Live Nude Girls Unite!

The main thesis of the film is that sex work is just that: work. It should be treated as a job, a career, a position, something that employees aren't just doing for "fun". There was nothing in this film that didn't convince me that sex work is work, and intense work at that. This deviant job and deviant label that come with sex work clearly relate to our class as we examine people who choose to fall outside of the very narrow box that is social norms. As women stand up for themselves in these peep and strip clubs, and in other areas of sex work as well, we see in the film that people responded with bomb threats, harassment, and patronizing results as these women fought for rights in the film. Women were and are being punished for wanting to protect themselves in their chosen field. In What is Feminist Porn? We read how Tristan Taormino produces pornography that empowers women as more than sexual vehicles, but as people in control of a sexual experience. They are safe at work, and treated with respect. In the same way, these women of the Lusty Lady are working to pay their bills, and deserve the same respect everyone does as a human, and as an employee, regardless of being clothed or not. 

The idea that the management wanted to exclude the word "pussy" but include the word "fun" baffles me. My husband spent 8 months in a Union contract battle that almost ended in a strike. I can't imagine spending even longer to get things like sick days and a basic right to safety at work. No one would have put the word "fun" in his contract. Watching Julia hide her life from her mother, but no one else really drove the point home about living with stigma. Even if her mother was an activist, she still wasn't ready to tell her about her career. 

One argument that stands out the most for me is that women are paying to go to work. "He's making money off my ass." says Velvet, a dancer. Owners take cuts of dancers tips, they have to pay stage fees (paying for a stage to go to work on), and dancers are penalized financially for being late for missing shifts. In "Exotic Dancers: 'Where am I going to Stop?'" points out many dancers are escaping abusive homes or relationships for an abusive relationship with their club. Not all dancers are there because that's where they wanted to be. One woman even recounts crying every day before work, and only being able to sleep by counting how much money she made. It's unthinkable that anyone could say all strippers are having fun at their jobs, so it's not a real job when reading about the emotional impact it can have. Portland has the most strip clubs per capita in the nation, and I would be curious about how many have unions, or treat their employees with union benefits. Dancers from Washington will drive hours to go to work in Portland because they are able to make more money and the laws and rules are "looser". I would want to compile information from both major and minor strip clubs and dancers, and see which treats its employees better, which thinks it treats its employees better, and how wide the gap really is as well as what could be done to motivate club owners to change this.


Taormino, Tristan. "What is Feminist Porn?." Pucker Up. Web. 8 Apr 2012

Wesley, Jennifer K. Exotic Dancers: "Where am I going to stop?". 6th. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. 203-206. Print.