A stripper, performance artist and co-founder of the East London Strippers Collective is heading to Bristol following the launch of her new book. ‘The Ethical Stripper’ by Stacey Clare is pitched as an in-depth look into the sex industry in a socioeconomic lens.
Taking place at Bristol bookshop Bookhaus tomorrow evening (June 1), Clare is set to join the Bristol Sex Workers Collective, who will be hosting the event. The event will also be recorded live throughout its duration, and will be co-hosted by Bookhaus and Pluto House.
Clare will be in conversation with Amelie from Bristol Sex Workers Collective for the first 45 minutes, until a Q&A session with the audience commences. In light of the ongoing political debate in Bristol on whether or not local strip clubs should be shut down, which has been protested by sex workers across the city, the sit-down will also discuss the future of the sex industry.
READ MORE: Proposed Bristol strip clubs ban decision needed "urgently"
Amelie said: “Bristol Sex Workers Collective is looking forward to hosting Stacey Clare to introduce her new book The Ethical Stripper. It is exciting for us to have a platform to address not only the issues that strippers have to deal with in the industry, but also the threats we face from the state, the public and the media.
“With the current debate going on in Bristol around the existence of Sexual Entertainment Venues, we can not wait to have an open discussion centred around workers' rights with such a prominent activist.”
After fierce campaigning for improvements in the sex industry throughout the course of her 16-year career, Clare has earned platforms such as her appearances in Good Morning Britain a TedX talk in 2015 and currently, the release of her book ‘The Ethical Stripper’.
Crowdfunded by publishing initiative Unbound, the making of ‘The Ethical Stripper’ had been years in development and was finally published earlier this year on March 3. The book highlights Clare’s extensive career as a stripper, offering an unfiltered take on her industry through her own experiences, as well as examining the various legal frameworks for sex both at home and around the world.
Speaking on both her book release and upcoming appearance in Bristol, Clare hopes that furthering discussions of sex worker issues, which are fronted by workers themselves, can unravel the longstanding stigma and shame faced by the community.
She said: "The Ethical Stripper was written in protest of a predominant culture that silences, infantalises, objectifies and generally seeks to erase the lived experiences of sex workers. Campaigns throughout the UK to close down strip clubs are based on a false narrative that strippers are poor victims who are at risk, can't think for themselves and deserve to be "rescued".
“As a writer and activist, I am one of many sex workers who have finally had enough of being spoken over and spoken for, and have joined in the movement for sex workers' rights and self-determination, which aims to even up the power dynamics and challenge the bureaucratic structures that have historically left us at the bottom of the pile.
“Events like this one are essential since there are precious few public platforms willing to give sex workers a voice, especially if what we have to say doesn't fit with popular stereotypes about the sex industry.
“I'm honoured to be hosted by the Bristol Sex Workers Collective, who have been doing stellar work in their own city by standing up and challenging the narratives upon which mainstream feminist campaigns to abolish the sex industry are built, and I'm very excited to be sharing a platform with them."
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