Thinking Critically about Strip Club Research

Bibliographic Data

ID18997891
AuthorsKatherine Frank (0000-0001-8875-6707, University of Wisconsin, USA,)
Year2007
Volume10
Issue4
Pages501-517
Publication date2007-09-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSexualities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460707080989
OpenAlexW1983681168
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited64

This article explores two interrelated issues in the exotic dance literature: (1) claims that research on strip clubs is virgin, unstudied territory, and not taken seriously, and (2) the unrelenting focus on negotiations of power between men and women in the clubs. It argues that the study of commercial sex — and here specifically of exotic dance — is itself culturally informed. Thus, there has been a great deal of studying in strip clubs, but less exploration of the ways that these venues, and those of us who study them, are implicated in larger social, cultural, political, economic, and intimate relationships, processes, and patterns of meaning. A cultural approach to the study of strip clubs (Agustín, 2005) opens our investigation of these important sites of sexual-economic exchange in theoretically innovative and timely ways

Art · Club · Dance · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Psychotherapist · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Visual arts · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Sex work and related issues · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology