Queen
Ruth E
will screen her documentary film Not Even Ashamed at
Berbati's Pan,
231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579.
8 pm Thursday, July 6.
$7, $5 with can of food.
Don't go there expecting to see gratuitous sex and stereotypical
strippers.
Queen Ruth E defies the stereotypes that surround women
who have worked in Portland's sex industry. The 1980 Junior
Rose Festival Queen-turned-exotic dancer has an impressive
résumé to her credit--writer, musician and
urban-renewal activist. Now retired from the world of dancing,
Ruth writes for Danzine, the Portland-based publication
for women working in the sex industry, where her ongoing
fictional story "Revolve" is a regular feature. Twenty years
after reigning as the queen of Junior Rosaria, Ruth is poised
to make her debut as a filmmaker with Not Even Ashamed,
a documentary about the dancers she has known and worked
with over the past 10 years.
WW: Let's start with the most obvious question:
You went from being a junior rose queen to being an exotic
dancer. Is this the classic "good girl turned bad?"
Ruth: I think that being in the Rose Festival kind of gave
me a taste for being in front of an audience. I also have
an interest in being out there and being listened to and
being heard. The Rose Festival filled that need, but also
kind of fed that need.
Was your dancing a form of rebellion?
I started dancing because I wasn't making enough money
managing coffee shops. So it wasn't necessarily like I was
trying to be deviant--rebel against my Catholic-school upbringing
or anything. It was more that I couldn't afford to go to
college by working at Coffee People, and I was struggling
and I wasn't happy. I wanted to start making some changes
in my life. I knew dancers, and they were going to school
and they were getting things done, they were paying their
bills, and I wanted to do that. So that's why I started
dancing...mostly out of necessity.
The age-old argument is that you're allowing yourself
to be...
Exploited. That is so funny that you say that, because
I actually had to fire one of my producers on the spot because
he goes, "Can we go around and film all your friends while
they're dancing?" I said, "I'm not going to exploit any
of my friends who are dancers." His response was, "How can
they feel they're exploited? They're dancers." Right there,
I was like, "You're fired." I addressed that question with
all the dancers in the documentary. The only time I feel
exploited at work is when a manager is exploiting me or
when someone comes in there who is trying to practice their
drawing skills and using me as a model for free--that really
bothers me. But I don't ever feel exploited by customers.
Why's that?
I've gotten so much out of it. I've bought a house, got
a college degree, bought a brand new Outback off the showroom
floor. I was able to spend a lot of the last 10 years volunteering.
I would have never have had the time to volunteer if I didn't
have the free time from dancing.
How did you get involved in the city's Urban Renewal
program?
I bought into an impoverished neighborhood and I was running
around complaining about how I hated the drug dealers and
how dumpy everything was when I got a flyer in my mailbox.
It said: "Are you fed up? Do something about it." So I went
to one of the meetings and there were so many resources.
I was interested in getting a good job, because I was dancing
for 10 years, and I was interested in cleaning up my neighborhood,
so I got involved with the Workforce Committee and the Neighborhood
Livability Committee.
I take it the Workforce Committee was job training?
Yeah. The committee set me up with a scholarship because
I had done such good work volunteering. They gave me 10
weeks of intensive PC and Macintosh classes that covered
operating systems. A week after I graduated from the class
I was working doing troubleshooting for digital subscriber
lines. I never would have gotten out of the [dance] industry
had I not been involved with Urban Renewal.
So what's the other committee?
The Neighborhood Livability Committee. I've been on it
for over a year now and we are not only improving existing
infrastructures like buildings and things, we're paving
streets, we're putting in sidewalks and speed bumps. We're
putting in a community park where there used to be an adult
video store--which I wouldn't necessarily be against, but
this one was really particularly ugly and dumpy. It was
a real big eyesore. Now there's a bunch of community stores,
it's really nice. My property value has increased dramatically
during the last three years as a result of Urban Renewal.
Let's talk a little bit about the film. Not Even
Ashamed...I mean, it sounds like the title says it all.
It started out as a little tribute, because I knew I was
getting out of the industry and I wanted to say thanks to
all the ladies that I had worked with. It was going to be
like a little 10-minute short. I wrote this fictional account
with this dancer named Michelle. We sat there in the dressing
room between sets for weeks at a time writing the script.
Then it turned into a documentary.
What's the film's main theme?
The idea that as dancers we are not portrayed accurately
in media or Hollywood, I mean, boo-hoo, who cares? Well,
we care. So we decided that we know so many amazing ladies,
[the film] should be bigger. We got rid of the script and
now it's just real-life ladies and real-life scenarios.
If they wanted to be interviewed at work, I went to work
and interviewed them; if they wanted to be on their boat
or on their snowboard, that's where I went. It's all realistic,
there is nothing staged. No Showgirls, no T&A.
So it's not really the voyeuristic...
No. Don't go there expecting to see gratuitous sex and
stereotypical strippers.
No one is masturbating?
No masturbating. No throwing up, no screaming. It's still
entertaining.
Is there more film in your future?
Actually, I've been talking about a new project with Michelle.
She already has a really good script in the works. But after
this film is done I'm going to turn all the fiction I've
done for Danzine into a novel. That's my ultimate
dream--to be a published novelist. I really do enjoy filmmaking,
and I've gotten so much support I'd definitely do it again.
Any advice for any other Rose Princesses interested
in following your career path?
If you are currently abusing substances, get clean before
you go into the industry, because you'll have so much access
to money and so much free time. I've seen it so many times.
It becomes a downward spiral.
Do you have any desire to go back to dancing?
The truth is, I would definitely go back if I needed to
pay my bills, because it's something that's a good vehicle,
something that I've never been ashamed of.
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