Skip to main content

Hypersexualization and the Dark Body: Race and Inequality among Black and Latina Women in the Exotic Dance Industry

Sexuality Research and Social Policy volume 7, pages 70–80 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

During the 1980s in the USA, two sides of the pornography debate emerged: (a) sex work is oppressive to women based on sexism and women’s low economic positioning and (b) sex work is empowering to female sexuality and agency. However, a void remains in theoretical analyses of racial and sexual hierarchies within sex industries that create challenges for women of color that go beyond the pornography debates. Using a case study analysis of three exotic dance clubs, the author examines how hypersexualization structures stratification. The author explores the hypersexualization of Black and Latina women within the clubs regarding racial passing among dancers of color, pay differences, and club safety to examine how these factors produce inequalities between Black and Latina women in the exotic dance industry. Avenues for further social policy research focused on improving the sex industry work environment for Black and Latina exotic dancers are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Notes

  1. Joane Nagel (2003) has used this term (after Patricia Hill Collins 1990) to describe an all-encompassing social position of sexuality extending Judith Halberstam (1998) argument about masculinity being a legitimate sphere of men. I use the term to describe the social construction of people of color as possessing a more active sexuality than Whites.

  2. In this article, I use pseudonyms to protect the identity of clubs, dancers, and interviewees.

  3. The term gold digger has been popularized in hip-hop culture, which constructs Black women as materialistic and money hungry, out to get money from the men they date. Many Black feminists have critiqued this term as sexist, arguing that it ignores the low wages many working-class Black women earn on the job or on public assistance.

  4. A stage fee is what many dancers, who are legally classified as independent contractors, pay to work nationally. The stage fee has been a source of activism for many involved in the sex worker rights movement who are fighting for exotic dancers to be recognized as employees verses independent contractors.

  5. While doing fieldwork, I remember once being at Conquest when a middle-aged White man yelled at the bouncer on duty and actually took swings at him. He had to be escorted out of the club. I then heard an ambulance siren. It turned out he was drunk and had a heart attack while swinging at the bouncer. The police did not have to come, because the bouncer successfully took care of the situation—also, the club’s image was not stained because of the incident, as it would be at Temptations.

References

  • Alexander, P., & Delacoste, F. (1987). Sex work: Writings by women in the sex industry. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barry, K. (1984). Female sexual slavery. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barton, B. (2006). Stripped: Inside the lives of exotic dancers. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, E., & Schaffner, L. (2004). Regulating sex: The politics of intimacy and identity. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley-Engen, M. (2009). Naked lives: Inside the world of erotic dance. Albany: State University of New York Press.

  • Brooks, S. (2001). Exotic dancing and unionizing: Challenges of feminist and antiracist organizing at the Lusty Lady Theater. In F. W. Twine & K. Blee (Eds.), Feminism and anti-racism: International struggles for justice (pp. 59–70). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chancer, L. (1998). Reconcilable differences: Confronting beauty, pornography, and the future of feminism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, G. (2000). Disposable domestics: Immigrant women workers in the global economy. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapkis, W. (1997). Live sex acts: Women performing erotic labor. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Delany, S. (1999). Times Square red, Times Square blue. New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dines, G. (1998). Dirty business: Playboy magazine and the mainstreaming of pornography. In G. Dines, R. Jensen, & A. Russo (Eds.), Pornography: The production and consumption of inequality (pp. 37–64). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, A. (1991). Pornography: Men possessing women. New York: Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, K. (2002). G-strings and sympathy: Strip club regulars and male desire. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstam, J. (1998). Female masculinity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, A., & Machung, A. (2003). The second shift. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, M. (2002). If you’re light, you’re alright: Skin color as social capital for women of color. Gender & Society, 16, 175–193.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kempadoo, K. (1999). Sun, sex, and gold: Tourism and sex work in the Caribbean. Boulder, CO: Rowman & Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kempadoo, K., & Doezema, J. (1998). Global sex workers: Rights, resistance, and redefinition. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacKinnon, C. (1989). Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller-Young, M. (In Press). A taste for brown sugar: The history of Black women in American pornography. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  • Nagel, J. (2003). Race, ethnicity, and sexuality: Intimate intersections, forbidden frontiers. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nagle, J. (1997). Whores and other feminists. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quadagno, J. (1994). The color of welfare: How racism undermined the war on poverty. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Queen, C. (1997). Real live nude girl: Chronicles of sex-positive culture. San Francisco: Cleis Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, D. (1997). Killing the Black body: Race, reproduction, and the meaning of liberty. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, G. (1984). Thinking sex: Notes for a radical theory of the politics of sexuality. In C. S. Vance (Ed.), Pleasure and danger: Exploring female sexuality (pp. 267–319). Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, J., & Twine, F. W. (1997). White Americans, the new minority? Non-Blacks and the ever-expanding boundaries of Whiteness. Journal of Black Studies, 28, 200–218.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gender Studies, Lawrence University, 711 East Boldt Way, Appleton, WI, 54911, USA

    Siobhan Brooks

Authors
  1. Siobhan Brooks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siobhan Brooks.

Additional information

This article is from my forthcoming book, “Unequal Desires: Race and Erotic Capital in the Stripping Industry” (SUNY Press).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brooks, S. Hypersexualization and the Dark Body: Race and Inequality among Black and Latina Women in the Exotic Dance Industry. Sex Res Soc Policy 7, 70–80 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0010-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-010-0010-5

Keywords

  • Strip clubs
  • Stratification
  • Racism
  • Violence
  • Pornography