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Article Excerpt
THE CANADIAN ECONOMY HAS INCREASINGLY BECOME more service-based (Little, 1999), resulting in changing labour relations (Sallaz, 2002). In an effort to reduce labour costs, the service industry relies on the "tipping system." Although this emphasis results in a loss of worker commitment to the business (Sallaz, 2002), it motivates the worker to work hard to please customers and push the products that result in the accrual of earnings/tips and business revenue. In addition to reducing labour costs, one of the main benefits of the tipping system for the business owner is "that it keeps the ... staff firmly at the front line in the battle to turn a profit" (Citron, 1989: 9). Workers in the service sector, however, "must be granted a much wider degree of autonomy to customize their service offerings" (Sallaz, 2002: 406). This organizational feature provides workers with further incentive and freedom "to pursue their own interests at the expense of the company" (Paules, 1991: 55).
Although strip clubs are part of the service industry, they differ in terms of the way staff members earn their money. In most strip clubs in Southern Ontario, the majority of workers do not receive a salary from the club and some actually pay a fee to work there. As a result, they tend to operate as private entrepreneurs. These structural elements of the strip club create a work environment that inspires little in the way of worker commitment. Instead, workers focus on themselves, providing client services and engaging in co-operative activities that increase earnings and/or provide some sort of resource (e.g., support, security, friendship). The workplace structure also encourages the use of resistance strategies as a way to deal with the lack of security tied to jobs in the industry (Paules, 1991).
Various staff members play an integral role in the daily operations of the strip club: dancers, waitresses, shooter girls, bartenders, disc jockeys (DJs), doorpersons/bouncers and hostesses. Although strip clubs, like other sectors of the service industry, are highly gendered and sexualized establishments (Paules, 1991), there is a complex interplay of power dynamics among workers as each strives to enhance her/his autonomy, security and income. The result is a variety of mutually interdependent relationships between the various staff members.
The focus of this article is the social organization of the strip club. It examines the interplay of power relations in the club and how workers in this environment are able to enhance autonomy and use the resources at their disposal to decrease the inherent uncertainties of their job. Interconnections between and co-operative activities engaged in by workers as a means to deal with exploitive labour practices, as well as to create a socially and/or economically supportive work environment, are also explored.
Literature and Framework
Strip clubs and exotic dancers have been the subject of academic inquiry since the 1960s. Recent research revolves around issues tied to exotic dancing as a form of work or "marginalized labour" (Bruckert, 2002; Chapkis, 1997; Bruckert, Parent and Robitaille, 2003; Price, 2000). Such a focus has led to discussions of workplace structure and tipping culture. Some of the exotic dancing literature addresses these issues (e.g., Enck and Preston, 1988; Forsyth and Deshotels, 1997; Price, 2000; Prus and Irini, 1980). Prus and Irini (1980) for example, provide a detailed account of the social organization of a hotel community that includes a bar where strip shows are performed. As part of their analysis they look at the work of the various bar staff (i.e., bartenders, waitresses, exotic dancers, doormen and bouncers), the individual "hustles" each type of worker uses, and the importance of mutual support among staff for the success of some hustling strategies. Forsyth and Deshotels (1997) and Price (2000) also explore how staff work together to make money and enhance the quality of their work experience. According to Price's (2000) study, strip club workers work, both individually and collectively, to control a variety of aspects of their jobs, including the amount of time they work, earnings, and contact with customers.
Some of the recent literature has furthered studies in this area by situating analyses of workplace structure in terms of the ways class and class culture or gender are played out in the strip club (Frank, 2002; Trautner, 2005). Others have examined the strategies of resistance and adaptation used by workers to manage the structural elements of their work environment (Bruckert, 2002; Price, 2000; Spivey, 2005). For example, Bruckert (2002: 103), as part of a larger study of exotic labour, draws parallels between dancers and other working-class service workers in terms of resistance strategies employed to deal with "oppressive labour practices and processes while maximizing their income and autonomy."
The service industry literature also addresses the social structure of and adaptations to the tipping system, but within a wider variety of service industry jobs. In response to the inherent uncertainty and exploitive nature of this system of labour, researchers have found that service industry workers use the resources at their disposal to maximize earnings and their sense of control in the workplace. In particular, they engage in "emotional labour" (Hochschild, 1983) and promotional activities in an effort to: sell more food and drinks, increase earnings, have greater control over the reward structure (Butler and Snizek, 1976; Butler and Skipper, 1980; Paules, 1991; Sallaz, 2002) and enhance their sense of autonomy (Paules, 1991; Sallaz, 2002). According to Paules (1991), the focus of workers is their own interests, with the businesses' interests and house rules given secondary consideration--typically, when they fit with their own interests. Social networking also plays an important role, as it can facilitate earning opportunities and provides social support (Paules, 1991; Spradley and Mann, 1975).
As the literature illustrates when examining adaptations to the "financial vicissitudes of the tipping system," it is important to take into "account the broader organizational context" (Paules, 1991: 26) in which the work occurs. It is within this context that we see how class and gender relations (i.e., management/worker) are negotiated and played out. Rather than being passive participants, service workers are able to persevere through engaging in resistance strategies--individually and collectively--to deal with the structural inequality inherent in the industry (Paules, 1991). Such resistance strategies take an "everyday form," that is, they are "informal, often covert, and concerned largely with immediate, de facto gains" and therefore...
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