Citation

Wesley JK. Violence Against Women 2002; 8(10): 1182-1207.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/107780102320562682

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

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