Sexy Ladies Sexing Ladies: Women as Consumers in Strip Clubs

Recent shifts in the consumer base of the sex industry have involved greater female attendance in strip clubs. This article examines how strip clubs and dancers incorporate female patrons into a sexualized space traditionally designed for men by identifying three interactional processes: passing over, sidestaging, and tailoring. We suggest dancers pass over women because they perceive female patron behavior to include resistance to “buying the game” and spending patterns that diverge from male customers. Drawing on Goffman's dramaturgical analysis, we suggest the dynamic relationship between dancer and female patron involves what we term sidestaging, which refers to both dancers’ disclosure and how the club's spatial organization inhibits the construction of women as customers through sharing gendered spaces, such as the bathroom. We argue that when a dancer tailors her lap dance for a female patron, she succeeds in acknowledging the female customer's sexual subjectivity and potential same-sex desires by providing an individualized avenue for exploring an erotic experience. Finally, we discuss data implications for understanding how same-sex desire and sexual identity operate in an environment that eroticizes the female form, and how the strip club becomes a potential space for engaging in same-sex eroticism that includes elements of play.     

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

This article explores how a group of exotic dancers do gender and manage the stigma associated with their work and identities. We draw upon stigma management strategies from the dirty work literature and illuminate the doing of gender in these strategies. We also contribute to the debate that gender can be done well and differently through simultaneous, multiple enactments of femininity and masculinity. We consider the experiences of 21 exotic dancers working in a chain of UK exotic dancing clubs and conclude that in order to be good at their job, exotic dancers are expected to do gender well, that is, perform exaggerated expressions of femininity. However, we also theorize that for some dirty workers, specifically exotic dancers as sex workers, doing gender well will not be enough to reposition bad girls (bad, dirty work) into good girls (good, clean work). Finally, we propose that doing gender well will have different consequences in different types of work, thereby extending our findings to other dirty work occupations and organizations in general.     

Sexy ladies sexing ladies: women as consumers in strip clubs

Recent shifts in the consumer base of the sex industry have involved greater female attendance in strip clubs. This article examines how strip clubs and dancers incorporate female patrons into a sexualized space traditionally designed for men by identifying three interactional processes: passing over, sidestaging, and tailoring. We suggest dancers pass over women because they perceive female patron behavior to include resistance to "buying the game" and spending patterns that diverge from male customers. Drawing on Goffman's dramaturgical analysis, we suggest the dynamic relationship between dancer and female patron involves what we term sidestaging, which refers to both dancers' disclosure and how the club's spatial organization inhibits the construction of women as customers through sharing gendered spaces, such as the bathroom. We argue that when a dancer tailors her lap dance for a female patron, she succeeds in acknowledging the female customer's sexual subjectivity and potential same-sex desires by providing an individualized avenue for exploring an erotic experience. Finally, we discuss data implications for understanding how same-sex desire and sexual identity operate in an environment that eroticizes the female form, and how the strip club becomes a potential space for engaging in same-sex eroticism that includes elements of play.     

Managing Identity in a Dirty Occupation: Male Strippers Experiences with Social Stigmas

In this research, I explore the social stigmas male strippers experience for engaging in a deviant occupation and the identity work they perform to maintain a positive sense of self. Specifically, I draw from 22 in-depth interviews with male exotic dancers and 18 months of fieldwork at a strip club. Overall, participants experienced three social stigmas as a result of stripping. These were reactions of shock and disgust, being targets of the “fag discourse,” and being falsely accused of being gay. Dancers used different techniques to manage these stigmas, such as passing, relying on narratives of professionalism, resisting feminine characterizations of themselves, and avoiding male patrons. Overall, these strategies proved to be effective in protecting their self-views.     

Devalued, deskilled and diversified: explaining the proliferation of the strip industry in the UK

This paper looks beyond the debates that focus on the objectification of the female body to examine the question as to why strip clubs have proliferated and found a permanent place in the night-time economy in the UK. Using empirical qualitative and quantitative data from the largest study into the strip industry in the UK to date, we challenge the common assumption that 'demand' is responsible for the rise in erotic dance. Instead, we argue that the proliferation of strip clubs is largely due to the internal economic structures of the industry which have developed partly in response to the financial crisis beginning in 2008. First, we argue that clubs profit from individual dancers through an exploitative system of fees and fines, rendering a strip club business a low cost investment with high returns and little risk to club owners. Second, we note that the last decade has seen diversification of the industry accompanied by deskilling and devaluing of dancing and dancers' labour. Third, we demonstrate that despite the negative effects of these changes on workers, there has been an expansion of the industry as the ability to make profit, even during a financial crisis was ensured through the transferral of risk to workers. Overall, we suggest that far from proliferating as a response to demand, the industry has maintained its market presence due to its ability to establish highly financially exploitation employment relationships with dancers at a time of economic fragility.     

STRADDLING THE SACRED AND SECULAR: CREATING A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE THROUGH BELLY DANCE

Few studies examine spiritual experiences through seemingly secular activities. Who has spiritual experiences while belly dancing? How does belly dance become spiritual? Using surveys and interviews with 77 belly dancers in the United States, this study shows that belly dance is spiritual for people who consider spirituality important in their lives, have belly danced for many years, rarely attend worship services, and are not affiliated with Judeo-Christian religions. Belly dance becomes spiritual when dancers “let go” and experience various connections. The dance itself and the environment in which one dances facilitate spiritual experiences. Implications for spirituality are discussed.     

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

Research has explored the ways in which communities respond to local polluting facilities. In some cases, residents mobilize to confront corporate and state polluters, whereas in other cases residents remain quiescent in the wake of documented environmental threats. The variation in community response is often linked to demographic variables, including age, gender, education, and length of residence; yet cultural factors remain largely unexamined. We examine how cultural factors such as community identity and memory mitigate the relationship between community residents and polluting facilities. We present a comparative study of two heavily polluted communities—Blackwell, Oklahoma, and Cañon City, Colorado—that had divergent responses to contamination. The data for these cases come from in‐depth interviews with community residents and various officials (N = 105), content analyses of newspaper coverage and relevant organization documents, and direct observation of meetings and organizing activities. Our findings indicate that cultural factors play a critical role in understanding the relationship between local residents and polluting facilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research on rural communities and environmental contamination.     

The trickle‐down effect of ethical leadership in nonprofit soccer clubs

Nonprofit soccer clubs are currently facing many ethical challenges, such as abuse, doping and match fixing. While research suggests that organizational (board) ethical leadership may be effective to tackle these ethical issues, empirical support in the context of sport remains limited. Drawing on the perceptions of a sample of nonprofit soccer players (n = 438) and coaches (n = 106), we indicate that the coaches play an important mediating role regarding the associations between board ethical leadership and ethical climate. The theoretical underpinnings of ethical leadership—formed by social learning theory and social exchange theory—and the social distance between the board and the players in nonprofit soccer clubs provide support in this regard. In sum, our results demonstrate that the influence of board ethical leadership in nonprofit soccer clubs partly trickles down to the players via coach ethical leadership. Finally, practical implications for nonprofit soccer club management are discussed.     

Fitting in and looking pretty: experiences of students with visual impairment participating in ‘inclusive’ ballroom dance classes

Abstract

Greater participation in social, sporting and cultural activities by disabled people is important for inclusion. We discuss the experiences of four students with visual impairment who are partnered with sighted dancers in an inclusive ballroom dancing project. Their talk is discussed against the background of common images about dance, disability and performance. Participants experienced inclusive ballroom dancing as enjoyable. They also indicated the ways in which the dancing involved acting to conceal their impairments and to reinforce norms of non-disabled heteronormativity. We discuss the contradictions inherent in projects which espouse inclusion and are appreciated but which perpetuate exclusionary stereotypes.     

“We are not strippers”: How Belly Dancers Manage a (Soft) Stigmatized Serious Leisure Activity

Most stigma research examines people who engage in deviant activities or possess visible and permanent discredited attributes, which lead to “hard” or severe consequences. Existing leisure studies focus on the benefits of leisure pursuits. Less attention is paid to the potential costs associated with serious leisure, such as “soft” stigma. The snubs and slight embarrassments resulting from soft stigma may jeopardize the rewards people receive from participating in leisure, such as a sense of identity, self‐worth, and pride. Using interviews with seventy‐four female belly dancers, most of whom belly dance as a form of “serious leisure,” this article examines how dancers manage perceptions that they are erotic dancers. Results show that dancers use an interesting set of stigma management techniques and new forms of some existing management strategies to simultaneously protect themselves and enhance the reputation of the group. Implications for how people negotiate soft stigma associated with serious leisure are discussed.     

A pole new world: Maneuvering masculinity and sexuality among men who pole dance

Research on cisgender men's experiences in feminized or women-dominated sports, physical activities, and leisure time has revealed strategies men use to circumvent or maneuver stigmas to minimize negative perceptions. Pole dancing is an under-researched activity uniquely positioned to understand dynamics of gender and sexuality. In this research dialogue, we present preliminary results from 13 semi-structured interviews with U.S. men who pole dance to understand how they navigate masculinity and sexuality in pole dancing. First, we find men very strategically disclose their pole dancing to others in the context of the activity's connections to women, gay men, and sex work. Second, we note how men who “pole” often rely on gender essentialist tropes that reinforce the assumption of natural, biological differences between men and women in attempt to legitimize their participation. Third, men who pole are aware of the potential “creepiness” of their presence in pole dance spaces and use this as an opportunity for reflection. Exploring how men rationalize their participation in pole dance is useful to understand the gender and sexual dynamics of men's presence in women-dominated spaces and broader contemporary masculinities.     

Thinking with the Mind,Syncing with the Body: Ballet as Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Interaction

Symbolic interactionist theory describes self‐consciousness as arising through symbolic interaction. I use one empirical case, ballet training, to suggest that symbolic interaction can, by producing self‐consciousness, cultivate unself‐consciousness. Using in‐depth interviews with twenty‐three individuals reporting on training experiences in six countries and twenty‐three American states, I show that dancers can learn, through self‐conscious symbolic interaction, how it feels to embody what an audience sees, as they strive to train their bodies to portray an institutionalized aesthetic. The embodiment of technique facilitates a markedly unself‐conscious “flow” experience while performing. In contrast, having an acute awareness of embodying an incompatible physiology inhibits flow and often motivates dancers to self‐select out of ballet. These interactionist sources of “nonsymbolic” interaction both evoke and suppress “mind” through social interaction.     

Disabling Employment Interviews: warfare to work

Employment interview research displays a greater concern for refining employment interviews to benefit employers rather than prospective employees. The interviewee's perspective is often overlooked. Further, generally scant attention has been paid to the interview experiences of disabled interviewees. In this paper I present findings from a project that sought to understand disabled interviewees' experiences of employment interviews. My analysis suggests such experiences were dominated by feelings of anxiety and manipulation, particularly when contextualised within contemporary labour market conditions. In this context, I reflect on the need for ethical rather than technical concerns into employment interviews and how innovations in interview techniques may be having a negative affect on interviewees. I further stress the need to reject victim blaming ideologies when researching disabled interviewees' experiences of employment interviews to counter the over emphasis of past research into changing the disabled person rather than the disabling interview environment.     

Development of the Movements Impressions Emotions Model: Evaluation of Movements and Impressions Related to the Perception of Emotions in Dance

The purpose of this study is to specify the characteristics that contribute to the perception of emotions expressed through dance movements and to develop an emotional model to show the relationships between impressions and the characteristics of expressive body movements. Six dancers expressed three different emotions through dance: joy, sadness, and anger. Observers (N = 192) rated both their impressions (33 dimensions) and the dance movements (26 characteristics) of 18 dance performances. The results showed that the observers could accurately perceive the emotional meanings expressed in the dances. The impressions of Dynamics, Expansion, and Stability—and the evaluated movements of Frequency and Velocity of Upward Extension, Frequency and Velocity of Downward Movements, Turning or Jumping, and Body Closing—were extracted via factor analysis as determinants of observers’ impressions of emotional expressions in dance. Additionally, covariance structure analysis and discriminant function analysis indicated that the emotional expressions of the dances expressing joy, sadness, and anger are each associated with particular factors. Through these analyses, we developed the Movements Impressions Emotions Model for dance.     

Empowering Rural Sociology: Exploring and Linking Alternative Paradigms in Theory and Methodology1

Abstract Theoretical and methodological approaches to rural social change are explored, especially those that give visibility to the range of heterogeneous experiences and perspectives that often are overlooked or ignored. Theoretical developments in postmodern, narrative, and feminist theory are described as are the methodological approaches they imply. Examples of research on rural social change that attempt to integrate theory and methods in ways that respect the complicated, processual nature of social life are discussed. They provide concrete illustrations of how alternative approaches can be fruitfully applied to some of the issues and problems rural sociologists typically study.     

Open Innovation in Nonprofit Sports Clubs

This research paper investigates open innovation—that is, the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge in order to innovate—in the context of nonprofit sports clubs, and is based on the content analysis of semi-structured interviews held with representatives of eleven sports clubs. The study develops a framework that describes open innovation activities in nonprofit sports clubs as facets of four superordinate dimensions, namely permeability of the club’s boundary, application and implementation of open innovation practices, managerial competencies, and the environmental and organizational surroundings in which the club operates. Within these dimensions, subordinate facets such as commitment of the club’s president and the strategic use of coopetitive environments explain how and why sports clubs are successful at implementing innovations and how their nonprofit status (e.g., volunteer work) contributes to (or is in conflict with) innovation. The findings provide implications for nonprofit organizations inside and outside the sports sector.     

Negotiating everyday life in Australia: unpacking the parallel society inhabited by Asian international students through their social networks and entertainment media use

Work on the experiences of international students in Australia often point out that these students do not successfully integrate into Australian society with many international students counting very few or no Australians as friends by the time they complete their studies. Through in-depth interviews with 47 Melbourne-based higher education international students from Asia – the source of Australia's largest export education market – this study explores the ways in which international students navigate their everyday experiences in their host nation. The findings suggest that Asian international students live in a parallel society almost exclusively made up of fellow international students who primarily come from the home nation and the Asian region. This parallel society allows them to create both a sense of belonging in Australia yet not to Australia due to disengagement from local society and culture. By investigating their social networks (society) together with their consumption of entertainment media (culture), this study presents an indirect yet creative way of understanding how international students negotiate everyday life as transient migrants in the Australian city of Melbourne. Doing so, this research highlights the ways in which international students make use of social networks and entertainment media to feel a sense of belonging in a foreign country.