3.1 ~ Documentary of the Week

"Live Nude Girls Unite" (2000)

From Netflix: "This critically acclaimed documentary follows a group of San Francisco exotic dancers who decide to unionize to gain better wages and sick pay and to protect themselves against secret customer videotapes. Julia Query, a dancer at the Lusty Lounge, leads the unionization effort as the workers sort out their demands and go through the difficulties of bargaining with the union-busting law firm their managers hire."

Important note: this movie is SO not safe for work!

So, apparently I'm more familiar with the Lusty Lounge than even I was aware...I once saw a piece about it in Real Sex or some such program with my husband, and it seemed so novel to us we decided then and there that we would open a similar establishment in Miami! Then again, most businesses spark this entrepreneurial spirit in us, but that's not to say it wouldn't be cool. I think I could TOTALLY run a peep show. That seems like it would be just my bag...a career that is fun, sexy, and in control...LOVE IT!

It's crazy though how these girls were being treated before they formed their union! They were scheduled based on their race, they were being videotaped by customers with no protection for their privacy, ridiculous! They risked losing their jobs if they called in sick, because they were only allowed to call in sick in the first place if they could find someone with lighter skin than them AND larger breasts than them to replace them on their shift. Otherwise, their options were work sick, or lose your job.

The part that bothers me most about this whole situation I suppose is that it seems that these girls were treated like this for so long because maybe the owners looked at them as less than first-class citizens BECAUSE they're exotic dancers. I doubt a bunch of secretaries would have stood for the "lighter skin/bigger boobed replacement or you're DONE" rule, an office manager wouldn't even DREAM of enforcing such a requirement. But because we're talking about "sex workers", maybe they felt it was an occupational hazard of sorts, and therefore it was OK to make them work sick under this rule. Maybe they felt they could get away with more because who is going to defend a bunch of strippers?

No one.

They're going to defend THEMSELVES.

The girls got together, hired lawyers, and went through a months long process of back and forth with their managers that were looking after their own interests and hiring lawyers of their own to make it not only legal but TO BE EXPECTED that if you worked in that establishment, you would be held to standards that were discriminatory, and that you might even have to deal with unsafe situations and dangerous clientele.

An eye-opening look at an industry that most of us never really think about, this film is worth watching if only for the opportunity to see the legal process at work and to learn about unions and what they mean to businesses and employees. And, uh, there's a lot of boobies and nether regions to pause on if you're not so interested in all that. ;)