Performers are called strippers, exotic dancers, just dancers, or entertainers. Strippers are the primary draw for any club. Dancers effectively entertaining customers are the key to generating revenue by keeping customers on site and enticing them to be repeat visitors.[93] The image of strippers (as known today) evolved through the late 1960's and 1970's in the U.S. and international cultures that embraced Americanized striptease; introduced into popular culture by the genre-defining performances of Carol Doda.[107] By the 1980s, the pole dancing and highly explicit imagery associated with today's performers was widely accepted and frequently portrayed in film, television, and theater. House dancers work for a particular club or franchise.[108] Feature dancers tend to have their own celebrity, touring a club circuit and making appearances.[46][109] Porn stars will often become feature dancers to earn extra income and build their fan base.[110] High profile adult film performers Jenna Haze and Teagan Presley, among others, have participated in feature shows through the USA, as did now-retired stars such as Jenna Jameson.[111][112][113]
In some localities strippers are required to obtain permits to work in adult entertainment.[114] During a bikini performance, both breasts and genital areas typically remain covered by revealing attire, while dancers provide services and entertainment. Go-go dancers will retain their tops and bottoms for the duration of their performance. A female stripper whose upper body is exposed, but whose genital areas remain obscured during a performance, is said to be topless. Strippers who uncover the genital areas along with other clothing during a performance are said to be dancing fully nude. The fully nude practice is banned in many jurisdictions,[47] but many dancers work around these constraints by selective uncovering of the vagina, anus, or both, for short periods of time, followed by immediate replacement of the clothing.[115][116] Not all strippers are comfortable dancing topless or fully nude.[117]
Strippers can sometimes be contracted for performances outside the strip club environment.[109] Strippers with ready access to the Internet away from work have also adopted social media and networks as a less intrusive way of maintaining direct connections with customers.[118][119] Others use the internet to generate revenue by performing via webcam, recording premium content, or running their own subscriber-based web site.[120][121] Online erotic content is pervasive and generally classified as pornography.[122][123] Much like activities inside the club, different dancers have different comfort levels for services they provide during private parties.[109] Aside from advertising for striptease services outside of the club, an unknown percentage of strippers also work in other aspects of the sex industry. This can include erotic and nude modeling, pornography, escorting, and in some cases prostitution. Outside of the U.S., the use of strip clubs to facilitate sex-for-hire is much more common and stripping in those settings is viewed as advertising for sexually-oriented services that will be performed in either private areas of the club or off-premises.[1][62]
Research suggests that exotic dancing can pay well, but often at significant cost to the stripper.[124] One reason for this is the negative stigma associated with exotic dancing. Not all dancers are affected equally. Some dancers manage this stigma by dividing "the social world" and only revealing part of their identity.[125] By revealing only a part of themselves, strippers may avoid being characterized by the stigmatizing attributes associated with exotic dancing.[45] Within the context of the strip club, dancers might sometimes give the impression that they are revealing private (or backstage) information to customers in order to play a confidence game for increased profit.[73] Dancers use props such as make-up, clothing, costumes, and appealing fragrances to complete their character and maintain their "front" while in the club. Customers rarely, if ever, see the preparation of these props, since they are denied access to the backstage of a dancer's performance space by the layout of the club.[73] A customer often wants a dancer to "drop the act", which makes him feel special and desired.[4][124] This girlfriend experience can involve increased intimacy up to and including sex acts.[126][127][128] Dancers are commonly aware of this customer desire for increased confidence, and may allow the impression that a customer is seeing their true selves. In reality, it is often just part of the act with little to no emotional attachment for the dancer.[4]
Outside of the club, dancers are indistinguishable by appearance from the general population and no more likely to be the targets of acts like violent crime than are other women.[129