Mugs and Jugs Closed Forever
Trina Ricketts was asked to comment on the closing of Mugs and Jugs in New Westminster. It was very recently voted the best club to work at in BC by Naked Truth dancers.
Here’s the article:
Club was safe haven for exotic dancers
Trina Ricketts is a former dancer who says the Mugs and Jugs show lounge in the College Place Hotel was a safe place for dancers to work. But now that it’s been closed with the provincial government’s acquisition of the Hotel to turn it into affordable housing, she says dancers are being forced to do things they otherwise might not want to do to stay employed.
As reported in the NewsLeader on Thursday, the College Place Hotel—home to both Mugs and Jugs and the Chicago Tonight nightclub—has been sold to BC Housing, which plans to convert the building to provide an emergency shelter and transitional housing. The closure of the Mugs and Jugs is part of a trend in the region, and Rain wasn’t alone in her admiration for the exotic show lounge.
According to The Naked Truth (www.nakedtruth.ca), a website devoted to Lower Mainland exotic dancers, New Westminster’s Mugs and Jugs was voted the best place to work in an online poll.
“They were a great staff to work with. It was like a family,” said Rain, 27.
Mugs and Jugs isn’t the only exotic show lounge to recently close its doors. On Thursday it was announced the Cecil Hotel was sold to a developer who plans to tear down the building and put up condominiums.
The North Burnaby Inn, the Marble Arch, the Drake and the Fraser Arms are some other clubs closed over the last decade.
But the trend of strip clubs closing is about more than these establishments closing their doors, say dancers.
Trina Ricketts, a former exotic dancer who founded The Naked Truth, sees it as the loss of safe work options for many women—many who are mothers or support loved ones.
“In the sex industry, a strip club is considered a safe-sex work option. It’s safe because you have bouncers, staff and no contact options,” said Ricketts, a South Surrey resident and mother of two.
The feminist and advocate for women worked in the sex industry as a stripper for nine years before leaving. She became an exotic dancer for reasons similar to many women—to pay the bills.
Ricketts said she worked numerous minimum-wage jobs, often more than one at a time, and still couldn’t pay the rent and put food on her table. With exotic dancing she could finally make a livable wage.
But she always had her boundaries—she was comfortable performing naked but that’s where it ended.
“For me, exotic dancing saved me. It was about performing, it was about art, it was about power and money,” she said. “But it wasn’t about having strangers touch my body. In that way, I find it really scary that exotic dance clubs are closing.”
Both Ricketts and Rain sees changes ahead with clubs closing down. And neither like where things are going.
Many of the remaining clubs are pushing things like lap dances or private dances.
“With Mugs and Jugs closing, we’re near the end of no-contact options for women making a living in the sex industry,” said Rain.
“For women that have to support a family, it means a lot tougher decisions for them.”
mmcquillan@burnabynewsleader.com
Trade Secrets
Occupational Health and Safety Guidelines for Sex Industry Workers
This project is based on our findings from our project Developing Capacity for Change funded by Vancity Community Foundation in which we collaborated with 20 sex workers involved in on and off street sex work. We captured their experiences within existing off-street venues and found that in no circumstances were the workers themselves involved in management, operations or marketing.
Additionally, there was little if any orientation to the work or environment. This includes no support for acquisition of health and safety skills or de-escalation to minimize situational violence. Further, workers had experienced extortion and were subject to an arbitrary system of fines as well as violations of labor standards and human rights.
Sex workers have made the distinction between ‘sex work’ and other working conditions where labor is forced or extracted from workers.
Sex workers would like the opportunity to collectively manage their own work spaces and collaborate on all aspects of their business including price-setting, marketing and access to the benefits of employment i.e. group medical benefits, thus legitimizing sex work as work.
The prohibition of sex work as work keeps the industry underground; creates conditions of violence and extortion; causes survival sex, forced involvement and the exploitation of youth in addition to social isolation and predation.
This social isolation and lack of support for the acquisition of the skills necessary to work safely is seen as one of the greatest contributing factors of harm to sex workers in particular as they enter the trade and are at their most vulnerable.
Sex workers agreed that a comprehensive guide to all aspects of the trade could significantly affect the safety of ALL sex industry workers and provide vital information on a variety of issues.
Occupational health and safety guidelines will be developed among nine stakeholder groups: urban sex workers on and off street; rural sex workers on and off street, exotic dancers, porn / webcam, male hustlers, transgendered workers, and business owners.
Based on review of materials and guidelines, develop broad based sections for focus group inquiry based on list of 10 from coop that includes: Safe sex practices, confrontation management, hygiene, empowerment, legal rights and information, support groups and resources, code of conduct, wellness, work options, woks safe tips.
The 411
Supports, Services and Information for Sex Industry Workers who are Victims of Crime
This brochure was created to provide resources, tips and support to sex industry workers who are victims of crime.
It was identified during the BCCEC “Confronting Bad Dates: Research, Collaboration and Action to Reduce Violence against Survival Sex Workers project” that:
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provincial victim services were unavailable to collaborate on strategies like the redesign and distribution of a new Bad Date sheet and a 1-800 line for reporting violence;
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the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General victim support services were largely unknown among sex workers and some faced barriers in accessing services;
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Sex workers who had past experiences with Victim Services shared that their identification as sex workers limited or eliminated their chances to receive supports; inclusive of counselling and compensation.
In response the British Columbia Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General graciously provided support to create a brochure and provide workshops facilitated by a well known Canadian psychologist to active workers, experiential professionals and service providers on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Workshops took place in July 2007.
We look forward to a broad distribution of The 411 as well as exploring PTSD among sex workers and legitimizing theses experiences in addition to establishing and coordinating unique resources and support services.
From the Curb
Sex worker perspectives on violence and domestic trafficking
The purpose of the consultation was to develop a regional perspective on two important issues: Violence, and Domestic Trafficking. To date, sex workers in the region have had little input into informing these issues, much less an opportunity to work in collaboration with other stakeholders to address them.
The 17th Annual Harm Reduction Conference presents an ideal gathering at which to share these findings as it provides an opportunity for sex workers to share the realities of violence and domestic trafficking with Canadian researchers, decision-makers and the public and with activists working on these issues internationally. We also look forward to the Conference as a way to develop international ties with other activists working on harm reduction with respect to sex worker and related issues.
Developing Capadity for Change Part II
Rural supplementary Report
This report is supplementary to the “Developing Capacity for Change: Cooperative Development Exploration Report” report published March 2007, that focused on working conditions and cooperative development strategies among on and off street sex industry workers in Vancouver BC.
Please view this report for further background.
This supplementary report provides a rural perspective, engaging sex industry workers from Prince George and Kamloops, British Columbia.
