‘Time to Tell’: Cosey Fanni Tutti’s groundbreaking sonic odyssey of sex work
Let’s not beat about the bush – sex and sex work are still, even by today’s standards, taboo topics. There’s always been something about the intimacy of the moment that warrants being cast away into the land of the unspoken. Then, when you add the idea of sex work into the mix, even the most normal people will suddenly act as though they’re mingling among the upper echelons of society, casting this ‘dirty secret’ into the shadows as fast as they possibly can. It takes a hell of a lot of gumption to try and break down the barriers that society has purposefully built so high, but that was exactly the art challenge once taken on by Cosey Fanni Tutti in her odyssey Time to Tell.
Although making a record about sex work might seem an odd concept for a mainstream listener, the notion was entirely natural for Tutti, an English musician and performance artist. She had spent the peak of her career pioneering aspects of the avant-garde musical movement in groups such as Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions before venturing out into her own territory as an artist, where the idea of Time to Tell came to fruition.
Alongside her performance work, Tutti had engaged in a long career of sex work and stripping; however, she noticed that the perspectives of women, the dominant workforce of the industry, were palpably missing from an already non-forthcoming discourse, so she set about to reveal their reality.
Time to Tell was the resulting product, a groundbreaking sonic journey of the sex industry from the female worker’s point of view. Using only the medium of sound, it manages to execute the feat of taking the listener through the emotional processes of a seemingly shameful act and makes them less untoward and more accessible. The record begins in a way you might imagine – foreboding and full of trepidation, as if at the entrance to a dark jungle underworld. But as the music progresses, we realise that the truth of the matter is actually very different.
Suddenly, there’s a release, and the juxtaposition towards an ethereal and almost serene landscape could not be starker. Then, the heart of the work becomes clear – this is a feminist reclamation of power over the industry that women provide survival to but are all too often diminished by. In this sense, Tutti’s genius and visionary mind come to the fore, not least in the environment in which she dared to produce this work. It’s almost inconceivable to think that Time to Tell is now 42 years old because even with the supposed progressiveness of 2024, it still sounds completely fresh, unheard and innovative. Sadly, it only proves how comparatively little we have moved on from taboo and how hugely far we still have to go.
There’s no doubt that sex work is – and probably always will be – society’s worst kept ‘sin’, but there is something so empowering for women in Tutti’s unapologetic exposure of the industry that will forever seal her legacy as an iconic feminist.
The real reason that taboo is so rife is not at the hands of the women but because it would create the admission that the world of sex work was primarily built to serve the pleasures of men, an uncomfortable reality that those with power would prefer not to face. However, Time to Tell is undeniably the biggest reckoning towards that state of affairs, leaving a trail of feminist followers in its wrath.
