Seeking to end the stigma of their occupations, sex workers will
combine performance art and activism to make their voices heard
tonight at an on-campus art show.
Sex Workers Outreach Project-UCLA is hosting the Sex Workers Art
Show in conjunction with Queer x Girl and La Familia.
The display of visual and performance art, now on its third
national tour, will feature music, spoken word, poetry and
burlesque offering different perspectives on the sex industry,
which includes exotic dancers and prostitutes.
The founder and director of the Sex Workers Art Show, who goes
by the name of Annie Oakley, says that while there is a fun and
sexy element to the show, it also has a serious side.
“We’re trying to present a non-specific view on sex
work, more (of) a holistic view on people that are in the industry
and the experiences they have there,” Oakley said.
The show is now part of the movement toward decriminalization of
prostitution, a social change which would lessen the stigma that
sex workers face and the dichotomy characterizing the lives of many
in the industry.
Jenna Jasmine, a first-year graduate student, formed SWOP-UCLA
after working as an activist in San Francisco alongside Sex Workers
Outreach Project-USA founder Robyn Few.
Jasmine uses her stage name in her activist efforts.
In becoming a registered student group, the women’s
studies department was “overwhelmingly understanding and
supportive of the cause that SWOP-UCLA stands for,” Jasmine
said, “which was amazing because as a sex worker I have been
fighting for my needs to be heard and recognized.”
Jasmine said the student body, on the other hand, has been less
receptive of sex worker advocacy issues such as the legalization of
prostitution.
SWOP-UCLA aims to advocate on behalf of sex workers, educate the
general population about issues within the industry, and provide a
space for students to share their experiences.
“There are sex workers who are totally isolated and
don’t know that there is support out there,” Oakley
said.
Decriminalization is the only way to end the violence and
discrimination in the industry, and only once the stigma is
resolved can advocacy efforts focus on helping and protecting sex
workers, Few said.
It would allow advocates to focus on “creating safe
places, providing health care and education opportunities,”
Jasmine said.
The Sex Workers Art Show is partly cultural activism aiming to
humanize sex workers, because the mystery and the shame in the
industry allows abuses within it to continue, Oakley said.
Male dominance of the sex market and labor inequalities are
present throughout legal sex work.
Through SWOP-UCLA, Jasmine wants to bring sex worker feminism to
the consciousness of as many students as she can reach.
“It would be amazing if the next time students go to a
strip club they have a new understanding about the labor struggles
of the women on the poles,” Jasmine said.
Within legal professions like stripping and exotic dancing,
women may be forced to relinquish 30 percent of their tips to club
management, or pay a fee as high as $200 per night to dance.
“Sex sells, but who is actually making money off these
women’s bodies? If there’s not a literal pimp,
there’s a brothel owner or a strip club owner. If the
government moves toward legalization, they will tax,” Jasmine
said.
In addition to financial and gender issues, sex workers must
often deal with substandard workplaces, wages devoid of overtime
pay, and a lack of benefits such as health insurance coverage.
“All women in the industry, especially exotic dancing,
deserve labor laws and to have their industry recognized,”
Few said.
It is not unheard of for women to turn to the sex industry to
fund their college educations.
“Being in the sex industry has allowed me to have access
to higher education, and I have no doubt in my mind that there are
a lot of students, undergraduate and graduate, who do that as
well,” Jasmine said. “But they don’t have a forum
to speak out about these things because society as a whole
criminalizes these things.”
Jasmine, Few and Oakley expressed the desire of their respective
organizations to raise not just awareness, but also acceptance.
“UCLA is paying for a bunch of strippers and prostitutes
to come into town and be heard. That is a revolutionary act in
itself, for everyone involved,” Jasmine said.
The Sex Workers Art Show will take place tonight from 6 to
10 p.m. in the De Neve Plaza Room.