Abstract
M.Phil.
While the highly successful business of the strip-club industry and exotic dancing
that is yielding millions from customers, has received increased attention in the
media and amongst social scientists abroad, local scholars have, as far as could
be ascertained, paid little attention to it. It is also clear from the work that has
been undertaken abroad that little, if any, was done from a human-resources or
industrial-psychology perspective.
People, and their inner experiences, are extremely important to me. This,
together with the preceding, has led me to undertake a life-history study of the life
of one local stripper, Casey. Believing that every person has the right and
obligation to choose how to live his or her life to the best of his or her ability, the
aim of this study was not to criticise her career, which many would certainly
regard as “deviant”, but to explore and describe her experiences and
perspectives of it, and to obtain an understanding of how she experienced her
stripping, and thereby make a contribution to our knowledge of it.
A modernistic qualitative methodology, based on symbolic interactionism as
theoretical framework, was employed. More particularly, a case-study and lifestory
method was used. Rich data was obtained which was systematically
analysed by utilising various qualitative methods, relevant theoretical constructs
and empirical findings. This in turn, led to the construction of a preliminary tool,
namely a typology, attempting to illuminate erotic dancing by looking at factors
influencing dancers’ behaviour and experiences. I would like to believe that in a
modest way this theoretical concept will provide a building block towards
constructing a human-resources study of exotic-dancing careers locally.