Queering heterosexualised 'stripping spaces': analysing the subjectification of women within, between and through physical and digital spaces of a wom

Queering heterosexualised 'stripping spaces': analysing the subjectification of women within, between and through physical and digital spaces of a woman stripping in the UK.

As Agustin notes, "with the academic, media and 'helping' gaze fixed almost exclusively on women who sell sex, the great majority of phenomena that make up the sex industry are ignored," (2005: 619). Notable studies have since been undertaken into physical erotic dance spaces (Pilcher, 2012) and digital sex work (Jones, 2016). I aim to further inform this by analysing how migration, racialisation, (dis)ability, sexuality and other issues affect women's (spatial and temporal) inclusion/exclusion within and between physical and digital stripping spaces.

I will explore how women within stereotypically heterosexualised (i.e. women as workers/men as target patrons) physical and digital stripping spaces interact with and negotiate identity inclusions/exclusions. I will use queer theory (Butler, 1990; de Lauretis, 1991; Puar, 2007; Mollow, 2012) to interrogate their subjectification (see Butler, 1997) between digital and physical stripping spaces; among the spaces; and between/among women workers and women patrons. I will investigate if heterosexualised sex work spaces involve queer performance(s) of identity, which is not considered in current literature (Read, 2013).

This research aims to better inform public understandings of how women's identity formation is (re)produced in these environments. The proposed project asks:
1. How could stereotypically heterosexualised physical and digital spaces of women stripping be analysed in queer terms?
2. How do inclusions/exclusions within these stripping spaces influence women's subjectification?
3. How are identity borders created and negotiated in, and expanded from, these spaces?
4. How does the relationship between stripping and identity differ within and/or between the physical and digital space?

I adopt an ethnographic approach to analyse spatially and temporally specific identity (re)production.

The first stage will involve 6 months of ethnographic observation of a physical stripping space, and ethnographic observation of an online sex work platform.

The second stage will involve photo elicitation by women workers (including non-stripping workers in the physical space) and women patrons in each space to find meaning in their surroundings in response to the research questions.
The observations and photo elicitation will help to formulate questions for the next stage of the research: in-depth semi-structured interviews with the participants who partook in the photo elicitation stage. Interviews will be conducted in person with those from the physical space, while interviews with those from the digital space will be conducted online. The questions will be indirect to minimise any compromised responses (Agustin, 2004).

I will use thematic analysis to infer from both the ethnographic observations and the transcribed interviews how issues such as (but not limited to) migration, racialisation, (dis)ability, and sexuality affect their (spatial and/or temporal) inclusion/exclusion and identity reification/rejection in these spaces. Throughout the research, I will question my moral reactions (Agustin, 2005) and situate my social position (Haraway, 1988), so that my specific standpoint is not enforced as objective (Harding, 1993).

Stripping involves erotic performances of bodies, thus queering heterosexualised stripping spaces informs the reinforcement or rejection of normative somatic and/or symbolic identities in society.