Sam Berg: Defender of Women

(Yes, I asked nicely. I have no reason to think she hasn’t been made aware of my request and my discontent by now, and nothing has changed, so…)

Edit- Sam has removed the quote, yet, no appology or explaination.

Sam Berg is an activist, feminist, anti-pornography and anti- prostitution advocate, woman, author, speaker, and driving force behind the Genderberg website. If one visits the forums at Sam’s site, they will find the following as the sigfile tagline on her posts:

"I hate humans. I hate them. There is a level of loathing I harbor for the human species that really does just defy all reason. People often ask me how I can do what I do, and the answer really is easy…because I hate humans." - RenegadeEvolution, extremely violent pornography performer and producer

Renegade Evolution, that would be me. And yes, sure enough, I said it. I also do perform in and make pornography. By many it would be deemed violent. Unpleasant. Offensive to women. I don’t deny that. I would argue the “extremely” notion, but it wouldn’t be worth it. I will say that in anything I do no one is there unwillingly, and no one is portrayed as being there unwillingly. Nothing appears to be against anyone’s will. And yep, sure enough, I, and the people I work with, are all there by choice.

But it’s true, I don’t often like humans. I’ve said it several times. In context, the above quote Sam is using is from this post, a post I made the evening I had learned a “friend” of several years had outed me to my family, one of my low points in the last two decades, a night when I especially did not like humans. Sam leaves that out though, because in context it doesn’t have the desired impression she wishes to make about me and porn. It’s not as cold blooded, ruthless, destructive and destroyed when taken in that context. It isn’t as inhumane and dehumanized. Frankly, it's just not fucked up enough.

Which is exactly what Sam wanted, for me to come across as utterly dead in the soul, either as an example of a pornographer or a victim of pornography, take your pick, since in minds like Sam’s, I am apparently interchangeable as either. Victimizer and victim, exploiter and whore, opportunistic predator and soul dead slut. You see, even though Sam herself has never had the decency to address or speak to me like a human herself, she’s more than happy to use me as an example…and she’s not even paying me for it.

You see, women like me, sex workers like me, serve a purpose for women like Sam. Not as women, or as humans, as victims in need of saving and sympathy, but as them; as objects, examples, data points, symbols, effigies, monsters. We’re as useful as what she can make out of us…without ever really taking us into account or talking to us any more than she is forced to.

Here is one of my first interactions with Sam Berg, from a thread about sex work on Punkass Blog. I, as a sexworker, had asserted that while many sexworkers do not have it so great, I personally really enjoyed my work, and that the stereotype of a sexworker (drug addicted, undereducated, without other options, survivor of childhood sexual abuse) did not apply to all of us, and could be rather annoying.

Sam had this to say:

Renegade Evolution, I would like to respond to you more fully but the last time a sex worker blogger told me, “Take my life as an example, please” I made the mistake of doing just that and got called all sorts of nasty names for it. Thanks but no thanks on that lose-lose proposal, I’ll stick to not overly concerning myself with individual anecdotes as much as with the global portrait of prostitution as a whole and how that plays out on average to women’s great detriment.

Yet, nowdays, she’ll go ahead and quote me in her sigfile, not overly concerned gal that she is?
Funny that. I responded with this: (Sam in Blue, Ren in Red, others in Green)

Sam:

“I would like to respond to you more fully but the last time a sex worker blogger told me, “Take my life as an example, please” I made the mistake of doing just that and got called all sorts of nasty names for it. Thanks but no thanks…”

Well, I generally try to avoid name calling. I, like everyone else here in the Peoples Republic of Bloglandia, speak my mind and take crap for it. Nothing new. I merely stand by the fact that while there are sex workers who are hurt and treated badly and forced into it, there are sex workers who are not, and one cross section of sex workers is rarely indicative of the lives of all of them.

This massive debate continued on for three extremely long threads, filled with many people with many different opinions. If you want, you can go ahead and read them and see how things progressed. That was my introduction to Sam Berg. Who had no time or desire to speak with me, the happy sex worker. Okay, I thought, so be it.

And I avoided interacting with her until a controversy about my old blog logo blew up. This is what transpired between myself and Sam Berg.

Sam:
Ren Ev’s “it’s not pornography if I say it isn’t” reasoning fails when you consider that she doesn’t call herself a model but a sex worker. She’s a sex worker, except for in that picture when she was only modeling, not sex workering.

‘Model’ is so 1980’s and doesn’t capture the “I’m hot, bi-sexee, and willing to fuck and suck anything for money” pornsick approval meme nearly as well as “sex worker”. Have you ever read in progressive media anything about the noble liberal cause defending “model worker’s rights”? Me neither.

Sex worker when wanting sympathy and an automatic political aegis no model’s rights person would ever get, and just-a-model when trying to hide the obvious ‘worked sex’ in the pornography.

Also, “everyone else is doing it” has always been the weakest excuse for anything whether or not everyone is actually doing it or not, hence the infamous bridge jumped off by many proverbial friends with the implication that doing the same is the pinnacle of dumb.

RenegadeEvolution:
Sam-

The image I once upon a time had on another blog and removed? Yes, absolutely offensive to some no doubt and I had no problem removing it what so ever. I am not totally unreasonable. That image however is not the one in my logo. I had no problem ‘de-linking’, --- made a reasonable request, no need not to be reasonable…

“Ren Ev’s “it’s not pornography if I say it isn’t” reasoning fails when you consider that she doesn’t call herself a model but a sex worker. She’s a sex worker, except for in that picture when she was only modeling, not sex workering.

‘Model’ is so 1980’s and doesn’t capture the “I’m hot, bi-sexee, and willing to fuck and suck anything for money” pornsick approval meme nearly as well as “sex worker”. ”

And could you do me the small favor of not mocking me blatantly, misrepresenting me and all that good stuff in the third person like that? As for bi-seexxy, I am so straight it’s painful.

Sam:

I was mocking the archetype of the ever-ready fuckbunny sex worker all pornstitution is predicated on. Same culprit, in the form of imitating pornography, causes straight women to make out with each other for men’s attention. Your sexual preferences don’t put a dent of give-a-fuck into the man-made edifice from which your money originates.

Sam:

There’s blood in the water and I only have my birthday suit.
What part of blaming the “man-made edifice” mocks women?
Yes, pornography, like all media, influences people tremendously. Calling the simple truth of that into doubt makes me question the value of continuing to debate you here.
I like to color outside the lines.

RenegadeEvolution:

and apparently judge women by your cause and feelings towards an industry regardless of their status as individual human beings with their own personalities and feelings. In the name of the monolith, I am sure, and to hell with the humans in it.

Nice. I think I’ll go spit now. Bad taste in my mouth and all.

RenegadeEvolution:

(quoting a third party-shown in green)

“I don’t believe that this is entirely true. However, regardless of ---’s original statements, the argument was then made that since pornographic images can be triggering, we should be respectful of this and provide a warning of some sort, “What --- said. A lot of women come to this blog who find pornographic imagery potentially very triggering, and it is my impression that ------ keeps this site a safe space for survivors. A simple trigger warning would do the trick. We should always be aware of our audiences and the effects we may have upon them. ”

Correct. That was my point.

“Sam attempted to point out that Ren’s efforts to defend the image as erotica were a little dishonest, claiming that she variously identified herself as either ‘model’ or ’sex worker’ depending on which was most beneficial at the time. Unfortunately, his comment also contained a few rude words, so people got distracted and missed the main argument.”

No, Sam went ahead and applied her views of the marketed image of women in porn to me as a person. If one bothers to read Ren’s full Bio, it says this: “Occupation: Stripper/Fetish-Nude Model/Sex Worker Type”, I never denied being both, a nude model or a sex worker. I still happen to be an individual person.

“of nudity in and out of context just made it look as if Ren would do anything to avoid having to apologise or take any responsibility for somebody’s interpretation of her work”

Incorrect. I stated early on I did not intend to offend --- and removed the offending link. I still think my question (willing, consenting nudity, ect. of ones own body vs. nudity used in an anti argument where consent and the identity of the nude people is unknown) is a valid one. It all goes back to both collections of imagery may be triggering. The original complaint, that women should be safe from clicking on links and seeing upsetting images…obviously, my link had an offending image, I removed the link, responsibility taken. That does not mean I cannot, after my content was questioned, then question content myself. Other clickable feminist links also lead to offending images. Does the responsibility to see that clicking links does not lead to such things fall solely on me and my offending images, or should it be applied to all who post offending images? In short, once it was made know other blogs host nude/erotic/pornographic images why was I continually being singled out, especially when it is known I consented and the same cannot be said of other images? Is there a double standard based on pro vs. anti?

Sam:

“Sam went ahead and applied her views of the marketed image of women in porn to me as a person.”

or maybe it was really

“Sam went ahead and applied her views of the marketed image of women in porn to my professional sex worker persona.”

I also went ahead and applied my views of the marketed image of women in modeling to your professional model persona when I asked, “Have you ever read in progressive media anything about the noble liberal cause defending “model worker’s rights”?

When I’m ready to insult a person instead of the mad-made construct of eternally wet, omnisexual prostituted feminity there will be no mistaking it.

RenegadeEvolution:

Great then Sam…you know, who I am on my blog is who I am. Just the way it is. You really don’t get to define it, really, sexworker/model/human…and since we’re all SO concerned with the way sex workers are treated and their rights and how some things, words or images might offend people…maybe you should consider doing what I’ve been asked to consider doing. Fair is fair and all.

And Sam wonders why I often dislike people? Hummm, real head scratcher there, eh?

There are also other reasons I’m not a fan of Sam, one being on her closed forums, a totally erroneous accusation was made about me being a porn marketing front, in a space where naturally, a porn person like myself is verboten to tread, and thus not able to defend myself. I have every reason in the world to believe that it is not the only case of such talk about myself on her private forums, nor similar types of things directed at other sex workers and ex-sex worker/ sex worker advocates who do not fall into Sam’s pornstitution box- the other women she uses as objects for her own visionary masturbation.

When a member of Genderberg informed me of this and I posted on the matter, all hell broke loose and ended with me being threatened and blackmailed into a treaty of sorts, which various people are happy to hold over my head to this day- while not going by the suggested guidelines themselves in the least. I agreed to it originally, but, I’ve changed my mind on that one. You see, other people can also do the same sort of detective work that was done on me, in fact, they have. Lawyers have also been talked to, ISP addresses recorded, and frankly, I am tired of taking it, so I’m not taking it anymore. But let us get back to Sam.

Sam Berg objects to my profession and the way she feels it degrades women. Yet, she can discuss my “I’m hot, bi-sexee, and willing to fuck and suck anything for money” pornsick approval, my "ever-ready fuckbunny sex worker" status- the woman who didn't talk to happy whores because she got called nasty names, and yet she can come up with statements like the following:

And where do you think Americans learned that it can be oodles of fun to sexually humiliate other people to prove their inferiority if not through pornography? US military forces are among the largest consumers of pornstitution/prostitution and all those hours of streaming pussy ramming and face fucking have not seemed to stop them from raping their fellow servicewomen in greater numbers than in the general population.

And

If the sort of sex positivism you're talking about is really about more than the moist pussies and orgasms of middle-class white women, where is the discussion of sex capitalism, the sex industry, the sextourism phenomena, you know, the socialist feminist acknowlegement about the non-pussy-moistening aspects of the entire sex industry?

And

In the mad dash to shout about how much some women really do want to be men's whores (really they do!), Belledame, Whitters and Amber glossed over the very first sentence of this post

And

That doesn't mean bouncing your tits in a strip club or fucking some of your boy friends for money on your terms, it means the men's rights campaigners who think men's demands for sex should rightly be met onlyl eave as their option for stopping the sexual enslavement of millionsof girls the taking of the prostituted slaves' places. Not Jenna Jameson's place. Not Dita Von Tease's place. Sonya's place. Amber, you can have all of Sonia's former customers now that she has been freed because her many male customers are still around and they have your blessing to continue renting women's insides to spill their fluids into like renting a port-a-potty.

And

But if you can't prove what you've just said about every study having a counter-study proving it wrong, will you concede that all the evidence shows overwhelmingly that people don't really wants to be whores? I know it's a crazy thesis, suggesting that women don't actually want be every man's fucktoy-for-hire, but I'm a crazy chick like that.

And

I've been seeing a lot of pro-prostitution folks slam my motives asd ubious and insinuate my interests in helping prostituted women are motivated by some latent hatred of women and prostitutes gleaned from a culture fucked up about sex, women, and women who have sex. I am, the story goes, simply too anti-sex by osmosis to NYC and Portland, Oregon's extreme sex negatives cultures to ever accept Hooters, stripclubs, and prostitution as potentially good for women and this is why the appearance of hawt nekkid chix every-fucking-where I turn in public spaces concerns me. The vaunted "right" for women to be or simply act like cum-hungry bi-sexee hoes is affirmed all over these two liberal cities I have lived in the past few years.

And

A picture of a young woman photographed naked and bound by ropes is received differently depending on the accompanying caption identifying her as an eager cumslut pornslave, a young victim of sex trafficking,or a political dissident suffering state-sponsored torture.The images in my head from when I was a pornography user are lodged in there tightly because they were reinforced with pleasurable sensations, but since doing anti-pornography activism I've seen many pornographic images that haven't made such a messy nest in my skull. The only difference is context.

And

There is no sensible feminist reason to ignore the 92% of prostitutes who do not consider it work but slavery in favor of the 8%minority, especially when doing so only affirms the rape culture that already says (often literally) men have a God-given right to wet their penises with women's holes any way they desire, any time they want it.

I, personally, find it rather ironic that a woman who has a deep distaste for the degrading nature of pornography and the language used in it uses the same language in such an over the top manner herself. Actually, should she ever come “back to the dark side”, Sam has a potentially great career writing copy teasers for JM Productions (nsfw).

Sam Berg, activist, feminist, anti-pornography and anti-prostitution advocate, woman, author, speaker, and driving force behind the Genderberg website, is using me, you see. She’s objectifying me, marginalizing me, degrading me, othering me, and doing all of it, including the use of my words in her sigfile, without my consent and against my wishes. I’m a whore, just not the kind that she wants, not the kind that gets her juices flowing, not the kind that fulfils her desires. I'm just some not worthy of speaking to example.

Charming.

Sam Berg, who does not know me, has hardly spoken directly to me, and has never given me one iota of basic human respect, is treating me worse than any customer or pornographer has ever treated me, and she’s not even paying me for the pleasure of doing so. I don’t follow her party line or fall into her ironclad conceptualizations, so it seems I revert from human woman to object and symbol. It is quite interesting to me to see how a woman who spends so much time and effort condemning this sort of behavior towards women out of men- out of johns and strip club patrons and consumers of porn- is so quick to engage it in herself.

"I hate humans. I hate them. There is a level of loathing I harbor for the human species that really does just defy all reason. People often ask me how I can do what I do, and the answer really is easy…because I hate humans." - RenegadeEvolution, extremely violent pornography performer and producer

Yes Sam, indeed. I wonder why?