Events in the past week have shown that the sex industry and Duke make for a volatile mix.
The Sex Workers' Art Show-a cabaret-style collection of performances by current and former employees of the sex industry-has attracted a flurry of media attention in the last week for its risque content.
More than 300 people attended the performance at Duke in the Bryan Center's Reynolds Theater Feb. 3.
Since then, the show has been featured on ABC News, USA Today, Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" and numerous local newspapers and blogs.
Much of the controversy stems from a small number of dissenters, said Annie Oakley, founder of the Sex Workers' Art Show.
Senior Ken Larrey, founder of Duke Students for an Ethical Duke, said he takes offense at the show and that his organization has "gone to considerable efforts to publicize" the issue. DSED posted flyers around campus depicting various Duke administrators and faculty with exotic dancers prior to the event.
He added that one of his main concerns was that the University failed to recognize its own hypocrisy in light of the recent lacrosse case.
"First of all, Duke has a rule against strippers being hired by student groups, and that rule was clearly broken while administrators did nothing to enforce it," Larrey said. "[At other universities], it is controversial because it is a sex show masquerading as an 'art show.'"
The art show "smashes traditional stereotypes" and seeks to convey "the complicated ways sex workers experience their jobs and their lives," according to its Web site.
Oakley said that the show cannot be compared to the lacrosse case, calling the attacks on the event "ludicrous." She said the performance, now on its sixth tour, has visited other college campuses, including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas and the University of California at Los Angeles, and has never encountered such controversy.
"It's a gross mischaracterization of the show to call it a 'sex show,'" she said. "Sex workers performing art is completely different than sex workers doing their job. Sex workers hired by student and feminist organizations to tell their stories is vastly different than a drunk lacrosse team hiring strippers to perform as strippers."
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said the controversy surrounding the Sex Workers' Art Show has been "exaggerated" and that only a small portion of the population is currently engaged in the discussion.
"It's a subject of conversation among a handful of people who are uninformed about activities on college campuses and about the role that college campuses play," he said. "There are people here who are obsessed with comparing everything at Duke to the lacrosse situation, and that's just not what most of us are spending our time doing."
Moneta, who penned a letter to The (Raleigh) News & Observer in response to a critical Feb. 6 opinion column by Ruth Sheehan titled "Duke shows it's clueless," said the art show was organized and sponsored by students and the University was simply respecting the right of free speech.
"A university is a place in which controversial activities will often occur, and our commitment to the freedom of expression means that we make sure students can host events that are provocative and that create conversation and exploration," he said.
The Healthy Devil peer educators group Duke Educational Leaders In Sexual Health was the primary sponsor of the free show, DELISH adviser Lindsey Bickers Bock said. She added that performance also received funding from many different campus organizations, including the University Fund, Women's Center, Baldwin Scholars Program, Campus Council and the Student Health Center.
All the proper procedures for sponsoring the event were followed and the administration checked relevant state laws prior to the performance, Bickers Bock added.
Junior Martha Brucato, a member of DELISH, said the controversy surrounding the show only proves how important an event like it is. She spent 11 months fund-raising for the art show and was the main student coordinator, she said.
"The media fallout has proven that [sex workers] aren't viewed as human," Brucato said. "People are boiling them down to just their acts and it's taking away their identity. It takes away their stories and shows how everyone dehumanizes sex workers."
The show has also caused controversy at the College of William and Mary, where it was performed Feb. 4. Although Gene Nichol, president of William and Mary, said he opposed the show's content, he added that he would allow it to go on, describing the question as a free-speech issue.
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