Live Nude Girls Unite! Film Review

Live Nude Girls Unite! is a documentary following Julia Query, a peep-show stripper/stand-up comedian/daughter of a feminist activist, and her co workers, focusing on the struggles strippers face and their fight for their rights as workers.  Certain rights, such as, sick days and basic safety precautions/protection from the business owners, are usually automatically granted to people who hold a position in a job, but since being a stripper is not looked upon as being a “real” job, unfortunately, they do not have the same rights.  This documentary follows the women of Lusty Lady Theater in San Francisco, as they make the successful efforts in unionizing and demanding these basic rights from the owners.  The thesis of this film shows that these women, as strippers, are also still human beings, mothers, daughters, and sisters that deserve the same rights any other job would offer.

The main arguments supporting this thesis are shown throughout the entire movie, coming from the determined workers to fight for their rights and equality, eventually going on strike to prove their determination and hard efforts.  Acts of discrimination against the women based on their race, body size, breast size, age, and even hair color were/are issues that arise within the sex industry, and this documentary shows the women fighting for equality for all women. Although they were not given exactly what they were asking for, their hard work still paid off, successfully leading to the first unionized strip club, which had a rippling effect, leading other women to seek our assistance in fighting for their rights as well.

This film relates to the course in a few ways, including inequality with gender, class, race, and most apparent, the stigma revolving someone who is considered deviant in society. To society, individuals who are involved in sex work are not positively acknowledged or given help in regards to their rights, because they are considered to be less than human, when in reality, they are people too, just like you and me.  Those who are labeled deviant to society don’t receive the same privileges as those who are considered an “ideal” individual to society, and they have to work much harder to receive those same privileges.

There was only one part of this documentary that was least convincing for me, and that was how Julia was so open about fighting for her rights and making it a point to show people that she deserves equality, but was too scared to tell her mom about what she truly does for a living.  It bothered me knowing that was she was fighting for, she also felt shameful for in some regards.  Other than that, I found this documentary to be very convincing, and although I never looked down upon individuals involved in the sex industry, it opened my eyes to what they actually go through, and gave me a new respect for those who are involved in that type of work.

One point that stood out to me was how diverse each person’s background was; some were parents, some had college degrees, while some didn’t. If I were to conduct a study around this, I would like to learn about each individual’s background, and why they decided to get involved in sex work.  I feel like a lot of society believes that strippers have some previous emotional scarring, or intense duty to provide for a family, and have no other choice but to get involved in sex work. I’d like to see how many workers enjoy their job, their background, and their reasoning being working there to see if it differs from societies preconceived assumptions.