Predatory Prostitute from Juniper Fleming on Vimeo.
As an artist and queer sex worker, my community is at the very core of how and what I create. Critiquing the hegemonic through a self-reflective narrative, my work accepts and affirm my community's humanity. The film, Predatory Prostitute is rooted in the compelling relationships sex workers have, both directly and indirectly, to the legacy of Aileen Wuornos. Demonized as a inverted prostitute serial killer or pitied as an child/animal-minded victim, her portrait hangs heavy.
The term "predatory prostitute" was coined by John Tanner the Florida state attorney who prosecuted Aileen Wuornos in 1992. A lesbian prostitute sentenced to death six times for seven murders, though she claimed self-defense. The media, the court, and the public condemned Wuornos with vigor. Told how dare she kill in the name of her own life. She refused to be a victim, and it was for that she had to die. In the film, I have used found footage to invert the common narratives around Aileen, creating an alternative framework by which we can view her actions and ourselves.