Carol Leigh

Carol Leigh (January 11, 1951 – November 16, 2022), also known as The Scarlot Harlot, was an American artist, author, filmmaker, sex worker, and sex workers' rights activist.[1][2] She is credited with coining the term sex work[3][4] and founded the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival and was the co-founder of BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network.[5]

Carol Leigh
Born(1951-01-11)January 11, 1951
New York City, U.S.
DiedNovember 16, 2022(2022-11-16) (aged 71)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Other namesThe Scarlot Harlot
Education
Occupations
Known for
  • Coined the term "sex work"
  • Founder of San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival
  • Director and co-founder of BAYSWAN (Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network)
Websitescarlotharlot.com

Early life and education

Leigh was born on January 11, 1951, in New York City[6] and grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens.[5][7] She later attended Binghamton University (1968–70) and Empire State College (1972–74), where she obtained a BA[8] in creative writing.[6] She also attended the Boston University MFA program for creative writing.[9]

By 1978, Leigh moved to San Francisco and started engaging in sex work.[8] Two years later she was raped by two men at the establishment she worked at. She did not report this to the police for fear of the establishment being shut down. Leigh later described the rape as a defining moment in her life that prompted her activism for sex workers' rights.[6]

Activism

After moving to San Francisco, Leigh joined COYOTE, a sex workers' rights organization, and became involved in its activities,[6] including as a spokesperson,[5] and through the Coalition on Prostitution coordinated a street outreach project for street workers in San Francisco.[9] She also co-founded BAYSWAN, the Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network, in 1990,[10] and was an original member of ACT UP.[5] According to former ACT UP member Terry Beswick, "Carol was the fairy godmother of the early AIDS direct action groups of San Francisco. She was a character, always injecting an element of over-the-top satire into our protests and deliberations, with a devilish grin and a wink in her eye. Her sex-positive safer sex messages were way ahead of their time and were a blast of fun amidst all the doom and gloom."[10]

In San Francisco, Leigh also joined the AIDS activist organization Citizens For Medical Justice and collaborated with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.[7] In the 1990s, she was part of a San Francisco Board of Supervisors commission on prostitution.[8] She was one of the main contributors to the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution, whose report calling for the decriminalization of prostitution was published in 1996.[6]

In 2006 Leigh received a grant from the Creative Work Fund to establish, in collaboration with the Center for Sex & Culture, the Sex Worker Media Library.[9] In 2008, she prominently advocated for a San Francisco ballot initiative to decriminalize prostitution.[8]

The term "sex work"

Leigh is credited with coining the term sex work at an anti-pornography conference in the late 1970s or early 1980s.[5][3][4] The terminology used at the Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media conference for the sex industry was the "Sex Use Industry".[8][3] The phrasing bothered her because it objectified sex workers and trivialized the agency they had in the transaction.[3] She suggested the panel be renamed "Sex Work Industry" (later writing "because that described what women did")[3] and began to use the term in her one-woman plays before the first published use of sex worker appeared in a 1984 Associated Press newswire.[11] She explained in a 1997 essay titled "Inventing Sex Work" that: "I invented sex work. Not the activity, of course. The term. This invention was motivated by my desire to reconcile my feminist goals with the reality of my life and the lives of the women I knew. I wanted to create an atmosphere of tolerance within and outside the women's movement for women working in the sex industry."[12][13]

Theater, television, and film

In the early 1980s, Leigh wrote her one-woman satirical play The Adventures of Scarlot Harlot.[8] She performed in San Francisco[8] and at the 1983 National Festival of Women's Theater in Santa Cruz.[6] Her onstage persona was the "Scarlot Harlot", and she regularly performed at clubs and theaters, including the Great American Music Hall and the Holy City Zoo,[5] as well as rallies and as part of the Sex Workers Art Show tour.[9]

Leigh began making videos in 1985,[9] and received awards from the American Film Institute for Yes Means Yes, No Means No; Outlaw Poverty, Not Prostitutes and Mother's Mink.[6] Other films she directed and produced include the documentary Blind Eye to Justice: HIV+ Women in California Prisons, narrated by Angela Davis.[10]

During the AIDS crisis in the United States, Leigh decided to leave San Francisco and move to Texas where she intended to form an educational organization to promote safe sex: T.W.A.T. ("Texas Whores And Tricks").[7] Her car broke down in Tucson, Arizona, and she answered a classified ad from media-life-artist Dennis Williams, who had a weekly two-hour live comedy program on Tucson Western International Television (T.W.I.T.). Leigh joined the show and created and developed several characters for it. After two years Leigh returned to San Francisco.[7]

The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival was founded by Leigh in 1999,[5] which she also co-produced with Erica Elena Berman and Jovelyn Richards.[14]

Personal life and death

Leigh lived in San Francisco and was bisexual.[15] She died of cancer on November 16, 2022, at age 71.[16][17]

Her archives have been donated to the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University.[10]

Works

Books
  • Leigh, Carol (2004). Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Writings of Scarlot Harlot. San Francisco: Last Gasp. ISBN 9780867195842.

Book chapter
  • Leigh, Carol (2010). "Inventing Sex Work". In Nagle, Jill (ed.). Whores and Other Feminists. Routledge. ISBN 9780203700655.

Film appearances

As listed by WorldCat.[18]

  • Annie Sprinkle's amazing world of orgasm (2004)
  • Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of porn : reel to real
  • Dr. Annie Sprinkle's How to be a sex goddess in 101 easy steps (1992)
  • Mutantes : féminisme porno punk = Punk porn feminism (2011) (in French)
  • Mutantes : punk porn feminism (2011)
  • Our bodies, our minds (2005)
  • Released : 5 short videos about women and prison (2001)
  • Sphinxes without secrets : women performance artists speak out (1991)
  • Straight for the money : interviews with queer sex workers (1994)

Videos produced

As listed by Western Connecticut State University.[19]

  • Die Yuppie Scum (1989) 30 min
  • Outlaw Poverty, Not Prostitutes (1989) 21 min
  • Safe Sex Slut (1987) 30 min
  • Spiritual Warfare: The G.H.O.S.T.* Campaign (1990) 28 min
  • Taking Back the Night (1990) 28 min
  • Whores and Healers (1990) 28 min
  • Yes Means Yes, No Means No (1990) 8 min
  • Whore in the Gulf (1991) 30 min

See also

Citations
  1. Lemons, Stephan (July 21, 2000). "Sex with latex". Salon. p. 2. Archived from the original on August 21, 2001. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  2. Juhasz 2001, pp. 4, 13, 342.
  3. Murphy, Brian (November 18, 2022). "Carol Leigh, who sought greater rights for sex workers, dies at 71". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 19, 2022.
  4. "Inaugural Hong Kong sex workers' film festival offers nuanced, diverse portrait of trade". Malaysia Star. AP. August 14, 2006. Archived from the original on June 22, 2011. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  5. Bartlett, Amanda (November 20, 2022). "Legendary San Francisco artist and activist Carol Leigh, who established term 'sex work,' dies at 71". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  6. Martin, Glen (September 8, 1996). "SUNDAY INTERVIEW – A New Agenda For the Oldest Profession / Carol Leigh was working as a hooker when something happened that changed her life and her focus. Now she works to protect prostitutes' rights and safety". SFGate. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  7. "Artists – Carol Leigh". www.e-felix.org. FELIX. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  8. Genzlinger, Neil (November 19, 2022). "Carol Leigh, Who Sought a New View of Prostitution, Dies at 71". The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
  9. "Prostitution Issues-Biography: Carol Leigh aka Scarlot Harlot". www.bayswan.org. BAYSWAN. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  10. Highleyman, Liz (November 21, 2022). "Sex worker advocate Carol Leigh dies". Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  11. "Carol Leigh coins the term "sex work" | 1979". nswp.org. NSWP. November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  12. Leigh 2004, p. 69.
  13. Nagle 1997, p. 233.
  14. "San Francisco Bay Area Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival". www.sexworkerfest.com. Sex Worker Fest. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  15. Leigh 2004, p. 22.
  16. "Activist Carol Leigh, who coined term 'sex work', dies at 71". AP News. Associated Press. November 17, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2022.
  17. Whiting, Sam (November 17, 2022). "Carol Leigh, who coined the term 'sex work' and fought to puncture taboos about it, dies at 71". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  18. "Leigh, Carol (Sex worker)". www.worldcat.org. WorldCat. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  19. "Carol Leigh Work". people.wcsu.edu. Western Connecticut State University. Archived from the original on November 1, 2004. Retrieved November 16, 2019.

General and cited references
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