Fired Up Stilettos Expects Better From Would-be Allies
Fired Up Stilettos (FUS) is an organisation that advocates for the labour rights of independent contractors doing various kinds of adult entertainment and sex work in managed venues throughout New Zealand. We are non-partisan but frequently lobby Parliament for legislative change. The Green Party has positioned itself as the most unapologetic advocate for our rights, so we have engaged with them extensively, but not exclusively. Because Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March continues to be our most consistent and principled advocate in Parliament, we had been working together to submit a Member’s Bill based on our 2023 petition. Member’s Bills rarely pass, so the purpose of it was to draw attention to the necessity of legislative reform throughout the election year, and ideally build consensus between Parties before they consider new coalition agreements. The most successful Member’s Bills move the Overton window and are adopted as a Government Bill, which is what we want.
Although Fired Up Stilettos as an organisation has no Party affiliation, our Chair – Bianca Beebe – had been a longtime, active member of the Green Party, and has been the primary developer of the Member’s Bill. She is publicly known for her sex worker advocacy, and was encouraged to run for Parliament this year by multiple Green MPs and the Party’s wider membership. The Green Party has changed its vetting process this year, appointing an executive candidate committee as gatekeepers who determine whether someone enters the “candidate pool,” which then allows Green members to vote on a candidate’s list ranking. After Beebe’s initial candidate selection interview, the committee emailed a further 28 questions, 21 of which were related to sex work.
The questions displayed a prurient fixation on the details of the job. Much was made of her having previously advertised sex work online, and they asked how she would feel if the opposition found archives of those now-deleted photos. Beebe is very experienced mitigating online bullying and sexual harassment by refusing to be ashamed of things that are not shameful. She quipped, “All of my advertising photos were great, so it would be pretty funny to have people attempt to shame me by sharing photos of me looking amazing. What’s next, they’re going to leak my school transcripts showing a high GPA?” The candidate committee called this and her other replies “frivolous,” and said she was not taking the reputational risk she posed to the Green Party seriously.
The situation did not improve during another follow-up interview. Beebe pointed out that she was clearly being discriminated against on the basis of doing sex work, because the committee’s obsession with the “risk” of her old nude photos was due to their commercial purpose. She pointed out that lots of adults–in and out of Parliament–share nude photos with other consenting adults, but that hadn’t prevented anyone else’s candidacy. The committee Chair furiously erupted, “Who? Who is sharing nudes??” When Beebe refused to non-consensually reveal consenting adults’ private interactions, the Chair replied, “Well then I have to pretend I didn’t hear that, because that would be a SERIOUS offence.”
Setting aside the fact that Fired Up Stilettos apparently understands the realities of people’s private lives better than this panel of “experts” who are responsible for background checks, when did we miss the announcement that consensual sexual behaviour between adults is disqualifying for a leadership role in the Green Party (of all things)? Will they be similarly shocked to discover MPs also engage in sexual relations that are sometimes outside the confines of heterosexual, monogamous marriage? Shall we fetch the fainting couch? Quite frankly, we think New Zealand voters have better things to care about. We also think it is the obligation of political leadership to proactively shape public thought rather than be continuously baited into reacting to a minority of bad-faith actors.
The interview continued with the Chair expressing further concern that Beebe’s sex working past and activism would “distract” from the Green Party’s messaging goals. Of particular note was Beebe having done sex work while on a work visa about 10 years ago, which is a violation of Section 19 of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003 (only citizens and permanent residents are legally allowed to do sex work in New Zealand). She was sexually assaulted by a client, and decided to file a police report despite risking deportation. Now a citizen, Beebe has used her experience to advocate for s 19 reform, as it is well-documented that sex workers on temporary visas are disproportionately the victims of assault because abusers know they cannot report it without risking deportation. Disappointed to have her sexual assault weaponised against her by supposed allies, Beebe pointed out that s 19 reform is a Green Party policy. The Chair acknowledged that, but she insisted this story could “distract” from the Green Party’s goals. “Is reducing the incidence of rape of migrant women not a goal of the Green Party?” Beebe asked. “Not a main one, no,” replied the Chair.
Taken aback by such callousness, Beebe emailed the General Manager of the Party, alerting her to the “racism and the discrimination against sex workers that was quite apparent” in the meeting. The General Manager emailed Beebe a link to the Greens’ internal disputes process. There has been no subsequent communication.
Kicking up a FUS
As an organisation, Fired Up Stilettos has two main takeaways from the Green Party’s behaviour:
The Greens’ 2026 electoral strategy apparently hinges on risk aversion, and the internal decision-makers have decided sex workers now present a political risk. Although Menéndez March has committed to advocating for sex workers’ rights regardless of Party politics, we cannot tie ourselves to any Party based on one MP. If the Greens’ internal machinations cannot be trusted to fight for us, we do not actually benefit from doing a Member’s Bill with them because it could restrict our options without enhancing our leverage.
It seems the Greens are so confident they have FUS supporters’ votes that the unelected gatekeepers of the Party do not feel compelled to even pretend to be polite in meetings. They were disrespectful to one of our members and openly dismissive of the importance of sexual violence against us. We have worked too hard and come too far to be taken for granted by anyone. We are in a position to demand better, so we will.
We want to be clear that the question of one person’s candidacy is irrelevant to Fired Up Stilettos–no one is entitled to be a candidate for any Party, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons to reject Beebe or anyone else. The problem is the Greens have strongly marketed themselves as opposed to anti-migrant racism and in support of sex workers, but this behaviour from some of their high-level decision-makers has broken our trust that the Greens will treat us or people we represent with respect. We do not expect perfection, but it is worth noting that candidacy was discussed with a few Parties around the same time, and every other Party behaved better. Only the Green Party’s interview process placed greater importance on preventing nude photographs of sex workers than on preventing violence against us. Such a great disparity between what is publicly professed versus privately confessed has made the relationship currently untenable because we have higher standards for those who would seek to present themselves as our allies.
Put bluntly, we will not allow any Party to use us for social justice clout if their internal powerbrokers demonstrably undermine our interests.
We hope this article serves as a reminder to all Parties that the greatest risk to their electoral success is not accusations from their opposition, but rather the disillusionment of their supporters.
We think it is important to note that all organisations (and organisers!) will mess up at some point; what matters is the willingness to repair and grow. The Green Party has previously done good work for sex workers, so we hope they will address whatever institutional problems have led to this behaviour, apologise, and do better going forward.
What’s next for Fired Up Stilettos?
When we told a prominent New Zealand academic who focuses on sex work what happened, she lamented, “If we can't rely on the Greens to be genuine allies, who can we rely on?” This reaction by people outside Fired Up Stilettos has been common, and led to our decision to discuss this publicly. It seems that fellow sex workers, academics, and some political Parties still underestimate FUS–and sex workers in general–thinking our options are limited and we should be grateful for any kind of institutional support, even if it is possibly tokenistic. This perspective is unnecessarily self-limiting, and does not reflect our experiences for the past three years.
Fired Up Stilettos wants to be clear that the answer to, “Who else would support us?” is almost everyone. Since 2023, both the general public and media have engaged us predominantly in good faith, and disagreement has been around policy implementation rather than morality. We have had positive interactions when advocating for our rights with every Party in Parliament (as well as a few not yet elected). The movement for sex workers’ rights does not belong to any one Party, nor is it a “left versus right” issue in this country. The “left” tends to see our needs from the perspective of workers’ rights; the “right” sees our advocacy as promoting competition and freedom of contract. Both are true since, as independent contractors, we are both workers and our own businesses. So those differing priorities end up leading to the same policy recommendations. We do not need to be pigeon-holed or tolerate disrespect in order to advance our interests.
Case in point: though the coalition Government did not commit to the freestanding legislation we wanted, they said they would consider the demands of our 2023 petition when reviewing the Commerce Act and Fair Trading Act. We are encouraged by what we’ve seen thus far. We hope the Government will integrate our suggested improvements to the Commerce (Promoting Competition and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, and that they will follow the recommendation of the Commerce Commission by changing the Fair Trading Act to allow anyone (rather than just the Commission) to challenge unfair contract terms (UCTs) in court. This might be the most conservative government New Zealand has formed in decades, but they are currently on track to pass legislation that will enhance sex workers’ collective bargaining power by the end of the year. We hope this encourages all Parties to reevaluate their own assumptions about what can be achieved, and with whom.
In 2026, it is time to finally acknowledge that advocating for sex workers’ rights is not a liability in this country, but rather astute politics. Fired Up Stilettos are leaders in a movement who will work with anyone ready to use their power to improve sex workers’ material conditions. And no matter the outcome of this year’s election, you can bet we will have a seat at the proverbial table.
Fired Up Stilettos is a collective of strippers and other sex workers advocating for our labour rights in Aotearoa New Zealand