Hi there everyone,
Apologies for leaving it so long before posting my first update. It's been quite the year since getting this crowdfunder launched - I've been up to all kinds of mischief, such as performing with the Sex Worker's Opera in Amsterdam on their final sell out international tour, appearing on TV with Piers flippin' Morgan to try and talk a bit of sense and logic into the hysterical tabloid conversation about feminism, performing with Gypsy Charms for the second year in a row at the Edinburgh Fringe, mobilising strippers to join a trade union and fight for their employment rights, protesting outside Parliament (again) to say no to further criminalising sex work, writing articles for Metro and Dazed, and doing more press interviews than I can shake a 6 inch heel at.
Update on the book - it's on the way! About time too - we're aiming to get it published by the end of this year to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 (the current law that regulates strip clubs in the UK). I want to use the book and the publicity it may generate to highlight the problem of feminists campaigning to get strip clubs shut down, and help keep the public discourse about sex workers' rights moving forward.
In order to make that happen we had to change things around a bit at Unbound, and so decided to publish in paperback rather than hardback, as it's easier and quicker to get the book out there. This means if you pledged for a hardback, you'll get a paperback instead - apologies if this is inconvenient. It will still be a limited edition copy and you're name will still be listed as a patron (plus I'll sign all the paperback copies pledged through the crowdfunding page to make up for the change of plan). Anyone who really isn't happy is welcome to withdraw their pledge by emailing support@unbound.com, and I won't be offended :-)
As for writing, I promised a while ago I would publish an excerpt from the book - so here goes:
Something has gone very wrong when a fully grown adult female is made to feel bad for having had physical contact with another adult in supposedly private surroundings, regardless of the gender division or economic power dynamic. In twelve years I've not once worked in a club that dealt with touching between dancers and customers well, without using shaming and censure to implement the rules. I’ve never been taken aside by a reasonable and sympathetic manager to discuss the issue with care and consideration. There’s really only two approaches; either turn a blind eye, in which case there is inevitably a failure of duty of care to protect dancers from unwanted contact and word gets around that the club offers contact dances so it becomes the norm. Or an over-the-top autocratic management style where club security are often given too much authority to micromanage and intimate dancers in order to discourage them, leaving customers feeling disturbed and unlikely to return.
Travelling around to work in different clubs, across a number of cities in different countries, meant that I encountered rules and regulations that varied from club to club. For a while I was at Stringfellows, Paris, an incredibly snobbish club where workers were all constantly looking down their noses at each other, succeeding only in bringing the energy down to a rather low ebb. Touching was especially taboo there, whorephobia was a given. Private dances were performed in a communal VIP area decked out to look like a sumptuous Rococo salon with low divans for customers to sit on. I was performing a private striptease and struggling in my teetering heels, and since there were no arms of chairs or sides of booths to use for balance, my only option was to reach up so my fingertips just touched the ceiling giving me an anchor point. I turned round to show the customer my back and bum, and lowered myself into the classic bump and grind move in his lap. My legs were taking the full strain and I was exhausted, it had been a busy night so I allowed myself to actually sit in the guys crotch, closing my eyes and giving myself permission to momentarily enjoy the few seconds of relief and human contact. I was wrenched out of the moment when one of the enormous security guards who was patrolling the dance area yelled at me. “TOUCHE PAS, EH?” was his remonstration, looking at me with pure disdain and leaving me feeling like a fucking school kid.
Hashtag not-all-bouncers of course, there were some good guys over the years and certainly they were only working within the limitations of their licensing regime. But it only adds insult to injury when the very security staff who are employed for our protection become our fascistic overseers, especially when the house fees we pay to the club are going directly into their wage packets. It is a huge error on behalf of the local licensing authorities to expect business owners, who they suspect of misogyny, corruption and unsavoury practises, to implement rules with due regard for the needs of dancers. In my mind, passing on the work of regulating the industry to the people you trust least of all to uphold welfare does a great disservice to the group of vulnerable female workers your policy is supposedly designed to safeguard.
That's a little taster, and there's plenty more juicy morsels pouring out onto the pages of my laptop, while I'm on writing retreat in Australia.
If you haven't already seen it, I'll leave you with this weird video of me putting an appearance on morning TV with Piers Morgan to argue about stripping and feminism. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKaU7vFXN20
Thanks for reading
Stacey x