I arrived here in Boston (for WAM!2008) a few hours ago, and am chilling in the hotel room, trying to catch up on email, and waiting for Dacia to arrive. I’ll try to do as much blogging as possible this weekend - I still need to blog about last night’s APC panel, although you can already see some of my commentary in my tweets - but for now, I just want to link to Regina Lynn’s latest Sex Drive column in Wired. She interviewed me, Dacia, and Melissa. Here’s an excerpt:
“Lots of people were at South by Southwest [when the Spitzer story broke] and didn’t have time to check e-mail every five minutes,” says Amber Rhea, organizer of the upcoming Sex 2.0 conference in Atlanta. “It didn’t matter. They used Twitter, text messaging — they did interviews with hardly any advance notice.”
Rhea says that for the first time, there’s a critical mass of people putting forth a concerted effort to make sure the media can’t ignore sex workers. Building on a foundation built by former sex workers of the past 30 or so years, many of whom went public with books, articles and speaking engagements after they retired, modern sex workers have the message — and the means to get it out.
Mobile connectivity makes it possible to channel the collective wisdom of a broad, geographically diverse group directly to a smaller number of public faces, almost instantly. Sex workers across the country could share their thoughts on the subject without outing themselves, while those who could put their real names and faces forward in the media could speak with a strong peer-support network.
Be sure to read the whole thing!
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13 Responses to "Wired column is up!"
that was cool…you go ladies!
Pretty awesome
Rhea says that for the first time, there’s a critical mass of people putting forth a concerted effort to make sure the media can’t ignore sex workers.
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Other than the fact that your main point is demonstrably false, yeah, it’s cool.
You, Amber, don’t actually do ANYTHING to help sex workers. You just make yourself feel special and important by co-opting other people’s experiences as your own.
All the sex workers getting dicked over by employers, clients, pimps and the government can sleep soundly knowing that Amber Fucking Rhea is Twittering about them. Hallelujah! Salvation!
Get a stupid law overturned. Take a needy sex worker into your home. Pay someone’s rent. Do something to help someone. Something that improves someone else’s life more than it makes you feel better about yourself.
Unknown, pick a name. I wouldn’t have approved your comment except it just proves about a million points I’ve made over the years. Also thanks to Statcounter and IP address tracking and such, I have a pretty good idea of who you are. So own your words. If you really believe them, you should have the stones to attach your name to them.
I’m a former sex worker, and I think that having non-sex workers like Amber speak out is encouraging - it makes me feel like there are people other than sex workers who care about our issues. Having people who are allies speak up and defend sex workers is a good thing. And talking IS doing something, since one of the huge barriers to progress of the sex workers rights movement is the stigma against sex workers.
Wouldn’t want unknown’s little glass jaw to break again. What a fucking wimp.
Ahhh…Memo to Unknown Asshat:
Personally, I think that having the support and solidarity of non-sex workers like Amber is vital; otherwise, how in the hell wi;; sex workers really be able to fight against all the stigma and crap they get from society?? Especially from the likes of you??
But, since you seem not to give a crap about sex workers anyway, and only use this space to hate on Amber…..just buzz off, troll.
And as Amber said: get a freakin’ username.
Anthony
Hrm. Somehow I thought hosting — and taking financial risk — the Sex 2.0 conference, with all of its sex and sex work sessions, counted as advocacy. Oh yeah, and writing and speaking up about the assumptions and stereotypes in the media after Spitzer.
Not to mention bringing things to my attention so that I knew it was going on and could write about it. At WIRED, no less, which is not a typical outlet for positive coverage of sex worker concerns and therefore reached out to an entirely new audience.
Isn’t that what advocacy or activism is? And didn’t Amber just blog the other day that she does her best advocacy on a personal level, one on one, small groups, etc? It’s that sort of individual connection that builds trust and helps people think about things in a new way, and open their minds to get beyond stereotypes. An article can plant a seed but only by talking to people you trust and respect can you work through cultural blocks, whatever that block may be.
There has been a TON of sex worker advocacy in the past 30 years, mostly by women, who paved the way for what Audacia, Melissa, Amber, and others are doing now. That’s why critical mass is happening — those voices are still speaking up and they are joined by a whole new empowered and connected generation. The message is the same, the media is stronger, the voice is louder.
Huzzah.
Sorry…wi” should be “will”. Typing finger slippage.
Anthony
BTW…much love and respect to Dacia and Violet…but someone needs to send Regina a memo to include your lovely faceshot the next time she feature you in an article. Why should Dacia and Violet get all the face time??
Anthony
Oh, damn, ‘Dog (memo to myself)…try actually reading the freakin’ article before posting. I did mean Dacia and Melissa, not Dacia and Violet….and it was only Dacia who got the mugshot. Still should have given you and Melissa equal face time, though.
Anthony
Anthony,
Thanks ‘n’ all, but I bet Regina didn’t have the final say on what photo got used in the piece… that probably came from an editor. It honestly doesn’t matter to me if my face is there or not.
And thanks, all.
Unknown;
Line to suck my strap on in hell? Forms to the left. Gee, what has Amber done to help sex workers? Hummm….sex 2.o? Brought the mid-town atlanta bullshit to peoples attention? Given sex workers a voice via her blog? Actually, oh, listened to us? Donate time and effort? I’d say that counts…
and guess what asshole? I’m a sex worker. So, as such, I’d say I have more authority than thou, unless you too have sucked dick for a living.
Have you?
No?
Shut the fuck up.
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