Everyone has an opinion on sex work, but who asks the sex workers themselves? Meet the Sex Workers’ Opera.
By Patrick Cash
‘We have a public statement saying we’re 50% sex workers but no one has to say that they are. I work in education with kids, and I can’t really be known publically as a sex worker,’ says the pseudonymous Toby Have, a member of the Sex Workers’ Opera. ‘It means that we can all be in publicity shots without being worried that ‘I’m a sex worker’, but still knowing that I’m combating stigma just by the act of possibly daring to be a sex worker.’
Toby began his sex business a year and a half ago, through being pestered by an older man on Grindr. ‘I said: “well look, you can pay me” and they said “yeah”. It was a very interesting first experience because I went over for an hour and I said ‘£30’ and I ended up staying for four hours while he jerked a flaccid penis at me, shouting a fake name I’d used.’
Directors Alex Etchart & Siobhan Knox
After this experience, he felt he could legitimately pay the rent and set his own boundaries. He charges considerably more than £30 nowadays, and is stricter with his time limits. ‘To be honest, I’ve had a really unrocky journey into it. I’ve got supportive and open-minded friends around me, which is really special. Through being involved with the opera I know a lot of people are so isolated when they’re doing sex work.’
Isolation of sex workers, and the lack of voice given to sex workers themselves, is a massive part of why co-directors Siobhan Knox and Alex Etchart created the Sex Workers’ Opera:
‘To look at the show we have to look at the workshops [that created it]. That’s what community art is, it’s not just a show for a public audience, the creation of it by the community group where every word of each song is written by someone who’s involved and who’s got sexual experience… [was] incredibly impactful on people.
‘Absolutely it’s a show for an audience and a particular moment in time to learn a lot and have access to that world, but it’s also just as much about a community group finding their solidarity and being reminded that their experiences are true. That they have been misrepresented and finding power in realising that they have a common struggle and a common plight.’
I enquire more about this misrepresentation.
‘Sex workers are massively spoken about, they’re all over art, they’re all over opera’s history (La Traviata etc). Sex work is not unspoken about, but who is it spoken about by? It’s constantly spoken about by writers who are curious about the subject because it’s taboo and it’s weird and it’s exotic, but often older, white, male writers, quite privileged, who are in the arts, who maybe have had very little interaction and who, if they have, it’s from a client perspective.
‘Sex workers are so tired of being spoken for, in politics, in the media, in art, constantly. We set about to break down this stigma and stereotypes, but we didn’t necessarily have an agenda of saying “we believe this or that”, or having a specific opinion, as much as the opinion that sex workers should speak for themselves.’
At its heart this thinking is what drives the show; to give voice to those people who have always been sensationalised, romanticised or (mostly) demonised for their work, and what they choose to do with their bodies.
I ask Alex and Siobhan how they sourced so many well-known queer performers for this imminent Christmas fundraiser.
‘It’s clear that sex work experience and issues intersect with the LGBTQIA+ community disproportionately. Not in a negative way, but in terms of men who do sex work, a much larger proportion of them are LGBT, gay queer. It’s a community in which, from what we understand, it happens a lot and is less spoken about… There’s a lot of transactional sex for careers, a blurred intersection with sex work. We had a wonderful response from queer performers who came to see the show and said ‘how can I help you out? I’d love to perform for you.’’
What’s the lasting message of the show, do they think?
‘In terms of a commonality for sex workers worldwide and a single undeniable essence that should be distilled, the key element is still what we began with: listen to sex workers.’
Meth on why she’s supporting the Sex Workers’ Opera:
I am supporting the Sex Workers’ Opera because it is absolutely necessary. Voices of sex workers are majoratively marginalised voices and The Sex Workers’ Opera provides an opportunity for these underrepresented voices, not as a moral platform, but as a social platform. In the LGBTQIA+ community, the stigma around sex work is still extremely prevalent. This show is extremely important not just to combat these negative representations, but also to stress the importance of safety, support and networks of care for sex workers here in London and beyond. I am also supporting because it’s a bloody good show!
• ‘The Sex Workers’ Opera – Christmas Fundraiser’ is on Friday 12th December at Tart Bar (117 Charterhouse Street, EC1M 6AA) from 8pm. Tickets £15 in advance, £20 OTD. Book tickets here: http://swoxmas.eventbrite.co.
• Acts lined up include: Rudi Douglas, Pretty Miss Cairo, Rubyyy Jones, Bourgeoisie, Ebony Rose Dark, Helen Rivera and the Sex Workers’ Opera themselves!
Read more of the SWO online at: qxmagazine.kinsta.cloud/blog-event/sex-workers-opera/
