

An edition of Neon wasteland (2010)
on love, motherhood, and sex work in a rust belt town
By Susan Dewey
Publish Date
2010
Publisher
University of California Press
Language
eng
Pages
288
Description:
This path-breaking book examines the lives of five topless dancers in the economically devastated "rust belt" of upstate New York. With insight and empathy, Susan Dewey shows how these women negotiate their lives as parents, employees, and family members while working in a profession widely regarded as incompatible with motherhood and fidelity. Neither disparaging nor romanticizing her subjects, Dewey investigates the complicated dynamic of performance, resilience, economic need, and emotional vulnerability that comprises the life of a stripper. An accessibly written text that uses academic theories and methods to make sense of feminized labor, Neon Wasteland shows that sex work is part of the learned process by which some women come to believe that their self-esteem, material worth, and possibilities for life improvement are invested in their bodies.
subjects: Women dancers, Self-perception in women, Femininity, Case Studies, Economic conditions, Sex oriented businesses, Case studies.., Social conditions, Family relationships, Women, Sex-oriented business, Women, united states, social conditions, Northeastern states, United states, economic conditions, Dancers, Sex-oriented businesses, Social aspects
Places: Northeastern States