Mismatched Identities: Experiencing White Womanhood and White Motherhood as an Exotic Dancer

In this paper I examine the work of exotic dancers in the Rocky Mountain West, focusing on their identities, identity conflict, identity threat, and overcompensation. In over twelve hours of recorded interviews, I asked ten exotic dancers working in Montana about their work, families, and communities as well as their perceptions of themselves and their work. I found that this marginalized group that resides in places that have rural characteristics, often face identity threat because their identities are known within their communities. The identity threat arises as a result of expectations and stereotypes of dancers, and in order to deal with this threat, the informants relied on overcompensation. The informants overcompensated in a myriad of ways that included costuming, exhibiting anger, creating a tough outer exterior, and drug and alcohol use