Buzzwords vs. real people
God forbid, you can’t normalize and legitimize icky prostitution that I have such a personal moral problem with, because then…
-oh wait. Because then, stuff like this might not happen.
Well then.
Popular opinion: Hooker murders are icky, grisly, and wrong, because, well, murder is wrong but … well, thank goodness it was “just” a whore. No big whoop, right? And, well, that’s what she gets, you know? I mean, that’s just part of the risks of being a skanky ho.
This has me so pissed off right now. What the hell is wrong with people?
This “Well, thank goodness just a _____ died and not, like, a real normal, GOOD person” attitude strikes a real sore spot with me.
ETA: Oh, and also… don’t bother reading the comments on the Bastard Logic thread. Trust me.
My feelings on the bit of it I (regrettably) skimmed echo what GallingGalla said at The Curvature:
The comment thread on the bastard.logic story made me sick. A bunch of men (and especially one guy) making every excuse in the book for why the “sentence” was justified — probably enough to create a “hating on sex workers” bingo card.
Speaking of The Curvature, thanks to Cara for also posting about this on Feministe.
You know during the Ipswich murders? One of my friends said the heard a guy on the radio saying “it’s interesting that the man is murdering prostitutes and not women”. Cos prostitutes are obviously have a gender of their own. ‘Else they don’t have a gender cos they ain’t human.
I’ve not looked into this properly, everything I’ve heard is “well, they know it’s a dangerous game when they enter into it” and “I think to be fair it was in self defense”.
Caroline, I remember reading something w/ almost that exact wording about the Ipswich murders. I think it was in the Daily Mail or somewhere similarly vile. Statements like that really make my skin crawl.