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Submitting author contact info: Regina Deil-Amen, University of Arizona, 520621-8468, 1430 E. Second Street, P.O. Box 210069, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
reginad1@email.arizona.edu
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Faculty and student affairs professionals interact frequently with undergraduates, yet often know little about their private lives or work lives.
Some identities beyond that of a student may be easily seen or understood,
such as a students gender, race, or physical ability. Prior student development research has examined how these more obvious student identities
affect their college experiences (Davis et al., 2004; Kuh, 1993; Terenzini,
Pascarella, & Blimling, 1996), but the relevance of less obvious and more
hidden, or latent identities has yet to be explored. Since out-of-class experiences have been shown to impact students cognitive development
(Terenzini et al., 1996), it is important to understand the implications of
working in the sex industry for college students, particularly the ways in
which students cope with the disparity between their identities as students
and as sex workers.
Although the image of a student working in a strip club to pay for her
college tuition is prevalent in popular culture in movies such as Flash
Dance or Players Club and books such as The Ivy League Stripper, this
population is markedly absent in higher education literature. It is unknown
whether this pattern of behavior is becoming more prevalent, but some
recent work by Roberts et al. (2007) suggests that the combination of
rising tuition, increasing debt burdens, and the low-wage work available to
college students may be making female involvement in the sex industry
a more attractive option to contain debt and avoid poverty or long work
hours. In a rare study, Lantz (2005) found that female students in Australia
who worked as prostitutes and strippers entered the sex industry to pay for
their education in the face of decreasing state and federal aid programs. As
budgets continue to shrink while the costs of higher education rise, more
students, particularly women, may turn to the sex industry.
Due to the taboo, the existing higher education literature neglects this
relatively invisible population perhaps. Despite the lack of research on this
specic population, research on the sex industry as a whole, combined with
socialpsychological frameworks, can help faculty and staff better understand the issues facing college students working in this industry.
Literature Review
Research on the sex industry emphasizes the exchange value involved
in the buying and selling of emotional labor (Hochschild, 1983). According to this theory, women exchange a fantasy version of themselves and
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the attention they give men for money, and that attention and the
feigned emotional intimacy sex workers provide are more important than
the sex or eroticism they are selling (Wood, 2000). Several researchers
have compared sex work to other jobs in the emotional labor market.
Vanwesenbeeck (2005) compared levels of burnout for women in the sex
industry to nurses, whose jobs require signicant emotional labor. Sex
workers only scored higher than nurses on one of the three levels of
burnout, and this was found to be mitigated by the level of social
support sex workers had. Similar research compares sex workers to psychiatrists and supports the idea that the consequences of working in the
sex industry are similar to those of working in other areas of emotional
labor (Parkinson, 2003).
Research on other stigmatized populations on college campuses nds
that there are dramatic consequences in trying to hide the stigma (Cass,
1979). Research on homosexual college students also stresses the impact
that living with stigma has on students and the challenges of disclosing
this part of themselves to their families and peers (Rhoads, 1997). Lantz
(2005) explores how students fear disclosure of their sex work to classmates and professors because of the associated stigma. Rosenbloom and
Fetner (2001) examined this issue of classroom disclosure among students
working in strip clubs, and found that when students feared being stigmatized by their peers or instructors, they limited the amount of information they shared.
Frameworks utilizing the concept of cognitive dissonance support the
notion that women who work in the sex industry while attending institutions of higher education could experience conicting feelings about
themselves and their actions. Based on multiple experiments, Festinger
(1962) proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance, which states that individuals hold a number of thoughts or cognitions about various topics. If
these cognitions are aligned and can easily be held about the same topic at
the same time, they are referred to as consonant. Conversely, if two cognitions contradict each other, the individual experiences cognitive dissonance (Cooper, 2007; Harmon-Jones & Mills, 1999). An example of a
person experiencing cognitive dissonance is someone who believes that
smoking causes lung cancer and views themselves as a healthy person, yet
continues to smoke. Since their behavior and beliefs are contradictory to
each other, dissonance is produced. Dissonance is inherently psychologically uncomfortable; the greater the dissonance, the greater the pressure
to reduce it. Given the social stigma associated with working in the sex
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Findings
The eight students who participated in the study included ve
women who were solely exotic dancers and three more women who had
more varied work experiences both within the sex industry and outside of
it. Daisy who wanted to become an art therapist, Giovanna who was pursuing her nursing degree (each 23 years old), Rose who was majoring in
history and planned to become a teacher or a writer (24 years old), Jamie
who was interested in teaching in an elementary school (29 years old),
and Jennifer who was studying forensic sciences (32 years old) all worked
as exotic dancers in strip clubs. Natalia, a 26-year-old dancer at a strip
club who has also worked at a peep show in an adult bookstore and regularly performs with a burlesque troupe, was an undecided major at the
time of the interview. Megan, aged 26, began working as a nude model
and then started working for a pornographic website to support herself
while she nished her bachelors degree in anthropology. Megan ran her
own pornographic website for a year and a half and also participated in
two pornographic movies. She had recently stopped working in pornography and was working at the university during the time of the interview. Finally, 29-year-old Rachel, also an exotic dancer, has tried to leave
the sex industry multiple times. At the time of the interview, she was
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exible. Theres a schedule, but they never enforce it. Its not a big deal
if your kids sick or you dont feel like working. Similarly, Natalia feels
that working in the sex industry helps her as a student and a parent.
Very exible hours for me. If I was having a bad night, I could leave.
Or if I had a lot of studying to do, I didnt have to go in . . . that
was incredibly helpful. It helped pay for my daughters daycare while
I was in school . . . Yeah, so mostly the money was really good.
In these ways, the women all feel that sex work is an ideal job for managing the costs and time demands of being a student.
Consequences of Working in the Sex Industry
Beyond the exibility and money, there are a number of negative
consequences to working in the sex industry while in college. Both while
lming for an adult video and while participating in a photo shoot for a
bondage website, Meagan experienced degrading and violent treatment as
illustrated by her description of the photo shoot.
My arms were numb and I was gagged, and I was like that forever,
and I couldnt say anything so I just breathed and held it . . . This
was violent and violating. It didnt feel sexually violating. It felt sexist
and women-hating.
However, these horric experiences were not shared by the other women.
In addressing the costs and negative consequences of working in the sex
industry, the overwhelming response is that the stereotypes that others
held about them and the draining and degrading nature of the work are
the greatest consequences (see Table 2). It is these consequences that
seem to strongly affect all of the women. Rose states, Its easy to get
burnt out. Its very emotionally taxing, especially because of the stereotypes; those people can be very degrading and make me lose faith in
humanity. Similarly, when discussing how working in the sex industry
affects them as students, the primary response was that the stigma they
face and the draining or degrading nature of their work affect them the
most. Most of the women do not feel that sex industry work directly
affects their education in negative ways. Instead they feel it affects them
personally, which hinders their ability to focus on their education or
perform well academically. The one exception was Rose, who discusses
how working in the sex industry affects what time of day she can take
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classes, Its hard to take morning classes if you work the closing shift.
Some girls work in the days, but I never made good money then. My
classes have to be after 10 am. Aside from the impact on scheduling
classes, all of the women agree that the stigma associated with working in
the sex industry has the greatest impact emotionally and academically.
In discussing the stigma they face, all of the women name the same
stereotypes that upset them, but they also express that they feel the stereotypes were true for other dancers, but not for them. Daisy, in discussing
how people treat her differently when they nd out that she is a stripper,
states, Ya know Im intelligent, and articulate, Im not stupid like the
other girls. Similarly, Jamie is upset because people think that were
sluts and do drugs. Some of the girls here will do anything for money.
They dont have morals. Giovanna also lists stereotypes that upset her,
and adds that not everyone is like that, implying that some of the
dancers are like that. Natalia mentions that There are a lot of girls who
do the extras but, and a lot of girls who have to do it, but not everyone,
and its gross. Jennifer also adds that Some girls are nasty and dont
know where to draw the line. Some of the other clubs are really nasty.
Megan states, in regard to her experiences with a manager in pornography, I mean there are women who fall for this and its really sad for
me. He expected me to be as submissive or stupid as the rest of the people.
These responses [author emphasis added] illustrate that the stigma they
face affects all of the women, but they also buy into the stereotypes about
the other women with whom they work. The women clearly draw on
their status as college students who are intelligent and not stupid as
one of their distinguishing characteristics.
Cognitive Dissonance: Conict between Perception of Self
and Behavior
The disparity between how the participants view themselves as
respectable women and how they view other women who work in the sex
industry shows that they experience cognitive dissonance between their
perception of themselves and their perception of the sex industry. All of
the women aspire to complete their education and have other professions
in areas such as nursing, teaching, and counseling. The act of selling
their sexuality causes a great deal of stress, especially in contrast to their
identities as students.
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Some research has shown that the stress produced by cognitive dissonance is even stronger when the source of dissonance affects the persons
sense of self or their sense of morality (Steele, Spencer, & Lynch, 1993).
Other research has illustrated the impact of stigma on educational outcomes and on persistence in college. Osborne and Walker (2006) found
that students who face signicant stereotyping in the college environment
are more likely to drop out than their peers. Daisys feelings about herself
and how she acts at work illustrate the stigma that she faces, the dissonance that the women experience, and the consequences of it.
I never liked people looking at me. Outside here Im bland and
plain; I dont draw attention to myself. If I go to a [night] club its
really hard for me to dance and I have to like work myself up to it.
How do you dance here?
I have to block it out. I have nervous breakdowns every couple
months (laughs).
Why?
Everyone stereotypes you. You get insulted on your looks, my teeth,
being white, insulted on every level. Youre getting groped, touched,
they blow in your ear, treat you like an object, ya know . . . Ive
changed a lot or whatever since Ive been dancing. I used to do a lot
of volunteer work, be more active and stuff . . . I dont look at things
differently; its just that, it goes along with the breakdowns. I feel like
Im a horrible person because of what I do. Its a very degrading job;
its all about your looks; it makes you feel horrible, you know, doing
it just to get by. You should be doing something closer to your heart.
Daisys idea of what she should be doing and what is close to her heart is
working in art therapy. She sees herself as a caretaker and a compassionate person. In order to embody this sexualized fantasy woman, she has
to disassociate herself from what she does at work. Megan also feels that
the work she is doing is not as rewarding as other work that would be
closer to her long-term career goals. She alludes to the idea that any occupation involves the selling of your labor in exchange for money, but she
highlights the potentially less alienating nature of other options for such
an exchange, such as her current work tutoring university students:
The industry of porn, no matter where it is or what its posing
under, is a patriarchal institution, and if Im gonna whore myself
I wanna do it [working with] students at [the university] who I can
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The only time I was actually really like, Wow Im such a slut, Im
such a whore. I have a degree, and, like, what am I doing with my
life? Im ruining myself . . . and I cried and was like What am I
doing and why cant I get a job in biology?!
She goes on to afrm her commitment to seeing sex work as a positive
experience for her:
If I could, like, by day, work in some DNA lab doing PCR
[Polymerase Chain Reaction] and, like, guring out the genome of
some tribe somewhere and go travel for that and then write and go
through academia and then, at night, and maybe on the weekends,
do some really sexy lesbian porn and make a lot of money. Hell yeah
Id do it.
After discussing the effort she makes to portray women as strong, unique,
and intelligent, she responds to the question of whether her clients have
ever commented on her being a powerful or intelligent women or the
sex-positive theme of the site with:
Never. Not once, nothing. And really that makes a lot of sense. Why
are they looking at these pictures? To jack off. They dont give a shit
about my politics . . . Everythings sexualized.
These statements reveal the dissonance between an idealized view of sex
work reecting an agenda of empowerment and the realities of the social
stigma and its impact on her feelings about herself and her work.
When cognitive dissonance is produced by a discrepancy between a
persons actions and what a person believes, or what is commonly seen as
socially acceptable, either their behaviors or their beliefs must change in
order for the dissonance to be resolved (Cooper, 2007; Festinger, 1962).
This may be especially true for students working in the sex industry
because they are trying to manage the dual roles of student and sex worker.
Sex workers who are not students may be able to change their beliefs about
themselves and their identity more closely aligns with the role of sex work.
Goffman (1963) points out that members of a stigmatized group can either
embrace that identity and try to ght the stigma and stereotypes associated
with it, or they can try to protect themselves from the stigma by hiding it.
As students, all of the women fear what would happen if anyone at the
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college knew about their work. As students and sex workers, the women do
not embrace the identity of sex worker, but instead nd ways to manage
the conicting roles and cope with the dissonance they produced. All of
the women express dissonance and employ a variety of coping strategies, to
varying degrees of effectiveness.
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If they buy a dance, theyre a paying customer, then its part of the
fantasy. They bought into the fantasy . . . I have a hard time being
real with them if they buy into the not real part of me.
This clear distinction between the real person and the fantasy that is portrayed at work carries over into personal relationships and especially into
the classroom. Although the women vary in their degree of disclosure to
friends and family, they all avoid disclosure within their college environment. For example, Rose is adamant about being open and honest with
her family and friends and feels that If there is anyone in my life who I
dont feel comfortable being open with, Id have to evaluate why they are
in my life, even my family. My parents are very moral. They are Christian,
but they are completely supportive. However, when asked about disclosure to classmates and professors her answer is markedly different.
I dont tell them anything. Some of the students . . . dont understand and they treat me differently because they dont understand.
[I] got a lot of unwanted attention, mostly from younger guys who
have never been to a strip club before. Its all about the fantasy for
them.
None of the women feel comfortable telling their classmates or their teachers. Consistent with previous research, they only disclose that they
work in the sex industry in more intimate settings, like summer school,
where they know their classmates better and only in classes in which
topics relating to their work are being addressed. Only one student has
seen a professor while she was working. Daisy describes her experiences
with seeing classmates or professors while working:
I try to avoid them, but I know they see me. I had a teacher that
came in a lot before I started school. The rst day of class I found
out he was a teacher . . . I stayed in class because I needed it. I think
it was awkward for him but not for me. He never called me by my
stage name in class or by my real name in the club but he would
always come up to me in class. Like hed ask a question and someone
would raise their hand but he would come up to me and ask me
what I thought and Id be like They have their hand up.
This also demonstrates the importance of keeping her fantasy self and her
real self separate. Because this teacher used the appropriate name for her
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Combination of Strategies
The students who employ a combination of strategiesjustication
plus separating their personal lives from work plus placing a high value
on monogamous relationshipsreport the least amount of negative side
effects from their work. Megan, Jennifer, and Rose all use this combination of strategies and reported fewer negative consequences of their
work, whereas the other students reported using alcohol or drugs to be
able to work in the sex industry, being emotionally drained by their
work, or having frequent breakdowns. When dissonance is not resolved
and coping strategies are not used, ones self-concept changes to t the
behavior (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 1999, p. 142). In this circumstance,
women working in the sex industry would likely start to embody the
stereotypes they are trying to avoid and will begin to disassociate from
aspects of their life that are contradictory to working in the sex industry.
This implies that, if students are unable to resolve or cope with the dissonance between their different roles, they may be more likely to drop out
of school and root their identity in sex work.
In addition to this risk, the burden of keeping their work lives a
secret to friends, professors, and classmates undoubtedly causes a great
deal of stress and prevents these students from nding social support and
connection at work and at school. This is particularly problematic
because research on emotional labor suggests that having strong social
networks mitigates the negative effects of working in an occupation that
demands high levels of emotional labor (Vanwesenbeeck, 2005). The isolation and lack of engagement in college among these women are issues
that postsecondary institutions should consider, as social and academic
integration and involvement in college are key mechanisms of persistence
at both residential universities and community colleges (Astin, 1984;
Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991,
2005).
Discussion
The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of
women who are both students and sex workers. All the participants stay
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they also share the disadvantages that other working students and
nontraditional-aged students face as well. For instance, Bozik (2007)
demonstrates that students employment can decrease their likelihood of
persisting in college, especially if they are working over 20 hr a week and
are nancially dependent on their income. Research suggests that students
in this age range, who delay their enrollment or stop attending college
and return later, are at a disadvantage in degree completion (Deluca &
Bozick, 2005).
Further research should directly examine how working in the sex
industry inuences academic outcomes and persistence, and relevant
support programs should be instituted that perhaps overlap with
support provided to working and nontraditional-aged students. The
combined effects of working to support themselves and their families
and being nontraditional-aged students put them at an increased risk of
dropping out of college (Bozik, 2007; DeLuca & Bozick, 2005). Facing
the added stigma of working in the sex industry poses an additional
threat that could prompt college departure despite relative academic
success (see Osborne & Walker, 2006, for a discussion of similar
pressures for students of color). It is also informative to consider
Megans desire to work in a DNA lab as a preferable alternative to her
work in pornography. Gray (1997) nds that only one in three college
graduates nd employment relevant to their major. This small sample
of student sex workers shares the same needs in this respect as a
majority of college students. Developing more opportunities for all students to become involved during college in employment that is related
to their intended career is an objective more institutions should identify
and pursue.
To help students who are sex workers achieve their goals of completing their education, the college cultural environment must be a supportive and nonjudgmental one. Since this population is not easily
identiable, and may not want to be identied, every student must know
that they will not be penalized for disclosing latent identities. As the
negative experiences of some students who have been outed for
working in sex industry have shown, disclosure is not necessarily safe and
a student may suffer serious consequences if she is found out (Chronicle
of Higher Education, 2001). If institutions of higher education continue
to stigmatize women working in the sex industry, they will perpetuate
these womens dependence on this line of work by decreasing their
chances of graduating and leaving the sex industry.
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References
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Appendix
TABLE 1. Consequences for students working in the sex industry.
Cause of cognitive
dissonance
Belief
Description
I am a good and moral person. I am a college student who will have a professional
career
Working in the sex industry; threat of being stereotyped
Behavior
Description
Working in the sex industry is a means to an end, and the end justies the means; or working
in the sex industry is entertainment and sex sells
Belief that they are not like the other women in the industry. Focus shame on the other
Keeping work persona separate from their true self and from their identity as a student
The use of substance abuse to decrease the experience of dissonance
Value placed on relationships to protect sense of self from the sexuality of the workplace
Leaving the sex industry
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