Performance as a Tool for Destigmatisation: The Berlin Strippers Collective's Sex Worker-Led Advocacy

This article explores the formation and activism of the Berlin Strippers Collective (BSC), now known as Slut Riot. The author, writing from his perspective as a trans sex worker and core member of the Collective’s founding network, explains how the BSC arose in the context of German sex-worker association and activism. Drawing on an autoethnographic method, he uses his personal experience with the group as a basis for the article. The political goals of the BSC are explained, which include combatting Sex-Work-Exclusionary-Radical-Feminist (SWERF) ideas and pushing for decriminalisation by decreasing the stigma surrounding sex work. Next, important elements of the collective’s organisational structure, such as the requirement that all members be sex workers, and its policy on transgender individuals are laid out. The BSC’s activities, mainly performance art and media engagement, are described. Finally, to illustrate how the BSC’s performances were a tool used to accomplish its political goals, the author presents a short performance analysis of an evocative theatre play entitled ‘Merry Stripmas and a Happy New Queer’, which was produced and acted by the collective. The primary intention of this article is to aid other sex-work activism groups through an account of a prominent Berlin-based sex worker collective.