"One Sex Worker Nation Under Dildo" opens May 1st

yee-haw!
Originally uploaded by Audacia Ray.

The wonderful Audacia Ray and $pread magazine have been busy getting ready for Sex Worker Visions II, the art show by sex workers, and most especially, "One Nation Under Dildo." This photos is just one of over 40 dildos that will be on display at Arena Studios, 407 Broome Street, Suite 71, from May 1 through July 28th. See the rest of the dildo photos here.

From Monday's Metro article:

One contribution, “Platforms,” speaks to the perpetual danger faced by sex workers. Created by the Aphrodite Project, this pair of platform shoes has a global-positioning system and 911 panic button embedded in its 3-inch heels. Gallery visitors can try them on and feel what it is like to walk in a sex worker’s shoes, especially haunting in light of the unsolved murders of four Atlantic City prostitutes.

Ray, who’s completing her master’s in American Studies at Columbia University, knows both worlds. “The idea that ‘nice girls don’t’ is part of the stigma of the industry,” she said. “Some of the nicest, smartest folks I’ve met have been sex workers, and many of them are people you would never suspect of being involved in the industry.”

From Audacia, a list of contributing artists:

Annie Sprinkle

Genevive Zacconi

Molly Crabapple

Zak Smith

Vena Virago

Bella Vendetta

Jesse Cox

Dominic Vine

Stayc Saint O

Sarah Bleviss

Michelle Talich

Norene Leddy

Kaitlyn Tikkun

Fly

And speaking of sex work, worth reading is Melissa Gira's Sexerati post "Johns Gone Wild: The DC Madam's Gift to Sexual Health, especially re: former Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias:

Under his direction, USAID cut off all funds to organizations that did not sign a pledge to the US government that they opposed prostitution. Tobias is likely the choicest john offered up from any black book, period, and especially so for those who truly have the most to lose politically in this suit. By that I don’t mean the other abstinence-preaching Bush appointees and their hypocritical brethren, but sex workers...

No one should have to go down politically because they’ve hired a prostitute, and, newsflash, it’s not like johns don’t exist in Blue States, too. What’s frustrating is that sex workers have been going down, politically and literally, on these guys and their goons for aeons. If we can stop and remember what sex workers know from experience, that money and politics are so deeply embedded in sex as to be impossible to do one without doing the whole team, this moment could be a potential wake-up call for progressives to take on the promotion of sexual health as an agenda item every day, and not just when Ms. Palfrey Goes to Washington.