Quote of the day
From Hexy:
I am sick to death of being told that sex workers, including non-white sex workers, queer sex workers, sex workers with disabilities, transgendered sex workers, sex workers with drug problems, mature sex workers… so on and so forth… are “privileged” simply because we don’t agree on our victim status and want to speak for ourselves instead of letting some self-appointed Nice White Lady Academic do it for us.
Quote of the day
From Born Whore:
I know you want me to be safe because you care about me. But when you say “be safe”, who do you think we sex workers need to protect ourselves from? Were you thinking about all the times we’re tokenized, treated like pariahs, refused visas, criminalized, researched like a bug, had others speak for us, caricatured in the media, asked totally offensive invasive questions, had our sanity and humanity questioned, our skills erased and ridiculed, risked arrest, deportation, eviction and (in my family) the threat of losing child custody? Were you thinking about the burden of secrecy from my family, or how many times I’ve tried to refute the same stereotypes over and over, and what it’s like to be told by a friend that I’m damaged? Is that what you meant?
PRESS RELEASE: “Erotic Services” Denied: Craigslist and Attorneys General Are Putting Sex Workers At Risk
Repost from Waking Vixen. Please repost/tweet/spread the word!
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This is a collaborative press release – please distribute and repost widely!
Contact:
Dylan Wolfe – Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK), swank@riseup.net
Will Rockwell – $pread Magazine, will@spreadmagazine.org
Audacia Ray – Sex Work Awareness (SWA), aray@sexworkawareness.org
Susan Blake – Prostitutes of New York (PONY), pony@panix.com
Michael Bottoms – Sex Workers Outreach Project – New York City (SWOP-NYC), info@swop-nyc.org
With Craigslist’s recent announcement that its Erotic Services category will be discontinued within the week, hundreds of thousands of erotic service providers will become more vulnerable to dangerous predators. Eliminating erotic listings as Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others propose will only drive us further underground.
Policing the masseuses, phone workers, pro-dominants, and escorts using Craigslist fails to protect those of us who are coerced into the sex industry. Preventing the use of Craigslist advertisements also eliminates the advantage of screening clients online, which makes for a safer work experience by filtering out potentially dangerous individuals. Furthermore, keeping us offline hinders police investigations of violent crime. In the Boston murder of Julissa Brisman, it was online tracking that enabled the police to identify the suspect. One has to wonder: are the Attorneys General examining the evidence or simply enforcing their moral values?
“Removing the erotic services category from Craigslist does not help prevent violence against escorts and other sex workers. It only pushes me and people like me out of the places where advertising is available,” said Jessica Bloom, a sex worker from Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK). In the face of increasing criminalization, we insist upon respect. As mothers, daughters, brothers, and members of your community, we claim that sex work is real work, work that we are entitled to conduct in safety. As such, we must be accorded the human right of full protection under the law.
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**EDIT** an addendum. I just typed this up in response to a Facebook friend asking what he could do to help. Here are some suggestions:
You can totally help, mostly by speaking up and jumping into the fray!
Legislation about consensual adult sex work (not trafficking, coercion, or child prostitution) mostly happens on the state level – since you’re in NY, you can find your assembly person here: http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/ – write to him or her and tell them how you feel about the risks created and perpetuated by continued criminalizing of sex work and cracking down on advertising
Write letters to the editor of newspapers that publish misguided pieces about how the elimination of craigslist erotic services will “help” women
Comment on blog posts and online articles (if you’ve got the stomach for it!)
And check out the very excellent and thorough reports on research done by the Sex Workers Project to arm yourself with statistics
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Craigslist erotic services ads: AJC get it so, so, so very wrong
By now you might have heard that Craigslist is ending its erotic services section.
This is a little confusing to me, since they are replacing the category with a new category called “adult.” How this is not a simple renaming of an existing category still defeats me. Oh, right: because Craigslist employees are going to “review” the ads in the adult category. Well that makes me feel so much better. Because requiring sex workers to fork over their credit card information in order to post an ad wasn’t enough.
The ending of erotic services ads comes on the heels of the murder of a masseuse who advertised on Craigslist in Boston. Which is a bit like shutting down banks and opening new institutions where you store your money, but which are not called banks, because there are bank robbers out there.
Naturally, coverage from mainstream media has been what you would expect: sensationalistic, inaccurate, in many cases wildly irrelevant, and with a deafening lack of sex workers’ voices.
The AJC did a particularly stellar job with this article on the matter. Have a look at this lede, why don’t you:
Atlanta children will be a little safer now that Craigslist will no longer post prostitution and other “erotic services” ads, but additional precautions are needed, an Atlanta anti-child prostitution group said Wednesday.
WTF???????
Where to even begin?
When Rusty showed me this article in his Google Reader, I was all inspired and motivated to take Dacia’s message from this weekend about getting our voices heard in the media to heart and write a letter to the editor. I could do this! Short, to the point. On message. 150 words or less.
Then I read the full article and the WTF-ness of it was just so overwhelming that I felt paralyzed at the prospect of trying to condense a response to the necessary length for a letter to the editor.
I feel shitty about that because I do think it’s important to respond to the media in the media’s space. But all too often the media doesn’t offer space that’s meaingful, and so, I’m doing what I always do: using the space I’ve carved out for myself to spell out exactly what the hell is wrong with this, in way more than 150 words.
Looking just at the lede… I really don’t know what goes through people’s minds. Atlanta’s children will be safer? What?? Do these people truly believe that traffickers – yes, actual child traffickers, not adult sex workers posting ads for their own services – are going to go, “Oh, Craigslist shut down its erotic services section; shucks! Now there’s nothing we can do! Oh well, no more trafficking!” Because that’s what that line seems to be saying. And for anyone who believes that, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell you.
Here’s the deal. Actual traffickers? Scary, dangerous, powerful people. Tough to go after. Lots of risk involved. And you know what else? Usually not posting on fucking Craigslist!! But of course (as Ren has pointed out) it’s far easier to make a big show of “cracking down on child prostitution” by arresting a bunch of adult sex workers, a situation wherein the state essentially becomes a pimp (for another nice dose of irony there) and keeps that door revolving, than it is to go after actual traffickers. Because that doesn’t titillate readers or make enticing headlines.
Like many cities, Atlanta had been doing police stings to “crack down on child prostitution.” What ended up happening? Law enforcement dollars and resources were devoted to giving criminal records to adult women simply trying to make a living, while violent crime continues to rise. The AJC played a nice role in that, too, by posting the full names and photos of many of those workers arrested (not linking to an article because I do not want to contribute to further outing of those women).
I feel so much safer now, don’t you? Now that those dirty whores aren’t earning money (and subsequently paying taxes) somewhere off in a hotel room?
It’s for the children!
These stings have been equally successful in protecting the children elsewhere across the country. Chicago, for example:
Perhaps you’ve heard about Operation Cross Country, a three-day, nationwide FBI operation that was supposedly targeting child prostitution trafficking. I didn’t realize it had happened right here in Chicago. “Of those arrested in the Chicago area, 5 were charged with running prostitution operations, 34 were charged with prostitution, and 5 were customers, according to the release. No minors were found.” (Emphasis mine)
In that case, SWOP-Chicago put it well:
To target child prostitution and trafficking is one thing. To scapegoat sex workers and crackdown on prostitution in the name of preventing trafficking is a horse of a different color. It’s a waste of money and it’s a waste of tax-payer resources. And if you really care about “rescuing” sex workers, why the fuck are you giving them felony records?
Operation Cross Country is not about ending the exploitation of children and those who are trafficked against their will. It’s using this exploitation as a smokescreen for persecuting sex workers on the altar of sex panic.
But back to the AJC article. I have a serious problem with this line:
As recently as February, 176 girls were prostituted for sex on Craigslist, she said.
There is no sourcing for this. Where did they get that information? Police reports? If so, of what nature? Or maybe sources other than police reports? And if so, what were those? I have seen all too often how “facts” like this are crafted in order to fit an agenda. Without knowing where this information is being drawn from, I don’t trust it one damn bit. Those 176 prostituted girls might very well be escorts who are legal adults. We don’t know.
The above was attributed to Kaffie McCullough, director of the anti-child prostitution group A Future. Not A Past. This group takes an “end demand” approach to ending child prostitution, according to their web site. Yet all the red flags are there. The conflation of exploitation of minors with consensual adult sex work. The vague and brief language on their web site. The lack of support for decriminalization of prostitution (which would be a huge help in the fight against trafficking of both children and adults, because far too often when either children or adults are “rescued,” they are entered into the criminal justice system; some rescue). Oh and did you know, according to A Future. Not A Past.’s web site, this is one of the warning signs that a minor might be a victim of trafficking:
Inappropriate dress, including oversized clothing or overtly sexy clothing
?????
Yeah. If she dresses like a slut or a weirdo, she must be trafficked! It’s that easy to spot!
How out of touch with reality are these people?
Furthermore, when someone who claims to care about children says something like this (again quoting from the AJC article)…
“I’m glad because with all the press Craigslist had been getting it was just way too easy for someone to buy an underage girl on the Internet,” McCullough said.
…well I have a major problem with that, too. Another red flag. You’re talking about trafficking victims having a future and yet you use incredibly dehumanizing language. Buy a girl? Are you fucking KIDDING me?
I’m exhausted. I’ve written over 1200 words and there’s still so much more that could be said about the AJC article. It really depresses me sometimes when I realize, yet again, that this is how much of the public at large views sex work. They think these tactics are okay. They think, I guess, that Craigslist truly is overflowing with ads for underage girls. I don’t know what they think, exactly. But I know it’s fucked up, seriously wrong, and perpetuates harmful conditions for sex workers and victims of trafficking.
I don’t know what else to say. I’ll leave you with words of wisdom from Jill Brenneman:
When I did need help, when I was facing violence and coercion in the sex industry, none of the current anti trafficking measures would have applied or helped, I couldn’t go the cops or the justice system because in the US being a prostitute is illegal, the clients getting arrested,,, so what??? Great so the whole thing which was underground in the first place just moves farther underground. Not to mention I went into the sex industry for a reason. To make money to survive. I didn’t need the clients arrested because they were clients, I was there to make money to eat, to live, there was a need for the clients. I needed the ones arrested that beat the shit out of me, or raped me, or forced me to do things without my consent. I needed them arrested for rape, for assault, not on some minor misdemeanor that they could wash away with a visit to “John School” in some lame ass plea bargain. I needed labor and human rights so that an abusive, sadistic pimp, didn’t have criminalization to use against me to keep under control. As long as the whole thing is illegal the cops were more his allies than they ever could have been mine as I was more afraid of being arrested, or worse, being blown off because I was a prostitute and sent back to him to face a very angry pimp. I needed human rights.
Seriously, sometimes I wonder what it’s going to take to get through to some people.
Oh, and on that note: I might as well publicly state right now that I want to bring the Speak Up! media training seminar to Atlanta, and I am going to work to make it happen.
Sex 2.0: Building Bridges & Alliances between researchers, sex workers & clients
Sex 2.0: Sex Work in the Time of Obama
PSA from Sex Work Awareness: “I am a sex worker”
I meant to post this yesterday… check out this awesome short video produced at the recent Speak Up! training, led by Audacia Ray. New media such as this is so important, because sometimes people with relative privilege need a reminder that people of marginalized communities are human too.
The Speak Up! training is truly inspiring.
Sex worker murdered in Boston
And you wonder why I’m so passionate about decriminalization of prostitution and destigmatization of all sex work? You wonder why I get such a stick up my ass about self-identified feminists who don’t support decrim? (Yes, there are plenty who don’t support it, and that fact absolutely boggles my mind.)
A sex worker who had advertised on Craigslist was murdered in Boston two days ago. Dacia captures my thoughts best:
We can talk about safety infinitely, but the fact remains that sex workers are at risk. Taking security measures and being on the defensive are all well and good, but there are only so many ways you can defend yourself against violence and exploitation that is embedded in the patriarchy. Being on the defensive is a band aid, it is not a long term solution. The long term solution is that governments need to stop telling us what we can and cannot do with our bodies, and men need to stop being violent toward sex workers. We can and will fight those problems hard and loud, but sadly, sex workers can’t stop violence all by ourselves.
Are you out there, potential allies? So-called progressives? Social libertarians? Are you listening? Are you actually working to end the stigma instead of just doing nothing and saying occasionally, “Oh, yeah, legalize it” in that self-satisfied way? Are you calling out those oh-so-funny dead hooker jokes? Are you centering this issue in the way it so sorely deserves?
You wonder why I don’t give a shit about “teabagging” and who Obama did or didn’t bow to and all the other SOOPER IMPORTANT POLITICAL stuff?
Because sex workers – the majority of whom are women – are being marginalized, abused, and killed, and no one gives a damn.
*sigh*
I don’t know what else to say.
Pole tax, hardy har har… and activism
I feel obligated to write something about the astoundingly moronic SB 91, but whenever I try, I just find myself at a loss for words. I’m overcome w/ exasperation and wonder why I should waste my damn time. But then I think, well, if no one “wastes their time” spelling out, yet again, everything that is WRONG w/ this bullshit, then it’ll just keep on happening, like it always does. And far too many people, who are otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people, just accept these stupid lines about sex work that are built into society without any questioning. It’s not a conscious, “Yes, I accept that;” it’s just, you know, everyone knows that’s how it is, so what is there to question? Or maybe a political blogger here and there writes about it as an amusing one-off, w/ some stupid un-funny joke (e.g., “pole tax”) before moving on to the REAL IMPORTANT issues.
I get so fed up w/ constantly rehashing the 101-level stuff, but yet, I know it’s important. That’s how people’s minds are changed, when they’re able to see a perspective they had never considered before. (And, to clarify: I really don’t mind it one-on-one, w/ friends or people I know are engaging in good faith. Like when Lain DM’ed me on Twitter the other day asking why one would oppose an anti-sex trafficking event, and wondered if it was because law enforcement targets non-trafficked sex workers. I was happy to send him informational links.)
A related story. When Griftdrift wrote that Jack Murphy said there’s a direct correlation between strip clubs and child prostitution (don’t you just LOVE how these people pull this nonsense out of their asses and everyone just nods their heads sagely??) it reminded me of a freelance work offer Rusty and I had a few years ago. It was for an organization that purportedly provided resources to victims of child sex trafficking. I don’t know if it was Innocence Atlanta, but they did have Innocence in their name. Will Hinton was the one told us about it. So, who could be opposed to that, right? But we were skeptical from the beginning, because we know to be. We combed through all the verbiage on their existing site and found some shit that would slip under many people’s radar… like, “a business owner might give a reformed stripper a second chance with a job.” Wait, what? I thought you were an org focused on child victims of sex trafficking. What’s this talk of strippers? And reformed, what’s that shit?
We turned down the job. Couldn’t do it in good conscience.
I wish there was an active sex workers’ rights group here in Atlanta. I really tried w/ the 2007 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, I really did. I was encouraged because two other people organized it w/ me, so hey, that’s two others that are interested in fighting the good fight! It was, in fact, one of them that proposed doing something in the first place! And we had a sign-up sheet for an email list that night, and lots of people signed up, and there was talk of doing a march through midtown on Dec. 17 the following year, and then… nothing.
A grad student (at least I think she’s a grad student) from the UGA Women’s Studies department, whom I met briefly at Sex 2.0, emailed me to let me know about an upcoming conference on sex trafficking in Macon. She thought a protest would be a good idea, and she wanted to know what I had in mind, too, as far as local action for sex workers’ rights activism (in response to my March 3 post where I sighed about the lack of activity in Atlanta). I told her, well, I wish there were more of us. I wish there was a critical mass. I wish we had a SWOP chapter, or something.
But I can’t do everything. And I’m worn out.
And sometimes I feel like that’s a cop out – even as I try my best to remember Melissa’s words of wisdom.
I’ve said before that I’m a reluctant activist, or even not really an activist at all, because I’m not made for front-lines shit. It’s true, because time and again I see how that shit exhausts me mentally, emotionally, and physically. And yet I still feel driven and have this extreme inner conflict. I wish I were one of those people who could organize, fight, rally the troops, not get discouraged; I feel like, why say I can’t do it, because then no one’s doing it, and this is important work that needs to be done.
Then it just all goes down the rabbit hole and I start thinking about the nature of civil disobedience and my mind drifts to the French Revolution… yeah.
If people don’t make their voices heard and agitate for change, then (surprise!) nothing changes. But maybe I also need to remember that there are many different ways to make one’s voice heard and agitate for change, and that real substantive change doesn’t happen overnight. I just worry that too many people are going to take the back seat and say, “Oh, I’ll just blog about it,” when it takes REAL WORLD action, too. But at the same time, some of us just aren’t cut out for a whole lot of real world action – but we want to do our part among a critical mass of others who ARE.
*sigh*
Today is International Sex Worker Rights Day
If you’re unfamiliar w/ International Sex Worker Rights Day, here’s some history:
The 3rd of March is International Sex Worker Rights Day. The day originated in 2001 when over 25,000 sex workers gathered in India for a sex worker festival. The organizers, Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, a Calcutta based group whose membership consists of somewhere upwards of 50,000 sex workers and members of their communities. Sex worker groups across the world have subsequently celebrated 3 March as International Sex Workers’ Rights Day.
Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (2002): “We felt strongly that that we should have a day what need to be observed by the sex workers community globally. Keeping in view the large mobilization of all types of global sexworkers [Female,Male,Transgender], we proposed to observe 3rd March as THE SEX WORKERS RIGHTS DAY.
Knowing the usual response of international bodies and views of academicians and intellectuals of the 1st world [many of them consider that sex workers of third world are different from 1st world and can't take their decision] a call coming from a third world country would be more appropriate at this juncture, we believe. It will be a great pleasure to us if all of you observe the day in your own countries too…We need your inspiration and support to turn our dreams into reality.
Find events going on in various cities on the SWOP-USA site.
I wish there were something happening in Atlanta… *sigh*