Last night I attended the screening of the documentary "In Our Own Image: Sex Worker Produced Media & The Story of $pread Magazine" This was the description of the film,
What happens when sex workers become not just the subjects of media gaze, but reporters and publishers of sex trade news? This documentary short looks at $pread Magazine, an example of sex worker-made media, and discusses its aim to change the way media itself approaches sex work. Followed by a panel/discussion on sex worker rights media, movements and legislation.
I was curious when I saw this description because of my association with Sex Work Awareness and the work they are doing with sex worker made media. I attended the screening with Audacia Ray who is a former executive editor of $pread Magazine.
Since becoming a sex worker ally I now find when I attend an event that is sex worker related I have come to know several of the people there and last night was no different. I saw several people who I've met over the past months at different functions. There seems to be a core group of people in the city who all have the same mission. Sex workers rights.
There was a good size crowd as I arrived and it wasn't long before the film was beginning. I took my seat with great anticipation to see what I would take away this evening and use in my day to day life as a sex worker ally. But it was only a few minutes before I started to feel both confused and frustrated. To a point that I took out a notepad and pen to take notes on this film.
This was the story of $pread magazine. What it meant to a community and how it was produced. I sat there thinking to myself "but where is Audacia and others?" If this film is about sex workers producing their own media with comments from others within the sex worker community why was she not quoted in the film. Someone who not only worked on $pread magazine but is currently working on educating both sex workers and allies in creating their own media messages with Sex Work Awareness.
When the movie ended it was followed by a panel/discussion on sex worker rights media, movements and legislation.
Panelists:
Andrea Ritchie, esq.: Civil Rights attorney and Director, Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center
Louise Cheung: current Photo Editor of $pread magazine, involved with the magazine for the past 2 1/2 years.
Ignacio Rivera: Queer, gender-shifting, Trans- Entity, Black Boricua performance artist, activist, sex educator and sex worker. Ignacio is founder of Poly Patao Productions and founding board member of Queers for Economic Justice.
It was at this point I began to shake my head and wonder if I was now better informed about sex worker media than I had realized. Earlier that evening while waiting for Dacia after work I was catching up on my twitter feed and saw the link to something Melissa Gira Grant had written that day titled The Craigslist Sex Panic. Her article was one of the best I have read since Craigslist announced they were doing away with their erotic services section. I talk about this because the Craigslist issue was brought up by one of the panelist during the discussion and it barely touched on the issues like Melissa had who also just happened to be in the audience that night. I don't know how to put into words the frustrations I felt as I listened to what was being said and knowing that what I had read earlier that evening online had left me better informed than what I was hearing at that point.
I then waited for the media portion of the panel and discussion thinking this was why I was there. To hear how others were using sex worker produced media to change the perceptions of sex workers and work toward improving sex worker rights. I either missed it or it never happened. Louise Cheng spoke briefly about $pread Magazine explaining how it gave sex workers a voice in the media they wouldn't normally have. The discussion then turned to Andrea Ritchie speaking about the laws that SWP is working to have changed in the State of New York. Laws such as changing that law enforcement can no longer use condoms as evidence for arrests which I have talked about in another post here.
I think this part is what frustrated me the most. It was something I have heard about before at functions I have attended. What was frustrating is that the people who attended this screening seemed to be people who are already in the sex worker community as either sex workers, former sex workers or sex worker allies. It appeared we were listening to basic sex worker info that all of us already knew.
To me this seemed like a wasted opportunity to better educate this audience. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm out in left field about this but having just seen the PDF of the Speak Up! materials online I wondered why no one was talking about it. The people who were in that room and involved in creating both the film and event know Dacia and know what Sex Work Awareness is doing. I didn't understand why if this was a discussion about sex worker media why this was not at least being mentioned.
Something that has confused me all these months is how at times it feels as if all these different organizations do not work together. Each one targets a specific need for sex workers and they all on their own do an amazing job but at times like last night when it would have been fantastic to combine these organizations I was both confused and frustrated why that didn't happen. Maybe I'm just just wrong here and don't understand the entire picture but the audience last night missed out on an opportunity to learn more about sex workers producing their own message by media. That is a shame because the information was right there in that room with all of them.
I sat there frustrated and thought to myself if you can't get these people to work together or cross educate within their own community how do you educate everyone else outside of it and change their perception of sex workers. I know I don't have the answer for that question.
This film will be screening this next week at the Sex Worker Film, Art & Musical Festival in San Francisco along with the PSA I am a sex worker. Although this post is somewhat of a rant of my frustrations and confusion the film itself was good. It was informative about $pread and basic sex worker information. I just think so much more could have been learned by everyone last night.
Now for the best part of the evening. As the film began to play and it showed different shots out of the blue up popped your truly, me in the film.
Yes, that is correct.
I had no idea until I saw myself that I was in this film.
Life does always seem to have a strange twist for me.
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5 comments:
were you in a 'crowd shot' or more featured in the shot? It's bizarre that you didn't know you were in it.
As to the rest, I am way too ignorant to comment, but am impressed with how much you've learned in a relatively short time.
Something that has confused me all these months is how at times it feels as if all these different organizations do not work together. Each one targets a specific need for sex workers and they all on their own do an amazing job but at times like last night when it would have been fantastic to combine these organizations I was both confused and frustrated why that didn't happen.I feel your pain. I didn't realize how fragmented and airish the sex worker movement as a whole is until I started working on a project that I naively thought would be a grand slam.
It's come to my attention that there is no real synchronization of effort and too many different folks doing too many different things to be of any serious impact systemically to help SWs.
Not only that, but they seem happy with their divergent paths at this point in time, so I'm not sure what can be done to bring all these folks together and get them not only singing off the same sheet of music, but singing in the same key.
As someone who was also there, there are parts of this I agree with and others I don'
t. I agree that the oversight of some founding members of the movement (Or at least $pread) as I understand it, people like Audacia, was puzzling. Also, the panel didn't seem to be that cohesive, and the dialog wasn't necessarily well-facilitated amongst the panelists. Since the film was more educational than introspective or something that applied a deeply critical lens, I don't know that there was really a lot for the panelist to riff off, and thus their speaking seemed a bit more like a prepared statement sort of thing.
I also agree that there wasn't really a discussion about other sex-worker made media, but I think that was more a reflection of the experiences and priorities of the people on the panel and what they chose to highlight/ how comfortable and/or knowledgeable they were about the spectrum of available media, than an outright snub. I think that, given more time and a more focused lens, the depth of conversation you wanted might have been possible, but my understanding of the event was that it was a little thrown together, and potentially it wasn’t structured as effectively as it could have been. With that in mind, I think even if people had had really critical things to say about the Craigslist issue, there wasn't really the time to suss it out. We also can’t assume that everyone has the same level of awareness or access to types of information.
I take issue with your assumption that everyone there already knew everything and that no one really learned anything. It was something I have heard about before at functions I have attended. What was frustrating is that the people who attended this screening seemed to be people who are already in the sex worker community as either sex workers, former sex workers or sex worker allies. It appeared we were listening to basic sex worker info that all of us already knew.
The reality is that while you might have known some of these people's backgrounds, the blanket statement is a dangerous one. Personally, I learned a lot about legislation and its impact on intersecting communities (i.e. sex worker communities, communities of color, etc). I also gained insight about the longer-term effects of the Spitzer scandal. Based on the comments from people there and the questions that were asked, there seemed to be a pretty broad cross-section of experiences, opinions, and education levels on the matter. I don't think you can assume that people there were all in one group, and that therefore there was no cross-education happening. You feeling like you knew the information does not mean that everyone else knew it.
There’s also a level of privilege that has to be acknowledged when we talk about this. A person’s level of exposure to these issues may be dictated strongly by their situation. You and I have economic and social privilege, as well as educational privilege that informs and facilitates easy access to this information and activists within this community. We have safe and flexible spaces to explore the issues and the time and resources to do it. And as allies and activists, it’s important to keep a critical eye on the way that privilege informs our work and assumptions we make about spaces we enter.
That said, I think there is a lot of work to be done to bring together different parts of the sex-worker community, and that you're right, things seems disjointed in this movement. The US is not a leader in terms of sex-work advocacy and organizing by any means. $pread seems like a good place to start, since there are differing factions within the community and $pread professes not to take a side, instead giving voice to all kinds of opinions. There are opportunities to reach out and begin making those connections, one person at a time, and that will be the challenge we face in moving things forward.
Natt,
I think you are misunderstanding what I was saying. My point is that many of the people (not all) are aware of that info and that for the size of the group there it was a missed opportunity to better inform them including those that already knew what was said and those that didn't. I am not saying that they should not have spoken about what they did but that there was more information out there that should have been included and that was a shame.
It was a sex worker media function that barely spent anytime speaking about that. As far as the experiences of the panelist or the event being thrown together at the last minute that is part of my point. If the panelist were not able to speak of it then they should have had at least one person who could or postponed the event until it they had more time to put it together.
It just seems counterproductive to me when you bring together a group that size and don't take full advantage of the opportunity when there were people there who could have provided that information.
I also don't feel anyone was intentionally snubbed but that it is more of an example of how organizations don't take advantage of what the other ones have to offer.
Diva
I was not there, so cannot speak to what went on there..
I do think you point up an issue: much of the time we (sex workers and allies) are working to make sex workers not the bad guy in a public situation. It's unfortunate and (seems to me) c0unter productive.. But it IS. SWA, Dacia, Elyanna, you... the sex workers present at the first Speak Up! I think have a different perspective.
You are right... we don't work together... I think what Dacia (et al) have started will foster more of that.
I truly hope it will...
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