Presenting the Naked Self: The Accumulation of Performative Capital in the Female Strip Trade

Abstract

This paper explores the female strip trade in Canada and the United States from a dramaturgical approach by looking at how female strippers construct, present and manage their gender, bodies and emotions in their everyday work. The basic theoretical framework of the study is built on Erving Goffman's dramaturgical approach to sociology, including three specific theories that can be related to it: Judith Butler's performative theory of gender, Pierre Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction, and Arlie Hochschild's theory of emotion work.