen (Hill 1993:12). Her presumed birth name is Dorcas (Dorrance) Doyen, and throughout her twenty-three years of life, she adopted many different names such as Maria Benson, Ellen Spaulding, Helen Mar, and

Maria Stanley (Hill 1993:12). These pseudonyms might suggest the different identities that she inhabited while working as a prostitute. Jewett began work in Portland, Maine, then moved to

15 Boston, and finally traveled to New York (Hill 1993:12). In New York she worked at many

different brothels; the mobility of Ms. Jewett suggests that she was free to change the place of

her employment.

Her weekly earnings of $50-$100 (which equates to roughly $1,000-$2,000, in 1993,

according to Hill) allowed Helen to enjoy expensive luxuries and also made her a “star” and

profitable commodity within the brothel economy (Hill 1993:13). Ms. Jewett was eventually

murdered by a suspected client of hers, Richard P. Robinson, on April 10, 1836 (Yamin 2005:4).

The trial of Mr. Robinson was greatly publicized by the Herald newspaper, whereby the media fueled the public’s prurient curiosity about the relationship between prostitutes and their clients

(Hill 1993:10). The jury acquitted Robinson, and while the murder case of Ms. Jewett was never resolved, her story became a breakthrough in the social discourse about brothel culture and prostitute life. Police discovered ninety letters showing proof of her correspondence with clients, friends, lovers, and colleagues (Hill 1993:15). The letters are a window into her personal life, detailing and documenting the various levels of emotion from joy and affection to anger, insecurity, and sadness that she endured while living and working in the brothels (Hill 1993:15).

Ms. Jewett had a measure of agency and freedom unavailable to many and was able to choose whether or not to become involved in sex work. Agency is questionable, and often doubted in regards to the occupation of most sex workers; many outsiders believe there is a little-to-no

choice in their participation; sex workers are often forced into their occupation, or befall into the

industry due to a lack of economic opportunity for women.

Historically, women across the world have been defined by the narrow scope of

Anglo-European and Anglo-American ideas. This is extremely problematic, especially for

women of color, who do not meet the physical and sexual expectations of white males. Women-

16 particularly, sex workers and ethnic minorities, are directly correlated with hyper-; their status and worth in society, being based on either her sexual control or her availability. While sexual interest is a focal point of the socially dominant male group, there is little, if any evidence of respect for the everyday and/or the socially stigmatized “exotic” woman.

In order to elaborate how women, particularly women of color, have been objectified and eroticized historically, I use the example of Europe’s exhibition of Khoisan woman, Saartje

Baartman from 1810-1970s (Gordon-Chipembere 2006:55). Saartje Baartman was also commonly referred to as, “the Hottentot Venus,” a controversial term addressed by Gordon-

Chipembere (2006:57) who references Pieterse’s (1992) work, which affirms that many eighteenth-century naturalists believed the ‘Hottentot’ to be the missing link between apes and human. Scully and Crais (2008:307) further describes that that, “Hottentot is a pejorative word invented by the Dutch to describe pastoralist communities who spoke very difficult click languages. The word comes from Huttentut, “to stammer.” European use of the term Hottentot thus implied that the Khoekhoe were without language and thus possibly not part of human society.

Baartman was born north of Africa’s Gamtoos River Valley, and around 1797, she was sold to Pieter Cesars and moved to the urban port area of , South Africa (Scully and Crais 2008:306, 308) She spent the majority of her life in Cape Town as a servant under

Dutch colonial rule; Scully and Crais (2008:307) point out that her surname, “’Baartman’ means bearded (to the Dutch of that era, uncivilized) man. It is thus a marker of colonialized status,” in which she ascertained at that time. Around 1803, Saartje Baartman went to work for Pieter’s brother, Hendrik Cesars and his wife Anna Cathrina Staal, and by 1810, moved with the couple to , where she would spend the last four years of her life (Scully and Crais 2008:308).

17 During Baartman’s time spent in London, she was publically displayed naked within a sexualized context and exhibited as a ‘human curiosity’ at the cost of two shillings per viewer

(Gordon-Chipembere 2006:56).

This public display emphasized Baartman’s sexual (immorality), which would become a socially appointed cultural trait of ‘other’ and ‘exotic’ women of color; as projected in the eyes of western-European societies. The case of Saartje Baartman is both one of

female objectification, racial suppression, but also scientific inquiry and desire to understand

female sexuality. Alexander Dunlop is accredited for organizing the display of Saartje Baartman

and the contextualization of her appearance. Scully and Crais (2008:304) describe that early

displays of Baartman presented her as a social ‘freak’ of nature, because of her unusually

enhanced physical features such as her . But Dunlop’s framing of Baartman’s public

physical display later transitioned to one of scientific and educational purpose, whereby

Baartman stood as a visual representation and ethnographic reference to the Khoekhoe people of

Africa (Scully and Crais 2008:304).

The latter of these two representations, subsequently drove Dunlop and Baartman to

manipulate their audiences’ understanding of, not the true Khoesian woman that Baartman is, but

rather the stereotypical representation of Baartman as a Khoesian woman - understood and

manifested in European interpretations and ideologies about the “other.” Scully and Crais

(2008:304, 311) explains:

Sara [Saartje] Baartman had to learn to act the part of the Hottentot Venus. On stage, Baartman had to erase aspects of her personal history, experience, and identity in order to make her performance of the Venus credible to the audience that was staring at her… The Hottentot Venus was an act that was most successful when it appeared natural… Europeans came to the Cape “knowing” about the exotic—and—sexual Hottentot. By the early nineteenth century, images of the unusual Hottentot enjoyed widespread dissemination as part of the and renown of science during this period.

18 Baartman’s role and existence was deeply embedded in the performance of her race and cultural

identity while living in London. The directed performance is measurably oppressive to the

Khoekhoe people at large, but paradoxically it granted Baartman a level of freedom in the

Cesars’ household that other slaves at the time did not have, such as mobile freedom to travel

alone with the permission of Hendrik Cesars and Anna Cathrina Staal (Scully and Crais

2008:311).

After Baartman’s death in 1815, she was dissected by the French scientist, Georges

Cuvier, and plaster casts of her body, including her buttocks and genitals, were publically

displayed, for perhaps, European’s secret fascination with erotic desire and exploiting the

African body to assert racial superiority (Gordon-Chipembere 2006:57-58). The parallel between

European and American society putting the “other,” on public display, particularly in a hyper- sexualized manner, speaks volumes to Western societies growing interests in domination and control of the female body and expression of sexuality. In addition, it was safer in the eyes of

Western societies, to explore the dynamics of female sexuality through ethnically different cultures. By exploring sexual body parts and sexual movements from African and Islamic

women, Westerners could protect the sacredness and pureness of white females while

simultaneously consuming and enjoying the pleasure available via the sexuality of the exotic

‘other’ feminine form. Many, if not most, contemporary anthropologists consider that the public display of Baartman is likely understood as racist and exploitative; a profitable and titillating way for Western consumers to become familiarized with the feminine body and sexuality.

Next, I will discuss how through body performance, specifically through the use of dance, women represent their gender and sexual selves. Dance as a form of art and entertainment is enacted by the performers with the audience’s interests in mind. The performances can be

19 subtle or profane; modest or sexually implicit. To draw on these conclusions, I draw on the example of the raq sharqi, or modern Egyptian dancers, where women performers were placed into categories of either ‘respectable’ entertainers or ‘indecent’ sex-work laborers. Around 641

CE, Islam became prominent in and the merging of ancient cultural traditions brought forth the birth of raq sharqi, commonly known as belly dancing (Spencer 2003:121).

By the 1800s, these two distinctions of women performers became apparent. First being the awalim, these women were skilled in the arts such as poetry, music, song, and dance

(Arvizu 2005:161). The second group or, ghawazee, were prostitutes registered under the jurisdiction of the wali or governing official (Arvizu 2005:161). The wali are responsible for tarnishing the reputation of the awalim dancers and musicians. The wali were given control to register whom they saw fit to be established as a prostitute and then taxed appropriately (Arvizu

2005:161). This included many thieves, beggars, and dancers (Arvizu 2005:161). These two distinct categories were now united as one-in-the-same and became recognized by Egyptian society as ‘dirty’ sex workers. The public disdain for entertainers and political pressure to

“clean-up” the city lead to their banishment from Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, from 1834 to 1866

(Arvizu 2005:161).

In 1882, the British occupied Egypt and had a large interest in the “exotic” dancers in this region (Arvizu 2005:161). Egyptian officials saw the new economic potential of “ tourism,” and established a in Ezbekiya Gardens for women to perform for the

European travelers (Arvizu 2005:159, 162). The women would wear revealing clothing that exposed their , , and legs while displaying the sensual body movements of the raq sharqi. By the Graeco-Roman period, currency had been introduced to Egypt, and dancers began receiving payments, “made partly ‘in kind,’” from on-lookers, which became a worthwhile

20 incentive to many female Egyptian dancers (Spencer 2003:119). The dance had a large focus of performance, but women also entertained clients by socializing and drinking with them in the hopes of earning income through a commonly understood tipping system (Arvizu 2005:162).

Performers were now using a variety of techniques to acquire monetary compliments from their spectators.

The growing European fascination with raq sharqi dancers in Egypt and surrounding

Arabic nations, paved way for their show to “hit the road (or sea),” landing a group of dancers in

North America to perform at the ’s World Fair in 1893 (Jarmakani 2005:124).

Christianity was the forefront religion by European colonists in the America’s. Heavily embedded among Christian societies is the notion of duality playing out in terms of good vs. bad, sacred vs. profane, virgin vs. whore, and the classical vs. the grotesque body (Jarmakani

2005:125). Many American spectators were both intrigued and appalled by what they saw in the raq sharqi performance. The dancer’s attire and body movements played on the side of the profane and were perceived as grotesque in nature by conservative Christians.

While the Arabic term “al-raqs al-sharqi,” simply translates to “dance of the East,”

Americans naively called this performance the “belly dance” (Jarmakani 2005:125). This

Western term highlighted the unclothed part of the performers’ body which indirectly associated the performer and her stylistic dance to an act of impure sexual temptation rather than a skilled art form. The terminology assigned to these female performers was degrading and contributed to the stigma of the floozy and “primitive” natives of the Near East. Belly dancing was understood as part of the secretive and mysterious culture of the ‘Orient,’ and by virtue of such perceived exoticism, became economically remunerative in America, and served to challenge sexual restrictions by thrilling viewers through ‘exotic’ entertainment (Jarmakani 2005:131-133).

21 During the 1800s, ethnic women’s bodies were publically displayed, consumed by spectators who were curious about and enticed by, the alleged hypersexual characteristics attributed to them by white European and American societies. Simultaneously, prostitution was becoming a prominent industry in the United States, thriving on poor, unskilled women, who exchanged their bodies and sexual services for money. These are early examples of the female body being objectified at various levels of sexual entertainment, both visual and via direct sexual interaction. The raq sharqi dancers had already established a history of earning income in the

Near East, and after the Chicago’s 1893 World Fair, the American-rendered belly dance grew in popularity and became a commercialized performance (Jarmakani 2005:131).

Twenty-five years earlier, prior to America’s raq sharqi, Burlesque dancing was just barely making its debut in America, specifically in New York. Hanna (1998:45) describes the historical intent of burlesque dancing, in providing that:

Burlesque originated in I6th-century Europe to poke fun at classic literature and and “virtues” as behavior. Female and sexuality appeared in American theatrical performance at the turn of the century and in the early 20th century. They were a caricature of social , a mockery of religious repudiation of the flesh, and played with cultural constructions of gender and ambiguity. “” refers to being unclothed and the body being an aesthetic object, whereas “naked” implies being defenseless or being oneself without disguise, which is not the way most dancers describe themselves.

For centuries in Europe, and later America, the burlesque performance was intended to challenging the feminine and sexual attitudes that were prevalent at the time. An early effort at female sexual liberation, but burlesque dancers remained tainted by their inability to uphold the social ideology and behaviors, of what equates a respectable woman – sexual .

From 1920 to 1960, burlesque dancing, or the initial , remained a popular and widespread trope for public licentiousness throughout American society (Jarmakani

2005:134). Burlesque as well as the establishment of the “Pin-Up,” became known for exploring

22 female sexuality both on and off-stage (Buszek 1999:142). This ‘exploration’ of the female body

is a very restricted sort that consisted of privileged (white) male gaze, and a sexually receptive

alluring female reinforcing socially constructive standards of beauty and requiring exaggerated physical features. Burlesque was used as a theatrical technique for women to express themselves in a sexual manner. Buszek (1999:142) notes that these women were sexually transgressive during their time and were establishing their own “sexual awareishness,” or understanding of their sexual liberties and freedoms to be sexually empowered, within the confines of a highly religious and sexually repressed society. The iconic “Pin-Up” of women were a way in which male media artists could sketch/ photograph what they saw and stereotyped, as beautiful and sexual among women. The images were socially constructed by men, to appeal to other men, and rendered beauty and desired sexuality of young, thin, white females (Buszek 1999:143).

I will note that white heterosexual males are not the only individuals to create such artwork, there were and are women who made/make pin up art, not to mention more overt forms of , both homo, and hetero varieties. Heteronormative men are not the only ones who contribute to dominant tropes of femininity, and sex work; however, my research, data, and findings are all centered on a heteronormative perspective. The strip clubs that I visited, each catered to a heterosexual male audience, and in addition, the majority of my subjects identified as heterosexual; five of the women that I spoke with identified as bisexual and zero of my interviewees identified as gay/lesbian. For this reason, I do not look into or provide a relative history of queer: art, pornography, or other sex worker activities. I believe that research on women and homosexual artists, who also help attribute to notions of femininity and female

(and overall human sexuality) would be worthwhile to study, but for this particular research, these topics lie beyond the scope of this paper.

23 Burlesque dancing, or “leg shows” originally performed in front of a diverse audience. The early stages focused on the theatrical component of the art and would appeal to men, women, rich, poor, white, black, young, and old (Buszek 1999:159). By the 1930s, burlesque had been regulated whereby dancers could only perform in private establishments

(Buszek 1999:159). Sexual theatrical performances were ignored for their artistic creativity and

reduced to the merely physical aspect of the profession (Buszek 1999:159). They were excluded

from the public sphere and confined to privately owned establishments. This implies American society’s impulse to attempt to control, regulate, and designate the areas where sex work and

exotic dance may take place. As a result, the privatized burlesque shows became more male focused, less of a theatrical performance, and more of a striptease amplifying the female body

and her sexuality (Buszek 1999:159). Because male audiences are largely the economic force

behind the consumer-end of such sexualized performances, it is obvious that the producers and

performers of burlesque shows cater to the interests and sexual desires of the collective male

(dominant) group, in order to maintain their financial goals and profit. The burlesque dancer

whose performances are sexual are depicted as such in relevant artwork illustrating their

occupation.

Before I discuss artistic representations of burlesque dancers, I would like to briefly

highlight that female sexuality in art, both eastern and western, has largely been understood

through the interpretation and investigation of a woman’s physical and naked self. A historical

example of human cultural artwork representing the nude female body is in the vast assemblages

of, Venus figurines, which were discovered in a cave located in south , by Edouard Piette

(1895), and later by Solomon Reinach (1898) (McCoid and McDermott 1996:319). These

figurines date between 27,000 BCE to 21,000 BCE, and are small statuettes carved to represent

24 the female body and are made from bone, ivory, and stone (McCoid and McDermott 1996;

Nowell and Chang 2014). Early interpretations of these figurines saw these artifacts as hyper- sexualized images of the naked female body. Even the term “Venus,” was adopted around the same time that and France brought the south African woman, Saartje Baartman, also known as, the “Hottentot Venus,” to be placed on public display for an audience to analyze her voluptuous nature (Nowell and Chang 2014:563). The term, “Venus,” is then a result of the body being overtly sexualized with emphasis on enlarged breasts and buttocks that were shared by both Baartman and these stone figurines.

The interpretative debate is whether or not these depictions of Paleolithic art were sexual. On one side, archaeologists believe that these were figures made by men for their own pleasure and entertainment (Nowell and Chang 2014:564). Here, the figurines are erotic due to their nakedness and facelessness components as well as their exaggerated reproductive and private parts, but it is argued that this might be a very narrow understanding of the figurines appropriated under the biased context of a predominantly heterosexual male dominated anthropological field. Feminists critique that archaeologists need to better look at the chaine operatoire, or operational sequence of such artifacts including acquisition strategies, technology choices, and the multitude of stylistic distinctions (Nowell and Chang 2014:571).

Under a feminist archaeological perspective, questions arose concerning the density, geographical coverage, and the significant amount of effort that was put into the creation of these objects. Based on comparative photographs of women’s perspectives looking down on their own nude bodies in relation to proportions and body emphasis on Venus figurines, it is easy to spot head-on similarities between the two forms (McCoid and McDermott 1996:320). The downward angle might imply that women were sculpting their own bodies as they saw it from their own

25 perspective and throughout various stages of development such as puberty, childbirth, and

menopause (McCoid and McDermott 1996:323). This interpretation does not sexualize the body,

but rather insists that the figurines could have been created for self-knowledge about the female

body and centered on notions of fertility and reproduction. This example provides that human craftsmanship has maintained a long history of placing emphasis on the representation and

recreation of the naked female body through the artistic display.

Returning to the burlesque dancer, this focus on the nude body is all apparent in the

highly sexualized imagery of burlesque dancers, as depicted throughout the art. Reginald Marsh

(1898-1954), created numerous etchings of burlesque scenes (Spies 2004:33). Marsh’s images

often depicted scenes where there was a large rambunctious male audience occupying majority

of the canvas space, with one to several burlesque dancers in the far left or right-hand corners

(Spies 2004:33). The dancer is marginal compared to the large boisterous crowd, not only is she

secondary in the images, but she is secondary to men in the overall society. While there was a

growing interest in various forms of exotic entertainment, there was still resistance from the normative American culture to accept the taboo subject of female sexuality. Nead (1990:325) elaborates on the paradox in artistic displays of the feminine body, by writing:

For art history, the female nude is both at the center and at the margins of high culture. It is at the center because within art historical discourse paintings of the nude are seen as the visual culmination of Renaissance idealism and human- ism. This authority is nevertheless always under threat, for the nude also stands at the edge of the art category, where it risks losing its respectability and spilling out and over into the pornographic.

There is a constant struggle for the female sexual body to be artistically represented as both a

tainted and an idealized form.

These depictions reflected attitudes of the grotesque sexual feminine body that

affirmed the social perceptions and ideologies during the nineteenth and early twentieth-

26 centuries. One example of the bizarre and apprehensive attitudes towards the sexual feminine

body is in the folklore of the “ dentata.” The vagina dentata motif has been established in

numerous geographic regions and cultural groups including , Greenland, Hawaii,

and (Jackson 1971:341). This myth entails the existence of women, with “toothed ”

that castrate and seek to remove one’s manhood; installing the “fear of damage to the highly

vulnerable [and valuable] ” (Jackson 1971:341). The social fears and animosities of the

lesser understood female sexual body and her reproductive parts presented a simultaneous

response from multicultural areas - to associate the vagina with destructive and inherently evil

tendencies; this motif literally embodied the vagina as a penis-eating creature of mal-intent.

In addition to burlesque , many night clubs were built and established in large

industrial cities. Shanghai Low was a nightclub founded in San Francisco by Charlie Low in

1913 and was cleverly nicknamed “the Forbidden City” (Spiller 2004:94). The performers were

modest in comparison to burlesque dancers. They were comprised of high-class orchestra acts, as

well as circus and acrobat acts (Spiller 2004:97). This Forbidden City” set the stage for future

development of the Chinese-American bar lounge, dinner, and floor show (Spiller 2004:97). In

San Francisco during the 1940s, the Lion’s Den was an underground Chinese nightclub and which showcased an all-Chinese female floor show (Spiller 2004:94). This nightclub

combined the ethnic flavors of a Shanghai-inspired Chinese-American menu with beautiful

Chinese performers (Spiller 2004:94). The Lion’s Den adopted both aspects of Charlie Low’s

1913 nightclub, bar, and Chinese dining experience along with qualities of the all-female risqué

burlesque show. With the peak of burlesque dancing in the United States, the Lion’s Den became a space to incorporate this realm of sexualized dancing within a Chinese-American context. The attractiveness of Chinese-American in the United States remained strong until Post-

27 World War II era when racial anxieties toward “the Orient” developed, and cultural shifts

occurred in the interests of popular culture i.e. the rise of , topless bars, and go-go night

clubs (Spiller 2004:100).

The 1960s marks a generational era of increased social awareness, social acceptance,

dramatic change in politics, and a newfound sense of . From 1960 through the

1970s, the youth counterculture and women’s rights movement fanned the flames of the sexual

revolution (Carpenter 2002:345), made possible in many ways thanks to the introduction of oral

contraception in 1960. Within four years over two million American women were using it. The

revolution involved the of the larger American society as individuals sought sexual

freedom (Carpenter 2002:346). Nead (1990:327) details:

The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 changed the on male , decriminalizing private sexual relations between adult males. In the same year, the Abortion Act extended the grounds for a lawful termination of , and the Act introduced wider provision of contraceptives by local authorities.

The preceding decade in the 1950s paved the way for 1960s sexual liberation via the introduction

to rock ‘n roll and Playboy Magazine into the mainstream culture (Petigny 2004:63). The sexual

revolution is often noted for oral contraceptive activism, coed college dormitories, and

(Petigny 2004:63). This is an extremely influential era in redefining the social

norms and expectations of men and women. Women, in particular, were reasserting their sexual

agency and contesting the restrictive and discriminatory sexual suppression, as defined under

male heteronormativity.

Research studies on premarital sex have been tested among college students from

1965 to 1980 (Robinson and Jedlicka 1982:237). The findings of this study reveal that there was

a 12.3% increase in premarital sex among male college students and a 34.8% increase in

premarital sex among female college students (Robinson and Jedlicka 1982:238). The 1965 28 study reported that 33% of men and 70% of women felt that premarital sex was immoral, and by

1980 these numbers decreased to where 19.5% of men and 20.7% of women saw premarital sex as a sin and immoral (Robinson and Jedlicka 1982:239). This study demonstrates the changing attitudes and behaviors of men, and women during this revolutionizing period in American culture. Regarding the data from female college students, it is possible that in 1965 they had a more conservative perspective toward their sexuality due to the long history of repressing female desire. When women were finally able to stand out in numbers and demand the freedom to express themselves through their sexuality, attitudes throughout the culture began to change.

Thanks to the political and sexual revolutions, women were finally emerging in public for the first time as strong and confident sexual beings.

Throughout history and across a variety of cultures, human beings have used dance as a means of self and/or group expression. The act of performing and dancing can take place in multiple contexts, both religious and secular. Dance is physical yet also symbolic; it can be considered a fine art as well as a vulgar display. For instance, humans use dance in ceremonial situations in order to communicate with gods or divine entities. One might dance and be praying for a bountiful harvest or merely putting on an elaborate display of human respect for a higher power. In ceremonial celebrations, human groups have used dance to confer fertility on an individual, to embrace the joy of birthing a new life or to remember and honor the passing of a person. Dance is also a way to communicate sexual interest and as such has elicited a wide variety of criticism; some deeply steeped in opprobrium and some a joyful embrace of natural and loving appreciation. From fancy balls to high school proms, discos and nightclubs, there is certainly an underlying notion that relationships, both emotional and physical, may be entertained, established and even destroyed by simply allowing physical bodies to move in space

29 accompanied by nothing more than rhythmic sounds. Finally, dance can be understood as a form of entertainment, the performance of which entails a reasonably skilled performer and an audience to enjoy the dance production. It is this aspect of dance, primarily as a form of entertainment, a performance to be consumed by a passive viewing audience that is of interest.

Dance is an active performance that is intended to create a particular feeling or aesthetic quality for oneself and/or a particular audience. Weigert (2012:63) describes three aspects of performance, in writing:

First, drawing on its etymology, “performance” refers to an event demarcated by a beginning and an end point, which takes place before an audience. Second, the word refers to any act of display by human beings or groups, which establishes their individual or communal identity. Third, “performativity” refers to a process of interpretation or meaning making that takes place at each exchange between an audience and an event, object, or activity.

Performances are subjective depending on who is performing, what is being performed and who is watching the performance. There is a broad range of what can be rendered a performance; from the , stage acts to other forms of human expressions, such as gender performance, which I will discuss in my theory section. Weigert (2012:62) provides that ultimately, performances are designed as a mode of communication with either true or fictitious audiences, i.e. ritualistic performances in tribute to gods and/ or spirits. The forms of communication that are expressed can be verbal and/or nonverbal (symbolic) – later in this paper, I will discuss how exotic dancers primarily implement symbolic interactionism (nonverbal symbolic communication), during their performances in order to communicate sexual desire to their audience members. Finally, performance is a way in which humans reconstruct social norms, establish social models for human behavior and identity, and the audience understands and self- interprets the messages and symbols that are displayed from the performer(s) (Weigert 2012:62).

30 The primary focus of this paper is to examine exotic dancers as performers and

understand the complexity and symbolic language that they present to their guests while they are

working. Their acts are repetitive, sexual, and adhere to social expectations of femininity and

. I have previously mentioned various examples of how historically the female

body and her sexuality have been constructed through the narrow and restrictive lens of white- male heteronormative understanding and expectations. Female dance performances lie on a wide spectrum, which socially favors pure and respectable forms of dance such as , and socially stigmatizes sexual dance performances such as stripping. All avenues of dance performances, respectable or profane, have their own volunteer audience, whose members seek a variety of outcomes through their attendance; including: the enjoyment or critical eye of the performances’ artistic quality, the desire to fulfill or emit a specific emotional response to the performance, or by means of enlightenment, entertainment or gratification from participating as a viewer and spectator of such performances.

In contemporary capitalist industrial societies, the exotic dancer, and her performance is most often considered as something sordid and unrefined, frequently associated with desperation, deviance and the widely criminalized economy of sex. Strippers can be put under the umbrella term of “sex worker,” which groups them together with people who perform sexual favors for money (street and brothel prostitutes) and those who have sex for money on camera

(porn stars). This creates an automatic association among all three groups and reinforces the notion that all these people sell their bodies and sex for nothing more than monetary exchange.

While prostitution and stripping enjoy a long history in many cultural settings, there is a poor

understanding of the profession, which has created a bad reputation for any men, or women

working in this field.

31 CHAPTER III

CONTEMPORARY HISTORY: THE

COMMODIFICATION OF DESIRE

The exotic dance, or the present day striptease as we know it, has long prevailed

throughout the second half of the twentieth-century. The ‘boom’ of strip clubs paralleled the

growth and social popularity of the pornography industry during the 1960-1970s. According to

Jeffreys (2008:152):

Customers in this recently expanding industry [strip clubs] are likely to have been trained and encouraged in the commercial sexual use of women through the decensorship of the pornography industry from the 1960s onward…Many of the strip clubs and chains that opened during this boom are owned by men who got rich through pornography, such as the chain of .

The market for pornographic photos of women and strip clubs where women were sexually

available for consumers continued to expand and became most prominent from the 1980s post-

, onwards. Judith Lynne Hanna (2005:118) describes:

[The] 1980s saw a proliferation of upscale exotic dance establishments. The United States now has about three thousand adult entertainment clubs, as well as an annual national trade exposition and several exotic dance organizations and publications for club owners and for dancers. These organizations deal with issues such as litigation, club , employee relations, , fire safety, theft, equipment, lighting and sound systems, and beverage and other services. The industry is estimated to be a $15 billion business. Average annual individual club revenues are estimated to be more than $500,000. Top-end clubs may net $100,000 monthly

This new phase in the strip club industry is also defined by more relaxed on nudity

and touching within clubs, making them more appealing to the ever-growing male audience

(Jeffreys 2008:152). Even with increasing success and a less restrictive sense of sexuality, strip

clubs were still limited to pockets in the outskirts of small towns and in larger industrial cities.

32 Strip clubs serve as outposts for individuals to visit and experience an anonymous sexualized encounter with a complete stranger.

During this time, workers in the strip club industry became activists for their profession and began to: create dancer organizations, establish publications of books and magazines, organize sex expositions, and render a successful economic industry worth estimated fifteen billion dollars in the 1980s (Hana 2005:118). One example of a sex workers’ organization is the San Francisco’s Sex Workers Project, which, “provides client-centered legal and social services to individuals who engage in sex work, regardless of whether they do so by choice, circumstance, or coercion.” The main focus of this organization is to, “engage in and media advocacy, community education and human rights documentation, [and] working to create a world that is safe for sex workers and where does not exist” (Sex Workers

Project 2016: sexworkersproject.org) Activists among sex workers strive for better work conditions, safety measures, and available emotional, psychological and legal support systems for those who may need it, working in the sex industry.

Similar to other sex workers, strippers gravitate towards this profession primarily for economic stability and independence. Stripping is considered fast and easy money, an occupation in which single mothers and struggling college students can earn anywhere from $250.00 USD to

$1,000 USD per shift (Schiff, Pearson and Haney 1999:14). While nearly half of their earnings in one night will end up in the hands of the management, doorman, security, and the DJ, the dancer still can walk out of the club with a couple hundred to a thousand dollars in her pocket (Schiff,

Pearson and Haney 1999:14). A former dancer, Caswell (2016 thebillfold.com), describes how many strip clubs, “have a waitstaff-style payout at the end of the night where they [the management] would tally up the you [the dancer] did and add up all the money you owed

33 the “house.” The dances were tracked by either the DJ or the bouncers, multiplied by half the dance cost, and the dancer paid out [a percentage of their earnings] to the manager.” Money is managed and distributed to strip club participant through the dancers.

Some women in this profession can become extremely financially successful, making it challenging to resist the temptation of taking on a career in this industry. It is important to note, that strippers in the aggregate include women from many different social backgrounds. Hanna’s

(1998:42) data shows that:

Diversity and complexity include dancer’s physical appearance, motivation, background, and behavior. Some clubs have “feature” dancers who can quadruple the regular dancer (“house girl”) income. Feature dancers are paid, for the most part, according to the “credits” they have accumulated for appearing in adult magazine centerfold photograph spreads and/or in videos, for which they collect “scalps”-their photo on video box covers. Through agents, features make guest appearances in clubs on nationwide circuits. The nation’s top five or six feature dancers earn $15,000 to $20,000 per week performing four 20-minute shows each night. Another five or six earn between $8,000 and $5,000 per week.

The savants in this industry have managed to become iconic symbols of sexual desire and bank on consumer investments into their appearance and sexual services. These select individuals become marketable sex objects that are hired by strip club management as a business strategy to bring in a large fan base of consumers.

Despite the increasing popularity and profitability of strip clubs, the controversy surrounding the sex work industry still causes many communities to protest their establishment

(Hanna 1998:38). The 1990s-2000s define a period during which exotic dance clubs became a focal point in many legislative decisions on a federal and state level. One example of this is the

1995 case of, Ino Ino Inc. v. City of Bellevue, exotic dancers challenged the , ordinance No. 4735 (Hanna 1998:39). This ordinance consisted of three parts. The first part mandated coverage of and the vagina at all times. Second, it required an eight-foot distance between customers and on-stage performers and a four-foot distance between customers 34 and performers off-stage; and lastly, it stipulated light with a minimum of thirty lumens (Hanna

1998:39). Two years later, the judge ruled in favor of the city, causing many Seattle clubs to

close due to these regulated conditions generally regarded as unnecessarily restrictive by

performers and customers (Hanna 1998:40).

This is one of many legislative actions that took place during this era. The United

States Supreme Court implemented laws for strip clubs, where they were prohibited from

operating within one thousand feet of a residential zone (Hanna 1998:51). In addition cases such

as Miller v. California (1973) determined certain public displays of nudity under strict guideline

of “,” where legislators test the applicability of the First Amendment by rendering some

of the actions of exotic dance criminal according to their obscene and indecent sexual display as well as subjecting strippers to performers of lewd conduct (Hanna 1998:50-51). Hanna (1998:40) lists all the cities that have laws restricting exotic clubs, a few that she lists are Amarillo, ,

Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Denver, , Fort Lauderdale, , Indianapolis, Seattle,

Syracuse, and Tacoma among several others. These are all major business and tourists cities that attract a diverse influx of people. City officials must negotiate between how to manage the existence and policies of strip clubs within their borders because while strip clubs are economically prosperous they can promote negative social stigmas by travelers, if they become too prominent in the public eye.

With growing legislation and club restrictions, individuals within the sex industry felt their First Amendment rights to the freedom of expression, were under attack. It is argued that exotic dance is a means of verbal and non-verbal communication, artistic expression, and involves creativity (Hanna 1998:44). Linguistically, exotic dance follows rules of speech in a symbolic form. It creates vocabulary through steps and body language and formulates syntax as

35 those steps and gestures are combined making a sort of understood grammar (Hanna1998:40).

The semantics or meaning is then drawn from this nonverbal expression, and pragmatics are understanding this form of symbolic speech within the context of the social, economic, and cultural setting (Hanna 1998:44). Hanna (1998:44) specifies:

Dance requires the same underlying faculty in the brain for conceptualization, creativity, and memory as does verbal language in speaking and writing. Both forms have vocabulary (in dance, steps, and gestures), syntax or grammar (rules for putting the vocabulary together), semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (the social, economic, cultural, and historical context in which communication takes place). Dance, however, assembles these elements in a manner that more often resembles poetry, with its often multiple, symbolic, and elusive meanings.

To the exotic dancer, it is her right to be able to dance naked, and in a sexually suggestive manner in a private business establishment; where customers pay an entrance and expect to see live women dancing nude.

A legal example concerning exotic dancers’ rights in Indianapolis is chosen because strippers upheld the protection of their basic rights and freedoms that are recognized under the

Unites States Constitution’s First Amendment. In the city of Indianapolis, nude dancing had been restricted and banned in some parts of town. Exotic dancers felt that the Indianapolis state policies were denying them of their basic freedom to express themselves, which led exotic dancers in this area, to take their human rights case to the United States Supreme Court. In the

1991 case of Barnes v. Glen Theatre Inc., the Supreme Court ruled in a five-to-four decision that nude dancing was, in fact, a form of expression entitled to protection under the First Amendment

(Hana 1998:50). This was a huge triumph in the world of exotic dancing because it not only did it recognize nude dancing as a form of expression it also made the profession legally protected under the United States Constitution. Of course, states still had the power to self-regulate which

36 is why cases such as the one previously described in Seattle, were able to uphold laws regulating

strip clubs (Hana 1998:50).

Exotic dance clubs are also the objects of scorn and criticism from various Christian groups and communities. Many Christian organizations feel that the state should have more

power to control and regulate the actions, numbers, and locations of strip clubs, if not do away

with them altogether (Hana 1998:53). According to Hana, many religious organizations believe

that there is “one true and proper sexual path” (Hana 1998:53). Many who practice a strict

Christian faith do not publicly accept explicit displays of sexuality in general, and especially

when it is associated with other ‘immoral’ enterprises, such as stripping, and

prostitution. Women are supposed to remain chaste until marriage and remain modest even after

sexual exploration with one’s spouse. The Christian groups who do protest the existence of strip

clubs include Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, Donald Wildmon’s American Family

Association, Concerned Women for America, Coral Ridge Ministries, and Washington Together

Against Pornography (Hana 1998:53). Millions of Christian Americans are connected to one or

more of these organizations creating a strong and unified public voice against strip clubs and

exotic dancing.

In an effort to defend their rights guaranteed by the Supreme Court, strippers and sex

workers have formed their own organizations, which include: The Independent Dancer’s

Association (IDA) established by dancers in 1996, along with Women Hurt in Systems of

Prostitution Engaged in Revolt (WHISPER) (Hana 1998:61). Other means of publications

include Adult Video News (AVN), Exotic Dancer Bulletin, and Magazine

(Hana 1998:41-42). These organizations and publications serve as tools to inform dancers and

the general public about various topics such as: health issues, available support groups,

37 employment opportunities and the legal rights of dancers; who as independent contractors, still

maintain basic human rights to be protected from legal scrutiny to perform their work, as well as worker rights, promising the safest working environments possible, for employees. After success

in the 1991 Supreme Court case, dancers were less concerned with defending the legality of their

profession and more concerned with receiving wages and benefits from their employers. Natalie

shared that in her transition from working two hourly- jobs, to working as an independent

contractor, where her money was now, essentially based on commission earned from performing

private dances, that she had a higher risk of potential financial instability because she could no

longer rely on a bimonthly paycheck. Natalie responded:

See as a dancer, I know that I am making more money than I was working [at] my two other jobs, but because strippers don’t get that regular reassurance of a paycheck twice a month, you know, there is no guarantee that we are going to make the money that we need each night. It’s not like we are promised more money, the more hours that we work - and we sure as hell aren’t getting any pay.

Natalie brought this point to my attention but did not seem to be overly bothered by the absence

of a company paycheck. After weighing out her financial opportunities, stripping was still in

Natalie’s favor because it provided her the ability to make immediate and frequently, a

substantial amount of money, with flexible hours – she was also very confident in her capability

to maintain a steady flow of customers every time that she goes to work.

In 1995, two dancers created a labor union after one of the dancers was

hurt on the job and needed knee surgery (Hana 1998:60). The club refused to compensate the

six-year veteran for the costs of care due to her work-related injury, including disability benefits

(Hana 1998:60). The union organizer, expendable in the industry of constant dancer turnover,

was fired (Hana 1998:60). Successful unionizing among exotic dancers has been very scarce,

with only two successful examples: the Alaska Exotic Dancers Union and the Teamsters Union

38 (Hana 1998:60). While unionizing has had its struggles in the sex work industry, if dancers were

to collaborate and come together in unionizing efforts, then they might be able to instill change

in the industry. If strippers were to agree on cohesive union demands then they could be afforded

with more suitable working conditions and their worker status could change from that of an

independent contractor to a hired employee. The industry could evolve to where the employees,

or strippers, would make a , file taxes through their employer and not as an

individual contractor, and remove the “house” or “stage fee” where the dancer has to pay in

order to work in the club. Such changes are possible, but presently strippers are not making

efforts to pursue dramatic transformation in the industry, in fact, most of the dancers that I spoke

with relied on the nontraditional work setting to avoid having to claim all yearly earnings in their

taxes; strippers receive , portions of which they may or may not report on their tax return,

and the liberties of moving freely among different clubs, and being able to choose their own hours, can create gaps in their work history where money can again, be decidedly unclaimed.

By the dawn of the twenty-first century, there were significant changes in the demographics of sex workers and societal technological advancement. With growing sexual

tolerance more white middle-class women began entering the exotic dance industry (Bernstein

2007:474). In addition to the influx of middle-class women into the industry, new internet

technology became a way for customers and dancers to consume and perform exotic dance in the

comfort and privacy of their homes (Bernstein 2007:745). The dot-com era made it possible for

clients/consumers to avoid the public scrutiny of walking into a strip club or similar

establishment.

The Internet allows for anyone with an Internet and computer to work

independently without having to pay management, doormen, disc jockeys and other staff at the

39 end of their shift. One problem that does arise from the Internet is that it takes away potential patrons of brick-and-mortar establishments, as customers can receive a similar experience, minus the sensuality of touch, other than perhaps their own or those with whom they consume on-line pornography, from home. This, in turn, takes business away from dancers who do not want to put themselves openly online and prefer the security of anonymity and lack of exposure that is

guaranteed from a club experience. It is ironic that there is greater anonymity/security when one

is physically present before an audience in the same venue then available to someone in the

privacy of their domicile, simply because on-line videos and photos can be recorded, replicated

and reviewed an infinite number of times by on-line viewers.

The long history of sexual suppression did not cease the evolution of the sex work

industry. Women have long worked as performers using dance and music to express themselves

and connect with their audience. From the 1800s through the 1900s sex work such as prostitution

and stripping were present, but were most likely found only in strictly demarcated parts of towns

or ‘zones’ where this type of deviant behavior was tolerated. It is not until the sexual revolution

of the 1960s that there was a legitimate public discourse about female sexuality and sexual

liberation in general. By the 1980s and onward, strip clubs became much more prominent and

mainstream society began to accept the fact that the sex industry was growing and it was not

going away. While historical accounts can illustrate the formation and progression of sex work,

further research is needed in order to understand both the cultural context and particular details

of experiences, physical and emotional, that sex workers in general and – in this case – strippers

in particular, face. The same could be said for the consumers who drive this economy; however,

that is a topic for others to address.

40 CHAPTER IV

METHOD AND THEORY: SYMBOLIC

COMMUNICATION AND THE

HYPERSEXUALIZATION OF

THE FEMININE BODY

Authors who have conducted ethnographic research on exotic dancers and the organizational culture of strip clubs base their findings on qualitative data obtained by various methodological approaches. All of the authors spent time at strip clubs in order to observe the behavior and daily work routine of exotic dancers. Trautner’s (2005) work solely relied upon observation in order to study the organizational culture of strip clubs. Over a six-month period,

Trautner (2005) observed four different strip clubs in the southwestern United States and discovered that they each adhered to client norms and expectations of how working and middle- class sexuality is thought to be performed. Working and business-class clubs operate differently depending on the demographic and socio-economic status of their clients and dancers. Trautner

(2005, 774) found that the clubs in less wealthy communities had more minority and curvy women working at them whereas the clubs situated in economically comfortable locations hired predominantly white women. In addition to racial differences, the business-class clubs looked and felt more upscale by having clean parking lots, plush chairs, quality lighting and sound equipment, staff presented in formal attire, and dancers who fit hegemonic cultural ideals of beauty and feminine Trautner (2005: 776-778).

The location of the club is important because every business operates based on supply-and-demand. Strip clubs serve individuals from their surrounding area, people passing by,

41 party-goers, and businessmen. It is reasonable to say that the strip clubs that exist in more

desolate and impoverished areas simply lack the access to potential clients which places

restrictions on funds and economic support to invest in upgrading the appearance and

attractiveness of their establishment. In failing to live up to upper-middle class expectations of

what entails a pleasurable and comfortable strip club environment, these clubs are unable to

promote high foot-traffic and struggle financially.

Trautner’s (2005) work did not incorporate the participation of exotic dancers in order

to come to conclusions about how strip clubs “do class;” however, in order to better understand

the experiences of the women who work in the exotic dance industry it is essential to include

their personal stories into such research. Creating conclusions based on observation is only surface-deep. Including interviews with exotic dancers not only allows them to have a voice on the subject and matter, but it also provides first-hand knowledge of those who actually live the realities and day-to-day experiences as sex workers.

The majority of published research concerning exotic dancing is based on in-depth interviews which do involve direct participation of exotic dancers. Wesely (2002, 2003, 2006) has interviewed over forty exotic dancers in order to assess how exotic dancers evaluate and price their sexual worth, inspect how dancers alter their bodies in order to attain ideal body standards, and how dancers are sexually objectified in their occupation. The findings published by Maticka-Tyndale (1999) were based on interviews with over thirty dancers over a three-year period in order to address issues of sexual health concerns among exotic dancers. Barton’s

(2007) research investigated nine different clubs and interviewed 36 dancers to report on the negative emotional toll of exotic dancing and how dancers establish personal boundaries in order to maintain their physical and emotional well-being at work. Applying in-depth interviews to

42 one’s methodological approach allows researchers to tap into the personal experiences of dancers in order to address the physical and emotional nature of working as an exotic dancer.

In-depth interviews are successful in allowing members of the exotic dance community to have a voice in academic publications, but there is a separation between the researcher and the individual being researched. Researchers using only in-depth interviews for their methodology will never understand what it feels like to actually be a dancer; what it feels like to go on stage and get naked, to solicit lap dances from strangers, or to actually participate in giving a nude in exchange for money. Among the individuals that I interviewed, all of the women expressed that there was a certain type of person or personality that was best suited for the job. Exotic dancing requires a great level of confidence in one’s and sexuality as well as a hint of a “bad or naughty” side that is considered immoral to the normative society.

Researchers who are uncomfortable with participating in the activity of exotic dancing are, in my opinion, simply not - able to penetrate the and thereby plumb the depths of the experience of this marginalized occupation by merely conducting interviews. They are hardly different from any other client; they can look but never touch.

The most involved methodological approach is participant-observation; where researchers spend time actively dancing alongside their research subjects. Bradley-Engen and

Ulmer (2009), Pasko (2002), and Egan (2006) all have applied the methodology of participant- observation to their research. Bradley-Engen (2009) participated as a customer and dancer in order to understand the social organization of strip clubs and the daily routines, social interactions, and experiences of exotic dancers. Similar to Trautner’s (2005) observations,

Bradley-Engen and Ulmer (2009) found that exotic dance clubs appear and operate differently depending on their clientele and location. Bradley-Engen and Ulmer (2009) discovered through

43 participation that the individual experiences of exotic dancers are diverse regardless of the collective occupation that they share. Pasko (2002) participated as a dancer for six months to write about the toll of stripping and issues surrounding victimization of exotic dancers. Lastly,

Egan’s (2006) participation as a dancer allowed her to investigate how exotic dancers communicate and practice resistance through their music selection. Participant-observation is the hands-on methodological practice that places the researcher directly into the world of the subjects who they are studying.

In any ethnographic study, interaction and discussion are essential. The method of observation does not require direct interaction with individuals, but minimal conversations will occur as the researcher will observe an environment that is inherently social. In-depth interviews demand that the researcher directly converses with the subjects with whom they are studying.

These interviews allow subjects to share their personal experiences and express their opinions in a private setting. This methodology is structured where the subject is: aware of the research project, provided with interview questions in advance, scheduled to meet at a neutral location, protected by precautionary measures to conceal their identity, and is the focus of discussion for the research. Participant-observation often incorporates both formal and informal interviews.

Informal interviews occur during the regular interaction between researcher and subject with both actively working as exotic dancers. These conversations are not structured and occur naturally throughout the work day. Participating as an exotic dancer grants the researcher access to have a casual conversation with all dancers and strip club staff. It is at the researcher’s discretion whether or not to disclose their research agendas to each person that they interact with while participating as a dancer, but they must protect the identity of those who they do interact with and write about.

44 I adopted the method of conducting in-depth interviews with exotic dancers in order

to better understand what motivates women to become strippers and the reasons why they

continue to work in the sex industry. I interviewed twenty exotic dancers from three different

strip clubs from December 2016 to February 2017. During this time I went to each of the

locations four times and spent the duration of one to four hours at each club on a given visit. The

three locations were chosen because I have at least one acquaintance at each one; this granted me

direct access to my interviewees.

Each individual that I interviewed was aware of my research project and goals,

provided with a list of questions to be asked at a formal interview at a neutral location, and promised anonymity throughout the duration of the project and in its final written form. The interviews lasted between one and two hours, and participants were subject to follow-up questions. I did require that participants needed to be able to a time to meet face-to-face for their interview in hopes of creating a personable and inviting dialogue. The majority of individual’s participation was complete after the first meeting, but I did have a thirty-minute phone interview follow-up, with six of the dancers.

Through conducting in-depth interviews, I have been able to speak to the direct source of those participating in the exotic dance industry. The women that I have met with were eager to share their life histories and experiences in hopes of being better understood by others.

The process was long and unexpectedly emotional. I found that the women were willing to open up about the positive and negative aspects of their job and daily lives. I feel that sharing these women’s stories will illustrate the dynamic experiences of women who dance on an equal platform.

45 The participants in this study spoke casually and had their own terminology when referencing aspects of the club. The women referred to themselves as strippers, dancers, exotic dancers, and entertainers. The former terms of which seem to be a euphemism and harkens back to the origins of the occupation, whereas the latter term is utilitarian and unromantic. I believe this is because strippers see their occupation solely for what they do which is to strip, dance, and to entertain; such references to them, are unromantic and merely a part of the nature of their work environment. These words were used interchangeably; there was no hesitation to identify as a stripper, nor an overt need to idealize their occupation by emphasizing their role as an entertainer.

The women referred to their female coworkers as the “other” dancers, women and girls. They also specified between whether a coworker was a clean dancer by which she respected the rules and limitations of the club or if she was a where she provided sexual favors on the side for additional income. All prostitution on the strip club premises is conducted in a clandestine manner and is often overlooked by management.

Dancers sometimes manage their anxieties associated with performing at their strip club through the “othering” of coworkers. “Othering” is a way in which dancers hold themselves superior to their coworkers by degrading them, ‘slut-shaming’ them, talking negatively about them in order to spoil their club reputation. For instance, if other dancers are whores, then she by inference is not a whore. Wesely (2003:651-653) illustrates how the competitive atmosphere of strip clubs cause many dancers to understand their own body and idea of beauty in comparison to other dancers. There is a tendency for individuals in this line of work to constantly criticize themselves and others in terms of size, body type, weight, ethnicity and many other

46 distinctions. Depending on a dancer’s popularity, or ability to make money, women with a

certain look and/or persona may be stigmatized for their success or lack thereof.

Barton (2007:571-572, 585) concludes that “othering” coworkers are strategies that

dancers employ to feel superior to their coworkers within this sexually exploitative environment.

“Othering” is problematic, in that, its results reinforce negative stereotypes. When dancers refer

to other dancers as ‘dirty’ or ‘nasty’ it confirms that there is a way in which women should behave, especially in terms of their sexuality. Despite being zones expressly designed for sexual expression, strip clubs are nonetheless sites at which popular conceptualizations of stereotypical female sexuality are produced – and consumed.

The management and other staff identify the women by their stage name or as ladies and girls. Stage names are adopted by each dancer in order to protect their real identity from the strangers that they encounter within the strip club. Everyone involved in the club had the tendency to address these adult women as “girls.” I believe that this term plays into the customer fantasy of desiring a young female body and spirit as well as feeds into the dancer’s ego that she is young, sexy, and desired. The women referenced their management, deejays, doormen, and club owners directly by name or by their role in the club. For the purpose of anonymity, I will only refer to these individuals by their occupation.

Dancers identified the individuals that they dance with primarily as customers,

gentlemen, and clients, but they also referenced them creeps, weirdos, dirty-old-men, assholes,

and perverts. Dancers reflected various levels of like and dislike depending on a particular customer and their experience with him/her. Women also refer to men who are frequent visitors as regulars. These individuals may or may not be loyal to one particular dancer, but generally are respectful to all the dancers and have established a name-based relationship with each one.

47 Dancers commonly separate their clients as either good customers who are respectful during

dancers or bad customers who push dancer boundaries and host unwanted touching. All of the

dancers expressed that there is plenty of gray area in between, and many different factors play

into the positive and negative individual dances that they give.

The physical location was recognized by its name or as a strip club, club, exotic dance club, gentleman’s club, and a strip joint. The common use of the term “club” creates a definitive sense of inclusivity and exclusivity of these establishments. Either you are or you are not a member involved with the activities that take place within the walls of the strip club. In this study, I have changed the names of the three clubs that I visited to the Garden of Eden, Serpent’s

Temptation, and Magdalena’s Theatre as a deliberate mockery of Christian suppression and condemnation of female sexuality. My intentions are not to attack Christian and religious beliefs; however, I feel that it is a tactical way to raise a discussion about sexual and women’s rights over their own bodies.

The activities that take place at the strip club are identified as stage dances, table dances, lap dances, private dances, VIP dances, topless dances and nude dances. Stage and table dances recognize when individual dancers are called up by the deejay to perform a strip tease on an elevated stage. The stage will have one or more vertical poles that extend from the stage floor to the ceiling where the women can perform either floor dances or pole dances. Pole dances require strength and practice to master how to maneuver up and down the pole in a sensual fashion. This form of dance can range from very simple to overly complex with difficult

positions and moves; some women merely use the pole for balance and support while other

women are able to hold their entire body weight in midair. Stormy is one of the most proficient

pole dancers that I observed. During Stormy’s stage performance she would: climb the pole with

48 her arms and legs to the top of the ceiling, she would spin in circles while ascended in the air, and she would contort her body where her ankles, thighs, as well as other bodily crevasses alongside her waist, such as her armpit and hip joint areas, would work unanimously to hold her either upright vertically, or completely upside down. All the while, she does this minimally clothed, entirely naked, and/or in the process of removing clothing articles, which turns the vigorous exercise of pole dancing into a lustful and sexual display of the female body.

Floor dances are the most common form of dance performed on stage. The women will often be standing and dancing around the pole or dancing sensually on their backs and knees. The stage dances only last for two songs per dancer with the exception of the Garden of

Eden where dancers would rotate on two different stages allotting them four songs to solicit themselves to customers and make tips. Depending on the club and day of the week, stage dances can be a decent way to make money, but most of the money earned by dancers is made by giving private dances to customers. Each club has a designated space where a client can take the lady of his choice for a private dance. Private dances range in price and duration costing as little as ten dollars to as much as six hundred and perhaps more at a prestigious club. The dances can be quick and short from one dance lasting thirty seconds to an hour-long dance that requires more work and effort on the dancer’s part. In addition to the cost of the dance, all dancers expect to be tipped for their performance.

The fastest way by which a dancer is able to make money is to get as many men as she can into the VIP room. VIP dances come with the perks of having a little bit more room and privacy to dance. VIP rooms can be entirely closed off or sectioned off with a curtain and usually provide a larger couch area to lounge on. At the Garden of Eden, a woman can make four hundred dollars plus a generous tip for only one hour of work. Depending on the club VIP

49 dances are either topless or fully nude, but the highest success rate of VIP dances occurred in

clubs that were fully nude and catered to traveling businessmen.

Because exotic dancing is an inherently sexual occupation, there was a pronounced

use of slang among my participants to describe their sexual and reproductive body parts. When

referring to female reproductive parts the term vagina was used along with pussy, vag, va-jay-

jay, punani, cootchy, lady parts, and down under. Men’s genitalia was referred to as a penis,

dick, cock, shaft, Johnson, it, thing and paired with its counterparts of testicles and balls. Other sexual areas such as the chest were commonly noted as breasts, boobs, boobies, tits, and titties.

Nipples and areolas were simply regarded as they are. The women referenced buttocks as ass, butt, and booty. For this paper, I have decided to use technical terms such as vagina and penis unless directly quoting a participant. I believe that the frequent use of slang terms may contribute to the devaluation of human and especially female sexuality. The women I got to know, were open and confident when describing their sexual selves reassuring that they were liberal when discussing what are otherwise normally private topics, such as the emotional and physical abuses that they endure while they are at work and how these situations have affected them interpersonally.

The women that I interviewed also had a strong preference for coarser language, particularly when describing an undesirable situation. The explicit cursing would increase as the women shared stories that were characterized by strong emotions such as anger, sadness, and regret. Slang terms such as fuck, shit, damn this-or-that, asshole, whore, cunt, cock-sucker,

mother-fucker, bullshit, son-of-a-bitch, and so forth were frequently used when describing situations of distress. The heated emotions and vulgar responses subsequently show that there

50 can be strongly negative emotional reactions to some of the interactions and experiences that exotic dancers endure.

Exotic dance terminology often presents itself as being specific to stripping and separate from the outside “normal” world. For instance, dancers will identify their clothing and accessories as items specific to dancing. The women have their regular-purse and then they have their stripper purse, they have stripper- or stripper heels, and they have their stripper-bag where they keep their stripper makeup, body sprays, and clothes in one location. Their , , and are all termed together as “stripper-clothes,” the appellation of which changes these garments from items of intimacy to work attire. Stripper-hair and stripper makeup generally sum up the heavy application of makeup and over eccentric hair styles that they wear to work. Dancers identify these material items with their life specifically within the club, indicating that there is an alter identity and different purpose for these items outside of the club.

My present research is based on in-depth interviews, but I have been an active participant as a dancer in the past. I started dancing in 2008 when I was nineteen years old and continued to dance until I turned twenty-one in 2010. During this three year period, I worked at several different strip clubs in the southern California region and developed personal relationships with many diverse individuals in the industry. I have been able to experience firsthand what dancers go through on a daily basis from getting ready to work, to the social relationships that develop in the club, and the positive and negative encounters with customers.

It has been six years since the last time that I was on stage at a strip club, but I can clearly remember the fluctuating emotions that I had while on stage and while performing private dances throughout the duration of my career. My decision to enter the profession was gradual. I was young and curious about what it would feel like to become a stripper so one night at around

51 ten o’ clock, I drove to a club in Hollywood hoping to get hired. The management looked at me

and said that I could come back the next day, at an earlier time, and audition. I went back the next night even more nervous than I had been the night before, and I auditioned. I remember

putting on a and high heels in the dressing room and telling another dancer how nervous I

was. She completely ignored me as if I was not even there. I then approached the deejay and

introduced myself as “Cali,” and requested to dance to Kanye West’s song, “Flashing Lights.”

The music came on before I could even process my surroundings, my half-naked

existence and what was now required from me in my participation as a potential stripper. My

heart pounded as I stepped on stage and began to dance. I tried to emulate what I had perceived

as sexy while I wobbled in my high heels and avoided eye contact with every person watching

me. I remember thinking to myself more than half-way through my performance, “oh crap, I am

supposed to take off my clothes and get naked.” I literally had to remind myself to strip off my

clothing, because it was plainly taboo to me at the time. The song finished shortly after I became

fully naked and I gathered my clothes and walked off stage.

Immediately after I performed that night, I put on my street clothes and said goodbye

to the management. They were confused because they wanted to hire me and expected me to

work throughout the entire shift. I was not emotionally or physically comfortable at the time, so I

quickly excused myself and said that I would return the next day. The next morning I then

prepared myself. I went to a and purchased legitimate stripper stilettos, a sexy stage

outfit and a purse and wallet for holding my money. I also mentally negotiated my reasoning and

ability to become an exotic dancer. I knew that I could do it because I was able to dance on stage

and get naked the previous night; once I knew I could jump over that hurdle, I knew that I could

work in the profession.

52 To the disbelief of the management and deejay, I returned on that third night for a

second trial at the job. I was more confident knowing the environment that I was walking into,

having the reassurance that I could dance naked in front of strangers, and have the appropriate

tools such as clothing and proper stripper shoes to work alongside other established dancers. The

deejay told me that he did not think that I would ever return to the club, and I was there to prove

him, and to an extent myself, that I had the confidence to be a stripper.

The first lap-dances that I performed were as awkward and uncomfortable as my

stage-dances. I was fortunate to have a positive first experience with a client. I approached a man

(who will forever remain a mystery to me) and sat down beside him nervously. We had a short

conversation regarding my new entrance into the profession and apprehensions as a new dancer.

I then timidly asked him if he would not mind being my first customer, and he complied. He

gently held my hand and showed me to the VIP area; this was my first entrance to the VIP

section where private dances were performed. I had no idea how the transactions were handled,

but the man knew the process well. He paid the manager forty-dollars for a two-song lap-dance

and then selected a small dance booth for us to proceed with the intimate dance. He sat down

facing me and I stripped down to nothing.

For the following two songs I tried to move my naked body in a sexy and sensual

manner all over and around this stranger. Meanwhile, the dance booths were sectioned in small

and confined spaces that were difficult to maneuver in. He sat quietly, with his hands politely to

his sides, and no emotional response or interest. To this day, I believe that was the worst lap-

dance that I ever performed, but I am ever grateful for the kindness and respect that the customer showed me; whether out of pity or not. After this moment I had learned what it felt like to dance

53 naked on top of a clothed stranger. The shock and anxiety over giving lap-dances would only recede over time and as I continued my career and participation as an exotic dancer.

The first few months of my dancing career were a bit awkward because I had to learn how to act and dance, like a stripper. By this, I mean that I had to learn how to become hyper- feminine and sexual when I initiated conversation with customers and when I performed dances for them. Gradually I became more comfortable in the shoes that I had to wear, I learned to put on dramatic makeup that looked best in the dim lighting, and I discovered my own stripper persona embodied for the express purpose of coaxing money from my clients. After performing a stage dance where I would solicit my body by revealing my naked self, I would approach my potential customers in a cutesy manner that emphasized my young teenage qualities and bright aspirations of completing college. I insisted on using proper grammatical phrases when talking to guests, being polite to them in all situations, and having in-depth conversations pertaining to any topic of the customer’s interest. I fed into the ego of customers by complementing and assuring them of all the fun that we could have in private. Initially, I chose to sell myself as a young and intelligent dancer who was capable of sexual fulfillment; however, this dancer persona would develop into something entirely different by the end of my dancing career.

I also learned very quickly into the first months of dancing how to approach customers and other dancers and negotiate instances of rejection. I remember being highly offended if customers did not want a dance from me. I had to learn that rejection was a part of the job and more so that I, as a young white woman, was not a perfect stereotype of what all men and women find attractive and sexually desirable. Once I accepted that customers have individual ideas of feminine beauty and various expectations from the dancers that they solicit, I began to hone in on who my target audience was.

54 I found my target audience primarily consisted of older white and Asian men. I had various speculations as to why Hispanic and black men did not find me as attractive as other women. I was less curvy than other women at the time, or I may have been perceived as a stuck- up white girl, or a racist bigot. Uncertain of the exact reasons why Hispanic and black men found me less attractive, I struggled to find a sexual connection with this racial profile of customers. I acknowledged which races seemed to desire me more and I pursued these individuals more often in order to maximize my profits.

Learning the job responsibilities and social politics of a strip club happens fast for new-comers, but changes throughout one’s dancing career. For instance, when I first started dancing my entire focus was on keeping to myself, working hard to make as much money as possible and knowing my position as a “” and expendable worker. The longer I continued to work in the profession and establish myself as an experienced dancer, the more aloof I became with my work. My network of friends and acquaintances grew exponentially; I initially was only able to make friends with other white girls but found that over time I became more approachable by other women of color. I also spent more time socializing and less time working. I would enjoy numerous smoke breaks where I would converse with other women over weed and cigarettes. And I began to see myself higher up on the social stratification ladder where

I felt more entitled than other “new girls” entering the club.

The sense of entitlement that comes with prolonged engagement in this industry is what ultimately changed me. I initially started as a shy dancer trying to portray an innocent look with a cutesy girl-next-door persona, to a newer and more aggressive persona that was confident, opinionated and sexually dominant. I began to talk back to rude customers and refused to dance with customers that I did not care for. I also changed my physical appearance by bleaching my

55 hair blonde, spending over a thousand dollars on tattoos and hundreds of dollars on piercings. At one point during my dancing career I had a total of fifteen piercings; while dancing I had my tongue, , and hood (small flap of above the ) pierced specifically to interest and visually arouse my clients.

During the peak of my dancing career noticed that I was beginning to change outside of the club. I began to live a more superficial and high-maintenance life where I was constantly attentive to my appearance. I also began to see men outside of the club more like potential clients where if they wanted access to my body then they could have it for a price. I would tell men in a flirtatious manner that I was a stripper and that they could come and visit me on my shift if they wanted. I was starting to value myself solely for my sex appeal and desirability to men. The more money I made the sexier and more confident I felt. And as long as I continued to work and make money from men desiring my services, I was reassured that I was beautiful and attractive. I gained a great deal of self-satisfaction from being desired by customers.

Towards the end of my dancing career, the initial feelings of excitement began to wear off. Stripping on stage and giving private dances became mundane and repetitive. Talking to customers and continually acting like a stripper became tiresome, and I slowly put less effort into making money and hustling customers for lap-dances. I also became involved in a relationship outside of work which ultimately removed my need to be wanted and desired by strangers at the club. I remained in the same relationship throughout the last year of my dancing career. I was never asked to quit stripping by my partner, but he did prefer me not to strip. I came to the decision to stop dancing on my own.

Up until now, this experience has remained a part of my hidden past. My time spent stripping is a small (wild and crazy) chapter of my life which consisted of sexual exploration and

56 adventure as well as self-growth and discovery. Because I have been an exotic dancer in the past,

I do have strong opinions about the profession; however, it is my goal to allow the empirical evidence gathered from my interviews to determine the conclusions of this current study.

Having had first-hand experience as an exotic dancer has given me a clear understanding of what it entails to be an exotic dancer and how the profession impacts an individual. I have worked in the profession long enough to experience both positive and negative physical and emotional occurrences. I have worked at a sufficient variety of clubs to understand that each club is unique with its own style, dance specials, target audience and dancer demographic. Strip clubs are unique but they are also unified as organizational cultures that operate to provide intimate services to their customers. I believe that my time spent as an exotic dancer has allowed me to truly understand the occupation, have greater empathy with my interviewees and be aware of the smallest details that could only be picked up through experience. For instance, I am well aware of what it feels like to be anxious and nervous before every shift’s first performance.

In addition to this first-hand knowledge gained through participation as a dancer and not as a mere interviewer or observer, I have used my past experience as a tool to help find my interviewees. I had four old correspondents from my time as a dancer who helped me gain access to current exotic dancers. My first correspondent has been working as a disk jockey in the industry for over fifteen years. My with the DJ gave me an invaluable advantage in getting to know the dancers. I spent a few nights at this club and many of the women took an interest in my study. I asked ten different women to participate in my research and seven agreed.

Having a friend on the inside and being that I had a dancing background I was able to develop trust quickly with the dancers. In addition, I received a lot of positive feedback from the female

57 participants who were inspired to be the focus of an academic paper; based on their lives and experiences as exotic dancers.

The second correspondent of mine is an old manager who allowed me inside his club free of charge. He saved me money and time by introducing me to a few of his favorite girls. At the club, I talked causally to the dancers and succeeded in arranging two interviews. I then relied on the method of “snowballing,” to obtain interviews with additional dancers. Snowballing, used

in Wesely’s (2002) study, is where a person who has been interviewed will serve as a reference

to other potential interviewees by recommending their participation in the study. The two

individuals that I first interviewed managed to connect me with four other women.

The final two correspondents are career dancers who I worked with during the last

year of my dancing profession. Both of these individuals have danced over ten years at the same

club and are dominant figures. These two women did not hesitate to introduce me to all of the

dancers at the club and gave a high recommendation for all to participate. I knew both of these

women when I was working on my undergraduate degree and they watched as I graduated and

applied for graduate school. When I reconnected with them for this research they were thrilled

and extremely supportive. They volunteered to be interviewed and helped me find the remaining

five participants that I was looking for. I refused to participate as a dancer for this research, but

fortunately, my past relations while working in the industry allowed me quick and easy access to

my informants.

The participants in my study are comprised of adult women ages nineteen to forty-

three who are currently working as exotic dancers. The women interviewed represent different

ethnic, socio-economic, political, religious, and sexual backgrounds. Over half of the participants

are Caucasian and the remaining half identify as Hispanic, black, or Asian. Nearly all of the

58 women come from an upbringing of poverty and have experienced financial struggle. A few ladies did come from a comfortable middle-class upbringing and began dancing for independence and/or for the thrill and adventure that exotic dancing offers. Political, religious, and sexual differences did exist amongst the participants; however, these topics were not relevant to my research.

In addition to asking demographic questions, I asked open-ended questions to gain insight into the lives of these women. I inquired about: marital status and motherhood obligations, each individual’s childhood, what their motivation was to become a dancer and why they continue to dance, whether or not they enjoy their profession, what are the positive and negative aspects of their job, what a typical day at work is like and what a typical day’s earnings are, what their coworker and customer relationships are like, how comfortable each woman is with her own body, and finally questions surrounding abuse inside and outside of the strip club.

Participants could refuse to answer any question that posed, but fortunately, my informants were willing to address all my questions openly and honestly.

For the analysis or discussion of this paper, I have taken my written notes, reviewed my audio recordings and broke down topics in a logistical manner. In the findings section, I discuss the demographic aspects of the strip clubs that I visited as well as club promotions, advertising, specials, and guest performers. I then discuss what a typical day at work is like for the dancers before addressing my three research questions. For the first question, “why do women enter the profession of exotic dancing and why do they continue to dance?” I include biographies that provide a quick summation of each dancer’s background and identify why each individual started dancing. This section also reveals the feelings and attitudes that the dancers have towards their job, which highlights reasoning behind why women continue to dance.

59 I address the second question, “what is the power dynamic between customer and

dancer, and how does each participant negotiate this relationship?” by illustrating the

vulnerability of dancers in their line-of-work and discussing the measures designed to protect

them from potentially harmful clients in my findings section. Creation of an alter-identity,

pseudonym and the establishment of personal rules and boundaries are discussed here. Finally

the third question, “how does exotic dancing impact the dancer physically and emotionally?”

includes dancer accounts of verbal, physical and sexual harassment and describe how they are

affected emotionally by these occurrences.

I will now discuss two separate theories that fit into my findings and analysis of

exotic dancers’ behaviors of performance and interaction. Exotic dancers have high consumer expectations to portray themselves as hyper-feminine; they exaggerate the socially stigmatized qualities of feminine beauty by emphasizing their eyes, lips, and long hair as well as physical amplifications of their sexualized body parts including their breasts, legs, buttocks, and genitalia.

Bouclin (2006:110-112) addresses the constant need for exotic dancers to perform gender. As dancers perform femininity they must do so in a way that affirms normative beauty standards. In westernized American society, the long-held beauty standard for women has been tall, slim, white women. Clearly, not everyone can be this particular “ideal-beauty” type, but dancers practice achieving such unrealistic Barbie-like standards by how they manage their makeup, clothing, weight, and so forth. The widespread use of body technologies such as makeup, cosmetic surgery, hair extensions, and tanning all contribute to an economy of patriarchy and pressures for women to look a certain way, conforming to market driven stereotypes of

commodified female bodies in order to be perceived as beautiful and desirable – and profitable.

60 Trautner’s work (2005:771-772), examines how female strippers perform their gender

in a hypersexual manner to their male audience. Dancers change their appearance through wearing make-up, different hairstyles, clothing, and alter their actions in order to behave in a stereotypically sexual manner. The physical and behavioral adjustments of exotic dancers are

symbolic tools that communicate heightened feminine sexuality to their clients and viewers.

Dancers constantly execute qualities that are socially agreed as gender normative and sexually understood as promiscuous, through their performances. In addition to performing gender, dancers and strip clubs themselves constantly put on a performance of upper-middle class standing (Trautner 2005:776-777). Clubs often offer plush chairs, “VIP” experiences, and staff is well groomed in their suits. Dancers wear nice clothing, shoes, and jewelry. They also perfect their hair, nails, and make-up, and generally maintain a slim or toned body that adheres to culturally relevant norms and expectations of feminine sexual attractiveness.

The theories that I have selected to guide my own understanding and interpretation of

exotic dancer’s behaviors, gestures, and social interactions while working, are symbolic interactionism, and performativity theory. Strip clubs are unique settings because they are subcultures that operate on the outskirts of socially acceptable (moral) society, and have their own set of social rules to respect and follow. Heightened promiscuity and sexual flirtation create the majority of social interactions at a strip club and are delivered through dramatic performance

presented in the form of conversation, body positions, gestures, and distant or interactive dance.

Strip clubs are socially accepted as centers for what would be considered, deviant or

immoral behavior to take place at. Individuals who visit a strip club, both first-time participants

and those with at least one prior experience visiting at an establishment, have a general

understanding of the activities and social conditions of a strip club mainly due to media

61 portrayals of strip clubs. In other words, all dancers know that their job is to sell lap-dances, all

customers have some expectation to see and spend their money on nude women, and all involved staff expects to go to work to help the organization flow smoothly, maintain its economic

stability, and oversee the safety concerns of the club. Having a pre-set notion of the activities that

take place at a strip club, in the form of sexually provocative and illicit social interaction,

assumes that all individuals have agreed to participate in a social environment that might

otherwise, be considered indecent, vulgar, and to a further extreme, inhumane and/or ungodly.

If all social participants within a strip club are able to understand their role and accept

their perhaps, ‘immoral,’ decision to be involved with the social and physical activities that take place, then the club is able to operate and function smoothly. One dancer that I spoke with, casually commented, “Yeah, it’s pretty awkward when you can tell that a customer is uncomfortable at the club and doesn’t want to be there.” Strip clubs can cause physical discomfort and/or social anxiety to many visitors who are unfamiliar with the environment because it is such a different environment from the social realities of larger/outer society. For those who are comfortable with, and may find thrill and/or satisfaction in frequenting strip clubs, they are active members conforming to the rules of the club and become a part of the club’s social structure the activities that take place.

There is repeated verbal and non-verbal communication that is expressed by both performers and viewers. Non-verbal communication requires the specific use of symbols and gestures, in order to convey a message or feeling to one’s self or another human being(s). The symbols and gestures that are used must be socially understood and accepted by all actors, in order to be successful in creating a product of, meaning. Carter and Fuller (2016:931-932) describe symbolic interactionism as a social theoretical framework that addresses how social

62 worlds are created through continuous and meaningful interactions. Whereby, individuals use language and symbols to construct and understand their social realities as both a person involved in the collective social whole and their simultaneous involvement as a unique individual acting through their own agency, within the larger collective group. Symbolic interactionism is a micro- level theoretical framework that incorporates the subjective experiences of people, as a method of interpreting how social and individual awareness comes to be perceived (Carter and Fuller

2016:932).

Symbols are defined and considered, “abstract representations of social objects that enable people to communicate verbally and nonverbally and understand each other’s intentions and actions” (Milliken and Schreiber 2012:686). Within the social world of the strip club, exotic dancers use a multitude of tangible and expressive symbols and gestures, including clothing, makeup, body movements and postures, hand motions, and expressions, as a means to convey a certain message as they perform and interact with their clients. If a woman in wearing a pleated , with her hair in pigtails, and a ruler in her hand, she symbolically represents what most would stereotype to be a ‘school girl.’ The perception of what it is, to be a school girl has multiple meanings depending on the individual’s perception and situational circumstance. In any other environment, a school girl may be considered innocent and identified as pure, young, and studious; however, in the context of the strip club, the school girl becomes redefined and imagined into this sexually promiscuous and naughty character and her ruler becomes a phallic symbol to be played with while on-stage.

Clothing, makeup, and other accessories that exotic dancers wear and incorporate into their performances are also symbolic indicators of social class. Regardless of the dancer’s socio- economic background, each dance has the ability to implement material items that symbolize, or

63 represent the notion of upscale and bourgeois status to their clients. Vice-versa, customers nonverbally communicate to dancers their social class status through their clothing and accessories. Many of the exotic dancers that I spoke with used these symbolic material identifiers as means to target clients who were expected to have the most money. Channel explained, “If I see a guy wearing a Rolex, a nice suit, and some clean-ass kicks (shoes), then I know I want to talk to him because he probably has money to spend. You’ve got better chances for a VIP

[dance] with a guy who shops at Niemen Marcus than the dude in sweats, who probably shops at

Wal-Mart.” Clothing and even the stores that the clothes were purchased from, symbolically represent a social understanding of wealth. For exotic dancers, the logical understanding is that the men who are able to afford expensive things such as clothes and/or watches are also more likely to have substantial money to spend as a guest at a strip club. Guests and dancers with nice things may or may not be rich, but they incorporate material symbols to emulate the idea and perception of ‘richness’ and ‘wealth’ within this particular environment.

Dancers use their hands often to convey a number of messages to customers. I watched as the dancers on-stage would have their hands in a loose fist position, with their hidden palms facing towards the ceiling, and move their pointer finger towards and away from themselves, communication with their guest to draw in closer to them. The dancer would then lean forward and whisper something in the customer’s ear, or pull the customer’s faces into their breasts, or perhaps, have the customer feel the curves of her body. Once the dancer was done with this interaction, the customer would fall back into his/her seat, often with a lingering smirk or smile on the customers face. The smile is an expression of happiness, joy, excitement, and maybe embarrassment, it is also a direct emotional response to a certain level of satisfaction that the customer had during the interaction. A few hand gestures also worth noting include, dancers

64 spreading their middle and pointer finger in a ‘V’ shape, and then wiggle their tongue in between

their fingers, suggesting that their fingers represent spread-open legs, and the tongue moving in

the open space, being the vagina in between the open legs, symbolizes a physical tongue

performing oral stimulation to a female body; dancers rub their hands on top of their clothed and

unclothed vaginas as a gesture marking ; dancers put their finger(s) in-and-out of

their mouths, sucking on them slowly to represent actions of performed on a male; strippers may also use their hands to open up their genitalia and/or buttocks to reveal their anus

as a suggestive hand motion that they are ready and available for sex.

Facial expressions are the symbolic forms of human emotion. Customers and dancers

show a wide variety of facial emotions including happiness, excitement, shock, boredom, sadness, and anger. Emotions are direct responses to either the conditions of individuals outside of the club, to the social interactions among other participants within a strip club. People are affected by life events that affect them absent of their involvement in predominant society. Life events include physical and mental health concerns, financial stability, marital and family issues, divorce, deaths of a family member or friend, the level of personal life-satisfaction, political agendas, mortgages and bills, drama on , and so forth. These circumstances can attribute to how people communicate and behave in social environments.

Strip clubs are a business that attracts a diverse group of employees and customers, all of which have their own life successes and struggles that they are undergoing and affected by.

Individuals may be able to leave their problems outside of the establishment, or they may carry in the emotional baggage, positive and negative into the club. Actors at a strip club with either conceal, fake or express the emotional state of being through facial movements and expression.

Facial expressions and emotion are also subject to frequent change throughout a given shift due

65 to the social interactions that take place in a strip club. For example, a customer or dancer might walk into the club with a smile on their face, expressing that they are happy, but can later be seen frowning because of a negative interaction with another club participant. Customers and club workers affect the emotional outcomes of each other. And through a common understanding of how emotions are physically displayed, social participants are able to exhibit and create meaning solely from subtle changes in the face, accomplished by the subconscious effort to work different facial muscular tissues.

The body movements that exotic dancers perform while on-stage, and during private dances, mimics the actions and positions that are incorporated during human .

The act of stripping down to nothing, or at least the act of exposing one’s reproductive/ sexual parts, is a required in order for the physical act of sex to happen. Dancers remove their clothes in a manner that teases (arouses) the audience and gradually becomes naked, which symbolically communicates that she is now fully sexually available. The stage-dance is comparable to in sex, where it consists of a female dancers ‘showing-off’ her sexual body and creating a build-up of sexual tension – customers who find themselves erect from visual stimulation then select a girl to take back for his sexual release. The act of the private dance is the ultimate imitation of sex. The private dance is a social interaction between dancer and customer where two bodies are pressed up against each other, the dancer’s unclothed vagina is rocking back-and- forth on the customers clothed, and often engorged penis, the dancer is often sweating from doing most of the physical activity, and sexual sounds and comments are often present such as heavy breathing, moaning, or comments like, “Oh baby,” “Oh daddy,” “You feel so good,” and questions including “do you like what I’m doing to you?” and “Am I going to make you cum?”

The language choice used by exotic dancers during private dances, and the nonverbal

66 communication expressed through their performed body motions, is essentially inseparable from sex.

Symbolically, the behaviors that occur during private dances represent the same behaviors that happen during sex, except for the absence of penetration. In some instances, customers ejaculate during private dances and accomplish sexual release and fulfillment, in other cases, customers do not ejaculate. But again, this is true to real sex scenarios, where is usually a goal, but not always a successful outcome. Strippers can also be sexually satisfied and have an during a private dance. In this context, sexual behavior is both a fictitious act that is performed by exotic dancers, but also sensationally real experience, where the customer and dancer have the possibility of achieving an orgasm. The orgasm is the definitive symbolic indicator that either the biological demands of reproduction or the social and individual needs for pleasure have been met and fulfilled.

Symbols are the means by which humans are able to communicate with each other nonverbally and solidify members who administer symbolic communication as a cohesive group.

Yet, each participant is still an individual actor and must come to understand their own role and develop their own feelings based on their group involvement. George Mead, a primary contributor to symbolic interactionism, recognizes that it is through social interaction, that the human being is able to understand and value their own sense of self (Collins and Makowsky

2010:154). Mead’s idea of the ‘social self’ is understood as a reflexive process, “in the sense that it coils back upon itself in the communicative process, and it is social in the sense that it is built up continually in the course of daily encounters with other human beings” (Collins and

Makowsky 2010:155). Considering that stripping is often condemned and devalued as an indecent form of income, a dancers’ interpretation of their social self would be worth further

67 investigation. While I have come to understand that exotic dancers have many reasons for doing

the work that they do, and undergo a wide variety of positive and negative experiences, I did not

attempt to formulate any research specifically pertaining to how they internalize and mentally

construe their self-identity as women who do sex work.

In this paper, I do discuss how strippers internalize their occupational identity and

how this identity affects them psychologically and socially. Strippers are unable to escape the

fact that most others identify and judge them solely on their sexualized occupation and recurring

sexually exclusive interactions with customers, who are also negatively perceived by society, but

to a lesser extent. I might even argue that many dancers use their anonymity and performed

stripper persona as specific techniques to emotionally and, in a more abstract sense, physically remove their involvement from their occupational identity, and social self of ‘stripper.’ Dancers negotiate between two separate senses of self, one being the sense of self-existing in larger mainstream society, and the other being in the realm of the strip club. Strippers must negotiate between two vastly different social realms that could cause individual exotic dancers to have difficulty assessing their identity and self-value via self-internal mental conflict.

Living as social beings, people imagine themselves through how they believe others

perceive them (Collins and Makowsky 2010:148). For exotic dancers, they are persuaded to

internalize feelings of self-beauty and attraction based on the verbal compliments that they

receive from customer, their ability to please a customer during a private dance, or through

achieving a satisfying number of private dances; implying that the dancer was popular and well-

liked that night. When dancers receive verbal criticism, are physically disrespected, or find

difficulty attaining private-dances, then they are more likely to experience feelings of

68 worthlessness, unattractiveness and internalize a negative perspective about themselves and their

role in the industry – and in the larger society.

Exotic dancers spend large amounts of money and time in order to achieve a certain

‘beautiful’ and ‘sexy’ look, at their social workplace environment. Exotic dancers are all unique

in appearance, but conform to exaggerate particularly their feminine and sexual traits. The

categorization of ‘sex’ to an individual is a biological physical attribute, whereas the category of

‘gender’ is a socially constructed phenomenon involving the learning and expression of societal

understandings of what it means to be either male and masculine or to be its socially developed

and oppositional counterpart, female and feminine. A person’s is understood by

themselves and others through the symbolic gender cues that are made or acted via appearance decisions and stylized body gestures that are socially associated with male and/or female behaviors (Judith Bulter 1988:519).

Judith Butler’s (1988:521) theoretical orientations pertaining to performativity, assess

the physical body as an object that undergoes a “process of embodying certain cultural and

historical possibilities,” where the agents (people) of that body, dramatize and reproduce the

socio-historical representations of the male/female binary. Butler (1988:522) explains that in

order to be a woman, one must, “conform to a historical idea of ‘woman’ to induce the body to

become a cultural sign, to materialize oneself in obedience to a historically delimited possibility,

and to do this as a sustained and repeated corporeal project.” Gender is an illusion or a grand

performance that requires one to follow traditional ideologies of ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’

through meticulous attention and dedication to their appearance and behaviors. In regards to

exotic dancers, this fictitious act of performing gender is prominent through their active displays

of hyper-femininity and hyper-sexuality.

69 Particularly in theatrical productions of gender, one may be able to disassociate from

their performed version of ‘male’ or ‘female’ on-stage, from their ‘normal’ and ‘true’ gender,

and perhaps, human identity. Butler (1988:527) explains that when gender performance is ‘just

and act,’ “one can maintain one’s sense of reality in the face of this temporary challenge to our

existing ontological assumptions about gender arrangements… ‘this is only a play’ allows strict

lines to be drawn between the performance and life…” She further states, “gender reality is

performative which means…that it is real only to the extent that it is performed.” Exotic dancers,

who are socially and self-identified females, exaggerate the performance of femininity at their

work through the use of symbols and gestures, which have been previously described.

Exotic dancers have high consumer expectations to portray themselves as hyper-

feminine; they exaggerate the socially stigmatized qualities of feminine beauty by emphasizing

their eyes, lips, and long hair as well as physical amplifications of their sexualized body parts

including their breasts, legs, buttocks, and genitalia. Bouclin (2006:110-112) addresses the

constant need for exotic dancers to perform gender. As dancers perform femininity they must do

so in a way that affirms normative beauty standards. In westernized American society, the long-

held beauty standard for women has been tall, slim, white women. Clearly, not everyone can be

this particular “ideal-beauty” type, but dancers practice achieving such unrealistic Barbie-like

standards by how they manage their makeup, clothing, weight, and so forth. The widespread use

of body technologies such as makeup, cosmetic surgery, hair extensions, and tanning all contribute to an economy of patriarchy and pressures for women to look a certain way,

conforming to market driven stereotypes of commodified female bodies in order to be perceived

as beautiful and desirable – and profitable.

70 The two theoretical applications will become apparent in my findings section, where I

discuss the power-relationships between exotic dancers. Dancers use symbols and performance

tactics in order to manipulate their guests into spending their money on them. Not only can these theories be applied to the general work that strippers do but also are applicable in the overall

scheme of the stripper’s ‘hustle’- or scamming of their guests.

71 CHAPTER V

FINDINGS & DISCUSSION: STRIPPING

FOR A LIVING

Dancer Demographic

Between December 2016 and February 2017, I had the pleasure of interviewing twenty female exotic dancers currently working in the sex industry. Among the twenty women that I interviewed nine were white, five were Mexican, two were black, and the remaining individuals represented the following national identities: French, Russian, El Salvadorian, and

Korean. The racial demographic of my participants is comprised of 55% Caucasian, 30% Latina,

10% black, and 5% Asian participants. In regards to sexuality, fifteen women identified as heterosexual, and the other quarter of women identified as bisexual.

The youngest participant that I interviewed was nineteen years old, and the oldest individual was forty-three years of age. The majority of the dancers that were interviewed were in their early to mid-twenties. The average age of my participants is twenty-six years old.

Thirteen of the twenty women are age twenty-six and below and the remaining seven participants are twenty-seven and plus years-old. Amongst these women, the length of their occupation as an exotic dancer ranges from three months participation to a twenty-three-year long career. The collective group that I interviewed averaged working in the strip club industry just over six years.

Thirteen individuals had careers where they have currently been working less than five years, while the remaining seven are dedicated to their stripping careers and have been working six- plus years in the industry.

72 I divided the dancers into three different categories that represent the length of their participation in the sex work industry. The first group of dancers falls into the “New Girls” category which represents dancers working less than two years. The term “new girls,” was commonly used by all of my interviewees to distinguish either young women entering the profession for the first time, or to recognize when a new individual starts working at a club regardless if she has dancing experience or not. I apply the expression “new girls” in order to identify the individuals who are brand new to stripping and are in the early process of determining whether to make dancing a temporary or prolonged career choice. I spoke with five women who fall into this category.

The second category is termed “Veteran Dancers,” and consists of women who have danced more than two years, but less than ten. These were women well established in the business of dancing, many of which have worked on-and-off at various clubs at their discretion.

Half of my participants are identified as veteran dancers and the remaining five women fall into the category of “Career Dancers.” These are women who have been dancing for over a decade and have made exotic dancing their chosen career. Both veteran and career dancers are valuable sources in better understanding why women continue to dance over long periods of times.

I inquired about the marital status of my participants and found that sixty-five percent are single, twenty percent are married and fifteen percent are divorced. Of the four married women, all are career dancers, revealing that it is possible to manage a married life while simultaneously working as a stripper. The thirteen legally single women are in various stages of dating. Some outright refused to date, others had struggles maintaining relationships while dancing, and I had two individuals who are currently in long-term engagements with their partners. The three divorced women experienced that their job as a stripper contributed to both

73 the turmoil of their divorces and their ability to heal afterward. Jealousy is a common theme

among dancer relationships outside of work and largely contributes to countless failed romantic

relationships. While most of these relationships fall short of everlasting, it is possible for dancers

to establish a healthy marriage.

Among the women, forty-five percent are mothers, and the remaining fifty-five

percent do not have children. Of the nine moms, only four were raising their children as single

mothers. While there is a common perception that dancers are struggling single mothers who dance because they are in desperate need of cash, my findings indicate otherwise. The majority

of my respondents do not have children, and among the women who do have children, only forty-four percent are comprised of single mothers. Another misconception is that dancers have a

little-to-no educational background and/or aspirations, but twenty-five percent of my informants

are currently enrolled in school. The majority of my participants obtained a high school diploma,

or has obtained their GED, and five are working on continued education. While I did speak with

a few high school dropouts, my research indicates that uneducated women make up a minority of

dancers.

It is important to recognize the limitations of my sample size and research subjects. I

interviewed twenty women which I believe is a reasonable number of participants for this

particular research; however, increasing the sample size would provide space for further

demographic and comparative research. The majority of the subjects in my study are educated white women without children, which only represents a small fraction of the larger population of exotic dancers. Interviews with more women from a wider range of ethnic, educational, and socioeconomic backgrounds would provide a better understanding of the participants in the strip club industry. My tendency to gravitate towards individuals who are similar to me may have

74 hindered my research to a certain extent. Nonetheless, my sample does include the voices and

life histories of women from different: ethnic backgrounds, ages, phases in their dancing careers,

marital and motherhood statuses, and educational backgrounds.

The Strip Clubs

In an extremely general sense, Western society has formulated its understandings of,

and attitudes towards sex and sexual expression based on Judeo-Christian ideologies that believe

sex should be monogamous and private, or is otherwise impure. Taunting and challenging the

sexually restrictive social attitudes of mainstream society, strip clubs have prevailed provide a

public niche to those who seek sexually available services. Strip clubs are their own social and

public spaces, where their actors must make conscientious decisions to visit and participate in its

organizational culture, or society.

During this three-month period, I went to a total of three different strip clubs. The

clubs that I visited are located in the southern California area; two in County and

one in Orange County. Each strip club, in terms of its workers and clients, was unique to its

surroundings. The first strip club, Garden of Eden, is a fully nude strip club centered in

Hollywood, California. The entrance fee cost is twenty-five dollars and dances range in price

from forty-dollar lap dances to six hundred dollars hour-long VIP entertainment. The club opens

at seven pm and closes its doors at four am attracting an array of men during peak nightlife hours. The women working at this club are ethnically diverse. The majority of the women are white, but there is a nice balance of Hispanic, Asian, and black women working as well. The diverse group of dancers caters to the collective diversity of Los Angeles. Men from all different ethnic groups and backgrounds come to enjoy the atmosphere and variety of women at the

Garden of Eden. 75 The women working at Garden of Eden said that regulars were uncommon and a majority of clients were individuals passing through the area such as businessmen, domestic and international travelers, and late-night club-hoppers. The club most active on the weekends where twenty to forty women would be on the floor working and entertaining a couple hundred guests.

During the weekdays half the women show up to work because the number of customers severely dwindles. The dancers are less inclined to work these shifts because there is less money circulates with still the same level of competition amongst the dancers.

The second club that I went to, also fully nude, is called Serpent’s Temptation. This club is located in the business district of the City of Industry. Because the City of Industry is a commercial rather than a residential area is has grown to host numerous strip clubs. The at Serpent’s Temptation cost twenty dollars and the dances range from forty dollar private dances to one hundred fifty half hour VIP dances. This club operates from ten am to two am seven days a week. Women working the day-shift start at ten am and are relieved by night-shift ladies at six pm. All of the dancers at this club are expected to work the entire eight-hour shift.

The demographic of dancers at this club is predominantly Latina, with only a handful of white and black women working. The customers are divided between white and Hispanic, which is an accurate representation of the surrounding demographic population in the City of Industry.

Unlike Garden of Eden, Serpent’s Temptation relies heavily on regulars for its business. Most of the men come into the club before, during, or after work for escape and pleasure. One dancer, Zara, described a regular who would come in every day after work for two hours simply to avoid sitting in Los Angeles rush hour traffic. He would pay his cover fee, sit on the same couch, and buy three drinks for three different ladies. Zara, along with a few other women managed to solicit a lap dance from him a handful of times, always on a pay-day Friday.

76 At night there are more casual visitors living within a close radius of the club who come to enjoy the livelier night shift. Better earnings are afforded at night at the cost of having to work late hours. Most women working the day shift have significant others and children and enjoy the normal hours in order to be present in their ’ lives.

In Anaheim, California, I attended a topless club called Magdalena’s Theatre. The stage dances were fully nude, but the private dances were clothed or topless. This club also had the lowest cover charge at eight dollars. Each topless-dance cost fifteen dollars and a thirty minute VIP cost one hundred fifty dollars. Magdalena’s Theatre opened its doors at eleven am and closes down at two am. The shifts operate the same as Serpent’s Temptation; an eight-hour day and an eight-hour night shift. The daytime dancers started at eleven and worked until seven and the night time ladies would come in at six pm to start work.

The demographic of dancers was equally made up of Latina, Asian, and white women. The customers consisted of predominantly Hispanic and white men. The day shift dancers catered primarily to regulars, businessmen and/or working men where as the night shift dancers entertained a wide range of people enjoying the Orange County nightlife. Both Serpent’s

Temptation and Magdalena’s Theatre were more lucrative at night than during the day. The popularity and excitement of venturing to a strip club (spontaneously or planned) usually occurs at night.

While demographic differences were apparent based on the geographical location of each strip club, there were other similar factors common among all three clubs. It was evident that the most lucrative time for business was at night through the early morning hours. Dancers who worked the night shift on average would make between two hundred and five hundred dollars. Each club had its biggest diva or dancer who would earn the most money for herself and

77 the club, making anywhere from five hundred to over one thousand dollars, in one night. Such

individuals are often the subject of much speculation that each high-earning dancer is

prostituting herself in order to make that much income. Dancers working the day shift reported

earning as little as eighty dollars and as much as three hundred fifty dollars. A dancer from

Magdalena’s Theatre, Alana, commented that she was displeased if she walked away from the club with less than one hundred fifty dollars in her purse after an eight-hour shift.

Depending on the club and the day of the week, the number of clients that each dancer would have would vary. The women that I spoke with also noted that the number of customers and lap-dances were recognizably higher on pay-day Fridays; when customers had

access to their hard-earned money and wanted to spend a portion of their check on having a good time with a dancer. The women working in clubs that catered mainly to weekly regulars such as

Serpent’s Temptation and Magdalena’s Theatre would average about ten customers per each day shift. The women working at Garden of Eden would have roughly fifteen customers during the weekdays and between twenty and forty customers on weekends. I found that the women working night shifts earned more money on average than the women working the day shifts, but that the nighttime dancers had less access to regular customers and their income would fluctuate greatly on a day-to-day basis. The women who worked the day shifts were able to establish regulars more easily and were in turn afforded a fairly consistent daily income.

Club Promotion and Advertising

Each strip club has ways of promoting themselves to the public. All of the strip clubs have their own means of advertisement whether posted on billboards, ads on websites, radio broadcasting, Facebook pages, or so forth. The advertisements sell the idea of , sex appeal, and . Billboards use playful sexual language such as “Squeeze Play,” 78 “Fully XPOSED,” and “Strippers love to climb our pole.” The images of the dancers are often

young women wearing little clothing and loads of makeup. Any audio advertising generally uses

a seductive female voice that invites men to come to the location of the reference. Advertising is

directed at emulating the very essence of what strip clubs entail; arenas of where

women are hyper-sexualized and play the role of sex objects available for purchase at a man’s

discretion.

In addition to the money and thoughtful designs applied to advertising the strip club industry, the clubs themselves have an array of promotional dances and themed days to attract clients. All of the four clubs I went to offered a two-for-one special that the deejay would introduce to the customers. This special recurs throughout the night and the club requires all dancers to be present on the floor when the special is offered. The two-for-one means that the client pays the price for a one-song dance, but receives a two-song lap dance. Customers are more inclined to get a dance during this special because they feel that they are getting a better deal for their money. I spoke with the deejay at Garden of Eden, and he shared that the specials were misleading because while customers thought they were getting a better deal the deejay actually shortened the time of each song played. Many customers do not pay attention to the duration of each song, making the two-for-one specials a tactical way to trick men into thinking that they are getting more bang for their buck when in reality they are paying the same price for the same amount of time.

While dance specials are prevalent among each of the clubs I attended, drink specials are also common. Some clubs require guests to purchase a minimum of two drinks if they want to enter. Other clubs do not have a customer drink-minimum, but rather a dancer drink- minimum. Serpent’s Temptation and Magdalena’s Theatre both require dancers to sell a total of

79 six drinks while working their shift. Serpent’s Temptation offered a happy hour, where regular customers were often obliged to buy their favorite dancer one, if not all, of her drinks for her. If a dancer was unable to sell all of her six drinks then she was responsible for taking care of the tab at the end of her shift. The pressure to sell drinks was resented by each dancer that I interviewed at Serpent’s Temptation and Magdalena’s Theatre.

Strip clubs also attract the public by sponsoring themed nights and having special guests. The Serpent’s Temptation promotes its “School Girl Sundays” where dancers are required to dress up in short pleated and skimpy tops. The theme constructs a dual fantasy where men desire young innocent girls and wish to see such good girls behaving badly. In addition to appealing to one’s sexual fantasy, clubs attract customers by inviting special entertainers, such as porn stars, to perform to their clients. This is common among well- established clubs that are able to afford these high-rate individuals. This strategy attracts regulars, local, and non-local customers who are willing to pay in order to watch a live sex act onstage. This fantasy of perversion is emulated in most, if not all, strip clubs. Advertising, marketing, and promotional strategies feed into the viewer’s sexual desires that might otherwise not be available to them. And the strategies all work to bring in revenue.

A Dancer’s Typical Day at Work

The stories of sexual harassment and rape were seemingly endless, but the dancers’ assured me that while such traumatic experiences did occur, it was a small fraction of what their job entailed. For example, Channel described:

I wake-up usually around noon, sometimes even later than that, and I drink my coffee, take a , take care of the chores around my house, watch TV, fuck around on my Smartphone for however long- and then I decided whether or not I want to go to work. And sometimes I’m like fuck that [going to work], and I stay in my peejays all-day-long. And

80 other days, I’m all about making money [and working]. But then there are those days where I’m like, ‘shit, I need the money,’ but I don’t wanna work, and so I have to drag my ass off the couch…It always sucks to go to work, but once you [referencing dancers in general] get there, it’s not-so-bad, because [returns to self-reference] all my homies [friends] and girls are there, and I pretty much can do whatever I want there. I get stoned, I play with makeup, I watch sexy women get naked for free, talk to whoever I want to talk to…it’s like I play around and bullshit all day, and I get paid to do it. It’s fucking nice.

The consensus of most dancer’s descriptions about their job, is that a typical day working at a strip club, consists primarily of: sleeping in, casually showing up to the club if the dancer feels like it, spending the first hour or so of their shift primping and gossiping with the other girls, performing stage dances, soliciting customers for private dances, and then resulting in various

activities during their downtime including recreational drug usage, playing on their cell phones,

socializing with others, and other self-entertaining behavior.

The women I spoke with seemed to enjoy the ability to work their own hours and to

work as much or at little as they pleased. The two clubs operating a day-shift did require that the

dancers arrive on-time and stay the entire eight-hour shift, but there was never a penalty for not

showing up to work. The dancers working the night shifts at all three clubs had more control

over when and how long worked. For instance, they could show up for the last few hours of the

club’s business hours and still manage to make hundreds of dollars during a couple-hour-long

shift without incurring any penalty from management.

Based on my observations, I noticed that there were only a couple of dancers who

would be stage-ready by the time the club opened its doors. These individuals optimized their

chances to make money by being the only dancers available to perform private lap-dances. For

the first two hours of any given shift, I watched as dancers would casually show up for work.

Many women would walk-in without any make-up on, their hair unkempt and in their everyday

street clothes. Each woman had a large bag that they carried with them, which held their stripper

81 accessories that include any and/or all of the following: six to eight-inch boots and high heels,

lingerie, bikinis, underwear, , role-play costumes (sailor’s, cop, schoolgirl outfit), stockings, corsets, make-up, jewelry, hair extensions, hair curling and straightening irons, hair ties, body sprays, school work, casual reading books, journals, sanitizer, baby wipes, deodorant, tweezers, scissors, cigarettes, drugs, paraphernalia, alcohol, , , medications, toothbrushes and tooth paste, and snacks. Dancers prepare for work each day by bringing these items that will allow them to dress appropriately for the job as well as remain entertained throughout the shift.

When the dancers arrive without their make-up and hair done they will spend roughly a half hour to two hours behind the curtains of the dressing room, getting ready. The dancers would come in looking like regular women that I would casually bump into at a farmer’s market and transform into a sexy pin-up that I would only expect to see on a Play Boy spread. Dancers put significant time and effort into transforming their appearance to be overtly feminine and sexual, conforming to stereotypical beauty standards in an effort to maximize their potential earnings for that shift.

Strip joints exist to fulfill a fantasy for their anonymous customers. Through costume, make-up, stage performances, and lap dances strippers are able to provide an imaginative sexual fantasy to onlookers (Schiff et al. 1999:12). Unlike outright prostitution where there is the expectation of a client’s final orgasm, strip clubs illustrate fantasy without the promise of copulation for clients (mostly men) seeking women to represent the object of sexual desire in a particular role-play situation, possessed of a specific body type, and/or racial background (Schiff et al. 1999:12). Most exotic dancers spend a significant amount of time and money to achieve a certain look which is usually a variation on the theme of what male clientele perceive as sexually

82 desirable. There is great pressure for exotic dancers to fit a particular mold which often leads dancers to obsess over how they look and how much they weigh.

Body technologies are used by exotic dancers to achieve an ideal body type and to alter their appearance in order to emulate a sexual fantasy to their viewers. This includes both permanent and temporary body modification. The permanent modification is the more extreme of the two, which includes breast modification, liposuction, rhinoplasty, vaginoplasty, lip injections, Botox, laser hair removal, and tattoos. Temporary modifications consist of dancers’ wardrobe, hair color and length, , make-up, fake nails, and piercings. Wesely (2003:644) recognizes these changes in appearance as a way for exotic dancers to perform gender, femininity, and idealized sexual fantasy to customers. Wesely (2003:665-666) analyzes:

The technologies the women used to achieve the fantasy image moved their physical differences toward a standard of attractiveness that commodified them and erased distinctiveness. … This was a frustrating endeavor for the women, who wanted to both perform the fantasy image successfully and at times be recognized and validated for their own uniqueness and complexity. The corresponding tension that persisted was that the women made choices about their bodies but did so in a context (the sex-work industry) that limited these choices and thus confounded their feelings of agency concerning their bodies and identities. They attempted to use body technologies to manage these identity issues and to segment roles and transition in between them. Nonetheless, some of the technologies, especially permanent ones, added to the incomplete nature of this process.

Body technologies are incorporated into exotic dancing in order for a stripper to be more successful in earning money from clients who seek certain feminine qualities; however, the technologies come at a physical, financial and often psychological cost to the dancers who employ various technologies.

Body appearance is the sine qua non of an exotic dancer’s job. As Wesely (2003:649) notes, the pressure to conform to an ideal body type can be very detrimental, particularly if the dancer goes through extreme permanent and/or non-permanent changes to attain an ideal standard of beauty. For example, dancers may use methamphetamine or other stimulants to lose 83 weight and achieve an ideal body type, or they undergo cosmetic surgery such as rhinoplasty, liposuction and/or breast augmentations, all of which can have serious medical and psychological consequences (Wesely 2003:649-654). In Wesely’s (2003:665) study she writes

“[exotic dancers] felt tremendous pressure to conform to body constructions that revolve around extreme thinness, large breasts, and other features that conform to a “Barbie doll” image.” Some dancers have reported developing eating disorders in order to achieve a more stereotypically attractive body shape, as well as acquiring addictions to stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine as means to conform and remain in conformity with normative standards of feminine attractiveness.

In addition to concerns about body proportions, Wesely (2003:654) notes that a common practice among all dancers’ routines of body maintenance is to keep a clean shaved body. Hair removal from the legs, underarms and pubic area is nearly in this line of work. There is a physical expectation that a woman on display in the context of sex work or exotic dance should not have hair on her body unless it is on her head because carefully groomed perigenital are somehow regarded as more alluring. As an observer, I did see female dancers who had minimal on their body that was trimmed; as long as the dancer was well groomed, the pubic hair was accepted by dancers and audience members. According to O’Tool (2014), “the removal industry is worth millions, and uncountable women are ashamed of and distressed by their post-pubescent hair…[the industry] must now convince the world that female pubic hair is dirty...” but women such as , are rising up to embrace women’s pubic hair as natural, womanly, and feminine. Pubic hair, in its association with puberty, is symbolic of adulthood and sexual maturation. For exotic dancers who shave their vaginas, they are representing their reproductive parts in a youthful manner. Much of these physical modifications

84 are unnatural by definition, yet they are essential the creation of a body type optimized for generating income.

Once the physical transformation is complete, each dancer is expected to leave the dressing room and remain present in the main area where the stage dances occur and dancers interact with guests. When the dancers are on the main floor it is almost as if they are playing a strategic game of musical chairs. They might grab a seat in the corner where they can be seen by guests and scope out potential clients, or they may directly approach a guest with confidence.

There is a common courtesy rule to give each dancer space and time with a customer on the main floor if she is talking to someone; however, it is also expected that each dancer does not linger too long with a customer unless he is buying drinks and private dances from her.

Dancers gracefully walk around the room displaying their bodies and share whispers and giggles with their customers. Sometimes the women stand in front of the customers and bend down to talk to them and other times dancers sit right beside them to have a discussion. It is extremely rare, but it does happen, that a dancer will straddle a customer between her legs on the main floor. If this type of behavior is prolonged on the main floor, management will consider such actions as a private dance and expect a percentage of it. When the dancers are making their

‘rounds’ around the room they are constantly asking and pressuring customers for a lap dance.

By using charming and persuasive tactics, dancers are able to whisk away customers to the private booth/ VIP area.

Strippers are often rejected because each customer has their own expectations of what they want from dancers in terms of how they look, act, and/or the services that they render. Some guests seek out a particular woman that they are attracted to and might drag or kindly escort her into the private dance area. I noticed men might spend fifteen minutes to hours-on-end at the

85 club, receiving dances from just one to several different dancers. The money that customers

spend on any given night can be minimal just to cover basic cover charges, drink limits, and a

quick cheap dance, or it can be significantly more, such that customers spend copious amounts

on dancers and their club experience. There is a heightened positive energy and excitement when

there is substantial money pouring into the club. When the strippers are making money they are happy, and the same can be said for every level of the establishment: the management, the deejay, and of course the customers are happy.

Dancers essentially have three jobs that are required of them while working. The first, already mentioned, is conversing with guests and soliciting private dances from them. The second job is performing stage-dances. The stage-dance is another strategy where dancers are able to sell their sex appeal to customers. Among the clubs I visited, each dancer was allowed to play whatever music that they wanted to dance to. The deejay would announce the dancer who was presently on-stage and mention the dancer who was to follow on-stage next. Once the dancer on the main floor heard that they were going to be going on-stage soon, they would get up from wherever they were and approach the deejay. Dancers were allowed two songs to dance to while on-stage. The women could supply their own music, or choose from the deejay’s wide selection of music. The dancer finishing up on the stage would be thanked by the deejay on his microphone and given a few moments to pick up any tips and clothing removed.

The deejay introduces the next dancer to the stage by addressing her by her stripper name and playing her music. The stripper walks onto the stage where begin to emulate sexualized motions and gestures through dance. Some dancers choose to dance slowly and sensually, while others like to dance to an upbeat score and in a playfully sexual manner. The tempo of dance changes depending on the dancer, how individuals are feeling that particular day

86 and what energy level the audience seems to reflect. I spoke with Hannah, a dancer who shared that she would pick mellow music if she was tired or high from smoking marijuana. She loved playing reggae and rhythm and blues music when she was in a stoned-trance because the music fit her calm and low-energy state of being.

The music that dancers’ select is to a small extent, racialized. I noticed that white strippers danced to rock and country, Hispanic women danced to Spanish music, and black women danced to hip hop, rap, and R&B. This stereotypical breakdown of music is not entirely definitive of which ethnic groups dance to what category of music; however, without a doubt strippers do select music that they are familiar with and what they believe their target audience will enjoy also. Dolores only dances to Spanish music because it promotes enjoyment and familiarity for her and her target audience of predominantly Spanish-speaking men. Star is white and enjoys dancing to hard- and punk-rock music while on stage. Her music fits with her sense of style; she wears her hair jet-black complemented by her facial piercings, numerous body tattoos, leather bikinis and knee-high boots. Star’s target audience consists of men who like this edgy look and enjoy loud aggressive music. While there are white women who dance to rap and black women who dance to rock, various categories of music prevail to target certain racially- specific performers and customers.

In addition, Egan (2006) challenges the idea that all dancers are submissive and ladylike in an interesting study of how exotic dancers use music as a means of protest against owners and customers, at two different strip clubs. Rather than choosing music with lyrics that describe a woman’s devotion to a man, dancers use aggressive music with bold lyrics that defy aspects of normative culture. Egan (2006:209) describes that at “Glitters,” a club that she participated and observed, the dancers were fined if they played ‘indecent’ music; one dancer

87 reported being fined ten dollars for playing the Smashing Pumpkin’s song “Bullet with Butterfly

Wings,” because of the aggressive and negative lyrics:

Now I’m naked nothing but an animal. But can you fake it for just one more show. And what do you want I want to change. And what have you got when you feel the same. Even though I know I suppose I’ll show all my cool and cold like old job. Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage! Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage!

The dancer expressed that she was willing to pay the fine for playing her expressive music because she was, “sick of being told what to do” (Egan 2006:209). Another dancer at Flame, described, “I love hard core rap. It just like tells everybody to fuck off so it’s perfect because there are nights where I just want to tell everybody to fuck off” (Egan 2006:213). Rap music and rock music are two passive aggressive genres that allow dancers to indirectly speak what is on their mind and let out anger and frustration towards their customers in a playful way.

The stage-dance is simply when an exotic dancer goes onto an elevated stage in order to dance and remove her clothing to a rhythmic tempo. During a stage-dance, strippers stand, sit,

kneel, and lie down on the stage while presenting their bodies in sexualized positions and/or

motions while simultaneously removing their clothing. The sexualized positions and motions

include: caressing their breasts, pinching or licking their own nipples, bending over to reveal

their buttocks and vagina, physically opening up their buttocks to expose their anus, as well as

squatting, spreading their legs, and/or using their fingers to open up their vagina to show their labia majora, labia minora, clitoris and vestibule. These gestures are designed to advertise the sexual and reproductive parts of the exotic dancer’s female body. Each dancer’s sexual body is marketed and supplied to customers who demand the services that they render (both visual and physical) and are able to afford such services (club entrance , dancer , and lap-dance costs).

88 While performing a stage dance, the dancer may take off her clothes rapidly or slowly

and gradually throughout the entire two-song dance segment. The stage also has one to multiple

vertical poles that extend from the floor to the ceiling whereby if the dancer is skilled enough,

she may perform a range of movements, from basic to expert pole tricks. Pole tricks are where

dancers lift their feet off of the ground and climb, wrap around, spin and pose while extended in

the air. Strippers use their arms, core, and leg strength in order to accomplish such difficult

maneuvers.

The dancers may or may not interact with customers and/or make eye contact with

them while performing on-stage. Sometimes strippers are socially and physically interactive with

customers while performing a stage dance, and other times they keep to themselves, only

allowing customers to gaze at them. Each dancer had her own generic sequence of

that would be performed during her two-song set. Monica commented that she has continued to

dance nearly the same dance routine while on stage for the past fourteen years of her dancing

career. Monica described, “I walk onto the stage slow and sexy, I go up to the pole and dance

around in circles for a little bit, I take my top off before the first song is over, then I go down to

the floor where I spread my legs open - and all-that-stuff, then I take off my [underwear]

bottoms. And then I’m done, it’s over, [and] I grab my cash and get off the stage.” Performances

were considered repetitive by most dancers that I talked to, but as an observer watching these groups of women dance for my first time, I saw that each performance given by the same dancer was unique and different in terms of her song choice, sequence of dance moves, gestures, and positions, as well as her emotions, which were illustrated through facial expressions and body language.

89 The dancer’s emotions are clearly visible when they were performing on-stage.

Women would express boredom by putting minimal effort into a dance routine or by rolling their eyes. I saw anger expressed in the faces of some dancers and watched as a few dancers stormed off during the middle of their performance. I never saw any strippers appear sad while on-stage, and in my own experience dancing, I know that behind-the-scenes if a dancer is upset, then they will be consulted by the other dancers, deejay, and management. The most enjoyable performances to watch, in my opinion, were when dancers appeared to be happy and having fun.

The dancers’ who smiled, smirked, winked, blew kisses, waved hello, waved for guests to move in closer, and licked their lips and nipples on-stage were enticing, and most fun to watch. These performers used their facial expressions, mannerisms, and body language to convey enjoyment and pleasure of dancing to their audience. While the dancer may appear happy and satisfied on- stage, it is never certain whether the expressions of enjoyment and pleasure are artificial or genuine.

In addition to advertising the dancer’s appearance, stage-dances provide customers with a preview of how the dancer will perform during a private dance. Private lap-dances are physically intimate dances that take place in a reasonably private, sectioned-off area of the strip club. Lap -dances involve one or more receiving individuals (customers) who are clothed and remain seated and/or lying down while one or more delivering individuals (strippers) sit, stand, bend, touch, and dance on top of the receiving participant(s) while partially clothed, or nude.

This activity was addressed by all the dancers that I spoke with, in terms of “to get” and “to give” a lap-dance, whereby the dancers would acknowledge this activity by stating “he/she [the customer] got [purchased] a lap-dance [from a stripper],” as well as “I [the dancer] gave

[performed a private lap-dance for] him/her [a paying customer] a dance.”

90 I will note that exotic dancers also use the term and notion of “getting” a lap-dance interchangeably with their term and understanding of “giving” a lap-dance. For example, a dancer might recall her night’s work by stating, “I was able to get X-number of VIPs.” In referring to the number of lap-dances that she gave throughout the night, she states that she was able “to get” this number of lap-dances, as an indicator of her monetary success. The number of lap-dances that a dancer gets depends on the number of paying customers that she has and entertains in a given shift; this determines the amount of money that she will be able to take home. To give – and - to get a private lap-dance is presumably the definitive goal of all customer and dancer participants at a strip club.

Customers hold the power to decide which dancer they want to purchase a lap-dance from. I watched as some customers would approach a dancer immediately after she performed her stage dance, and ask her for a private dance. The dancer would agree, and excuse herself for a moment while she went into the dressing room to organize and count the money that she had made while on-stage, re-clothe herself in an outfit, and freshen-up by drying any sweat and spraying herself down with body scents. A few other minor touch-ups might also be made such as reapplication of lipstick and makeup and/or any needed hair adjustments. The dancer would then return to the main floor and take her awaiting customer back to the VIP section.

Customers were not always confident in walking up to dancers and asking directly for a dance. Some customers would sit back enjoying the stage shows and wait for a dancer to approach them who they had seen, and liked, before going back with them for a private dance.

Other guests were seemingly awkward and/or shy while visiting this sexually-heightened environment and would be coaxed into paying for a lap-dance without having much say in the matter. Channel, an eight-year veteran, said:

91 I walk up to every guy that comes through those [the club’s] doors each night and I force them to get a VIP [dance] from me. I say whatever I need to say, make fake promises of ‘oh daddy, I’ll show you the best time…I’ll make you cum…’ whatever it takes for them to get a dance with me. Then I take their money, and if they aren’t happy, I really don’t five a fuck, I tell them ‘oh well, good bye,” and I’m on to the next guy.

Strong personalities like Channel’s can be intimidating, and customers can find themselves either being coerced into paying for a lap-dance that they may not have particularity wanted or being lied and tricked into paying for a lap-dance where sexual promises were not kept.

The list of how each customer decides which dancer(s) they want to spend their money on further includes getting a lap-dance because he/she is: enjoying the company of a certain dancer, physically attracted to the dancer, her style and/or her personality, a regular always selecting dancers who they have rapport with, an individual seeking to explore sexual experience with a diverse group of women, someone out-on-the-town looking for fun with any dancer to can add to their excitement, looking for a particular dancer who will provide additional sexual services during a lap-dance, and/or is a customer who selects dancers at random. These factors come into the individual decision-making process that clients have at a strip club.

Customers provide the economic contributions to the club and its dancers; therefore, they hold a significant amount of power to determine how to spend their money and who to spend their money on. However, they are often coerced by the -pitches of dancers to spend their money absent-mindedly. Strippers apply various coercion and manipulation strategies while selling their sexual bodies to customers.

Whether it is the customer’s decision or through the dancer’s persuasion, once an agreement has been made for the consumer to purchase a lap-dance and the supplier (dancer) to provide the service to him/her, both individuals will remove themselves from the main-floor of the strip club and proceed to the VIP-private area. At the Garden of Eden, customers were

92 required to make a payment directly through the club management before being allowed access

into the VIP area. At Serpent’s Temptation and Magdalena’s Theatre, customers and dancers

would handle the cash transactions for lap-dances privately between themselves; all of the dancers working at these clubs mandated that they receive payment prior to giving a customer a

lap-dance. Once a payment has been made, then the dancer can begin her lap-dance.

From my personal experience, and from what the dancers that I spoke with shared,

lap-dances can happen in several different forms. Customers are either seated in an upright

position or positioned on their backs lying down. Each club has furniture to cater to both of these

positions. The VIP section generally consists of a long stretch of wall that is sectioned off into

small sections in order to create a private space where lap-dances can occur. The booths are

about three feet wide in order to allow a customer to be seated comfortably and for a dancer to be

able to fit her legs on both sides of the customer’s body in a straddling position. These private

booths are blocked off by three dividers; one being the back divider or wall that the booth is up

against and the other two barriers are perpendicular to the back wall creating an open-box shape.

The customer sits with his/her back against the wall and faces forward where the dancer will then

proceed with her individualistic lap-dance.

The other type of private dance takes place on a couch, or loveseat, where the guest is

able to comfortably lie down and can still have enough room for a dancer to lie down next to

him/her. Customers who purchase these VIPs are afforded more space and more time with the

dancer, at the cost of having to spend more money. While booth dances only last for one to six

songs (where each song is played for roughly thirty seconds), VIP dances that happen on these

couches last between fifteen and sixty minutes. Booth dances cost between ten and twenty

dollars per song, whereas couch dances are paid for by the minute, ranging from one hundred to

93 six hundred dollars in price. Exotic dancers perform similar, if not equivalent dances, moves and positions in both private booth and couch VIP settings. The differences among these two lap- dance settings are that, VIP dances which take place on a couch are more comfortable, private, and expensive - and last longer. All VIP areas are sectioned off by a wall or curtain of sorts, which does make it possible for illicit acts to occur; however, it is expected that dancers are giving ‘clean’ private-dances absent any sexual servicing sales.

I asked all of the dancers that I spoke with to describe what it was like to give a lap- dance, and what giving a lap-dance entailed. One dancer that I spoke with, Stormy explained:

I start by telling the guy to have a seat. And then, starting at their chest, I take my hands and run them all the way down to the top of their legs. I stand back up, and slowly take off my top, and then I turn around and bend over for them as I take off my bottoms. I turn back to face them, slip off my shoes, and then go to sit on their lap and straddle them with my legs… I usually stay in this position for a little while and just rock back-and-forth on their lap. Sometimes it’s a fast-paced dance, and sometimes it’s slow, depending on the music that’s playing in the background…I also like to stand up on the couch that they sit on and put my vagina in their face. I’ll stay standing and then turn around and shake my little ass in their face too. After, I’ll get off the couch and go back to sit on the guy’s lap. Here, I’ll have my ass on their lap, bouncing up-and-down, or back-and-forth. Once the lap- dance is over I thank him, tell him how amazing it was, even though it wasn’t, take my money, my clothes, and go back to the dressing room.

This description shows that dancers have their own routine when it comes to giving private lap- dances to customers. The general structure of a lap-dance is comprised of continual body display, physical touch, and sexual rubbing of female genitalia (partially or unclothed) on a customer’s clothed genitalia. When lap-dances are given they are shaped by various factors including: which songs are playing in the background, the emotional state of the dancer during the dance, the dancer’s like or dislike towards the client, the customer’s preference of dance (fast/slow tempo or facing towards/away them), the dancer and customer chemistry, as well as the dancer’s ability to function accordingly (is she sober, high, intoxicated, hung-over?). Exotic dancers admit to having had both positive and negative experiences while performing a lap-dance with a 94 customer. Many of the dancers that I spoke with also confessed to experiencing moments of self-

pleasure while working to please her client.

For many customers, the ultimate goal behind receiving a lap-dance is sexual

fulfillment and copulation. Most customers are decent when receiving a lap-dance and will

properly handle their own sexual release by either masturbating in the restroom once the private

dance is finished or ejaculating during the lap-dance into their underwear or a that they

had previously put on. Gigi remarked, “It’s kind of a complement when you dance for someone

and they like it so much that they get-off [ejaculate],” whereas Natalie responded, “it’s so gross

when a guy cums while you are giving him a dance. First off, I have to see his ‘O’ [orgasm] face

which is terrible in itself. And second, all I can think about now, is this dude walking around all-

day with sperm in his pants…like really? Who the fuck does that? Fucking perverts do.” All of

the dancers that I spoke with learned early into their dancing career that they would be

stimulating some of their customers to the point of ejaculation. Even though dancers generally

create false intimacy with their clients, their private performances are innately sexual, and the

clients’ experience pure and true pleasure.

When exotic dancers are not socializing with, performing on stage for, or soliciting

lap-dances from customers, they enjoy their downtime. When there are little-to-no customers in

the club, if all the customers are preoccupied with other dancers, or if a dancer has already

approached each customer and has no success in striking their interests, then she is free to do as

she pleases. Based on observation, experiences, and interviews the women spent their free time

in the club by: talking and gossiping to others, texting on their cellular phones, playing games on their smartphones, calling friends, family, loved ones, eating lunch or going out for a lunch, counting their money, reading, writing, studying for a class or test, using the bathroom, using

95 their vapor cigarette, smoking weed, cigarettes, and/or Black & Mild cigars, snorting cocaine, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, taking prescription drugs for medical and/or recreational purposes, stretching, grooming, sanitizing their body, applying lotions, creams and powders to their skin, touching up hair and makeup, changing outfits, resting their feet, playing with/ fondling other dancers, talking to other staff, practicing pole tricks or dance moves, complaining about being bored, and sharing discussion about the club, their job, and the experiences that they face. There are days where dancers are limited to the amount of free time that they have and other days when business is so slow, that there is nothing to do, but mess around with the other staff in order to help the time pass by.

At the end of every shift, the deejay announces a ‘last call’ for lap-dances. This is the indicator that the club is either about to close, or a shift is about to end and the current dancers will soon be leaving for the night. The dancers walk around to see if they can get one more private dance with a customer. If the dancer is successful she will return to the VIP area for one final dance, and if she is unsuccessful she will return to the dressing room where she will put on her street-clothes and call it a night. When the dancers are dressed in their every day (outside of the strip club) attire they are then escorted out to their car or taxi by the doorman/security guard.

Stormy and many other strippers noted, “Once I get home from the club, I take a needed shower, any bumps and bruises that I may have gotten while crawling on the floor and doing pole tricks, count my money, and go to bed. I’m usually sore and tired after dancing, and all I want after a long and hard night’s work is my bed.”

Why Do Women Become Strippers?

In order to address why women enter the profession of exotic dancing I asked all of my interviewees a series of questions pertaining to their upbringing, how they were introduced to 96 dancing, how long they have worked as a stripper, and the reason why they continue to dance. I also asked what their aspirations were for the future. Each story was unique to the individual dancer, but there were a few reoccurring similarities when reviewing all of the information. I found that there are six predominant reasons why women become exotic dancers. The motivations include: dancing out of necessity, to escape an unfavorable situation, to pay for school, to become financially independent, to support their family, and some women dance for fun.

Twenty percent of the women that I interviewed started dancing because it was necessary at the time and they felt that they had no other options for income. One woman in this group started dancing because she was getting evicted from her house and needed immediate money to avoid homelessness. The remaining three women are all immigrants who started dancing because it was the best solution that they had to make money in the United States. For the individuals who immigrated illegally, stripping was a way to make hard cash without leaving a traceable paper trail behind.

Strip clubs are required to document their established employees; however, women are able to avoid filling out paperwork if they do not stay at a club for an extended period of time. One woman shared that she bounces between four different clubs, only working at each one for a month at a time. She has been working for several years and has never provided her personal information to any management. The various managers are aware of her situation and for a small fee after each shift they allow her to work as a “potential employee,” rather than an

“official employee.” With little opportunities afforded to immigrant women, exotic dancing is a solution to financial security that can be obtained under-the-table.

97 Ten percent of my participants became strippers in order to get out of a bad situation.

Among these two women, one had previously sold drugs on the street and was incarcerated at a young age. Going to the jail was a very scary experience and she decided that dancing would be a legal job opportunity that would render high earnings. The other individual was homeless and wanted a better life for herself. With very little education and no skill set, stripping was the only way she felt that she could make an adequate income. The quick earnings from her work allowed her shelter in a motel and eventually, she was able to rent her own apartment. Exotic dancing permitted these women to stop pushing drugs and sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles.

There was only one individual who started dancing specifically to pay for school.

Representing a small five percent margin reveals that the desire to pay for continued education is not a leading factor in what motivates women to become exotic dancers. While not a leading factor, there are plenty of exotic dancers who become students after they are able to make

adequate earnings. The students I spoke with were dancers first and then became encouraged and

financially capable of returning to school. These individuals were striving to obtain their GED,

associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree. All of the women enrolled in school considered

stripping a temporary job and had bigger aspirations upon the completing on their schoolwork.

The next three women make up fifteen percent of individuals in this study who started

dancing as a means to become financially independent. One participant moved from the Midwest

to the West Coast started dancing in order to support herself and new life in California. Another

individual sought out dancing to gain independence and move out of her parent’s house. The

final woman in this group transitioned from go-go dancing and bartending at a strip club to

exotic dancing so that she could stop working two jobs and manage to pay her bills. Dancing

afforded these women the opportunity to be self-sufficient.

98 The majority of dancers that I interviewed, thirty-five percent, resorted to dancing as

a solution to support their families. All seven of these women stated that they became dancers

specifically to provide a comfortable life for their children. For these women dancing was the

best career choice because not only could they make substantial money, but they could determine

their own work schedule. As independent contractors strippers have the ability to work at nearly

any club that they please and choose the days and hours that they work. This flexible schedule

permits women with children to work around daycare and school schedules, or the schedules of family and loved ones who help raise their children. Exotic dancers can omit to work on holidays and weekends, granting them quality time to spend with their children.

The mothers I spoke with were ambivalent about how they felt working in the exotic dance industry. There was a tendency to conceal their profession from their children; many would tell their little ones that they worked as a or server. The women who had daughters stated that they would never want their to grow up and strip for a living. They had hope for their children that they would grow up educated and amount to more than they had.

Dancing was not the career choice that most of the women in this group had envisioned, but saw dancing as a window of opportunity to provide a better life for their children. These mothers would do anything for their children and made needed sacrifices in order to provide for them.

The final group made up fifteen percent of women who started stripping because they

thought it was fun. The first woman is a Las Vegas, Nevada native and grew up fascinated by the

entertainment and hustle of the city. She loved the nightlife, was a natural performer, and exotic

dancing fit perfectly into personality and lifestyle. The second person in this group started

dancing because of a bet and continued to dance because she found the job fun and exciting. The

third individual grew up in a religiously strict household and started dancing to seek adventure

99 and experience a ‘wild side’ of life. Strip clubs are unique environments where women have a public space to express their feminine and sexual selves. Although there are only three participants who became dancers for the fun-of-it, all of the women I interviewed shared that dancing has its fun and exciting moments.

The following three sections address each individual’s specific background and details why each woman started dancing. These brief biographies reflect that there are various struggles and/or factors that led up to the exact moment that they decided to start dancing. It is important to recognize that majority of these women come from poverty and have a poor socioeconomic background. Ultimately, money and financial security is the leading factor that pulls women into the profession and is the reason why exotic dancers continue to work in the industry. One hundred percent of women in this research admit that money provides some level of incentive to start and continue dancing. The decision to become an exotic dancer is not difficult for many when you can be your own boss, you can work at your own leisure, and there is good money to be made.

A majority of interviews with and research about strippers reveal that women mostly become dancers for economic gain. For example, Wesely (2002:1186, 1196) concludes that the income exotic dancers earn is a powerful incentive to for many women to start dancing. It offers some women who may come from rough backgrounds, poverty, foreign countries, and/or bad relationships a means to achieve economic independence and security. Often women in such circumstances do not have a wide variety of opportunities from which to choose in order to earn an adequate income. As long as there is a demand for the services provided at strip clubs, and men are willing to pay sufficient amounts of money that will in turn support a woman in need of

100 financial stability, the world of exotic dance will continue to thrive, often at the expense of women who are the most vulnerable and oppressed.

New Girls

GIGI was born in France and moved to the United States shortly after she turned eighteen to marry an American man that she had met and fallen in love with online. They eloped after three months of living together and had a picturesque marriage for the first two years until they began having financial problems. Facing eviction, the couple decided that Gigi would try exotic dancing in order to make immediate money and pay their bills. The first night that she worked she made nine hundred fifty-six dollars, which was only one hundred forty-four dollars shy of the total rent on their apartment. Astonished by this quick fix to her problems she continued to work. Gigi has now been dancing for one year and ten months and has paid off all of her debts. She plans to continue to dance for a few more years in order to save money but shared that she will stop if she ever gets pregnant or wins the lottery.

STAR is the youngest individual that I interviewed. She began dancing when she was eighteen and has been dancing for the past year and a half. Star dropped out of high school when she became pregnant with her daughter at age sixteen. Disowned by her family she started dancing in order to provide for her daughter. Averaging five hundred dollars a night she is able to provide food, shelter, day care, and anything else that her baby needs. She stated that she did not want to dance forever, but that it was going to help her financially while she raised her daughter and worked on studying for the GED exam in order to obtain a high school equivalency diploma.

MARTA recently emigrated from Mexico to the United States and has been dancing for three months. While looking for work in Los Angeles she found an ad in Spanish that was 101 looking to hire female dancers. She responded to the ad and began working making roughly two hundred dollars each shift. The strip club not only offered Marta a job where she could make a

decent living, but she was able to work and speak her native Spanish language. Over the past three months, she has been able to rent a room, buy a car, learn English from her co-workers, and

experience a comfortable adjustment living in a foreign country. She plans to dance while she saves money and continues to learn English.

NATALIE was just a little girl when she decided that she wanted to become a pediatric nurse. After she graduated high school she enrolled in a local community college and started working two jobs, in order to pay for her schooling. For two years she struggled to manage her work schedules around her school schedule and found that her education was being drawn out as she was unable to take classes during work hours. With her dream of becoming a nurse still in view, she decided to give stripping a shot. At her two day jobs Natalie was making

on average one hundred ten dollars working ten hours each day. While dancing she was now

making two hundred fifty to five hundred dollars in an eight-hour shift. The math was simple.

Natalie quit her “normal” jobs and for the past year and a half has taken on dancing full time.

She stated, “It was a huge relief to know that I could finally take all the classes that I needed and

didn’t have to juggle around two work schedules. I am now making plenty of money working

half as much, and whenever the club is dead I can sit there on the job and study.” Exotic dancing

relieved her of the stress of working too much which was postponing her education.

KENDRA moved to California from the Midwest less than a year ago after getting

kicked out of her parent’s house. For the first month, she was living out of a room off of the

little savings that she had. Without a permanent address, none of the companies that she applied

for wanted to hire her. Kendra had too much pride to return home and decided that she would

102 dance to make ends meet. For the past eight months, Kendra has averaged twenty-one hundred dollars a week, working five to six days. She has her own studio apartment and has begun taking online courses in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a journalist. While dancing has helped her become self-sufficient, she feels a sense of shame in her occupation and refuses to disclose her job to her friends or family back home. “I have a lot of pride and self-respect, and I know that it would kill my father if he knew what I did to make money, so I tell them that I’m a waitress. I hate lying to them, but…I just don’t want to let them down.” Kendra and many other dancers make the decision to lie to their families about their occupation in order to uphold their

“decent” reputation.

Veteran Dancers

STORMY was twenty-one when she became a single mother to her daughter. In order to afford her studio apartment and child care services, she began waitressing seven-days-a- week at two separate jobs. Feeling overwhelmed, she moved back to her parent’s house and asked for their help. Both of Stormy’s parents worked a nine-to-five job, so she decided that she would find a night job in order to have an off schedule with her parents and manage an appropriate schedule to where her daughter could always be supervised. Stormy openly told her parents and brother that she was going to dance to make a living to support herself and her daughter. For the past four years, she has been dancing at the same club making anywhere from one hundred fifty to six hundred dollars in one night. She has moved out of her parent’s house into her own place and has money to cover child care services. Stormy plans to dance for as long as she can, meaning she will stop once she becomes older and undesirable to customers and is no longer able to make decent money. Until then she has support from her loved ones, adequate income, a flexible schedule, and a means to raise her daughter. 103 SUGAR grew up in East Los Angeles and began selling marijuana as a sophomore in high school. As an adolescent, she was kicked out of high school for dealing and continued to push drugs up until she became incarcerated for possession of a controlled substance at age twenty-three. After spending a few months in jail she decided to stop dealing and look for other work. With no high school diploma, she managed to find a job making minimum wage at a fast food restaurant. Dissatisfied with the mundane job where she was making a meager earning, she approached her cousin who was an exotic dancer to find out more about the job. The two of them went to the club and Sugar’s cousin guided her through her first shift. She made three hundred dollars her first night, which was more than she was making working one week at her job. Sugar found excitement in dancing. In addition, it was a legal way to make the same amount of money while receiving the same thrill that she got while selling drugs on the streets. For the past two years, she has enjoyed dancing and stated, “I don’t know how long I will dance for, I take things day-by-day, but I guess I’ll stop when I get bored of it.”

DIVA was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and living near the strip she became familiar with the world of sex work from an early age. Prior to stripping she was a go-go dancer then eventually transitioned to exotic dancing at age twenty-one. She has continued to dance for the past three and a half years hopping back and forth from various clubs in Las Vegas,

Los Angeles, San Francisco, and various other cities in the United States. Diva shares, “I live city-to-city depending on where I feel like working,” and loves the freedom that she has to work wherever she pleases whenever she pleases. Presently, Diva is pregnant with her first child and continues to dance in order to save up money for the baby. While still in her first trimester, she intends to stop dancing once her baby bump starts to show. Unsure of whether she will return back to dancing once her child is born, she did assure that she enjoyed the experiences that she

104 had, the money that she made, and the places that she was able to travel to while working as a

stripper.

DOLORES was born and raised in El Salvador and came to the United States

immediately after she turned eighteen. Unable to work legally in the United States, Dolores needed to find a means to make money. She asked around where she could find work when she

came across three Latinas who were polished and primped from head-to-toe. Dolores stated, “I

remember thinking how beautiful these women were with their nice clothes, fancy makeup, and

jewelry. I asked them what do they do for a living and they told me they were strippers, and I

could make enough money to buy a Mercedes-Benz if I were dance also. I did not hesitate one

minute; I was at the club that night.” The three Latinas took her to a club consisting of primarily

Spanish-speaking clientele where she made one hundred sixty dollars her first night. Dolores

described feeling like a millionaire that first night of dancing. She has continued to dance for the

past three years and wishes to dance until there is no more money to be made.

HANNAH first stripped on the premise of a bet at a friend’s twentieth birthday party

at a strip club. Never one to back down from a dare she got up on stage and took off all of her

clothes while dancing to Madonna’s song, “Like a Virgin” The spontaneity of living in the

moment and getting naked in front of strangers was a thrilling experience for Hannah. For the rest of the party, she asked the dancers what it was like to be a stripper, and she was surprised that many enjoyed their job and the money they brought home each night. On the way out of the club that manager approached Hannah and offered her a job based on her performance, she told him she would think about it, then after a week, she showed up with a pair of newly purchased stilettos and a sexy thong bikini. It has now been two years since that bet, and Hannah still gets

105 the same initial thrill. She plans on taking classes towards becoming a dental assistant but enjoys her work dancing in the meantime.

BAILEY grew up in a strict Mormon household and became rebellious towards her parents and their religious beliefs in her early teens. Once she became a legal adult she left her home in Montana and made California her new residence. Seeking a life of excitement, adventure, and rule-breaking, Bailey began smoking, drinking, and stripping. Bailey revealed, “I felt suffocated living the Mormon life, and when I came to California, I felt reborn.” Working four and a half years at several different clubs, Bailey has come to learn about a lifestyle that counters strict religious beliefs and morals. Bailey shared that she does not intend on dancing much longer because the initial excitement of stripping has worn off. Her career aspirations are to become a veterinarian assistant one day.

XIOMARA grew up taking care of her two younger siblings while her mom worked as a stripper to support them. She was accustomed to her mother sleeping in all day and working all night as she walked her brother and sister to school, fed them, and helped them with their homework. When Xiomara became an adult, and her siblings were old enough to take care of themselves, she decided to start dancing to help provide financially for her family, with secret hopes of moving out of her house. Xiomara stated, “For me, stripping was no big deal because my mom danced. Also being Latina and living in the ghetto, nobody expects you to become a

doctor or nothing. For us, stripping is a respectable job.” Xiomara was enculturated to accept and

understand the benefits of exotic dancing. For the past three years, she has danced without shame

or embarrassment of her occupation.

ALANA is twenty-six years old and has been dancing for the past five years. At age twenty she became pregnant with twin boys and married her army boyfriend. She started dancing

106 while her husband was deployed in order to cover child care and medical expenses from her

pregnancy. Once she was able to get caught up with her finances she took a break from dancing

and accepted a full-time job working at a hardware store. After a month working at her new job,

she found out that she was pregnant with her third child. She gave birth to her daughter, quit her

job at the hardware store, and decided to return to stripping. Alana explained, “Dancing made more sense than working a regular job because I could make what I was earning in two weeks at

the hardware store in a matter of three to four nights working at the club. I could be financially comfortable and have more time to spend with my children.” While dancing offered a reasonable income, it placed a strain on her marriage with her husband. After three and a half years of

dancing, her husband filed for divorce because of jealousy and trust issues surrounding her job.

Alana refused to quit dancing in order to mend her relationship with her husband because it gave

her independence and financial stability while her husband was away serving in the army. She

states, “I had no physical or emotional connection with my husband when he was overseas. I was

alone taking care of our three children and he wanted to try to control me from the other side of

the world. I told him that I was going to continue dancing and taking care of our babies the best

way that I knew how to, and he called me a whore and filed for divorce.” Alana is happily single

and plans to dance until her daughter is old enough to attend kindergarten.

CHANNEL grew up in a household with her mom, stepfather, and half-sister Roxy.

As a child, she never got along with her step-father, and once she became a teenager the arguments with him were unbearable. At age thirteen she dropped out of middle school and ran

away from home to live her life free of rules and structure in Hollywood, California. Finding

refuge at a youth shelter, she enjoyed her independence and the company of her peers and

mentors. They would make weekly trips to museums, the , the cinema and so forth. When

107 she turned eighteen she was no longer eligible to stay at the youth shelter and was released to the streets of Los Angeles. In order to make money, she got a job at a strip club and was able to support herself. For the past eight years, she has continued to dance stating, “I became homeless at thirteen and lived that way for five years. Since becoming a stripper I have made more money than I could ever dream of. I don’t think I’ll be quitting anytime soon.” Channel came from a low socio-economic background and dancing provided a means of economic mobility for her.

ROXY is Channel’s half-sister. Roxy remained in the household until she became pregnant with her son at age seventeen. She moved into her boyfriend’s house and gave birth shortly after. The couple quickly realized the financial strain of having a child and living on their own, so Roxy decided to contact Channel to ask her about exotic dancing. The sisters had an extremely estranged relationship throughout their but came together as partners in the strip club. The two worked together each night helping one another get dances and tips. Roxy has now been dancing for the past six years alongside her sister. She is no longer in a relationship with her son’s father but manages to financially support her son and herself without concern.

Career Dancers

MONICA is thirty-two years old and has been dancing for the past fourteen years.

When she was eighteen she moved out of her parent’s house in West Virginia to begin a new life in California. She took a job go-go dancing and started working as a bartender at a strip club in order to pay for her tiny studio apartment. Within three months she advanced from bartending to stripping and was making roughly twelve-hundred dollars working three nights a week. Monica explained how dancing gave her confidence and made her feel more attractive with every dollar earned. At the end of each night, she would feel strong and sexy as she counted the twenties and 108 hundreds in her wallet. Monica even met the love of her life while working at her Hollywood

strip club. At twenty-five, she got married and two years later she had her first son. By the time she was thirty her and her husband had two beautiful sons and Monica was the happiest she had ever been. Unfortunately, less than a year ago her husband admitted to cheating on her while she worked late nights at the club. Monica shared, “my world has been flipped upside down. I was once happily married and now I worry about mediation and lawyer fees, not to mention how my children are handling the whole divorce. My husband just stopped loving me.” Over the past ten months, Monica has become depressed and has lost a total of thirty-three pounds. She spends every second that she is not with her children at the strip club because the strip club has become a sanctuary from all the negative aspects that she is dealing with at home. Monica plans to dance until she is no longer desirable to customers.

MISHA began dancing at age twenty-four after she immigrated to the United States

from Russia. She started dancing in order to make money as well as to find herself an American suitor. After working one year at the club she ended up marrying one of her regular customers

and began to fall in love. Misha noted, “I did not love my husband when I first met him, but he

spent months and hundreds of dollars to woo me. After I agreed to marry him, and we had our

first child together, I saw how wonderful of a father he was and I learned to love him.” Misha

has now been married to her husband for nine years and has three children with him. Her husband has supported her dancing career and takes pride in Misha’s sexy and seductive stripper- side. Misha enjoys dancing and is fortunate to have a partner that supports her decision to dance; she wishes to continue dancing until she saves enough money to put her three children through college. Misha shared, “I dance to make money, and I want my children to be able to go to college so that they never have to struggle and live in poverty like I once did in Russia. The

109 sacrifices that I make are always with my children in mind and I am just lucky that I have a

family and husband that love and support me regardless of what others might think.”

ZARA started dancing at age twenty-two and has continued to dance for the past

thirteen years. Zara became a stripper after she had her first son and needed to find a means to

provide for him. She started making approximately five hundred dollars each shift; providing an

immediate solution to her financial problems. After her son turned nine, Zara became

unexpectedly pregnant back-to-back with two more boys. With three children to support, dancing

was the best solution to her problems. While dancing provided an adequate income, Zara had

always dreamed of being a clothing designer. For the past three years, Zara has been designing

and sewing outfits for her fellow dancers. Zara explained, “I don’t really enjoy dancing

much, but the money is good. I am trying to expand my business of designing stripper clothes so

I can hopefully stop dancing.” Zara felt trapped because of how lucrative her dancing career is

and its ability to offer an adequate income that is otherwise unattainable for an unskilled and

uneducated person such as herself. Fortunately, she has found her niche in the industry as a

clothing designer and hopes that within the next few years she can stop dancing completely and

focus her attention on making clothes for fellow dancers.

JULES is forty-three years old and is the oldest person that I had the pleasure of

interviewing. Jules started dancing when she was twenty years old after she became pregnant and

was kicked out of her parent’s house. Jules danced during the first two trimesters of her

pregnancy and saved enough money to pay for an apartment and all of her medical expenses.

After she gave birth she went back to dancing in order to support herself and her new baby. At age twenty-one dancing was both exciting and financially rewarding; Jules had no problem of being a single-mother and was enjoying new adventures each day that she was working. By the

110 time she was twenty-five she got pregnant with her second daughter and maintained her stripper

lifestyle. Jules commented, “Dancing was fun, exciting, and I was making more money than

most twenty-something-year-olds could imagine. I have been dancing for so long now that the

job is just a part of me and who I am.” Jules identifies greatly with her dancer profession and

continues to dance until she stops making money. Presently the majority of her clients are

regulars whom she has been dancing with for many years. The consistency in their patronage to

Jules allows her to make the same if not more money than the younger and newer girls at the

club. Jules noted, “As I have aged in this profession I have learned that men care more about the

services rendered than the actual appearance or age of the dancer herself. As long as I am willing

to offer services that clients are seeking there will always be a place for me in the club.”

VENUS was eighteen when she married her high school sweetheart and had their first

child together. Both Venus and her husband came from a poor upbringing in Los Angeles and

started working nontraditional jobs in order to support their family. Venus started dancing and her husband began selling drugs in order to make ends meet. Within a year, Venus’ earnings from dancing allowed the couple to move into their own apartment, buy a car, and her husband was able to stop selling drugs. By age twenty Venus became pregnant with their second child and she continued to dance as a wife and mother of two. Venus has been the primary financial provider for the family and her husband stays at home taking care of the children. Coming from a poor background Venus takes great pride in her ability to financially support her family. For the past fifteen years, Venus has danced to support her husband and two children. She has made a career out of dancing and promises to continue dancing until she is no longer able to make money as a stripper. She expects to dance until she is at least fifty years old and will only take on a regular once she becomes, “old, ugly, and boring.” All career dancers understand that their

111 occupation will only last as long as they are desired, meaning that there is a cap on what is

considered beautiful, sexy, and age appropriate within the industry of exotic dancing.

Power-Relationships Between Exotic Dancers and Customers

To address the power dynamic between exotic dancers and their customers, I have

drawn on Pasko’s (2002) work, the experiences and descriptions about customer relationships

from my interviewees, and I also investigate such relationships under the theoretical framework

of symbolic interactionism and performativity. According to Pasko (2002:50), “the stripper-

customer interaction is based on the stripper’s economic need and the customer’s desire to enact

feelings of masculinity and sexual fulfillment.” Dancers apply a “confidence game” strategy

where they display confidence in order to manipulate men into giving them money, whether that

be in the form of a tip, drink, or dance (Pasko 2002:52). During this confidence game, dancers

use false intimacy in order to get money from their customer, which affords them a substantial

amount of power over any particular male patron. Gigi provided:

I say and tell my customers just about whatever it takes in order to get their money. I tell them how good I can make them feel, how sexy they are, how wet or horny that I am for them…tell them that I promise to make them cum if they get a dance from me…I don’t really mean anything that I’m saying, but hey - they like it, and I can get my lap dances [money] at the end of the day.

Gigi’s comment illustrates that through flirtation, lies and false promises, she is able to coax certain customers into spending their money on her. Pasko (2002:50) asserts that through symbolic communication, dancers stage-manage their own emotions in order to forge feelings of intimacy during customer interactions, as a tactical way to manipulate the emotions, and perhaps monetary spending, of their customers.

112 The notion of the confidence game, which Pasko (2002) adopts from Goffman’s

(1958) work, is a continual act of deception. The primary actor in this ‘game’ is the confident

person, or in this case the exotic dancer, whose goal is to swindle their relational counterpart, the

customer, by creating a likable or desirable personality type, in order to manipulate and prey on

the “psychological vulnerabilities” of the customer (Pasko 2002:52). Roxy shared with me, “It’s

pretty sad sometimes, how easy it is to get these guys [customers] to fall head-over-heels for you.

You just have to smile and tell them how wonderful they are, and once you make them feel good

enough about themselves, they start throwing their money at you.” Acquiring lap-dances and

money from clients certainly entails more effort than simply fulfilling their ego, but nonetheless,

Roxy’s statement falls into this realm of dancers assessing the needs of their customers and applying certain tricks to cater to the overall enjoyment and satisfaction of the guest in order to be rewarded with money.

All of the dancers that I interviewed have shared that they expect their customers to

be gracious with tipping when they are seated at the stage area and/or after they have received a

lap dance from a dancer. Dolores stated, “After each lap-dance, I stick out my hand [palm open

flat and facing up] and I wait for my tip.” Without the use of words, Dolores used symbolic hand

gestures to communicate with the guest that an additional tip was expected. She continued, “if

they [the customers] don’t get it [the hand cue], then I tell them, ‘you know it’s rude not to give a tip afterwards’ [a lap-dance]…And if they want to be dicks and not tip me, I get bitchy and tell them to fuck-off and go somewhere else - if they want to be cheap mother-fuckers.” In opposition to this, when dancers are tipped during a stage performance, or after performing a private dance, then they often politely thank the customer and move onto the next guest. Pasko

(2002:50) acknowledges the act of giving a tip to a dancer is a symbolic gesture of satisfaction

113 from the consumer’s end. When dancer implements strategies including, “, feigning

emotional closeness and vulnerability, and becoming ideal sexual provocateurs as well as mental

stimulators,” she increases her chances of receiving tips and overall economic success in a given

shift (Pasko 2002:50).

Pasko’s (2002) work recognizes that strippers are highly invested in their role-play

with clients while working. The confidence game exists on the basis that dancers perpetuate false

intimacy to their clients; however, at times dancers can become exceedingly involved in their

role as a performer, and the line between false and authentic intimacy can be blurred. Pasko

(2002:55) illustrates:

Strippers ‘work up’ the emotional process of titillation and sexual desire – warmth, attention, lust, interest, attraction, availability, wanting. They do not merely ‘surface’ act, where facial expressions and body postures always seem fake, contrived and disingenuous. They do not continuously and consciously remind themselves ‘this is just an act.’ Rather, strippers seek to act authentically, not by pretending to be a sexual object but rather by becoming one. Strippers use this ‘deep acting’ when they create emotions that seem sincere and spontaneous, even though they are covertly managed. Through their dress, language and movements, they produce ‘real’ acts of seduction and intimacy; they become sexual provocateurs. Through careful communication and display work, strippers construct and maintain seemingly genuine relations with their customers.

This is directly related to Butler’s (1988) work on performativity, where the actor becomes

unable to disassociate between the ‘real’ and the ‘performed’ self. Strippers invest a great

amount of time and effort into their performances; they self-perpetuate themselves as objects of

lustful desire. The performances are intended to be fictitious, but exotic dancers are real people,

with real emotions, and they have real interactions with their customers; it is reasonable to say that a number of dancer-customer relations do entail a certain level, if not complete, honesty, pureness and/or mutual sexual satisfaction.

Whether or not the dancer invests her own emotional or sexual involvement with a client, her job is to maintain her customer’s satisfaction from the beginning to the very end of 114 their interaction. One of my correspondents, Monica noted, “When I finish giving a lap-dance I always thank my customer and try to be really nice to them. It’s important because they might want to buy another dance from you, or they might tip you a little more.” Pasko (2002:60) discusses the importance for dancers to remain friendly and complimentary every moment that she is with a paying guest because, “strippers want the customer to believe she had genuine interest in him, that he is worthy of her sexual display and advances.” Strippers’ fuel customer- egos and they pretend to be emotionally and/or physically interested in their guests, and this often leads to the customer falling love-struck or infatuated with a particular dancer. Hannah

remarked:

I have guys falling in love with me all the time. Some of them think that I actually like them and that I want to be with them. Others try to like, ‘save’ me, or something. Like I’m some poor, desperate stripper, who needs a knight-in-shinning-armor to sweep me off-my- feet…other guys try to get me to go home with them by telling me that they’ll be my sugar- daddy, and buy me whatever I want…and then there are those guys who just won’t stop bugging me for sex.

This issue is addressed by Pasko (2002:60) who writes, “If a customer wishes to see the dancer

socially outside the club, the dancer most often refuses and the trust is violated. The confidence

game becomes obvious to the customer: the dancer is not sexually or socially interested in him,

despite the high cost paid.” When the dancer outright denies the customer, it becomes a reality

that she is only available as a sexual object while in the confines of the strip club walls - her

emotional investment into her client, is merely a fictions embodiment of sexual desire.

Through the use of performance and symbolic interactionism, strippers manage to

understand their customer’s needs and manipulate them into spending their cash on them.

Pasko’s (2002:63) exploration of the confidence game, which is enacted by exotic dancers,

renders that:

115 The stripper–customer interaction is a complicated mixture of manipulation and control of emotions and communication. Strippers must ‘con and cool out’ their customers in order to keep both pleasure and tips high. They must realize their customers’ needs and imagine how the customer will react to their movements. It is through the stripper’s ability to be both subject and object that she is able to counterfeit intimacy and create herself as a sex object. Crucial to the success of the stripper is her ability to understand male sexual desires and to anticipate male behaviour.

They prompt this notion of false intimacy, but can divulge into authentic feelings throughout the duration of their interactions with their customers, if they so please. Kindness and friendliness are used by dancers to influence their customers to reciprocate the affability, by providing gratuity at the end of any given dancer-customer interaction. Such positive attitudes must be maintained in order for dancers to have future success with acquiring lap-dances from customers; unfriendly strippers are less likely to obtain new customers and/or establish reoccurring ones.

Strippers essentially become masters at being able to read and manipulate their customers through the practice of this confidence game.

Pasko (2002) ultimately concludes that in strip club society, despite all appearances to the contrary, the dominant power-relation is in the hands of men, customers, and management - especially as exotic dancers inhabit the role of a working sexual object available for consumption in exchange for ‘filthy’ lucre. Strippers rely on their customers for their income, and if they are constantly denied and/or rejected, then this affects their financial situation. In later sections, I will also discuss the verbal, physical and emotional abuses that strippers endure while working at their jobs, as further testimony that exotic dancers are, in the larger scheme of things, subordinate to their male counterparts. Many exotic dancers will accept being objectified and tolerate a level of disrespect and/or perhaps physical violation in order to make their daily monetary quota.

I must iterate that power is not necessarily determined solely by who has more money, considering that in many situations it is the stripper with more cash on her than some

116 readily available customers. Power roles are in place and assigned to the customer (usually a man) because they have the ability and means to purchase a stripper for her time and services; making the stripper an object valued for her sexual worth. The stripper may manipulate and con her clients into spending their money on her, but still, she assumes the object and purchasable status. The objectification and commodification of the stripper’s body and sexuality is what inevitably dehumanizes her, and removes her power in all client-based relationships.

Dancers may be dehumanized because they sell their sexual selves; however, it must be recognized that there does exist a dual process of the humanization of the stripper, in that, she is given the ability to enact on humanly instincts of sexuality and pleasure. The notion of thrill and excitement is most certainly prevalent among sex workers. The adrenaline that courses through their body before they go on-stage, or the rush and exhaustion that a dancer experiences during and after a lap-dance are equally fundament aspects of human nature. Rendering strippers as solely commodified sex objects, becomes a blurred reality when assessing the livelihood and thrill that strippers feel and experience at their job. Stripping in this sense, allows women to feel alive, and counters the dehumanization process that many associate with sex workers.

Establishing Personal Rules and Boundaries at Work

Exotic dancers protect themselves from physical abuse and emotional distress by creating rules pertaining to their own sexual limits and comforts with clients. There are many instances in which individual dancers will establish personal rules that dictate what moves or activities she is and is not willing to perform while at work (Barton 2007:581-582). Often dancers will avoid eye contact with clients while on stage or during private dances. They might also establish other rules such as no kissing, no touching, and/or no dating policies. They might

117 also consider what type of club they are or are not comfortable working at. Many exotic dancers are not comfortable working fully nude and will opt to work at a topless or bikini bar instead.

These are ways in which dancers negotiate the boundaries of their own limits of sexual participation and conduct. If a customer breaks an established rule, then the dancer will have to deal with the consequences of that potential psychological and/or physical abuse. These are risks that come with the territory and ones that dancers must assume in exchange for the opportunity to earn their wages.

Strippers are required to dance completely naked on stage, revealing every inch of their body, physicality, and sensuality to an array of strangers. Stage dances are the way that dancers sell themselves to their viewers in order to make additional money from intimate lap- dances. With the exception of Magdalena’s Theatre, which only offered topless lap-dances, the women at their particular clubs were expected to dance privately with paying customers fully naked.

While all of the clubs have a “no touching” policy, this is often overlooked by management.

Dancers are truly responsible for setting and maintaining their own boundaries with their customers. Many women choose to playfully interact with their customers via touching. I watched numerous stage dances where women would instigate playful touch with the clients. I saw women grab customer’s hands and slide them down the sides of their body, women pulling men’s heads into their cleavage, or even bending over and asking a client to smack her derrière.

The women who interacted with their audience in this fashion did so as a tactical maneuver to maximize their tips and increase the chances of being hired for private dances through heightening the appearance of authentic promiscuity.

118 Dancers navigate the ‘fine line’ between appearance and authenticity by removing

any emotional investment from their clients and actions. Channel explained, “I just see the men

for their wallets and nothing else…I pretend to enjoy dances because guys want to believe that

you’re into them, and if they think you like them, and you like dancing with them, then they give

you money.” Dancers’ may perceive lap-dances with customers as economic transactions absent

of any emotional investment. The sexually explicit actions that dancers routinely perform during

stage dances and private lap-dances, over time, become mundane and unauthentic. Strippers will

fake the intimacy that is required during private dances in order to be successful in maintaining a

steady intake of clientele.

All of the women that I interviewed tolerated a small amount of touching while

performing private dances. The most commonly accepted form of physical contact permitted

practiced by all dancers I spoke with was to allow clients to caress their sides and hold onto their waistline. Many of the dancers also allowed minimal fondling. Stormy explained, “When I give a lap dance I try to make it sexy, and in the heat of the moment, I am not going to be offended if the guy touches my boobs or my butt. I will say something if it gets out-of-line.” Only four women allowed men to kiss or put their mouths on their body. A majority of the women I spoke with could block out being touched by a client, but kissing was too intimate and personal to share with a stranger. While each dancer has their own personal limitations as to what they permitted of clients during their private dances, customers frequently ignored these boundaries.

Every single dancer that I spoke with shared stories of instances where she had been inappropriately handled while entertaining a guest. The most common form of sexual harassment was excessive touching and kissing. All of the twenty dancers reported that they had customers squeeze and grab their breasts and buttocks in an aggressive manner. They also shared that

119 customers often tried to touch, kiss, and/or suck all over their bodies, particularly their vaginas

and anus’ during private dances. I asked the ladies how they handled these uncomfortable

situations and Dolores responded, “I will first give them a warning like gently slapping their

hand and waving a “no” with my finger. If it happens a second time, I stop and firmly tell them

to stop doing whatever stupid shit that they’re doing. And if the dumbass does it a third time, I

get up and leave, and let my manager take care of him.” This response was common among most

dancers, where they would give multiple warnings to their clients to stop any inappropriate

touching. The dancers said that customers respected these warnings more often than not, and

would stop their actions.

Generally, dancers use passive verbal and/or nonverbal communication as means to

stop the unwanted behavior from customers. The dancers may: giggle when they tell a customer

to stop doing inappropriate behavior, they may smile and shake their head and/or finger side-to- side as nonverbal means to communicate “no” to their clients, whisper softly in a client’s ear asking him nicely to stop, flirtatiously make comments such as “you’re being a bad boy” or

“you’re being naughty…you need to stop that,” slap their hands away in a non-hurtful manner, stop dancing and stand up to give distance between them and their customer, and/or politely tell them “no thank you!” If the customer continues to act inappropriately, then the dancer generally gets more assertive in her action and tone. The giggles, whispers, and politeness will go away and stronger verbal communication such as “don’t you fucking touch me like that,” “what the hell are you doing,” “get your hands/ mouth/ cock off-of me!” will be rendered. Six of my participants admitted to slapping a customer who had physically violated them.

The final approach to stopping the continued harassment is to leave the customer, address the problem with management, and escape the situation entirely. I watched one woman

120 at Garden of Eden storm out from the VIP area, cussing out the man she was dancing with. The

management did intervene and escorted the customer out of the club. Customers rarely get thrown out of clubs because management and dancers prefer that they stay and spend their

money. In order to maintain business from customers, and ensure a certain level of order and

respect during private dances, exotic dancers primarily implement a flirtatious and passive-

aggressive behavior to communicate their personal boundaries. Gigi shared, “it’s really quite

simple to get customers to stop grabbing at you. Just twirl your hair and tell them, ‘No, sorry…I’m not that kind of girl.’ And they usually stop. Some guys even get turned on when you tell them ‘no’ and put them in-their-place.” Monica stated, “It is important to establish your own boundaries as a dancer. I suggest that you [dancers] don’t make false promises just to get a dance with a customer. Also, simply let customers know what you [as a dancer] are or aren’t comfortable with from the start.” Stormy added, “I find that the nicer you are to customers then the more respectful they are to you. If you kindly ask a customer to stop doing something, then nine times out-of-ten he will. It’s the customers who are dicks, and want to break rules, and have every intension of harassing dancers that are going to do so, no matter what. Those are the assholes that get kicked-out by management and that I try not to fuck-with.” An ideal way to handle inappropriate situations and interactions with customers at a strip club is for dancers to respectfully assert their own personal rules and boundaries to every customer that they come in contact with.

Precautions Made to Protect Dancers Outside of Work

Customers are potential threats to dancers. They can cause physical harm and harass them while dancers are working and when their shift is finished. It is essential that management

121 and exotic dancers take certain safety precautions to protect the women outside of work. All of

the clubs that I visited had a security person, referred to as ‘security’ or ‘door-man,’ which would escort each dancer to her car or taxi at the end of her shift in exchange for a small tip, usually around five dollars. Alana explained, “All the [security] guy does is walk me to my car every night, and I pay him for less than a minute’s worth of work…Sometimes he doesn’t even help me with [carrying] my bags…But I know that I have a lot of money on me when I’m done with work, and so I don’t mind having a big dude with a taser, walk me to my car each night.” This service was small, yet highly regarded by the women I spoke with because it assured that they would have some line of defense against theft and . Male security is socially perceived and accepted as a symbol of legitimate protection, because of the stereotype that women need men to protect them from dangerous encounters with other men. Having male security guards at strip clubs, are perhaps more of a token, or symbol of protection, feeding into people’s ideas of how women may be prevented from harm, rather than an actual commitment to individual dancer’s safety. Nonetheless, this escort service is a tactic that clubs use to deter customers and other individuals from harassing dancers when they leave work.

Strip club security guards are not a guaranteed way to protect dancers. Monica had experienced a robbery after working a busy night shift. The incident happened early in her dancing career and nearly deterred her from continuing to dance. She had earned over three hundred dollars and was escorted to her car just like any other night. Monica had thanked and paid the doorman before she drove out from the parking lot, and was stopped at a stop sign waiting for a pedestrian to cross. Rather than crossing the street, the individual ran up to

Monica’s car and pointed a gun at her while demanding her purse. She was scared and obeyed his orders before the man disappeared into the darkness. After a month’s hiatus from working,

122 Monica reentered the industry at a new club in a safer location. In addition, she makes sure to keep her money in two separate purses and leaves the club with her doors locked and windows rolled up. Dancers need to be mindful of the work that they do, and the large sums of cash that they carry in their purses after a successful night’s work. Exotic dancers need to be aware of the safety of their surrounding environments and should consider what areas they are comfortable working in.

In addition, there are no ways that management and security can prevent their dancers

from stalking and harassment in or outside of the workplace. These are potential factors that

dancers face who may get too involved with their customers. The false intimacy that is created by exotic dancers when they are working can be mistaken for real intimacy and attraction.

Customers can become obsessive over a dancer. Gigi’s personal experience with a stalker started

three months into her career when a customer walked into the club and was immediately

attracted to her French accent, red hair, and tall slender body. The first time she met him she was ecstatic because he spent over six hundred dollars on her for a private dance. Over time, the man kept coming in and continued to buy private dances and to spoil her with expensive gifts. Gigi stated, “He became really possessive. He would park outside of my work waiting for me to show up, and I would have to hurry inside to avoid him. Then he wouldn’t let me talk to any other

customers and told me that he would be my sugar-daddy and could take care of me.” Gigi was

eventually followed by this man after a shift and drove her car to the police station in order to

send a message. Gigi addressed the issue with management and the stalker was banned from the

club without hesitation.

In order to protect each dancer’s identity outside of the club, it is best for dancers to

conceal their birth names and any other indicators of their life such as where they live and where

123 they go to school. Dancers create a pseudonym or ‘stage-name’ for themselves, which is how

they are identified by every participant in the club, including owners, managers, disk jockeys,

doormen/security, customers, and other dancers. Management keeps a copy of each woman’s

personal information in a secure location and only refers to this paperwork if a person of authority comes in to ask questions about a particular employee. Unless an exotic dancer is arrested and her information becomes public information, her paperwork will be protected from customers. Management truly only knows and addresses each dancer by her stage-name.

The ‘stage-name’ or ‘stripper-name’ is the ascribed alter identity that each dancer creates for herself. Each dancer transforms into her alter identity the moment that she enters the doors of the strip club. Diva explained to me that around her family and friends she is usually soft spoken and very polite, but that when she goes to work she becomes more outspoken and sexually aggressive, describing her dancer-self as a “bad-ass bitch.” Stormy is a mother-by-day, but at night she becomes a “sexy rocker chick” who is absent of her motherhood role. Dancers can choose whatever name, clothes, and attitude that they want when they are at the club.

Creating this alter identity is primarily a strategy to protect the dancer’s true identity from being known. The alter egos that dancers encompass may also provide a means for dancers to compartmentalize and decipher between these two lived identities; their home and work identity.

Every stripper gets to decide who she wants to be - while dancing. This decision constitutes a modicum of agency to strippers, who are otherwise profoundly constrained by their occupational expectations, whereby strippers must conform to societal gender standards of beauty and must exploit their sexual selves. Providing dancers with agency and power to formulate their own stripper identity is. Agency is valuable in this work environment because it allows women to come to their own decisions of self-identity while they are sexually exploiting

124 themselves. Stage names are versatile and chosen for a number of reasons. I had two individuals who named themselves after their favorite celebrities. Eight of my interviewees chose names that they had always liked. Four women wanted a name that was overly sexual and another three wanted a cutesy pet-name. The remaining three women chose to name themselves after someone that they knew personally. Some dancers stick with one stage name, while others adopt several different identities throughout their careers. Many veteran and career dancers are deeply invested in their stripper persona. Prolonged careers tend to strengthen the individual’s connection to their stripper name and identity. It is important for strippers to have a level of power and control over how they want to formulate their dancer identity because it allows dancers their individual freedom of expression and serves as a means to separate their personal and work lives/identities.

Exotic dancers all live considerably more normal lives outside of work as mothers, daughters, sisters, students, wives, community members, activists, financial providers, and domestic caretakers. These roles in their regular lives need to be protected from aggressors, perverts, and stalkers that they might encounter while working. Stage names serve as a dancer’s form of self-expression, they prevent customers from being able to research and locate dancers outside of the club, and they also help dancers psychologically by allowing them to differentiate and separate their home and their work identities.

Customers have the decision whether to tell strippers their real name or to conceal their true identities. All the dancers that I talked to had customers that would simply never state their names and other names that were obviously made-up; two examples include “Johnny

Bravo,” and “Elvis Presley.” The exotic dancers that I spoke with, who had regular clientele, knew each regular’s personal information and various stories about their lives. Jules knew her clients’ work schedules, their wives and children’s names, where the family would go on

125 vacations, and many other intimate facts about them. Some customers open up to dancers as if they are friends or companions, and do not lie about who they are. Other customers are keen on giving exotic dancers their business cards with their information on it, in hopes of meeting a dancer of their liking outside of the club for a casual get-together or intimate liaison. Star shared that she has kept a collection of business cards from clients as a trophy, of sorts. Star stated, “I get business cards from men all over the state, the country, and even a few from men who were at the club, traveling from other countries…I’ve been given cards from men who work as CEO’s of companies, to guys who work in sales and plumbing.” Customers hand out their business cards because it is supposed to protect them from being called at home; receiving a call from a mistress at work is a much safer and clandestine option than having her call a home line. It is important to consider what percentage of information that is shared among club participants is honest and true and what percent of information is falsified, or used as a tool to protect individuals, and/or to enhance their qualities.

There are cases where dancers take advantage, deceive, steal from, and harass customers. Channel reported taking advantage of several drunken customers and sneaking money out of their wallets. In the event that exotic dancers are able to access customer wallets, then there is a possibility for stolen credit cards, identity theft, and fraud to occur. These scenarios are rare because customer wallets are often inaccessible, but they can happen. Exotic dancers can also cause a disturbance in customer’s personal lives as well. Monica recalled a story of a coworker, who managed to obtain access to a customer’s cell phone during a private dance.

Monica’s coworker wrote down the customer’s home phone number and decided to call his wife, and inform her about her husband’s actions and time-spent at the strip club. Being that Monica is a secondary source for this information, I am unable to discern the events that lead up to the

126 dancer’s decision to interfere with her customer’s marriage. I could only assume that the dancer

had a physical and emotional relationship with the man, and something triggered her to snap. For customers to best protect themselves from trickery and scandal, it is important that they pay close attention to their wallets, their money, and their spending while visiting a club; the best way to do this is to not be high or intoxicated. Also, customers should monitor their emotional investment and how much trust that they give to a dancer.

Verbal Abuse Within the Strip Club

The club environment consists of loud music which muffles the individual conversations that occur. The conversational privacy that dancers and customers have, allows their discussions to be unfiltered and intimate. Sometimes these conversations are sweet and respectful, but other times exchanged words can be hurtful or vulgar. Management expects dancers to be pleasing to the guests, flirtatious, and complementary. Most dancers adhere to these expectations and are friendly to the men that they approach. Even the biggest divas in the clubs who appear to have a feisty attitude while on stage show a coy and softer side to them while interacting directly with the customers. Dancers put effort into being kind and likable by customers, but this is not always reciprocated.

There are a number of customers who respond disrespectfully to dancers. The most commonly noted verbal abuse is being insulted by guests. Among the more voluptuous women that I spoke with, Jules shared that it was not uncommon for customers to call her fat and disgusting. The women’s weight and body type seemed to be under continual scrutiny by the men, staff, and other dancers. All body types were represented in the various clubs that I attended, but a majority of the women within the clubs averaged between roughly one hundred and ten pounds to one hundred and fifty pounds. Plus-sized women were scarcer and usually 127 individuals who have been working at the same club for years and/or have a regular clientele

who bring adequate money into the club. For heavier dancers, it is nearly expected to be insulted

for their weight on a daily basis. It should be noted that while larger women may not fit the

normative sexual standards for many men, there is a demographic audience for these women

consisting of men who prefer more fat and thickness on the female body.

Exotic dancers are judged based on their appearance and routinely experience

rejection. Rejection can be handled appropriately or it can be rather humiliating and offensive.

Each customer has their own idea of what they believe is sexy and beautiful in a woman.

Customers have their own preference of age, race, skin, hair, and eye color, body type, accentuated body parts such as breasts or the butt, sense of style of the dancer, their clothing, makeup, body art, body modifications and the music that they dance to, as well as dancing ability and personality.

Some men can be fairly harsh to those who do not fit their ideal beauty and sexual standards. A few of the described insults include being called: fat, obese, disgusting, fat-ass, skinny, anorexic, bulimic, a skeleton, ugly, stupid, dumb, midget, a giant and so forth. These insults are clearly unkind and based on the dancer’s surface qualities. Depending on the dancer, these statements can either be easily ignored or they can affect the emotional stability of the dancer. Harassment based on one’s race was spread across all the dancers that I spoke with but was most predominant among foreigners and women of color. Among the minority women that I spoke with, they all shared being verbally abused by their customer’s frequent use of racial and derogatory comments. These women were stereotyped and harassed for wearing weaves having big lips, dark nipples, pronounced breasts and butts, and being either black or Hispanic. Unable

128 to change their race, these negative comments can be a heavy load on the emotional wellbeing of minority exotic dancers.

In addition to being insulted for how they look, exotic dancers constantly deal with harassment for what they do. Xiomara stated, “I couldn’t tell you how many times customers have called me a slut and a whore.” She expressed that some men feel entitled when they go into the club and that this validates their demeaning remarks towards the dancers. Sugar described an encounter with a customer where she was giving the individual a private dance when he started becoming vulgar and calling her “his little bitch,” “his sexy little slut,” and commenting on her

“nasty-dirty-Mexican-pussy.” Sugar was aware that the man was stimulated by these vulgar comments, but it was mentally and emotionally disturbing. Sugar confided, “He really did make me feel like a piece-of-shit Mexican ho, but I had to brush it off and go onto the next guy to dance with.” Exotic dancers face being degraded for their profession while on-the-job, yet are required to ignore these harassing remarks and maintain a positive attitude throughout their shift.

Sexual Assault and Rape

According to the Rape, Abuse & National Network (RAINN 2016), “The term sexual assault refers to sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim. Some forms of sexual assault include: attempted rape, fondling or unwanted sexual touching, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts, such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body, [and] penetration of the victim’s body, also known as rape.” Since 2012, the Department of Justice has defined rape as, “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration without the consent of the victim.” Historically, rape has been identified as a sex-motivated offense, but during the 1970s feminist movement, women challenged the notion that rape is a product of sexually motivated (Palmer 1988:512-3). 129 Feminists argue that rape is a political act of violence towards individuals, which is deeply embedded in the sexist socio-political and economical history of patriarchal ideology and custom

(Palmer 1988:513). Rape is a violent and invasive behavior whereby, “sex is just a means used to attain power, control, domination, and violence” (Palmer 1988:515). This motivation for power and control over females, which is installed by rape, is apparent within the context of customer- forced sexual relations with exotic dancers at strip clubs.

The intent of many customers is to attain sexual fulfillment when they visit a strip club absent of physical force; they have no intentions of hurting or molesting the women who they pay for private dances with. Unfortunately, there are cases where customers become uncontrollable, forceful, and/or sexually violent with a dancer while receiving a private dance.

The majority of the cases of rape and sexual assault involved customers using their hands and/or mouth to touch or penetrate the dancers. It was less common for male customers to use their penis to penetrate a dancer, which Palmer (1988:514) explains that male sex organs are not needed or required during the physical act of rape.

All twenty dancers that I talked to had been sexually assaulted and/or raped at one point during their dancing career. Perpetrators used their hands, mouth, and penis to invade each dancer’s body. The attacks were described as physically and/or sexually invasive, but did not necessarily involve male copulation. The fact that these customers did not require self-copulation while mishandling a dancer aids the feminist argument that rape is a method of power and control over another individual, and that it is not motivated by sexual release.

This is interesting because on one-hand dancers are okay with, and understand that they will have to regularly deal with a selective group of customers who actually do ejaculate during or after a private dance. Customer ejaculation is only accepted by dancers if the customer

130 did not violate the dancer’s personal rules/ boundaries; dancers understand that copulation is a natural response to the performed sexual activity that they provide. On the other-hand, those who sexually assault and/or rape do not necessarily ejaculate but are condemned by dancers and club staff because their forceful actions did break the dancer’s rules/ boundaries and consequently caused physical and emotional harm. Customers who self-satisfy and ejaculate at a strip club are more respected by dancers and club staff than those who over-step a dancer’s personal sexual boundaries and force sexual relations on them, whether they ejaculate or not. Monica shared,

“When I first started dancing I thought it was extremely nasty when a customer would cum in his pants while I was on top of him, but after a while, you realize that they are just human and you ignore it. As long as the customers respect my body and don’t cum on me, I’m fine with it.”

Within the strip club environment, strippers are susceptible to attacks of rape and sexual assault because their bodies are exposed and they are required to dance privately with guests. Customers who force sexual relations on exotic dancers may, or may not have gone into the club with the intention of taking sexual advantage of a dancer. Obviously, it is unfair to justify any instance of rape and/or sexual abuse as accidental, simply because there was no intent on imposing these harms; however, I do believe there are situations where customers get caught- up-in-the-moment of an intense sexual interaction with a dancer and either acts on impulse, believes that the dancer wants some sexual service in return, or thinks that the intimacy is real and the exchange of pleasure is mutual. Customers might interpret their actions as justified based on their own sexual illusions, but the realities and lived experiences of dancers suggest that any form of assault and/or instance of rape is entirely unacceptable and frowned upon by those who work in the strip club community.

131 Dancers described instances of rape and sexual abuse occurring during circumstances where there was: dancer-customer miscommunication between English and non-English speakers, cultural misunderstanding about American strip club policies, aggressive and uncontrollable clients, sexually deprived and desperate individuals, and/or the desire for customers to display dominance and male power over them. In each situation, the customer abused his/her power as a paying customer in order to take advantage of a dancer. Actions of rape and sexual abuse are not permissible simply because customers are in close proximity of a readily-available, naked woman, whose job is to stimulate authentic feelings and motions of sex.

The strip club allows naked women to be available for purchase, which makes them more vulnerable when they are alone with their clients. Dancers are required to dance intimately and privately with customers, which guarantees some level of exclusivity for a potential rape or sexual assault to occur. Customers have every opportunity to take advantage of a dancer because there are no clothes or on-lookers to stop them; the only person that can stop rape from happening during a private dance, is the dancer herself. Dancers who find themselves in these sexually aggressive situations are often unable to stop the abuse from happening because she is scared, shocked, or too passive/ physically weak to stop the violence.

Sexual Assault and Rape Within the Strip Club

Existing research highlights the sexual harassment that exotic dancers endure. Barton

(2007:581) finds in her study that many subjects had the shared experience of being constantly harassed for sex at work; due to the nature of the work and the possibility of private dances, it is not uncommon for a customer to slip a finger or tongue into an orifice or onto the skin of the performer, constituting unwanted penetration. These are examples of some of the horrible and technically illegal interactions that women dancers encounter more frequently than not. These 132 occurrences are rarely reported and it is often up to the dancer to stop the harassment herself.

Because exotic dancers expose themselves and physically grind their nude or minimally clothed bodies on customers, there is a gray area between what is and is not permissible. At the end of the day, if the dancer is not comfortable with a customer’s actions, they can be registered as harassment and even sexual abuse.

Performing at strip clubs demands more than meets the eye. The dancer must manufacture sensuality and feign sexual passion in spite of the distinct absence of either or both.

The dancer must navigate a dizzying array of obstacles on a routine basis, both physical and psychological. Common responses to these and other stressful aspects of the work include anger, sadness, avoidance, drug-use and/or becoming desensitized to verbal and physical harassment. In combination, these adaptations can be compared to the skills of a harbor pilot, intimately familiar with the unique characteristics of a particular port and therefore able to conduct the massive container ships safely to the docks and back to the open sea again.

Strip club management and security (usually the doorman) protect dancers from aggressive, intoxicated, and volatile customers when such customers become an apparent problem. When a customer is blatantly breaking the club’s ‘no touching’ policy, grabbing

women who are on-stage, groping dancers and/or stumbling around they will be given a warning

by management and asked to settle down. The management strives to maintain a professional atmosphere where men are expected to act like gentlemen, and women act like ladies. If customers continue to disrespect the dancers, staff or establishment, then they will be escorted

out of the club by security. In addition to expelling guests, dancers are escorted to their vehicles after each shift by security in order to protect them from stalkers, burglars, or any potential harm

133 outside of the strip club. Strippers provide their escort a small gratuity to thank the doorman/ security for this service.

It is much more difficult for management and security to patrol inappropriate actions that occur during private dances. Only one out-of-the three clubs that I visited had security cameras that overlooked the private VIP areas. Two of the clubs, Garden of Eden and

Magdalena’s Theatre, had no way to monitor the customer-dancer interactions during private dances. It is during these private lap-dances when dancers become partially or fully nude and are most vulnerable to attacks of sexual abuse. For dancers, there are pros and cons to having cameras in VIP areas. Many of the women shared that they did not want to be recorded while performing the intimate and sexual act of giving a lap-dance to a customer. Also, they did not want to have a live feed where their bosses and managers could watch them as they pleased. Not being recorded offers privacy to the dancers during their VIP dances, and after as well, knowing that there is not a saved recording of such performances. One con to not having video surveillance in VIP sections is that there is no way for management and/or security to intervene immediately at the time of the abuse. The second con is that there is no recorded proof of sexual abuse if the dancer were to press charges. I will note that dancers are highly unlikely to report or press charges against customers who sexually violate them because they are aware that the nature of their job is sexual and abuse is one of several job hazards that exotic dancers face.

It is difficult to assess what would be the most appropriate and efficient way to protect exotic dancers from physical and sexual abuse while at work because each dancer requires different levels of protection. Some women are able to handle situations of abuse on their own while other women lack the strength or confidence to stop a perpetrator from inflicting harm. There are also women who tolerate and/or are less psychologically bothered by physical

134 intrusion than other women who might be highly susceptible to post-trauma from a physical or

sexual attack. In the case of cameras, some dancers may want them, but there will be dancers on

the opposing side who value privacy and inability to document private dance performances.

There is no obvious solution to the problem of protecting exotic dancers from sexual

abuse while at work. Management could increase surveillance and security at the cost of taking away customer-dancer privacy in VIP areas and creating a more intimidating environment for guests. Club management could enforce their ‘no touch’ policy at the risk of losing customers who seek physical contact when they frequent strip clubs. Known prostitutes at strip clubs could be fired which would remove the availability of sex at the establishment, allow ‘clean’ dancers to have equal competition with other strippers, decrease guest expectations of receiving sexual services at strip clubs and potentially improve societal impressions of these establishments.

However; this would force dancers who make the majority of their earnings through providing sex services to their customers to either take a pay cut and be forced to become a ‘clean’ dancer, or to work illegally on the streets where they would be unprotected and at the risk of harm.

Managers accept all women to work if they are able to bring in money to their club.

The security and protection that is provided to exotic dancers is minimal but available; managers and security will alleviate situations where dancers are being mistreated and/or mishandled. In terms of private dances; however, dancers must stop physical and sexual abuse on their own, or they have to report it to management in order for it to be acknowledged and/or addresses by security. I believe that because strip clubs do un-admittedly allow underground prostitution to take place, that the management is careful not to implement strict rules of behavior and . Nor does management see it necessary, or economically feasible (at the risk of losing

135 dancers and/or guests), to mandate surveillance in the exclusive VIP areas. Exotic dancers do

their best to avoid instances of abuse, but unfortunately, it does happen.

Due to the extensive number of stories pertaining sexual harassment and rape, I asked

the women to best recall either their very first or their most traumatic occurrence of sexual abuse

while working as an exotic dancer. The experiences of sexual abuse reveal the most intrusive and

unsettling physical dangers pertaining to working in the sex industry. Among the women that I interviewed thirteen had at least one encounter where a customer fingered them, or rub his/her

hands on their , clitoris or vagina during a private lap dance. Over half of my

correspondents also reported cases of customers using their mouth and/or tongue to violate them.

In addition, a total of three women reported forced vaginal intercourse and one woman reported an instance of forced sodomy. All of the women that I spoke with had at least one scenario where they had been sexually assaulted and/or raped while working. The majority of these occurrences happened early into the dancer’s career when they were young and most passive. The dancers described feelings of initial shock and disgust during the assault and felt violated and disturbed once the abuse had finally stopped. In some cases, the dancer managed to escape the situation, while in other situations individuals were unable to stop the abuse from happening. Most of the women stated that because they were young and naïve, they felt powerless in the situation.

Dolores shared that when she first started dancing at age eighteen she spoke only a few sentences of English. As an immigrant with limited opportunity, she found a job dancing at

Serpent’s Temptation, which had a largely Hispanic clientele with whom she could easily communicate. She eventually learned how to ask English-speaking men for private dances. At the start of a thirty-minute VIP dance with an older white man, Dolores began getting digitally raped. She shared with me, “I’m only ninety-five pounds, barely 5’3” with my stripper shoes on,

136 [and] I was young and didn’t know more than a paragraph of English. I had this old white dude

pinning me down on a couch with his fingers deep in me for thirty-fucking minutes!” I asked

how she felt during and after, and her response was, “I was angry at first, but the more I pushed, the further he went, so I gave up…and I just began feeling sad and confused. I went home asking

God, ‘why me?’” On the reverse-side, Natalie had been working just a few weeks at

Magdalena’s Theatre and had asked a non-English speaking Hispanic man if he wanted a dance.

The man solicited her for sex, but Natalie was not able to translate what he was saying. Quickly into the first song, the man slipped his fingers inside her. She immediately swatted his hand away, but he continued to repeat the action. By the end of the song, she stormed off feeling

violated and upset. This language barrier between English and Spanish speaking individuals created confusion between what the customer and the dancer had expected from each other, resulting in the sexual abuse and mishandling of these two women.

In addition to miscommunication, cultural differences may complicate what both dancer and client expect from one another. Roxy was working at a Hollywood club when a group of Korean businessmen came in and she took one of them into the VIP room for a fifteen-minute private lap dance. The man unbuckled his pants and took out his penis, clearly under the impression that the strip club was a brothel. Roxy informed him that the dancers did not have sex for money and once he realized he was not getting what he thought he had paid for, he started grabbing and sucking all over her body. During our conversation, Roxy described, “I was disgusted when he pulled out his dick… I wanted to vomit when he started to put his mouth all over me… I wanted to cry when he put his finger in me.” Both Roxy and her customer had different expectations going into the VIP lounge. While both individuals were dissatisfied with

137 the outcome, it was Roxy who endured the physical and emotional pain from the sexual molestation.

Club management expects dancers to provide an exceptional level of customer

service to their patrons. The management wants to provide a positive experience for customers,

in hopes that they will return and/or share a good review of the club to others. Generally, dancers

are playful and entertain feelings of attraction and kindness to customers. The goal is to seduce a

client into spending money on them, and this is better accomplished when the dancer is polite

and respectful to guests. Club owners will dismiss a dancer if she begins to mouth off and

disrespects a paying customer without a legitimate excuse of self-defense. While tensions and

aggressive actions can occur within a strip club, the goal of club management and security is to

maintain a neutral environment where both the paying customer and the working dancer are

being treated with respect.

Again, it is difficult for management to fully instill a strict policy that discharges each

participant in the strip club who is being disrespectful and/or acting out-of-line. The club’s

interference will only happen if the inappropriate behavior is extreme such as in the form of

physical violence, or if a dancer informs the management about a particular individual and case

of sexual violations. The club will also kick someone out of the establishment if there is an

individual who is making the people surrounding them fearful or uncomfortable; such as

unfiltered belligerent persons shouting hateful, offensive, or even nonsensical statements.

Unfortunately, there are numerous cases where dancers find themselves entertaining

aggressive clients, and management neglects to intervene, is unaware of such situations, or

outright ignores the situation. Among the many stories of sexual harassment, Monica, Jules, and

Zara all had experiences where the customer became uncontrollable. Jules explained, “I have had

138 plenty of men that come into the club and want aggressive and hard dances, but they think that because I’m grinding hard on them and being freaky, that I’m all about fucking them. They get all into-it and then they just do what they want and keep at it until the dance is over.” By this,

Jules means that there is no stopping these aggressive customers from putting their hands and mouth all over her body and inside her orifices. In such instances, the men physically hold onto her, grab her, rock and bounce her naked body up-and-down, back-and-forth on their clothed genitals and fondle by force without permission. Jules seemed indifferent about these encounters that happened to her more-often-than-not. She did not enjoy those moments or customers, but she saw it as a small part of her job that she dealt with in order to make money.

Zara is the one individual who experienced forced sodomy during the fourth-year of her career as an exotic dancer. While working at a club in Pomona, California, she had a regular customer who would always get a forty-dollar three-song lap dance at least twice a week. After seeing Zara regularly for three months, the customer became aggressive with Zara during one of the dances and forcibly raped her. Zara recalled, “I was shocked. I danced for four years where nothing like this had ever happened to me and I had been dancing with this guy for months at this point. I knew he liked my ass, I knew he was a little on the rough side, but I never thought he or anyone would ever pull that kind of shit!” After this incident, the man was banned from the club, and Zara never went back to that particular location for work. Zara explained how disgusted she felt afterward and that her coping mechanism was to try to forget the incident and the perpetrator completely. Unfortunately, he still lingered in the back of her mind.

On the reverse side of the aggressive clients, there are also many passive customers who are sexually deprived and frequent strip clubs for reasons known only to them, but from a dancer’s point of view, it is clear that they do so in order to feel sexually satisfied. An array of

139 gentlemen fit into this category such as married men unsatisfied with their at home, individuals who are not the most attractive according to societal standards, men who are awkward with women and dating, as well as individuals with mental and/or physical disabilities.

Stormy described one of her married customers as, “gentle and respectful, but he always wanted

to kiss me down below. I didn’t really want him to do it, but he was so sweet and kind that I

always let him give me a quick kiss down there.” Channel shared her experience with passive

customers stating, “I always feel so bad for ugly guys because they can’t get any. I make them

feel so sexy and wanted that they think I actually like them, but all I want is their money. If a guy

slips a finger, I simply charge him more.” Lastly, Gigi shared, “I love guys in wheelchairs

because they appreciate me more than anyone else. I really don’t mind if they accidently do

something they shouldn’t because it’s almost as if I’m doing something charitable for someone

less fortunate.” In these three scenarios, the various men described have good intentions to be

respectful and kind, but are ultimately selfish and use passive behavior in order to coax dancers

to inappropriately handling them.

Every exotic dancer has their own unique way of dealing with the sexual abuse that

takes place at their work. I argue that because of involvement in the sex industry, dancers have a

higher tolerance to inappropriate sexual behavior; however, strippers still maintain their own

personal boundaries of what/which sexual services they are comfortable providing at work.

Boundaries might be strict where the dancer does not allow any form of touch during a private

dance or be extremely loose where a dancer will provide a customer with sex for an agreed

amount of money. If a customer over-steps a dancer’s boundaries, or refuses to pay the proper

amount for a sexual service rendered, then his/her actions are constituted as sexual assault and/or

140 rape. Exotic dancers may shrug-off discomfort caused by inappropriate customer behavior, or

develop immediate and/or prolonged emotional instability and distress.

Responses to Sexual Assault and Rape

Research and data support that survivors of sexual assault and rape may undergo one

or more of the following psychological/behavioral symptoms, including depression, nervousness,

anxiety, neurocirculatory symptoms, and changes in sexual behavior and satisfaction (Rynd

1988:155). The mentioned symptoms for sexually assaulted adults, according to Rynd

(1988:155) tend to ease over the course of a year, but another study from Peter-Hagene and

Ullman (2016) state that cases of sexual assault can cause victims to develop severe post-

traumatic stress (PTSD) which results in long-term psychological and behavioral consequences.

Peter-Hagene and Ullman (2016:2-3), recognize a relationship between post-

traumatic stress caused by sexual assault and survivor’s tendencies to develop alcohol

dependencies and attitudes of self-blame. Alcohol is a depressant, which affords those who

struggle with PTSD a means to ‘numb’ the physical and/or psychological pain caused by a recent

or distant occurrence of a sexual attack. Addiction is a common trait among individuals who

have been sexually violated. Among the dancers that I spoke with, all of them had experienced a

form of sexual assault during their lifetime prior to and/or while working as an exotic dancer. In

addition, eighteen of my correspondents had regular use with, or some form of dependency to

alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and/or prescription drugs (mainly anxiety pills, muscle relaxants,

opioids, and pain relievers). It is difficult; however, to determine whether exotic dancers use

drugs and alcohol directly as a coping mechanism for their sexual-abusive history, or if drugs

and alcohol are incorporated into their work for other reasons including recreational use for

enjoyment while working, to help pass the time during a long shift, to satisfy one’s addiction 141 problems, to help pass times of boredom at work, or simply because they are able to get away with smoking, drinking, snorting, and popping pills while at work.

Research reveals that sexual assault survivors often show signs of self-blame once they begin the process of recovery, and long after the attack occurs. Ullman and Najdowski

(2011:1937) describe two forms of self-blame as being either characterological, where one truly internalizes that she/he is a bad person and deserved the assault, or being behavioral, where the victim blames their own actions for their assault. Society perceives stripping as ‘dirty work’ that is physically, socially and morally tainted (Grandy and Mavin 2011:770-771), and blames the victims of sexual assault for their own misfortune, if such individual is involved in any form

‘risky’ behavior including prostitution, stripping, and other forms of sex work (Peter-Hagene and

Ullman 2016:2). The individuals who have been sexually assaulted while participating in – and/or – doing sex work, may or may not internalize the social attitudes of self-blame which are imposed on them. Unfortunately, it is often that exotic dancers render the actions of sexual perpetrators as something to be expected from their work.

Many exotic dancers are forced to become desensitized to instances of sexual harassment and assault because cases of sexual assault are consequently prevalent in their profession. Zara explained how she has to constantly deal with customers groping her and

(passively or aggressively) trying to take sexual advantage of her. She stated, “If you are going to

be a stripper, then you are going to deal with sexual harassment- period. If you aren’t mentally

strong enough to handle men touching, or trying to fuck you constantly, then this isn’t the job for

you.” All of the women that I spoke with used expressions like, “I just ignore it when a guy does

X to me,” or “I don’t really mind if he does X because it’s just a part of my job.” Dancers often

make excuses for their customers who disrespect boundaries and rules because they either accept

142 these forms of bad behavior as a consequence of their job or believe that because of the

promiscuous work that they do, that they are “asking for it.” Comments surrounding dancers’

acceptance of inappropriate customer behavior while at work demonstrates how exotic dancers

come to understand and accept work-related sexual assaults as normal and expected.

Consensual Sexual Acts Between Dancers and Customers

Truthfully, in regards to security, cameras are intended to be absent from the private dance areas because of managers oftentimes, practicing a ‘look-away’ strategy that allows additional services to be rendered in private VIP sections. Dancers are the ones who are

ultimately responsible for their own protection when giving private lap-dances. Strippers must

dictate was services they are willing to offer their clients; whether that a lap-dance involving a zero-tolerance no-touching policy, or complete openness to sexual intercourse. Exotic dancers are given a bad reputation in the club by other dancers if they perform sexual services for guests.

These dancers are perceived as ‘dirty’ or ‘nasty’ and are highly frowned upon by the ‘clean’ dancers who are trying to make a decent living by simply performing lap-dances. Dancers who do perform sex acts on customers in exchange for money make competition for those who do not perform sex acts extremely difficult; some customers will only purchase a private dance from strippers who promise sexual favors. When dancers engage in sex acts, it also feeds into the negative social reputation and stigma that strip clubs hold, where they are centers of prostitution.

Managers will look in the other direction when they know that a dancer is exchanging sex for money if that dancer is making substantial money for the club. One of my correspondents is a former manager who explained to me that he did not condone dancers who chose to prostitute themselves while working at his club. He understood that many of his employees were

143 just “doing what they needed to in order to make a decent living.” It is difficult for me to understand someone’s justification for why they became a prostitute during their dancing career when it pertains to money. Stripping can be a lucrative career on its own, so I struggle to see why any dancer would need to subject herself by selling her entire sexual body. The women that I spoke with who did exchange sex for money had a different opinion on the matter. They were comfortable with what they were doing, who they were doing it with, and how much money they were able to earn after transitioning from a stripper to a confidential prostitute within the exotic dance environment.

Gigi was forthcoming about having four encounters where she exchanged sex services for money. If the customer was attractive and willing to spend a respectable dollar for a service other than a lap dance, then Gigi was open to agreeing to the terms. Gigi stated, “I have given three hand-jobs and had sex with one client, but all of these men were so gorgeous that I would have gone home with each of them and fucked them for free.” Gigi is not the only person who found various clients to be attractive and desirable. Each woman that I spoke with shared a level of excitement and lust towards attractive customers when they did encounter a gentleman who fit their mold of attractiveness. There were also numerous shared stories where the dancer did not find the individual attractive but found themselves aroused while grinding-on and dancing with a stranger.

The exotic dancers that I spoke with described various levels of personal pleasure as a result of their performances, ranging from experiencing zero pleasure whatsoever to having experienced an orgasm while performing a private dance. Gigi mentioned finding attraction to several customers and participating in sexual acts with them that she admitted amounted to some level of emotional and physical enjoyment. Among the new girls, Kendra and Natalie shared that

144 they have unexpectedly experienced instances of pleasure while dancing on top of a customer. In embarrassment, Kendra shared a story where she was high after smoking a joint with a coworker, returned to the club, and was approached by a customer for a private dance. She commented, “I went back with this guy, and the dancer on-stage selected trance music for her set. So there I was, stoned, grinding on this guy to this trippy-ass music, I had my eyes closed, and my head was all swaying side-to-side, and I just started feeling it– I mean feeling it. So much so, I had forgotten all about what I was doing and was pretty much using him like a .” I could tell that Kendra was shy when she admitted to having felt pleasure while doing her job, but it was a natural physical response that she had experienced.

It was apparent that each individual had one to multiple pleasurable experiences while working, which ranged from minimal stimulation to complete orgasm. Over half of the women that I spoke with admitted to having at least one orgasm (intentionally or not) while dancing privately with a customer. Diva shared that she once had an orgasm just from a guy sucking on the back of her neck. Roxy admitted to herself once during a lap-dance and had an orgasm from masturbating. Kendra expressed that she loved it when certain individuals would suck on her nipples; she described, “Some men are so gentle that when they suck on my nipples,

I can’t help but start to get wet, [and] horny. And once they get me going, I just start putting my titties all-up in-their-face asking for more.” Kendra allowed men to suck on her breasts only by the justification of her own self-pleasure. However, she then apologized after sharing this story by saying, “I’m sorry, I know I’m not supposed to be letting guys suck on my titties at work, but sometimes I just really like it.” I was taken aback by this because here was a young woman, who worked hard to provide sexual pleasure to others, but was ashamed when she allowed herself to feel sexual pleasure while on-the-job.

145 For those who are currently involved in a relationship or who are married, it was

difficult for them to describe any moments of pleasure. Venus explained that as a wife, she felt guilty if she felt pleasure from her private dances with strangers. She felt that she was betraying her husband by having any feelings of sexual enjoyment with other men. In order to subdue her

body’s natural response to sexual enjoyment, she developed techniques that helped avoid sexual

stimulation. For instance, she began using different parts of her body, such as her hips, knees,

and thighs to rub against her client’s clothed genitals rather than rubbing her vagina and clitoris against a client’s lap. Venus is not the only dancer to apply the technique of using nonsexual body parts to simulate their clientele, but women tend to incorporate this handy trick for different purposes such as preventing irritation to their vagina while dancing.

Many of the women agreed that it is possible to be sexually stimulated while

performing a private lap-dance, but that it is uncommon. Most of the women reported that they

would not allow themselves to feel pleasure with a paying customer because it was

unprofessional, or that they would feel shame and/or guilt if they received sexual pleasure at

work. Strippers are expected to be sexual providers and not sexual receivers; they are there only

to be consumed as sex objects for those seeking sexual stimulation and/or copulation. This creates a sexual stigma amongst those who work within the industry and oftentimes dancers will be ostracized and ridiculed by other dancers for embracing personal sexual enjoyment with a customer. Gigi stated, “many of the other dancers think that I am a hoe, and call me a whore behind my back because I talk about how I love sex, and how I find men attractive, and how customers turn-me-on…they don’t like me because of these things, but I’m like ‘well why do you get naked and grind-on men all day for, if you don’t like it?’” There is certainly a double

standard in American society as well as within strip club’s social culture, where it is acceptable

146 for men to be sexually active, but women are condemned if they present any suggestion that they are sexually promiscuous.

While there is a double-standard that militates against female sex workers from actually receiving and enjoying sexual pleasure, there is an entirely different issue among sex workers that suppresses their own personal sexual enjoyment. Stormy explained that because she gives lap-dances as part of her job, there is little emotional and sexual investment in performing the act. She noted, “I have given so many lap-dances since I started stripping that I don’t even think about it [giving lap-dances] anymore. It’s like driving on autopilot—you’re just going through the motions and before you know it—you’re done driving and don’t even remember how you got there.” I was intrigued by this analogy because it meant that while lap-dances are presumed to be exciting and sexually pleasurable, they can actually be mundane and boring.

Even the women who admitted to having multiple instances of pleasure while giving a lap-dance stated that stimulation from giving a lap-dance continued to wear-off the further they got into their career.

Over half of the women that I spoke with said that they experienced a decrease in at work and struggled, at times, to be intimate with a partner at home. The constant repetition of emulating sexual fantasy and dancing naked on top of men became un- amusing to many dancers. Boredom could be seen on their faces when they danced on-stage.

Bailey shared that she had plenty of times she would roll her eyes and/or yawn during a private dance because of the monotony of having to give so many lap-dances as a part of her job. In addition to boredom at work, many had difficulty embracing sexual pleasure in their lives outside of work. Misha told me that she would always argue with her husband on the topic of sex because she was either too tired to have sex after working, or she did not want to have sex

147 because she had been grinding on strangers laps all night, and was not in the mood. Alana shared

that, “When I get home from work, all I want is to take a shower and go to bed. I don’t want

anyone touching me, or kissing me, and I sure as hell don’t want to fuck no-one, because I’m

tired, and my vagina is sore from being pressed up against dude’s jeans all day.” Stripping has

the potential to heighten exotic dancers’ sexual pleasures, but it also can also ultimately hinder

dancers’ sexual desire and arousal. The routinized and commodified display of simulated sexual receptivity/availability makes the prospect of actual sexual intimacy unappealing which suggests that wage labor can, over time, erode the pleasure taken from work – a truism perhaps, but one that bears scrutiny when the labor involved has to do with manufacturing and selling physical and even perhaps emotional intimacy. This is a cost that may escape consideration, yet one that could have potentially profound and lasting consequences. Too, it is yet another example of how commodification can diminish authenticity.

Returning to consensual sexual relations between customers and dancers, the issue of prostitution does exist in the underground world of exotic dancing. There are strippers who use strip clubs as a safe place to privately sell their bodies for sex. Dolores and Jules are the two individuals who admitted to regularly having sex with customers for the sole purpose of making money. Dolores is illegally residing in the United States and shared that she began dancing because of the limited options that are afforded to non-citizens. Dolores began having sex for money after dancing for one year at Serpent’s Temptation. After numerous encounters with men forcibly taking advantage of her, she decided that she might as well be getting paid for these unwanted services. Prior to the decision to solicit prostitution, Dolores was making about two hundred dollars per shift. With her decision to sell herself she began making roughly one thousand dollars each time that she went to work.

148 Dolores looked at me and said, “With the money that I made I was able to help out

my family in El Salvador, and pay for my brother and mom to come to America…the way I see

it, I achieved the American dream.” The notion of ‘achieving the American dream’ by means of

prostitution was ironic, in that, prostitution is not considered a respectable form of income or a

measurable form of success to most American citizens. However, for Dolores, the idea of the

American dream was not centered on the admirable work that one does, but is measured by the

ability to survive in the United States and by making money through hard work regardless of

one’s occupation. Dolores makes a bold sacrifice every day by continuing to work illegally and

selling her body for sex, but by doing so, she has managed to establish a sufficient income and provide for her family.

The final dancer who admitted to having sex with customers was Jules, who has been working at Magdalena’s Theatre on-and-off for twenty-three years. For the first twelve years of

Jules’ dancing career she only performed clean dances; however, by the time she became thirty- five she was one of the oldest women working at the club, she had gained weight from having

children, and she was making the least money among the dancers. With no other skill set and

having a resume lacking in work experience aside from exotic dancing, she established a solid

handful of customers to whom she was willing to offer sex in exchange for money. Jules was

strategic about how she gathered such individuals. She approached her regular customers for

whom she had been performing private dances for years, and finally offered them something that

had never been on the table before, physical access rather than merely the opportunity to gaze

upon her body. The men she recruited were all individuals who had watched her grow up from a

young adult into a mature woman and had fantasized about her for years.

149 Jules explained to me that while she was not happy or proud of her decision to transition from an honest dancer to a secretive prostitute, she was able to pay her bills and continue to afford a comfortable lifestyle. In addition, she did not have to work at the club as much as she had when she was in her twenties. Having regular clients, she was now able to schedule her work days around their availability, and would only show up to work for a promised amount. I asked her what it was like making money under such circumstances and she shared, “it was extremely difficult at first, but because I’ve only have [had] sex with the same handful of men for over a decade now, they are kind of like fuck-buddies…I trust them, they respect me, and they make sure I’m taken care of financially.” Even though Jules is having consensual sex with customers, her reasons for continuing to work in such an exploitative environment is based on her limited economic opportunity and need for financial security.

Dancers work in a profession that can be potentially physically harmful and can result in serious negative physical consequences. Health concerns such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual abuse are inescapable realities of this occupation. Little has been reported on the issues concerning sexually transmitted infection among exotic dancers. Dancers who have sex for money have the greatest risk of contracting an infection while working, especially if they are having unprotected sex. According to Sherman et al. (2011):

[When] questioning about condom use, women described the factors which influenced the negotiability of condom use. “I’ll say, ‘Oh, we’re going to use a condom.’ He’ll say, ‘No I don’t want that.’ I’ll say, okay, how about 40 more dollars?” (23 years old) The majority of participants said that drug-using strippers were more likely to have sex without a condom to support the expense of their habit.

Some dancers are willing to take the risks associated with prostitution in order to earn extra money, while others refuse these services to customers, potentially hurting their earnings. One exotic dancer flatly expressed, “No. I don’t care how much money you pay me or whatever, it’s

150 not—it wouldn’t amount to me catching AIDS for the rest of my life” (Sherman et al. 2011).

Although the occupation is inherently fraught with risk, it is difficult if not impossible to discern

a prevailing attitude toward or against risk taking with respect to potential acquisition or

transmission of STDs.

Strip clubs are often stereotyped as being notorious for , drugs, and disease;

however, few reports have been written to document such claims. Maticka-Tyndale et al.

(1999:20) focus on exotic dancers’ vulnerability to drug use and their susceptibility to

contracting STDs in their work environment. Based on a three-year qualitative study of exotic

dancers in Canada, thirty-five percent of individuals reported having contracted a sexually

transmitted infection. Among this group, the curable infections, gonorrhea, and Chlamydia were also noted. However, Maticka-Tyndale et al’s results indicate that there was no way to determine

if the contracted STDs were a direct result of dancing. It should be noted that there are increased

chances for infection if open wounds or genitals are exposed to secretions which can be found on

strip club poles, stages, and private dance booths, though in most cases the risk appears to be

negligible according to experts. Dr. Robert J. Fracino, from the Robert James Fracino AIDS

Foundation, reports that it is extremely unlikely for a dancer to contract an STI or HIV if a

customer ejaculates in his pants and the dancer sits on the wet spot; it is unlikely that the sperm

would be able to travel through the layers of clothing (The Body 2017). It is important that exotic

dancers understand that there are potential health risks at their job, but there are safety

precautions that can prevent the contractions of an STI or HIV.

The Emotional Toll of Stripping

Exotic dancers that experience verbal and physical abuse while working can develop

negative emotional attitudes towards their profession as well as their clients, coworkers, and/or 151 themselves. In terms of their profession, most of the women that I interviewed shared that they

felt under accomplished as a stripper. Star told me, “I never thought when I was a little girl that I would ever grow up to be a stripper. I thought I would grow up to be a nurse or a teacher, but never a stripper.” She included, “Although, I also never expected to get pregnant before I could legally drive a car either, so I guess when life throws you curve balls, you just have to step-up to the plate.” This attitude of dancers feeling as though they were not living up to their full potential and/or working a less desirable occupation than they had once strived for was common among most of the dancers that I talked to.

Only five of my participants were exposed to deviant professions and/or lifestyles from an early age, and were quick to adopt a stripper’s way of life. Sugar found the transition from illegally selling drugs on the streets of Los Angeles, to working legally as a stripper, very comfortable. Diva had always glamorized Las Vegas show performers when she was growing up and loved seeing them in their scandalously clad outfits. Diva commented, “I knew that I was going to become a performer, of sorts when I grew-up. Burlesque, a go-go dancer, a stripper…it didn’t matter. I just knew that I would be on some stage, performing.” Xiomara was raised by a stripper, and eventually followed her mother’s footsteps when she turned eighteen in order to pursue her own financial independence. Finally, Channel was homeless and stripping was a better solution than sleeping on-the-streets; Channel would later guide her sister, Roxy, through the ropes and wires of stripping.

Another negative emotional response that exotic dancers have towards their occupation is feeling embarrassed, or not feeling proud of what they do. Many of my interviewees did not tell their family, children, friends, or strangers about what they do. Bailey has a religious background of strict Mormon faith, and would never confide to her family that

152 she is a dancer. She flatly stated, “If my parents ever found out what I was doing, they would disown me, and I would never hear from them again. Having to live a secret life from my family is very difficult because I love them so much and I hate lying to them…See, I know that dancing is just a wild phase in my life and that I’m going to do bigger and better things one day, but my family would never understand my reasons [to strip], no matter what.” Bailey and many other dancers choose to keep their profession concealed from individuals that they are close to, out of fear that their acquaintances and loved ones might construe negative/ judgmental attitudes towards - and/or disassociate with them.

Strippers, who hide their involvement in exotic dancing, will lie about what they do.

The most common used professions used to cover-up a dancer’s true occupation are food and alcohol service workers. Bailey told her parents that she was in California making an ‘honest’ wage as a waitress at a busy diner. Jules has grown children, who have believed all their lives that their mother works as a bartender. Jules explained:

If you’re a dancer who is lying about what you do, then you tell people that you are either a waitress or bartender. These are believable occupations because when you go home each night and are counting a bunch of one-dollar-bills, people just assume it’s your tips from working at a bar or restaurant. I’ve heard of some dancers telling their friends that they work as a massage therapist…or at a nail salon, but I would hate for someone to ask me to do their nails, or give them a massage, or worse, ask to see my nonexistent credentials…No one ever questions my ability to put food down on a table or mix up a cocktail…Yeah, it sucks to be viewed as a forty-three-year-old bartender, but at least I’m not seen by my children and friends as the forty-three-year-old stripper. And that’s what matters to me. As long as, when I’m not at the club; there is no reference to, discussion about, or indication of –stripping. I always keep my work separate from my home.

Hearing this statement meant that Jules has spent the past twenty-three years keeping her occupation a secret from a selected group of individuals. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have such a heavily guarded secret that has lasted over two decades, but I can understand why she has chosen to keep it clandestine. Exotic dancing is certainly not held in the best of light

153 according to most societal standards, and many participants risk facing malicious judgments cast

onto them by outsiders and loved ones.

The dancers that I spoke to who were in committed relationships with an individual

outside of work, admitted having feelings of guilt and betrayal while working. Dancers who are married, engaged and/or dating, commented on constantly thinking about, talking to, and/or texting their partner while at work. Monica noted, “When I was still married to my husband, I would check in with him every second that I could, to tell him how much I loved him. It always

felt wrong giving lap-dances to strangers because my husband was always in the back of my mind.” A dancer who is in a relationship may begin developing feelings of guilt because they feel bad that they are displaying sexual behavior to individuals other than their romantic partner.

Feelings of betrayal can occur if a dancer who is in a divulges in pleasure during a lap-dance, or is forced to give pleasure while entertaining a guest and internalizes the assault as self-caused. Alana’s marriage fell apart as a direct result of her husband’s jealousy towards the other men that she would dance with, and perform for while working. Alana admitted:

I had met a customer one night, while working, and I ended up making-out with him. He gave me his business card, and I was stupid enough to call him when my husband left to go work overseas. I talked to this customer the entire time that my husband was out of the country for his deployment and when my husband returned home, he saw that I had made calls to a number that he didn’t recognize. He called me out for cheating on him, and left me that night…It was nice to have a guy or just someone that I could talk to when my husband was gone.

Because Alana’s husband was often absent, she struggled to fulfill her own social necessities.

While working in an environment that it highly sexual and social, Alana became attracted and socially satisfied with one of her customers. This gravitation towards a customer, and betrayal of

154 a spouse, cost Alana her marriage. Alana claims to be emotionally stable after her divorce, but

she may be suppressing her true feelings which can lead to long-term emotional consequences.

Jules is an interesting example because she is married and sells sexual services to her

customers. I asked Jules if she had feelings of guilt and/or betrayal when she would return to her

husband after a night of prostituting, and she responded, “My husband doesn’t know that I have

sex for money…Of course, I feel bad, but I am the one making the money in our relationship. I

try not to think about it too much because it’s just a job—I don’t invest any emotion when I have

sex with customers. I keep all that ‘lovey-dovey’ stuff aside, especially for my man.” Jules establishes the work that she does as meaningless with zero emotional attachment involved; approaching prostitution as another ordinary job, which can be easily separated from life at home.

All of the dancers that I talked to agreed that some cases of customer rejection would upset them. Dancers are pressured to conform to customer and societal expectations of what is perceived to be and considered beautiful. If the dancer does not fit the criteria, then she may feel insecure and develop low self-esteem. Natalie shared, “When a customer calls me fat or ugly, I take it personally. I try to not let the comments bother me, but deep-down they do.” Instances of name-calling and rejection by customers can have negative emotional consequences for dancers.

In the realm of exotic dancing, it is not uncommon for strippers to use makeup to hide any flaws on their body, diet to change the weight and shape of their body, dye their hair to change their appearance, and/or undergo cosmetic surgery to enhance or take away from certain body parts.

These are techniques that can ‘fix’ or ‘solve’ a dancer’s physical issues, recognized by clients. If the dancer is able to achieve an ideal beauty-type/look, she feels better about herself.

155 Some aspects of appearance, such as race, cannot be changed. When a dancer is

rejected because of her race, there is certainly an emotional disturbance for the individual. Zara

remarked, “I know that I am a beautiful black woman, but it still pisses me off every time a guy

rejects me, just because I’m black. I don’t understand why some guys are so turned-off by me

because of my skin color.” The anger that Zara expressed is a surface-level emotional response

to racial rejection. Racial rejection can further cause women of color deep emotional distress of internalized racism and self-.

All dancers regardless of their race have encountered multiple situations of verbal abuse from a customer. Dancers can deal with mean and aggressive customers who say hurtful words and verbally degrade them. Kendra described, “There’s always going to be that one guy who walks into the club thinking that he is better than everyone else, and thinks that his shit don’t stink. He’s the guy poppin’-off [yelling and], calling dancers ‘sluts,’ and ‘whores’ -and thinks that it’s okay to call us that just because we get naked for a living.” It is difficult enough for dancers to find social acceptance in mainstream society, so when customers visit their place of employment and disrespect them for what they do, it is insulting. Strip clubs are designed to protect dancers from the negative opinions of the outside world and allow them a safe space where they can earn money while expressing themselves freely and sexually. When customers degrade dancers, it can be internalized that their profession makes them less than any other

‘normal’ or ‘decent’ human being.

The cases of sexual abuse that were described to me caused many dancers to have feelings of disgust and repulsion to their job, perpetrator, and selves. Roxy said, “I feel dirty just after working a shift from all the sweating and grinding-on-strangers all-night-long. If a customer sticks his fingers in me, or tries to put his mouth on me, I -out. I feel dirty, nasty, gross, and

156 it’s still feel him on me when I go home and shower –even the shower doesn’t help

clean off his presence from my body.” Roxy’s statement provides that dancers carry the sexual

abuse that happens to them at the club, with them, back to their homes. It is nearly impossible to

erase the memory and feeling of a sexual assault once it has occurred. Dancers may relive the

experience one to hundreds of times, causing an emotional and psychological disturbance. A

sexual violation can lead to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, social adjustment difficulties

and post-traumatic stress (Starzynski and Ullman 2014:74).

Re-experiencing the event of sexual assault is a sign of a survivor suffering from

post-traumatic stress disorder, whereby prominent flashbacks will cause emotional distress

(Briere and Elliott 1994:55). Other psychological and behavioral consequences caused by sexual

trauma include: cognitive distortions where the survivor may internalize self-blame, feel

hopeless and develop attitudes of low self-esteem; emotional distress which may trigger

depression, anxiety and heightened feelings of anger; impaired sense of self or the, “inability to

define one’s own boundaries or reasonable rights when faced with the needs or demands of

others,” for dancers, this may cause them to have difficulty asserting their own sexual boundaries

and limits while at work; avoidance which is comprised of disassociation, or believing that the

situation is and was unreal – individual may experience the abuse as an ‘out-of-body’ experience

by spacing out and/or repressing the abuse; substance abuse and addiction where drugs and

alcohol are used to numb the pain of an attack as a form of self-medication; suicidal thoughts

and/or actions which is the most extreme form of avoidance; tension reducing habits may form such as over-eating, self-mutilation, ‘acting out,’ or impulsive actions; and finally, indiscriminate sexual behavior where one might pursue multiple sexual partners as a means find closeness because “sexual arousal and positive sexual attention can temporarily mask or dispel chronic

157 abuse-related emotional pain by providing more pleasurable or distress-incompatible experiences,” sexual assault survivors may increase their sexual behavior in order to fill the void of feeling unworthy of love (Briere and Elliott 1994:55-62).

Exotic dancers cope with their experiences of sexual abuse during private dances by talking to others. Dancers receive indirect support through having stories of shared experiences of sexual harassment and assault. Hannah explained, “It’s nice to have other dancers to talk to after dealing with a difficult customer. I tell my girls what the customer did and they comfort me.” She continued to say, “We have all dealt with guys trying to touch us, and fool around with us, when giving lap-dances, so we can understand and share each other’s pain. Dancers are also pretty good about warning other dancers when there is a customer in the club who is too kissy - or too touchy. It’s an unwritten rule, but ultimately we all got each other’s backs.” Unfortunately, this meant that one dancer was the ‘test-dummy’ who would undergo the verbal and/or physical harassment before other dancers could be aware of a customer invoking foul-play during a private dance.

Dancers heavily rely on other dancers as their foundation of support while working.

The management and other staff also aimed to protect the physical and emotional well-being of dancers because it is important to provide them with a positive and safe (as possible) work environment. Kendra expressed how she kept all of her thoughts and feelings written down in a journal, in order to provide her with an outlet where she could vent any feelings of anger, sadness, and/or frustration surrounding her job and interactions with difficult guests. Some of the women used drugs and/or alcohol to get through a shift and numb their physical and emotional worries. Other women such as Stormy and Xiomara, have a strong support network outside of the club and can talk to their families and friends about a difficult day at work or an upsetting

158 customer. The worst coping mechanism, which was illustrated most by Jules, was repressing the

abuses and sexual interactions with guests as if they never happened. Jules’ mental state of denial

can have severe long-term emotional consequences.

Barton (2007:572-574) reveals that the psychological and physical costs, or

consequences resulting from exotic dancing increase over time. Many of Barton’s subjects reported feelings of nausea and disgust when getting ready to go to work. Ultimately, these

feelings are suppressed because of the need to make money. This situation’s conflicting feelings

often places individuals involved in the classic double bind. They must continue to do what they

do not want to do. Over the long term, these psychological circumstances can be damaging.

Wesely (2006:149-150) interviewed subjects who agreed that exotic dancing started off as

something that felt fun and exciting to most, but eventually dancers reported that they began to

feel worthless and powerless in their position. Among Wesely’s (2006:149-150), interviewees,

Julie commented:

You know what happens? It’s so funny. I started dancing, I felt like I was just Shee-ra. You know, I was the wanted goddess. And honestly, I felt like in my wages and everything, that I was making a lot of money. And then as I became less naïve, less fresh, that was affected. If you’re between 18 and 21 and a hard body, you are so desireous [sic]. But then, once you step out of that, into the adult threshold, of less naïvete, you become less desirable. As I became aware of the power I had, I became less powerful. “No, she’s the fresh meat this week.” It was my age, and my body. So even though I thought I was the beat-all, end-all, I wasn’t the beat-all, end-all to everybody.

The constant pressure for sex, the constant rejection, and the constant degrading actions caused many to second guess their line of work.

The individualized experiences of physical and emotional strain that exotic dancers describe are directly related to the historical suppression of female sexuality as demonstrated by mainstream patriarchal American culture. Wesely (2002:1182-1184) writes about how women

are enculturated at a young age to be sexualized or taught that their value is dependent upon the 159 degree and extent to which they are perceived as being sexually desirable to men. Women often

associate their self-worth with what they are able to offer sexually to a man. The female body is

objectified, making it a commodity available for purchase in particular settings such as strip

clubs, brothels, and XXX movie stores. Bouclin (2006:102) feels that patriarchy, “creates,

legitimates, and sustains the need for the sex trade(s) and women are victims of these broader

gendered forces.” Under patriarchy, women are at the disposal of men’s desire for sexual arousal

and/or copulation at the cost of exploiting their bodies through various occupations associated

with sex work.

Positive Emotional Responses to Dancing

Positive emotional responses to dancing are directly associated with the days that are

lucrative and/or consist of having respectful customers. Because exotic dancing can be extremely

financially rewarding it lessens financial stress. Dancers are able to make immediate large sums

of money to be self-sufficient or a provider to their loved ones. Zara explained that stripping alleviated the emotional stress that she had when she became pregnant in her early twenties.

Considering that the cost of living, supporting a family, raising a child, and/or paying for tuition is highly expensive, exotic dancing allows these women to be free from the stress of financial

burdens. Zara also stated that when she struggled to make money at the club her anxiety of her

finances would increase. As long as the money was steady and sufficient, the worrisome of

finances was obsolete.

The mothers I spoke with emphasized their gratitude to having a flexible schedule

and being able to work as they please. Stormy explained that dancing allowed her to watch her

daughter at home while her parents were at work, and then leave to work a night shift while her

daughter could be watched by her parents. This took away the stress of needing to pay for child 160 care services. Alana shared that dancing not only helped pay for child care and medical

expenses, but that it allowed her to enjoy every holiday with her family, take vacations with her

children as she pleased, and stay home when her boys were sick without fear of losing her job.

Alana commented, “Unless I get fat or old I have no fear or worries about losing my job. I think

most people hate what they do because they have to work so hard every day and have to deal with their shitty boss ‘all-up-in-their-ear’ about breaking some stupid rule like showing up two

seconds late.” Exotic dancing is not a nine-to-five job with benefits; however, it allows dancers

the ability to work dancing around their own lives and personal schedules.

Being able to pay one’s bills and take care of one’s family was highly valued by all of the women that I talked to. In addition to covering the basic costs of living, all of the dancers shared the pleasure they had from being able to afford nice things. These women had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested into designer clothing, shoes, and bags, top-of-the-line makeup products, costly hair extensions and treatment products, fancy cars, nice home furnishings, cosmetic surgeries, tattoos, piercings, and other material items from phones, to computers, to television sets. Material things gave these women a sense of consumer satisfaction that brought a level of joy to their lives.

The dancers also expressed the happiness that they had being able to do things such as travel independently or with family, being able to eat out at nice restaurants, and being able to enjoy outings to amusement parks, the beach, the mountains, museums, the movie theater, Chuck

E. Cheese and so forth. Sugar stated that she had grown up in the Los Angeles area her entire life and had never been to Disneyland. The first thing that she did when she had a day off of work was take her baby niece and sister to Disneyland and said that it was one of the happiest days of her life. Sugar is one of many dancers who come from a poor economic background and feel

161 immensely happy being able to afford the experiences that they had always dreamed of while

growing up. The emotional happiness that is attained through acquiring things and doing things

is a completely normal response in America’s consumer culture.

The ability to make money, work a flexible schedule, and attain material things are

not the sole factors of emotional satisfaction associated with dancing. The dancers also shared

positive experiences with their coworkers and customers. Diva has worked at strip clubs all over

the United States and loves that she has met so many different people. She explained that while

some of her encounters with other dancers have been sour, the majority of women that she met

were friendly always made her feel welcomed. Diva stated, “some bitches are just haters, but

most of the time other dancers are cool because they understand that we are all working the same

hustle to make that dollar.” The shared experience of strippers is what unites these women as

being part of this exclusive social or organizational deviant culture.

All of the women affirmed making positive close relationships with their coworkers.

Making friends within any given club is vital if one desires a career in dancing. Having friends

gives dancers an outlet to vent and share their feelings and attitudes with. It also provides a space

where women can discuss the positive and negative experiences, both inside and outside of the

club that they face on a daily basis. Discussing shared experiences is therapeutic in that dancers

do not need to bottle up any emotions that they might endure while working. Vixen, a thirteen- year career dancer said that “Many of us women have similar experiences from dealing with

PMS to dealing with a nasty break-up or dealing with a creepy customer. At the end-of-the-day, we are here to support each other.” Vixen shared several stories where confiding in others was a reciprocal action and that fellow dancers would offer their help or compassion without hesitation.

162 Having other women as an emotional outlet helps exotic dancers get through their day and understand that they are not alone in some of the harsh realities that they face. In addition to providing comfort, coworkers can have a lot of fun at work. Stormy shared that whenever there was down time, or no customers present, she would play around on the pole with her fellow coworkers. Channel said that she liked having “twerk-offs” with her coworkers where there would be a judge to see who could shake their ass the best. Dancers filled voided time with various activities. Some women would give each other lap dances, others would smoke weed, drink alcohol, or enjoy other drugs with coworkers to hype-up the shift. Most often the women would simply enjoy casual conversation about anything and everything. The women collectively valued their with other dancers.

Customers also have the ability to make a positive emotional impact on dancers. The women at Garden of Eden worked in a location visited by millions of locals, tourists, and businessmen which give them the regular opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

Exotic dancers are required to be social with their guests, and many enjoy the ability to meet new people. Customers also make dancers feel sexy, beautiful, and special. Men are generally respectful and often complement the women working. The customers can be pleasing to talk to but are most enjoyed when the customer is spending his money on a dancer. Whether it is a couple of dollars spent on a women doing a stage performance or several hundred dollars spent on a private dance, the ego of the dancer is filled when the customer is spending money on her.

Positive emotional responses increase as dancers gradually make more and more money throughout the course of a shift. If the dancer makes good money from start to finish she is extremely happy walking out of the club. However, if the dancer starts off strong making decent money but then is unable to make money throughout the rest of her shift, her initial

163 happiness dwindles and she will leave the club emotionally distraught. Vice-versa, a dancer can have a slow start and feel upset initially, but then have a lucrative end to her night and she would feel uplifted walking out of the club. Customers improve the emotional happiness of dancers by being unique individuals to talk to, filling the ego of dancers, and spending money on them.

Dancer-customer interactions have the ability to develop into intimate friendships and/or personal relationships.

Exotic dancers are continually surrounded by men and women who they can open up to and enjoy a casual conversation with. When dancers do not feel like socializing they also have the comforts of keeping to themselves while working at the club. Among the student-dancers that

I spoke with, they enjoyed being able to study and do homework during their down time. Natalie stated that when she worked two “normal” jobs while going to school that she never had enough time to do homework. Stripping was more financially sound, the schedule was much more flexible, and she could study while on-the-job. Being able to make money and study simultaneously was a huge relief of stress for all of the students that I interviewed. In addition to being able to study during downtime, some dancers also read or write in a journal for enjoyment.

Boredom does occur in the club, but dancers manage to occupy such moments by having a conversation, playing on their phone, and/or focusing on an independent activity.

Exotic dancers also get a certain level of enjoyment from playing dress-up at work which makes them feel sexy and confident. Alana expressed how she feels most beautiful when she is working because she puts a significant amount of work into her hair and makeup and sees a supermodel when she looks in the mirror. The dim club lighting helps hide any blemishes such as acne or stretch marks which make the women look flawless. Strippers also take care of their bodies by staying in shape. Some women watch their diet and exercise outside of the club, and

164 others get all of their physical activity while working. There are times where self-doubt does

occur, but ultimately exotic dancers are in shape and feel attractive at their job.

For exotic dancers, emotional happiness centers on positive relationships that are

made within the club setting and the attainment of money throughout the course of any given

shift. Positive social interactions with club staff, coworkers, and customers help alleviate the

negative experiences that exotic dancers may face. Having a support network allows strippers to

have an outlet to express their emotions which prevent them from bottling up any feelings of

shame, embarrassment, anger, sadness, and/or self-blame. Also, exotic dancers are most happy

when they are making money. Making money takes away financial stresses, allows dancers to

buy and experience nice things, and caters to the ego of each dancer. It is difficult to say that

exotic dancers define their own self-worth and attractiveness based on the money that they make

during a shift. I believe that it is fair to say that positive emotional responses to working are

directly related to how much money is earned in a given shift; that happiness or satisfaction in

their job will increase as money is made and decrease when money is not being made. Each dancer has their own goal to make a certain amount of money each shift and they will be upset and less happy if they are unable to meet their own quota.

Not all of the literature written on exotic dancers focuses on the negative aspects of stripping. Bouclin (2006:105) argues that while exotic dancing can be seen as exploitative work

(and often is), there are some individuals who do enjoy stripping and feel empowered through

dancing. By performing heteronormative gender, many exotic dancers receive much enjoyment

from the attention and compliments made by their heterosexual male customers. In addition,

dancers enjoy their job because it provides a significant income without having to work a

structured nine-to-five ‘boring’ job. In short, there are perks and pleasures of this job, and they

165 are shared among more than just a few women who publicly dance, strip their clothing off seductively, and perform in sexually suggestive ways, celebrating the power and pleasures of sybaritic hedonism.

166 CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION: WHERE EMPOWERMENT

MEETS EXPLOITATION

When I first embarked on this journey to study female strippers in southern

California, I had a firm feminist stance on the topic and perceived the occupation as a sole

product of female sexual exploitation. Over the course of my research, and after reviewing my

data, I discovered that there is an ample level of agency on the behalf of many strippers, who are afforded a space to perform sex work under decisions that are both sexually liberating, and financially rewarding. I still maintain, that deeply embedded into America’s social, political, economic and religious history, that men have been afforded privilege over women in regular

society. Women are often second class citizens outside of them home and are pressured to be primary domestic caretakers. While women assume responsibilities of child, family and household care, many women also work and provide financial stability for their families.

Nearly all of the women that I spoke with resorted to stripping in order to provide a comfortable life for their family and children, at the cost of self-sexual exploitation. When women leave their domestic responsibilities at home, to perform sex work as a means of financial security, it is an indicator of necessity and desperation due to a lack of economic opportunity for uneducated and/or unskilled women in the workplace. In other words, most women do not enter the profession because of the thrill, excitement, and empowerment that they freely express themselves, sexually. Sex work is alluring because of accessibility to instant cash, and adjustable work schedules. Mothers in particular, frequently noted that having a flexible

167 work schedule while raising a child was invaluable to them; and they regarded it “impossible” to

find the same flexibility at any other decent-paying job.

Not all exotic dancers become strippers out of financial desperation. Women do enter

the profession because it is considered fun and because it is a fairly relaxed environment.

Meaning that women enjoy an array of aspects of the job including: dancing on-stage and being

in the spotlight, being socialites with coworkers and clients, getting ‘dolled-up’ and feeling sexy

and confident, receiving compliments from others that they come in contact with, making money

because they are desired by clients, having the freedom to drink alcohol and get high on-the-job

without severe consequences, having limited restrictions to how they act and treat customers, and

the simple pleasure of being able to get naked without criticism and judgment – and rather, having their nude bodies seen in the light of amusement, appreciation, and awe by spectators.

Unfortunately, women internalize the positive reinforcements that are produced by coworkers and clients, just as equally as they internalize the negative attitudes and stereotypes by

others. Strippers are affected emotionally by hurtful words, inappropriate actions, vulgar sexual intrusions, as well as their financial success at the end of a shift. It is difficult for dancers, when customers verbally degrade them at their job when they are just trying to earn a living. It is also a

mental struggle when a dancer works an entire eight-hour shift and makes a little amount of

money in tips while performing stage dances, and/or is constantly rejected by customers for

private dances. Dancers spend a significant amount of effort into altering their appearance and

trying to appease customers in order to make money, and when their efforts at work to make

money are not successful, the dancers are affected mentally and financially. The women

internalize feelings of rejection and question why they were undesirable during an unsuccessful

night, especially when other dancers around them are having successes in obtaining private

168 dances. In addition, feelings of anger become prevalent because strippers understand their

bodies, and sexual selves as something of value; when they continue to perform naked for strangers with little-to-no financial reward, dancers are offended, feel disrespected and know that they are worth more than just a few chump dollars.

All dancers, if they want to continue a career in dancing, need to quickly learn how to manage instances of rejection. Rejection is inevitable because each customer has his/her own criteria in what they find attractive in the female gender. Dancers must understand that each detail from their race to their hair type/color, outfit choice, amount of make-up worn, authenticity or manipulation of body parts, nail length, regional accent, height, weight and body

type, piercings, tattoos, and personality are judged by viewers; and each viewer has their own

opinion and attraction to each category. Dancers often manage this by catering to a particular

look and demeanor, which is presented in their created dancer persona. Strippers are often aware

of which customers find their particular look attractive, according to the client’s race, age, and/or

club regularity, and dancers will focus on soliciting to those customers who are less likely to

reject them.

The dancer, or stripper persona, is who a woman transforms into when she is at work,

at a strip club. Outside of the strip club, each dancer has a separate life that includes their ‘true’

identity where they are addressed by their birth-name, they are surrounded by family and loved

ones, assume financial and domestic responsibilities, go to the grocery store, the park, and do

other ‘normal’ and socially acceptable tasks. When the dancer arrives at work, she is instantly

turned into this individual assuming an anonymous identity that is intertwined in the sexually

exclusive and provocative nature of the strip club environment. The dancer becomes an object of

desire and her intimate and physical self is available for purchase, whereby her ‘true’ identity is

169 masked under cutesy and sexy names such as “Candy” and “Luscious.” The dancer persona is a safety measure to prevent stalker situations and other forms of harassment from happening to women when they leave the club. But the dancer persona is more so a tactical means for dancers to compartmentalize between their ‘true’ identity outside of the club and their ‘stripper’ identity within the club. Having two separate identities, one of which is socially accepted versus one that is socially tainted and lesser understood, allows exotic dancers to disassociate from their sexually explicit, and socially frowned upon, stripper identity.

Strippers must also quickly decide what sexual services that they are, or are not willing to provide to their guests. It is the stripper’s decision whether she pursues a ‘clean’ dancing career where she abides club policies and gives lap-dances absent of touch, or if she is comfortable with offering further sexual services to guests ranging from minimal touch to full- blown sexual intercourse. Dancers who do resort to prostitution are considered ‘dirty’ dancers and must solicit sexual acts in secrecy, and determine their own cost for sexual services rendered. Women who do prostitute themselves in strip clubs are able to make additional money from clients that will not be taxed by the management and are safe from not having to work on city streets. Prostitution within strip clubs, is more common than not, and poses challenges to

‘clean’ dancers who have to compete with women soliciting sex in the same work environment, as well as society’s overall acceptance of stripper work; if some strippers are prostitutes, then the social stereotypes of dancers being ‘sluts’ and ‘whores’ continue to remain prevalent.

Whether dancers are ‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ they all are constant victims of sexual harassment and assault. It is this area that I find most problematic with the job. Strippers are vulnerable when they dance naked on top of their customers, and it becomes easy for customers to take advantage of them. Some dancers are able to stop sexual attacks from happening, while

170 others are defenseless, in a state of shock, and/or are too passive during a sexual attack, causing them to be unable to stop the abuse from taking place. Particularly young dancers and dancers early in their career are most vulnerable because they have not developed techniques and methods to stop abusive situations from happening, which more established dancers, have.

Throughout the course of one’s dancing career, harassment and abuse is initially a shocking and discomforting experience, and dancers are confused how to negotiate the abuse. On one-hand, they try to come to terms with the abuse as something that is simply a part of their job, but on the other-hand, they recognize the actions as wrongful and invasive. The first cases of abuse are the most difficult, and I would argue that the first instance(s) of sexual abuse are the ‘make-or-break- it’ moments in every dancer’s career. In saying this, it is essential to highlight the fact that sexual abuse is not only an evident reality of exotic dancing but that dancers must become desensitized to constant sexual harassment if they want to be successful in the occupation. Those who cannot mentally handle such situations have no chance in creating a long-term career of stripping.

As mentioned, dancers must establish their own sexual limits and know how to handle customers who overstep these boundaries. Strippers develop various passive and aggressive techniques as how to stop sexual abuse from happening. The various techniques include: playfully or firmly telling a customer “no,” gently swatting a customer’s hand away from them, slapping a customer for inappropriate actions, walking away from a customer during the middle of a lap-dance, or talking to management and having the customer escorted out of the establishment. These techniques are applied by dancers, and often customers are able to reason with the dancer’s personal rules during lap-dances, but it must be noted that strippers are not always successful in stopping the sexual assault from occurring.

171 Dancers understand sexual abuse as a work hazard that just comes with the territory

of the job. There are plenty of other jobs that are equally and/or more dangerous but are rendered

as acceptable in American society. For instance, correctional officers at jails and prisons are in a

constant state of war with inmates who may spit at, bite or stab them which could expose the

officers to potentially hazardous bodily fluid, hurt or even kill them. It is presumable that

correction officers have a basic understanding and awareness that they could be exposed to a

disease or dangerous persons, prior to them accepting the job duties. Perhaps similar to dancers,

corrections officers weigh out the risk factors and the financial opportunities of their job and

come to accept the possible dangers that their work entails. Dancers become desensitized to

sexual abuse because it is a reality of their job, and by desensitizing themselves, sexual abuse

becomes just as mundane as an everyday conversation. Yes, this is extremely problematic in

women’s social progression to not be continual victims of sexual abuse, but by nature of the job, abuse is something that exotic dancers, unfortunately, sign-up for – the monetary pay-off is the

substantial factor in dancers’ negotiation of sexual harassment within their workplace.

Ordinarily, women do not expose their nude bodies, they do not accept sexual abuse as a normal entity of male-female encounters, and they do not, would not, tolerate the treatment that exotic dancers undergo on a regular basis. As a result, the actions and behaviors of exotic dancers are considered ‘deviant’ in the ‘normal’ and respectable society. But I argue that while dancers are condemned as deviants to society because of their public displays of sexuality, that deviance exists everywhere in society, but can be protected when done privately. For example,

Christians of all denominations are considered god-abiding citizens worthy of social and spiritual praise, but Christians are also self-admitted sinners who are far from perfect. When the leaders of highly respectable religious organizations amount to , they choose to live a deviant

172 (not to mention illegal and immorally unacceptable) lifestyle in private, whereby they are

rendered in the highest of light by their religious followers until their secrets are discovered by

the public. It is unfair that religious organizations, and the moral ideologies of the general public,

chastise exotic dancers when their actions of ‘deviance’ are confined in public spaces specifically designed for consenting adults to have sexually intimate experiences. In the context of the strip club, dancer actions are not deviant but are rather aspects of the occupational

culture’s norms. In the context of larger society, where deviance is everywhere including in

socially respectable religious communities, strippers are condemned for their actions only

because they are recognizable figures of social deviance.

The power dynamic between the customer and dancer can be compared to other

consumer-provider relationships within the service industry. The service industry includes a plethora of hospitality jobs such as food servers, car salesmen, hotel workers, associates,

bartenders, tour guides, travel agents, air flight attendants, grocery store clerks, or any other sales

related job. Employees in these work environments are monitored by their management and

expected to be pleasing and respectful to their guests even in stressful situations and/or moments of disagreement. For example, a server at a restaurant is expected to welcome all of their guests in a friendly manner, take individual drink and food orders when each person at the table is ready, the server must then input each order exactly as requested and communicate with the staff to make any needed adjustments and get all of the appropriate food out to the diners at the same time. As food is being prepared, the server repeats these actions to a number of different tables, he/she is multi-tasking by remembering each individual customer’s needs from drink orders, perhaps cleaning up any drink spills, providing necessary condiments, bringing extra napkins to the table, and serving hot appetizers, appropriate main courses and the requested

173 desserts. Simultaneously, the server continues to check-in with each table to ensure they are satisfied. Being that food service workers are expected to provide a certain level of customer service which includes being friendly, being accurate and efficient, and being able to address problems and come up with a solution as for how to fix the customer’s issues.

All customers who attend a restaurant to enjoy a nice meal by themselves or with others have certain expectations that their server will provide them with exceptional service.

When expectations are not met because, perhaps, the customer was not welcomed warmly, their food came out late and/or was cold, their food order was taken and/or prepared incorrectly, they were served a food item that they are allergic to, the server never check-in to see if the customer needed something or simply to ask if they were enjoying their meals, their bill was incorrect, or the personalities between customer and server plainly did not mesh, then they will have a negative experience at the restaurant and may or may not voice their frustrations as a paying guest. The paying customer has a right to complain to whoever they so please, including the immediate people that they are dining with and/or the other surrounding guests, the server or other restaurant employees, and/or the management.

When the customer solely complains to the party that they are with, it is often a sign that the customer seeks recognition and agreement from the others that they are with, on the lack of customer service. While upset, they choose not to voice their complaints to the server because maybe they understand the varietal factors that cause mistakes to be made in restaurants, they do not like confrontation, or they respect the server and give him/her the benefit-of-the-doubt. In the second scenario, if the customer chooses to voice his/her complaint to a server, it is often because they want a mistake to be fixed. The customer may appear and sound apologetic, stern,

174 agitated, or completely upset, but regardless the tone, the server must apologize for the mistake, and problem solve.

In this situation, both customer and server establish their power relationship, whereby, the customer is in control because they are paying for their meal, under expectations that they are being provided with a certain level of customer service; they have the power to complain and escalate the problem while simultaneously demanding that the server fixes the problem. Servers must, bite-their-tongue, so to speak, and with a smile, handle difficult customers who are quick to accept their power-role and undermine the server through complaints and argumentation. The ultimate indicator that customers have power over servers is when customers address management about their problems with a server. At this point, the customers have become so irritated by the poor service and/or multitude of mistakes and are addressing management, not because their food was bad, but because they have a personal problem with the one providing service. Because “the customer is always right,” the management must supersede the server in solving the problem(s), and address the situation with the server at a later time.

Bottom line, the customer has the power to complain to whatever extent he/she chooses, and can also choose whether or not to leave a tip, which affected the server’s emotional and financial stability at the end of their shift.

Stripper-customer relationships work in a similar fashion. Exotic dancers are expected to maintain a certain level of customer service to their clients; management seeks to hire women who are kind, flirtatious and have a positive temperament while interacting with guests. Customers have the power to choose which dancer(s) they are going to spend money on, and while dancers do have the power to deny customers, they often avoid rejecting customers because it hurts their ability to make money from them. As a result, customers are often the

175 participants who actively reject dancers, and reward the select dancer(s) that are worthy of the

customer’s time and money. As previously stated, exotic dancers must learn to accept rejection

and they must also deal with harassment, as well as difficult customers, who are willing to pay

for lap-dances. Just like food servers, dancers must bite-their-tongues and deal with the abuse

from customers, in most often a passive manner; simply because they have certain job

expectations and will only be successful at making money if they negotiate and accept the

secondary power status that they have in this consumer-provider relationship. Dancers who are

unfriendly are less likely to succeed and more likely to get excused and/or fired from their job.

The difference between the power relationships between customers and either food

servers or strippers is that interactions at a food restaurant, are in a formal setting where

employees will be faced with consequences if they explode on a customer. They risk losing their

job, and the process of finding a job, at a different restaurant, can be a lengthy process and

hindered by their temperamental actions at the previous job. Whereas strippers work in an informal environment; foul language and explosive outbursts can be tolerated and/or dismissed.

Strippers have the ability to be rude to their guests if they are being disrespected by a customer.

Strippers also have the ability to walk away from their guests, and move onto the next person, versus food servers who are essentially mandated to continue serving a difficult table regardless of the hostility that they are enduring. It is uncommon for an exotic dancer to get fired because she blatantly disrespected a customer; however, when such situations do occur, it is not a difficult or a lengthy process to find work elsewhere, in the same industry. Natalie illustrated these differences by stating, “there are days where I get treated like shit when I’m working [at the strip club], but I [have] had plenty of days working as a waitress where I was also treated like shit…but at those jobs, I couldn’t tell those assholes [customers] to, ‘fuck-off.’ Now, I don’t

176 have to waste my time with assholes, and when someone’s a dick to me, I get to be a bitch right back to them.”

Social attitudes towards strippers are beginning to change with new generations redefining how they perceive, understand and express their sexuality. Today’s pop culture is filled with videos, images, and celebrities that hypersexualize the female body, in an often desirable and playful way. Censorship on the Internet is nearly inexistent, and because individuals can access Wi-Fi on their telephones, tablets, and computers from countless public and private locations, explicit images and videos are at the disposal of millions of viewers from all different ages and backgrounds.

The world of cyberspace has become a social reality to young and old generations since the creation of MySpace in 2003, and Facebook in 2004, followed by other social media sources including Youtube (2005), Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010), and Snapchap (2011).

These have become prominent forms of communication where individuals, famous or not, can post messages, photos and videos expressing themselves, however they please, on private and public web pages. Many women are becoming “insta-famous,” on these social networks by posting photos and videos of themselves that are sexually revealing. Tila Tequila is one the first individuals to become cyber-famous, based on her popularity on MySpace. Through her on-line popularity, she managed to be featured in Play Boy and Maxim magazine and in 2007, starred in her own reality dating series called “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,” produced by MTV

(IBDm.com, Inc.). Tila Tequila’s cyber success was based her frequent posts of photos of herself, also known as selfies, where she would be dressed in minimal clothing and exposed herself in both a hyper-feminine and hyper-bisexual fashion; her viewers, or followers, on the

Internet were enticed by her look and sexuality, which ultimately scored her decent paying gigs

177 in the modeling and entertainment industry. Tila Tequila set the stage for women across the cyber world who now seek stardom or popularity among their on-line community and would achieve such through sexual exposure to family members, friends and strangers all over the world.

Presently, young women all over the world are revealing their bodies and presenting themselves in a sexually alluring manner on these social networks. Maxim magazine’s on-line publication produced an article that lists, “The 9 Sexiest Girls of Instagram,” where on-line profiles are being discovered, and attractive, minimally-clothed women are being represented by these popular and sexually-driven media sources (Lyons 2014). As these women, and others like them, get more followers, and the more frequently “liked” by others, they become sexually symbolic and recognizable figures in this on-line social community.

Some of the self-images and videos that women are posting on-line are spitting images of the looks, styles, and behaviors of exotic dancers within the context of the strip club.

This means that the way in which strippers, or women, look at act within the strip club, are not unique behaviors to the setting, or location of strip clubs. Some women who are not strippers choose to present themselves as hyper-feminine, and apply the same body technologies that strippers use, including make-up, hair products, clothing and jewelry accessories, cosmetic surgeries, piercings, and/or tattoos, in order to alter their appearance according to mainstream social values of female beauty and sexiness. Women can choose also to be just as sexually explicit as exotic dancers in their on-line profiles. Even though some women on social media have similar appearances and behaviors as exotic dancers, users of social media are protected from being physically available to the public, like exotic dancers are. The physical component required of strippers is what separates them from celebrity and cyber sex icons, and distinguishes

178 them into the category of ‘sex worker,’ along with porn stars and prostitutes. I believe that

because sex work involves physical contact, whether actual or fictions sexual intercourse is

taking place, it becomes an expression of sexuality that is heavily perceived as ‘tainted’ and

‘immoral.’

Popular culture holds profound influence on how individuals in American society

come to perceive the socially understood rules of human sexuality. The independent choices that

people make about how to express themselves sexually, in public and in private spheres, are

often negotiated by the individual’s understandings of what is socially accepted as ‘good,’ and what is socially condemned as ‘bad.’ Because society is under a constant state of change, the general attitudes towards female sexual expression are being altered and redefined daily. When the public is presented with an abundance of music lyrics, advertising schemes, celebrities, social media stars, films, and images of women who are hyper-feminine and hyper-sexualized, then it becomes normal to understand the female gender within these limited contexts. For strippers, they have come to exist in society whereby, the dancer and society-at-large, are reflections of each other, but the stripper is a social outcast because of her tainted actions that involve physical touch with others.

Bernstein (2007) recognizes that there is a demographic shift among those who are doing sex work in the twenty-first century, compared to those who worked prior to the contemporary digital age. Exotic dancing is often thought of as a job for desperate women who need quick easy money in order to support themselves. Presently, more upper and middle-class women are getting into the risqué business of sex work. In addition, the Internet is offering a new medium or outlet where women from all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds can make money from revealing their bodies to strangers on-line. With a growing prevalence of exotic dance clubs

179 and increased female sexual liberation, it is becoming more common and acceptable for women

from all backgrounds to step into this line of work and assume new, temporary identities as

hypersexual exponents of female objectification.

Sexually explicit activities are only acceptable when they are being done in the

private sphere because they are omitted from social stipulation; nearly all actions and behaviors that are performed by strippers are considered socially acceptable if they are done in private settings. For example, it is acceptable for consenting adult couples to perform strip teases and give each other lap-dances when such sexual acts are done in the privacy of their homes.

Participants in these sexual situations are allowed to perform the exact same actions that strippers perform, absent of judgment. Lap-dances and that take place in the private sphere are even allowed to transition from playful dance performances to full-blown intercourse between participants. While most exotic dancers are not prostitutes and choose to give ‘clean’ and

‘decent’ lap-dances to their customers, they remove their clothing and sexually express themselves in public, which by default makes them subject to social criticism.

Exotic dancers are also heavily judged because of their common sexual encounters with strangers, even though there are plenty of consenting adults who engage in one-night stands and/or bar hook-ups with strangers. But because exotic dancer’s sexually explicit activities are geared around the monetary exchange, they are frowned upon. As soon as sex services involve cash transactions, they become stigmatized and recognized as a form of prostitution. Sex workers are often degraded because they are seen as workers who exploit their sexual bodies in order to make a living. Social attitudes are quick to recognize that it is immoral to sell one’s body in exchange for money; that there are alternative work options afforded where one can make a

‘decent’ and ‘respectable’ living, with their clothes on.

180 The sexual activities that occur between customers and dancers are not far from the

sexual activities that occur between consenting adults outside of the strip club. Nor is the

attainment of pleasure that different either. The pleasure that is obtained during lap-dances is

often one-sided and received by the customer, but as I have learned, the dancer can receive

equal, if not more pleasure from performing private dances. In the reality of all sexual encounters, both private and public, it is possible for any and/or all of the participants to feel dissatisfied because they were unable to achieve the desired level of sexual release, at the end of their sexual play. This may leave the unfulfilled participant(s) upset, tense, and emotionally dissatisfied because their sexual expectations were not met. Strippers essentially assume the role of the ‘giver’ in the sexual encounter of performing a lap-dance with a stranger, and the customer

is paying to assume the role of the ‘receiver’ in this sexual context. In other words, strippers and

regular people consenting to sexual activity, all have the potential to experience negative,

emotionless, unfulfilling, unsatisfying, and/or regretful sexual occurrences; however, strippers

have the advantage of getting paid to give pleasure and assume the secondary role in the sexual relationship.

Women face an extremely challenging double-standard in their lives, which is, they are considered ‘indecent’ or ‘whores’ if they are physically and/or sexually revealing, yet women are by nature inclined to be sexual beings for reproductive and pleasurable purposes. They must only act on their sexual impulses in private because by doing so in public, they would be socially condemned. For those who do expose their bodies and/or engage in sexualized behaviors within the public sphere, it is difficult to assess if such displays are for the purpose of female and individual sexual empowerment and reclamation, or if such displays are done through self- objectifying decisions that cater to popularity of female sexuality and representations as

181 understood by hetero-male hegemonic expectations and standards. It is problematic and sexist when women in society are expected to fulfill standards of beauty that are unattainable, or unreasonable, and when they are only valued for their sexual availability for men.

There are additional components to the strip club industry that I did not include into my research that would be worthwhile to study. I did not present any questions pertaining to the

experiences of dancers who are independently hired by customers, to perform at private venues

outside of the club, such as various business, fraternity, sex, and/or bachelor parties. Another area absent from my focus is presenting data on dancer-customer interactions at strip clubs where

alcohol is served. Alcohol is only served at topless, or bikini bars, where dancers are required to

wear underwear bottoms at all times while working. A comparative study would be informative

to see how buzzed or inebriated customers at topless bars communicate and act with dancers, in

contrast, to the actions towards dancers by customers who are not served alcohol at the club.

My findings reveal that exotic dancers at fully-nude strip clubs are at high risk of sexual assault, whether or not their guest has been secretly using alcohol. I am curious if topless-

only dancers undergo the same sexual risks as nude dancers, or if their issues pertain more so, to

dealing with intoxicated clients. I would imagine that topless dancers have similar issues to

bartenders who are regularly confronted by guests that: may become sick due to overdrinking,

are unable to stand or hold themselves upright, who befall to belligerent clamoring, or who seek

altercation and/or physical violence with others. Unlike bartenders; however, topless dancers

perform on-stage, in their bikinis, and provide clothed lap-dances to customers. This sexualized

drinking environment poses additional threats that bartenders need not be weary of, but do the

sexual threats and occurrences that topless dancers face amount to the sexual abuses that nude

dancers endure?

182 Another area of research that I believe would be invaluable to better understand the

long-term psychological and behavioral effects of sexual abuse would be allocating data on women who were sexually abused as children, and analyzing why as adults, these survivors decide to become involved in the broad-work-spectrum of the sex industry. Research questions might include: how many women in the sex industry were abused as children, how long and at what age(s) did the abuse occur, what types of abuse did they endure, was the occurrence from a

stranger or someone that they knew, did they ever report the incident, if so, what was the result of reporting the accident, did the individual receive any treatment or help after the abuse, what are their feelings and attitudes towards pleasure and sex as a survivor of abuse, and how, if at all, does their history of abuse play into their decision to work in an industry where further abuse is not a mere possibility, but just a matter time before reoccurring. Among the strippers that I spoke with, eighteen, or ninety-percent, had been sexually abused as a child or a maturing youth. It is difficult to say that becoming an exotic dancer is causational because of sexual abuse as a child, but there may be some correlation worthwhile of future social and psychological study.

In conclusion, studying exotic dancers requires multidisciplinary research, which includes applying a historical framework as well as incorporating the methods, theories and interpretative analysis from social and psychological sciences. It is important, for researchers to understand the socio-historical components that have affected the strip club industry and shaped the social ideologies pertaining to contemporary exotic dancers. Researchers must understand the legal struggles that the strip club industry had to endure in order to become a thriving and successful industry. In addition, they must understand western society’s struggle, to render the female body and her sexuality, as areas that should be protected under suppressive limitations of morality, or as aspects of one’s freedom to be self-expression and sexually liberated.

183 Ethnographic research of exotic dancers, and applying the methods of in-depth

interviews and/or participant-observation, are the best techniques to obtain information from

primary resources (strippers), and fully to encompass oneself into the underground world of

exotic dancing. While not every individual is going to be willing to participate as an exotic dancer, those who study the subject and are able to conquer the challenge of submitting themselves to sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, and public display of nudity, will have a better understanding of the daily experiences of strippers. Being that I was a stripper, prior to becoming a researcher, I was able to not be clouded by analytical restraint and approached the job as any other dancer would; present and ready to make money, and open to the positive and negative aspects of the job. I will note that this process has been nothing short of reflexive.

Through my conversations with other strippers, I have revisited this closed chapter of my life, and re-opened it to be reminded of the trials and tribulations that I once went through, and that the women that I spoke with are currently going through, but I have also been able to relive all of

the keen memories that did account for a significant portion of my time spent as a dancer.

I had to remove my binary approach to this topic, whereby there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad,’

‘right’ or ‘wrong,’ ‘all-empowering’ or ‘all-exploitative,’ to the experiences, attitudes, behaviors, or motivations behind the actions of exotic dancers. Each dancer’s experience is so unique, that data analysis must be inclusive of all varietals including one’s socio, historical, economical, political, religious, backgrounds as well as other aspects of the dancer from appearance to race, ages, personality, and finally, down to the interpersonal qualities such as emotional well-being, factors that affect dancers outside of the club, how they are affected by encounters that take place within the club, and so forth. Subject relativity must be stressed when studying the lived experiences of an individual within an organizational culture. Considering the agency of

184 strippers is also important to highlight because they choose to work in the environment in which

they are employed, they choose to conform to the beauty and sexuality standards of outer

society, and they choose to participate in sexual acts that are questionable to many. The choices

that dancers make are often decided by the monetary factors and flexible schedules afforded by

sex work, but regardless, they still hold power over their own actions.

Ultimately, in order for strippers to become welcomed as ‘normal’ participants in

society, the social attitudes towards female would need to be redefined.

Presently, media and society equally objectify the female body, which often leads to women’s

interpretation of their self-worth as directly associated with her femininity and sexual availability

to heterosexual men. Strippers are able to bank on this dynamic and sell a sexual service at the

cost of reinforcing these stereotypes. In the event that female nudity and sexuality do become

socially accepted and perceived as natural and/or normal in the public sphere, it could severely

hurt the ability for exotic dancers to earn a living. Because strip clubs are currently legitimate

spaces for strippers to work in the outskirts of ‘normal’ society and in the realm of ‘deviant’

society, their negative social reputation is, fortunately, the only lifeline that allows strip clubs to

continue to operate, and for strippers to continue to earn money. The option and decision to work

in the sex work industry becomes reliant on the sexist reality that women in the United States,

are in fact, sexually exploited and objectified. Exotic dancers can pursue a lucrative career by embracing the heteronormative and patriarchal ideologies that suppress them in the larger society, whereby strippers must fulfill the role of the sexually available vixen, Madonna and/or whore. While larger society can deem strippers as ‘outcasts,’ there is no doubt that strippers define themselves under different criteria where they are sexually liberated, empowered and economically independent hard-working citizens.

185

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APPENDIX

Informed Consent Form

I, Allison M. Casanova, am a graduate student at Chico State University conducting research for my master’s thesis on the topic of “Exotic Dancers: Finding Empowerment where there is Exploitation.” The purpose of this study is to explore the individual life histories and experiences of exotic dancers. The goal is to reveal the motives behind why women become exotic dancers and whether or not they feel empowered in their occupation.

The research will be based on a two month study from December 1, 2016 to February 1, 2017 and the interviews will span between one and three hours (this includes time needed for follow- up questions). Each participant will be contacted anywhere between one to three times throughout the duration of the study.

During the interview I will ask questions pertaining to experiences of past and/or present sexual abuse. In the event that these questions result in emotional and/or psychological distress as I have provided a list of resources available in the Los Angeles area.

The results from this study will provide an academic understanding about the individual experiences of women who work in a nontraditional profession. Results will be based upon the empirical data that will be gathered through in-depth interviews. I hope to reveal both negative and positive aspects of this occupation.

In order to ensure confidentiality, I will provide each subject an alias. I will not mention the name or location of their place of employment. I will be responsible for protecting any notes taken as well as audio recordings saved. I will only use information that is approved by my subjects, and finally I will shred my notes and delete my recordings upon completion of my data analysis.

I, ______, understand that my participation in this research is completely voluntary, and that I am free to withdraw from my participation at any time without penalty or reprisal. I have been provided with a copy of my consent form and I understand that my identity will be completely confidential in this research project.

X

Sign and Date

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If there are any questions concerning the nature of this research and/or your rights as a human subject please contact:

Allison M. Casanova [email protected] (530) 774-8327

CSU Chico Anthropology Department 400 W. First St., Chico, CA 95929 (530) 898-6192

CSU Chico Office of Research and Sponsored Programs 400 W. First St. Bldg 25, Chico, CA 95929 (530) 898-5700

The following nonprofit organizations are located within the Los Angeles area and provide an array of services catering to sexual abuse survivors. Services include: counseling, emotional support, assistance with reporting abuse cases, crisis intervention, outreach services, community education, self-defense classes, intervention, and accompaniment to hospitals, police department, and court trials.

YWCA Greater Project Sister Rape Treatment Peace Over Los Angeles Sexual Assault Center, UCLA Violence Crisis Services Inc. Medical Center

1029 S. Olive 363 S. Park #303 1250 Sixteenth St. St.7th Fl Pomona, CA, 91766 Santa Monica, CA, 1015 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, 90404 Los Angeles, CA, 90015 90017 (909) 623-1619 (310) 319-4503 (213) 365- 2991 (626) 793-3385 Hotline: Hotline: (877) 943-5778 (310) 392-8381

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