A year after the New York Times columnist rescued teenaged Cambodian prostitute Srey Mom from a Poipet brothel by purchasing her freedom for $203, she was back in the brothel.
Voluntarily.
In fact, she wouldn't even be rescued initially without her cell phone and jewelry which Kristof had to buy back for her.
Didn't she want to be saved?
Not necessary said organizers from Sex Worker Outreach Project-Chicago (SWOP) at a Chicago presentation in June, sponsored by the Open University of the Left and the Chicago Socialist Party
The right wing-backed human trafficking movement, part of the "anti-prostitution industrial complex," deliberately blurs the line between sex work and sex slavery to further its moralistic agenda and line its pockets said Jasmine, a SWOP organizer at the presentation called Sex Workers, Criminalization and Human Rights.
It has duped many, including the media, into seeing "sex slavery" where labor, immigration, gender and human rights abuses exist and occluded the plight of both consensual sex workers and women trafficked into household, farm and sweatshop work which is more common, charged Jasmine.
Sorry Nick.
The flip side of the missionary imperative to save--the zeal to glorify the downtrodden-- also infects sex work perspectives said SWOP spokespeople.
Regardless of Heidi Fleiss' escapades, movies like Pretty Woman and college boys' tales of their Cool Trip to Nevada, sex work is not noble, salt of the earth employment that just needs legalization.
As long as sex workers are morally quarantined by illegality and stigma, they risk being robbed, cheated, raped, knifed, shot, beaten up, strangled, abducted, arrested and given diseases said "out" sex worker and SWOP organizer Pussy Willow, 47.
Not only are sex workers devoid of human rights, they can't even recruit community advocates because of the opprobrium, Willow added.
"How many of you admit to having bought the services of a sex worker," she asked the audience to a show of two timid hands. "When you're a sex worker, everyone wants to be your friend--until it jeopardizes their family or standing in the community."
While SWOP-Chicago is only a year and a half old, it inherits a bloody sex worker history.
Thirty nine sex workers were killed during the 1990's in Chicago by four different mass murderers.
As I understand it, consensual sex is when people agree to have sex because they want or need sex.
Sex work is when some people want or need sex and other people want or need money, so there is an agreement to trade sex for money. That's not consensual sex, that's a consensual business transaction.
Are there actually people with other comparably lucrative options who consent to being sex workers for the sex, not just for the money? I guess I'm incredibly naive because I've never met anyone with a personal fetish for ugly strangers who are lousy lays and might beat them, kill them, or infect them with a disease.
Sex, drugs, money, and power can all be motivational factors, but they are not the SAME motivational factor. For example, somebody who is in the life for drugs or money might happily leave it if they found that they could earn more money to buy drugs by robbing banks or working as an investment or political consultant. They'd still be able to have all the sex they wanted, but they would be able to choose their partners and even, if they wished, purchase the services of those in their previous situation.
I fully support the right of anyone to survive as best they can. But I would like to see sex workers have better options that they could "consent" to, so as to reap the same rewards without the dangerous drawbacks.
Kudos to Pussy Willow for organizing and to Martha Rosenberg for posting. In many societies, including our own, some groups are considered to be marginal economic units, allowed to enter previously restricted professions and careers during war time or times of economic hardship, and at other times relegated to unpaid or devalued occupations. It is the social and ecoomic disparities that need to be addressed, and that is not likely as long as we have an unelected body, unaccountable to the people, able to make undemocratic decisions such as ruling that it would be discriminatory to level the playing field so that anyone who isn't a millionaire could compete for a Congressional office.
In a democratic form of government, the Supreme Court could not exist. In a government of, by, and for the people, all people would have equal economic opportunities. The purchase or rental of human beings is slavery and that was supposed to have been abolished. It is just as fascist to rent people for sex work as to rent them for defense work the way that many of today's big multinational corporations rented laborers from Nazi concentration camps.
Consent is a matter of free will, not of lacking other options.
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 29 quicklinks, 77 diaries, 978 comments)
on Sunday, June 29, 2008 at 5:54:45 PM
''As long as sex workers are morally quarantined by illegality and stigma, they risk being robbed, cheated, raped, knifed, shot, beaten up, strangled, abducted, arrested and given diseases said "out" sex worker and SWOP organizer Pussy Willow, 47''
In a number of countries where prostitution is legalized and prostitutes can practice their trade in state/city controlled brothels if they wish to do so, the robbing, raping, beating etc. goes on--because it's part and parcel of prostitution. Do you believe that changing the law turns johns and pimps into nice guys ? Do you really believe that, if such a law was passed in the US, serial killers would stop killing, corrupt cops and politicians would clean up their act, johns would give up unprotected sex, the HIV virus would stop being transmitted from johns to prostitutes, and vice versa?.
These are fairy tales--only fools would believe that all problems would disapear and prostitution would be a picnic if it was legalized; as one can see in the Netherlands, Australia and Germany, making prostitution legal does not eliminate any of the above, it only brings about an exponential increase in the number of prostitutes--mostly traficked--and in the various criminal activities traditionnally associated with prostitution.
And of course, brothel owners and women trafickers have been lobbying intensively all over the media to gain the right to ply their trade legally.
by
francine (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 299 comments)
on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 5:21:24 AM
Of course, if a woman cannot find another way to make a decent living, or makes more money in this activity than in a regular job, it's her choice to become a ''sex worker'', who can argue with that.
But anybody who has a direct knowledge of prostitution and is trying to make us believe that legalization would be the magic wand that would do away with the many risks involved in prostitution is either badly deluded or is taking us for a ride; a realistic truthful assessment is a prerequisite to finding valid solutions.
by
francine (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 299 comments)
on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 6:11:14 AM
The fact that an activity is done for pay doesn't take away the underlying consent of the employee that does that work.
Moreover, the discussion here seems to focus on the most extreme and harsh working conditions: street workers who are subject to violence and drugs. This certainly doesn't reflect the experiences of all erotic laborers doing illegal work, even though laws governing commercial sex are broad strokes that affect all workers along the full spectrum of employment conditions and pay-rates.
Can there be consensual sex between a worker and a john? Absolutely. Otherwise, by definition, you'd be talking about rape. Workers clearly don't consent to violence or other criminality being inflicted on them, but they _are_ consenting to sex acts with a partner (consent need not imply love or even attraction to the partner... just a willingness to do what's being done).
The assumptions underlying the statement that nobody would consent to sex with ugly, violent partners are flawed. Violence is no more an integral part of the sex act being consented to by a worker than date-rape is an integral part of non-commercial sex.
If you'd like an easy fast read, check out Michel Dorais' _Rent Boys: The World Of Male Sex Trade Workers_. He identifies 4 categories of sex-workers, who differ in their working conditions and attitudes towards the work. While there are what he calls "outcasts" who work in conditions of dire poverty and drug dependancy, there are also "part-timers" who supplement income from a regular, often full-time, job, and "liberationists" who positively enjoy the work they do. In particular, the work of those in the liberationist category would satisfy most definitions of consensual sex (they enjoy it, and get fulfillment from both the sex itself and from being able to provide the service), regardless of the fact they are being paid for it.
by
twiggy shadow (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:51:06 AM
The fact that an activity is done for pay doesn't take away the underlying consent of the employee that does that work.
That makes perfect sense. If I consent to work at McDonalds, I have given my consent to work at McDonalds and they have consented to pay me for my work.
Can there be consensual sex between a worker and a john? Absolutely. Otherwise, by definition, you'd be talking about rape
Well then there can be consensual rape. In fact there are sex workers who specialize in catering to johns who are sadistic and wish to inflict pain. And there can be consensual slavery, since some people have a fetish for bondage. And why not consensual death? I read about a case like that where somebody advertised for someone who wanted to be killed and somebody answered the ad.
The assumptions underlying the statement that nobody would consent to sex with ugly, violent partners are flawed. Violence is no more an integral part of the sex act being consented to by a worker than date-rape is an integral part of non-commercial sex.
Unfortunately, very few sex workers can be selective about which johns they will perform sex work for or how many of them they will perform sex work for per night. The overwhelming majority of female sex workers in the world do not have any control over that. While the privileged few at the top end of the scale can choose their clientele, and can afford a schedule that isn't overtaxing, most cannot. So most female sex workers in the world (and most sex workers happen to be female) are either doing it involuntarily, or they have a fetish for ugly strangers who are such lousy lays and so disrespectul towards females, that in a world full of horny females, they have to pay for sex. In other words, they are either "consenting" because of physical coercion or economic necessity and have little choice, or they happen to prefer the guys that nobody else wants.
As for the liberationist rent boys, if they enjoy it so much, I'd think they would also be happy to pay for it. I'm sure if they can disregard the fact that they are being paid, they could just as easily disregard the fact that they were paying. If poor guys say they enjoy doing consensual work for rich guys, work that happens to consist of sexual acts, I think they'd probably enjoy sex with guys they felt sexually attracted to, regardless of income bracket, if they didn't have to work.
My point is that sex can be pleasurable. People often do it because they want to and they enjoy it. Work, on the other hand, is not usually something people choose to do for pleasure. That's why most employers have to pay people in order to get them to work. It is also why it is not unknown for prostitutes to insist that customers pay them, but also to engage in unpaid sex with people they enjoy having sex with. I've heard of workers saying, "This job is so much fun, I can't understand why anyone would pay me to do it," but that is very unusual--most workers don't voluntarily stay past quitting time because they're having so much fun. On the other hand, I've never heard anyone say, "Gosh this is so much fun I should be paid for it."
Consensual sex is when people agree to have sex because they want to have sex. There is no need for money to enter into it.
Consensual work is when one person needs something done and another person is willing to consent to do it if they are sufficiently recompensed.
Sex work, at least to my mind, is an oxymoron.
Francine told it like it is. Legalization or decriminalization does not eliminate violence. It does not raise the status of prostitutes or remove the stigma. It just facilitates the exploitation of the economically and socially disadvantaged.
by
Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 29 quicklinks, 77 diaries, 978 comments)
on Wednesday, July 2, 2008 at 7:28:36 AM
so many people think they know all about sex work. While I respect peoples' opinions, I would like to know how they know that most sex workers don't have other options, or that most sex workers hate their jobs? Are they actually sex workers? Do they know any? I have heard these things from people who work at shelters, but do they really think that shelters are a good representative sample from which to draw their conclusions? Or are they simply getting their information from the news?
Francine said:
Do you believe that changing the law turns johns and pimps into nice guys ? Do you really believe that, if such a law was passed in the US, serial killers would stop killing, corrupt cops and politicians would clean up their act, johns would give up unprotected sex, the HIV virus would stop being transmitted from johns to prostitutes, and vice versa?
I agree that legalization wouldn't eliminate the issues that accompany certain types of sex work. That's why most of us prefer decriminalization. Being arrested, however, also doesn't solve any of the problems you mentioned above. It only compounds them, because not only is a street-based worker susceptible to all of the above issues, but now she's also got a criminal record, and her status as a criminal often means that her complaints about the abuses you itemized above will not be heard: after all, she's just a criminal. Not to mention that having an arrest record for prostitution never got anyone a better job.
An elimination of the criminal status would mean that eventually society would stop seeing them as criminals and therefore deserving of all they get. They would then be taken more seriously by the police- and if they weren't, they'd have better recourse to pursuing justice.
Here is what a 5-year report on the decriminalization of prostitution in New Zealand found:
Findings of the PRA report: * There has been no rise in numbers of women working, including of young people who feel able to contact agencies for help. * Sex workers are more likely to report incidents of violence to the police and other agencies. This was particularly true for the street workers. * There has been a change of attitude by members of the police. Some individual officers and some police districts, have gone out of their way to work with the sex industry, with Christchurch being the obvious example. However, stigmatisation still plays a key role in the non-reporting of incidents. This is the inevitable result of years of the sex industry operating illegally, with the police seen as posing a threat rather than offering protection. * Judges have ruled that sex workers are entitled to expect the same protection under the law as anyone else. * Attacks are cleared up more quickly as women are more likely to come forward with information without fear of arrest, making all women safer. * Women find it easier to leave prostitution as convictions have been cleared from their records. * It is easier for sex workers to refuse to have sex with a client. * Brothel owners are more supportive and less coercive to employees.
Indeed, there was even a case in which a sex worker successfully sued her client because he removed a condom midway thorugh their contractual sexual activity.
Mark, you also seem to make sweeping assumptions about how most prostitutes feel about their jobs. However, only 10-15% of the industry happens on the streets and makes the news. The other 85-90% stays discreetly hidden indoors and away from the 10 o'clock news. Most of the people in that 85-90% are, indeed, happier performing sexual services for strangers than they would be any number of other skilled and unskilled jobs.
I place myself in the latter category- I only keep my day job so I have something to tell the folks when I call home on weekends. I get far more money and pleasure from my night job. Hey- an orgasm is an orgasm, no matter who'se giving it to me. Sex workers have a gift for being able to look beyond shallow measures of worth such as looks. Can you honestly say that you're an Adonis to everyone who gazes upon you? Do you then feel that the appearance-challenged deserve no affection in their lives? How sad would it be if professional massuers and masseuses would only deign to touch those whom they felt were attractive? Or physical therapists? Or anyone who works on human bodies (nurses, elderly care people, surgeons, proctologists, manicurists and pedicurists-have you seen some peoples' feet?!)? Thank goodness there are enough of us to look beyond the skin. (Veronica Monet is a goddess)
It is true that most of us wouldn't do what we do for free. Does that mean it shouldn't be done? How many people do you know who would do their jobs for free? How many toilet cleaners would do that for free? How much of a choice did they have as to what they are doing? I would proffer that an extremely elite few actually are in a position to make a completely unconstrained choice.
I have literally hundreds of friends I communicate with every day online who are similar to me in their attitudes towards work. They could make $300/week doing a "respectable" job while spending very little time with their families and barely support them, or make $300/hour, 10 hours a week doing this, and spend plenty of time with their families while being able to provide very well for them. The do-gooders out there who want to "save" us all from our work fail to remember that sewing kitchen doilies for a living just won't cut it. As one former sex worker said, "Morals cost money." But many of us do dearly love what we do, and getting paid for it shouldn't mean we love it any less.
Incidentally, while I love my night job for many reasons, I'll also partake in the consumer side of it. I'd pay for it occasionally because as with most professions, it is always good to take a customer's perspective to be able to keep up your best service. :)
by
Anjelica B (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Friday, July 4, 2008 at 3:04:19 AM
