Whorephobia
Strippers on Art, Work, and Life
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- 13,99 €
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- 13,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
Illuminating accounts of how stripping and sex work informs writers’ experiences of friendship, motherhood, teaching, working, creating art, and activism.
No one knows more than strippers about being looked at: as objects of desire, objects of curiosity, as angels or Jezebels or hookers with hearts of gold. In this anthology, twenty-three dancers whose careers span decades, geographies, and identities demand to be seen. Through stories from first nights on the job to the day they hung up their sky-high heels—or decided they never will—these writers offer glimpses into lives of camaraderie and celebration, joy, pride, despair, frustration, self-doubt, and fear.
Their unfiltered perspectives on their lives, onstage and off, are a powerful counternarrative to the whorephobia that shrouds the conventional portrayals of strippers in crime movies, TV shows, music videos, newspaper articles, and legislative debates. Each of these illuminating essays and interviews peels away tired myths and salacious speculation and presents the naked truth: that sex work is real work and strippers are real people.
Contributors:
Cookie Mueller • Kathy Acker • Jo Weldon • Susan McMullen • Maggie Estep • Chris Kraus • Jodi Sh. Doff • Terese Pampellonne • Jill Morley • Susan Walsh • Debi Kelly Van Cleave • Elissa Wald • Essence Revealed • Sassy Penny • Jacq Frances • Reese Piper • Lindsay Byron • The Incredible, Edible Akynos • Antonia Crane • Lily Burana • A M Davies • Kayla Tange • Selena the Stripper
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Filmmaker Borden presents a diverse and authentic anthology of autobiographical essays by strippers. Drawing on her experiences making the 1986 feature film Working Girls, Borden begins with stories focused on New York City strip clubs in the 1980s and '90s, where women made a precarious living by dancing on stage and persuading customers to enter seedy VIP rooms. As the collection progresses, however, Borden includes more recent and unusual accounts, including Reese Piper's musings on how her autism is sometimes easier to navigate as a stripper than it is in regular life; the Incredible, Edible Akynos's reflections on the sex industry and Blackness; and AM Selena's stories of performing sex work as an amputee. Each piece is paired with an interview—conducted by Borden or another contributor—with the author (or someone close to her if she has died), providing intriguing details about each performer's background and offering a window into the supportive relationships among sex industry peers. Most of the women featured are activists, writers, or artists, and they excel at narrating their own stories and evoking the atmosphere of the clubs and digital spaces where they've performed. The result is a humane, multidimensional portrait of an industry typically shrouded in artifice and shame.
