If you would like to learn more about the status of the world's only unionized and cooperatively-owned peepshow or donate to it's fundraising campaign please click here: LL Fundraiser page
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Afterward: The Lusty Lady and Me
Since posting my "The Lusty Lady and Me" entry two days ago there seems to be a flurry of misunderstanding. While for some the polarity of the vote did create an antagonistic schism, from which some, not all, people reacted aggressively towards one another, giving implied and amplified meaning in their actions. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I voted how I did because that vote seemed the safer route for me, not because I was against anything or anyone. While I have decided as an individual, not as part of a group of dissenters, to leave the co-op and the Lusty Lady business, it is not for lack of solidarity with those who have chosen to stay and who have stepped up or out of contempt for my fellow Lusties. With law school on the horizon and other jobs and projects taking larger chunks of my life I simply do not have the time or the endurance to be physically in the thick of it, but from afar I have my fingers crossed for those who have chosen to rally and step up.
Monday, May 7, 2012
The Lusty Lady and Me
Just to make things clear: The Lusty Lady is NOT closing. Well, at least not immediately. If you've been following Lusty Lady workers on the interwebs the past few weeks you'll certainly have sensed something has been up. While I don't believe I have the right to go into great depth into our business details or specific emotional roller coasters, I would like to explain where I lay.
For generations of dancers and support staff workers the Lusty Lady theater has been a beacon of sexual, feminist, and political progressiveness and fluidity and the jumping point for other ventures. It's where I learned to love my curvy body, started to really figure out my sexual identity, strengthened my administration and communal action skills, discovered alternative relationship models, and found my voice as a real person with real agency. My, and other's, complete immersion into 1033 Kearny Steet has resulted in the most wonderful, stressful, infuriating, and rewarding months and years of our lives, none of which any of us are ever willing or hoping to suppress or forget.
Over the past few weeks a giant schism has formed within the cooperative regarding the future of our historic and beloved business, which is resulting in a wave of workers, including myself, walking away. I want it to be known that the Lusties leaving the Lady are NOT walking away from it's rich memory of camaraderie and perseverance during cooperization or landmark status of being the only unionized sex work business' within the United States, but simply from a disintegrating system and hostile working environment within a failing business model.
In this long process of decline feelings on both sides have been deeply hurt and the weight of financial and sweat equity is heavy upon us all, I would like to note that I wish those who are choosing to continue with the Lusty Lady theater and the Looking Glass collective much love, luck and happiness. While I can sadly no longer claim to be a peepshow princess Sandy Bottoms will continue to sing highly of The Lusty Lady theater.
___________________________________
Afterward:
Since posting my "The Lusty Lady and Me" entry two days ago there seems to be a flurry of misunderstanding. While for some the polarity of the vote did create an antagonistic schism, from which some, not all, people reacted aggressively towards one another, giving implied and amplified meaning in their actions. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I voted how I did because that vote seemed the safer route for me, not because I was against anything or anyone. While I have decided as an individual, not as part of a group of dissenters, to leave the co-op and the Lusty Lady business, it is not for lack of solidarity with those who have chosen to stay and who have stepped up or out of contempt for my fellow Lusties. With law school on the horizon and other jobs and projects taking larger chunks of my life I simply do not have the time or the endurance to be physically in the thick of it, but from afar I have my fingers crossed for those who have chosen to rally and step up.
For generations of dancers and support staff workers the Lusty Lady theater has been a beacon of sexual, feminist, and political progressiveness and fluidity and the jumping point for other ventures. It's where I learned to love my curvy body, started to really figure out my sexual identity, strengthened my administration and communal action skills, discovered alternative relationship models, and found my voice as a real person with real agency. My, and other's, complete immersion into 1033 Kearny Steet has resulted in the most wonderful, stressful, infuriating, and rewarding months and years of our lives, none of which any of us are ever willing or hoping to suppress or forget.
Over the past few weeks a giant schism has formed within the cooperative regarding the future of our historic and beloved business, which is resulting in a wave of workers, including myself, walking away. I want it to be known that the Lusties leaving the Lady are NOT walking away from it's rich memory of camaraderie and perseverance during cooperization or landmark status of being the only unionized sex work business' within the United States, but simply from a disintegrating system and hostile working environment within a failing business model.
In this long process of decline feelings on both sides have been deeply hurt and the weight of financial and sweat equity is heavy upon us all, I would like to note that I wish those who are choosing to continue with the Lusty Lady theater and the Looking Glass collective much love, luck and happiness. While I can sadly no longer claim to be a peepshow princess Sandy Bottoms will continue to sing highly of The Lusty Lady theater.
___________________________________
Afterward:
Since posting my "The Lusty Lady and Me" entry two days ago there seems to be a flurry of misunderstanding. While for some the polarity of the vote did create an antagonistic schism, from which some, not all, people reacted aggressively towards one another, giving implied and amplified meaning in their actions. I would like to make it explicitly clear that I voted how I did because that vote seemed the safer route for me, not because I was against anything or anyone. While I have decided as an individual, not as part of a group of dissenters, to leave the co-op and the Lusty Lady business, it is not for lack of solidarity with those who have chosen to stay and who have stepped up or out of contempt for my fellow Lusties. With law school on the horizon and other jobs and projects taking larger chunks of my life I simply do not have the time or the endurance to be physically in the thick of it, but from afar I have my fingers crossed for those who have chosen to rally and step up.
If you would like to learn more about the status of the world's only unionized and cooperatively-owned peepshow or donate to it's fundraising campaign please click here: LL Fundraiser page
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