Stigmatized in stilettos: an ethnographic study of stigma in exotic dancers’ lives
Loading...
Date
2017
Authors
Bahri, Jacenta
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
My dissertation is an ethnographic exploration of exotic dancers’ relationships with romantic partners and relatives, and the ways in which the social stigma stemming from mixing commodified erotics impacted these relationships. My research focuses on women who provide adult entertainment in bars that cater predominantly to straight men in a mid-sized prairie city, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Using feminist anthropological participant observation methods, I completed one year of fieldwork working as a driver for exotic dancers and two years of fieldwork working as an exotic dancer in Winnipeg. Through a reflexive analysis of women’s stories about their relationships with family, romantic partners, and money, I argue that the stigma of erotic labour is rooted in social beliefs about the impurity of mixing commerce with intimate acts in specific ways that do not conform to heteronormative ideology and traditional norms of womanhood.
Grounded in my ethnographic data, I show how these cultural mores are constantly upheld, reproduced, and disseminated through the mainstream media, laws, and political ideology, in obvious and not so obvious ways. Furthermore, I propose the theory that “stripping money” is earmarked in specific ways that money earned from other forms of labour is not, and argue that this is the basis of stigmatization in dancers’ lives and relationships.
Ultimately, the result of such a social positioning of women’s work is the structural and symbolic violence of stigma that could manifest as direct physical, psychological, verbal, or economic violence in exotic dancer’s interpersonal relationships. Thus, I conclude that the de-stigmatization of exotic dance is imperative for the promotion of women’s rights, health, and well-being and that identifying stigma as violence in exotic dancers’ lives opens up possibilities for positive interventions in attaining this goal.
Description
Keywords
Exotic dancers, Stigma, Sex work, Ethnography