From Live Nude Girls Unite:
“This first person documentary follows Julia Query, lesbian/stand-up comedian/peepshow-stripper, and daughter of a feminist activist, on her raucous journey to help organize the only union of strippers in the United States. Shot on a variety of formats, Live Nude Girls Unite! weaves backstage and dancing footage with labor organizing, street protests, stand-up comedy and comic-book style “animation” making an intelligent and dramatic cutting-edge film.”
(snip)
“So begins a battle that rocks the sex industry with street protests, lock-outs, and confrontations. Then Julia gets a call from the producers of the First International Conference on Prostitution inviting her to both present about the union and perform her comedy routine. After accepting the invitation, Julia discovers that her mother, Dr. Joyce Wallace, well-known for her pioneering work with prostitutes and AIDS, is also scheduled to present at the conference. In an amazing and painful “coming out” sequence, Julia reveals to her mother that she is a sex-worker fighting to help sex workers, similar to her mother’s efforts to save street-working prostitutes. But Julia’s mother sees them as on the opposite sides of the sex war debates that have rocked the feminist movement for decades. While Dr. Wallace ardently speaks about the victimization of the women she helps, an equally impassioned Julia jokes that as a professional dominatrix she is working for social justice. But Julia’s joking around barely covers up the cracks occurring in the world around her. The union drive is far more difficult and complicated than imagined, spirits are low, and her mother, furious at Julia not only for being a stripper, but also for tainting her professional reputation with the stigma of a sex-worker daughter, is not speaking to her. Live Nude Girls UNITE! brings the parallel stories of unionizing and Julia’s relationship with her mother through to their poignant resolution.”
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Mr. Radical and I recently watched Live Nude Girls Unite! This came out back in 2000 but I hadn’t heard about it until this year. If you haven’t seen this movie I highly recommend it.
After hearing about the working conditions I completely understand why they fought back. The women organized a day of protest at work that results in one of them getting fired. What did they do? They went on strike outside the club until the woman got her job back. The solidarity shown in those scenes got me all teared up.
During the strike the workers hold protest signs and chant protest slogans. My favorite was “Stripper rights are under attack! What do we do? Get dressed, fight back!” Another good one was “Two, four, six, eight, don’t come here to masturbate!”
The scene where Julia confesses to her mother that she’s a sex worker was very powerful. The scene feels tense, emotional and raw. My parents don’t know that I’m a sex worker so I completely understand why she wanted to stay closeted.
The film shows the strippers backstage getting dressed for work. I always get a kick watching sex workers transform into their work personas. It’s fun to see how a tattooed, pierced punk chick turns herself into an ‘all American/girl next door/centerfold’ type.
The film was very inspiring and really showed the power sex workers have when we stick together.
(And for the knitters out there-when the women are waiting in a negotiation room one of them is knitting a scarf. I recognized the pattern and have myself made a scarf using it.)
Posted by Vixen as Activism, Reviews, Sex Workers at 10:10 PM CST