Producers and producers of nocturnality: subjectivity and gender difference in practice, requirements and risks of work done in bars in Mexico City

Abstract

This article analyzes the way in which subjective, aesthetic and performative aspects developed by workers of the night economy services are shaped by the gender difference, which -accentuated by the social, spatial and temporal construction of the nocturnal and the juvenile , as well as the imaginary and premonitions of the masculine and feminine in "the desirable experience of the bar" - generates, in varying degrees, a set of requirements and ways of exercising work for men and another one, different, for women. Ethnographic research was conducted in several bars in Mexico City, with in-depth interviews, surveys and focus groups for workers, clients, capital representatives and managers. For the Mexican case, the tip is the main component of income and characteristics such as risk and social stigma are accentuated (although not exclusive) in the condition of women, thus producing a double precariousness.