Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers

by Bernadette C. Barton

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814799337
• ISBN13: 9780814799338
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 195 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.4" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Finally...

...a book about strippers that does not preach, that does not take sides or pass value judgements, and that does not denigrate or glorify the people who work in the sex industry. Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, does exactly what the title suggests: it takes the reader inside the private lives of women who work in the sex industry, and it presents exotic dancers in such a way that the reader sees them first as people, effectively taking the women out from under the overwhelming shadow of their job title. Barton's writing style is precise, intimate, and candid, and it propels the reader right into the livingrooms and dressing rooms of exotic dancers. The book tackles the tar pit traps of the "sex wars", why/how women get into the sex industry, sexual identity, and the reality of working in the sex industry without getting bogged down in conflicting feminist theory. Yet Barton adds her voice to the sex industry debate in a way that commands attention from both the average reader and from those well versed in the intracies of the "sex wars". This book makes its debut in a pop culture where young Hollywood starlets show just how blurry the lines are between acceptable female behavior and sex industry work. Barton takes her readers back and forth across that line with facility and empathy, allowing the reader to finally determine for her/himself where that line actually exists. I look forward to her next book.

A great book on the benefit, toll and stigma of stripping

I really enjoyed the book. I like that it does not demonize or sensationalise things. The perspective is fresh from outside the industry. This is not a book written by a stripper to justify her actions, as some reviewers on this list would prefer. If you want to understand the internal conflict and external stigma your friends, sisters, and daughters go through when choosing this job, this is a must read. This book does not preach, only offers insight to the many facets that make up this lifestyle choice.

The pleasure of subversion

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.

Insightful and interesting, will become a key text on sex work

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.

The "Cost" of Stripping

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.