A Racialized, Body/Embodiment Lens to Understand Latina Desirability, and Profit, in Strip Club’s Erotic Labor

• In Event: 039 - Regular Session. Sociology of the Body: New Directions in Body Studies

Abstract

The perceptions and stereotypes of women in spaces of erotic labor such as strip clubs – the focus of this paper – are similar to that of women involved in other forms of erotic labor, like porn and prostitution, where women of color are typecast in specific roles, to respond to the imaginary of their (male) audience (or more broadly, the male gaze). In strip clubs, dancers must constantly negotiate the ways in which they use their identity, and elements that seemingly flow from it, within their labor: racial, ethnic, sexual, etc. In their occupations, they inhabit a space that offers monetary profit based on racialized notions around their bodies but still has the capacity to be a site of active reclaiming of sexuality and their racialized, or ethnicized, identity. The body is a pivotal source of conflict, and potentiality, in this process. The bodies of women of color, specifically Latinas, are valued and validated when they communicate their racial/ethnic identity in ways that align with scripts in the mainstream consumption of the Latina imaginary. A thorough examination of research relevant to the study of the body as a marker of racialization and profit within erotic labor makes use of pieces that provide an interdisciplinary understanding of body politics, gender, sexuality, the erotic as capital/for profit, and desirability.

Authors

• Cristina Khan, American University

• Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, American University