Beauty work, race and age in strip clubs: a case study from Atlantic Canada

Vermish, Hannah Eve (2017) Beauty work, race and age in strip clubs: a case study from Atlantic Canada. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This MA thesis aims to address the gap in research about how beauty work in the strip trade is influenced by popular ideas about race, age, and gender. It documents in detail the beauty work practices of a small sample of women in the strip trade industry in Atlantic Canada. Using ethnographic fieldwork; observation; and focused, unstructured interviews, the thesis is consistent with Ronald Weitzer’s “polymorphous paradigm,” which emphasizes the diversity of personal experiences and power relations by people in erotic entertainment. This study of strippers’ challenges, experiences, and strategies found that: (1) many of the women interviewed were not fully aware of the amount of money and time they devoted to keeping or improving their appearances; (2) the beauty work performed by interviewees reveals both subtle and blatant prejudices with respect to race, age, and gender which defends and privileges traditional Eurocentric values of whiteness, youth, and femininity; (3) it is suggested, although it cannot be conclusively proven with a small sample, that race (not age) is the primary factor determining opportunities to work in the strip trade in Atlantic Canada. The interviewees had different levels of job satisfaction, self-esteem, and experiences of blatant and subtle racism and colorism. It is argued that the workplace culture of the strip club called “Pearls” operates to defend, enforce, and maintain traditional Eurocentric values which privilege and reproduce a hierarchy of desire in which whiteness is at the top. Consequently, race operates as one of the primary principles by which the relationships between the management, strippers, and clientele are organized.

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