The Paradoxical Value of Deviant Cases: Toward a Gendered Theory of Display Work

Abstract

AbstractMajor shifts in gender, work, and sexuality have led to the rising prominence of display work, the display of sexualized bodily capital for wages. This article develops the concept of display work and examines its implications for the gendered organization of work. Display work is a continuous rather than a categorical variable and can describe a range of jobs from those involving overtly sexualized bodies for sale as bodies to professionalized bodies on display. Within the field of display work, we identify a paradox: among some display workers, women earn significantly more than men, a wage gap that reverses the enduring pattern of gendered wage inequality in the broader labor market. This article flips the typical line of inquiry by comparing earnings and career dynamics among performers in fashion modeling, pornography, and stripping, three cases of display work characterized by clear inverted wage gaps. We argue that in the field of display work, freelance and winner-take-all workplace struct...