Whores and Other Feminists
Jill Nagle
Language: English
Pages: 312
ISBN: 0415918227
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Whores and Other Feminists fleshes out feminist politics from the perspective of sex workers--strippers, prostitutes, porn writers, producers and performers, dominatrices--and their allies. Comprising a range of voices from both within and outside the academy, this collection draws from traditional feminisms, postmodern feminism, queer theory, and sex radicalism. It stretches the boundaries of contemporary feminism, holding accountable both traditional feminism for stigmatizing sex workers, and also the sex industry for its sexist practices.
years I was part of a support group consisting of five porn stars, which we called Club 90. For one full evening every three weeks, each of us took a turn to share about our lives. It was a tremendous help and source of strength for all of us, especially when any of us had SWBS. Take good care of your body. Because our jobs involve our bodies, it’s important to eat well, exercise, and get body work. A good massage can do wonders for a worn-out whore or stripper. Again, it’s best to have a
themselves as heterosexual also show the ways in which the performance of sex work queers heterosexuality. In the August 1992 issue of Sassy, the now-defunct feminist-inspired teen magazine, an intrepid reporter interviews topless dancers at Stringfellows, a highbrow New York City nightclub. The article earnestly seeks to give sex workers a voice; at one point the author objects to the ways in which access to the dancers is controlled by the management and laments the fact that her interaction
Prostitutes want the right to travel across state and national boundaries and to obtain work permits on the same basis as other immigrant workers. Perhaps most of all, they want the laws against coercion—including rape and other sexual or physical assault, kidnapping, extortion, false imprisonment, and fraud—enforced against their abusers. Human-rights violations are not individual crimes committed by “bad guys” outside on the street, be they clients, lovers, pimps, or vigilantes; they are
wig. Surely, not all men would keel over dead, At the sight of my crewcut, spiky and (occasionally) red. But intellect sure scares a pig. And so I wear a big red wig. I guess they think the weight on my head, Suffocates my mind and makes me brain-dead. Extremely high heels and hair that’s big, Are reassuringly feminine to your average pig. I wouldn’t want to challenge the preconceptions In their heads—Goddess forbid! Was it something I said? Anyway, I wear a wig. It’s easier than
interact sexually with men on a professional basis, I suspect sex work may in some respects be easier for lesbians, since they can look at men as potential clients and not as potential lovers, and do not have to make the tricky intracategory distinctions required of heterosexual and bisexual women. Conversely, working as a pro dom has given me a higher regard for women. In my early life I was never close to women and I never grasped the sense of victimization and powerlessness that many women