St. Lawrence Prof Explores 'Exotic Dance' in Two Books

Newswise — In two new books, a sociology professor at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, explores an aspect of American culture that is both out in the open and hidden in shadow " exotic dance.

Danielle Egan, assistant professor of sociology, is the author of "Dancing for Dollars and Paying for Love: The Relationships Between Exotic Dancers and Their Regulars," published in January by Palgrave Macmillan. She is also one of three editors of a book of essays, "Flesh For Fantasy: Producing and Consuming Exotic Dance," published in January by Thunder's Mouth Press.

"My work on exotic dance emerged from my interest in the ways in which the erotic merges with consumer culture in the United States," Egan says. "I was fascinated with exotic dance clubs in particular, because the industry is legal, extremely profitable " Rick's Cabaret is traded on NASDAQ and showed revenues of $15 million in 2003 and $16 million in 2004 " and incredibly popular, while also being considered deviant by a large portion of the U.S. population. Given the fact that most clubs offer the services of female dancers for male customers, the intersection of gender, power and desire figured heavily in my research."

The relationship between customers and dancers was of particular interest, Egan says, because she wanted to know "why men would come to exotic dance clubs and spend up to $60,000 dollars on a woman they would never see outside of the club. I found that the ways in which power and gender operated in the club were extremely complex. Both dancers and regulars were empowered and disempowered in the clubs. Their experiences were mediated by money, emotional investment, love, loneliness, friendship and the management of the clubs.With all of this complexity, the best thing about my research was that it was never boring," she adds.

Of "Dancing for Dollars," the publishers state, "This book takes an in-depth look at the relationships exotic dancers have with their regular customers, and explores the limits of using feminist theory to discuss sex work. Incorporating interviews, personal accounts and field notes, Egan sheds light on the feminist debates on sex work and women's power. She focuses in on the dynamics of desire and fantasy in exotic dance clubs to illustrate the complexity of gendered relations in everyday life. This is an accessible, revealing and new look at a perennially intriguing and divisive subject."

"Flesh For Fantasy"'s publishers state that the book "moves beyond the old debates and gives the reader a glimpse of what exotic dancing is like through the eyes of the stripper. The essays in 'Flesh For Fantasy' cover everything from workplace policies and conditions, legal restrictions, customer behavior, and the struggle to overcome the stereotypes associated with the profession." It is edited by Katherine Frank and Lisa Johnson, with Egan.

A faculty member at St. Lawrence since 2000, Egan is a graduate of Goucher College and earned the Ph.D. at Boston College. She has published work in Critical Sociology; Body and Society; Deviant Behavior; and The Journal of Psychoanalysis, Society and Culture. In addition to her work on exotic dance, she has written on post- 9/11 rhetoric, pedagogy and popular culture.