Gendered Power Dynamics and Exotic Dance

A Multilevel Analysis

Tina Deshotels, Craig Forsyth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367466831
• eBook ISBN: 9781000441932
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

Gendered Power Dynamics and Exotic Dance examines the social phenomenon of exotic dancing. Presenting a compelling multilevel analysis of dancer interactions, organizational practices, and institutional forces, this book challenges our understanding of sexuality and power.

Centering the voices and experiences of exotic dancers, this book explores the relationship between exotic dancing and power at the micro-interactional, meso-organizational, and macro-institutional levels, informing a feminist theory of power that seeks out systems of domination in order to challenge and change them. Through direct interviews and observations collected between 1993 and 2021 from 40 different clubs in the United States, Deshotels and Forsyth demystify the seemingly contrary findings about exotic dancing and power. They show how and why individual dancers can be simultaneously empowered and exploited beyond individual traits, interactions, or settings in the nexus of gender and power in exotic dancing.

The book will be useful for scholarly readers in the subject areas of sociology, cultural studies, gender/sexualities studies, sex work, and organizations theory. Written in a clear, accessible manner, this book will also appeal to a general audience interested in understanding the complex interactions of gender, power, feminism, and exotic dance.

1

Introduction

Exotic dancing and power

Is exotic dancing exploitive or empowering? Can it be empowering and exploitive at the same time? Can examining the question of power in the context of exotic dancing tell us anything about gendered power in other contexts? These questions are important. The participation and interest in exotic dancing are reportedly on the rise. In 2019, the exotic dance industry generated an estimated revenue of $8.3 billion. This represents a 4.1% increase between 2014 and 2019 and a 2.1% increase in 2019 alone (IBIS 2019). However, exotic dancing remains a deviant, or at best, a marginal occupation (Barton 2002, 2006, 2007, 2017; Egan 2004, 2006; Enck and Preston 1988; Pilcher 2017; Price-Glynn 2010). That this career is a lucrative option for women in the United States, which is increasing in popularity and remaining stigmatized, is indeed an anomaly. In our society, money earned legally is usually an outright symbol of power. However, despite the exorbitant amounts of money women earn legally in this field (Sanders and Hardy 2014; Deshotels and Forsyth 2012; Reid, Epstein, and Benson 1994), there is much debate about power and exploitation in the ‘sex for sale’ industry generally and for our purposes exotic dancing specifically (Barton 2002, 2006, 2007, 2017; Simmons 1999). Until the late 1990s, most of the attention in academia was centered on deviance and stigma, and what men thought about exotic dancing. The focus was on how dancers managed the stigma associated with a career that no ‘normal’ woman would do (Boles and Garbin 1974; Carey, Peterson, and Sharpe 1974; Skipper and McCaghy 1970; Thompson and Harred 1992). In 1997, we were the first to examine exotic dancing from the dancers’ perspective (Forsyth and Deshotels 1996, 1997, 1998). Since that time, research has continued in this focus by expanding, challenging, and supporting various sides of the debate (Pilcher 2017; Sanders and Hardy 2014).

In this book, we further this focus by analyzing data from interviews of 165 female dancers and 76 managers and support staffs, and observations at 40 different clubs across the southeast and west coast of the United States collected between 1993 and 2021. In our analysis, we center the voices and experiences of exotic dancers to explore the relationship between exotic dancing and power at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis through the lens of feminist theories of power. We make three arguments. First, we argue that it is necessary to center the voices of women in the field of exotic dancing in order to fully represent, from their perspective, the operation of power. Nancy Hartsock notes the “limitations of theories of power about women, theories that may include subjugation as yet another variable to be considered.” She also encourages researchers to pursue “theories of power which begin from the experience and point of view of women” Hartsock (1990: 158). Similarly, Smith (1987) recommends starting from the perspective of women’s lives to reveal other conceptions of reality, rather than beginning with pre-conceived definitions. Second, we argue that understanding the relationship between exotic dancing and power requires an examination of how power operates at the micro level, in our interactions; at the meso level, in organizations; and at the macro level, in social and cultural contexts. Third, we argue that this integrative framework helps us provide a description of how power operates that is necessary to inform a feminist theory of power. We organize the remainder of this chapter as follows. First, we review feminist theories of power that can help us address our research questions. Second, we summarize previous research on exotic dancing and power. Next, we introduce our multilevel framework. We then discuss the limitations of our sample as well as the benefits of understanding exotic dancing in the United States and Western context. Finally, we layout the rest of our book and how each chapter contributes to understanding the relationship between exotic dancing and power.

The goal of feminist theories of power is to understand and challenge systems of domination (Harding 1991). They just do so in different ways. Some, especially those that examine economic power and view power as something to be possessed, generally frame domination as the power to possess socially desirable resources (Young 1990). Because women, as a group, have less access to these resources than men, as a group, this position advocates that in order to challenge systems of domination women must have equal access to resources. Young (1990) argues that women gain power by having the ability to express dominance and control over others. Rather than focus on control over others, some argue that power is the ability to control your own actions and definitions of self (Paglia 1990; Roiphe 1994). Others argue that women’s power stems from free expression, and exotic dancers, in particular, have the power to control the audience who are mesmerized by their sexual displays (Distiller 2001; McElroy 1995). In contrast, others argue that each of these definitions is an example of a masculinist conceptualization of power as domination and control or power over the customer. These critics may agree that women can be dominant and controlling, but they question if women should do these things. They are critical of those who are interested in advocating for a simple change in the distribution of power that leaves “intact the power structure itself” (Irigaray 1985: 81). Sometimes referred to as feminist theories of empowerment, these theorists argue for a different way to conceptualize power that does not rely on domination and control but explores the possibility of power with others. Miller (1992), for example, argues that “there is enormous validity in women’s not wanting to use power as it is presently conceived and used. Rather, women may want to be powerful in ways that simultaneously enhance, rather than diminish, the power of others” (247–248). Miller defines power as “the capacity to produce a change – that is, to move anything from point A or state A to point B or state B” (241). This is a recognition of the inherent interconnectedness of power relations. Similarly, Follett (1942) makes a distinction between ‘power over’ and ‘power with’, arguing that ‘power with’ is a form of reciprocity between members of groups and thus a collective ability. These insights are important. Each perspective gives us a different way to fully represent the relationship between exotic dancing and power. We are interested in how dancers define power and how their definitions support and/or challenge these theories. Examining dancers’ definitions through the lens of these theories enables us to identify how power operates at the micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis and therefore inform a feminist theory of power in order to identify and eventually challenge systems of domination.

Examining the debates on the relationship between exotic dancing and power reveals a lack of conceptual clarity in how power is defined and, we argue, contributed to a lack of consensus. Much of the early debate on empowerment and/or exploitation in exotic dance is rigidly dichotomous, arguing that women are either exploited or empowered. Those that view exotic dancing as empowering are often defining power as something to be possessed, access to resources, particularly economic resources and/or in terms of domination and control. These theorists argue that labor is commodified under capitalism, and exotic dancing is just another form of labor that can be bought or sold like any other service and women are the exploiters in the dancer–customer interaction as they have the power to negotiate their fee and thereby benefit from the sale of their sexuality (Beran 2012; Hoang 2015; Murphy 2003; Pritchard 2010). Women in this view are exercising control in their interactions with the customers, maintaining acceptable body boundaries, while maximizing their profits (Ronai and Ellis 1989; Ronai and Cross 1998). Here, women embrace their sexuality and adhere to the idea that sexual expression in and of itself is a form of liberation and empowerment. Agustin (2005), for example, argues that exotic dancers symbolize “freedom from social control” (69). The idea that sexual displays are empowering has gained widespread popularity in the general public, especially in the United States. Examples include television shows such as “Girls Gone Wild” or the mainstreaming of stripping exemplified in the popularity of pole dancing fitness classes. Some adhering to this view see exotic dancers and perhaps other sex workers as “liberated goddesses” (Egan 2006). Finally, still others have commented on the pleasures and enjoyment dancers experience (Bradley-Engen 2009; Bradly-Engen and Ulmer 2009; Colosi 2010; Deshotels and Forsyth 2006, 2008; Deshotels, Tinnie, and Forsyth 2012; Frank 2002). In contrast, yet still defining power as domination, others argue that all types of sex works are exploitative for women, represents female victimization, and supports male dominance (Jeffreys 2009). The exploitation of dancers stems from the profession itself as an overt expression of male dominance (Barton 2002; Pasko 2002; Thompson and Harred 1992; Thompson, Harred, and Burks 2003). This group critiques the popularity of and glorification of what they call ‘strip tease culture’ arguing that strip tease culture has mainstreamed sex and we neither realize how far the ‘pornographization’ of culture has reached nor the negative impact it has on women (Attwood 2010). In her book, Attwood (2010) documents the extent to which women perform stripper moves and flashing at parties, bars, and other public functions. Similarly, Gill (2010) argues that “increasingly, young women are presented not as passive sex objects, but as active, desiring sexual subjects, who seem to participate enthusiastically in practices and forms of self-presentation that earlier generations regarded as connected to subordination” (Gill 2010: 95). Levy (2005) argues that the objectification of women’s bodies and unapologetic, unreflective, commitment to the idea that ‘sex sells’ has resulted in what she calls “raunch culture,” an ever-increasing sexualization of women and girls. She further contends that young women not only accept this hyper-sexualization but actively promote it and embrace it in their quest for power. Levy (2005) asserts this misguided internalization of men’s desires thwarts women’s sexual expressions and limits their power to “in the eyes of the beholder,” or at the discretion of men.

A third emerging position supports a more nuanced understanding that offers a reconciliation between these extremes (Deshotels and Forsyth 2006; Deshotels, Tinnie, and Forsyth 2012; Wahab et al. 2011). For example, Bradley-Engen (2009) creates a typology of clubs to examine how, depending on the culture of the club, dancing can be empowering and/or exploitive. She found that even though all the clubs sold sex, the way the clubs sold sex impacted dancers’ experiences of agency and/or constraint, with clubs exerting varying degrees of control over dancers’ a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Information
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Note on authors
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: Exotic dancing and power
• 2 Dancing with power: Setting the stage
• 3 You’re sitting on a gold mine: Exotic dancing and power at the micro-interactional level of analysis
• 4 Sex rules: The relationship between exotic dancing, organizational rules, and workplace culture
• 5 McSexy: An examination of how market forces and cultural images impact dancer power
• 6 The next stage: Power and empowerment
• Index