Dr. Bernadette Barton is Professor of Sociology and Director of Gender Studies at Morehead State University, and a popular public speaker unafraid to tackle controversial issues.
Bernadette is co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the 21st Century, the author of The Pornification of America: How Raunch Culture is Ruining Our Society, Stripped: More Stories from Exotic Dancers, Pray the Gay Away: The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays, Stripped: Inside the Lives of Exotic Dancers, and co-author of Queer Resistance in Appalachia (forthcoming).
"Zippy and well illustrated, this book persuasively argues that 'equating hypersexualization with sex positivity is a form of Orwellian doublespeak.'"
“Sex Work Today is a revelatory, in-depth essay collection that allows sex workers to speak for themselves about the benefits, risks, and complexities of modern erotic labor.”
“Makes an impressive contribution to the sociology of work and its intersection with sex and gender studies at the theoretical and applied levels. It is an excellent examples of the rich data and critical methodological insights that can emerge in the course of engaged field research.”
“The thrust of stripper scholarship is that both dancers and customers are more like your next-door neighbors. Some are your next-door neighbors.”
“Fascinating, insightful, and surprisingly balanced. This book will take you way beyond Hollywood's clichés and into the realities of stripping, and you'll emerge with a deeper understanding of the pleasures and the costs of being the object of male fantasies.”