Growing up sexualized - Issues of power and violence in the lives of female exotic dancers

    Authors

    J. K. Wesely

    Comments

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    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Violence Against Women

    Keywords

    CAREER; Women's Studies

    Abstract

    In a modern patriarchal society, women often receive the message that their appearance and sexuality dictate their value as human beings. Some populations, like exotic dancers, capitalize on this construction by receiving monetary rewards for the visual and physical consumption of their sexual bodies. Through interviews with female exotic dancers, the author investigates the ways that these women were sexualized at a young age, often through abuse. The author probes how they negotiated both their child and adult sexual selves and how this intersected with feelings of power and powerlessness and their eventual choices to become dancers. This study demonstrates the complexity of the lives of these women as they try to reclaim power by selling their sexualized bodies for money while still enduring abuse within this context.

    Journal Title

    Violence against Women

    Volume

    8

    Issue/Number

    10

    Publication Date

    1-1-2002

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    1182

    Last Page

    1207

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000178111000003

    ISSN

    1077-8012

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