The Swedish Model and its discontents

This law is decidedly UNfeminist. One can’t watch this video and think the Swedes are progressive. It is so regressive! Imagine substituting “sex work” for “acting”. Or any other job. How dehumanizing and infantilizing. Is the answer really to shut women up? Honestly. Does anyone still believe that?

“We want to save you! And if you dont appreciate it you will be punished!”

The art and science of pole dance

This is amazing. I never acquired the pole skill displayed here because I always had too many bruises on my thighs from trying. I did master the art of undulation, however, and maybe one day I will post a video of that here. But anyone who can watch this and deny that these women have amazing strength and athletic ability, not to mention pure artistic talent, is in denial. Amazing.

Shut the Subaltern up! And if you can’t do that, deride her.

Partially cross-posted at community.feministing.com

I was appalled to read Donna Hughes’s opinion piece in the Providence Journal entitled “R.I.’s Carnival of Prostitution ,” where she resorts to ad hominem attacks on women who speak for themselves about their experiences in the sex industry. She is an endowed chair at the University of Rhode Island’s Women’s Studies Program, and I am forced to wonder what her students are learning. She condescendingly refers to one woman as “tattooed,” and derides another (while constantly mentioning her ethnicity) for referring to her profession as “it.” As one commenter pointed out,

That never ever ever happens with other professions, right? I mean who, when asked if they enjoyed teaching women’s studies for example, would say “oh yes, I love IT.”

It has been a long-standing issue with sex workers that we are silenced by the media and others; spoken for and about but never with . People even caution others to not listen to us, as we are under “false consciousness” about what we choose to do with our bodies. Now we are being derided by the very people who proclaim to wish to “rescue” us.

Sadly, both the RI house and senate have decided that it is a good thing to criminalize sex workers.

Someday, folks will realize that sex workers are people too, and that we have a voice. And they may just one day begin to listen to us.

Infiltrators, Conspiracy Theories, and Pandora’s Box: The Ongoing Feminist Education of a Stripper

(a rambling, somewhat incoherent, and REALLY long post)

Growing up, I generally considered myself a feminist, not really knowing what it was, but thinking it sounded like a cool thing to be. I was raised mostly by my father, who was a womanizer, and my abuelita (grandma), who was a Latina traditionalist who thought young single ladies should still be chaperoned while out with single men. In one ear, I had my father telling me how every man only wants what is between my legs (and that it was up to me to not let them get it), while in the other my abuelita insisted that by wearing red nail polish I was somehow communicating to the world that I am a woman of easy virtue. My father ensured that I knew where the Playboy magazines were, and that I should feel free to ask any questions I needed answers to, while my abuelita gave me lectures about how tanning in my bikini in the front yard (we had no back yard) was effectively (and inappropriately) putting my body on exhibit for the whole world to see.

My abuelita was quite an unintended feminist herself. Being from a culture where a mistress was a sign of status and women typically turned their eyes the other way when their husbands took one on, she

The Soldier and the Slut

(or more precisely, the Fighter Pilot and the Stripper)

 

Way back some years ago, at my 10-year high school reunion, I participated in a contest for who held the oddest job. Being a proud stripper, I figured I had as good a chance as anyone. There were about 5 of us, and the winner was an F-15 fighter pilot. To be fair, I came in second place according to audience applause (the method used for deciding the winner), and the young man who won- the fighter pilot- is a sweet young man who was very well-liked in high school.

 

Shortly after the contest, however, I was walking down the hotel hallway towards the elevators, and a young woman (one of the “popular” girls in high school) walking behind me made some remark along the lines of, “I can’t believe you are so open about being a stripper- like you’re proud of it.” It wasn’t said in admiration- more like derision. Of course I was proud of it- should I have been ashamed? Why on earth would I waste my time doing