How Do Strippers At Vixens Get Their Work Empowerment?

Question two, Dewey states that she “began her research with the central question of whether an industry so clearly characterized by exploitative labor practices and stigmatization could in face be empowering for women.” In what ways do strippers at Vixens find their work empowering? In what ways are they victims of structural forces like poverty and de-industrialization? What is your opinion –are they empowered agents or victims? Throughout the book Dewey describes Vixens strippers as empowering and victims of structural forces like poverty. She talks about how the women feel powerful using their body to seduce men to give them money, how the women at Vixens talks about respect and how they maintain this self-respect. Dewey also describes

them as victims of poverty how they believe that if they work in the sex industry for a couple of months or a few years they will be able to find themselves a better life later on. My opinion on this is that the women at Vixens are indeed victims of structural forces because they didn’t choose this lifestyle, but they were born in a poor family which led them to have bad educations and make bad life choices along the way as they grew older.
Women at Vixens find their work empowering, but and are also victims of structural forces. Women at Vixens find their work empowering when they are able to get inside a man’s head and play with him in order to make them give her money “I don’t let anyone inside me, that’s for me alone. Sometimes I let a guy think that he’s really got me, but it’s an act. Women are such actresses, because we have to be” (Dewey 123). This quote talks about how women feel empowered in this field of work because they are able to toy with the man’s emotional feelings and make them think the dancer has a thing for them. The men who fall for this act end up paying more money to the dancers which allows them to make more money than usual that day. Their acting performance of fake emotional affection they display for the male clients is to “characterize dancers’ emotional lives as clearly bifurcated between “genuine” intimacy given to loved ones and “fake“ affection show to clients” (Dewey 123). Women at Vixens feel empowered when they are able to fake affection towards clients and hide their real selves in order to protect themselves from being hurt emotionally. Women at Vixens find their work empowering because they are able to earn more money off men for showing them an act which was fake, allowing them to feel like they have a talent in their occupation.
Women who work at Vixens are also Victims of structural forces such as poverty.

These women were born into poor households and didn’t finish their high school education which forces them into low paying jobs. The jobs that offer “Low-wage work comes at a heavy price, including the ever-present awareness that, as Star puts it, “there’s no moving up” for the vast majority of employees. This is particularly problematic for women struggling to support children alone and at or near the poverty level” (Dewey 52). These blue-collar jobs that these women at Vixens are jobs that they are able to get however these jobs pay very little money. The reasoning for many women to work at establishments like Vixens is because they want higher pay in order to support their family. Even though they don’t want to work as a sex worker they have no other choice. Women at Vixens have almost no decision when choosing what type of work they want because they are in poverty. Its either they choose to work in a blue-collar job making almost no money and unable to raise their own kid up or they could work at Strip clubs which have a much higher income and more flexible hours allowing them to take care of their children while at work. Poverty is a huge factor that women at Vixens choose this occupation over the low pay work because if they weren’t in poverty, they would have better education and would have made better life choices since there would be more options for them instead of stripping or working in a low wage

job.
My opinion is that women at Vixens are empowering themselves, but because they are also victims of structural such as poverty, they are more of a victim of structural force than empowering. I believe that women at Vixens indeed have empowering moments at Vixens, but they wouldn’t even be working at such establishments if they weren’t in poverty. Since many women who work at Vixens are in poverty, they are given very little choices on their occupation since its either they make enough money to support their family or work a regular low paying job that will never have any future benefits no matter how long they work there because of their lack of education.