The municipal governments, specifically the City of Edmonton and the City of Calgary, require that all exotic dancers pass a security clearance to control for any drug or prostitution charges also, dancers must pay an annual fee of one hundred fifty dollars for a license. The city has increased their scrutiny in regards to one’s security clearance in the past two years resulting in fewer women able to work in the city and others fearing that their past transgressions exposed to everyone making them ineligible for employment. A near rejection of one Edmonton dancer's license renewal illustrates the unintended effects of the security clearance; she was required to meet the police vice and discuss a charge on her record. There was a real possibility that she would not pass if she were unable to explain her charges. It was shoplifting, no conviction, just a charge, and occurred seven years prior. Why is it necessary for a stripper to gain security clearance? Are strippers inherently more dangerous? What kinds of threats do naked women pose? Fear of the criminality possessed by these women must not be the reason for these seemingly unnecessary procedures. If it was a predominately male profession, it is highly doubtful that the same processes would be in place. The fee of one hundred fifty dollars is significantly higher than bars or restaurants, but fortunately far below the annual three thousand dollars paid by escorts. Does the city equate strippers and escorts? The singling out of these two professions may suggest an equivocation. Why are retail workers not forced to have a license? One answer is that the government wants a share of the money these women work hard to receive. The documenting of the tips dancers receive and the money escorts receive is not necessarily reliable. These people may not fully declare their income on their taxes and the government is unable to verify the amounts. These licensing fees are in place to regulate the dancers but there is little regulation. This is another instance of the domination attempts on these females.
The club owner/manager is male for the vast majority. These men tell the agents what kind of dancers they are seeking. The owner's preferences can result in the agents offering only certain women work; he may want only Caucasian women, waifs, or pop music blondes. The club owner holds absolutely the power to hire and fire. After first meeting a dancer or after her first show of the week, or at any time during the week, the manager can fire her, sometimes without pay. A woman’s weight, breast size, muscle tone (be it too muscular or not enough), attractiveness, attitude, behaviour, past, are all reasons for dismissal. The fact that a woman could work an entire week, and be expecting a paycheque of eight hundred dollars only to be fired hours before she is to be paid seems unfair, oppressive, exploitive, etc. There is also the possibility that instead of receiving a paycheque, one could receive a bill. The attached hotel may be the only option in the town, deducted from the cheque, as well as telephone calls, bar tabs, restaurant bills, these alone could dramatically reduce a cheque and then there are fines. There are no fine regulations and can vary widely between clubs. Fines are also absolute, there is no appeal process, no possibility that the Stripper Protection Agency will raid the club and arrest the fine-happy manager. If a manager hates a dancer, he could allow her to dance the week only to surprise her with a page of fines for infractions she did not commit. Fines are in place to ensure job effectiveness, productivity and presence; they also lessen payrolls. Sanctions imposed for tardiness are generally one hundred dollars for every minute late for a show, no excuses. Missed shows range from two hundred fifty dollars to five hundred dollars plus the cost of the show. It is wholly within the manager’s power to decide to double a dancer’s fines. For example, during an interview with a dancer named Octavia, she told of when she was late for a show because her suitcase would not open, after a lengthy struggle the manager opened it by ripping the suitcase and then proceeded to fine her three hundred dollars for being late. She told the other dancers what had happened and they were outraged and informed the manager of such. He then doubled her fine because she had a ‘big mouth’ and the other dancers were approaching him and scolding him for fining Octavia. It is a system that favors the club, adversarial to the dancer and easy to identify situations in which women could work a week for nothing, maybe less.
Fired without pay and an excessive fine system are only two of the way women are overpowered, another is the unwillingness and the refusal to accept any reason to miss a show. These claims, legitimate or not, are for the vast majority of the time never taken seriously. The managers have ‘seen & heard it all before’ and suspect a late night of alcohol and drugs are the cause of this day’s ailment.
The male aspects of the strip trade include the agents who have a monopoly on clubs and workers, almost all control over a dancer's placement, much say in the hiring of a dancer, and the power to ostracize a dancer. Spotlighting the municipal government and it is hard to miss its attempts to exploit working women. The club owners have the power, and exercise it, to fire without pay, fine exorbitant amounts of money over minutes, and refuse to believe any ailments that a woman is suffering from is anything more than a hangover.
After that lengthy inspection of the males of the strip club culture, the attention focuses on the females, the dancers. In her article, Feminism, Marxism, Method and the State: An Agenda for Theory, Catharine A. MacKinnon (1982) states, “Socially, femaleness means femininity, which means attractiveness to men, which means sexual attractiveness, which means sexual availability on male terms”. If femaleness means femininity and dancers are female, if the factors of femininity as met it is true. Dancers are attractive to men, sexually attractive in fact. Interpreting sexual availability as a willing participant in sexual activity is valid; however, women can be available in general and not for a specific person. If this is correct then dancers exude femininity. They seem rather feminine, wearing form-fitting dresses, short skirts, and stiletto heels. Their make-up and hair are amazing emphasizing their attractiveness, and being naked is a sufficient condition for sexually attractive. It is appropriate to consider dancers feminine in relation to MacKinnon’s article.
“The men think we do it because we love sex so much, we’re sex-driven throbbing mattress kittens. But when we’re on stage we’re all virgins, and then we lock eyes with that one special guy and he might be the one to change all that . . . and then we lock eyes with the next guy and he might be the one to change all that. Men are so stupid.” Octavia’s quote is an example of the have/hold discourse (Hollway, 1984). Wife or mistress, virgin or whore (or sex-driven throbbing mattress kittens) the dichotomy is the same and impossible to achieve. Expected to be the provocative, seductive, pure, ingénue and obviously unable to fill the role, the dancer adopts a role not unlike that of a trucker. Rude, crude and crass, these women are tough. They have experienced volumes either in person, a close friend, or another dancer’s recollection. Assertive, aggressive, controlled, rational are usually male-specific traits but dancers are often described as such. A power shift has occurred, any previous conceptions about women’s subservience to men have vanished. On stage, strippers can make men do anything, falling over themselves to throw money to her, reduced to the basest of urges. After having seen one’s oppressor with his pants around his ankles and his clown boxers showing, the power is not as apparent as it had been. If subsequently, the repeat viewing of the oppressor is in compromising, powerless situations, the oppressor ceases to exist, and it is simply another person. In the situation the power shifted to the dancers and the agent, the manager, the city government may exert some power over her; regardless the men at the strip club are waiting for her.
Exotic dancers appear to be an ultimately sexual, feminine being. However, it is not always the case; they adopt attitudes perhaps better suited to their trucker or rig-working customers. The misconception that the dancers are waiting for that guy at the club is in light of the fact that many dancers have an utter hatred for males and they despise them while they smile and listen to his stories.
The objectification that is present in the strip club may not be the dancers at all it may be the customer who is nothing other than a source for money. The personality traits, usually coded as masculine, embodied by these women, must aid them as they ‘hustle’ to sell table dances, and convince the men to play loonie games.
The transference of power, as experienced in the strip club, would be an empowering experience for all women. The possibility of it occurring is not absurd. The emphasized femininity some women adhere to is not going to increase the likelihood of this fundamental shift. However, if any change is to occur, solidarity must first be present.
References
Bruckert, C. (2002). Taking it off, putting it on: Women in the strip trade. Toronto: Women’s Press
Connell, R.W. (1997). Hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity. In Feminist Frontiers IV. Compiled by Laurel Richardson, Verta Taylor, and Nancy Whittier, 22-25. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hollway, W. (1984). Gender difference and the production of subjectivity. J. Henriques, W. Hollway, C. Urwin, C. Venn and V. Walkeraine (Eds.), Changing the Subject. London: Methien.
MacKinnon, C. A. (1982). Feminism, Marxism, method, and the state. Signs, 7(3).
A Sample of Common Fines
Show price
Late for a show
Late for a meeting
Missed show
Missed meeting
Sets not long enough
No promotional posters, etc.
Wearing a costume twice in one day
Breaking the 3 foot rule
- Too close to a customer
- Contact with a dancer while nude
$35-$100
$100 per minute
$100
$250-$500 plus show price
$100
$50-$100
$50-$100
$100
$50-$100
Up to $1000 for the dancer
Up to $5000 for the club (if the Alberta Liquor Control Commission has an agent in the audience)
