Sex worker art show won’t return to campus

Reuben Rodriquez, associate vice-provost and dean of student affairs, said the recent Sex Workers Art Show was not what administrators expected and will not be allowed on campus in the future, WRIC Channel 8 News coverage reported.

Rodriguez did not return calls from the Commonwealth Times to confirm the ban.

Annie Oakley, founder of the Sex Workers’ Art Show, said Saturday the group was misrepresented after parents and a Virginia politician complained about the group’s February performance in the Student Commons Theater.

Oakley said the performances do not focus primarily on strip tease.

“The show is a form of cultural activism. Its purpose is to entertain the audience while at the same time getting the audience to confront stereotypes they hold about sex workers,” Oakley said. “People who work in the sex industry are constantly fetishized, mythologized or demonized.”

Oakley said the show speaks out for sex workers, who are part of a $12 billion a year industry. The performances focus on the positive and negative aspects of the sex industry and offer insight on issues such as race, class, gender and sexuality.

During recent coverage of the art show by WRIC Channel 8 News, Delegate Robert G. Marshall, R-Manassas, said schools should not cross moral boundaries.

“Frankly, if schools think that the college presidents will think the parents of Virginia want to send their children, their college students, to campuses that have strip shows, they (schools) have something else coming,” Marshall said.

Oakley said the show never has dealt with concerned parents and politicians.

“This is the first time we’ve dealt with parents trying to control what their adult children see, and this is our fifth year of touring nationally,” Oakley said.

Parents and politicians are concerned with the use of student fees. Ali M. Faruk, student government association president, said SGA funding policies will not change as a result of the sex workers’ event.

“The SGA has a deliberative, open and fair process for funding student organizations,” Faruk said. “The students control this process by electing SGA members who approve the funding.”

Faruk said parents and students can view the approved budgets for every student organization online for free, but he did not know the cost of the sex workers’ performance. The approved 2006-2007 budgets for student organizations are available online at http://www.usca.vcu.edu/studentorgs/finances.htm.

The Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg described the sex workers’ performance at the College of William and Mary. An article stated the show was paid in part by required student fees and cost $1,800.

Oakley said she does not know how VCU’s funding system works and does not have control over how the bookings are funded.

“The money that a student spends to go to school does not make them the arbiter of how that money is spent,” Oakley said. “They (students) do not thereby get to control the curriculum and events.”

Faruk said diversity plays a role in how events are funded.

“VCU is a large and diverse school,” Faruk said. “We are very proud of our diversity and the over 500 student clubs that reflect our diversity.”

Oakley said colleges and universities are where students should be able to form opinions for themselves.

“It is not supposed to be a rigid, parentally-controlled environment where students must be sheltered from ideas,” Oakley said.