Spectacular careers : exotic dancing - a qualitative exploration

M.Phil.While the highly successful business of the strip-club industry and exotic dancing that is yielding millions from customers, has received increased attention in the media and amongst social scientists abroad, local scholars have, as far as could be ascertained, paid little attention to it. It is also clear from the work that has been undertaken abroad that little, if any, was done from a human-resources or industrial-psychology perspective. People, and their inner experiences, are extremely important to me. This, together with the preceding, has led me to undertake a life-history study of the life of one local stripper, Casey. Believing that every person has the right and obligation to choose how to live his or her life to the best of his or her ability, the aim of this study was not to criticise her career, which many would certainly regard as “deviant”, but to explore and describe her experiences and perspectives of it, and to obtain an understanding of how she experienced her stripping, and thereby make a contribution to our knowledge of it. A modernistic qualitative methodology, based on symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework, was employed. More particularly, a case-study and lifestory method was used. Rich data was obtained which was systematically analysed by utilising various qualitative methods, relevant theoretical constructs and empirical findings. This in turn, led to the construction of a preliminary tool, namely a typology, attempting to illuminate erotic dancing by looking at factors influencing dancers’ behaviour and experiences. I would like to believe that in a modest way this theoretical concept will provide a building block towards constructing a human-resources study of exotic-dancing careers locally