Synopses & Reviews
View the
Table of Contents. Read the
Preface.
"The thrust of stripper scholarship is that both dancers and customers are more like your next-door neighbors. Some are your next-door neighbors."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Stripped is a revealing book about a revealing (and controversial) trade that focuses on a philosophical clash between oldand newschool feminism."
Courier-Journal
"Compelling. . . . This accessibly written, matter-of-fact book makes important contributions to what is known about the lives and experiences of the growing number of women who [dance' naked for money. . . . Throughout, the author listens attentively to the shifting, insightful, diverse voices of women with whom she has a palpably respectful connection. Barton uses the complex picture that emerges to engage longstanding debates over the meanings of commodified femininity and sexuality."
Choice
"Fascinating, insightful, and surprisingly balanced. This book will take you way beyond Hollywood's clichés and into the realities of stripping, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of the pleasures and the costs of being the object of male fantasies."
Susan Bordo, author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body
"A terrific read! Stripped is the best kind of feminist work: original, honest, and deeply engaging. Barton's remarkable insights into the work and private lives of exotic dancers move far beyond notions of strippers as exploited or empowered to uncover more hidden aspects of this world--its burdens of emotional labor, social stigma, exhaustion, and boredom as well as experiences of athleticism, ego-gratification, intimacy, and even spirituality."
Kathleen Blee, author of Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement
"With Stripped, Barton makes an important contribution to the ongoing conversation about the effects of stripping on the women who actually take their clothes off. The polarized nature of the debates sometimes makes it difficult to say anything complicated about sex workit is either said to be empowering for women or degrading to them. Yet, of course, things are never that simpleand Barton's arguments provide a significant alternative to such binary thinking."
Katherine Frank, author of G-Strings and Sympathy: Strip Club Regulars and Male Desire
"Barton presents [exotic dancers] as open-minded 'intelligent risk takers' who are 'comfortable exploring things other people are scared of.'"Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
What kind of woman dances naked for money? Bernadette Barton takes us inside countless strip bars and clubs, from upscale to back road as well as those that specialize in lapdancing, table dancing, topless only, or peep shows, to reveal the startling lives of exotic dancers.
Based on over five years of research and from visiting clubs around the country, particularly in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Kentucky, Stripped offers a rare portrait of not just how dancers get into the business but what it's like for those who choose to strip year after year. Through captivating interviews and first-hand observation, Barton recounts why these women began stripping, the initial excitement and financial rewards from the work, the dangers of the lifenamely, drugs and prostitutionand, inevitably, the difficulties in staying in the business over time, especially for their sexuality and self-esteem.
Stripped provides fresh insight into the complex work and personal experiences of exotic dancers, one that goes beyond the "sex wars" debate to offer an important new understanding of sex work.
Review
"Compelling. . . . This accessibly written, matter-of-fact book makes important contributions to what is known about the lives and experiences of the growing number of women who 'dance' naked for money. . . . Throughout, the author listens attentively to the shifting, insightful, diverse voices of women with whom she has a palpably respectful connection. Barton uses the complex picture that emerges to engage longstanding debates over the meanings of commodified femininity and sexuality." - Choice
Review
"Fascinating, insightful, and surprisingly balanced. This book will take you way beyond Hollywood's clichs and into the realities of stripping, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of the pleasures and the costs of being the object of male fantasies." - Susan Bordo, author of Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body
Review
"Stripped is a revealing book about a revealing (and controversial) trade that focuses on a philosophical clash between oldand newschool feminism." - Courier-Journal
Review
“Makes an impressive contribution to the sociology of work and its intersection with sex and gender studies at the theoretical and applied levels. It is an excellent examples of the rich data and critical methodological insights that can emerge in the course of engaged field research.”
“The thrust of stripper scholarship is that both dancers and customers are more like your next-door neighbors. Some are your next-door neighbors.”
“Stripped is a revealing book about a revealing (and controversial) trade that focuses on a philosophical clash between oldand new—school feminism.”
“Compelling. . . . This accessibly written, matter-of-fact book makes important contributions to what is known about the lives and experiences of the growing number of women who 'dance' naked for money. . . . Throughout, the author listens attentively to the shifting, insightful, diverse voices of women with whom she has a palpably respectful connection. Barton uses the complex picture that emerges to engage longstanding debates over the meanings of commodified femininity and sexuality.”
“Fascinating, insightful, and surprisingly balanced. This book will take you way beyond Hollywood's clichés and into the realities of stripping, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of the pleasures and the costs of being the object of male fantasies.”
Review
"Written clearly with very little jargon, this volume sensitively explores the lives of exotic dancers."-Noralee Frankel,Archives of Sexual Behavior
Synopsis
A study of the complex work and personal experiences of women in the exotic dancing industry
What kind of woman dances naked for money? Bernadette Barton takes us inside countless strip bars and clubs, from upscale to back road as well as those that specialize in lapdancing, table dancing, topless only, or peep shows, to reveal the startling lives of exotic dancers.
Based on over five years of research and from visiting clubs around the country, particularly in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Kentucky, Stripped offers a rare portrait of not just how dancers get into the business but what it's like for those who choose to strip year after year. Through captivating interviews and first-hand observation, Barton recounts why these women began stripping, the initial excitement and financial rewards from the work, the dangers of the life--namely, drugs and prostitution--and, inevitably, the difficulties in staying in the business over time, especially for their sexuality and self-esteem.
Stripped provides fresh insight into the complex work and personal experiences of exotic dancers, one that goes beyond the "sex wars" debate to offer an important new understanding of sex work.
Synopsis
What kind of woman dances naked for money? Bernadette Barton takes us inside countless strip bars and clubs, from upscale to back road as well as those that specialize in lapdancing, table dancing, topless only, or peep shows, to reveal the startling lives of exotic dancers.
Based on over five years of research and from visiting clubs around the country, particularly in San Francisco, Hawaii, and Kentucky, Stripped offers a rare portrait of not just how dancers get into the business but what it's like for those who choose to strip year after year. Through captivating interviews and first-hand observation, Barton recounts why these women began stripping, the initial excitement and financial rewards from the work, the dangers of the life—namely, drugs and prostitution—and, inevitably, the difficulties in staying in the business over time, especially for their sexuality and self-esteem.
Stripped provides fresh insight into the complex work and personal experiences of exotic dancers, one that goes beyond the “sex wars” debate to offer an important new understanding of sex work.
Synopsis
"I welcome this new edition of Oliver Cromwell Cox's brilliant work. Published amid Cold War repression and postwar racist violence, and kept in print by Monthly Review Press since, it is as fresh and urgent as ever. It stands not only as one of the most incisive materialist analyses of race and racism but as a true classic in the sociology of race."
--Robin D. G. Kelley,New York University
First published in 1948, this pioneering work investigates how racism began and why it remains a persistent problem in the United States, tracing racial inequality to the social and economic system that generates it.
Race, the unexpurgated final section of Caste, Class, and Race, makes a touchstone work accessible to a new generation. Two major contemporary black intellectuals, Adolph Reed and Cornel West, offer commentary on the study's lasting importance.
About the Author
Oliver Cromwell Cox (1901-1974), born in Trinidad, received an M.A. in economics and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago. He taught at Wiley College, the Tuskegee Institute, Lincoln University, and Wayne State University. Cornel West teaches at the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and is author of many books, including Race Matters (1993) and, with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The Future of the Race (1996). Adolph Reed teaches at New School University in New York City and is author of The Jesse Jackson Phenomenon (1986) and W. E. B. Du Bois and American Political Thought (1997).