SERVING BEERS, TURNING TRICKS AND KEEPING THE CHANGE: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF MEXICAN LAP DANCING CLUB WAITERS

Abstract

This is an empirically grounded, ethnographic study that looks at the role of tipping in club social control and in the production and reproduction of workplace hierarchies. Using data collected through first-person, situated interactions with club customers, dancers, and other employees, I argue that waiters hold a pivotal role in social control as they work to broker deals between customers and dancers and promote club services. The thesis follows an inductive approach, with a narrative moving in the direction of increasing conceptual complexity. It begins with empirical observations on the behaviour and interactions between space and routines of a club’s employees, using the concepts of citationality and indexicality to draw attention to the situated construction of meaning, and finally arrives at a discussion and critique of the theory of differential association - reinforcement. The findings show that waiters hold a crucial role in the operation of Mexican lap dancing clubs. Waiters are key figures responsible for enforcing their customers’ adherence to club norms, are the employees responsible for mediating their customers’ relationship with club services. Despite lacking the capacity to determine the dancers’ willingness to interact with specific customers, they use their knowledge about dancer services and customer fantasies about dancer sexuality to portray themselves as club gatekeepers effectively reconstructing themselves as dominant figures in the process.