If You Want It, You Can Get It Right Here

Abstract

There is a burgeoning body of sociological literature that focuses on strip clubs and the club actors therein; most notably, strippers. Most of this scholarly work has emphasized interactions between strippers and customers, the deployment of stigma management strategies in order to neutralize deviantizing interactions and identities, gender performances and hierarchies, power, inequality and social control, and socialization processes associated with becoming dancers. While scholars have paid some attention to drugs and alcohol in the locale, they have paid little attention to how drug and alcohol use relates to the spatial organization and material culture of the strip club, the relationship between stigma and where club actors use illicit drugs, and how using certain drugs contributes to discreditable identities of already stigmatized workers. By centralizing accounts of setting actors through interviewing to supplement my complete participant fieldworker role, I build ideas about context-specific drug and alcohol use, power, and the ecology of drugs.

Symbols, meaning, and action: The past, present, and future of symbolic interactionism

“…In other research that applies Goffman’s approach, Lavin (2014) combined autoethnography and interviews to explore the relationship between spatial organization and drug use in strip clubs. The author spent several years performing in a topless bar, which was selected for its ‘mixed use’ of performance and sex acts.…”

Examining the Association Between Massage Parlors and Neighborhood Crime

“…We did find that the presence of all massage parlors is associated with higher drug crime rates in focal neighborhoods—though this relationship is small and on the cusp of significance ( p < .1). We anticipated the relationship between drug offenses and illicit massage parlors to be stronger, given noted associations between human trafficking, sex work, and drug offending (Hughes et al, 2007; Lavin, 2014; Shelley, 2012). The limited direct effects of illicit massage parlors on crime rates in focal neighborhoods could be due to the owners and operators of these establishments using protective measures to avoid detection—similar implications have been drawn in studies of adult clubs, which are increasingly becoming legitimized through protecting customer safety (Linz et al, 2004).…”

“…Those with lower financial resources are more likely to utilize street prostitution than masseuses (Adriaenssens & Hendrickx, 2012; Jeal & Salisbury, 2007). Adult clubs often provide alcohol to customers, which can create additional issues in these establishments (Jarrett, Kellison, Busch-Armendariz, & Kim, 2013; Lavin, 2014). Theaters and adult video stores have been associated with patrons who are poor, homosexual, or sexually deviant (Douglas & Tewksbury, 2007; Tewksbury, 2008).…”

“…These findings reveal that massage parlor clients can be violent, and could potentially commit violent acts in areas surrounding massage parlors as well. Although massage parlor employees tend to be victims as opposed to offenders for violent and financial offenses, these employees can fall into the role of offenders when it comes to drug crimes, as research has found a high correlation between sex workers and drug abuse (Hughes, Chon, & Ellerman, 2007; Lavin, 2014).…”

On Spiritualist Workers: Healing and Divining through Tarot and the Metaphysical

“…The psychic fairs feature tarotists, mediums and other psychics, vendors, lecturers, activities, and sometimes theme-appropriate entertainment, like dancing witch troupes. Workers must pay a "house fee" to work, like in other forms of marginal labor (e.g., Lavin 2013Lavin , 2014Lavin , 2017. The fee to have a booth in psychic fairs ranges from $75.00 to $225.00 or more.…”