No Woman is Born to Be a Whore

ARGENTINA: Women Air Society's Dirty Laundry in Art Exhibit
by Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 25 (IPS) -- A group of female prostitutes
in Buenos Aires is using art to lay bare their situation --
that is, the state and societal abuse they endure -- to the
public.

One part of the installation features a bed smothered with
photos of a female corpse; "I used to be beautiful" is
scrawled in Spanish across the images. Others depict women
with their eyes and mouths covered with condoms, their heads
in a box of food, or definitions and comments written on
sheets and pillows.

"A red-light district is a zone of sexual exploitation,
where boundaries are defined by political and police
corruption," reads one of the phrases. Another: "I ask the
State: Why don't I have a job? Why don't I have an
education? Why am I not free to make decisions about my own
body?"

"We want to see what happens when men and women are
confronted with our daily lives, because sexual exploitation
is also perpetuated by those who turn a blind eye," the
coordinator of the exhibit, Sonia Sánchez, told IPS.

The Buenos Aires show is actually the second presentation of
the "No Woman is Born to Be a Whore" exhibit. The feminist
collective Mujeres Creando (Women Creating) began this
dialogue in January when it mounted the first edition of the
exhibit in the members' home country of Bolivia.

Two Argentine women -- including Sánchez -- were so moved by
the exhibit in La Paz and the reactions it provoked that
they made plans to bring it to Buenos Aires.

Sánchez belongs to AMMAR-Capital (the Association of
Argentine Women for Human Rights), which was founded in 2002
by members who broke away from the Argentinean Association
of Female Sex Trade Workers (also known as AMMAR), an
organisation registered with the Argentine Workers' Union.

When the original AMMAR was first established, protection
and safety were the main issues. At that time, the consensus
view defined prostitution as "sexual work." "The goal was to
increase our visibility, but now we define ourselves as
unemployed women involved in prostitution," said Sánchez.

One of the installation's three beds is unmade and strewn
with condoms. But the most provocative is completely covered
by black-and-white images of a prostitute's body.

The photos are marked with Spanish phrases scribbled in
pink, childlike letters. "I used to be beautiful." "I
believed in Prince Charming." "At 27 I died of a brain
haemorrhage, brought on by a beating by my pimp." And the
last "Even in death, my body still hurts."

The show also includes excerpts from Egyptian author Nawal
El Saadawi's book Woman at Point Zero; synonyms for pimp,
including the vulgar --"fiolo, cafisho" -- and the outwardly
political --"exploiter, dictator"; and a definition of a
client: "a person who buys sex and enjoys social impunity."

The women of AMMAR-Capital added a pyramid of food boxes
distributed to them by the Buenos Aires Municipal Food
Policy Department, along with surveys that reveal the sordid
social conditions women in prostitution bear.

Most are mothers with at least three children. They live in
rented rooms, squatter housing or pensions. Some are
illiterate, and few have even a basic primary school
education. "If you have to lie about where you work, it's
not a job," reasoned Sánchez.

The pyramid of food boxes and photographs of women with
their eyes and mouth covered by condoms represent public
policy on dealing with women who prostitute themselves as a
last resort.

"We're just sexual objects they have to feed and supply with
condoms, rather than people with rights. We deserve the
right to education and a decent job, the right to come home
and be able to say how the hell we make a living," Sánchez
argued.

The exhibit was scheduled to run at the Centro Cultural
Borges May 4-15, but it was carried over to May 21 due to
public demand. The organisers also added a discussion forum,
held May 19.

The public's comments in the visitor's book were
overwhelmingly positive. Most appreciated the
awareness-raising aspect. Some gained strength to keep on.
Very few rejected the message. "We're thrilled that we got
this kind of attention," said the exhibit coordinator.

"The response has been amazing. People from distant
provinces are asking us to make it a travelling exhibit, and
we have also received calls from (neighbouring) Uruguay.
Never before has the sexual exploitation of women been
talked about in this way," said Sánchez.

The last piece in the installation is a hotel sheet, which
forms the backdrop to newspaper clippings on murdered
prostitutes and women involved in human trafficking and
sexual exploitation, as well as an open letter:

"Sir, ma'am, don't think that I like standing on the
sidewalk outside your door. But my clients are your
brothers, husbands, cousins or sons, and the priests who
hear your confession. Prostitution is not just a whore's
issue. If you don't want me on your corner, fight by my
side, raise your voice with me. I'm here to say enough is
enough."

Sánchez explained that in recent years, prostitutes have
been changing their perception of themselves, such as when
they organised themselves and asked to be considered
sex-trade workers. Now, in AMMAR-Capital, they define
themselves as women in a situation of prostitution, so that
someday they can just be women.

"It is an ongoing process that takes time and requires
support from society and the State. Only dialogue and
discussion will help get us out of the closet," she
concluded. (FIN/2006)