A wink and a smile: Titillation and the alienation of sexuality within the occupation of male erotic dancing

This ethnographic study, based on the grounded theory methodology of Glaser and Strauss (1967) emphasizes male exotic dancing as a career and investigates a predominantly male-for-male gender arrangement of the occupation. Analysis of the data suggests that the men in this occupation understand their labor as titillation, a pleasurable erotic flirtation, for the entertainment of the consumer.; The construction of a virtual self accommodates consumer desire for an encounter with a sexually receptive performer. The encounter occurs within a set of nested contexts—cultural, situational, and subjective. Each context has a different set of obligations, expectations, norms, and signs. The creation of an erotic virtual self entails an assessment of the various contexts and a creative response in the coordination of the available repertoire of behavioral, emotional, visual, and sexual conventions. Central to the virtual self is a constructed sexuality that is not reflective of the desires of the dancer; rather it reflects the desires of the consumer. Unlike a prostitute's performance which is understood as negotiated and directed by the customer, the dancer's performance is believed by the consumer to be a natural and spontaneous expression of the dancer's inner self. The contemporary trend in “reality” entertainment, the panopticon, is an extension of the dancer's experience of a constructed self for the entertainment of the viewer.; Ultimately the alienation of the dancer from this virtual self may result in behaviors and encounters that violate the normative and moral expectations of the dancer's actual self. Accommodation, rejection, or departure from the occupation may result from continued trespasses. Further, the experience of the male dancer presages the depth of alienation the contemporary service worker may experience from portions of the self as “personalized” connection between consumer and laborer becomes a matter of job description within the service economy.