Cape campaign lets sex workers tell their stories
VISITORS to Sea Point had an unusual opportunity to “ask a sex worker” questions about the profession and even tweet a selfie with one in support of decriminalising prostitution.
The campaign by gender activists ran for 24 hours at the “Perceiving Freedom” Ray-Ban glasses sculpture on Cape Town’s Sea Point promenade.
Ruvimbo Tenga from Sisonke Sex Worker Movement said: “It was rather interesting. We had quite a few people who took an interest in the campaign. Most people have never seen a sex worker, let alone spoken to one.”
Tenga said the campaign, aimed at creating public aware- ness around the rights of sex workers, would also be used to lobby for support to decriminalise the profession.
The brief campaign took place around the giant glasses sculpture in Sea Point which has previously been criticised as commercially opportunistic.
Tenga said it was chosen as the site precisely because it was controversial.
The installation by Michael Elion was co-sponsored by RayBan, leading many to object that it amounted to free advertising on public land in Cape Town for the eyeware company.
Tenga said the campaign also sought to honour victims of the “Sizzlers massacre” in which nine men, seven of them sex workers, were killed at a Sea Point gay massage parlour in 2003.
In memory of the victims, Tenga said the activists erected a 3m mirror in front of the Sea Point sculpture, symbolically directing the spectator’s gaze towards the house where Sizzlers used to operate.
“We then went to the house and laid flowers. It was very emotional,” said Tenga.
“Most people didn’t even know about it. And we wanted to use this memorial to raise awareness around male sex workers.”