In the nineteenth century, female laundresses and dancers were viewed as promiscuous and somewhat threatening figures. By examining images of laundresses from mid- to late-century as well as drawing on contemporary literature and social commentaries, Lipton argues that a middle class public would have seen these women as a sexualized and dangerous “other” (working class). Degas’ depictions, as well as others that appeared in popular culture, attempted to negotiate the bourgeois fear of these overworked and repressed figures. While not specifically related to my topic, Lipton’s exploration opens up the possibility of examining audience response (who they were and what they thought) to ballet dancers and how pointe work in dance may have exposed the contradictory nature of middle-class expectations and prescribed notions of gender and class.