Behind the G-String: An Exploration of the Stripper's Image, Her Person, and Her Meaning [Library Binding]

David Alexander Scott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1996 | ISBN-10: 0786402628 | ISBN-13: 978-0786402625

In recent years, the number of strip clubs in the United States has increased dramatically. Dressed up with terms such as "gentlemen's clubs," they often feature valet parking, limousines, executive dining rooms, extravagant menus-and, of course, topless or nude women dancing on stage. Stripping has become a big business, with over 3.5 million people, primarily men, attending clubs each week. But what about the women who perform in the clubs? Why do they do it? What is their perception of their job? Numerous interviews with working strippers accompany extensive research in the literature: Some strippers see stripping as simply a job, others view it with a degree of embarrassment, while many see it as an opportunity for empowerment. Few became strippers by design but a surprising number continue to strip for many years. The use of drugs and instances of abuse are covered, as are the views of the strippers' families.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"offer[s] insight into who the women are, what they do, why they do it, how they view what they do, and how they perceive the men who watch" -- Reference & Reseach Book News

About the Author

David A. Scott lives in Vancouver, Canada. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Library Binding: 262 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786402628
• ISBN-13: 978-0786402625
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,012,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It seems like all these stipper stories are always the same., April 3, 2001

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behind the G-String: An Exploration of the Stripper's Image, Her Person, and Her Meaning (Library Binding)

This book is too expensive for the contents. The book covers why women strip in clubs, then it goes on through many chapters of explanations, but in the end it tells us that it's because they make good money and fast. The book goes on to explain a strippers percetion of her job, then it goes on to tell us that strippers go through greatlengths to justify what they do and how they blame society, x-relationships, family and others, but never themselves. The book goes through many interviews, all of which are very much common and related. A good girl strips to finance her education, to support her children after her man leaves her or to support a drug habit. Or the most common, but not admitted, just for the money. This good is well written, but the story about all these stippers are all the same in this book and on every television review or movie. I wish this book would have covered something new, useful or insightful.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Elizabeth, Pole Dancer from SC, July 10, 2007

By 

Elizabeth, Pole Expert "Elizabeth" (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behind the G-String: An Exploration of the Stripper's Image, Her Person, and Her Meaning (Library Binding)

My thoughts are that this book was way over priced for its contents.

The concept of a man trying to write a book discussing anything about the trials and tribulations of women in the Adult Entertainment Industry is tiring and long winded. The interviews are all the same. You could save yourself the time, spend the same money in a club and interview the dancers yourself. I was recommended to read this book for its historical element in context to pole dancing and burlesque. I found a few funny tidbits of information none of which I believe to be totally factual and not fabricated from the male point of view.

This book was supposed to be a book-length study designed to explore the stripper's "image, her person, and her meaning". In the first half of the book, the author explores the dancers' working conditions, the pros and cons of being an exotic dancer. In the second half of the book, the author decides how and why the dancer has become mythologized by men in today's day and age. The author constructs an extensive binary between the dancer as an ideal, "...ever available, infinitely gratifying, monolithically sexual, and physically ideal..." and as a demon who displays her sexual power only to refuse the men to whom she is this object of display (113-125). The author interviews a small number of dancers for this research of which he never identifies the exact number, and while the first half of the book is fairly inclusive of their thoughts and ideas, the second half is practically devoid of anything except the author's personal theorizing.

In one of his chapters, the author allows the women in his study to describe the benefits of exotic dancing as an occupation. Many of the dancers interviewed report feeling a stronger sense of self; these women have become more sure of themselves as women, and feel that a certain amount of personal growth has occurred as a result of stripping. For many women, a greater sense of satisfaction with their physical bodies is reported, and women also remark on a heightened sense of confidence that pervades their daily lives.

Thus it is evident that many of these women derive a sense of empowerment from being dancers. The following chapter includes a lengthy discussion of the scarring psychological effects of stripping, thus undermining some of these women's statements.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and authoritative...well-written and thoughtful., April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Behind the G-String: An Exploration of the Stripper's Image, Her Person, and Her Meaning (Library Binding)

Fascinating and authoritative sociological study of strippers and stripping. Based on exhaustive interviews. Well-written and thoughtful book for anyone who wants to better understand both the day to day life of strippers and the psychological underpinnings of the world of the strippers and their patrons.