Being Amber Rhea

6 Responses to "Ta-da!"

1. jt says:
   
   January 19th, 2008 at 7:19 pm

   Jeebus. “Porn & Prostitution Are paid rape?” and “it’s not real work.”

   The mind boggles.

   Can you educate a girl? What’s the “90%” about? That one could be tough to google. :-)

2. christy says:
   
   January 19th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

   *is also curious about 90%*

3. Amber says:
   
   January 20th, 2008 at 10:24 am

   “90%” is a statistic that gets thrown around by anti sex work feminists and, to a lesser degree, other anti sex work activists. They cite research (whose methods were questionable to begin with, as many sex workers and labor rights activists have pointed out) that states that 90% of sex workers want out of the business. Google “Melissa Farley” and that should get you started. Scarlot Harlot (Carol Leigh) also tackles it and does a damn good job of refuting the generalizations and research flaws of Farley et al.

   Ren has more experience directly confronting people who wave this stat around like some kind of banner, and she wrote an entire post on it. I can’t find it right now, though; Ren, if you read this, can you point us to that post?

   I did find this one that mentions it a little.

   Okay, so lets talk here for a moment. I am at a point where my brain is a bit fried by the whole thing, and my blood is a bit boiled. Why? Because only one side of sex work is ever even considered, the BAD side. Now, I have said repeatedly that many sex workers do not like what they do, and that the life of a street prostitute is undoubtedly unpleasant. However, there is more to sex work (and sex workers) than the street prostitute. Most women who fall into those “other realms” are not the ones you find in studies or statistics because they do not want legal trouble. And even when they do speak out, they are ignored and glossed over because they do not fit into “the tragic 90%” that feeds any and all arguments against sex work as a whole. That 90% came from a study focusing heavily on street prostitutes, which is an aspect of sex work that no one expects to the women to enjoy. But they are not the end all beat all of sex work and women involved in it, not by a long shot.

   There is an image of a sex worker, and that image alone is the one people like to use. She grew up sexually abused, she has no sense of self worth, she has been involved in a series of bad, abusive and exploitive relationships, she uses drugs, she is enslaved to a pimp, she has no option but to sell her body, and no control over how, why, and whom she sells it too, nor what acts are performed with and to it. She is trapped, and her life is hell.

   This is, in all reality, the truth for a great many street prostitutes. But not all sex workers. And I can say that personally, provide links to others who say that, list studies and pro-sex work/pro sex workers sites all day long and it does not matter, because they are not that girl, the face of the 90%.

4. RenegadeEvolution says:
   
   January 20th, 2008 at 11:30 pm

   amber..this one?
   http://renegadeevolution.blogspot.com/2007/09/my-three-main-issues-with-farley.html

5. Amber says:
   
   January 21st, 2008 at 8:50 am

   That’s the one!

6. Being Amber Rhea » Blog Archive » B-I-N-G-O says:
   
   May 18th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

   [...] and called “hookers.”) From there it’s just a matter of marking off the various Bingo squares. It includes the phrase “selling their bodies” and refers to them being “victims [...]

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