From Berlin Strippers Collective to Slut Riot: An Open Letter to our Audience
Slut Riot legal documents were signed in a strip club’s toilet, under the light of a red lava lamp. We might have turned from collective to business, but we don’t intend to be a traditional company. This is an open letter to you, our audience.
Dear followers,
This year, you have witnessed our re-brand and the shift from a collective of strippers to a sex-worker lead company. It wasn’t an easy shift for us, but it was a necessary one to be able to keep doing what we are doing.
Coming from an industry where structures are oppressing us and where having a manager often implies exploitative working conditions, we started off seeing a horizontal collective as the only possibility we could accept. That brought us great results, getting us to stages like Lollapalooza DE, Volksbühne, and the Club Commission’s Tag der Clubkultur award ceremony. At the same time, the more we grew, the more it turned out that having a collective structure as a big group has its limits.
Bigger groups and bigger stages require a more professional structure. By transforming into Slut Riot, not only we are opening up to all kind of people and talents from the sex industry (and not only strippers), but we are also giving ourselves the possibility of expanding.
Just because we have become a business, it does not mean we will operate in the same exploitive, captialistic way traditional companies do. Operating as a business means creating paid opportunities for our sex worker community, giving us bigger stages and amplifying our voices with a megaphone. We are pioneers in this sense, and we want to challenge the idea of what being a business entails. We lived it on our skin, we know what it means to be exploited in this capitalist, patriarchal system, and therefore we are trying to get away from it.
We will keep establishing our own rules and working conditions. To have a business completely operated by sex workers, where all the profits from events, shows, and merch sales, go to sex workers, and not to some corporate douchebags, is revolutionary.
We won’t hide that the transition from a collective to an official company hasn’t been easy. We are facing remarkable costs to keep Slut Riot running, such as lawyers, tax advisors, website domains, design and promotion costs. On top of that, juggling between the sex industry and in the artistic sector during an economic recession is becoming a struggle - in practical terms, money is lacking.
If you want to support us in our journey and if you want us to keep existing, there are several simple ways how you can help.
Come to our events! Not only will it be a lot of fun, but you will also allow us to keep creating income for sex workers.
Reshare our events and spread a nice word with your friends. This helps to give us visibility!
Do you know of any venues or bookers who could be a good fit for a collaboration? Are you a booker and you would like to have us perform at your event? Reach out, we are always happy to find new collaborations!
Are you a journalist or do you have a media outlet? We are thankful to be given space in the media and give interviews.
Do you know of any funds we can apply for, any grants, or any sponsorship? Let us know, we are in need of financial help to cover our expenses right now!
Our name and our structure have changed, but our spirit still remains the same. We will keep signing legal documents in strip club toilets, we will keep fighting as Sluts Against the Machine.
We want to thank each of you for supporting us and for sharing this empowering journey with us… We wouldn’t have made it without you! When we support the most marginalized of our society, everyone benefits.
With love,
Slut Riot
*You can read more about our rebrand in our latest interview with The Berliner: https://www.the-berliner.com/music-clubs/berlin-strippers-collective-slut-riot-sex-work-peformance-group/