#YesAllWomen, Except Sex Workers

[ismnotwasm]

So, to why I posted this. You ever notice that most discussions of sex workers are women sex workers? Now, I'm a supporter of the Nordic model, but sometimes I think like this, if I lived in a world where women weren't threatened with violence and called skanks, hoes, whores, sluts, C*****, the new and lovely word "Thots" or just plain b*****, just for speaking their mind about, oh say what's on currency, or disagree with a popular opinion, or dare to deconstruct video games; a world where sex is revered and celebrated instead of turning into it a 'dirty' (women were and are considered unclean now and throughout millennia for various reasons) joke.

Where sex workers were not at risk of violence without, and often with, protection, a world with full reproductive autonomy, a world where "trafficking" means something you do with your car, a world where 12 year old girls are not already being taught how to "avoid" rape, a world that considers women to be just as 'sexual' as men, and that fact is celebrated in a respectful manner, it could, possibly probably create a market for more more male "whores"-- in other words, for sex work to be legit, it has to be equal. Gay, Trans, straight, Bi--and all genders represented equally. For sex work to be truly raised up, it can't be on the lives of women.

(while I'm on a rant--a world without Todd Akins, for one)

But we don't have that do we? We have women and no few men catering to skulking men cruising, and the occasional high priced male 'escort' falling into pre-packaged economic patterns. A few do very well, most do not--or at least not for long.

Do I think a sex worker can be a feminist? Hell yes. But 'sex workers' have their own blinds spots-- big ones--it's not just everyone else. Really.

What I want for sex workers is safety. Legalization doesn't provide that, but tossing women in jail for bowing to entitled demand isn't safe either. And no I don't have the perfect answer.

Now while this article cheery picks it's interviews, it's easy to find the horror stories because there are so very, very many of them. Comparing feminists objections to pornography and prostitution to anti-abortion assholes is disingenuous at best, mostly it's self-serving bullshit. (BTW--check back with me in about ten years-- less depending what you're involved in-- tell me how great it is. My friends ended up in rehab, (usually multiple times) married to assholes, divorced said assholes, in prison or dead. Or they got out of the life entirely)

“Whore-phobia”
Despite its long existence around the globe as a profession, sex work has been a controversial topic for many women and feminist groups, who often come to the conclusion that sex workers are far from being feminists because they choose to sell themselves and perpetuate the stereotype that women exist to please men.

As porn model and performer Minnie Scarlet explained to RH Reality Check last year, most of these feminists who contribute to the “slut-shaming” and “whore-phobia” in our culture are “white scholar-types” who fail to notice the class and racial issues associated with feminism, and fail to accept that some sex workers do their work for empowerment, liberation or fun.

The idea that sex workers can’t be feminists because of the nature of their work has been a point of contention for feminists and sex workers, like Molly, a sex worker in the United Kingdom, who argues that feminists need to recognize she is selling a service, not herself.

“There is nothing more misogynist than implying/stating that I’m selling ‘myself’ when I sell sex,” Molly said. “I am a lot more than my vagina and what I do in bed, and I expect feminists to understand that.”

Violet Rose, another sex worker from the U.K., pointed out that just because she has sex for money does not mean her vagina is penetrated by penises all day, every day.

“Lots of my clients want to chat, do some other sex acts, or do something else entirely,” she said. Since Rose says the demand for sex work isn’t going to end anytime soon, she and other sex workers deserve labor, human, and civil rights protections at work.

Siouxsie Q, a sex worker in San Francisco, agrees that many feminists groups have an apparent disregard for sex workers and do not typically tolerate prostitution — even when it’s legal. In a column for SF Weekly early this month, she argued that anti-porn and anti-sex work feminist groups are dictating choices women can make about their own bodies in a manner similar to anti-abortion groups.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/yesallwomen-except-sex-workers/193092/

[redqueen]

1. These privileged women whine about their choices

while women and children who are forced into it suffer... and suffer... and suffer.

What matters more? Their ability to cash in renting out their bodies? Or protecting the women and children who are enslaved, abused, exploited, etc?

How is this even fucking up for discussion?

Selfish, inconsiderate people make me fucking ill. But hey, there's MONEY involved.

Also, their attempt to co-opt the -phobia suffix is fucking shameful. "Whorephobia" my ass.

[ismnotwasm]

2. Yeah I know

I was reading that tired old shit and thinking of a lost friend. Probably shouldn't post and do that.

[MadrasT]

4. What I wanted to write, was basically the same points...

...so I will just +1.

All I hear them saying is "me me me me me me me".

[Squinch]

3. Never seen it said better than you just did. All the countries who legalized it are now backing off

legalization because of exactly what you describe: alarming spikes in trafficking and crimes against women.

One phrase struck me as particularly emblematic of the problem:

"a world where 12 year old girls are not already being taught how to "avoid" rape"

That says it all.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. It's legal where I live and they haven't backed off...

There's different laws depending on what state or territory it is, but in my neck of the woods it's been legal since 1992. There was a review of the legislation in 2011 and there were no moves to change much at all. The legislation means that all sex workers have to be registered and brothels are strictly regulated and are only allowed to operate in specific parts of the city. We don't have prostitution out on the street like what happens in the US and that sort of prostitution is illegal, I'm pretty sure.

Last election the Liberals (confusingly for Americans they're our conservative party) campaigned on introducing sweeping restrictions into the Prostitution Act, but never got to do it as where I live is very small-l liberal and elected a grouping of the Greens and the Labor Party.

Here's the legislation. While it's long and cumbersome, it's not nearly as massive as the gun legislation that was brought in after the Port Arthur massacre and is sure to explode the heads of NRA types everywhere

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/pa1992205/

[Squinch]

6. A study done of 112 countries in 2012 concluded that crimes against women definitely increase

with the legalization of prostitution, and that inflows of trafficked people are much larger in wealthier nations. It seems that Australia may not have changed their rules to accommodate these findings, but it does not seem likely that Australia is immune to the problems that led other countries to re-look at their policies toward prostitution.

While it is easy to find fairly good studies from other countries on numbers of trafficked persons, I had difficulty finding any hard information about Australia. A number that I saw in a few sources was 1000 trafficked persons, which seems to come from Project Respect, and which doesn't seem to have any actual study behind it. This number seems to be ludicrously small to me, especially because many other sources cite Australia as a hub for trafficking from Asian countries, and because sources describe a well developed trafficking crime syndicate and special police force of 300 members that is dedicated to investigating nothing but trafficking.

What this says to me is that Australia may not be changing its rules, and may not even be looking at the problem, but trafficking is probably as bad there, or worse given Australia's wealth and location, as it was in all the other countries studied after they legalized prostitution.

Here's a summary of the study's findings. They're very interesting:

A 2012 study published in World Development, “Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?” investigates the effect of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows into high-income countries. The researchers — Seo-Yeong Cho of the German Institute for Economic Research, Axel Dreher of the University of Heidelberg and Eric Neumayer of the London School of Economics and Political Science — analyzed cross-sectional data of 116 countries to determine the effect of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. In addition, they reviewed case studies of Denmark, Germany and Switzerland to examine the longitudinal effects of legalizing or criminalizing prostitution. The study’s findings include:

Countries with legalized prostitution are associated with higher human trafficking inflows than countries where prostitution is prohibited. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution, i.e. expansion of the market, outweighs the substitution effect, where legal sex workers are favored over illegal workers.

On average, countries with legalized prostitution report a greater incidence of human trafficking inflows. The effect of legal prostitution on human trafficking inflows is stronger in high-income countries than middle-income countries. Because trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation requires that clients in a potential destination country have sufficient purchasing power, domestic supply acts as a constraint.

Criminalization of prostitution in Sweden resulted in the shrinking of the prostitution market and the decline of human trafficking inflows.

Cross-country comparisons of Sweden with Denmark (where prostitution is decriminalized) and Germany (expanded legalization of prostitution) are consistent with the quantitative analysis, showing that trafficking inflows decreased with criminalization and increased with legalization.

The type of legalization of prostitution does not matter — it only matters whether prostitution is legal or not. Whether third-party involvement (persons who facilitate the prostitution businesses, i.e, “pimps”) is allowed or not does not have an effect on human trafficking inflows into a country.

Legalization of prostitution itself is more important in explaining human trafficking than the type of legalization.

Democracies have a higher probability of increased human-trafficking inflows than non-democratic countries. There is a 13.4% higher probability of receiving higher inflows in a democratic country than otherwise.

- See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/international/human-rights/legalized-prostitution-human-trafficking-inflows#sthash.nUI0kGjw.dpuf