“I'll Scratch Your Back If You'll Scratch Mine”: The Role of Reciprocity, Power and Autonomy in the Strip Club

Abstract

l'auteure de cet article étudie les jeux de pouvoir dans un club d'ef‐feuilleuses. En établissant des parallelès avec l'industrie des services, elle explore les stratégies que les travailleurs des clubs d'effeuilleuses utilisent afin d'augmenter leur autonomie au travail et d'accroitre les ressources qu'ils mobilisent pour favoriser des actes de résistance. l'économie informelle des faveurs” (Bruckert, 2002) qui se crée au sein des communications entre les travailleurs et de leurs activités de coopération sert àétablir un environnement de travail plus soutenant et à diminuer les incertitudes inhérentes à leur emploi. This paper examines the interplay of power relations in the strip club. Through drawing parallels with the service industry, it explores the strategies strip club workers engage in to enhance their autonomy on the job and the resources they use to facilitate acts of resistance. The “informal economy of favours” (Bruckert, 2002) that develops, through interconnections between and co‐operative activities engaged in by workers, serves to create a more supportive work environment and to decrease the inherent uncertainties of the job.

Doing Gender Well and Differently in Dirty Work: The Case of Exotic Dancing

“…The social validation of femininity in this context can therefore also be seen as economic. These findings are well supported in the extant literature on exotic dancing (see, for example, Bradley‐Engen and Ulmer, 2009; Lewis, 2006; Philaretou, 2006; Ronai and Ellis, 1989).…”

“…In this research, women sex workers doing gender well through exaggerated feminine behaviour and personified sexual bodies are continually rewarded by higher customer demand, more dances, higher wage earnings and customer satisfaction. As in other customer service organizations, these outcomes signify perceptions that the workers are good at their work and are good workers (Lewis, 2006; Ronai and Ellis, 1989). The social validation of femininity in this context can therefore also be seen as economic.…”

“…The nature of the employment contract at FYEO is such that the dancers are considered self‐employed, a type of ‘private entrepreneur’ (Lewis, 2006). These dancers say that this is a means of expressing choice; they choose when they want to work, how often they want to work and where they want to work — within boundaries.…”

Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?☆

“…The following information was gathered from interviews with local club managers and from the sociological and feminist literature on erotic dancing (Barton, 2006;Beasley, 2003;Brewster, 2003;Deshotels & Forsyth, 2006;Enck & Preston, 1988;Forsyth & Deshotels, 1997;Hall, 1993;Hochschild, 1983;Lewis, 2006;Linz et al, 2000;Pasko, 2002;Ronai & Ellis, 1989;Thompson, Harred, & Burks, 2003).…”

Tip Work: Examining the Relational Dynamics of Tipping beyond the Service Counter

“…Tipped workers also approach their interactions with coworkers and supervisors in strategic ways. Fellow tipped workers may collaborate on labor tasks with the mutual goal of bringing more gratuities into the establishment (Lewis ). They may also attempt to stabilize their tip earnings by pooling together and sharing their gratuities among a larger group of coworkers instead of handling them on an individual basis (Mulinari ).…”