Getting Paid to Party? Uncorking the Labour of Bottle Service Girls

Abstract

Research in the sociology of work has a tendency to neglect the specific labour processes of women working in the nightlife industry. Since bottle service is increasingly emblematic of emerging cultural sectors, research must pay attention to the effect of flexibilization strategies and sexualized labour on workers’ treatment and experiences in this industry. By critiquing three popular discourses about bottle service work, this thesis reveals the exploitative and precarious nature of bottle service in which ‘bottle girls’’ labour and bodies are commodified and appropriated in work. Considering that much of bottle girls’ labour is immaterial, performed outside of work, and frequently conflates labour and leisure, the extent and intensity of their work demands are obscured. By positioning bottle service work as 1) ‘easy’ work, 2) for ‘fast cash,’ 3) in a ‘glamourous’ job, bottle girls internalize their work as menial and do not expect conventional labour protections, job security, or benefits. In analyzing bottle girls’ lived experiences, this thesis identifies the functions of these three perceptions of bottle service to benefit the nightclub and seeks to unpack them.