ABSTRACT
Combining insights from both erotic dance venues, this chapter examines what the work of erotic dance entails, and why it is not always conceptualised as ‘work’ in feminist discussions. The meanings that the work has for women and men erotic dancers, in terms of the gendered work roles that they perform; their perceptions of their workplace ‘selves’; and their interactions with women customers are explored. This enables a comparison between dancers in both venues, and an examination of the similarities with workplace experiences more widely. In particular, I examine the ‘aesthetic labour’ (Nickson et al., 2001), ‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 1983) and ‘body work’ (Wolkowitz, 2006), that both women and men dancers perform to varying degrees. Continuing the theme of the previous chapters, I examine whether dancers’ performances provide scope to disrupt heteronormative gender and sexual roles considered ‘appropriate’ to their gendered labour, and what this might tell us about the exercising of autonomy within erotic dance work.
