My thoughts on last Friday’s Summit in Asheville, NC.
"When I say I’m “pro-sex work,” obviously there are some terrible conditions, and there are obviously horrible circumstances where people are forced into that line of work. But there are also people doing it because they want to do it, and their rights need to be acknowledged. I think that their rights need to be fought for, because that profession in itself — when it’s all done in a way that should be done, and everyone has rights and it’s safe — is a necessary and honorable profession."
(via aghoulistmike)
"The United States is a nation that’s supposed to promote agency and choice. It’s a country that was built on the verbal foundation of equal protection for all. How is it possible that sex workers face repeated discrimination and lack of services, simply because they sell what people naturally want for a living? More than anything, it feels as if the federal stance on prostitution is just another attack on a population of people that don’t fit the tight definition of what an American should look like, behave, and be."
—
Sex Worker Rights: Stigma Trumps Social Services
(via deedennis)
"The problem is, real people buy sex, and real people sell sex. The numbers on how many people are involved in the sex trade are notoriously hard to gather, or trust, but there is one constant: buyers are not buying people. When politicians, social service providers and celebrity philanthropists insist that sex workers are selling ourselves, they engage in the same kind of dehumanisation that they claim johns do to us. When they claim that men can buy us, they rob us of our power and our choices."
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Melissa Gira Grant on Alternet: What’s Wrong with Ashton Kutcher’s Campaign Against Sex Work? Plenty.
(via harmreduction)
It’s about time someone called her out on this shit!
(via @LynnComella & @CharlieGlickman)
I can only hope it sticks.
(Source: deedennis)
It would seem that no one enjoys being called a “hooker,” whether you are a sex worker or not.
When looking at the ways in which the media in the United States continues to use the term, it’s not difficult to ascertain why sex workers still have an impossible time being visible and out in this country.
It’s also easy to see how shaming sex workers, or even shaming someone for purportedly being a sex worker, is easy to do in a society in which calling someone a “hooker” is defamatory enough to bespeak the second class status of sex workers in general.
“A new report launched by youths accuses police officers of raping commercial sex workers. The report launched on Tuesday by Kawempe Youth Development Association, a civil society group empowering commercial sex workers to fight for their rights, also says police officers often beat sex workers and take their belongings such as money.”
"Calling prostitution “a dangerous, violent crime,” NOPD Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced today that New Orleans police had arrested 67 sex workers in the months of July and August in an undercover operation that also involved State Police, the FBI and the Secret Service."
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NOPD Declares War on Sex Workers - Louisiana Justice Institute, 9/8/11
Shame on the NOPD.
(via harmreduction)
sex worker
noun
“A person who works in the sex industry.”sex industry
noun
“Collectively, businesses that provide sex-related products.”Neither of these terms refer exclusively to prostitution. A sex worker could be an actor in pornography, an erotic dancer working at a club, a phone sex operator, a exhibition worker, and numerous other occupations related to sex! In addition, many of those involved in said sex industry occupations are not forced into it.
(via honoriathade)
A lot of sex workers and sex worker activists had trouble enjoying their July 4th weekend thanks to Ashton Kutcher, who has been waging war against The Village Voice for airing its concerns about his anti-trafficking efforts and misinformation campaign. On almost every non-sex worker helmed website that covered this story, comments consisted of the claims that 1) misinformation is unimportant, irrelevant, or even justified if it’s for a good cause and 2) anyone who criticizes misinformation in the name of a good cause is necessarily against the good cause. In this specific case, that means critics of Kutcher’s bad stats are in favor of child prostitution. (Fun sarcastic commenter’s summation of this position can be found here.) Some have made the similar assertion that Kutcher’s careless campaigning is a good thing because it’s “gotten people talking” about the issue, as if any incidental end justifies the means, or all discussion is automatically beneficial. Judging from what internet “talking” I saw, lots of self-righteous, under-educated people are feeling even more morally superior than they did before, and many experts and activists feel even more discouraged and devalued.
Tons of stories cropping up about this right now, here’s Gawker and Gothamist. In short, a professor at Farleigh Dickinson got busted for 40 counts of promoting prostitution for running a message board for hobbyists and escorts (as an aside - wow, it really makes you realize how ridiculous the word “hobby” is as a insider term when you see it in a headline).
Though I could be wrong, it is unlikely that this is a “prostitution ring” - message boards aren’t agencies, and this man was probably not a pimp.
He’s quoted as saying that he wanted “to create a safe place for prostitutes and johns to get together.” In this case, “safe” mostly means safe from law enforcement, but it probably also means - for the johns - a safe space to to review escorts and protect themselves from being ripped off, etc. It probably wasn’t explicitly an advertising site.
This case is worrisome because of the charges of “promoting prostitution” could very well be applied to other forms of communication about the sex industry, like sex worker activism and especially sharing information about best practices, screening procedures, and the like.
This is what criminalization looks like, and its not good.
(Source: audaciaray)
