The Sex Workers' Art Show comes to Ohio University tonight to expose the human side of America's $12 billion sex industry.
The free show, at 8 p.m. in Seigfred Hall's Mitchell Auditorium, is a combination of performance art, burlesque, spoken word and visual art. It features pieces by people in all areas of the sex industry, from strippers and prostitutes to film stars and phone sex operators.
The goal of the show is to present sex workers as multifaceted people
said Annie Oakley, director and curator.
Oakley, who has a stage name, founded the show nine years ago because she was frustrated with the way people responded when she told them she stripped for a living. Oakley wasn't making enough money in the food industry when she decided to strip, she said. Americans are consuming sex at a veracious rate and for them to be ignorant of those in the sex industry is in my mind
criminal
Oakley said. We consume sex so much and don't want to know about the people who give it to us.
Oakley said she hopes the show will upset the stereotypes people have about the sex industry. These stereotypes include: Sex workers are anti-feminist, willingly degrading themselves; they are survivors of abuse or drug addicts. These generalizations are often myths, rooted in racism, classism and sexism, she said.
The show breaks these stereotypes by portraying sex workers as not just strippers or prostitutes but people with a whole range of feeling about life and the sex industry
Oakley said.
Originating in Olympia, Wash., The Sex Workers' Art Show has been touring the nation for the last four years, presenting both the positive and negative sides of the sex industry.
Student groups, including the Federation of United Queers and The Lost Flamingo Company, joined forces with the OU School of Art, LGBT Programs Center, Women's Studies program and the Student Activities Commission to bring the tour to Athens.
The show is a good venue to discuss important issues about the sex industry and the stigmas attached
said Elliot Long, member of the Federation of United Queers and one of the main coordinators for the event. It's important to see (the artists') perceptions of gender
racism
sexual orientation and the struggles that they face.
Kristen Keyes, an Athens resident, has helped promote the show with the hope that it will dispel some of the myths surrounding sex work.
Most sex workers view themselves as struggling artists, writers or students first and sex workers second, Keyes said.
Some of the artists featured in this year's show include: author Michelle Tea; filmmaker Bridget Irish; Scarlot Harlot, founder of the prostitutes' rights movement and Simone de la Getto, director of the only existing black burlesque troupe, Harlem Shake Burlesque.
It's important to be exposed to different art forms and forms of expression as a part of your college experience
Long said.
