Media Storm - Visiting London's 'Decriminalised Futures' sexhibition

Episode Date: March 17, 2022

Laws that criminalise certain aspects of sex work force people into unsafe, unregulated environments, where they become even more vulnerable. Last week, on International Women’s Day, we joined the Sex/Work Strike and heard the rallying cry from protestors campaigning for the full decriminalisation of sex work. But what might a 'decriminalised future' look like? This week, Media Storm heads to a new exhibition at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, featuring artwork and installations by sex workers themselves, to find out. Two of those involved, Yarli Allison and Letizia Miro, join Media Storm to talk about their semi-fictional documentary 'This is Not For Clients', which features in the exhibition, exploring labour conditions and survival.  Guests: Yarli Allison @yarliallison Letizia Miro @MissLetiziaMiro @letiziamiro ICA exhibition 'Decriminalised Futures': https://www.ica.art/decriminalised-futures  Get in touch: Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/mediastormpod or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mediastormpod or Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mediastormpod like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MediaStormPod send us an email [e-mail] check out our website https://mediastormpodcast.com Music by Samfire @soundofsamfire. Artwork by Simba Baylon @simbalenciaga. Media Storm is brought to you by the house of The Guilty Feminist and is part of the Acast Creator Network. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/media-storm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Chris Hadfield, astronaut and citizen of planet Earth. Join me on a journey into the systems that power the world. No politics, just real conversations with real people shaping the future of energy. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Ford was built on the belief that the world doesn't get to decide what you're capable of. You do. So ask yourself, can you or can't you? Can you load up a Ford F-150 and build your dream with sweat and steel?

Can you chase thrills and conquer curves in a Mustang? Can you take a Bronco to where the map ends and adventure begins? Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. Ready, set, Ford. Welcome to MediaStorm, a news podcast that starts with the people who are normally asked last. I'm Mattelda Mallinson and I'm Helena Wadia. And we're back with some bonus content for, for our loyal listeners.

Last week, we found out about the effects of criminalization on sex workers. We discussed how laws that ban certain aspects of sex work force people into unsafe, unregulated environments where they become even more vulnerable. We joined the sex work strike on International Women's Day and heard protesters campaigning for the full decriminalization of sex work.

Hey, jobs, a real job's a real job suck. But more than ever, we must stand together to show this government that we will not be silent in the face of murder. What do we do? Gender! Fight that! But what might a decriminalised future look like? I'm off to a new exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, featuring arts and installations by sex workers themselves to find out. Should we legitimise the sex industry? Here to debate.

This is, obviously, it's prostitution. You're selling sex. and parents watching. We have an ethical responsibility to young women to show them a different pathway. The objectification of women and the exploitation of their sexual characteristics. Hey, sugar, you're looking for a day?

This bonus episode is about an exhibition on sex worker rights that you can go and see right now. So if you're in London looking for something to do, this one's for you. De-criminalised futures at the ICA is an exhibition featuring 13 international artists who speak to the intersectionality of sex worker experiences. As you walk around the exhibition,

you can see sculpture, drawings, embroidery, installations and film. Two of those involved, Yali Allison and Latizia Miro, created a semi-fictional documentary exploring labor conditions and survival. I spoke to them about their work. I'm Garley Allison, and I was born in Canada, and I was raised in Hong Kong, and I'm an interdisciplinary artist. I was constantly thinking about survival in London, so I was researching a lot about coping mechanisms

and digital humanities and thinking about, queer identities. And in this work with the ICA, I'm collaborating with Latitia Miro. I'm Latitia Miro and I've been a sex worker for 10 years. And I've been an activist as well in different feminist groups, mostly in the UK and in Spain, which is where I'm from. And I guess the first step was my narrative around sex work. And I feel that you already could understand really well my pain around surviving around sex work, which, to broader issues related to precariting capitalism and also with a person that can be identified as female,

someone with erotic capital. So I guess that was the first stepping stone and then the amazing magic that you already put into the world follow the narrative. I thought we can split this video into the two-channel video and one could be like the fantasy that you're providing for the clients like the market and the branding of the personas and then one of them would be like you're what you're really thinking like stepping out of this

experience while you're working what you're actually narrating in your mind I really trust Yardie and I really trusted all the pictures that I've used in all my a sporting career. And I had no shame whatsoever about showing the most like ridiculous ones and the most like sexy ones as well. She's seen all of them. And it was super, for me, it was like such a catharic process. How this person that I kept in secret and almost I've been ashamed of her for so long. Now I could come to life with these really amazing colors and, you know, like this really fantasy kind of magic. So it was a very special process. Where do you think the shame came from initially? well I mean I feel I mean in my family it would be the worst thing the worst possible thing a woman could do so I come from a very traditional family they are quite religious as well so for me to decide to be a sex worker was like basically cutting up with these size and these values with my family and I was feeling like a social monster basically at the beginning it was it was really painful because of these is take mother this is really impossible it's like a massive monster that is impossible to

because it brings into an almost like a state of paranoia, right? I think like what if my family find out? And in this lifetime, I don't think the stigma is going to disappear. So living with this, it's really hard. And talking about that stigma, you know, what do both of you think are the biggest myths about sex work and sex workers? I guess the biggest myth relates, you know, with like maybe the imaginary of a sex worker being a completely destroyed person.

so a person that has no agenda that is, you know, unable to take her own decisions, that is suffering massively, and that we'll never, you know, like, we'll never be able to, like, come back from this horrible decision that she made. And obviously, I've lived in this reality for 10 years, and I know that the reality I've met so many sex workers, and the reality is much more nuanced than that.

And also, I think we don't really talk about, like a gender identity or sexuality while we think about like sex workers. They're a huge queer community and and I think it's not always just like one-sided. The title of the expression is decriminalized futures and I want to talk a little bit about what that would look like. What are the benefits to sex workers of full decriminalization? Decriminalization basically means that no woman will be prosecuted for offering sex without services.

You won't face fines and you want, like, you know, like some women have to pay fines because they've been fined because of working the street or they've been working in illegal situations and therefore they need to afford these fines. So they enter into this kind of circling, which they need to work on sex work or for the fines, etc. So that's a vicious circle that doesn't get you out of poetry at all. And also, getting that the consequences of decriminalization have to do with being able to work in safer conditions. Because if clients know that what you're doing is illegal, that puts in a much more vulnerable position because they have more power over you, for example.

Or even the police can have more power over you, for example. They mean something as criminalized or therefore as illegal always brings consequences by bringing these people into into the underground, into the shadows, into a black market that becomes dangerous. And that's also thinking about health care and how do we being accepted into the system as well. I think like if sex workers treated as any kind of labor business that deserves his own workplace, health and safety, and then we can really participate in this. system and even we could call up an insurance company and like to be able to get serviced I think that's that's kind of like an acceptance that you are you you are part of yeah you're just you're just

any anybody that's working working a job I've learned a lot across this 10 years not only from myself but also from all the really amazing fellow sex workers that I've met along the way on different people have different live experience you know some people have um fears in relation to sex work in one way and other people have fears in another way. You can compress sex work with with other works, I mean, with other jobs within the context of capitalism, like working as a bartender or like working as, you know, in many other different jobs, in which you can feel exploited, you can feel abuse, you can feel bullied, you can feel overwhelmed and you can feel all sorts of negative emotions. So what we wanted to portray with,

our video at the exhibition you see that it's very repetitive and it kind of reproduces the repetition of labor to emphasize the work component of sex work because sometimes the two are not disentangled you know when i have when i have sex for sex work is very different and when i have sex in my personal private private lives these these are two things that i have really in my life in my life and in my in my mind as well and yeah i feel i feel seeing the entire exhibition really make me reflect farther about the leaf experience around how do we feel about work. The sex work is not my only job. I suffered a lot in my actual career as in, you know, like experiencing stress and overwork and bullying in the workplace. So I feel the exhibition

led me with a really good feeling of of being able to like overall being able to portray the sex work component of sex work and I feel the message is really strong for thinking about you know like how selling erotic capital is something that is so entrenching in the way the system that is quite ridiculous that some people just treat it as something like you know almost like removed from the planet earth that is so untouchable and so weird that we can we can't even think about it analytically Yali and Letitia's film this is not for clients is on at the ICA as part of decriminalized futures until the 22nd of May. Follow MediaStorm wherever you get your podcast so that you can get access to new episodes

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what you'd like us to cover and who you'd like us to speak to. Media Storm, a new podcast from the House of the Guilty Feminist is part of the ACAS creator network. It is produced by Tom Salinsky and Deborah Francis White. The music is by Samfire.