Flying as Self-Expression: Autonomy and Pole Dancing in Strip Clubs

ABSTRACT

Political battles over strip clubs’ existence are informed by research, but existing literature neglects a central component of strippers’ work. This study analyzes strippers’ pole work and heeds dancers’ calls to incorporate their voices. It provides an overview of why strippers engage in this skilled and often voluntary physical labor (drawing from social learning theory), and portrays the functions of poling utilizing concepts from the sociology of work. The study is based on ethnographic data, primarily in-depth interviews with strippers. It develops ideas in the sociology of work by demonstrating how in a non-standard work environment like strip clubs, relative autonomy allowed workers to diversify the end game or work goals despite controlling and self-alienating aspects of the job. Strippers were able to engage in what we refer to as skill optioning (making the most of their skills to leverage gains). The result was that some strippers developed the physical skill of poling and performed for more than monetary rewards; it helped give their work more meaning and enjoyment. Poling built physical capital, minimized emotional labor, developed social networks, and provided psychological benefits.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to all the strippers and interviewees who shared their stories with us. We appreciate the support of the Committee on Services & Resources for Women at USM. Thanks to the SSGS research group for their humor, support, and feedback during the writing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Twenty interviewees were recruited from the same strip club in the southeastern U.S., but the vast majority of those had experience dancing in other clubs. Most interviews took place individually but in a couple instances two dancers were interviewed simultaneously.

² The project was approved by the University of Southern Mississippi’s IRB #:22–1041. As initial interviews were conducted, some strippers did not want to have a record of their participation; therefore, the IRB waived signed documentation of consent. Participants were given a written informed consent form, and they verbally confirmed their willingness to participate when interviewed. At the beginning and end of the interview we discussed what information needed to remain confidential and what (if anything) could be shared using the respondent’s real name, online handle, and/or work alias.

³ Since “flow” experiences involve a lack of self-consciousness (Csikszentmihalyi 2008), pole dancing did not always lead to a complete experience of this kind.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dana Fennell

Dr. Dana Fennell is a Professor of Sociology whose work focuses on people’s well-being.

Clay A. Hipke

Dr. Clay Hipke is a sociologist with specialties in deviance and sociology of the body.