Eurydice Aroney: In the early 1980s I worked in a small Sydney BDSM brothel to supplement my student allowance. A lesbian couple oversaw business, but we operated as a co-op, sharing in the cleaning and advertising decisions. Nevertheless, each week 40 percent of earnings would be handed to two absent male leaseholders, who contributed nothing as we saw it. As business prospered, our landlords demanded a larger cut and, despite objections, installed a male client as manager. Having none of it, we workers went on strike. After trying to negotiate our return to work I was threatened with having my legs broken, and another worker’s motorbike was set on fire.
When we turned to the Australian Prostitutes Collective NSW (APC) for protection, its office and drop-in center manager Julie Bates advised that an appeal to police would be pointless.1 Why? Soliciting for prostitution in the state of New...
