Sex Work Read online

  Copyright © 1987, 1998 by Frédérique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander. All rights reserved.

  Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

  Published in the United States by Cleis Press, P.O. Box 14684, San Francisco, California 94114.

  Second Edition.

  10 9876543

  Cover Design: Scott Idleman

  Cover Photograph: Melanie Friend

  Typeset: CalGraphics and Karen Huff

  Printed in the United States.

  ISBN: 1-57344-042-6

  eISBN: 978-1-57344-701-0

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-72847

  Cleis Logo: Juana Alicia

  “she hated the rain” and “New York City Tonight” were first published in Azalea, Vol. 1, No. 2, Spring 1978. Copyright 1977 by Sapphire.

  “Lesbians & Prostitutes: A Historical Sisterhood” by Joan Nestle is excerpted from A Restricted Country (Firebrand 1987).

  “Girls, Girls, Girls” by M.M. Chateauvert was first published in Common Lives, Lesbian Lives.

  Acknowledgments

  Our heartfelt thanks to all the people who helped create this book: To the women whose words are the lifeblood of Sex Work; to Margo St. James who made prostitutes’ rights an issue in the United States; to Sue Campbell and Felice Newman who cared for this project and did a superb editing job;

  To the Friends of Cleis Press—Marcie Barent, Paulette Balogh, Cheri Kindler, Mary Ann Krupa, Rhonda Lazarus, Anita Mallinger, Mike Powers, and Anne Pride—who trusted this book before it even existed, and who raised money to send it to the printer; and to the Pittsburgh community, especially Leanna and Richard Day for their enlightened support;

  To Carole, Gina, Eva, Veronica Vera, Pieke Bierman, Bruce Tyler, and the Oldest Profession Times, Helen McNamee for sharing valuable information, and especially Judith Cohen for her help in understanding AIDS.

  To Felice

  for her work

  her complexity

  her humor

  her honesty

  and

  to all the women who have ever worked.

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION

  “Les Putes Sont En Grève...” Frédérique Delacoste

  The International Sex Workers’ Rights Movement Priscilla Alexander

  PART 1: IN THE LIFE

  Telling a Woman Driving at Night Carol Leigh

  Living on the Edge Peggy Morgan

  Out in the Cold Jean Johnston

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot I Carol Leigh

  Not Huarachas in Paris Phyllis Luman Metal

  Triple Treat Rev. Kellie Everts

  What Happens When You Are Arrested Gloria Lockett

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot II Carol Leigh

  Hong Kong Massage Emma Marcus

  Pain, Pleasure and Poetry Mistress Lilith Lash

  Interview with Nell Priscilla Alexander

  she hated the rain Sapphire

  Police as Pimps Karen

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot III Carol Leigh

  In the Massage Parlor Judy Edelstein

  Speaking in Tongues Jean Johnston

  Girls, Girls, Girls M. M. Chateauvert

  Bohemia Ho...Ho Ho Ho Phyllis Luman Metal

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot IV Carol Leigh

  Interview with Debra Carole

  Leaving the Streets Gloria Lockett

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot V Carol Leigh

  Silence Again Judy Helfand

  Coming Out of Denial Sharon Kaiser

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot VI Carol Leigh

  Dream Turned Nightmare Cecelia Wardlaw

  Prostitution Rosie Summers

  One for Ripley’s Phyllis Luman Metal

  Attitudes Sharon Kaiser

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot VII Carol Leigh

  New York City Tonight Sapphire

  Good Girls Go To Heaven Bad Girls Go Everywhere Aline

  Making Movies Jane Smith

  Confessions of a Feminist Porno Star Nina Hartley

  The Right to Protection from Rape Karen

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot VIII Carol Leigh

  Confessions of a Priestesstute Donna Marie Niles

  When Colleen Needed a Job Tracy Lea Landis

  The Madame Phyllis Luman Metal

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot IX Carol Leigh

  Destroying Condoms Gloria Lockett

  A Most Useful Tool Sunny Carter

  Interview with Barbara Carole

  Stripper Debi Sundahl

  The Continuing Saga of Scarlot Harlot X Carol Leigh

  PART II: FEMINISM AND THE WHORE STIGMA

  Prostitution: Still a Difficult Issue Priscilla Alexander

  The Social Consequences of Unchastity Gail Pheterson

  Lesbians and Prostitutes: A Historical Sisterhood Joan Nestle

  PART III: UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE DIE: SEX WORKERS ORGANIZED

  Whisper: Women Hurt in Systems of Prostitution Engaged in Revolt Sarah Wynter

  Workers: Introducing the English Collective of Prostitutes Nina Lopez-Jones

  U.S. PROStitutes Collective Rachel West

  COYOTE/National Task Force on Prostitution

  The Red Thread: Whores’ Movement in Holland Hansje Verbeek and Terry van der Zijden

  The Pink Thread Marjan Sax

  World Charter and World Whores’ Congress Statements International Committee for Prostitutes’ Rights

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  RESOURCES

  INDEX

  CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES

  ABOUT THE EDITORS

  INTRODUCTION

  “Les Putes Sont En Grève...”

  This new edition of Sex Work comes more than a decade after the book’s original publication—and just in time to celebrate the discovery in Salonika of what is believed to be the oldest known brothel. The two-thousand-year-old structure is believed to have been frequented by male clients who came to enjoy services from both male and female sex workers. The brothel, steam rooms, marble baths, and swimming pools are thought to be part of a large complex dedicated to the pursuit of physical pleasure, and were found replete with comedy and tragedy masks—Aristophanes’ plays were set in brothels—clay dildos, offerings to Aphrodite, and all manner of erotic paraphernalia.

  That this discovery reminds us of a time when sexuality (albeit male sexuality) was seen as important enough to make its setting public, comfortable, a place of community, a place where conversations could take place, where the arts could be enjoyed alongside more private pleasures, should at least provide a fertile context in which to read this extraordinary collection.

  In 1987, Sex Work sought to create a space where “prostitution” was not automatically understood as a metaphor for self-exploitation; in fact, after publication of Sex Work, “sex work” became the preferred term—among progressive feminists, academics, and the workers themselves. The book appeared at a time when the feminist movement was embroiled in a profound split, dividing those women who wanted to explore the complexities of sexual desire and those who condemned such exploration as a treasonous and antifeminist assimilation of men’s objectification of women.

  Sex Work was sometimes denounced but often reviewed, and was probably the first (and only?) book from a feminist press to be reviewed favorably in the same month in both The Women’s Review of Books and Hustler magazine.

  The landscape of women’s sexual representation has great
ly changed since then, thanks to the writings of Dorothy Allison, Joan Nestle, Carol Vance, Pat Califia, Susie Bright, Kate Bornstein, Wendy Chapkis, Carol Queen, Annie Sprinkle, and many others. Publications like On Our Backs (at its most transgressive throughout the ’80s and early ’90s), Caught Looking: Feminism, Pornography and Censorship, edited by the Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force (1992), and Red Light: Inside the Sex Industry by Sylvia Plachy and James Ridgeway (1996) heralded more realistic images. Sex Work is now read on university campuses all over the world—translated in German and Japanese—creating an intellectual communal space where sex and culture are talked about. A far cry from Salonika, and the plays of Aristophanes, but progress nevertheless.

  My own introduction to the social complexities of sex work was far less auspicious than the recent archaeological find, but it was a revelation for me. It was in 1975, on the eight p.m. news, that I first heard prostitutes speak for themselves. A few brief sentences, from the St. Nivier church in Lyon, soon interrupted by the newsman: “And now, back to you in Paris.” His smile was understood by millions. “Les putes sont en grève...” (“The hookers are on strike.”) That was a good one. Chuckles at the dinner table, pass me some bread please, pour me some wine.

  I had seen the putes many times before. As a child, with my father on our Sunday morning strolls in the streets of Paris, rue Blanche, rue Pigalle, La Madeleine.... Years later, on my moped, my freedom, I discovered rue St. Denis: women in miniskirts walking nonchalantly, groups of three rapping over cigarettes; one had tall black leather boots and a whip at her side. After I passed her on my mobylette, I wanted to turn back, but was afraid to be rude. I went back several times but never saw her again.

  And then once, while waiting for my turntable to get fixed, I had an espresso in a small cafe, and I saw them, gathered around two small tables, slowly sipping their coffee, rubbing their hands—for it was a cold winter that year—talking like they knew each other well. I was sitting at the bar. La patronne was washing glasses and I could see her, them, me in the large mirror behind the counter. It was my first experience of a “women only” space.

  Thirty years later, I’ve turned the bar stool around, and we are face to face.

  In editing this second edition of Sex Work, Priscilla Alexander and I have chosen to retain the original stories of the women whose trust can be felt on every page of this book. In the mid-eighties, that trust was most often met with either complete silence or an analysis that labeled all sex workers as victims. (A woman who worked in the movement to abolish prostitution in France told me, “You will never get the real stories. The articles you receive will be written by cops and pimps.” Many people could not believe that sex workers could actually speak for themselves.) Part I, “In the Life,” features the stories of street prostitutes, exotic dancers, nude models, escorts, porn actresses, and workers in massage parlors—speaking for themselves.

  Part II, “Feminism and the Whore Stigma,” considers the whore stigma in the context of racism, classism, anti-Semitism and the culture of chastity, and the relationship of sex work to feminism, lesbianism and other progressive politics. In “Prostitution: Still a Difficult Issue for Feminists” Priscilla Alexander writes of the legal, health, occupational, and political complexities of sex work at the end of the millennium. This essay stands as an update of the first edition, which appeared early in the AIDS pandemic.

  Part III, “United We Stand, Divided We Die: Sex Workers Organized,” retains the original documents of organizations like COYOTE, The Red Thread, U.S. PROStitutes, and others. Priscilla Alexander’s introduction, “The International Sex Workers’ Rights Movement” updates the history of these and other sex workers’ rights organizations.

  New for this edition is a resource section, which includes information on a number of activist organizations and publications, many of them just a web click away. The bibliography has also been completely revised to reflect a decade’s worth of writing and publishing on sex work.

  This book is about sex, and how shameful and perverted sex has become in our collective psyche—how we have lost respect for pleasure and respect for those who know about it, all in the name of “morality.” This book is also about money and workers’ rights, and it’s about women. Women who have voices and a great deal to say about our culture, women whose words cut through the discourse and tell the truth about their lives, and ours.

  Frédérique Delacoste

  San Francisco

  July 1998

  The International Sex Workers’ Rights Movement

  As I write this, it is eleven years since Sex Work was originally published, and the terrain of the sex workers’ rights movement has changed a lot in that time. Although we had held two international conferences, one in 1985 and another in 1986, and the United States, Australia, and Brazil had organized some national meetings, communication between organizations in different countries was just beginning when Sex Work appeared.

  The biggest growth in the organized movement has not been in the United States, the movement’s birthplace, but in countries with less puritanical heritages, perhaps. The AIDS epidemic was one influence. Because of AIDS, and substantially because of fear that female prostitutes posed a threat to the heterosexual population, suddenly there was money for studies of prostitutes in many countries. In the United States, COYOTE collaborated with Project AWARE, which was the first study to clearly delineate the risks to sex workers, and to identify these risks as being related to injecting drug use and personal relationships, not to sex work, per se. Most researchers, however, would repeatedly fail to understand what prostitution was, and would continue to justify their research on the basis of protection of customers, not the female sex workers themselves, and it was a long time before anyone looked at male prostitutes. Or clients, for that matter, who, when researchers did look at them, turned out not to be at risk of HIV infection because of their patronage of sex workers in industrial countries, and proved to be at substantially less risk than the prostitutes they hire in places like Kenya, India, and Thailand.

  In the U.S., only one project created by prostitutes was actually funded to do AIDS-related work: California Prostitutes Education Project (CAL-PEP) in the San Francisco Bay Area. The laws about nonprofit organizations and political pressure for law reform in the U.S. meant that CAL-PEP, under the direction of Gloria Lockett, had to remain nonpolitical in order to continue to receive government and/or foundation money, and COYOTE, which was political, remained unfunded. In Canada, sex workers in Toronto were funded by the government to work on AIDS, including operating a needle exchange long before any were legally organized in the U.S. Toronto’s Prostitutes Safe Sex Project, which was fortunate enough to have Danny Cockerline to produce incredible literature, eventually became Maggie’s, a safe place for sex workers as well as an HIV/AIDS prevention project, while the political activity was the purview of Canadians Organized for the Rights of Prostitutes (CORP).

  In Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and West Germany, on the other hand, the government funded existing sex workers’ rights organizations and provided funding to sex workers to develop projects where none existed, in order to prevent AIDS. In those countries, although governments may have been uncomfortable about it, the sex workers’ projects were able to organize politically as well. Australia’s sex workers’ organizations also affiliated with the Australian Federation of AIDS Organizations, which became a powerful lobby in that country, and also formed a national network, the Scarlet Alliance. Because the organizations were funded, they became training grounds for both social service providers and political activists. As a result of several of these organizations’ efforts, several states have reformed their laws, and the state of New South Wales is now in the process of developing its first Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) regulations for sex work businesses. In New Zealand, the NZ Prostitutes Collectives have also influenced government policy discussions, and it is likely that some or all states will reform their laws
in the foreseeable future.

  Looking at Europe, in Germany there are sex workers’ rights organizations in many cities, including Hydra in Berlin, HWG in Frankfurt, Phoenix in Hannover, and Madonna in Bochum, which were able to contribute to the reform of mandatory testing laws, for example. The H.W.G. hosted a national conference in 1990, and then an international conference in 1991, which was the first time women from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and other East European countries were able to participate.

  In the Netherlands, where prostitution, per se, is decriminalized, the government has been discussing reform of the laws covering sex work establishments. The Dutch government has taken what they consider to be a pragmatic approach to both prostitution and drug use, and was one of the first governments to authorize needle exchanges. Their health ministry worked closely with De Rode Draad, the sex workers’ rights group in Amsterdam, with the result that the health ministry developed good, nonjudgmental, noncoercive health promotion projects for sex workers, and De Rode Draad was free to focus on other issues full time. Most of these organizations hired both sex workers and non-sex workers, and although the alliances were sometimes tense, those partnerships have broadened the range of voices speaking out for law reform.

  In 1989, I was invited to work on the issue of sex work and AIDS by the World Health Organization’s Global Programme on AIDS. Although my purview was so-called “developing” countries, I was able to work closely with sex workers’ organizations in Europe to establish guidelines for sex worker-supportive policies and projects. While I was there, the Global Programme on AIDS gave a small grant to the Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), founded by Cheryl Overs, who was able to organize the first formal meetings of sex workers to be held at the International Conference on AIDS, in Amsterdam in 1992. The NSWP established communications with many sex work-focused HIV/AIDS prevention projects around the world, and provided technical assistance to many countries that wanted to set up sex work projects. One of the most exciting projects, in Calcutta, encouraged the sex workers to form a collective to focus on their self-defined issues.