Commentary
Organizing
Sex Work

Letter from The Feminist Strip Club

By |

Many of the articles featured today on Workday Minnesota are also published in Issue 1 of The Grind!

The Grind is a publication of The Feminist Strip Club (FSC), a group of current and former Twin Cities-based erotic dancers who explore the present conditions of and utopian visions for the stripping industry.

The FSC started meeting in March 2019 with support from the Target Studio for Creative Collaboration at the Weisman Art Museum. In weekly gatherings, we discussed various aspects of erotic dancing and considered how we could promote respect for dancing as a profession.

During this same time, the City of Minneapolis has been considering changes to ordinances that regulate live adult entertainment. The possibility of regulatory change influenced our discussions, and many of the articles in this issue focus on labor conditions and the proposed ordinance changes. Among them, we’re thrilled to include an inside view from a dancer that worked with the City on crafting the proposed changes.

Beyond Minneapolis, we see our work as part of a growing movement of sex worker-led organizations that are seeking to destigmatize and decriminalize sex work of all forms. We’re inspired by actions like the #NYCStripperStrike, Decrim NY, the New Orleans protests led by the Bourbon Alliance of Responsible Entertainers (BARE), and the organizing in California in response to a court ruling that declared all strippers (and other precarious workers) to be employees rather than independent contractors.

The FSC is an artistic and cultural project, and an important thing art can do is create a space for what doesn’t yet exist.

By exploring utopian forms for the strip club industry, we are putting forth a vision for a future where erotic dancing and other forms of sex work are valued and accepted.

In these collection of articles, we look at that through the lens of an ideal workplace. A workplace in which relationships between dancers, customers, and management reflect fundamental changes in how society treats sex workers.

We hope you find this first issue both entertaining and informative. Between hardcopy publications, keep an eye on our website (www.thefeministstripclub.com) for public events and project news. If you’re a dancer who wants to get involved, drop us a line—new participants are always welcome!

Until next time, we’ll see you in the clubs,

The Feminist Strip Club Team

To donate to FSC follow this link:

SUPPORT FSC

By |

Comments are closed.