faceforradio

Playing the Man Among the Girls:
The performance of heterosexual masculinity in strip clubs



Sex work is common in almost all cultures, yet is an issue of moral, ethical, political, and/or personal debate everywhere. Recent legislation drafted in the state of Ohio attempts to further regulate patron-employee interactions within adult-oriented businesses in the state. The state's assumptions behind the penning of this legislation takes for granted that the interactions taking place within the walls of these businesses are immoral or harmful to at least one of the parties involved in these transactions. A common assertion among some feminists is that the production and consumption of sex work is exploitative and abusive of the women involved, and that the men who consume the sexual and emotional labor of the female workers are either perpetrators of an abusive patriarchal capitalism or are themselves secondary victims caught in a double-bind of hegemonic masculinity. The religious right co-opts part of this argument for their own statements that sex work is exploitative of women and humanity in general and that it is destructive to the moral fabric of society.
While a formal debate of the background of the proposed legislation and its potential effects is beyond the scope of this paper, a detailed examination of the production and consumption of exotic dance, the major issue at heart in the potential regulations, is warranted. The nature and meaning of strip clubs and similar sexual entertainment venues is a much debated topic beyond the state of Ohio or the realm of regulatory legislation. Many have weighed in on the issue from radical feminists to religious leaders. Those who argue for the abolition of sexually-themed adult entertainment cite numerous theorists and researchers who have connected the consumption of exotic dance with overarching themes of exploitation and misogyny. Others argue that sexuality is connected with sinfulness or is otherwise inappropriate for the public realm and that the expression of it must be kept private and within church- or state-sanctioned relationships; strip clubs and pornography are examples of carnal sin tempting and tainting the souls of the citizenry.
The First Amendment to the Constitution is often cited by defenders of sexually-oriented businesses, in both its free-speech functions and the intention to separate the State from religious influences. Those who use this tactic view exotic dance as an expression of free speech for the dancers who should, in the view of this argument, be allowed to express themselves as through dance as they wish, or as free speech for the patrons who should be allowed to consume what they want. Others suspect the involvement of religious-based organizations in the framing of regulations of this type of business and fear that such legislation may be the edge of a slippery slope leading to further religious involvement in public affairs.
Others involved for the pro-strip club (or strip club-ambivalent) side feel that the production and consumption of sex work is a natural outgrowth of capitalism and/or human nature. Sex work is, as the saying commonly goes, the world's oldest profession. This argument is dismissive of the social and personal effects of the business, but does raise an interesting point, to be revisited later.
Obviously, the arguments on any side of the issue are more complicated than the summations described here. However, these simplifications are often the extent of information to which many people not somehow involved with the sex industry are exposed. The greater emotional-psychological, socio-cultural, and economic implications and effects of sex work are not examined at a complex or involved enough level for the issue to be fully understood by many. Those who advocate for or against regulation or illegalization of strip clubs and those who consume exotic dance, as well as those who perform in or otherwise financially benefit from the sex work industry would do well to examine these areas beyond the immediately personal before continuing their current course(s) of action.
In order to provide for a more complete and informed discussion of this issue, the broader social context must be examined. Sex work is gender-specific, with the production being done by mainly women, and the consumption predominantly by men. This pattern is part of an over-all social structure of male-female relationships and is part of the production and consumption patterns of a capitalist economic system. Further, what happens within the confines of strip clubs is a reflection of socially constructed and scripted gender relations and has implications beyond the immediate interactions. I intend, through an examination of existing research and my own research, to create an understanding of sex work production and consumption within these contexts and to offer an explanation of the meanings of the interactions and performances within the walls of strip clubs.

THE LITERATURE
As mentioned above, sex work does not occur within a vacuum. There are many contextual elements that shape the existence of strip clubs as well as the happenings within them. The gendered order of society is responsible for the production and consumption roles of men and women in sex work: "It's not just the customers who try to take advantage of [dancers'] working bodies" (Bremer: 49). Gender roles for men and women are salient and well understood, though not necessarily seen as set roles (as the saying goes, the goldfish is the last to see the water, and gender is a crucial part of our socio-cultural pond). While the scripting of women's sexuality is clearly described (see Laws & Schwartz, 1977), men's sexuality has not been studied as extensively. Scholars such as Michael Messner, Michael Kimmel, and Joseph Pleck enter the feminist conversation about gendered practices with their own research on men's sex/gender role in American and British society.
Judith Long Laws and Pepper Schwartz, in Sexual Scripts: The Social Construction of Female Sexuality, describe the social scripting of the female sexual role and function, but remark on the nature of roles as a whole: "A role focuses attention on some highlighted function or attribute of the person. To a degree, once roles are established, all persons who can fill the role expectations are interchangeable. They can be identified according to their functions in the division of labor rather than as total persons. If they perform these functions effectively, the need for communication, accommodation, and negotiation is reduced" (4). Males are included in this alienating role identification as well. According to Joseph Pleck, "the two fundamental themes in the male role are stress on achievement and suppression of affect" (1976: 156). The male role requires that the male partner in a heterosexual relationship take a dominant role over the female partner due to his activity as provider and refrains from expressing his vulnerable emotional side.
A person is thrown into an identity crisis if or when s/he deviates the script of his or her gender or encounters a person or event that questions the dominant view of gendered norms. Because of shifting social positions and understandings that have brought women into the work place and allowed for greater independence for women, men are no longer universally dominant over women within the family or inter-personal relationship structure (Pleck, 1976: 159). The popular idea of a "crisis of masculinity/manhood" arises in part from this role change (among other claimed sources such as the 'incursion' of women into the workplace or other social advances of non-white, non-male persons that seem to have upset the 'balance' of power for traditionally powerful groups). Strip clubs may be a form of 'backlash' against the gains of feminism, a way for men to feel compensated for "power losses under equality"_that they as a group or as individuals lose power as women as a group or as individuals gain equality (Kahn: 234). Indeed, the environment of strip clubs is one in which strong cues are provided to shape the gendered performances of all parties involved (see Trautner).
Male-female relations, social and heterosexual are highly scripted, and based on a power differential between men and women (Kahn: 234), and the interactions within strip clubs seem to be perfectly reflective of the dominant social script of sexuality: women perform a sexualized labor for men who then reward the women with the resources with which they, as men, rightfully possess and distribute (235). Strippers, quite literally "sell an image of female sexuality" (qtd. In Egan, et al.: xix). The interactions within strip clubs fit precisely within sexual scripts that demand that women "control sexual access to their bodies [while] men are not expected to control their sexual desires" (Laws and Schwartz: 207) . In many ways, sex is seen as a "purchasable commodity" (213), sold by women to men at a set price, whether in dollars or social status (see also Schur: 164-185) .
From a young age, women and girls are socially educated toward permanent heterosexual marriage as the realm in which they will learn or receive their sexuality from their male partners. A woman's sexuality is her bid value on the marriage market, her virginity (or in a more realistic modern interpretation, her monogamy), the expected exchange for a diamond ring. A woman's sexuality is not her own, but a product she sells in order to achieve full acceptance into 'proper society'. This is problematic in many ways, and some may argue that stripping can be more than a deviant act of a fallen woman, but an exercise of sexual and personal self-epression. In the introduction to Flesh for Fantasy: Producing and Consuming Exotic Dance, editors R. Danielle Egan, Katherine Frank, and Merri Lisa Johnson argue that for the women who dance in strip clubs, "being labeled a slut can reveal the goal of good womanhood as a farce. Sex work can lead to a different perspective on how a woman could, or should, relate to her sexuality" (xxvii), a different way of looking at sexuality and gendered relations, as well as capitalism.
Women are groomed, quite literally, into the appearance of sellability on the marriage market, and men are taught to recognize or expect particular traits as those of a desirable whore or proper wife (see Laws and Schwartz). The appearance of the women who dance in strip clubs is highly informed by this process; most dancers in strip clubs, particularly higher class clubs, reflect specific cultural values of beauty and desirability (Trautner:777). Allison Fenterstock describes this as "shaved and painted and nekkid [sic] and wriggling around the ultimate mainstream hetero fantasy girl" (2006:200). This presentation of the "ultimate mainstream hetero fantasy girl" is problematic even within the club. Though the hyper-feminine image is encouraged, it is punished. Dancers, the penultimate image of feminine sexuality, are simultaneously celebrated and reviled by a misogynistic culture: "This is what you encourage me to be and what you punish me for being, I think" (200). In this way, strip club dancers reveal the cultural ambivalence felt toward women.
Even the selling of sexuality as seen in strip clubs, though seen as deviant, conforms in some way to the feminine sexual script (180-184) , which is demonstrated in many accounts by dancers who provide narratives of customers confusing what was actually for sale in these interactions (see Manaster, "Treading Water":10; "The Lap Dancer", Egan: 24-26, Bremer: 45-47, Fenterstock, "How You Got Here": 82-83) . Clubs are often organized in a way that casts the dancers as "independent contractors" who use the club as venue for the selling of their 'wares' (Bremer: 37). The female sex worker is seen as cast as a two-dimensional object on which the patrons' desires can be played out "undiluted by intrusion of an unpaid partner's own desires and personality" (qtd. 214). Dancers in strip clubs are somewhat unique in sex work, as they are not simply sex objects and non-persons. Some of male patrons' attraction to clubs is rooted in the fact that the women dancing are not the paper pin-ups and digital porn queens, but rather "immediate", "interactive", and "present at the moment of consumption" (Egan, et al, 2006: xix), that the dancers make eye contact with the patrons (Berger: 144). "Conversation [is] so much more important than anyone who hadn't been to a strip club would realize" (Smith: 103). It is often a dancers' ability to make some kind of emotional or personal connection with a patron (albeit feigned or temporary) that determines success in the dancers' ability to sell private dances with the patrons (Trautner: 782-783; Wood: 12).
There is a disconnect somewhere in the male perception and valuing of strippers and other sex workers, who perform a task that is valued yet stigmatized by hegemonic forces of the society (see Schur, 1984). This places dancers in a dangerous position, outside of the protections of society, allowing some men to justify abusive behaviors and attitudes (see Egan: 26). The danger presented by one's sexuality is "a uniquely female fear" (Fenterstock:199), whether the woman is a dancer, prostitute, professor, or(and) homemaker. Western society's schizophrenic views of sexuality are cast onto the female bodies of sex workers, creating the threat these women would not otherwise experience in their work (Johnson: 160). Sex work, predominantly considered a deviant activity, is performed most commonly by women for the consumption of men, and according to Edwin Schur, "to understand the relationship of women and deviance, a major focal point for research must be male perceptions, outlooks, and behaviors" (1984: 17).
For many young men strip clubs, far from deviant, are a rite of passage into full heterosexual adult manhood (Egan et al, 2006: xix), one of many steps in the "achievement or task" (Harrison: 69) of masculinity. That women who strip are labeled deviant in this activity and not the men who use strip clubs is further revealing of our cultural ambivalence toward women. Male patrons conform fully to the scripted masculine sex role in consuming sex work, even if the activity is considered deviant: they are actively performing their heterosexuality and being the financial provider. This is not to say that the men are fully comfortable with their consumption; they often understand that many in the wider society, and particularly their own wives/girlfriends or female relatives, view the consumption of sex work as deviant as the production (Frank, "Observing": 137). Guilt is not uncommon (Berger: 143; Frank, 2003: 73-74).
What exactly does lure mean to these glittering palaces of "artifice and truth" (Blauche: 98)? Laws and Schwartz outline what the literature available to them at the time described as the reasons for men to patronize prostitutes. These reasons seem explain some men's choice to patronize strip clubs: "(1) sexual deprivation due to travel; (2) social needs; (3) physical handicaps; (4) special sexual needs, which might seem perverted to others; (5) impotence; (6) a need for therapy; (7) desire for sex in quantity, a variety of sexual experiences, without involvement with ant one person; and (8) loneliness" (191). While these motives all seem plausible, much research has been conducted, and much opinion and theory penned since Laws and Schwartz examined the issue.
Male patrons explicitly purchase access to female dancer's sexuality: "Clients do not want to have to woo or persuade their partner; they want a girl on call, ready when they are" (Laws & Schwartz: 127). The men reward the women with money, or "you [patron] give my money, I give you me [dancer]" (Manaster, "Treading Water": 18). Many men understand their visits to clubs as a way of satisfying the "desire to see women's bodies" (Frank, 2003: 64). As in everyday life for even women who do not dance for a living, personal and sexual boundaries are erected, negotiated and modified on a regular basis in strip clubs, with the incentive being financial gain (Bremer 46). There is no ambiguity in these exchanges (Berger: 144). Berger, in an autoethnographic account, states baldly that his own use of peep shows_a simpler version of the strip club theme in which women dance nude or perform other activities including sex with other women in a room surrounded by windows at which stand customers who pay to raise the covering over the window_was "first and foremost to get off" (145). However, Katherine Frank notes explicitly that "not one man that I interviewed said that he went to the clubs specifically for sexual release" ("Observing": 115). If not for the simple seemingly obvious motivation of sexual thrill, what are men's reasons for patronizing these clubs?
Frank's research found that "by far, the most prevalent (and usually the first given) spoken motivation of the interviewees for visiting strip clubs was a desire to 'relax'" (Frank, "Observing: 115). Because the strip club is neither home nor work, it is an environment in which the responsibilities of family and job are not present, and the entertainment function of the club further aids in the relaxation (Frank, 2003). Humor on the behalf of dancers is highly appreciated by many male patrons (Bremer: 41-42) who may feel uncomfortable with their consumption of sex work (see note above) or who are simply looking for a way to unwind after a taxing day at work or home (see Fran, 2003). Regulars often begin to develop a sense of friendship or intimacy with the dancers and other employees of their favorite clubs (Frank, 2003: 65).
Frank lists several reasons that she found men have for visiting clubs: "Searching for escape from work or home" (2003: 64); simultaneous sexual "safety and excitement" (67); "personal and sexual acceptance" (69) similar to the reasons alluded to by Laws and Schwartz; and "performing desire and the fantasy of the 'perfect penis'" (72).
The level of performativity alluded to by some authors suggests that the experience of patronizing a strip club may not necessarily be as relaxing as these men implied in their interviews. Rather, the men who visit the clubs seem to be rather involved with performances of their own. Strip clubs are, after all, places where "a man could be a man" (qtd. Frank, 2003: 64). Susan Bremer notes that male patrons may have their own "stage names" and constructed backgrounds (40; see also Smith: 107-108; Wood 20-21). Gender performance, especially those masculine practices often frowned upon by family or the wider society such as smoking, cursing, and drinking heavily, also seems to be a major concern of the male patrons, or is at least rather obvious when observing them (Frank, 2003: 65). Gender may be performed in a variety of ways in strip clubs as well as in everyday life, down to the non-verbal communication and postures of participants. Men take up more social space, positioning themselves in relaxed poses, making little eye contact. This posturing conveys power to those with whom the actor may be interacting (Kahn: 237). The performance of power, gender, and identity has important links to men's enjoyment of the strip club experience, as this performance shapes the meanings of the interactions and pleasures they experience (Frank, "Observing": 133).
Success with women is a huge part of a man's image as success object (see Gross: 94). Strip clubs provide a forum in which men can demonstrate their success with women by 'attracting' dancers who, regardless of fact, pretend to be available to the men, and showing their own sexual attraction to the proper object of desire. The acts of tipping and paying for dances are veiled under a pretense of "gifting" that obscures the falseness of the attraction (Wood: 13-14), allowing the fantasy remain whole. In a strip club, a male patron is able to perform his successful heterosexuality_he attracts a woman to whom he is himself attracted, and shows himself to be sexually competent_without ever having to risk the vulnerability of actually having sex, potentially exposing himself as less than the power-tool phallus of cultural legend (Frank, "Observing": 135). The social rules and games of dating and heterosexual relationships are not present in strip clubs (2003: 65). Sexual insecurity may be a major influence in men's choices to patronize sex workers. Alan Gross, in his paper on heterosexual behavior and the male sex role, describes another study that found that men often asked prostitutes to "direct the sexual activity" (Gross: 99). With prostitutes and strippers, men do not need to act out the traditional masculine sexual behaviors expected by them in other relationships (99), which require expertise and knowledge on their behalf (see Laws & Schwartz, also Gross: 97). Much of strip club interactions may be understood as means of bolstering a man's feelings of success and power. The high-pitched, soft voices and submissive behaviors of strippers enforce the feelings of masculine power brought up in the male patrons (Kahn: 238) .
These interactions are additionally influenced by the fact that "status in one's own sex peer group depends in part on avoiding exploitation by the other sex" (Laws & Schwartz: 106). "As long as they paid for the dancer's time, customers could still maintain a sense of control over the situation by dictating how long the conversation would last, what would be discussed, and whether or not the dancer took her clothes off during the interaction. There was an unspoken understanding that if a dancer was not pleasing, she would not be paid" (Frank "Just Trying to Relax", 2003: 70). Many male customers find intense pleasure and power in the fact that the dancers approach them (Blauche: 98; see also Frank "Just Trying to Relax", Wood). Attention from the dancers is most important, according to Wood when it fulfills two requirements: that it "allow[s] for witnesses" and "allow[s] the customer to imagine the personality and history of the dancer who is attending to him" (10), creating "a possibility for the enacting of masculine power (11).
It is important to note that the exchange and exercise of power within strip clubs is not so cut and dry as to allow only men to possess power. In their own experiences and research, Frank, Egan, and Johnson found that "power is exchanged and negotiated among the customers, dancers, managers, club owners, and legal enforcers" (2006: xviii). Socio-cultural definitions and constructions of power have given the interactions in clubs a specific meaning that informs the decisions of male patrons to use strip clubs. As Frank notes, some men may experience "their visits (and also, in part, justified them) within a framework of confusion and frustration rather than simply one of privilege or domination" ("Observing": 120). The mutual touch of lap dancing further obscures power boundaries, as Egan explains in "The Phenomenology of Lap Dancing" that in touching, "bodies become subject and object simultaneously. Control becomes hazy, undermining the power relations inherent in traditional subject/object divisions". Others even argue that the dancers have the upper hand in strip club interactions (see Shackleton, Trautner:783). Blauche summarizes the ambiguity of the power balance in his essay "Why I Go to Strip Clubs" as, "she makes me feel weak; she makes me feel powerful" (99). This ambiguity of power, even the feeling of powerlessness, may be a major draw for some male customers (see Uebel).
The peer group, particularly the same sex peer group, is another source of pressure on individuals to perform the proper gender roles. In their discussion of dating scripts, Laws and Schwartz describe the power of an individual's same-sex friends to influence the sexual selection process (107-108). The desirability of a dancer may be affected in the same way: a man may choose to purchase a dance or tip a dancer based on his friends' opinions of her. The patron's tipping, viewing, and other behaviors may be highly informed by the presence of his friends and their own preferences (Wood: 20-22). "The audience of peers is an essential part of impression management" state Laws and Schwartz (107). Perhaps providing a stage for the performance of heterosexual masculinity is a major function of strip clubs. Strip club dancers, by receiving the rewards of money given them by their male patrons, become accessories to advertise the men's success: the more the men tip, the more successful (ergo masculine) the men show themselves to be.
Competition between men in peer groups is also important; proving one's manhood may center on the ability of a patron to attract dancers to a table where his group is sitting (Frank, and Wood). Indeed, "powerful men's public performances are often staged for each other" (Messner: 732), and in her research, Frank found that men in groups were "more likely to speak in demeaning ways about a dancer's body or to act as if the dancers didn't exist as individuals. These same men, however were respectful in individual interaction" (2003: 63). "Self-presentation" to the peer group is a factor in shaping men's behavior in the clubs (Wood: 20-22). Being the loudest, biggest tipper in the club may win a patron status in the eyes of his peers (21).
Though the women in the club must accept the men, must play along with the guise of attraction, the customers still value and place meaning the attention they can 'attract'. That the dancers approach the patrons is very important to the patrons themselves, especially when considering the dialectic of power relations taking place in the clubs. Should a patron approach a dancer (beyond the stage tipping that is for some the only interaction with the dancers), he may show himself as desperate or dependent on the dancer's approval. A similar impression may be invoked if a man develops a particular affinity for a specific dancer. This dependence on a female dancer is "not compatible with the internalized masculine ideal" (Gross: 90). The dancers do, however, provide the perfect opportunity for the patrons to demonstrate their masculinity for their peer group (94), as a more powerful person's (patron) exercise of power is often the understood motive for a less powerful person's (dancer) actions (Kahn: 239). The maintenance of this image of the patron's power as the motive for the dancer's behavior is important, then, in the dancer-patron relationship.
Though feminists argue that the social benefits of feminism are good for both men and women, some more masculine-identified men may feel stress or threat when confronted with the modern social arrangement that no longer favors the highly masculinized individual. Boys who are traditionally masculine may "lack the social and intellectual skills needed for successful adaptation in the adult world" (161, see also Pleck, "The Male Sex Role"). The contradiction that these boys face_raised to be masculine and manly and then finding that the values of domination, physicality, and rejection of the feminine are not compatible with the adult world that claims to require intellectual and social skills that in childhood were associated with weakness and the feminine_can lead to crisis or strain in adulthood.
Men raised to be traditionally masculine find themselves today in a social environment that does not provide opportunities to "validate their masculinity" (Pleck: 159). Strip clubs may provide this opportunity for some men, where they can put on or perform a "compensatory masculinity" (Harrison: 69) to make up for the anxiety and confusion brought about by the weight of the modern male sex role. Vices such as smoking and drinking are often "symbolic manifestations of compensatory masculinity and as an escape mechanism from the pressure to achieve" (Harrison: 81). Strip clubs may also serve a similar function.
One of Frank's interviewees notes, "I'm definitely confused about what it is to be a man" ("Observing": 121). For men such as this one, the cues provided by the environment and the audience dictate very clearly what masculinity is and how manhood is to be lived. There are no confusing contradictions in the strip club as in the wider society, rather, gender and sex are concrete and the rules are clearly laid out. "Strip clubs offered a temporary respite from both changing definitions of masculinity and requests from women for either instrumental support or for reciprocal emotional communication" (121). Patrons in Frank's sample do not reflect the "dominant patriarch" type one might expect to find, but rather are more often "wounded, confused, underappreciated, uncomfortable, or bored" (137). Men may feel powerless, 'impotent' in the face of a social role that demands of them control, strength, and unrelenting power. In a strip club, this pressure may be either heightened or alleviated, at the least, men may feel more comfortable relaxing from that role in a strip club.
The contradictions of masculinity training may be most immediate in the experience of working class males who seem to be more conventionally masculinized, and who "typically have the fewest resources for meeting male role demands" (Pleck:160). Socio-economic class affects the kinds of sexual scripts to which one is held (Laws & Schwartz, 26). According to a 1964 study by Marjorie Hall and Robert A. Keith, children of lower socio-economic class are more likely to choose sex-role appropriate behaviors. The male children were particularly strict in their choice of gender-specific activities and objects. As these children grow into adulthood, it is expected that at least some of their gendered education and socialization should be carried with them. Within the walls a strip club, these socially emasculated men can become 'whole', powerful men, celebrating their traditional masculinity (Trautner: 776), perhaps raising their status however temporarily by becoming the Man to a dancer's Woman , "her body as material through which [the patron] can claim higher status in his blue-collar masculinity" (Johnson: 175).
Socio-economic class affects sexuality in several ways (see Trautner), including the kind of clubs a man may favor, the dancers and costuming he most enjoys, the kind of dancing he enjoys and the amount of money and manner of tipping (see Manaster, "The Lap Dancer"; and Trautner). Class issues are heavily present in strip clubs. Strip clubs that cater toward a working class customer base are different in appearance, the bar selection, the dancers' looks and performance styles from those catering toward an upper middle-class clientele (see Trautner, Smith). Manaster contradicts some ideas that men over higher socio-economic status are more 'gentlemanly' and respectful with women. It is those women whose perceived deviance places them outside of traditional society's protection upon toward whom wealthier strip club patrons dump their misogyny and classism:
"They don't need to pay for attention, and tend to favor word economy and rudeness to make this clear when you approach them. They tend to favor silicone breasts, g-string tan lines, and bleached hair, signs that the group can recognize together as constituting a sex-industry worker from years of exposure to Playboy pictorials. These breasts and tan lines can be treated badly. They are meant to be consumed. Those dancers who do not provide this visual stimulus do not even merit the attention of poor treatment. They are dismissed outright" ("The Lap Dancer":54).
Merri Lee Johnson reports similar experiences in her narrative of a college fraternity party at which the fraternity brothers "in fancy ties revealed themselves as aggressors, a side I had rarely seen of this type. Once I was categorized as stripper or whore, they were no longer the ones who would protect me" (Johnson: 184).
Homophobia may also contribute to the shaping of heterosexual men's desires to consume sex work. The "partners or reference group arecritically important for maintaining or changing sexual orientations" (Laws & Schwartz, 27). By publicly performing heterosexual attraction to a female exotic dancer, the male patron "proves" that he is straight and properly functioning as a sexual "tool" (see also Frank).
An additional aspect of the women's role in the strip club is to provide psychological or emotional reassurance for the male patron (127), another way for the men to relax (Frank, 2003). This is one service not explicit in the contracted exchange within strip clubs, but seems to be fairly common. Emotional labor is a service many, if not all, dancers are familiar with (see Bremer, Egan, Frank, Wood, etc.). As noted above, conversation with dancers may be highly valued by male patrons, as it may vary from the kind of talking the men get at work or home (Frank, "Observing": 128). This kind of socialization may give men the opportunity to express emotionality and weakness that the traditional male role does not allow them (see Pleck), as "men are often more concerned with preserving their image as 'real men' than with open and constructive interchange" (Gross: 95) with their peers or others. Strip clubs also provide a place where men can bond with one another, re-establishing connections that are undermined by capitalist social organization (see Messner: 729). The patron's ego-boost provided by being made to feel successful or powerful (Kahn: 240) is another form of therapy provided by the dancers, as well as the feelings of desirability and masculinity that dancers may cultivate in their patrons (Wood: 13). Emotional labor on the part of the dancers may also help to relax the patrons, assuaging their feelings of guilt or fear about being in a strip club (24).
Western societies have a strange understanding of sex and emotion, particularly in the masculine gender role. Men are stereotypically described as disconnecting sex from emotion, a reason for their unblushing use of strip clubs and pornography. The isolation of sex from emotionality may be "a defense against male vulnerability" (Gross: 90). Connecting emotions with sex can create feelings of dependency, something strongly discouraged in the masculine role, as discussed above. "Being able to walk away" from the sexualized situation of a strip club without having to even "ask her her name", not being required to open up emotionally or personally to the female partner, may be a huge draw to strip clubs for some men (Frank, 2003: 65-66).
Dancers often have similar feelings of emotional disconnection from their sexualized performance, understanding their work as something disconnected from actual attraction and sexuality: "it was always strange for me to dance for someone for whom I felt attraction (it was just too confusing)" (Egan: 28). When "lines between consumption and emotion [are] blurred" (32), strip club interactions are more difficult for both producer (dancer) and consumer (patron) to understand. The simple and crass exchange of money for 'pleasure' is not as common as many would like to believe.
Dancers and patrons are caught in a complicated system of personal and social relationships and interactions that do not seem to culminate in a single, clear meaning. Exploitation and the exercise of gendered power are not black and white in the clubs, with one party wielding power and action over another group (Egan & Frank: 307). Men and women work together in strip clubs "primarily for the benefit of men through interactions that affirm cultural notions of masculinity" (Wood: 27), though the female dancers still "retain ultimate control over [the patron's] access to her smile, eye contact, and further affirmative interaction" (28) and the emotions raised in the patrons, a power of which the dancers may be well aware (Uebel: 13).



SOURCES
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