Sex Workers Art Show

TUCSON – Renowned performers from around the world convened Feb. 1 in hopes of smashing negative stereotypes about the sex industry.

The Sex Workers Art Show stopped in Tucson for one evening of its monthlong national tour to perform burlesque, short stories, and drag cabaret intending to reveal the realities of prostitution. The 10 p.m. performance brought a few hundred people to the Space on East Congress Street.

“People are talented in different ways,” said Dan McCormick, 33. “I think this will open people’s eyes.”

Though lauded by students, hipsters and crossdressers in downtown Tucson, the program met religious opposition at Bucknell College last spring, and at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. last week.

United Families International, who did not attend the protests but support the American Family Association’s boycott of the Sex Workers Art Show, argued that using taxpayer dollars to support the mainstreaming of prostitution is a “blight on our country.”

Marcia Barlow, UFI regional director for Pinal and Gila counties, said prostitution is counterproductive to women’s rights, evident in the increased amount of trafficking in countries where it has been legalized.

“Making [prostitution] look like a valid profession is dangerous,” Barlow said. “I think women choose that path because they have no other options.”

The International Union of Sex Workers, however, maintains that prostitution is beneficial to society. According to the website, prostitutes discourage rape by satisfying clients with repressed and confused sexualities, thereby eliminating their propensity to target women on the street.

The union’s official statement demands “an end to social attitudes which stigmatise those who are or have been sex workers.”

In keeping with this demand, the art show’s performers addressed and contradicted common stereotypes associated with sex work.

Writer Amber Dawn, a former prostitute, performed a story titled “The Fisherman,” in which a group of women working at a massage parlor make fun of a large customer and his limpness problem, as though he were an eccentric regular at a convenience store or diner.

In a following burlesque performance, Dirty Martini – with mock excitement – pulled copious amounts of dollar bills from her outfit while dancing to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”

“It showed that sex workers are intelligent people with ideals,” said Clay Letson, a substitute teacher at Satori Charter School.

The Sex Workers Art Show tour will continue through early March, performing at colleges and art galleries across the country.