Radical Women

Radical women are my heroes. Everyone one of them . . . from Mother Jones to Rachel Corrie.

I've had the pleasure of working with some radical women in the sex industry. The Lusty Lady was full of them. Many were vegan, didn't drive, wore thrift store clothes, and were extremely politcal. I was working at the Lusty during the last election and I remember a couple of the dancers wrote "Vote Nader" on various parts of their bodies and worked all day like that. The customers seemed to appreciate their creativity . . . even if they did not agree with their choice of candidate. I was impressed that management didn't make the girls take off the writing.

The San Francisco Lusty Lady has a lot of radical women there too. They are the only unionized peep show in the world. I recommend the movie "Live Nude Girls Unite," which is a documentary about the San Franciso Lusty Lady unionizing.

Unfortunately, the recent economic down turn has taken its toll on The Lusty Lady and the San Francisco location recently closed--or at least the former management blamed it on the current American economic state. However, I just heard from our friend Tommy Tompkins of the San Francisco Bay Guardian that the dancers bought out the owners and are due to re-open it shortly. Hopefully, the Seattle Lusty will hang in there.

When I worked at Exotic Tan, I met an incredible woman. She was an activist from Israel. She was Arab and sympathized with both the Israeli people and the Palestineans . . . although she despised the Israeli government.

She spent some time in the occupied territory and told me that I could never imagine how horrible it was there. She also described to me in detail how horrible it was when a suicide bomber killed himself/herself, along with several other people.

When we worked together, she often sat on the floor and I noticed that she rocked back and forth a lot and was quite jumpy at loud noises or sudden movements. I thought she might suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

I only worked with this woman for a month or so. She was just in the states for a while visiting some friends. She told me that she dreaded going back. She was a Pro Dom (Professional Dominatrix) in Israel and told me that she and a partner (woman) had rented a space and started a small dungeon there. The business was small, but growing and she made decent money, considering the economy.

As I'm sure you'd guess, the sex industry is a lot different in Israel than it is in the states. She told me that she could be killed for what she did there and was constantly worried that her identity would be revealed (as she was also a public activist).

A couple of her clients were Israeli soldiers. She told me that one of the soldiers felt great remorse for the people that he killed. During one particular session, he wanted to be punished for the atrocities he had committed. He asked her to stick his gun up his ass, which she did.

There were other stories that she told me . . . some made me want to cry.

The last night we worked together, we didn't talk much. I walked her home after work and gave her a big hug goodbye and thanked her for sharing so much with me. Her eyes caught me off guard. They were so beautiful. I couldn't help but think of all the terrible images those eyes had seen . . . and were to see. I felt almost guilty for not experiencing such things.

How unfortunate that so many people suffer, while others are oblivious.

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