Negotiating racialized organizational spaces and intimacies: An ethnography of playpen strip club

Abstract

Based on 18 months of ethnographic research in a Northeast corridor strip club we call Playpen, we engage sex negotiations, erotic service exchanges, and the circulation of desire within an informal, weekly "Latina Night" event. We treat Playpen as a gendered and racialized organization in which patrons, dancers, and employees manage established, yet unspoken rules. Labor interactions and dynamics between dancers and clients are racialized when gesturing toward bodily currency -which materializes in tips, drinks, paid lap dances, and more exclusive attention; dancers compete for such currency, using their selection of music and dance, movements, adornments, body modifications and emotional labor. Selected pairings negotiate open spaces by turning pockets of the club into semi-private, intimate ones. Dancers' and clients' gendered and racialized notions of currency (in this case, racialized Latinidad) clash, ultimately serving the club in keeping "Latina Night" in place.

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

“…When alcohol is not a source of revenue, dancers become the primary source of revenue and commodity for clubs (Anasti, 2018; Deshotels & Forsyth, 2008), putting them in precarious relationships with clubs. Dancers report multifarious examples of financial exploitation by clubs such as indebting dancers, forcing payment of tips to club employees, and disparate treatment of dancers of color (Deshotels & Forsyth, 2008; Law, 2012; Mount, 2018; Silva et al, 2022). Financial autonomy is an essential moderating factor against trafficking, coercion, and abuse (Amnesty, 2016; The Centre, 2020), and when dancers have both power in their financial relationship with clubs and more general financial stability, they are more protected from exploitation (Vanwesenbeeck, 2017).…”