Revealing contemporary constructions of femininity: Expression and sexuality in strip club legislation

Abstract

This case study of Las Vegas strip club business laws explores the construction of feminine sexuality in legal discourse. Grounding textual analysis in contemporary sexuality theories, the article explores expression-based regulations that construct erotic dance as detrimental to social welfare and health, and other laws that normalize erotic dance labor as the sale of desire. I argue that expression-based ordinances stigmatize public displays of women’s (semi-) nude bodies and construct workers’ sexuality as potentially dangerous and uncontrollable. Alternatively, laws that classify erotic dance as labor construct femininity as fluid and work appropriate, regulating the work(er), not the erotic dancer as a person.