Katy Pilcher

Aston University, Sociology and Public Policy, Faculty Member

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I am a Feminist and Queer Sociologist. I work as a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University.

I am interested in the ways that gender and sexual power relations are negotiated, and resisted against, in different spaces and in relation to a variety of embodied practices. My main research interest is in women's experiences and consumption practices within 'sexualised' leisure spaces. To this end, my current work examines how these issues play out in non-conventional erotic dance spaces in the UK.

I completed my ESRC-funded PhD in Sociology at the University of Warwick in 2012, entitled ‘Erotic Dancing in Night-Time Leisure Venues: A Sociological Study of Erotic Dance Performers and Customers’. This work is detailed in publications in Sexualities, Sociological Research Online, Leisure Studies, Journal of International Women's Studies, and in two book chapters. I have recently co-edited a book entitled Queer Sex Work (2015, Routledge) with Dr Nicola Smith (University of Birmingham) and Dr Mary Laing (Northumbria University), which brings together insights from sex workers, academics, practitioners and activists. I am now working on a research monograph for Routledge, provisionally titled 'Erotic Performance and Spectatorship'.

Prior to joining Aston, I held positions as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Health Sciences and Social Care at Brunel University. I worked on ESRC-funded research into ageing and daily life using participatory photography with Dr Wendy Martin. I spent the final year of my doctorate working part-time as a Research Associate in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham with Dr Nicki Smith, on a Leverhulme-funded project exploring the experiences of male and transgender sex workers in the UK and The Netherlands.

I have been an executive committee member of the Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK and Ireland for 5 years, within which I coordinate the small grants scheme: http://fwsablog.org.uk. I have recently been elected to the Editorial Board of Sociological Research Online: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/, and I am a member of the British Sociological Association and the European Sociological Association.

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Books by Katy Pilcher

Erotic Performance and Spectatorship: New Frontiers in Erotic Dance

20% discount flyer Erotic dance is one of the most contentious issues in feminist debates today ... more 20% discount flyer

Erotic dance is one of the most contentious issues in feminist debates today and a source of fascination in media and popular cultural representations. Yet, why is it that we currently know so little about those who perform erotic dance for female customers, or the experiences of these spectators themselves?

The result of a unique investigation within two of the UK’s leisure venues, Erotic Performance and Spectatorship seeks to rectify the aforementioned lack of insight. Through vivid ethnographies of a lesbian leisure venue and a male strip show, Pilcher’s research advances key debates about the gender and sexual politics of erotic dance, whilst simultaneously relating these to debates about the sex industry more widely. This book also subverts previous assumptions that only women perform erotic dance and only men spectate. Thus, this book stands out amongst other academic accounts, developing the debate beyond the established focus on erotic dance as either empowering or degrading.

This new contribution to the study of erotic dance – which provides a fresh theoretical perspective combining queer and feminist theorising, in addition to rich empirical evidence – will appeal to academic researchers and both undergraduate and postgraduate students within the fields of sociology, gender studies, sexuality studies, gay & lesbian studies, feminism and other neighbouring disciplines. It will also be of interest to feminist and sex work activists, policy makers, and practitioners.

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Queer Sex Work

Sex work is a subject of significant contestation across academic disciplines, as well as within ... more Sex work is a subject of significant contestation across academic disciplines, as well as within legal, medical, moral, feminist, political and socio-cultural discourses. A large body of research exists, but much of this focuses on the sale of sex by women to men and ignores other performances, practices, meanings and embodiments in the contemporary sex industry. A queer agenda is important in order to challenge hetero-centric gender norms and to develop new insights into how gender, sex, power, crime, work, migration, space/place, health and intimacy are understood in the context of commercial sexual encounters.

Queer Sex Work explores what it might mean to ‘be’, ‘do’ and ‘think’ queer(ly) in the study and practice of commercial sex. It brings together a multiplicity of empirical case studies – including erotic dance venues, online sex working, pornography, grey sexual economies, and BSDM – and offers a variety of perspectives from academic scholars, policy practitioners, activists and sex workers themselves. In so doing, the book advances a queer politics of sex work that aims to disrupt heteronormative logics whilst also making space for different voices in academic and political debates about commercial sex.

This unique and multidisciplinary volume will be indispensable for scholars and students of the global sex trade and of gender, sexuality, feminism and queer theory more broadly, as well as policymakers, activists and practitioners interested in the politics and practice of sex work in local, national and international contexts.

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Papers by Katy Pilcher

Politicising the ‘personal’: the resistant potential of creative pedagogies in teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues

Drawing upon student narratives gleaned through qualitative interviews, this paper argues that te... more Drawing upon student narratives gleaned through qualitative interviews, this paper argues that teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues surrounding gender and sexualities through ‘creative’ pedagogies can be a mode of resistance against the reproduction of problematic social discourses, and to the negative impacts of neoliberalism on student’s learning within higher education. The findings point to the importance of speaking about sensitive issues; the value of creative approaches for enhancing learning; and that together these can enable students to articulate an agenda for social change. Students saw the ‘personal as political’ – of sharing personal journeys around sensitive issues as important. They further spoke of ‘apathy’ in an neoliberal era of student ‘consumers’ and how this could curtail ‘creative’ teaching and jeopardise learning. Overall, it is argued that creative approaches to teaching and learning sensitive issues can invoke a resistant potentiality which exposes the ‘hidden injuries’ (Gill, 2010) of the neoliberal university.

Male sex work and society: Book Review

Rural Society, 2016

Gender, Ageing and Everyday Life: Visually Representing the Body

Issues of collaboration, representation, meaning and emotions: utilising participant-led visual diaries to capture the everyday lives of people in mid to later life

by Katy Pilcher and Veronika Williams

In recent years there has been an increasing use of visual methods in ageing research. There are,... more In recent years there has been an increasing use of visual methods in ageing research. There are, however, limited reflections and critical explorations of the implications of using visual methods in research with people in mid to later life. This paper examines key methodological complexities when researching the daily lives of people as they grow older and the possibilities and limitations of using participant-generated visual diaries. The paper will draw on our experiences of an empirical study, which included a sample of 62 women and men aged 50 years and over with different daily routines. Participant-led photography was drawn upon as a means to create visual diaries, followed by in-depth, photo-elicitation interviews. The paper will critically reflect on the use of visual methods for researching the daily lives of people in mid to later life, as well as suggesting some wider tensions within visual methods that warrant attention. First, we explore the extent to which photography facilitates a ‘collaborative’ research process; second, complexities around capturing the ‘everydayness’ of daily routines are explored; third, the representation and presentation of ‘self’ by participants within their images and interview narratives is examined; and, finally, we highlight particular emotional considerations in visualising daily life.

Being, doing and thinking 'queer' in debates about commercial sex

by Nicola Smith and Katy Pilcher

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Introduction: New Writings in Feminist and Women's Studies

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Performing in a Night-Time Leisure Venue: A Visual Analysis of Erotic Dance

This article analyses a range of different meanings attached to images of erotic dance, with a pa... more This article analyses a range of different meanings attached to images of erotic dance, with a particular focus on the 'impression management' (Goffman 1959) enacted by dancers. It presents a visual analysis of the work of a female erotic performer in a lesbian erotic dance venue in the UK. Still photographs, along with observational data and interviews, convey the complexity and skill of an erotic dancer's diverse gendered and sexualised performances. The visual data highlights the extensive 'aesthetic labour' (Nickson et al. 2001) and 'emotional labour' (Hochschild 1983) the dancer must put in to constructing her work 'self'. However, a more ambitious use of the visual is identified: the dancer's own use of images of her work. This use of the visual by dancers themselves highlights a more complex 'impression management' strategy undertaken by a dancer and brings into question the separation of 'real' and 'work' 'selves' in erotic dance.

KEYWORDS: Photo-Elicitation; Visual Methods; Erotic Dance; Aesthetic Labour; Emotional Labour; Performance; Self

Dancing for women: Subverting heteronormativity in a lesbian erotic dance space?

This article utilises participant observation, interview and collaborative visual data, collected... more This article utilises participant observation, interview and collaborative visual data, collected with women erotic dancers, management and customers, to ascertain how far heteronormativity is subverted in a UK lesbian leisure space, Lippy (the name is a pseudonym), which provides erotic dance for women customers. The potential for a female ‘gaze’, the ‘normativity’ of gendered and sexualised bodies, and the notion of a ‘women’s space’ are taken as areas for analysis. Women’s engagement with erotic dance is complex, and this article examines the connections between sexual agency and gendered power relations, questioning how far women can exercise autonomous sexual expression in commercial sexual encounters.

KEYWORDS: Commercial sex, erotic dance, ‘gaze’, heteronormativity, leisure space

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 ide... more 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’, 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’.

KEYWORDS: heterosexuality, sexualised space, ‘gaze’, women’s leisure, strip club, ethnography

A Gendered 'Managed Heart'? An Exploration of the Gendering of Emotional Labour, Aesthetic Labour, and Body Work in Service Sector Employment

This paper examines the gendering of labour performed in service sector employment through a revi... more This paper examines the gendering of labour performed in service sector employment through a review of the theoretical and empirical sociological debates emerging from this field of study. The concept of ‘emotional labour’, which involves the self-management of a worker’s feelings and emotions, together with the more recent notions of appearance management undertaken through ‘aesthetic labour’, and the labour enacted upon the bodies of customers through ‘body work’ are analysed for the implications they have on reproducing or challenging the conventional gender order. Interactive service sector labour is found to be gendered in the sense that it is often gender-segregated, with men and women performing different types of labour. This paper explores further the way in which women are required to sustain a specifically gendered and (hetero)sexualised performance, which is arguably not always required of men. It is argued that even where such labour is not gender-segregated, and men take on the same labouring roles as women, such tasks are not experienced and enacted in a gender-neutral fashion. However, the possibility of gendered labour in the service sector being experienced as pleasurable, rather than as a wholly negative phenomenon, is also discussed. Taking Butler’s (1990) concept of performativity, it is argued that it is the performance of gender that actively brings it into being. Thus, gendered scripts enacted through service sector labour reinforce traditional social hierarchies to ensure that the prominence of heterosexuality and hierarchal gender, class and ‘race’ relations remain intact.

KEYWORDS: Gendering, service sector, emotional labour, aesthetic labour, body work, heterosexuality.

Empowering, Degrading or a ‘Mutually Exploitative’Exchange For Women?: Characterising the Power Relations of the Strip Club

Abstract This paper seeks to characterise the gendered and sexualised power relations of both fem... more Abstract 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.

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Erotic Performance and Spectatorship: New Frontiers in Erotic Dance

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Queer Sex Work

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Politicising the ‘personal’: the resistant potential of creative pedagogies in teaching and learning ‘sensitive’ issues