Film Review: "Live Nude Girls Unite!"

The main purpose of the film Live Nude Girls Unite! is to show that sex work is a legitimate line of work despite its stigmatization in American society. The film effectively proves its thesis by showing the unionization efforts of women at The Lusty Lady peep show in San Francisco, California. Overall, the movie serves to humanize women who are usually looked down upon for working in the sex industry.

One convincing way that Live Nude Girls Unite! humanizes sex workers is by showing that The Lusty Lady strippers face difficulties with management like other lines of work face. Prior to unionization, management at The Lusty Lady actually appears to be harsher than supervisors in other lines of work. At the time, the girls were knocked down several dollars in pay if they were a few minutes late to work or missed a meeting. They did not have any sick days, and if they had to miss a shift, it was their duty to find someone else to take work for them. The woman filling in had to have hair like theirs or lighter, breasts their size or bigger, and the same color skin. These requirements make the girls feel discriminated against if they do not have large breasts and light hair. The requirements moreover provide systemic difficulties to women of color in the industry, who have to often work when they are sick because few women have dark skin in their industry so there is no one to take their shift. The women are also pressured to meet quotas, or else they may be fired. The anxieties that women at the Lusty Lady go through with management aim to humanize the stigmatized strippers by showing they have emotions and rights like anyone else. Revealing these issues additionally shows that stripping shares similarities to other lines of work, because having issues with management is common in many modes of work.

The management difficulties that the women went through caused them to fight for unionization to secure their rights at work. This dispute was another strong argument to show that sex work is a legitimate line of work that deserves a personal face like any other. The women felt compelled to fight for racial equality, sick pay, health insurance, contracts for wages, and to protect them from being fired unjustly because of the harsh climate at The Lusty Lady. The unionization process proved to be lengthy and exhaustive for the women, who spent several hours each week (outside of their normal work day) to work on various union contracts. They worked for over six months to write a fair contract that both the strippers and the club’s management would agree to. This process resulted in a week-long strike between the strippers and the management, because it was difficult for the parties to each feel satisfied with the proposed contracts; the management felt the proposed contracts were too protective for the dancers, while the women feared the contracts were not protective enough. The strippers’ unionization process was effective in showing a human side to the women and showing similarities to other jobs, because it is common for employees to feel they have to fight for their rights.

The strippers’ fight for unionization reminded me of TristanTaormino’s work in feminist porn. Taormino creates porn that aims to empower women and men in the industry. She establishes ethical, consensual working conditions for all actors, where workers set their own pay and activities (Taormino par. 10). I find similarities between this work and the strippers’ unionization because the strippers in the film were also aiming to improve their working conditions, ethics, and pay. Taormino aspires to empower viewers and actors in the porn industry, which is what the women in Live Nude Girls Unite! likewise did through writing their union contract.

The film moreover reminded me of blogger Margo DeMello’s article “Humanizing Sex Workers?”  In the article, DeMello writes about an ad campaign called “Stepping Stone” in Canada, which advocates for the humanization of prostitutes by providing advertisements that show that prostitutes are not just prostitutes; they are mothers, daughters, brothers, and sons, too  (DeMello par. 2). DeMello explains that dehumanizing sex workers is dangerous, as well. Their stigmatization in Canada results in a “mortality rate 40 times higher than the Canadian national average” (par. 3). Furthermore, it is not uncommon for prostitutes’ murders to go unsolved because of the societal expectation that their work will lead to “grisly deaths” and being “buried like trash” (par. 4). DeMello’s article exposes the fatal dangers of dehumanizing sex workers, which moreover shows why it was so vital that the Lusty Lady workers fought for unionization. Their union contracts hopefully made them seem more like individuals instead of just sexual beings without a brain or rights. This should help them in not being exploited in the future, like many sex workers typically are.

There were no arguments or points of the film that felt unconvincing towards the overall argument about humanizing sex work. I felt that the women in Live Nude Girls Unite! adequately showed that they are people outside of their job at the club, despite the stigmatization of their work.

 Live Nude Girls Unite! made me think about similarities between sex workers and other “mainstream” workers. I could plan a research project around this point by comparing and contrasting how sex workers and mainstream workers view themselves as employees. I would split interviewees into two categories: sex workers (strippers and porn stars who are stigmatized in society) and mainstream workers (retail, teachers, waiters, etcetera who are accepted as legitimate jobs in society). I would interview two equal-sized groups of each category and ask them questions about how they see themselves as people and employees. This would show if there is any relationship between how a sex worker views him/herself and their job versus how a mainstream worker perceives him/herself and their job.

The movie Live Nude Girls Unite! is highly relatable to a sociological deviance course. Like most other deviant acts, sex work is incredibly stigmatized in American society. People often believe that dancers work with their bodies and sexuality instead of with their brain. This idea dehumanizes strippers and may explain why management at The Lusty Lady treated their workers so poorly. The negative social constructions and master statuses surrounding sex workers show that society dislikes an open showing of women’s sexuality and prefers work that involves mental strain instead of physical.

Works Cited

DeMello, Margo. "Humanizing Sex Workers?" The Society Pages. W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 12 Oct. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2012.

Live Nude Girls Unite! Dir. Vicky Funari and Julia Query. YouTube. YouTube LLC, 10 Oct. 2010. Web. 3 Apr. 2012.

Taormino, Tristan. "What Is Feminist Porn?" Pucker Up. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2012.