Osthus was a candidate in the Portland, Oregon, mayoral election , finishing in fifth place out of twenty candidates. Osthus received a degree in cultural anthropology from Williams College.
Osthus' first experience inside a strip club was during a collegiate spring break, and she has spoken at length about her initial surprise at discovering both the artistry of the performances and the intimacy between performers and audience. CD and going to a rock show. Shy and body-conscious during adolescence, she believes stripping helped her find comfort within her own skin for the first time. She has been accused of romanticizing the industry as a stripper pollyanna relentlessly shilling only the most positive aspects of the profession.
At the same time, she did recognize the larger societal implications when first climbing on stage in as a penniless young writer trailing an awful breakup. In , Osthus was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She was just 33 and had no familial history with the disease. Nathalie Johnson, a former dancer who'd spent a season with the Alvin Ailey company before focusing upon medicine, conducted surgery to remove her left breast on September I'm probably more jazzed than Osthus has stated that dancing forced her to confront newly awakened insecurities and said that nurses often recommend other cancer patients visit her at Mary's.
Then, back on stage, no one noticed. Well aware that most dancers do not consider their stagecraft especially artistic, Osthus doesn't try to correct their perceptions but does feel a certain responsibility to emphasize the work of sex workers as actual labor. Although certainly older than the average sex worker, Osthus has previously pointed to the example set by octogenarian dancers maintaining regular shifts in Las Vegas.
