At its core, the proposed Strippers’ Invoice of Rights (ESSB 6105) is a invoice about staff. Pervasive stigma towards intercourse work has saved commonsense protections for staff from being enacted, forcing them into the shadows and permitting rampant exploitation in an trade that has many staff who’re queer and folks of shade.
At The Cupcake Ladies, an anti-sex trafficking group, now we have finished vital analysis on how the criminalization and stigma of intercourse work paves the best way for additional marginalization. Our group is constructed on the imaginative and prescient that we are able to create a world the place intercourse trafficking is eradicated and consensual intercourse staff are protected and empowered. We give our full-throated endorsement of this invoice, which might shield dancers and their pathway towards monetary stability. Spearheaded by the dancers themselves, this invoice introduces essential reforms that may institute minimal well being and security protections, finish the cycle of debt for dancers and permit alcohol gross sales in golf equipment.
Strippers face critical well being and security dangers of their workplaces, with some golf equipment not even providing working water or bogs. And for a lot of, sexual harassment and assault are handled like they’re simply a part of the job. This invoice mandates fundamental protections comparable to devoted safety personnel, safe dressing rooms, complete coaching on office sexual harassment prevention and protocols for dealing with violent patrons.
Nevertheless, essentially the most urgent difficulty is the predatory financial dynamics of the golf equipment themselves. Dancers aren’t paid an hourly wage. They pay to work — usually over $200 per evening. In the event that they name in sick, miss a shift or can’t pay the charges, they rack up “again lease” — cash they owe to the membership. In the event that they incur an excessive amount of, they need to pay it off with the cash they earn on future shifts they usually may even be blacklisted from working. This invoice would cap home charges at $150 per evening and eradicate the predatory observe of again lease.
Washington golf equipment cost extra in these charges than different states for one fundamental purpose: Alcohol is banned in strip golf equipment. With out meals and beverage gross sales, the golf equipment shift the income burden to dancers.
Moreover, the ban means patrons usually present up after consuming alcohol elsewhere, making it not possible for staff to know the way a lot alcohol, or different substances, somebody has had. This laws would pursue protected outcomes for staff and patrons.
For some, permitting the sale of alcohol could not instantly sound like a solution to make a enterprise safer. Nevertheless, the provision of alcohol for buy by adults is one thing we take with no consideration throughout a broad vary of leisure decisions, from stadiums to dive bars to film theaters. Liquor licenses include laws and security requirements in order that adults could devour responsibly. By banning alcohol at strip golf equipment, Washington is upholding a public coverage that tells patrons to get drunk earlier than arriving, absent any of the essential security necessities that shield towards overserving at your neighborhood bar. That’s why permitting for the sale and consumption of alcohol on the premises solves two key points: security and monetary stability for dancers.
Stigmatizing and banning actions comparable to nudity and alcohol consumption don’t shield anybody; as an alternative, they drive these practices underground, perpetuating exploitation and endangering staff. We already see that when golf equipment fail in Washington, the dancers don’t magically discover different sources of earnings — they drive to Oregon to work in friendlier and financially solvent golf equipment there.
The reforms outlined within the Strippers’ Invoice of Rights aren’t radical. These reforms are elementary protections for an trade tormented by exploitation.
It’s time we see stripping for what it’s — work — and guarantee protections for these staff.
