It’s funny, because although I was a teenager when Britney hit the scene, I also always thought of her dismissively, until her recent antics prompted me to do some research (gossip sites and pop music videos are totally research!), and there are some really interesting things going on there. I’ll definitely be writing about it some more.

My two cents is (and this is not something I say about many issues) is that it can only start with us valuing ourselves more. When we do that other people might, too.

I see many artists and small companies forgo paying themselves for their work, for a whole slew of very understandable reasons. Companies won’t commit to paying or asking for decent; everyone goes along with it, then everyone feels victimized and complains that there’s no money.

I think, and I mean this, it’s time for some of us to turn down the gigs that don’t pay enough. To tell the NPN, for example, that their contracted rates of pay for touring productions is not close to a living wage. Hell, maybe we even get on Equity’s case because even their off-Broadway pay scale is pretty damn low.

Whenever we decide not to get paid (because we need that extra prop or we think we need that gig at the TBA festival or we need whatever else), we set the bar lower for our entire field.

I am not saying I believe that it’s a quick fix - that if we all start asking for more dough it’s gonna rain down from the newly opened skies, but I do think that when we agree to NOT be compensated for what we do, and we don’t even make it clear to ourselves that that’s what we’re doing, we’re hobbling ourselves.

We have to make a commitment to ourselves first, as artists, and then I do think the institutions, funders and audiences will begin to follow. I’ve seen it play out in the workshops I teach across the country. It actually starts with us.

So, a campaign to make people value us more? I’d say we start reminding each other what we’re worth first. And what we’re worth is what we decide we’re worth.

Here’s what i suggest we all do:

1. Figure out what it takes you to live for a year, comfortably (including a little rainy-day money, health insurance and a vacation - a what? a vacation!) Like, not what you think you can squeak by on, but what would it cost to really live the decent life that allows you to function creatively at your best. For everyone it will probably be a bit different. You might have to go back to your taxes and your pay stubs, but really do the math and think about this. This is what normal citizens do.

2. From that annual figure, break it down into a weekly rate, a day rate and an hourly.

3. Next time someone says they want to hire you for some artistic gig or another, see if what they’re offering is going to pay for what your time really costs, based on these rates.

4. If not, then you have some choices: You can decide the work is important enough for you to partially subsidize by taking the lower amount. Or, you can turn it down flat because it’s not enough. OR, you can go back and say, “I need to make more than that for me to be able to do this work, which I really love doing, but I can’t lose money on it or eventually I’ll have to stop. Can you come up with some more.” Maybe they’ll cough up some more dough. Maybe they won’t. Then you all have more choices to make. Either way, you’ll have initiated a conversation that is honest and edifying.

The bottom line is that if you know what your life costs you, then you can start having a real conversation with funders, presenters and colleagues. And you can make meaningful decisions that contribute to how all of us are valued.

We are all subsidizing the arts to some degree. That will not change, probably. But we do have a choice as to how far we’re willing to go with that.