What was the main thesis of the film?
Live Nude Girls Unite was an introspective look at women workers in the sex industry and their fight for equal rights. The documentary forces you to look at these women as not just objects of men’s attention, but rather, as fully human beings that deserve rights and respect. According to Wesely (2003) sex workers may experience an identity conflict from their sex work, but they typically do not think of themselves with the ‘sex workers’ label. The job is often performed because they are in need of money, not because of their desire to work as a stripper. These women do not deserve to be exploited even though the moral majority disapproves of their profession. If you can look at the women behind the worker, then you realize they are as deserving of protection as everyone else. The movie also shows us that there are very little protections in place that prevent these women from being exploited.
What were the main arguments in support of this thesis?
The documentary did a good job of showing the women in an environment outside of their job. We saw the human side of the sex worker, which enabled us to realize that they are really no different from anyone else. Because of the high stigmatization attached to their job, these women have very little worker protection that other employees in the US are allowed. According to shaming theory (Braithwait, 1989), deviance that is stigmatized cuts the people labeled deviant off from their interdependencies, and pushes them further into black market. This limits their ability to find outside sources to help them fight against a discriminatory workplace. They can be discriminated against, fired without cause, photographed against their will, work slave wages in some instances, and despite these things, people act like they are deserving of this treatment. Most industries that treated their workers like the women in the movie were being treated would be shut down.
Which arguments/points did you find the most convincing?
I was impressed with how well the documentary painted the picture of how sex workers are treated. Even the mother of the documentarian, who herself was a sex worker rights advocate, had a hard time accepting her daughter’s line of work. If she had a difficult time accepting it, then it is easy to see why so many other people in society put very little effort into protecting these women. They were forced to fight tooth and nail to get protections most workers take for granted.
Which arguments/points did you find the least convincing?
I was a little bit skeptical of their fight against discrimination (to an extent). Should the workers be protected against being fired due to looks? Unfortunately for this line of work there has to be a limited amount of discrimination in order for the business to be successful. If there is high demand for blonde women with big breasts, then I’m not sure I would consider it discrimination if they are booked more often. This is a grey area that is difficult to figure out which course of action is right. Either we allow discriminatory practices based on race to occur or force the business to book women that make them less money.
Choose one argument, point or question that most stands out for you from the film. How would you study this point? Briefly design a research study around that point.
I would be interested to see how average people think worker’s rights when it comes to sex work. You can give two test groups two different articles: One article which is about women fighting for worker’s rights in the sex industry and the other exactly the same, except the profession is changed to something more generic (i.e. teaching). It would be interesting to see how much differently readers sympathize with the workers plight based on which profession it is.
