More Danger, Less Pleasure: Androsexism, Raunch Culture, and Stripping

• In Event: 380 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Sex Work

Abstract

This manuscript draws on qualitative data of strip club employees and their customers to critique two contemporary sites of female oppression: androsexism and raunch culture. Androcentric media cultures, which frame most facets of mass media and entertainment through the male gaze, condition everyone, including women, to be androsexist - to like what men like and act like men do. An androsexist ethos rewards women who place themselves above or outside elements of social life associated with women and the feminine with a seemingly higher social status (i.e. honorary temporary masculinity). In this manuscript, I speculate that the male and androsexist entitlement to women’s bodies that customers, including female ones, display in strip bars resonate with sexist messages produced by mainstream media outlets, and argue that contemporary westerners are so accustomed to representations of naked, or almost naked women that we cease to find this display remarkable, and begin to expect women to sexualize themselves and other women.

Author

• Bernadette Barton, Morehead State University