Using participant observation, retrospective and interactive introspection, and interviews, we describe interactional strategies used by erotic dancers to sell “table dances.” In contrast to past studies, we concentrate on the dynamic, processual nature of the exchange from the point of view of dancers and the dancer as researcher. Instead of emphasizing the deviant aspects of this interaction, we view it as representing a microcosm of strategies used to gain and maintain control in “respectable” exchanges, such as those employed by women in negotiating gender relationships and by sellers in buyer-dominated service occupations.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ADLER, P. A.
and P. ADLER (1987) Membership Roles in Field Research.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
BIGUS, O.
(1972) “The milkman and his customer: a cultivated relationship.”Urban Life and Culture1: 131-165.
3.
BLUMER, H.
(1969) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4.
BOLES, J.
and A. P. GARBIN (1974) “The strip club and customer-stripper patterns of interaction.”Sociology and Social Research58: 136-144.
5.
BROWNE, J.
(1973) The Used-Car Game: A Sociology of the Bargain.Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
6.
BULMER, M.
(1982) “When is disguise justified? alternatives to covert participant-observations.”Qualitative Sociology5: 251-264.
7.
CAREY, S. H.
, R. A. PETERSON, and L. K. SHARPE (1974) “A study of recruitment and socialization in two deviant female occupations.”Soc. Symposium11: 11-24.
8.
CHERNIN, K.
(1982) The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness.New York: Harper Collophon.
9.
DAVIS, F.
(1959) “The cab driver and his fare: facets of a fleeting relationship.”Amer. J. of Sociology65: 158-165.
10.
DENZIN, N. K.
(1978) The Research Act.New York: McGraw-Hill.
11.
ELLIS, C.
(1988) “Keeping emotions in the sociology of emotions.”University of South Florida. (unpublished)
12.
ELLIS, C.
(forthcoming) “Sociological introspection and emotional experience.”Symbolic Interaction13.
13.
FOOTE, N. N.
(1954) “Sex as play.”Social Problems1: 159-163.
14.
GOFFMAN, E.
(1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
15.
GOFFMAN, E.
(1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience.Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
16.
GONOS, G.
(1976) “Go-Go dancing: a comparative frame analysis.”Urban Life9: 189-219.
17.
GOULDNER, A.
(1960) “The norm of reciprocity.”Amer. Soc. Rev.25: 161-178.
18.
HENSLIN, J.
(1968) “Trust and the cab driver,” pp. 138-155 in M. Truzzi (ed.) Sociology and Everyday Life.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
19.
HEWITT, J.
and R. STOKES (1975) “Disclaimers.”Amer. Soc. Rev.40: 1-11.
20.
HOCHSCHILD, A.
(1983) The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling.Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
21.
HONG, L. K.
, W. DARROUGH and R. DUFF (1975) “The sensuous rip-off: consumer fraud turns blue.”Urban Life and Culture3: 464-470.
22.
JORGENSEN, D. L.
(1989) Participant Observation.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
23.
KATOVICH, M. A.
and R. L. DIAMOND (1986) “Selling time: situated transactions in a noninstitutional environment.”Soc. Q.27: 253-271.
24.
LASCH, C.
(1977) Haven in a Heartless World.New York: Basic Books.
25.
LIPMAN-BLUMEN, J.
(1984) Gender Roles and Power.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
26.
LUCKENBILL, D. F.
(1984) “Dynamics of the deviant sale.”Deviant Behavior5: 337-353.
27.
McCAGHY, C. H.
and J. K. SKIPPER (1969) “Lesbian behavior as an adaptation to the occupation of stripping.”Social Problems17: 262-270.
28.
McCAGHY, C. H.
and J. K. SKIPPER (1972) “Stripping: anatomy of a deviant life style,” pp. 362-373 in S. D. Feldman and G. W. Thielbar (eds.) Life Styles: Diversity in American Society.Boston: Little, Brown.
29.
MEHAN, H.
and H. WOOD (1975) The Reality of Ethnomethodology.New York: John Wiley.
30.
MULLEN, K.
(1985) “The impure performance frame of the public house entertainer.”Urban Life14: 181-203.
31.
PRUS, R.
(1987) “Developing loyalty: fostering purchasing relationships in the marketplace.”Urban Life15: 331-366.
32.
PRUS, R.
and S. IRINI (1980) Hookers, Rounders, and Desk Clerks: The Social Organization of the Hotel Community.Salem, WI: Sheffield.
33.
RAMBO [RONAI], C.
(1987) “Negotiation strategies and emotion work of the stripper.”University of South Florida. (unpublished)
34.
RASMUSSEN, P.
and L. KUHN (1976) “The new masseuse: play for pay.”Urban Life5: 271-292.
35.
RIEMER, J. W.
(1977) “Varieties of opportunistic research.”Urban Life5: 467-477.
36.
ROBBOY, H.
(1985) “Emotional labor and sexual exploitation in an occupational role.” Presented at the annual meetings of the Mid South Sociological Society, Little Rock, AK.
37.
SAFILIOS-ROTHSCHILD, C.
(1977) Love, Sex, and Sex Roles.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
38.
SALUTIN, M.
(1971) “Stripper morality.”Transaction8: 12-22.
39.
SCOTT, M. B.
and S. M. LYMAN (1968) “Accounts.”Amer. Soc. Rev.33: 46-62.
40.
SKIPPER, J. K.
and C. H. McCAGHY (1970) “Stripteasers: the anatomy and career contingencies of a deviant occupation.”Social Problems17: 391-405.
41.
SKIPPER, J. K.
and C. H. McCAGHY (1971) “Stripteasing: a sex oriented occupation,” pp. 275-296 in J. Henslin (ed.) The Sociology of Sex.New York: Appleton Century Crofts.
42.
SYKES, G.
and D. MATZA (1957) “Techniques of neutralization: a theory of delinquency.”Amer. Soc. Rev.22: 664-670.
43.
TURNER, R.
(1962) “Role-taking: process versus conformity,” pp. 20-40 in A. M. Rose (ed.) Human Behavior and Social Process.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
44.
WEBB, E. J.
, D. T. CAMPBELL, R. D. SCHWARTZ, and L. SECHREST (1965) Unobtrusive Measures.Chicago: Rand McNally.
45.
WEINSTEIN, EUGENE A.
, and PAUL DEUTSCHBERGER (1963) “Some dimensions of altercasting.”Sociometry26: 454-466.
