Adult entertainment labour rights collective Fired Up Stilettos solicited stories of sex workers being recorded, filmed or photographed at work. The response was overwhelming, writes founding member Melody Montague.
Michael Forbes’ non-consensual audio recordings of a sex worker sparked widespread outrage earlier this month. But for sex workers, the news came as no surprise. Covert recordings, photographs and videos are taken of us at work with shocking regularity.
Calls have been made for the law to be updated to prohibit covert audio recordings in intimate settings, which my comrades at Fired Up Stilettos and I echo emphatically. But when we asked our community to contribute their own accounts of being recorded, videoed or photographed, we realised that existing laws don’t seem to be stopping visual recordings being made either, nor holding perpetrators accountable.
We solicited stories about times sex workers have been recorded, filmed or photographed at work, and received an overwhelming response. The prevailing tone of the contributions was “Where do I even start?” We heard of full-service workers being filmed from behind during sex and audio being recorded on phones by the bed, sometimes for personal enjoyment later and sometimes with the intent of distribution (including a FaceTime call). Strippers noted customers videoing in the club was a near-nightly occurrence, with security often doing little to help. Some accounts involved entitled, overeager punters, whereas other perpetrators were malicious and calculated in their crimes. One dancer told us she felt especially unsafe being photographed at work as it could jeopardise her escape from domestic violence, exemplifying how much is at stake for many workers.
There is a pervasive misconception that sex workers are immune to the harm that comes with these non-consensual recordings. In reality, we feel just as scared and violated as anyone else. Aotearoa is small, and the chances of these images being seen by prospective employers, exes or family is considerably high (in fact, two of our organisers have experienced this). There are also new threats such as facial recognition technology, especially when travelling overseas.
In Aotearoa, it is usually legal to record audio of an interaction between two parties with the consent of only one party. This one-way consent to audio recording is integral to maintaining democracy and the freedom of the press, so we don’t want to see this change – we want to close the loophole that allows creeps like Forbes to exploit a law meant to protect journalists and activists as they serve the public.
Michael Forbes could have sought out a worker who offers recording as an extra in her bookings. Instead, he chose to violate her consent, privacy and autonomy. The police’s impotent response reveals the need for legislative and cultural change.
Calls for an update to legislation in light of Forbes’ offending have been widespread. The victim and her colleague gave a joint statement to RNZ: “Covertly recording intimate encounters without consent is a form of sexual violence, yet current legislation fails to adequately protect victims – especially sex workers and those who identify as women,” it read. “It’s time for real legal reform that centres consent, safety, and accountability.”
The prime minister said he was “open” to looking at existing legislation and amending it to clarify legal grey areas. We welcome his response, if that openness translates into tangible change. As the worker at the centre of the scandal specified, accountability is key.
Accountability for Forbes was near non-existent. He enjoyed the luxury of keeping his job and reputation for close to a year because the police kept his secret, while his victims received no support or recourse. The worker took it upon herself to alert media after police deleted evidence off Forbes’ phone and sent him off. The woman filmed changing through the window was never notified of her own violation. His resignation only occurred once scandal was imminent, raising the question: what happens when the perpetrator is just another guy with an un-newsworthy job?
I asked Tamatha Paul, Green Party spokesperson for police and justice, about how to prevent these recordings in the first place. She pointed out that criminalising an act such as covert recordings “relies on people knowing that what they’re doing is a crime” and that “many people think that they simply won’t get caught”. Judging by the dozens of stories we heard, it seems the creeps are largely correct in this assumption.
Criminologist Lynzi Armstrong suggests a law change would “send a strong message that sex workers have a right to privacy and that their boundaries must be respected”, and could help “contribute to a broader cultural shift in how harms against sex workers are perceived”. While not all workers will want to take legal action, a law change could “provide another formal mechanism for sex workers to pursue action against offenders”. Ultimately, it gives workers options.
Both Paul and Armstrong emphasise the need for a cultural shift to support law change. Paul wants to address people’s “attitude of entitlement to touch, comment on or capture other people’s bodies” and Armstrong calls for “a normalisation of consent so that […] it is not seen as surprising that sex workers have boundaries and these boundaries must be respected”.
Fired Up Stilettos calls for law with clarity and integrity, which centres victims and gives them options and agency, without jeopardising crucial legal freedoms around one-way consent recordings. Consideration of the particular needs of sex workers, and specifying what centring victims looks like in practice, would be invaluable.
The benefits from any legislation will, however, depend on better accountability from our workplaces, police and society. Fired Up Stilettos wants to see victims’ autonomy and access to justice centred in any response to violation – regardless of whether the offence can be prosecuted criminally. Fortunately, the kind of institutional changes that address sex workers’ particular vulnerability will ultimately also protect everyone else.
