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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.

Stripclubs, Part 2, Survey Data

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