YNOT – Annie Temple is known as an exotic dancer, sex worker advocate and the driving force behind NakedTruth.ca, the website for and by Canadian sex industry workers. She also spearheads the Trade Secrets project. It is an ambitious look at the realities of sex work, both pro and con. Temple already has published a comprehensive guide online.
YNOT caught up with her with a few questions about the project, the guide and Canadian sex work in general.
YNOT.com: You have published the guide online; what is happening now?
Annie Temple: We’ve already completed an online version of this guide with many gaps in information due to stop-and-start funding for the past three years. Recent funding from Vancouver Foundation has allowed us to continue the project.
Right now, we are holding focus groups and conducting consultations with groups that are under-represented in the guide. In particular, we’re seeking perspectives from adult film workers, webcam workers, male exotic dancers, trans workers from all areas of the industry and rural workers, as well as co-workers such as drivers, strip club deejays and security for sex workers.
Their responses will be incorporated into the current guide, then we will seek funding and distribution opportunities for a hard-copy version that can be shared with sex workers by organizations, licensing offices and other places accessed by sex workers.
What little-known facts have you uncovered?
Here are a few things that have stuck out for me while creating the guide:
One rural worker in Prince George shared a way to escape from a predator in the snow. She said to lie on top of the snow and roll away so you don’t leave footprints.
Many private show dancers carry hand sanitizer with them and get their customers to use it before performing contact dances for them.
Showgirls usually purchase blankets that have two different sides and use one side for the stage, keeping the clean side up during shows.
Airlines limit one [cigarette] lighter per person, so entertainers who want to travel with a couple hundred lighters that have sexy photos on them must send via Greyhound.
The best kinds of sex toys are ones that are 100-percent silicone. They are a little more expensive, but they last longer, they’re hypoallergenic and they’re easy to clean.
Women can be pimps. It’s not just men, as most are stereotyped to be. And indoor sex workers can have abusive pimps too. There are all sorts of awful agencies that are abusive, and having a bad pimp is not limited to the streets.
Putting one or two drops of lubricant on the inside of the condom will make it more comfortable and increase sensation.
Using lip-gloss under lipstick (instead of over) keeps your hair from sticking to your lips.
Often, undercover police officers pose as clients in order to arrest sex workers for communicating. You can be charged even if the police officer tells you they are not a cop, shows you identification and even if he sexually touches himself or you.
What do you hope to achieve?
This project is forming the basis for the determination of minimum health and safety standards in the Canadian sex industry. Through the formation of a trade association, we intend to promote the minimum standards among sex industry businesses and certify them based on the attainment of those minimum standards in their workspaces, policies and procedures.
Such a process will enable sex industry members to regulate our own industry, thereby making external agencies secondary. Complaints made against businesses — or workers, for that matter — could be vetted through an internal complaint system that would ensure confidentiality for complainants. It would also eliminate sweeping enforcement tactics used by external agencies in the past to shut down or cripple sex industry businesses.
Recently, the Canadian courts overturned the country’s prostitution laws. The Canadian government is appealing. What do you think will happen next?
I think the facts are too compelling to ignore, and the courts will be forced to decriminalize sex work. What will happen next is there will be a lot of opposing forces advocating for different ways to legally address the industry.
Some will fight for the Swedish model, where the clients of sex workers are criminalized. Some will advocate for “legalization,” where sex workers will be subject to strict regulations such as mandatory health checks, licensing, rules about where they can work and how many can work together.
Still others will push for full decriminalization, giving sex workers control over their own work without fear of being criminalized. In this case, the laws that are already in place to combat exploitation, violence and trafficking can be used to protect sex workers. This last one is the model I support.
For more about the guide, visit TradeSecretsGuide.Blogspot.com.
