Hooker Fashion in Brazil

[RedGlitter]

Wear it proudly

Daspu is fighting for prostitutes' rights.

Bill Hinchberger | June 2008 issue The clothes can hold their own among Brazil’s top fashion labels. But the sayings on the Tshirts and other items give them away: “Lost Women Are the Most Wanted, “Before the Show, Tune Your Instrument and “We’re Bad, but We Could Be Worse. On catwalks and in dance clubs, at movie premieres and art shows, at AIDS conferences and in redlight districts, Brazilian prostitutes are strutting their stuff to promote their line of high fashion under the Daspu label.

Daspu is the creation of a prostitutes’ rights group in Rio de Janeiro called Davida. The name “Daspu isn’t only rooted in the term “das putas (“from the whores) but is a spoof on Daslu, Brazil’s poshest boutique, which threatened to sue when reports of Daspu’s emergence hit the press three years ago. The saga gave Daspu a welcome boost of free publicity, and Daslu’s lawyers eventually retreated.

An organization of rather than for prostitutes, Davida doesn’t want sex workers off the street. Instead, it defends their right to be there and advocates for safe working conditions—witness its HIV prevention and antiviolence campaigns. Prostitution isn’t illegal in Brazil, but it isn’t recognized under labour laws either. Beyond the usual job hazards, like police harassment and abusive clients, prostitutes can’t get social security or other government benefits.

Representing workers in the “pleasure industry, Gabriela Leite, an exprostitute with a sociology degree at Davida’s helm, says she shies away from marches where crowds chant “Putas united will never be defeated! Davida has always favoured novel and fun ways to argue its case: carnival parades, street serenades and theatre.

But Daspu is the organization’s most rousing success, measured both by visibility and by financial returns that help fund its other activities. As Leite puts it, “I always thought that activism should be more fun.

Find out more: daspu.com.br

[Nomad]

What in Sam Hill is going on here ! ?