Carole: To change the subject a little, what have your experiences been with the courts?
Barbara: Juries have been fantastic for me. Not all, but most of them. I’ve taken most of my cases to jury trials. I’ve won most, and if I didn’t, it was like a hung jury or they dismissed it before it went to trial. The group of women I dealt with, we all knew that we had the right to take it to court and trial and that we could win if we took it to trial. But, see, a lot of women don’t know that. I had a public defender once, a woman, who told me: “Look Barbara, they want to give you a year’s probation,” and she said, “You know that you solicited the guy, go ahead and take the year.” I said, “But, I didn’t solicit him and I’m not pleading guilty — I don’t want your year’s probation, I didn’t do anything, and I don’t want anything.” I wound up firing her and I paid a lawyer. And I won the case. Prostitutes need to know they can win.
Carole: Where did you get your legal advice?
Barbara: We read a lot. We went to court and we listened. We read the laws. We knew what was solicitation and what was not.
Carole: Can you tell me a little about your experiences in jail?
Barbara: The first time I went in it was horrible. In San Francisco. The matrons were horrible sometimes. I cried the whole time, I was scared to death. They’d arrested thirty or forty girls on prostitution. All the beds were lined up and the latrines were against the walls. If you had to use the bathroom you had to use it in front of all the girls. And the toilets were filthy.
Jail is no rehabilitation. If anything you get worse by being in jail. When I was crying that first time, one of the girls came up to me and said, “Honey, you better be quiet or else these girls are going to come out and they’re gonna tease you and they’re gonna get mad. You can’t be crying in here.” Well, I said fuck it, and I didn’t care and I went ahead and cried anyway ‘cause I was real uptight. But they’re real hard and cold.
When they give you a sentence they tell you that you’re going to go to Santa Rita for rehabilitation. But there’s no real rehabilitation. They don’t give you nothing. No counseling, no anything. And I don’t know any jail that does. So, to be locked up bcause you don’t want to take a two dollar and thirty-five cents job, I think that’s horrible. Most of the prostitutes I know are not thieves. They’re not people who would do anything to you. Now, I grant you I don’t know a lot of junkies ‘cause I stay away from them. They’d steal from their own parents. But a lot of girls just want to make a living and be left alone, you know.
Carole: Why do you think that prostitution is kept illegal in the United States?
Barbara: Because they’re stupid and lazy. The politicians don’t want to figure out a way to get the money, they’re afraid that prostitutes will cheat and they won’t get enough tax money. And men don’t want women to have control over anything. Men want to run everything. Especially white middle class businessmen. They can get away with anything and they know they can.
Carole: What other things would you do if prostitution was decriminalized?
Barbara: Well, a lot of violence would not happen if it wasn’t a crime. Men take advantage of women, true enough, but if the girls were more organized and knew more, then they wouldn’t let the guys take advantage of them. Beatings and robbings might not be if women would just stick together. There are so many things I could tell prostitutes so that they’d be protected but if I did that now, I’d be commmitting a felony because I’d be training a prostitute. It’s also conspiracy to tell a girl that someone is a policeman. There are so many laws they can use on you. It’s completely sickening to me. Just sitting on this bed could probably be illegal. (Laughter)
Carole: Prostitutes don’t often go to rape crisis centers, why is that?
Barbara: They don’t use them because I don’t think they know they can use them. A lot of prostitutes think they’re going to be looked down on; they’re looked down on by so many people. They don’t think they’ll find a nice person who is willing to listen to them. They don’t know if they’re working with the police. Most of the time a girl doesn’t go anywhere when she’s been raped. Prostitutes need to know that they can go to these places. For example, I’m working for a project where I interview prostitutes. I interviewed two women, and when I told them that I was an ex-prostitute, one said: “You’re just telling me that to make me feel good.” My point is, if prostitutes knew they could talk to ex-prostitutes or that they didn’t have to worry about being judged, it would make a big difference. For all they know, the rape crisis centers might be working with the police. Police are always there....
Carole: If you could have other work options that paid better than the minimum wage, might you leave prostitution?
Barbara: Prostitution is something that I’d like to do on my own terms when I felt like doing it. What I mean is that I wouldn’t want to do it all the time. I’d go out maybe twice a week instead of five, six times. I think I’d continue because I like the power that I have with men. I like making them do whatever I want them to do. But it gets stressful too. You have to be on your toes. But there’s so much money in it. And there’s a power thing in making them pay for it and in deciding whether or not I’m going to date them. If I want to be nice to you, that’s my choice, and if I want to be a straight up bitch, I can do that too. That’s my choice.
Stripper
Debi Sundahl
For the last five years, I have been working full-time as an erotic performer in San Francisco. I love being a stripper. I consider the theater where I work to be a model of what all sexual entertainment theaters should be. Because of the money I make, the wonderful women I work with, and the standards of quality at the theater, I have come to enjoy the art of burlesque and have passed that knowledge on to others.
Before moving to San Francisco and becoming a stripper, I was a student at the University of Minnesota with a double major in Women’s Studies and History. I was active in both feminist and Marxist politics. Also, I worked as an advocate at the Harriet Tubman Shelter for Battered Women in Minneapolis, and for two years I worked with Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW), where I helped organize Minnesota’s annual Take Back the Night March. At that time, feminism most actively focused on issues of violence against women. Many times, I presented an educational slide show which focused on degrading and/or violent images of women in the media. The show, initially produced by Women Against Pornography in Los Angeles, dealt mainly with rape, battering and incest, making only occasional anti-pornography references.
It was through feminism, and through my involvement with WAVAW, that I came out as a lesbian and met my lover, with whom I am still living. Coming out was the beginning of exploring my sexuality and sex in general. The first time I slept with a woman, I had physical feelings I did not know my body could have. It was an awakening, and I did not want to stop there. I wanted to explore all the taboo areas of sex.
I was well aware, through feminism, of the theory of oppression, and the lies, secrets, and silences that oppressed groups live with. It was obvious to me that sex workers were an oppressed group, suffering from stereotypes and social oppression, much the same as lesbians. Having just come out as a lesbian, I was not afraid to enter yet another unknown territory, and so, when I arrived in San Francisco, I answered an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Dancers Wanted. Must be over 18. Part-time job for students and homemakers.” Here was an indication that sex workers were not who society at large thought they were.
My suspicions proved true. The owners of the Lusty Lady Theater were involved in founding the Venusian Church in Seattle as well as the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. They were decidedly interested in the positive expression of human sexuality. The institute provided the education. The church expressed that education in an entertainment form the public could enjoy. The Church staged erotic performances and masturbation fantasies in a sensual place where people could feel comfortable. The managers of the
Lusty Lady Theater, mostly women, kept a clean theater, paid their performers well, and were very supportive of both the dancers’ and the clientele’s expressing their sexuality. Alcohol and drugs were not permitted in the theater, the management was well organized, and I liked the other dancers, who were primarily young college students or struggling artists.
The hardest part of the job was dealing with my feminist principles concerning the objectification of women. Dancing nude is the epitomy of woman as sex object. As the weeks passed, I found I liked being a sex object, because the context was appropriate. I resent being treated as a sex object on the street or at the office. But as an erotic dancer, that is my purpose. I perform to turn you on, and if I fail, I feel I’ve done a poor job. Women who work in the sex industry are not responsible for, nor do they in any way perpetuate, the sexual oppression of women. In fact, to any enlightened observer, our very existence provides a distinction and a choice as to when a woman should be treated like a sex object and when she should not be. At the theater, yes; on the street, no. Having the distinction so obviously played out at work, I felt more personal power on the street. I was far less inclined to put up with harassment than I was before, even when I had taken self-defense training. Therefore, I did not feel exploited personally, either outside of my job or in it. I was no more the personal intimate sexual partner of the men for whom I performed than an actress is the character she portrays in a film or play. When people ask me, as they often do, “How does your lover deal with your being a stripper?” I respond by saying I’m a stripper not because I’m looking for other lovers but because it’s my job. For the first time I felt I could express my sexuality in a safe environment. I was in control. Understanding that is was perfectly okay for a women to be a sex object in the appropriate context, and distinguishing what those contexts were allowed me to get on with the business of learning and enjoying my craft.
After I had worked at the Lusty Lady’s peep show for two years, I was ready to move on. Fortunately, I lived in a city that has one of the best erotic entertainment theaters in the world. At the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Street Theater, I was introduced to the art of burlesque in its traditional form. Burlesque has a long history and plays an important sexual role in society. A true art form, it has had its great artists and changes in style and form over the years. It is an insulting misconception about burlesque that anyone in a drunken, uninhibited state can strip. It takes practice and talent to be able to pull off an entertaining and truly erotic performance. To create good art, an artist must have a sophisticated and sensitive knowledge of her subject. Of the many strippers I have known, the best were those who had explored and were accepting of their sexuality. The pool of knowledge and emotions from which these women drew their creativity was sophisticated and deep. They liked themselves sexually and they held their profession in high regard.
The Mitchell Brothers’ theater has a large stage and a superb lighting and sound system, and a beautiful, comfortable theater indicated the owners’ respect for sexual entertainment. It was a big step for me to go from a small peep show, with its private booths, to a full-blown theater environment. My wages tripled, and so did my self-respect as an erotic dancer. The first time I saw the show, I cried because it was so beautiful, and because it is so difficult to find this beauty. Here was erotic entertainment as it should be, and it was here that I became committed to a career in the sex industry.
Of the crew of sixty performers (some of the best strippers in the country), half were, and still are, lesbians. We lamented the fact that very few women would come to the theater to watch us perform. The sex industry, and the institutions of the sex industry — the theaters, bookstores, and publications — have all been created by men, for men, and are the last great boys’ club left totally untouched by feminism. It is a rare stripper who is not a feminist, and so we decided it was time to demand equal access to sexual entertainment.
I started the first women-only strip show at a lesbian bar in San Francisco in July 1984. The weekly shows were an instant success. The dancers loved performing for the all-female audiences because they had more freedom of expression. They were not limited to ultra-feminine acts only; they could be butch, they could dress in masculine attire. They adored the audience feedback, which was enthusiastic, verbal, and supportive. Judging by the response and by the crowds, women were (and are) hungry for sexual entertainment and enthralled by the fact that, for the first time in modern history, they could have sexual entertainment to call their own. Since the vast majority of these women had never seen a strip show before, it was a safe place to explore the meaning of sexual entertainment. It was interesting to see the effect on the strippers as well: before the show, some felt cautious about letting other lesbians know what they did for a living. Now, they are treated with respect and awe in their communities. It has also been gratifying to see changes taking place in the lesbian community around sexual expression. Not once were we picketed by anti-porn groups. Instead, the response was overwhelmingly positive. We were excited to be participating in the new phenomenon of women creating erotica for women. The issues of the anti-porn movement were not our issues.
We are fortunate to have a new ground, and it’s exhilarating. During this time, and in this spirit, I published the first issue of On Our Backs, a lesbian sexual entertainment magazine. I also began to make adult or X-rated videos for lesbians under the name of Fatale, which is from the name I had chosen for myself as a stripper, Fanny Fatale.
I am aware that I have been fortunate to have had a positive experience as an erotic dancer. It is because of this experience that I am strongly in favor of sexual entertainment. But stripping is traditional women’s work as much as waitressing, teaching and secretarial work is. Consequently, it suffers from the same low pay. Considering the high demand for erotic performers and the low supply, and the fact that the service they provide is a rare commodity, most erotic performers are vastly underpaid. The working conditions, overall, are also poor; many theaters are run on a quasi-legitimate financial basis, and are not clean or safe. Often, the basic tools necessary for the job — like adequate sound and light systems, ample dressing room space, and equipment (like washers, dryers and irons) to care for costumes — are not provided. Even though most dancers work more than forty hours a week, no vacation or overtime pay is provided, nor are there any health benefits. Many dancers fear becoming ill because missing one day of work will put their jobs in jeopardy.
The social hypocrisy under which most dancers perform creates a high stress situation. On the one hand, social demand for their services is high, but on the other hand, they are stigmatized by society for working in the sex industry. It is difficult to be a stripper and resist internalizing negative stereotypes of strippers, i.e., they are abused, come from broken homes, abuse drugs and alcohol, lead violent lives, and are forced into or turn to the sex industry out of desperation. The stereotypes leave little room for self-respect. Fear of rejection by family and friends forces the stripper to lie about her occupation, especially when she is trying to obtain basic civil rights or legal assistance. The possibility that her children can be taken from her because of the nature of her employment makes living in the closet essential. Significant others in her life often cannot come to terms with her work, which can lead to emotional problems. In short, being a stripper means having to live with hostility; it means constantly struggling for self-esteem.
The sex industry suffers from sexist attitudes as much as any other area. Women have traditionally been bottom-level workers while men have held management and ownership positions. Only in the past few years have women begun to hold positions of power in the sex industry. The ramifications of women controlling the means of production of erotic entertainment materials will be revolutionary. The fact that women have had virtually no erotica created by them, for them is intrinsically tied to the sexist attitude that a woman’s role in society is to be housewife/mother/sexual servant. In response to the anti-
porn movement, women sex workers have had to take a stand and have begun to create erotica in their own interests.
The future looks promising and challenging. Women are opening vibrator stores, publishing erotic materials for other women, making adult videos with women in mind, and producing erotic entertainment. These women remember the early days of sixties feminism, when the right to control your body meant the right to be sexual as well. Crawling out from under the oppressive, anti-sex attitudes of the anti-porn movement, women are demanding the right to explore their sexual identity, defining the many possible ways of being sexual, and encouraging tolerance for all sexual expression.
I for one am tired of being the moral guardian of male sexuality and of suffering ostracism and condemnation if I choose to be sexually active or sexually autonomous. Sex education and the ability to communicate about all aspects of sex is essential to fostering social respect for sex workers as well as respect for personal sexual choice and expression. Like many oppressed minorities, we have suffered under the assumption that we must be protected from ourselves. The quasi-illegal and illegal nature of our work robs us of the power to define and control the conditions under which we are employed. We know better than anyone what is healthy and what is not healthy about our work.
These last five years, I have lived a rewarding and rich life as a stripper. Like most artists, I feel I have something special to say and something of interest to offer them. I see a bright and lively future for those on the progressive edge of sexual entertainment, and feel fortunate to be numbered among its outspoken participants. I know how good it can be, and am committed to sharing with others the wonderful realities of my job and the potential for the industry in general.
Sex Work Page 19