'Just get pissed and enjoy yourself': understanding lap-dancing as 'anti-work'

Just get pissed and enjoy yourself’ Understanding lap-dancing as ‘anti’ wor

Respectability, morality and disgust in the night-time economy: exploring reactions to ‘lap dance’clubs in England and Wales

The night-time economy is often described as repelling consumers fearful of the ‘undesirable Others’ imagined dominant within such time-spaces. In this paper we explore this by describing attitudes towards, and reactions to, one particularly con- tentious site: the ‘lap dance’ club. Often targeted by campaigners in England and Wales as a source of criminality and anti-sociality, in this paper we shift the focus from fear to disgust, and argue that Sexual Entertainment Venues (SEVs) are opposed on the basis of moral judgments that reflect distinctions of both class and gender. Drawing on documentary analysis, survey results and interview data collected during guided walks, we detail the concerns voiced by those anxious about the presence of lap dance or striptease clubs in their town or city, particularly the notion that they ‘lower the tone’ of particular streets or neighbourhoods. Our conclusion is that the opposition expressed to lap dance clubs is part of an attempt to police the bound- aries of respectable masculinities and femininities, marginalizing the producers and consumers of sexual entertainment through ‘speech acts’ which identify such enter- tainment as unruly, vulgar and uncivilized. These findings are considered in the light of ongoing debates concerning the relations of morality, respectability and disgust

'I'm just with the guys and we're having a laugh': Exploring normative masculinity in a lap-dancing club setting, as a heteronormative space

Drawing upon findings from an ethnographic study of lap-dancing club customers, and those generated from desk-based research which examined lap-dancing club websites and promotional materials, this article will argue that the lap-dancing club is a heteronormative space, in which male customers practice normative masculinity. In exploring normative masculinity, this article will draw upon the work of Connell (1995), to demonstrate how different normative masculine practices are evident in the different attendance patterns of lap-dancing club customers. Overall, the findings discussed in this article make two important assertions, in support of Connell’s work. First, that masculinity is fluid, and context dependent; men can enact different versions of masculinity in different social spaces and situations. Second, normative masculine practices are pervasive, and encouraged, aided through heteronormative spaces such as lap-dancing clubs

Undressing the moves - an ethnographic study of lap-dancers and lap-dancing club culture

The lap-dancing club phenomenon is relatively new in the UK and as a result, in the last decade, it has aroused much public debate. Despite this, the study of this industry here in the UK has been neglected, with the body of research confined to the U.S and Canada. In spite of gaining some academic attention abroad, the literature, which has emerged from the research, suggests a narrow field of interest, concerned with exploitation, risk and dancer motivation. Further to this, there has also been a tendency to address dancer-customer interaction; the relationship between dancers has been ignored. Finally, the general approach of researchers has been to stress the negative implications of a lap-dancing career on the dancers; reflected in the deviant and implicit anti-sex work/exploitation frameworks which have dominated academic thinking in this field of study. Through the use of ethnographic methods the research on which this thesis is based redresses these issues. The data for this research was generated in a UK lap-dancing club using extensive participant observation, estimated at over 2000 hours, along with in-depth interviews to supplement the core findings. The main focus of study was on the relationships between dancers and the culture with which they mutually engage. Through this exploration, some of the key areas of academic interest including dancer motivation, risk and exploitation were directly or implicitly challenged. Further to this, through delving into the relationship between dancers, an understanding of the way in which these relationships are used to cultivate and reinforce dancer status roles in the club was developed. In relation to this, a dancer hierarchy has been identified, comprising of three stages: new girl, transition and old school. Finally, the lap-dancing club culture, which is not only signified by some of the duties of the job, but also by the „social‟ and „emotional‟ rituals with which dancers mutually engage, is also addressed. Although the negative implications of lap-dancing club culture are acknowledged, the social fulfilment and subcultural attachment dancers have to their occupation is also emphasised. This research therefore starts to shift our understanding of the lap-dancing club phenomenon and reconstruct it within a UK context.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEconomic and Social Research CouncilGBUnited Kingdo

Sex work and online platforms: what should regulation do?

Purpose Assess the impact of online platforms on the sex industry, focussing specifically on direct sex work, and evaluate what approaches to platform regulation is likely to align with the interests of sex workers. Design/methodology/approach A review of interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical literature on sex work combined with analysis of key issues using a transaction cost framework. Findings Online platforms generally make sex work safer. Regulation aimed at preventing platforms from serving sex workers is likely to harm their welfare. Research limitations/implications Regulation of online platforms should take great care to differentiate coercive sex from consensual sex work, and allow sex workers to experiment with governance mechanisms provided by entrepreneurs. Originality/value The paper demonstrates how a transactions costs approach to market behavior as applied to personal services like ridesharing can also shed light on the challenges that sex workers face, partly as a result of criminalisation, and the dangers of over-regulation

Over ‘sexed’ regulation and the disregarded worker: an overview of the impact of sexual entertainment policy on lap-dancing club workers

In England and Wales, with the introduction of Section 27 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009, lap-dancing clubs can now be licensed as Sexual Entertainment Venues. This article considers such, offering a critique of Section 27, arguing that this legislation is not evidence-based, with lap-dancing policy, like other sex-work policies, often associated with crime, deviance and immorality. Furthermore, it is argued that sex-work policies are gradually being homogenised as well as increasingly criminalised. Other criticisms relate to various licensing loopholes which lead to some striptease venues remaining unlicensed and unregulated, potentially impacting on the welfare of erotic dancers. In addition, restrictions on the numbers of lap-dancing venues may exacerbate dancer unemployment, drawing these women into poverty. Finally, The Policing and Crime Act reflects how the political focus is being directed away from the exploitation of workers, on to issues relating to crime and deviance, despite limited evidence to support this focus

Sexual and gender identity work on social media

How do sexual and gender minorities use social media to express themselves and construct their identities? We discuss findings drawn from focus groups conducted with 17 sexual and gender minority social media users who shared their experiences of online harms. They include people with gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, asexual, non-binary, pansexual, poly, and kink (LGBTQ+) identities. We find that sexual and gender minorities face several challenges online, but that social media platforms provide important spaces for them to feel understood and accepted. We use Goffman's work to explore how sexual and gender minorities engage in ‘front region’ performances online as part of their identity work. We then turn to Hochschild's concepts of ‘feeling rules’ and ‘framing rules’ to argue that presentations of self, or front region performances, must include the role of feelings and how they are socially influenced to be understood

Sexual and gender identity work on social media

How do sexual and gender minorities use social media to express themselves and construct their identities? We discuss findings drawn from focus groups conducted with 17 sexual and gender minority social media users who shared their experiences of online harms. They include people with gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, asexual, non-binary, pansexual, poly, and kink (LGBTQ+) identities. We find that sexual and gender minorities face several challenges online, but that social media platforms provide important spaces for them to feel understood and accepted. We use Goffman's work to explore how sexual and gender minorities engage in ‘front region’ performances online as part of their identity work. We then turn to Hochschild's concepts of ‘feeling rules’ and ‘framing rules’ to argue that presentations of self, or front region performances, must include the role of feelings and how they are socially influenced to be understood

Dirty dancing? An ethnography of lap-dancing

Based on ethnographic research conducted in 'Starlets', a lap-dancing club in the North of England, this book delves into what is often seen as the 'deviant' and 'stigmatized' world of lap-dancing. (back cover

A return to the Chicago school? From the ‘subculture’ of taxi dancers to the contemporary lap dancer

There has been much debate about the study of British youth cultures, often involving the analysis and critique of two dominant theoretical frameworks: the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) ‘subcultural’ position and the ‘post-subcultural’ position. This paper, will engage in this debate by offering an alternative set of arguments, drawing attention to the early empirical contribution made by the Chicago school of sociology to the study of youth, and the inadvertent role some of their work played in developing the first model of ‘subculture’. To demonstrate this, the work of Cressey (1932), who explored the ‘social world’ of young female taxi-hall dancers, will be considered, and in highlighting its relevance to the study of contemporary youth cultures, his work will be discussed in relation to a recent ethnography of lap dancing in which a hierarchical occupational subculture of dancers has been identified. Both Cressey’s (1932) ‘social world’ of taxi dancers and the subculture of the contemporary lap dancers, share similar features that define the unique, enclosed worlds of which each respective group is part. By drawing on Cressey (1932) and this recent study of lap dancers, not only are mainstream notions of youth culture questioned, but it is suggested that modes of work, as well as leisure, may hold ‘cultural’ significance