#YesAllWomen, Except Sex Workers [View all]
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)
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/
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