INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to investigate women's experiences
in stripclubs and to describe the activities in stripclubs from the
women's point of view. The format approach is collective story narrative
with the author as part of the collective voice. The research was
inspired by the author’s experiences in stripping over the course of
thirteen years. The author’s intention is to examine the conditions of
stripclubs by describing the fundamental way stripclubs are organized.
The description features bar activities focused on stripper-customer
interactions, survey data on sexual violence in stripclubs, and women's
thoughts on stripping.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
Stripclubs are popularly promoted as providing harmless
entertainment and as places where respectful men go to watch and talk to
women (Reed 1997). Stripclub customers are described as normal men who
use stripclubs to avoid adultery and therefor find a safe outlet for
their sexual desires in balance with their marital commitments (Reed
1997). In contrast, stripclubs are criticized for being environments
where men exercise their social, sexual, and economic authority over
women who are dependent on them and as places where women are treated as
things to perform sex acts and take commands from men (Ciriello 1993).
Stripclubs are organized according to gender and reflect gender
power dynamics in greater society. "Gendered spaces are social arenas in
which a person’s gender shapes the roles, statuses, and interpersonal
dynamics and generates differential political and economic outcomes and
interaction expectations and practices" (Ronai, Zsembik, and Feagin
1997:6). Stripclubs are more specifically organized according to gender
inequality, which is perpetuated by gendered spaces and consequently
sexualized (Ronai, et al 1997). The typical stripclub scenario displays
young, nude or partially nude women for fully clothed male customers
(Thompson and Harred 1992).
The entire analysis of stripclubs is located within the context
of men’s domination over women. When organizations are produced in the
context of the structural relations of domination, control, and
violence, they reproduce those relations (Hearn 1994). These
organizations may also make explicit use of gendered forms of authority
with unaccountable and unjustifiable authority belonging to men (Hearn
1994). The stripclub elicits and requires direct expressions of male
domination and control over women (Prewitt 1989).
In order to dominate or control and secure men’s domestic,
emotional and sexual service interests, male dominated institutions and
individual men utilize violence (Hanmer 1989). Furthermore, male
dominated institutions and individual men "forge alliances and
strengthen the notion of group masculinity and power through forced
access to the female body" (Brownmiller 1976:211). Stripclubs turn acts
of violence against women into entertainment and enterprise for men. Men
associated with stripclubs use force and coercion to establish sexual
contact with women in stripping and inflict harm upon the women.
Violence against women is identified as physical, sexual, emotional,
verbal, and representational, but all violence from men against women
should be understood as sexual violence (Hearn 1994). This definition
and the concept of a continuum are useful when discussing sexual
violence, especially in stripclubs. Continuum is defined as a basic
characteristic underlying many different events and as a series of
elements or events that pass into one another (Kelly 1987). The common
underlying element in stripclubs is that male customers, managers,
staff, and owners use diverse methods of harassment, manipulation,
exploitation, and abuse to control female strippers.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Despite a substantial amount of research on the topic of
strippers, stripping, and stripclubs, none focuses on sexual violence in
stripclubs perpetrated against strippers. Instead the studies focus on
sociological and psychological profiles of the women and the women’s
strategies for interaction with customers. Articles that focus on the
women investigate the cultural space of the female nude dancer, her
performance and auxiliary roles, test identity theory within the
socially devalued role of the exotic dancer, and explore the effect of
self-discrepancy on stripteasers’ emotional stability (Forsyth and
Deshotels 1997; Reid, Epstein, and Benson 1994; (Peretti and O’ Connor
1989). Other articles about the women are concerned with contingencies
for women’s initiation and commitment to the deviance of striptease and
with techniques topless dancers use to manage the stigma of a deviant
occupation (Skipper and McCaghy 1970; Thompson and Harred 1992). Studies
focused on stripper and customer relationships analyze counterfeit
intimacy utilized by strippers and customers in interaction and
performance and compare stripper and customer interactions with
mainstream negotiation and sales strategies (Boles and Garbin 1974; Enck
and Preston 1988; Ronai 1989). Although most studies mention male sexual
violence and exploitation, the research regarding stripping fails to
investigate and account for the problem of sexual violence in
establishments that feature female strippers. The gap is the rationale
for my study.
METHOD
Data for this research were obtained through interviews, a
survey, and the researcher’s participant observation while involved in
stripping (Berg 1998; Babbie 1998; Lofland and Lofland 1984). Women in
this study stripped in the local stripclubs in the Midwest metropolitan
area where the researcher lives, in local nightclubs in the same area,
in metropolitan and rural stripclubs and nightclubs across the United
States, at private parties, in peep shows, and in saunas. The stripclubs
featured a variety of attractions including topless dancing, nude
dancing, table dancing, couch dancing, lap dancing, wall dancing, shower
dancing, and bed dancing. In addition, some clubs had peepshows, female
boxing and wrestling with customers, offered photographs of the dancers,
or hired pornography models and actresses as headliners.
The study was conducted in two phases. In 1994, I conducted
free-flowing qualitative interviews for one to four hours each with
forty-one women while I was still involved in stripping and compiled
participant observer notes about the activities in stripclubs. The women
ranged in age from nineteen to forty years old and were involved in
stripping from three months to eighteen years. All of the women
identified themselves as Caucasian.
In 1996, I proceeded to design a twenty-six-question survey
according to themes derived from the interviews to investigate
sexual violence in stripclubs. My long-time involvement in the strip
industry allowed an association with strippers that was invaluable for
administering in-depth surveys regarding sensitive issues. The surveys
were administered face-to-face to insure the information was indeed from
the women in stripping. Again, the surveys and consequent discussions
lasted from one to four hours. Many women explained that they had never
talked about their experiences so extensively because no one had ever
asked them the right questions. Participants were asked to say whether
they had experienced different abusive and violent actions in
stripclubs, to estimate how often each action happened, and then to
identify which men associated with stripclubs perpetrated the action.
The categories of men were defined as customer, owner, staff, and
manager. Since I exited stripping, snowball sampling was employed to
recruit the eighteen participants for the survey (Babbie 1998).
Participants in the survey were asked to pass on postcards to other
women. The range of ages was eighteen to thirty-five years old. The age
of entry into stripping ranged from fifteen to twenty-three years old,
with a mean age of eighteen years and ten months. The length of time the
women in this study were involved in stripping ranged from three months
to eighteen years with an average length of six years and seven months.
Women predominantly identified themselves as Caucasian. Only one woman
identified herself as Hispanic. Twelve of the women described their
sexual orientation as heterosexual, two as lesbian, and four as
bisexual. The survey data was analyzed on the Statistical Program for
Social Sciences (Norusis 1988).
After the data was compiled, a focus group of 4 women currently
in stripping and with no prior association with the study positively
evaluated the relevancy of the study and approved the collective story
(Berg 1998).
Statements in quotations throughout this paper are derived from
the 41 interviews and the interviews that often followed the
administration of the 18 surveys.
PART 1: TYPICAL STRIPCLUB
ACTIVITIES
Recruitment
Women find out about stripping from a variety of sources.
Upscale stripclub franchises recruit in new cities by having managers
and imported dancers scout in nightclubs. Most women find out about
stripping from girlfriends already in stripping, male associates, the
media, and some from prior involvement in prostitution. One woman told
how she loitered in and around urban stripclubs to pick up customers
when she was fifteen and how her pimp eventually drove her to small town
strip bars because those bars admitted her and hired her. Someone else
got involved in stripping through an escort service for bachelor
parties. Another young woman who went to a gentlemen’s club to pick up
her friend recounted her recruitment as an eighteen-year-old. She waited
at the bar, was served alcohol, and the owner asked to check her I.D.
Instead of censuring her for drinking, he told her she would make $1000
per week and pressured her to enter the amateur contest that night. She
won the contest, $300, and worked there three weeks before being
recruited into an escort service by a patron pimp.
In a typical hiring scenario women respond in person to a
newspaper ad promising big money, flexible hours, no experience
necessary. As an audition the club manager asks the applicants to
perform on amateur night or bikini night, both of which are particularly
popular with customers who hope to see girl-next-door types rather than
seasoned strippers. The manager will make a job offer based on physical
attributes and number of women already on the schedule. Clubs portray
the job requirements as very flexible. Women are told that they will not
be forced to do anything they do not want to do, but clubs overbook
women so they are forced to compete with each other, often gradually
engaging in more explicit activities in order to earn tips (Cooke
1987).
Working Conditions
Women in stripping are denied legal protection relating to the
terms and conditions under which they earn their livings (Fischer 523).
Most strippers are hired to work as independent contractors rather than
employees. Most strippers are not paid a wage (Mattson 1995), therefor
their income is totally dependent on their compliance with customer
demands in order to earn tips. More often than not, the strippers have
to pay for the privilege of working at a club (Cooke 1987; Forsyth and
Deshotels 1997; Prewitt 1989). The majority of clubs demand that women
turn over 40 to 50 percent of their income for stage or couch rental and
enforce a mandatory tip out to bouncers and disc jockeys (Enck and
Preston 1988; Forsyth and Deshotels 1997). Usually a minimum shift quota
is set and the women must turn over at least that quota amount. If a
woman does not earn the quota and wants to continue working at the
establishment, she owes the club and must pay off that shift’s quota by
adding it to the quota for the next shift she will work. The stripclubs
may also derive income from promotional novelty items, kickbacks, door
cover charges, beverage sales, prostitution, and capricious fines
imposed on the women. As independent contractors, strippers are not
entitled to file discrimination claims, receive workers’ compensation,
or unemployment benefits (Fischer 1996; Mattson 1995). Club owners are
free from tax obligations and tort liability. Owners pay no Social
Security, no health insurance, and no sick pay. Some club owners require
strippers to sign agreements indicating that they are working as
independent contractors and many clubs require women to sign a waiver of
their right to sue the club for any reason.
Although strippers are classified as independent contractors,
the reality of their relationship to their supervisors is an
employee-employer relationship. Regardless of the agreements claiming
independent contractor status, clubs maintain enormous control over the
women. The club controls the schedule and hours, requires strippers to
pay rental fees, tip support staff large amounts, and even sets the
price of table dances and private dances. Clubs have specific rules
about costuming and even dictate the sequence of stripping and nudity.
For example, by the middle of the first song the woman must remove her
top, she must be entirely nude by the end of the second song, and must
perform a nude floorshow. All this regardless of whether customers are
tipping her or not. A club may further influence dancers’ appearances by
pressuring them to shave off all their pubic hair, maintain a year-long
tan, or undergo surgery for breast augmentation. At nude clubs, it is
common for the performers to be shaved clean, giving them an adolescent
and even childlike appearance.
Clubs also exert significant control over the strippers’
behavior during their shifts by regulating when women may use the
bathroom and how many of them can be in the dressing room at one time.
Some clubs do not provide seating in the dressing room and forbid
smoking in that room, thus preventing strippers from taking a break.
When a woman wants to sit down or smoke a cigarette, she must do so on
the main floor with a customer. Clubs enforce these rules through fines
(Cooke 1987; Enck and Preston 1988; Ronai 1992). Women are fined heavily
by club management: $1 per minute for being late, as much as $100 for
calling in sick, and other arbitrary amounts for "talking back" to
customers or staff, using the telephone without permission, and touching
stage mirrors. Women are fined for flashing, prostitution (Enck and
Preston 1988), taking off their shoes, fighting with a customer, being
late on stage, leaving the main floor before the DJ calls her off, not
cashing in one dollar bills, profanity in music, being sick, not
cleaning the dressing room, using baby oil on stage, dancing with her
back to a customer (Enck and Preston 1988) and being touched by a
customer.
Despite the stripclub’s representation of a dancing job as
flexible, strippers attest that their relationship with the club becomes
all consuming and everything associated with being a stripper interferes
with living a normal life. And despite the common perception that a
woman can dance her way through school, many strippers report that their
jobs take over their lives. Long and late hours, fatigue, drug and
alcohol problems, and out of town bookings make it difficult to switch
gears. Not only do the women spend a significant amount of their time in
stripclubs, the activities and influences from the club environment
permeate their personal lives and detrimentally effect their well being.
Although stripclubs are considered legal forms of entertainment, people
unassociated with the industry are unaware of the emotional (Peretti and
O’Connor 1989; Ronai 1992), verbal (Mattson 1995; Ronai 1992), physical
(Boles and Garbin 1974), and sexual abuse (Ciriello 1993; Ronai 1992)
inherent in the industry. Despite claims from management that customers
are prohibited from touching the women, this rule is consistently
violated (Enck and Preston 1988; Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Ronai and
Ellis 1989; Thompson and Harred 1992). Furthermore, stripping usually
involves prostitution (Boles and Garbin 1974; Forsyth and Deshotels
1997; Prewitt 1989; Ronai and Ellis 1989; Thompson and Harrod
1992).
Stripper-Customer Interactions
Main Floor
Stripclub activities are offered in public spaces or private
rooms or other isolated parts of clubs (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997). The
typical stripclub scenario presents young, nude or partially nude women
mingling with fully clothed male customers. They circulate through the
crowd, encouraging men to buy liquor, drinking and talking with men, and
soliciting and performing a variety of private dances (Prewitt 1989;
Ronai and Ellis 1989). Women describe their role in the stripclub as
hostess, object, prostitute, therapist, and temporary girlfriend and
say they are there to entertain and attract men and business for the
owners.
Women who work at small strip joints say they can hang out,
order in food, and play pool during their shifts. On the other hand,
women who work at gentlemen’s clubs have to hustle photographs and
drinks and are required to sell promotional T-shirts, calendars, and
videos. They can be mandated to sell the items with private dances. For
example, the dancers buy T-shirts from the house mom for $8 and sell
them for $15. So for $15, the customer receives a T-shirt and 2 $10
table dances. Strippers at gentlemen’s clubs are further informed by
management that they are not allowed to buy their own drinks, that they
have to be sitting with customers, and can never turn down a drink, even
when their drinks are full.
Stage
Women report dancing on stages as cheaply constructed by laying
plywood on the benches of restaurant booths to stages covered with
kitchen linoleum to wood parquet or marble stages in a few upscale
clubs. Some stages are elevated runways so narrow that strippers say
that cannot get away from customers on each side touching them,
especially when they are kneeling down to accept a tip in the side of
their g-strings/t-bars or when they have their backs turned. Stages can
also be sunken pits with a rail around it and a bar for the customers’
beverages. During a set, a stripper may do striptease, acrobatics,
dance, walk, or squat to display her genitals. Generally the progression
for striptease begins during the first song with the woman wearing a
dress or costume covering her breasts and buttocks. Over the course of a
set of 2 or 3 songs she will remove her bra and in nude clubs, her
g-string/t-bar. Some clubs feature floorshows in which women crawl or
move around on the floor posing in sexual positions and spread their
legs at the customers’ eye level. During a floorshow, a dancer changes
her movements from upright to positions on her knees and squatting in a
crabwalk in order to ‘flash’ tipping customers. "Flashing" is pulling
the g-string/t-bar aside, revealing the pubic area and/or the genitals.
Dancers describe this as "doing a show" for paying customers.
Ordinarily, a dancer only positions herself in front of tipping patrons
(Prewitt 145). Customers who fail to tip are ignored. Audience response
can be expressed by clapping, hooting, barking, whistling, amount of
money tipped, or complete silence depending upon time of day, state of
inebriation, excitement over the musical selection, or the appearance
and abilities of the stripper.
On stage, some women’s thoughts wander, while others’ focus on
angry desperation. "I daydream about nothing in particular to pass
the time of 12 minutes." "I’m thinking about how good I look in
the mirrors and how good I feel in dance movements." "I tell
myself to smile." "I think about getting high and that I am
making money to get high." "I am giving these guys every chance
to be decent, so that I don’t have to be afraid of them." "I am
filled with disdain for the customers who do not tip, but sit and watch
and direct you to do things for no money." "I think of how cheap
these fuckers are, what bills I need to pay."
Private Dance Activities
Private dances are usually performed in areas shielded from the
larger club view (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997, Prewitt 1989). As a rule,
the private dance involves one female dancer and one male customer.
Private dances are situations where women are often forced into acts of
prostitution in order to earn tips (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997; Prewitt
1989; Ronai and Ellis 1989). Men masturbate openly (Peretti and O’Connor
1989), get hand jobs (Forsyth and Deshotels 1997), and stick their
fingers inside women (Ronai and Ellis 1989). Men with foot fetishes have
been known to suck on dancers’ toes.
A variety of private dances are promoted in strip clubs. Table
dancing is performed on a low coffee table or on a small portable
platform near the customer’s seat. The woman’s breasts and genitals are
eye level to the customer. Couch dancing for a customer entails the
dancer standing over him on the couch, dangling her breasts or bopping
him in the face with her pubic area. Lap dancing requires the woman to
straddle the man’s lap and grind against him until he ejaculates in his
pants. A variation involves the woman dancing between his legs while he
slides down in his chair so that the dancer’s thighs are rubbing his
crotch as she moves. Bed dancing is offered in a private room and
requires a woman to lay on top of a fully clothed man and simulate
sexual intercourse until he ejaculates. Shower dancing is offered in
upscale clubs and allows a clothed patron to get into a shower stall
with one or more women and massage their bodies with soap. Wall dancing
requires a stripper to carry alcohol swabs to wash the customer’s
fingers before he inserts them into her vagina. His back is stationary
against the wall and she is pressed against him with one leg lifted.
Peep shows feature simulated or actual acts directed by openly
masturbating customers. Customers sit in a private booth and view the
women through a glass window. Live sex shows involve 2 or more
individuals engaging in simulated or sexual activity performed behind
glass or on a stage. Customers openly masturbate while watching the show
from the audience or through an opening in a private booth.
During private dances women are conscientious about their
boundaries and safety. "I don’t want him to touch me, but I am afraid
he will say something violent if I tell him ‘no’." "I was
thinking about doing prostitution because that’s when customers would
proposition me." "I could only think about how bad these guys
smell and try to hold my breath." "I spent the dance hyper
vigilant to avoiding their hands, mouths, and crotches." "We were
allowed to place towels on the guys’ laps, so it wasn’t so bad."
"I don’t remember because it was so embarrassing."
Dressing Room
Women describe a range of types and qualities of dressing rooms.
Strippers are expected to change clothing in beer coolers, broom
closets, and public restrooms. Some stripclub dressing rooms are nice
with lights, mirrors, vanities, and chairs, and are equipped with
lockers, and tanning beds. Other clubs have make-up mirrors but no
chairs or ashtrays to prevent dancers from lingering. Women complain
that too many dressing rooms are down isolated halls or in the basements
of establishments and that they have to scream for help when customers
intrude. Some are so damp or filthy that the women cannot take their
shoes off. Other dressing rooms are so frigid that dancers carry small
space heaters to and from work. The dressing rooms are used to change
costumes, drink, do drugs, do hair and make-up, iron costumes, do
homework, bitch about customers, avoid customers, talk about problems,
hang out. In strip joints and rural bars, women lay on blankets or
inside sleeping bags between sets and nap and read.
The greatest response to questions regarding preparation for
work was "drink". Women drink while getting ready to go to work and they
drink while doing their hair and make-up once in the dressing room.
Women who work at nude juice bars that do not serve alcohol or at bars
that do not allow women to buy their own drinks report that they stop at
another bar on their way in and "get loaded". Between stage sets and
private dances, women drink some more, clean themselves with washcloths
or babywipes after performing on a dirty stage or being touched by a lot
of men, apply deodorant, and perfume their breasts and genitals.