Abstract
Strip clubs are a popular form of adult entertainment in the contemporary United States. Strip clubs are also highly embattled entertainment venues, based on assumptions about their associations with prostitution, drug use, and “negative secondary effects” in surrounding areas, such as increased crime rates and decreased property values. Based on participant observation in five strip clubs in one city and on qualitative interviews with 30 regular male customers of those clubs, this essay seeks to challenge assumptions about the kinds of encounters sought in and purchased in such venues. Instead of visiting strip clubs out of a desire to purchase sexual release with the dancers, I found that the regular male customers were seeking an atmosphere different from both work and home, personal and sexual acceptance from women and the pleasure of a sexualized encounter without the pressures of physical performance, and a form of leisure that offered a relative degree of “safety” as well as “excitement.” Further, the men's own fantasies of identity, their understandings of marriage, and their commitment to a particular kind of monogamy influenced their choice of entertainment and the pleasure that they took in their encounters with the dancers. The essay discusses these motivations and their relational aspects and assesses strip club regulation in light of these observations and findings.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allison, A. (1994). Nightwork: Sexuality, pleasure, and corporate masculinity in a Tokyo hostess club. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Baldas, T. (1998, July 24). Prostitution convictions fought, motion claims 1st Amendment protects sex talk. Chicago Tribune.
Blum, L. D. (1996). Egocentricity and infidelity: Discussion of Ross's chapter “Male infidelity in long marriages: Second adolescences and fourth individuations.” In S. Akhtar, & S. Kramer (Eds.), Intimacy and infidelity: Separation-individuation perspectives (pp. 131–144). Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Blumstein, P., & Schwartz, P. (1983). American couples: Money, work, sex. New York: William Morrow and Company.
Brooks, G. R. (1995). The centerfold syndrome: How men can overcome objectification and achieve intimacy with women. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Califia, P. (1994). Public sex: The culture of radical sex. Pittsburgh, PA: Cleis Press.
Chapkis, W. (1997). Live sex acts: Women performing erotic labour. London: Cassell.
Duncombe, J., & Marsden, D. (1996). Whose orgasm is this anyway? ‘Sex work’ in long-term heterosexual couple relationships. In J. Weeks & J. Holland (Eds.), Sexual cultures: Communities, values, and intimacy (pp. 220–238). London: Macmillan.
Egan, R. D., & Frank, K. (2005). Attempts at a feminist and interdisciplinary conversation about strip clubs. Deviant Behavior, 26, 1–24.
Egan, R. D., Frank, K., & Johnson, M. L. (Eds.). (2005). Flesh for fantasy: Producing and consuming exotic dance. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press.
Frank, K. (1998). The production of identity and the negotiation of intimacy in a ‘gentleman's club’. Sexualities, 1, 175–202.
Frank, K. (2002a). G-strings and sympathy: Strip club regulars and male desire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Frank, K. (2002b). Stripping, starving, and other ambiguous pleasures. In M. L. Johnson (Ed.), Jane sexes it up: True confessions of feminist desire (pp. 171–206). New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows.
Frank, K. (2003). Just trying to relax: Masculinity, masculinizing practices, and strip club regulars. Journal of Sex Research, 40, 61–75.
Hanna, J. L. (1998a). Undressing the first amendment and corsetting the striptease dancer. The Drama Review, 42, 38–69.
Hanna, J. L. (1998b, Autumn). Analysis: The first amendment and exotic dance. National Campaign for Freedom of Expression Quarterly, pp. 8–9.
Hanna, J. L. (2005). Exotic dance adult entertainment: A guide for planners and policy makers. Unpublished manuscript.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Illouz, E. (1997). Consuming the romantic utopia: Love and the contradictions of capitalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Juffer, J. (1998). At home with pornography: Women, sex, and everyday life. New York: New York University Press.
Kernberg, O. F. (1995). Love relations: Normality and pathology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Land, K. C., Williams, J. R., Ezell, M. E., Paul, B., & Linz, D. (2004). An examination of the assumption that adult businesses are associated with crime in surrounding areas: A secondary effects study in Charlotte, North Carolina. Law and Society Review, 38, 69–103.
Levant, R. F., & Brooks, G. R. (Eds.). (1997). Men and sex: New psychological perspectives. New York: John Wiley.
Liepe-Levinson, K. (2002). Strip show: Performances of gender and desire. New York: Routledge.
Nagle, J. (Ed.). (1997). Whores and other feminists. New York: Routledge.
Oliker, S. J. (1989). Best friends and marriage: Exchange among women. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Paul, B., Linz, D., & Shafer, B. (2001). Government regulation of “adult” businesses through zoning and anti-nudity ordinances: Debunking the legal myth of negative secondary effects. Communication Law and Policy, 6, 355–391.
Prus, R. (1996). Symbolic interaction and ethnographic research: Intersubjectivity and the study of human lived experience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Ritzer, G. (1993). The McDonaldization of society: An investigation into the changing character of contemporary social life. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Ross, A. (1989). No respect: Intellectuals and popular culture. New York: Routledge.
Salutin, M. (1971). Stripper morality. Transaction, 8, 12–22.
Schlosser, E. (1997, February 10). The business of pornography. U.S. News & World Report, pp. 42–50.
Smith, C. (2002). Shiny chests and heaving g-strings: A night out with the Chippendales. Sexualities, 5, 67–89.
Snider, E. (2003). Strip club politics. Weekly Planet, online.
Stock, W. (1997). Sex as commodity: Men and the sex industry. In R. F. Levant, & G. R. Brooks (Eds.), Men and sex: New psychological perspectives (pp. 100–132). New York: John Wiley.
Tiefer, L. (1995). Sex is not a natural act & other essays. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This article is a revision of an Invited Lecture delivered at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, Helsinki, Finland, June 2004.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frank, K. Exploring the Motivations and Fantasies of Strip Club Customers in Relation to Legal Regulations. Arch Sex Behav 34, 487–504 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-6275-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-6275-8