The Effects of Stripping on Self-Esteem by Blair E. Lamb B.A. in Criminal Justice, May 2007, University of Delaware A Thesis submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May 15, 2011 Thesis directed by: Ronald Weitzer Professor of Sociology © Copyright 2011 by Blair Lamb All rights reserved ii Dedication: To Mom and Dad, without you, none of this would have been possible. The sacrifices you make to ensure the reality of my dreams are endless. Thank you. iii Acknowledgements: A great thanks to Dr. Ron Weitzer for inspiring me to pursue a topic about which I am passionate, and for sharing with me an incredible amount of knowledge. Thank you to Dr. Charis Kubrin for helping to make this paper the best it could be. iv Abstract of Thesis: The Effects of Stripping on Self-Esteem The effects of stripping on self-esteem have long been documented from one of two competing feminist perspectives. This paper argues that while these perspectives create a solid theoretical foundation, they each ignore that stripping can have both beneficial and detrimental elements that influence dancers’ self-esteem. More importantly, each woman’s experience is unique, and so sweeping generalizations tend to miss the point of individuality and autonomy. This article finds that stripping can be both empowering and disempowering at different times, depending on the eight factors that are outlined in this paper. v Table of Contents: Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv Abstract v Introduction 2 Literature Review 6 Research Methods 20 Findings 23 Conclusion 67 References 72 vi “It seemed so weird to me that a girl who regularly boinked complete strangers had only seen cocaine in the movies. The world of stripping is populated with such contradictions, suburban girls with bruised veins, ghetto girls on Atkins, innocents who strip to get dirty and dirty girls who strip to clean up. The whole scene is bananas” (Cody, p. 161). “When asked to explain, we attempt life as straight algebra: A root cause (sexual trauma, violent relationship, crappy parents), and an aggravating factor (low self- esteem, substance abuse, lack of education) equals stripper, but this never works, because there are always women with the same variables who don’t end up in the clubs. An authentic reply isn’t obedient, it won’t shrink down into something you can fit into a pocket, an index of facts, or a list of diagnoses. The truth is much more complicated than that. The truth is so much more of a mess” (Burana, p. 282). 1 Introduction Exotic dance and burlesque are two names by which stripping is alternately referred. To outsiders, the notion of taking off one’s clothes in front of strangers for money is abominable, for some, the idea is liberating, and for others, stripping provides a host of mixed emotions about the morality of it all. For as long as stripping has existed as a professional career, there have been a variety of arguments both for and against it. While exotic dance remains legal throughout the United States, it is still largely considered a deviant occupation by industry outsiders as well as many of the men and women who are employed in this field (Thompson, Harred, and Burks, 2003). Theoretical Perspectives There are two commonly held perspectives in regard to stripping in the field of gender studies and sociology. These two positions are the sexual radical/libertarian view and the radical feminist view. While both of these perspectives are derived from feminist-based research, they oppose one another. The sexual radical/libertarian view, also known as the “empowerment paradigm” (Weitzer, 2009), posits that stripping has the ability to empower women and create a sense of agency for the individual. While it does not state that sex work is always beneficial to those involved, it does endorse the idea that stripping (like other forms of sex work) has the potential to be a positive experience. This theory also focuses on the ability of women to maintain financially beneficial employment 2 in sex work, which is not so different from other forms of labor in which women typically engage. On the other hand, there is the radical feminist view, or the “oppression paradigm” (Weitzer, 2009), which stands in stark contrast to the empowerment paradigm. This theoretical perspective holds that the detrimental effects of stripping are inherent to the job and engrained in the behaviors and mental states that are necessary to work in such a profession. The oppression paradigm revolves around a set of notions that exotic dance, by its nature, detrimentally affects dancers. It goes even further, saying that the entire industry capitalizes on weak and powerless individuals, so much so, that sex work essentially demoralizes and victimizes women. Proponents of this theory believe that women who enter the sex industry are drawn to this type of work because they are inevitably marred by past trauma and abuse (Weitzer, 2009). Clearly, these two theoretical perspectives do not tell the whole story: “Both the oppression and empowerment paradigms are one-dimensional” (Weitzer, 2009: 215). Even combined, the two views only offer variations of the extreme. The problem here is that my research demonstrates that while stripping may have both detrimental and beneficial affects on dancers, the women rarely encounter only one of these experiences. In fact, as I demonstrate, women’s self-esteem is influenced in a variety of ways, some of which are positive and some of which are negative. These are not the only two perspectives in existence though, and further research demonstrates that there is a middle ground that is far more compatible with my findings. Weitzer calls this theory the “polymorphous paradigm,” and it 3 blends the empowerment paradigm with the oppression paradigm. Indeed, it removes the simplistic claims of the other two perspectives and recognizes that stripping varies considerably—both within the population of dancers and from club to club (Bradley-Engen 2009). The argument here is that there are too many variables (at both the individual-and structural-levels) to say that the effects of sex work are either uniformly beneficial or detrimental. Both the oppression and empowerment paradigms ignore the potential for experiences to be very mixed as a result of the complexities of human behavior. My findings show that neither the empowerment paradigm nor the oppression paradigm provide a complete understanding of the positive and negative consequences that stripping has on the individual. Instead, the data analyzed here tends to support the third theoretical perspective, the polymorphous paradigm. As explained above, this idea highlights the variation in the structure and experiences of commercial sex work. My Research Existing academic research provides a wealth of information about the topic, however it also leaves some issues unexamined. This thesis does not scrutinize every way that stripping can influence the self-esteem of women, but instead, it aims to pick up where other studies have left off. I analyzed the memoirs of eleven female dancers and examined their various experiential perspectives. I found that their experiences are quite similar to one another despite the diversity of their journeys. 4 Ultimately, all of the women felt that their self-esteem had been influenced by their work, and these effects were carried into their lives outside of the clubs. I began my research believing that the clearest and most concise way to analyze strippers’ experiences was to categorize them as either positive or negative. As I proceeded with my research, I found that this distinction was not so clear. Feelings of both rejection and validation influenced dancers’ self-esteem and played out in important ways, but this was far too simplistic. While I commonly identified the recurrence of certain themes, (such as the potential to make large sums of money in relatively short periods of time and the ability to be financially independent and personally autonomous), no two women experienced stripping in exactly the same ways. While I had initially outlined the criteria for what I expected to be eleven categories that constituted self-esteem and the ways in which women’s work experiences affected their lives, I amended thematic elements as I coded the memoir data. I eventually created eight categories through which stripping influenced women’s self-esteem and the ways in which these experiences carried into their personal lives. This is what I seek to demonstrate in the study at hand. To understand the benefits and detriments of stripping on self-esteem and the ways that these experiences influenced the dancers’ lives, it is important to look at the whole picture. I present my argument through the use of eleven memoirs written by women who worked as exotic dancers. I found that the effects of stripping are numerous, and that while some women may decide that the overall experience of their work was positive or a negative, the majority had a difficult time 5 doing this. In fact, many women explained that there were simply too many relevant factors to say that her experience was uniform. What I show here is that there are myriad factors that drive a woman’s understanding of her work as an exotic dancer based on the testimonies contained in the memoirs in my sample. I created eight categories into which these authors’ experiences can be grouped. The categories are: -motivation for entry into the industry -power and control -effects on relationships -motivation for remaining in the business -creating a persona -negative effects of stripping -reasons for exiting the industry -factors directly affecting self-esteem While no two experiences are identical, the recurring themes point to important similarities in the ways stripping affects the lives of women.