Trying to Exit
Women in the sex trade present seven new videos
Kendra Ballingall, Staff
Photo by Edith Regier.
Sex workers are subject to homelessness, poverty and discrimination. They experience violence, assault, rape and labour exploitation and often develop dependencies on drugs as a coping mechanism. Whether in the cinema, at a strip club or on the streets, sex trade workers are consistently turned into objects and commodities to view and consume.
Last Friday, women who work or have worked in the sex trades represented themselves in a radically different setting that disrupted dominant processes of representation and consumption in “Trying to Exit: Woman and Girls in the Sex Trade.”
Held at The Crossing Communities Art Project in the Exchange District, the well-attended event screened seven short videos by Alexus, Charlene, J.D., i-lay-a, Sandra, Roseanne and Tonya.
For 10 years, Crossing Communities has been providing the resources for collaborative, community-based media projects that address the circumstances of criminalized girls and women, promoting alternatives to incarceration. Local performance and video artists Lorri Millan, Erika MacPherson and Shawna Dempsey provided mentorship and technical assistance for this latest endeavour.
Each participant in “Trying to Exit” is the writer, director and subject of her work. Some of the videos are anecdotal, narrating the cycles of childhood abuse, addiction and poverty that can lead people into sex trades. Others are analytical, critiquing the stigma, discrimination and misconceptions attached to the criminalized work. All are profoundly personal.
In her video, i-lay-a walks confidently through the Exchange District. Shots of her black leather, heeled boots cut to shots of her standing at a curb, waiting for a pick-up. Contrasting her experiences with the romanticized image of a prostitute in Pretty Woman, i-lay-a describes sex work as “stressful” and “degrading.”
“I don’t want anyone to do it, so please don’t do it,” she says. i-lay-a provided the event’s title.
Tonya experienced sexual abuse before and during her time as a sex worker. Using text, props and an animation, Tonya contends with her own self-image and her role as a mother. In one shot, the derogatory labels she hears from others and herself swarm around her. In an animated scene, she is alienated from the nursing students at the school where she feels she doesn’t belong. In the discussion afterwards, she described the difficulty of trying to fit into white society, despite being white.
Alexus combines documentary and theatrical conventions in her video. Using voice-over narration and archival photographs, she distinguishes between Western concepts of transexuality and Aboriginal two-spirited traditions, explaining that two-spirited people have been respected as leaders, mentors and teachers. Then, adorned in pearls and lace, she poses for her own photo shoot, consciously performative.
Regardless of whether or not a worker in Canada is trying or wants to transition out of a sex trade, they face daily obstacles to achieving rights, dignity and autonomy in their lives and work. In addition to the “decriminalisation of all aspects of sex work involving consenting adults,” the International Union of Sex Workers demands, “the right to work on the same basis as other independent contractors and employers,” “no taxation without such rights and representation,” and “legal support for sex workers who want to sue those who exploit their labour.”
In Winnipeg, transition and support services do exist, and many community organizations were present or spoke at the event, including the Elizabeth Fry Society, Sage House, the Native Women’s Transition Centre and Dreamkeepers (KLINIC). Yet many remaining needs were mentioned in the discussion, including affordable shelter, separate shelters for self-identified women and men, drug treatment centres for women, and a harm-reduction model that includes relapse as part of a recovery process.
By promoting thorough discussion between the directors/subjects and the audience after the screening, the event challenged the usual power relations between the viewer and the viewed. Through self-representation, the directors stepped closer to controlling their own lives, work and public images.
