— By Erika Kali |
We heard through the grapevine this morning that the famed Lusty Lady is in distress — their head Madam has quit, as have their entire Board of Directors, leaving them with no real direction or financial aid. Sandy Bottoms, a former member of the board/dancer, blogs about the situation going down:
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.
Sources close to the Lusty Lady and their cadre of Lusties say that to stay alive, they need not only some investments (ahem, $$$), but also some legitimate marketing and some new talent. So if you have some loose cash lying around, are good with Adobe Illustrator or hate your job and have always dreamed of getting naked and shaking your booty, please contact them via Facebook, and do what you can to save this one of a kind San Francisco establishment!
**UPDATE** You can donate directly to the Ladies of Lust HERE to help them with their cause.
Photo via Thomas Hawk
[Thanks, Joshua!]
Comments (12)
I don’t want to argue with the last paragraph (that isn’t ALL the LL needs), but would like to make a factual correction: not every member of the Board of Directors has resigned, one remains.
Bests to all,
Sandy Bottoms
Oh, what, now its cool and edgy to support strip clubs? Give me a fucking break, grow up girl
@Karl Hungus- it’s undeniably cool to support this peep show. the Lusty Lady is THE ONLY CLUB IN THE WORLD cooperatively owned and operated by the women that work there, and that provides it’s dancers and staff regular paychecks, a safe working environment, and the option to buy in and have a say in how their business is run. but i don’t expect you to be able to wrap your tiny mind around just how COOL AND EDGY AS FUCK that is.
Karl, I guess is also EDGY AS FUCK to plagiarize faux adult Finn start names from The Big Lebowski.
Grow up sweetheart.
The Lusty Lady is precisely what diesel lady described it to be. I’m not sure if you’ve ever run a business…but I know I’m damned proud to say I’ve had a hand in the Co-op since 2006.
Being a part of a feminist, unionized, Co-op-worker owned peep show has been one of my proudest accomplishments.
So, yes, we’re “saving strip clubs” now. Because sexual awareness matters, because sexual positivity matters. Because it’s been a safe haven for young people coming of age, learning about who they are. It’s been a place to create everlasting bonds and impressions. Because being a part of something so vast you can’t even begin to comprehend mayters..
Excuse my autocorrect.
I have been a co-op member of the Lusty Lady for about 5 years, and I have served on the Board of Directors at differing times, over the years – as have many Lusty Ladies. The general public may not be aware of how transitional Board positions are – though Board positions have terms, such as one-year terms, it has not been uncommon for a member to step-down from their position on the Board due to other circumstances, and for another member to step up.
I mention this only to make the point that, although many recent Board members have stepped down due to disagreements, there are many of us members that are staying on and will be filling the open Board positions (the Board already had open positions before anyone stepped down, so it is a bit misleading and a bit dramatic to publicly state that the “entire” board quit).
We are excited about all of the community support that has been pouring in, from so many differing arenas! The force behind the support that is being extended to us, during these transitions and hurdles, has been so heartening and inspiring! We have so many folks stepping up right now to help us work through this trying but exciting time. BIG changes are coming to the world’s only unionized worker-owned co-op peep show and we can’t wait to unveil them in the next coming weeks, months and years.
This is a special time and thanks to all of the support pouring in and the mobilization born out of this challenge, we now have the ability and freedom to make some changes to our business model that have been a long time coming! This will not be easy and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we also have a tight group of incredibly smart, committed, resourceful, hard-working, creative babes and we are united with each other, and our community allies! LONG LIVE THE LUSTY LADY!!!!!!! Love, Glitter
I have had many friends who’ve worked here over the years, including several who’ve been Madams. I’ve visited the Lusty, but realized quickly it’s just not for me. This is not a strip club, folks, at least not in the way a lot of people think. It’s a peep show. People (mostly men) put a dollar or two in the slot, the shade rises, and then they can view naked women undulating. A lot of the folks who go here take this opportunity to masturbate in those booths. If they want more, they can pay more and watch one or two of the Lusties perform a private show with sex toys. And of course they can self-manipulate during that, too. You can try to paint flowers and puppies over this information, try to legitimize what’s going on here by talking about sexual freedom, mutter about raising sexual awareness, the politics of the proletariat and unions and worker-owned and rah rah, but at the end of the day, these booths have still have sticky floors and these women are still making money in the World’s Oldest Profession. There’s nothing enlightened about perpetuating the subjugation of women as sex objects for money. As long as you’re okay with that, carry on. But don’t try to make this sound like some great Temple of Feminism and Progressiveness. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.
Wow, Carmen, you seem to hit the NAIL ON THE HEAD for exactly why the LUSTY IS A RELEVANT, ALIVE AND ARGUABLY FEMINIST BUSINESS.
What is it about people, in particulary women, consenting to work in a cooperatively run structure that they agree to that bothers you?
What’s wrong with consenting adults having an erotic exchange for cash?
What’s wrong with support your work, and your life, with a feminst philosophy if you so chose, no matter your profession?
Don’t we all have right to earn a living?
The Lusty Lady Theater has a long history of women that have given there heart and soul for the business to succeed, and have time and time again put their asses (literally and figuratively) on the line for women in our industry to gain self-representation in our industry. We have also stood for inclusivity versus invisibility for those of us who ever felt excluded from our beauty culture’s version of “perfect”.
Carmen, and others that jump to to take her view point: we did the “sex wars”. This is the same bullshit argument that keeps us grouping one another as women into “bad girls” and “good girls”, and keeps us focused in fightingbover crumbs versus having the whole beautiful pie.
The peep show may not have been the thing for you, but hey- neither diswashing or robotics were my thing, so I didn’t pursue them.
I like myself. I like the work I do. I like the men (and women! and queer-folk!) that patronize my place of employment. I do other things that my paycheck allows me to focus on. Those things are good things in the world. I chose to do this work and frankly I’m happy with my choice.
If you can’t handle that then maybe you ought to consider why you live in San Francisco, the city of Pride and Leather, with a long history of intelligent, revolutionary women making a better world while earning a living in the “world’s oldest profession”.
Yours in truth,
Piper
If you would like to help save The Lusty Lady from closing, please donate here and thank you so much for taking the time to read this article and care about The Lusty Lady and all it stands for. FUCK YEAH, HUMAN RIGHTS!
http://igg.me/p/104983?a=601234
The issue for the LL, like all other hourly wage workers, is applying a cooperative model but employing both the capitalistic union and business model that has its limits. The LL was always a social experiment. The long list of structural imbalances were never rectified as they’ve been encountered. The employee status of the indy vs hourly wage workers in an industry had the LL, (the hourly wage workers) out numbered, (by the indys) plus my understanding is that the male support staff had been excluded from the union membership
while being equal owners of a female dominate and dependent business where just the type of problems of the structural imbalance that has plagued this group of workers.
Industrial organizing could help leveled the playing field so the LL as a business could remain cooperative and competitive. Being unionized hourly wage workers was supposed to be only a step in addressing industry wide exploitative practices, not the end game.
how about a peepshow tent fundraiser in Dolores Park? You’d make a zillion bucks before the Dyke March
Mop the floors.
I make it my business to visit LL once a year to see if they’ve cleaned the floors yet. I run a simple experiment. I walk into a random booth. If the floor’s covered with wet come, I conclude that the “women run” LL still doesn’t mop its floors and should have been shut down by the board of health.
I’ve done this three years running now and they’re three for three. But at least on my most recent visit they’d washed the men’s room. On previous visits the entire hallway outside the men’s room smelled like dried piss.
I’m no hater. I love sex workers, feminist empowerment, good clean erotic energy, and looking at naked ladies.
I’m just saying that the LL is filthy, it’s been filthy for years, and that’s one of the reasons guys like me don’t go there a lot more often.