Empowering, degrading or a 'mutually exploitative' exchange For women?: Characterising the power relations of the strip club

This paper seeks to characterise the gendered and sexualised power relations of both female and male strip clubs, and to signal what this means for establishing positive definitions of female desire. It is argued that while it is not useful to present female strippers, or female patrons of male strip clubs as purely passive victims of male heterosexism within these venues, it is equally damaging to assume that these venues represent a whole-scale challenge to conventional oppressive gender and sexual relations for women. Some research has even suggested that both strippers and their patrons are engaged in a 'mutually exploitative' power relationship. Moreover, further empirical research documents key points where female dancers have perhaps wielded 'more' power over patrons at certain moments, and female dancers have highlighted feelings of empowerment and highlighted potential for gender and sexual relations which position women as passive to be subverted within stripping. However, such feelings are often temporally specific and are not applicable to all women in the strip industry. It may be particularly hard for these to manifest in women concentrated in the least economically-rewarding areas of the industry who have less 'power' to resist compromising their bodily boundaries. Furthermore, it is argued that women watching male strippers does little to reverse the 'male gaze', and nor does this male occupation carry as much negative social stigma with it as female stripping suffers. It is thus argued that the overwhelming picture, stemming largely from accounts of former dancers and from empirical studies of individual clubs, suggests these venues in fact do very little to challenge normative hetero-oppressive sexual scripts.

L’écosystème des crimes de bars de danse érotique québécois

Il existe des associations entre les bars de danse érotique et les activités illicites, dans les écrits journalistiques et scientifiques. Nous avons vérifié ces associations en menant une description des crimes et déviances associés aux bars de danse érotique. Puis, nous avons tenté d’expliquer l’organisation et la structure de ces crimes, en nous appuyant sur l’approche du crime organisant et la théorie de l’écosystème du crime, de Felson (2006). Des entretiens semi-dirigés ont été conduits avec dix femmes danseuses, une femme shooter girl, un propriétaire, un portier et deux clients. Une analyse thématique à deux niveaux a montré que les délits se rapportent aux stupéfiants, à la prostitution, au proxénétisme, aux déviances, et à divers actes de violence. Des distinctions importantes, quant au contrôle selon les établissements sont notées. La structure et l’organisation des crimes peuvent s’expliquer par une logique propre aux relations symbiotiques et interdépendantes, tel que le suggère la théorie de l’écosystème du crime de Felson. Ainsi, la structure des délits peut prendre une forme mutualiste ou parasitaire. L’interrelation propre au neutralisme explique l’organisation générale de ces délits. Le milieu criminogène de la danse érotique offre de multiples opportunités, qui seront saisies par les acteurs motivés, en vue de réaliser un bénéfice personnel. Deux constats étonnants : les données suggèrent que l’implication des organisations criminelles est relativement limitée; et les conséquences occasionnées par les activités du milieu présentent un caractère inquiétant, particulièrement pour les femmes. Des efforts en matière de prévention situationnelle seraient appropriés pour réduire les opportunités.

The Museum of Atheism.

It is Christmas Eve in a mountainous, isolated prison community, the day of the baby beauty pageant. Ava is the star attraction. She's six years old. Ava's older brother Jonny hears strange noises in the attic and sees his father go out late at night with a gun with their lodger, prison warden Leo. Daniel, a man who repairs sex dolls for a living, has just moved into the area and he is Ava's biggest fan. There are rabid, wild foxes roaming the area, terrorising the community. The action culminates in a bizarre fetish party at the local strip club, a fox cull and the death of Ava. Finally, the secrets of her life are revealed.

A 'sexy space' for women? Heterosexual women's experiences of a male strip show venue

The rise of male strip shows marketed towards heterosexual women has called into question the idea that only men can 'gaze' or be 'sexual scrutinizers' in public leisure spaces. This paper details the findings of an ethnographic study of a male strip event 'Cheeky's',1 located in the Midlands, England. Utilising observation, informal interviews and photography, the paper describes the physical environment and the atmosphere of the event, and analyses interview data with female customers. The paper questions what spaces such as Cheeky's mean for female sexualities, sexual roles and desires. The findings are twofold. On the one hand the club was a relatively novel sexual space, as some women spectators experienced it as an 'empowering' space in which they could be 'sexually aggressive'; on the other hand, the character of the club was actively and adeptly manufactured by the Master of Ceremonies (MC), and male dancers, so as to encourage - and even to coercively elicit - extrovert behaviour from women customers. Despite shifting normative gendered expectations of women's sexual behaviour to some extent, ultimately the club structured women's sexual experiences around traditional heterosexist lines. The club did not encourage women's autonomous sexual expression, and many women claimed they had not found it a very 'sexy space'. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Some surface profiles of a strip after plane-strain indentation by rigid bodies with serrated surfaces

This paper is concerned with the surface profiles of a strip after rigid bodies with serrated (saw-teeth) surfaces indent the strip and are subsequently removed. Plane-strain conditions are assumed. This has application in roughness transfer of final metal forming process. The effects of the semi-angle of the teeth, the depth of indentation and the friction on the contact surface on the profile are considered.

Prags Boulevard in Copenhagen : from run-down strip to boulevard

Prags Boulevard will form a 2km long pedestrian spine running east-west between the historic cities of Copenhagen and Amager. It is located on a some-what run down site, which accommodated illicit functions such as casual drug use and drinking, as well as sheds for squatters. The renovation of this site by the city of Copenhagen forms part of the Holmbladsgade renovation project, and a two-phase competition was held in 2001 to develop a green area and meeting place, transforming it into a place that residents would want to visit rather than avoid. The designer, local landscape architect Kristine Jensens recognises that though the site is linear it ‘has no traffic importance’, though as she notes ‘we like the project because it runs straight east west from the city pulse to the water of Oresund’. In developing the project, she has attempted to allow it to ‘run parallel’ to its existing illicit uses, using a ‘light touch’ of insertions. While it would be hard to describe the project as truly light in its touch (graphically, it is a very bold scheme), there is no doubt that it is parallel: in terms of use it runs alongside rather than against existing uses; in terms of its type it’s all about length, like a boulevard, although it clearly differs from a boulevard in other respects.

Microstrip to parallel strip balun as spiral antenna feed

This paper presents the design and implementation of a microstrip to parallel strip balun which are frequently used as balanced antennas feed. This wideband balun transition is composed of a parallel strip which is connected to the spiral antenna and a microstrip line where the width of the ground plane is gradually reduced to eventually resemble the parallel strip. The taper accomplishes the mode and impedance transformation. This balun has significantly improved bandwidth characteristics. The entire circuit was fabricated on RT Duriod 5880 substrate. The circuit designs were simulated and optimised using CST Microwave Studio and the simulated results are compared with the measured results. The back-to-back microstrip to parallel strip has a return loss of better than 10 dB over a wide bandwidth from 1.75 to 15 GHz. The performance of the proposed balun was validated with the spiral antenna. The measured results were compared with the simulated results and it shows that the antenna operates well in wideband frequency range from 2.5 to 15 GHz.

Opinions, attitudes and driving experiences of car and racing "enthusiasts" : results of the Ontario Car and Racing Club Survey

In recent years, car club and racing websites and forums have become an increasingly popular way for car enthusiasts to access racing and car club news, chat-rooms and message boards. However, no North American research has been found that has examined opinions and driving experiences of car and racing enthusiasts. The purpose of this study was to examine car club members’ opinions about and experiences with various aspects of driving, road safety and traffic legislation, with a particular focus on street racing. A web-based questionnaire (Survey Monkey) was developed using the expert panel method and was primarily based on validated instruments or questions that were developed from other surveys. The questionnaire included: 1) driver concerns regarding traffic safety issues and legislation; 2) attitudes regarding various driving activities; 3) leisure-time activities, including club activities; 4) driving experiences, including offences and collisions; and 5) socio-demographic questions. The survey was pre- tested and piloted. Electronic information letters were sent out to an identified list of car clubs and forums situated in southern Ontario. Car club participants were invited to fill out the questionnaire. This survey found that members of car clubs share similar concerns regarding various road safety issues with samples of Canadian drivers, although a smaller percentage of car club members are concerned about speeding-related driving. Car club members had varied opinions regarding Ontario’s Street Racers, Stunt and Aggressive Drivers Legislation. The respondents agreed the most with the new offences regarding not sitting in the driver’s seat, having a person in the trunk, or driving as close as possible to another vehicle, pedestrian or object on or near the highway without a reason. The majority disagreed with police powers of impoundment and on-the-spot licence suspensions. About three quarters of respondents reported no collisions or police stops for traffic offences in the past five years. Of those who had been stopped, the most common offence was reported as speeding. This study is the first in Canada to examine car club members’ opinions about and experiences with various aspects of driving, road safety and traffic legislation. Given the ubiquity of car clubs and fora in Canada, insights on members’ opinions and practices provide important information to road safety researchers.

The Corio Oval tribe: Geelong Football Club in colonial times

Geelong, Victoria’s second city, has an AFL football club whose culture and identity is closely tied to the city itself. An analysis of its playing group for the colonial period demonstrates that this local tribalism began early. As football became professionalised towards the end of the nineteenth century, country Victoria lost power in relative terms to metropolitan Melbourne: for example, Ballarat’s three main clubs lost their senior status. But Geelong, with its one remaining senior club, prospered and was admitted to the VFL ranks in 1897. The Geelong players were the sons and nephews of the Western District squattocracy and so had access to networks of power and influence. Many attended the prestigious Geelong Grammar School and the worthy Geelong College (in surprisingly equal numbers). They pursued careers both on the land and in professional roles, and maintained the social connections they had built through the club and other local institutions. Despite their elite standing, however, they continued to be regarded by the supporter base as an embodiment of the city and a defence against the city’s Melbourne critics that Geelong was a mere ‘sleepy hollow’.

Reading images : the book club in the art gallery

This paper seeks to document and understand one instance of community-university engagement: that of an on-going book club organised in conjunction with public art exhibitions. The curator of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum invited the authors, three postgraduate research students in the faculty of Creative Writing and Literary Studies at QUT, to facilitate an informal book club. The purpose of the book club was to generate discussion, through engagement with fiction, around the themes and ideas explored in the Art Museum’s exhibitions. For example, during the William Robinson exhibition, which presented evocative images of the environment around Brisbane, Queensland, the book club explored texts that symbolically represented aspects of the Australian landscape in a variety of modes and guises. This paper emerges as a result of the authors’ observations during, and reflections on, their experiences facilitating the book club. It responds to the research question, how can we create a best practice model to engage readers through open-ended, reciprocal discussion of fiction, while at the same time encouraging interactions in the gallery space? To provide an overview of reading practices in book clubs, we rely on Jenny Hartley’s seminal text on the subject, The Reading Groups Book (2002). Although the book club was open to all members of the community, the participants were generally women. Elizabeth Long, in Book Clubs: Woman and the Uses of Reading in the Everyday (2003), offers a comprehensive account of women’s interactions as they engage in a reading community. Long (2003, 2) observes that an image of the solitary reader governs our understanding of reading. Long challenges this notion, arguing that reading is profoundly social (ibid), and, as women read and talk in book clubs, ‘they are supporting each other in a collective working-out of their relationship to a particular historical movement and the particular social conditions that characterise it’ (Long 2003, 22). Despite the book club’s capacity to act as a forum for analytical discussion, DeNel Rehberg Sedo (2010, 2) argues that there are barriers to interaction in such a space, including that members require a level of cultural capital and literacy before they feel comfortable to participate. How then can we seek to make book clubs more inclusive, and encourage readers to discuss and question outside of their comfort zone? How can we support interactions with texts and images? In this paper, we draw on pragmatic and self-reflective practice methods to document and evaluate the development of the book club model designed to facilitate engagement. We discuss how we selected texts, negotiating the dual needs of relevance to the exhibition and engagement with, and appeal to, the community. We reflect on developing questions and material prior to the book club to encourage interaction, and describe how we developed a flexible approach to question-asking and facilitating discussion. We conclude by reflecting on the outcomes of and improvements to the model.

The Corio Oval Tribe : a prosopographical perspective of the Geelong Football Club in the nineteenth century

This article analyses the occupational and class status of Geelong footballers in the nineteenth century via the methodology of prosopography. Prosopography is an empirical group biography approach to historical research. The article argues that during the period 1859-78 Geelong's playing group was largely derived from the squattocracy and urban middle class. In the later period 1878-96 the Geelong club recruited more widely from the working class, as in keeping with the increased participation of this class in football from the late 1870s. It can be argued that this more diverse group helped establish Geelong as a footballing power.

Elastic buckling analysis of ideal thin-walled structures under combined loading using a finite strip method

The details of an application of the finite strip method to the elastic buckling analysis of thin-walled structures with various boundary conditions and subjected to single or combined loadings of longitudinal compression, transverse compression, bending and shear are presented. The presence of shear loading is accounted for by modifying the displacement functions which are commonly used in cases when shear is absent. A program based on the finite strip method was used to obtain the elastic buckling stress, buckling plot and buckling mode of thin-walled structures and some of these results are presented.

Watermemories : a swimming club for people with dementia

The purpose of this article is to describe the conceptual model and implementation strategies of an evidence-based, aquatic exercise program specifically targeting individuals with dementia—The Watermemories Swimming Club (WSC). Physical exercise not only improves the functional capacity of people with dementia but also has significant effects on other aspects of quality of life such as sleep, appetite, behavioral and psychological symptoms, depression, and falls. Additionally, exercise can improve a person’s overall sense of well-being and positively enhance their sociability. The WSC was designed to increase physical exercise while being easy to implement, safe, and pleasurable. Many challenges were faced along the way, and we discuss how these were overcome. Implications for nurses are also provided.