ABSTRACT
It has been suggested that lap-dancing rarely translates into a long-term career for the women, something reflected in the patterns of behaviour observed in Starlets. Most of the dancers who exited Starlets during the time the author conducted his/her fieldwork did so for reasons other than age; the length of the lap-dancer's career varied and was dependent on a number of factors both inside and outside of her control. Whatever a dancer's reason might have been for leaving Starlets, it was often an emotional experience, suggestive of the 'emotional' nature of the work dancers engage in. Some dancers who ended their careers either permanently or temporarily did so to give birth. For all of the dancers in this position during the author's fieldwork, almost half saw retirement as temporary and some of those dancers did indeed return to work as lap-dancers.
