Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers [Paperback]

Bernadette C. Barton (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0814799337 | ISBN-13: 978-0814799338

What kind of woman dances naked for money? Bernadette Barton takes us inside countless strip bars and clubs, from upscale to back road as well as those that specialize in lapdancing, table dancing, topless only, or peep shows, to reveal the startling lives of exotic dancers.

Based on over five years of research and from visiting clubs around the country, particularly in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Kentucky, Stripped offers a rare portrait of not just how dancers get into the business but what it's like for those who choose to strip year after year. Through captivating interviews and first-hand observation, Barton recounts why these women began stripping, the initial excitement and financial rewards from the work, the dangers of the life—namely, drugs and prostitution—and, inevitably, the difficulties in staying in the business over time, especially for their sexuality and self-esteem.

Stripped provides fresh insight into the complex work and personal experiences of exotic dancers, one that goes beyond the “sex wars” debate to offer an important new understanding of sex work.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Makes an impressive contribution to the sociology of work and its intersection with sex and gender studies at the theoretical and applied levels. It is an excellent examples of the rich data and critical methodological insights that can emerge in the course of engaged field research.”
-American Journal of Sociology

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“The thrust of stripper scholarship is that both dancers and customers are more like your next-door neighbors. Some are your next-door neighbors.”
-Philadelphia Inquirer

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“Stripped is a revealing book about a revealing (and controversial) trade that focuses on a philosophical clash between old—and new—school feminism.”
-Courier-Journal

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“Compelling. . . . This accessibly written, matter-of-fact book makes important contributions to what is known about the lives and experiences of the growing number of women who 'dance' naked for money. . . . Throughout, the author listens attentively to the shifting, insightful, diverse voices of women with whom she has a palpably respectful connection. Barton uses the complex picture that emerges to engage longstanding debates over the meanings of commodified femininity and sexuality.”
-Choice

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“Fascinating, insightful, and surprisingly balanced. This book will take you way beyond Hollywood's clichés and into the realities of stripping, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of the pleasures and the costs of being the object of male fantasies.”
-Susan Bordo,author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body

About the Author

Bernadette C. Barton is Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky.

Product Details

• Paperback: 195 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (May 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814799337
• ISBN-13: 978-0814799338
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.5 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #608,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernadette Barton (Ph.D. University of Kentucky 2000) is Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies at Morehead State University. Her research and teaching interests include sexuality, gender, popular culture, religion, qualitative methods and the sex industry.

Bernadette's scholarship explores the experiences of members of marginalized groups. She is most fascinated by issues of transformation and social justice, such as: what makes someone conscious of social inequality? What causes people to change oppressive attitudes and behaviors? How can we really see one another across vast differences of geography, gender, race, class and sexual identity? Over the past fourteen years, Bernadette has worked on two major research projects, each exploring issues of inequality, gender, identity and sexuality. The first is a study of exotic dancers, published by New York University Press titled, Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, and the second a study on religion and homosexuality in the Bible Belt titled, Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful and interesting, will become a key text on sex work May 22, 2006

By J. A. Jones

Format:Hardcover

I found Dr. Bernadette Barton's Stripped to be both interesting and insightful. My community has recently been debating restrictions on strip clubs, and Stripped provides a viewpoint...that of the strippers... often missing from these debates. Also, as an academic who works in sexual behavior research, I also found Stripped different than other studies and autobiographies. Barton lays out the opposing feminist arguments around stripping and sex work in general: either a) stripping denigrates the dancer or b) stripping empowers the stripper. Then she interviews dancers about how they feel about their work. While some strippers' autobiographies and other documentaries do exist, they often highlight the sensational or humorous. I have also not come across another book on strippers that discusses the significant proportion of dancers in Stripped who turn to bisexual or lesbian relationships while employed as a stripper. Stripped shows these women as seeking a nurturing relationship rather than as sensationalistic lesbian sex.

Scholarly studies of exotic dancers are fairly rare. What books on the subject that do exist tend to be sensationalist stories. Stripped provides a good balance of integrating a) theory about the power dynamics at work in these clubs, b) the stories and experiences of the actual dancers, and c) a scholarly approach to a topic often viewed as unworthy of academic interest.

In many ways this book is groundbreaking in its approach and I am sure will be widely cited as one of the authoritative studies of a) the effects of sex work on women and b) the lives of female exotic dancers.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The pleasure of subversion May 27, 2006

By MGallaway

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a gay man, I did not expect to find much common ground with female strippers, but thanks to Barton's nonjudgmental and compassionate tone, and her steadfast refusal to pigeonhole the dancers into any particular academic theory, I found myself relating to the women--or well, at least some of them--as outsiders. I think anybody dissatisfied with the relentless commoditization of bodies and sexuality will find compelling stories and analysis in this book. Not that it's all doom and gloom: even as Barton describes the undeniable degradation--or toll--of sex work, she also focuses on the many ways strippers subvert the system in which they exist (or sometimes, sadly, don't). She writes with a pragmatic empathy and sense of humor that not only humanizes the dancers, but ultimately herself, which I have to imagine is her own trick of subversion in the often dry and constrained world of academia.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Cost" of Stripping May 22, 2006

By D Portsmuth

Format:Paperback

In her book, Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, the author takes the high road to examine an industry and group beset with both secrecy and boundless consumer appeal. Moving exotic dancers beyond the base trivialities of "The Thong Song", the author suggests their lives and work more complex than feminist observances of exploitation or the more common she-who-makes-the-money-has-the-power harangues. Indeed, Barton reveals the latter in her book. We are given access to women, who are genuinely mesmerized by their own sexual power. Just as poignant, however, are stories from the same women, which disclose everything from foot-back pain to hostile, demeaning clientele; having to deny what they do to fear of their lack of marketable skills outside dancing; and relationships that cannot get pass the "touching" to, generally, feeling "stuck." Social and psychological costs to stripping? Not very sexy take. However, as an academician, I gather Barton's book is not supposed to provoke that kind of titillation. Instead, "Stripped" dares to make intelligent and engage questions about the arguments, labor, and women typified by four-letter words and copious amounts of overpriced beer. I recommend this volume.