Siobhan Brooks

Siobhan Brooks

Birth : 1972-07-14, San Francisco, California, USA

History

In the 1990s, Siobhan Brooks-King led a movement that resulted in the first-ever sex workers union at a strip club in San Francisco. She has gone on to interview sex workers across the country and has published several articles as a result. The story of the unionizing efforts at the Lusty Lady are chronicled in "Live Nude Girls Unite!", a documentary by Julia Query. Siobhan is featured in the film. Brooks' research and advocacy expands to broader topics of gender and institutions, women of color and mental illness, queer race identities, women in the media, race and class. She is the author of the book "Unequal Desires: Race and Erotic Capital in the Stripping Industry" (SUNY Press, 2010). Siobhan Brooks is currently an associate professor of African-American studies at the California State University, Fullerton. She holds a B.A. in women's studies from the San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the New School University in New York City.

Profile

Siobhan Brooks
Siobhan Brooks

Movies

Mutantes
Mutantes
Herself - Interviewee
Mutantes sheds light on a feminism that was little talked about in France. This documentary comprises of a series of interviews conducted in the USA, Paris and Barcelona, and documents from the archives about the political action of sex workers, queer activists and post-pornographic performances.
Live Nude Girls Unite!
Live Nude Girls Unite!
Herself - Stripper "Naomi"
Documentary look at the 1996-97 effort of the dancers and support staff at a San Francisco peep show, The Lusty Lady, to unionize. Angered by arbitrary and race-based wage policies, customers' surreptitious video cameras, and no paid sick days or holidays, the dancers get help from the Service Employees International local and enter protracted bargaining with the union-busting law firm that management hires. We see the women work, sort out their demands, and go through the difficulties of bargaining. The narrator is Julia Query, a dancer and stand-up comedian who is reluctant to tell her mother, a physician who works with prostitutes, that she strips.