ABSTRACT
Patriarchy is a social system in which power rests with men and privileges them through greater access to institutional power, higher incomes, and labor participation, and greater access to all social and cultural resources, among other beneficial arrangements. The rise of British burlesque and its emergence in New York City in the 1800s is seen as the first “strip-like” performance within Western society. Many women might view their attendance of male strip shows as evidence of women’s empowerment or equality within society. This potential empowerment suggests female homo-sociality might be normalized when it takes place in mainstream heterosexual spaces but not spaces dedicated to female-sexualized entertainment. Within Jordan’s auto-ethnographic narratives, many scenes detail the dynamics of hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity. With the interest and niche focus of sex, gender, and feminist studies cultivating within strip contexts since 1960s, women have increasingly used employment at strip clubs as the “perfect laboratory to literally work through these concerns using their own bodies”.
