ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the attention economy concept and expands it by applying it to the intersubjective interactions that occur in strip clubs. It describes the way in which this deeply gendered and sexualized attention manifests in multiple modes, through different forms of labour, and finds expression in terms of recognition, desire and mutuality. The chapter explains the labour process that occurs within the strip club, as it constitutes the key site of the consumption of erotic dance in the UK. It examines the multi-dimensional forms of labour that dancers perform in the strip club, we have argued that it is the desire to consume attention and experience social recognition that underscores the labour forms. This chapter analyses that the 'hustle' embodies a combination of intense aesthetic, emotional and bodily labour to produce a mixture of 'normal' conversation, flirting, humorous and/or sexualized interaction and that the private dance itself, through the pivotal role of eye contact, is grounded in recognition work.
