Discrimination and financial, occupational, and emotional well-being in strip club dancers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A call for policy reform.

Abstract

Due to the sexual nature of their work, strip club dancers have long been subject to marginalization and occupational stigma. During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, dancers faced unique stressors due to their status as contract workers within the stigmatized commercial sex/adult entertainment industry, and these stressors have likely impacted their financial, occupational, and emotional well-being. We surveyed 102 strip club dancers across 35 U.S. states and Puerto Rico to examine how their well-being has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and to guide recommendations for policy reform. Findings revealed that during the pandemic, dancers experienced occupational stigmatization, structural and systematic exclusion from financial support during the pandemic, and numerous obstacles in obtaining employment outside of their industry, all of which contributed to reported financial and occupational stress. Furthermore, results demonstrated that strip club dancers experienced significant financial loss, and associated financial concern was associated with poorer mental health outcomes. Structural changes to financial relief packages are necessary for inclusion of strip club dancers, and there is also a clear need for more efforts to decrease discrimination and violence toward strip club dancers generally, including legal recognition of sex workers as laborers.

Undue harms against adult dancers: Regulation of strip club labor based on spurious research, claims, and stigma

“…Dancers are marginalized solely for their occupation (Amnesty, 2016; Shelgren, 2019). Seventy‐seven percent of surveyed dancers believe they are treated differently by others because of their work (Shelgren, 2019), and, in another study, dancer participants reported experiencing a mean of 2.5 instances of discrimination in the previous year due to their job (Kelton et al, 2023). Indeed, Twohy (2019) cites numerous examples of dancers and their work experiencing social oppression from lawmakers.…”