On Mon, 29 Nov 2004, Andrew Paul wrote:
> I get the feeling we are all being armchair experts here. It would be
> best if we listened to one who had some experience in such matters. I
> have no doubt there are women (and perhaps men) who are pushed into
> prostitution, either by force, or by economic necessity. Equally, there
> are some who choose it, of their own free will. Perhaps if we all
> chipped in $5, we could book an hour or two for discussions with someone
> who knew :)
Here's a transcript of an inteview on CNN. Should I invite Ms. Maker to
read the discussion in the archives and throw in her $0.02 if she is so
inclined? (Interview to give folks an idea of who she is as much as
anything else, don't know if she would qualify as the expert you want, but
she's the most likely candidate I know. Unless you want someone who has
worked at a waitress in a strip club, and I'm not sure if she even has
e-mail, and it would take me a few days to get in touch with that person.)
Julia
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/06/acd.01.html
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Across the country the number of new voters registered has surprised
election officials. What surprised us is just how some of those voters are
actually being registered. We've all seen celebrities trying to get out the
vote but we've never seen strippers doing it as well. That's right. Some
800, we should call them adult clubs in the U.S., have launched voter
registration efforts. One club last week in Austin, Texas, Audrey Maker
organized an event called Burlesque The Vote. She joins us now fully
clothed. Thanks for being with us.
How did you get this idea?
AUDREY MAKER, PRODUCER, BURLESQUE THE VOTE: I have been organizing burlesque
shows for the last two years. Burlesque is what middle class people like to
call stripping. I know that you like to use the word for TV. But burlesque
is where we don't actually get naked.
MAKER: A fair amount of clothes. Fair enough. And it seemed to be a really
good way to get people together to celebrate. And I needed to do something
about this election. So I decided that requiring registration, voter
registration cards at the door was a great way to get people to come to a
show and..,
COOPER: So they had to have voter registration cards to get in. And then if
they didn't, you actually had election officials there who would register
them?
MAKER: We had deputy registrars ready to register them to vote. It was the
day before the deadline. So, it was one of the last places they could do
that in town.
COOPER: Was it tough convincing deputy registrars to come down and do this?
MAKER: No. I became a deputy registrar myself and other people that were
friends of mine also did. It was very easy to do it. And they were happy to
it. They were happy to get out the vote any way they can.
COOPER: How many people do you think you registered?
MAKER: We officially registered 72 voters. I registered 25 on my own before
the show. But that was about half the audience, or a little bit less than
half the audience.
COOPER: And I won't call the strippers -- the burlesque performers, did
they -- were they registered as well? MAKER: Yes. Absolutely.
COOPER: Do more Republicans or Democrats you think enjoy burlesque? It's a
loaded question.
MAKER: I think that if you are pro sex, it's up to you what you think you
should do with your vote. It was totally nonpartisan on my behalf, although
I do live in Austin, Texas, which is a place where liberals tend to
congregate. So it's likely that they were more on the Democratic side. But
not because of burlesque as a whole, but because of where I live.
COOPER: You sort of have been very active really since college. It was a
college professor who got you inspired to sort of do whatever you could.
MAKER: Yes, yes. I was in a class, Harry Cleavers (ph) -- we called it rock
block of economics. It was Marxist economics and international crisis. And
my friend Susan was also in that class. And we were talking about why
sexuality had been so commodified. And how we could try to you know, benefit
that used sexuality as an artistic format.
COOPER: A lot of adult clubs around the country are doing it. Perhaps not
informed you were doing it, but Burlesque the Vote, I'm glad it was a
success. Audrey, thanks for being with us.
MAKER: Thank you.
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