BITTEN AND SPANKED: THE MALE REVUE

This thesis focuses on the role of the male revue as a liminal setting. Adult play is an opportunity to examine those spaces and times where conventional, work-a-day behaviors are suspended and what is ‘normal ’ often becomes oddly different, at times even a parody of itself. The male revue is one such space and time. The male revue is a unique form of adult play in which conventional norms are simultaneously suspended and reinforced. The traditional view that male revues are liberating to women is challenged. This study suggests that the show is created to feel liberating while working to reinforce current gender norms. Turner’s theory of liminality is paired with Goffman’s theory of action and Simmel’s ideas about flirtation as social form to investigate the simultaneity of the customary and its opposite in adult play. Observations were made at six male revues, four of which were in the Triad region of North Carolina. The remaining observations were located in a well-known tourist destination in Nevada. The results indicate that the male revue is a liminal setting in which gender norms are rigidly upheld and abandoned to create the feeling of liberation among the women. There is no evidence to substantiate that this liberation is more than a feeling