Unionizing Live Nude Girls at the Lusty Lady Peep Show

Julia Query and her co-workers at the Lusty Lady peep show struggle to unionize their gig as exotic dancers. Rooney mixes personal perspective and historical anecdote with wit, to examine the profession of nude modeling.

If you can look past the sex and enjoy a good bad movie, then this is for you.

Peep Shows

Peep shows are dark viewing booths in which patrons watch sex acts or other erotic performances. They typically involve a screen and a curtain, with coins or bills used to keep the curtains open. Patrons may masturbate or issue commands to the performers, which are acted out by partially or fully nude models.

While they can be found in a variety of countries, most famously in Amsterdam’s Red Light District, they have also long been popular in the United States. They offer a unique perspective on sex work and are a reflection of society’s attitudes toward erotic entertainment.

In recent years, many peep show workers have organized into a union. This has led to improvements in working conditions and pay, as well as increased protections for dancers’ privacy and autonomy. These changes have contributed to the recent decline of peep shows. Today, only a few dozen remain in Times Square, a far cry from the more than 150 that once lined its streets.

Labor Movement

Julia Query, a dancer at the Lusty Lady, joins her fellow exotic performers in seeking unionization to combat abusive working conditions: no sick leave, discriminatory hiring, a lack of safety and privacy measures. The film's depiction of her efforts reveals that, as with many feminist movements, opinions regarding sex work are divided: some argue that it is inherently exploitative; others, like Query's mother (portrayed by Joyce Wallace), see a woman who works in the sex industry as strong and worthwhile.

Co-directors Query and Vicky Naked girls Funari present a compelling, entertaining documentary about the first successful effort to unionize strip club workers in America. Using a combination of progressive politics, feminist analysis and humor, the film effectively cuts through popular, titillating misconceptions about this particular aspect of the sex industry.

Feminism

The dancers in this 1999 documentary by Julia Query, who co-directed the film with Vicky Funari, display plenty of exposed flesh. But the movie, which follows their attempt to unionize their employer at a North Beach peep show, is primarily about work, in the tradition of Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County, U.S.A.'' The dancers are politically savvy, and the film isn’t exploitative, despite its titillating subject matter.

A sub story involves Query’s relationship with her mother, Joyce Wallace, a doctor who has worked for years as an advocate for prostitutes in New York. The film reveals that Wallace is disappointed that her daughter, who is also a stand-up comedian, continues to work as an exotic dancer.

Query, herself, is a second-wave feminist and graduate school dropout who turned to stripping because it was the most flexible way to make money while she developed her solo performance pieces. Her wry observations and footage of her own routines punctuate the film.

The Thorn Birds

One of the defining moments of this era in television was the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds, based on Colleen McCullough’s bestselling novel. Like Roots and The Winds of War before it, this sprawling family saga exemplified the miniseries genre: large, big-name casts, stories spanning generations, and tales of love, lust, tragedy, and transcendence that kept viewers coming back for more night after night.

Imagery and metaphor are key literary tools used by McCullough to craft a rich sensory experience for readers. Her descriptions of the Australian outback and Drogheda, the Cleary sheep station, invoke powerful emotions and deepen readers’ engagement with the story.

Motifs recur throughout the novel, reinforcing key themes and adding cohesion to the narrative. For example, the thorn bird legend symbolizes the main characters’ self-destructive pursuit of unattainable love. Similarly, Fee’s refusal to disclose Meggie’s parentage illustrates the ways in which power dynamics and the pursuit of control can be destructive.