Working Out Gender

by Curtis Fogel, University of Calgary, Canada.

Introduction

1     Stripping can be defined in as many different ways as there are people to define it. Chris Bruckert suggests that stripping can be perceived as deviance from a criminologist's perspective, or as entertainment from the perspective of the strip club patron. In this paper, stripping will be defined through the perspective of female strippers themselves — as paid work that is embedded within the market economy. In her autobiography, Lily Burana suggests that female strippers enter the strip trade for a variety of reasons such as: paying for their education, supporting their family, taking a break from prostitution and saving for traveling expenses; the common denominator amongst these reasons is to earn an income- for the stripper, stripping is work. Liepe-Levinson writes: "the personal lives of and backgrounds of American strippers are as varied and incongruous as the shows they perform" and further, "are far too diverse and multi-faceted to draw clear-cut conclusions about their job choice en masse, other than the need to make a living" (8-9). Likewise, Heidi Mattson writes: "I'm here to make money. I enjoy the work too, but that is all it is — work" (10). In a basic sense, the work of the female stripper involves: dancing and removing one's clothing on a stage to earn tips, providing private lap dances to strip club patrons for a set fee and conversing with patrons to make further tips. Stripping, as work, will be further explored through the question: How and why do female strippers prepare, present, and manage their gender, bodies, and emotions in their everyday work?

The Contemporary Strip Trade (1970-2006)

2     While each female stripper may experience the contemporary strip trade differently, the industry is embedded within a larger structural framework of the market economy. In her study of gendered employment trends, Leah Vosko suggests that the current labor market in Canada is characterized by a move towards increased part-time and temporary work. According to Bruckert, this growth of non-standard employment relationships has limited and conditioned the experiences that women have in the contemporary labor force in Canada and the United States. Bruckert suggests that many strippers in North America decide to become strippers in a labor climate that provides unappealing options for many women. This sentiment is supported by Burana's statement:

I have, however, had a number of tedious, ass-busting jobs, mostly when I was in high school: cleaning lady, supermarket cashier, department store clerk. So I know a bit about scraping people's crap off of toilets, wearing mildly humiliating smocklike uniforms, and shuffling and refolding product for an indifferent corporation. I also know about trading all that for a job where you can make in one night what you used to earn in a week, or a month. Or two months. (55)

Similarly, Diablo Cody worked through a temporary help agency in Minnesota before quitting to become a full-time stripper because she found that she enjoyed it more, and it met her financial needs more readily. These examples suggest that current labor trends that provide unappealing options for women influence some women's decisions to enter the strip trade.

3     Vosko describes the unappealing aspects of the temporary employment relationship, which has become the normative relationship of employment for women in North America, as follows: it is unstable work with no guarantee of permanency or full-time hours, which leaves the worker vulnerable to an unsteady income; it provides little to no benefits like health care or maternity leave; it generates an unclear relationship between employers and employees; it creates a uniquely individualistic and competitive work environment; and, it often places the worker in physically and emotionally demanding positions. While some strippers may enter the strip trade because of unappealing aspects of normative work standards for women in North America, and the potential to make much more money in the short term, it must be pointed out that these unappealing, precarious working conditions also characterize the contemporary strip trade.

4     The income of the strippers is unstable for a number of reasons: for the most part, they have a tip-based income that can change from day to day, and week to week (Lewin; Mattson; Burana; Bruckert; Liepe-Levinson; Bartlett; Eaves; Cody); their income is largely dependent on their appearance, so any gained weight, physical scarring or blemishing, injury, or signs of aging and strippers cannot work (Burana; Bruckert); clubs may shut down or change their venue leaving the stripper unemployed (Black); the club merely provides a legitimate stage for them to dance on for a fee, so they receive no benefits or maternity leave (Sundahl; Bruckert); and, the marginal nature of stripping in contemporary society makes it difficult for strippers to secure loans (Bruckert) or find further employment after years of stripping (Black). One stripper interviewed by Bruckert describes the instability of her income as follows:

It's still kinda nice sometimes to have that steady income like a normal job. . . . Like instead of dancing, just a normal nine-to-five job. That way you can really do your budget. 'Cause I find, when you don't know what you're gonna make, or one day it's a hundred bucks, you go and you spend it 'cause you figure tomorrow I'll make it back, y'know, it's fine. But tomorrow you go and the next day you only make fifty. . . . It's never the same. (93)

The contemporary strip trade also appears to be characterized by an unclear relationship between employers and employees (Burana; Bruckert). For the most part, strippers are characterized as self-entrepreneurs in that they are paid in tips and it is their responsibility to gain access to strip clubs. The stripper generally makes her wages in tips, and provides either a set fee or a percentage of her tips to the club and other workers such as bartenders, waitresses and doormen in exchange for their services. The point where the employee/employer relationship becomes confusing is that the stripper must work within the rules of the club as stated by the owner and managers of the club or they can be fined or fired. Burana also suggests that strippers are often micromanaged by managers and employers in the clubs in terms of how they are to dress, act, and solicit customers. Furthermore, as Bruckert reveals, the club tells the stripper her hours of work to which she has little or no control. Sundahl suggests that if a stripper is late or misses a day of work she can be fined or even fired, forcing strippers to come to work even when they are not feeling well. It is through obfuscating the nature of this employer/employee relationship, and encouraging the idea that strippers work for themselves, that strip club managers and owners avoid paying benefits to strippers.

5      Vosko also suggests that precarious working conditions, such as those of the contemporary strip trade, can lead to a uniquely individualistic and competitive work environment. This type of environment is characteristic of the contemporary strip trade, as strippers must continuously compete with one another for jobs, the most profitable hours, and the attention of male patrons. Drawing on her previous experience as a stripper, Bruckert suggests that there has been a decline in the camaraderie amongst workers in the strip club in recent years. This is a sentiment supported by Burana who suggests that she has not developed meaningful relationships with her co-workers throughout her career as a stripper. This decline of stripper camaraderie appears to hinder what Bruckert describes as the "informal economy" of stripping. Teamwork and camaraderie in the strip trade appear to be important aspects of safety and wellbeing; however, there appears to be support for the view that the precariousness of the contemporary strip trade is eroding these aspects of their work (Burana; Bruckert).