The world's oldest profession may also carry the world's oldest stigma.

Sex workers have always been forced into the shadows, most recently by the last Conservative government's draconian Bill C-36. According to sex workers and their allies, laws like this jeopardize people's lives.

In 2005, SFU professor John Lowman gave evidence to a parliamentary subcommittee that 50 sex workers were killed in B.C. over a five-year period in the late 1990s, up from 24 and 22 over the two previous five-year periods.

"According to Professor Lowman, this increase is associated with the addition to the Criminal Code of the section prohibiting communication in a public place for the purposes of prostitution (section 213) and the campaign to move prostitutes off the streets, which began about the same time," the committee noted in its report. "Professor Lowman argued in his appearance that the criminal law jeopardizes prostitutes by forcing them to conclude their negotiations with their clients too quickly, thereby compromising their ability to report any violence they endure to the police and forcing them to be very secretive."

Vancouver writer Maggie de Vries also testified before the subcommittee, making a distinction between survival sex and sexual slavery. Her sister Sarah was one of the multitude of B.C. female sex workers murdered in the late 1990s. Her remains were found on the Pickton farm in Port Coquitlam.

"My sister was engaged in survival sex," de Vries told parliamentarians. "Her choices were limited as long as she could not see a way out of that life. She was locked tight inside her addiction. But she had dignity. Within the scope of her life, she made choices every day. She had the right, I believe, to sell sex whether she hated it or loved it."

The Hooker Monologues premieres in Vancouver

It's a hard message for some to absorb. And this is why de Vries is part of a collective of women now putting on a show at the Firehall Theatre to try to shatter the stigma around sex work.

The Hooker Monologues is directed by Mindy Parfitt and plays until Sunday (March 13). It features stories covering a wide range of sex workers' experiences, including one about campaigns to shame the johns.

"I would like the audience to leave with a whole mixture of things," de Vries told the Straight in a phone interview. "I would like them to have their thinking challenged. I would like their hearts to be opened up a little bit. I would like them to be thinking 'I never thought a sex worker would be like that or that or that.' "

Even though the title suggests it's a series of monologues, de Vries presents a dialogue between herself and her sister.

"I went in and took pieces from her journal," she revealed. "Another member of our group has very kindly agreed to be Sarah. She doesn't hear me because she's writing in her journal 20 years ago, but I'm trying to reach her."

De Vries also said that the stigma around sex work acts as a barrier to allowing people to live in the world like anyone else.

"Sex workers get pushed away because of the stigma and that's dangerous," she stated. "That actually kills people, like it killed my sister."

There's a question-and-answer session after every performance so the audience can learn more.

Sex work divides feminists

It's a polarizing issue with some feminists, like de Vries, arguing adamantly in favour of decriminalization and better labour standards for sex workers.

Other feminists have worked in concert with evangelical Christians to lobby governments to impose greater restrictions. This was perhaps most notable in Bill C-36, which criminalizes clients and outlaws the advertisement of the sale of sexual services.

"The polarization is painful for me," de Vries conceded. "I've been a feminist my whole life and yet it is so clear to me that criminalizing what my sister did made her life more dangerous. And also, it took away her ability to say for herself what was good for her. I don't think somebody else can say for me what's right for me."

At the same time, she recalled studying at McGill University in the 1980s when some feminist scholars were maintaining that "all penetration was rape".

"I remember struggling with these very extreme ideas," de Vries said.

She noted that they arise out frustration with patriarchal society. According to her, they're also rooted in "actual prudery and discomfort with sexuality". 

The Hooker Monologues has received support from RainCity Housing and Support Society, the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, the Community Arts Council for Vancouver, the City of Vancouver Arts Fund, and Face the World Foundation.

Organizers are still trying to raise a few thousand more dollars to cover the $25,000 cost of the production. Anyone who wants to donate can contribute to a GoFundMe campaign.

"We're on a shoestring budget," de Vries said. "The professionals are working for far less than they normally do."