Vice, April 2020
Suddenly, many of our lives consist mostly of unending video calls and being apocalyptically horny in an indefinitely unfulfillable way. Who’d have thought it would come to this? We may as well make the best of it and get creative. To that end, unionised strippers in the UK are hosting a first-of-its-kind virtual strip club on Saturday, April 11th called CYBERTEASE. The event has been organised collectively, as a workers’ co-op, in response to the closure of strip clubs due to Covid-19.
“We’re out of work and most of us face barriers to accessing sufficient state support, so we put our heads together to design our dream strip club – but online,” says Grace, one of the performers. “Without bosses setting the rules, we can create a safer space, wear what we want, do what we want, invite DJs we trust, and share profits fairly.”
Dancers will be performing on Zoom, where the event will be DJed by Queer House Party (a DIY event happening every Friday during lockdown). “There is a historic understanding and solidarity between queers and sex workers as a result of a shared experience of marginalisation,” says Harry, one of Queer House Party’s DJs. “Lots of our community are also sex workers and the intersection on being a sex worker and queer is usually a precarious and dangerous one.”
Sophie Hemery 