Denise Haggerty; Carol Leigh aka Scarlet Harlot

Scarlet Harlot

Carol Leigh aka Scarlet Harlot was a huge activist for prostitutes rights and the rights of all types of women’s groups. There was not much information available for Leigh before she arose as an activist in the late seventies. However I did find that she devoted her life to her works, fighting for the rights of sex workers and other women’s and minority groups. She lives in the San Francisco, CA Bay Area and this is also were she does most of her work.
She had many major accomplishments in the media and in her activist works. She was one of the leaders of the sex workers rights movement and even coined the term “sex worker”. She used her role in the sex worker activist act to get prostitutes tested for HIV and volunteered at an HIV prevention center. Leigh also worked to create awareness about AIDs in the Bay Area of San Francisco (bayswan.org). Leigh was a part of many documentaries that showed how sex workers around the world had the rights violated and helped in the organization of many groups like the Bay- SWAN, a group that’s aim was to produce awareness about sex workers and fight for their rights.
She’s had a large role in media awareness over the past 20 years including her weekly public access show that she had on the air for 10 years. She created documentaries of sex workers and also to raise awareness concerning gay and lesbian issues. She wrote a book called “The adventures of Scarlet Harlot”, and also co-directed Annie Sprinkles Herstory of Porn (bayswan.org). Leigh also brought her skills into the teaching arena, she teaches digital art at various schools all over the San Francisco bay area.
Her role in the feminist movement are clear, though her media coverage she raised issue’s of women’s rights, because of her works there are people out there with a new outlook on life. For me reading about all the things that she has done so far in her life was inspirational for me to get out there, to start building awareness for the things that women in my day and age are suffering from and to continue the fight for women’s rights.
It was hard for me to find a lot of sources of information on Carol Leigh the activist, the sources that I felt was most helpful was a site called bayswan (www.bayswan.org/Scarlot_Resume.html). Another source that was slightly helpful was the wikepedia website however this website did not provide very much information about Leigh’s works.

Denise Haggerty
Women’s Studies 200
Blog post 2