"It's just like any other work, honey" : sex, risk, and control in service work

by 1977- Kruse, Emily Victoria

Using interviews with twenty-one current and former erotic laborers, this paper examines how workers control customers. Peepshow dancing, phone sex, club dancing, lingerie modeling, erotic massage, bachelor party stripping, escorting, and domination are presented within their organizational contexts. This evidence shows that erotic labor is not inherently alienating but rather depends on the organizational context. Workers whose organizations offer support, as well as workers whose occupations are structured around strong subcultural norms, tend to experience their work as empowering. Workers whose organizations offer little support or are anomic tend to construct their work as alienating. This paper also explores feminist theories on sexuality, concluding that, because they do not consider organizational contexts, they are inadequate tools for assessing the variation in workers’ experiences.