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November 28, 2023 Closed today

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Jan 1

Weisman Art Museum

The issues faced by strip club entertainers—job insecurity, harassment, and wage theft—are regularly the subject of journalism, yet entertainers’ own experiences are rarely included in discussions. During her residency in the Target Studio last year, Monica Sheets has established The Feminist Strip Club: a creative collective of past and present entertainers who examine the attitudes toward erotic dance, ambivalence of women’s work, and transactional exchanges in emotional labor and intimacy. The work led to the first issue of the The GRIND magazine which showcases the entertainers’ experiences and visions for the future of stripping. This spring, The Target Studio will be used as a workspace for the collective to develop the second issue of The GRIND in collaboration with Labor Education Services of the Carlson School of Management.

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The Feminist Strip Club is supported by A Blade of Grass fellowship program, with additional support provided by Stardust and the Puffin Foundation Ltd.

The Feminist Strip Club

The photograph is of two individual's feet. The figure on the left is wearing metallic high heels and has a number of tattoos. The person at right is wearing athletic sneakers and jeans. They are in chairs next to each other and appear to be talking.

  The labor issues faced by strip club entertainers—job insecurity, harassment, discrimination, and wage theft—are now being regularly covered in mainstream press, yet the entertainers’ own suggestions for addressing these issues are notably elided. During her residency at the Target Studio last year, Monica Sheets established The Feminist Strip Club: a collective of current and former entertainers who examine attitudes toward erotic dance and its intersection with larger ambivalences toward “women’s work” and transactional exchange in emotional and intimate labor. This…

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Nova on “The Feminist Strip Club” (Post #3)

A photo from the perspective of a dancer with bare legs and large platform heels, hanging upside-down by their legs from a pole.

  I have personally always been interested in sex work. It is and has always been work. I think sex workers and erotic dancers specifically are very underappreciated. There are a lot of misconceptions about dancing that I would love to clarify for the public. One is the stereotypes about the kind of women who dance—we are not all addicts with drug problems and daddy issues. We are mothers and daughters. We have families and goals and ambitions and should…

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Monica Sheets on “The Feminist Strip Club” (Post #1)

In 1991, I didn’t anticipate the reactions of my art school peers when I told them I had been working as an “exotic dancer” for the past year and a half. Of course I knew that it was a somewhat transgressive job and might bring me some notoriety, but I hadn’t expected to be pitied, seen as exploited, or accused of false consciousness. And their image of what dancers were like didn’t match the women with whom I had worked.…

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