Whorephobia Strippers on Art, Work, and Life

Illuminating accounts of how stripping and sex work informs writers’ experiences of friendship, motherhood, teaching, working, creating art, and activism.

No one knows more than strippers about being looked at: as objects of desire, objects of curiosity, as angels or Jezebels or hookers with hearts of gold. In this anthology, twenty-three dancers whose careers span decades, geographies, and identities demand to be seen. Through stories from first nights on the job to the day they hung up their sky-high heels—or decided they never will—these writers offer glimpses into lives of camaraderie and celebration, joy, pride, despair, frustration, self-doubt, and fear.
 
Their unfiltered perspectives on their lives, onstage and off, are a powerful counternarrative to the whorephobia that shrouds the conventional portrayals of strippers in crime movies, TV shows, music videos, newspaper articles, and legislative debates. Each of these illuminating essays and interviews peels away tired myths and salacious speculation and presents the naked truth: that sex work is real work and strippers are real people.
 
Contributors:

Cookie Mueller • Kathy Acker • Jo Weldon • Susan McMullen • Maggie Estep • Chris Kraus • Jodi Sh. Doff • Terese Pampellonne • Jill Morley • Susan Walsh • Debi Kelly Van Cleave • Elissa Wald • Essence Revealed • Sassy Penny • Jacq Frances • Reese Piper • Lindsay Byron • The Incredible, Edible Akynos • Antonia Crane • Lily Burana • A M Davies • Kayla Tange • Selena the Stripper

LIZZIE BORDEN is a writer, director, editor, and script consultant. Her film Born in Flames was named one of “The 50 Most Important Independent Films” by Filmmaker magazine. Called “a feminist masterpiece” by New Yorker critic Richard Brody, in 2016, it was restored by the Anthology Film Archives and screened around the world. Borden also wrote, directed, and produced a controversial independent fiction film depicting the working lives of prostitutes, Working Girls, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight, won Best Feature at the Sundance Film Festival, and was restored by the Criterion Collection in 2021. She is currently at work on several TV and film projects.