Writer and filmmaker Julia Query presented the film ‘Live Nude Girls Unite,’ a story about the struggle to unionize an exotic dance club, last night in Mahar Auditorium.

‘I never dreamed that my first attempt at labor unionization would be as a stripper,’ Query explained in her film. ‘Even though I had always been strong and feisty… if I hadn’t been part of a union I would have no say over my working conditions.’

The production, the winner of best documentary at the San Francisco International film festival, chronicled the struggle of exotic dancers at the Lusty Lady strip club to finally become unionized. The group was the first union for exotic dancers in the country and fought against racial discrimination and unfair working conditions. The women protested the inability to have sick days, being expected to date friends of the management, being illegally taped and having safety issues that were not addressed by employers. The women fought a year-long battle with their union against their employer finally to win some rights for the exotic dancers at their establishment. Now nearly 95 percent of the women workers in the club are union represented.

‘In the US there was no other place that managed to establish a union,’ Query explained. ‘But again it took awhile, it took the miners 100 years. It looks like you will never win, the management has all of the money and they have the power to scare you.’

In addition to showing her film, Query also talked about both the feminist issues of stripping and of the sex industry as a whole. She explained that many people, including advocates of women’s rights are conservative and even against rights and fair treatment for women in the sex industry.

‘You can show pussy but you can’t say pussy,’ she quoted from the film expressing the conservative attitude of management. ‘All of that getting turned on or getting outraged…whatever you want to attribute to your increased heart rate.’

She went on to explain that the sex industry was primarily male oriented, focusing on the needs of men without providing many services for women.

‘I truly think that it is pretty great that men can be sexually satisfied in a clean and sterile environment,’ she said about the peep show aspect of the sex industry. ‘But why don’t they have one for women?’

She went on to explain that perhaps the reason why these don’t exist is that there is less of a market for them.

‘I am a lesbian and I would never pay to see a woman naked,’ she said. ‘I think that it is still sort of star trekkie to shove pussy at a window. I go home and I want someone to tell me how smart I am.’

Also addressed following the showing of the film was the type of stigma that goes along with being a sex worker.

‘Do you want your landlord to know what you do for a living and have keys to your house?’ Query asked. ‘How do you go to the bank and say I really do make 45,000 dollars a year?’

Beyond the issues surrounding being an exotic dancer, there were also comments about how to unionize other exotic dancers, prostitutes and other workers in general. Query explained that she had made the film in order to inspire other workers of all kinds across the country to unionize as well. She is working to help workers to unionize through a manual that was created as a step-by-step union organization tool and through the showing of the film.