Attempts at a Feminist and Interdisciplinary Conversation About Strip Clubs

In this essay, we analyze two recent publications in Deviant Behavior on the consumption of exotic dance: “Behavioral and Interactional Patterns of Strip Club Patrons: Tipping Techniques and Club Attendance” by Zachary Brewster and “The Gentlemen in the Club: A Typology of Strip Club Patrons” by Erickson and Tewksbury. In so doing, we map their lack of engagement with feminist literature and their lack of attention to issues of positionality, along with the resultant epistemological consequences with regard to theoretical complexity and understanding power relations. We argue that a conversation between feminism and the deviance literature on the consumption of exotic dance that is both interdisciplinary and reflexive is necessary for a truly rigorous analysis of this cultural milieu.