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"Through heartfelt ethnographic storytelling, Dewey provides a nuanced treatment of exotic dancers. This is a wonderful book."—Patty Kelly, author of Lydia's Open Door: Inside Mexico's Most Modern Brothel
"Neon Wasteland is a riveting and compelling book. Dewey's reflections and analyses are richly descriptive and insightful. She poignantly relates the stories of these women but also never lets the reader forget the stark social inequalities that are part of these women's daily lives."—Jennifer K. Wesely, PhD, co-author of Hard Lives, Mean Streets: Violence in the Lives of Homeless Women
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Feminized Labor and the Classed Body
3. Everyday Survival Strategies
4. Being a Good Mother in a "Bad" Profession
5. Pseudointimacy and Romantic Love
6. Calculating Risks, Surviving Danger
7. Body Work and the Feminization of Poverty
8. Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Index
About the author
Susan Dewey is Assistant Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and adjunct in International Studies at the University of Wyoming. She is the author of Making Miss India Miss World: Constructing Gender, Power, and the Nation in Postliberalization India and Hollow Bodies: Institutional Responses to Sex Trafficking in Armenia, Bosnia, and India.
Summary
Examines the lives of five topless dancers in the economically devastated 'rust belt' of upstate New York. With insight and empathy, this title shows how these women negotiate their lives as parents, employees, and family members while working in a profession widely regarded as incompatible with motherhood and fidelity.
Additional text
“Fresh. . . . As keen as it is thorough. . . . Neon Wasteland is a provocative, highly readable analysis.”
