Sex Workers Rights vs. "Save the Whores"

I’m sure the photo needs no caption for anyone with a clue to pick up on the historical reference, and mayhaps be that I look more like Riddick than Rosie, but the message remains the same. Different times, different place, different reason, but yeah, the message itself is timeless, and oh-so apropos for so many situations.

And just what would everyone’s (least) favorite loudmouth, foul language using sex worker be speaking of on this fine Tuesday afternoon? Well, I am talking about sex workers rights! Why? Because it’s important!

Now sure, I’ve talked about allies before. I think there are good ones, potentially good ones, and some that frankly just suck eggs. Allies who engage with organizations like these, who take an active interest in actually helping sex workers in the here and now? People who listen to the actual people in sex work and base their activism off those workers needs, desires, wants, ideas? People who listen, and talk, and engage? Learn and work and protest here in the right now really real world? Those are good allies, even if they’ve never done sex work. People who care, right now, about the safety, well-being, autonomy, working conditions, legal status and rights of people in the sex biz, as well as combating abusive pimps, johns, trafficking, underage forced sexual labor and exploitive contracts…those are real allies, and frankly, the kind I think sex workers need. People who are vocal, but also listen, people who want to help, but not necessarily “save”. These are allies. And yeah, I think we can do it!

Other people…humm. Not so much. I mean really, I honestly want to know-facts and stats, please, how many sex workers people like Jensen, Farley, Jeffries, Dines, so on, have actually helped or “saved”? When Farley was doing her book in Nevada, how many of the women in the brothels she interviewed did she then give a job to? Or offer them childcare? She’s a professor, right, did she arrange and scholarship or schooling deals for any of those women? Any sort of training for transitioning out if that is what these women truly wanted? Did she do any such thing? Do any of them? You know, I’ve not heard of a single case where any of these anti-sex work talking heads have done such a thing. I’ve never heard of Robert Jensen or Gail Dines helping a woman who wanted out of pornography to get out of it. I’ve never heard of Farley helping one of the street or brothel prostitutes used in her research to find another job. The same goes for Jeffries, Russell, Goff, so on, so forth. I know journalist Nicholas Kristof was stunned when the teenager he “saved” from a brothel returned, voluntarily, to the same brothel once she hit legal age. Did she, perhaps, not want or need his saving, or all the conditions that perhaps went with it? These are people who not only supported, but helped push things like the “Anti-Prostitution Pledge” which denies aid to countries which to not make prostitution illegal and actively dedicate money to keeping it illegal. Legislation which puts a set of leg irons on Sex Worker organizations…the very people in those countries seeking to provide health care, education, legal aid, and yes, transitioning plans for people who want out. How can you say you care about Sex Workers when you support things which see that those working in the sex biz can’t even get access to something as simple and potentially life saving as a goddamn condom?

The answer is simple: You can’t. You simply cannot say you want to help people in the sex industry if you deny them access to such simple and basic things, let alone legal rights, health and education resources, child care, and of course, their own voices. Not here in the really real world anyway.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll have to say it again: If you are against sex workers rights, then you cannot be, by default, an ally of sex workers. You don’t show people how much you care about them by assuring their legal status is often, in many cases, less than that of a house pet. And you can praise the Holy Trinity of Jensen, Dines & Russell as much as you want, but when those people have really done nothing to help actual sex workers where as actual Sex Workers Rights Organizations have –the types of organizations I see so often trashed by the fans of the trinity- well sorry, you are no ally, and…being my usual blunt self…you aren’t helping shit. In fact, you’re making it worse.

Because those people support the stigma. They support the illegal nature of some forms sex work and the “seedy reputation” of others. They hold up and play into a system which allows for “theft of services”. They support programs which deny basic things like condoms. They make it so prostitutes and other sex workers are afraid to report rapes, thefts, beatings…because under the world view they propagate, these people are criminals, messed up junkies, or full time victims with no agency. They aren’t, in short, real people…they are data points, book sales, and lecture tickets.

In fact, let’s do a litmus test!

There are two upcoming events that might interest people who “care about sex workers”: One is the Stop Porn Culture event being held in Boston. The other is Pulling Back the Sheets in Chicago.

In one, you will have several academics who are not nor have ever been sex workers showing a non-2257 compliant slide show filled with imagery of sex workers who never consented to be in it. There are no sex workers represented at this event, hey, I know, we tried to get an invite and were…ahem…politely declined. These same academics will recommend you read their books and the works of other like-minded people. They will talk of the affects of stripping, porn and prostitution upon men, upon women, upon media culture. They will talk about how the women in porn are, no matter what, raped. They will use the 80% line; they will talk about how women in the sex biz set forth unrealistic expectations for other women. Well shoot, you can see for yourself. What you won’t see or hear is real live sex workers, their wants, concerns and goals…shoot you won’t hear much about them at all other than what victims they are and how they make other women feel bad about their bodies and sexual performance. Hey, never let it be said that a whore having her image or words or parts of her story used without her consent doesn’t make a great data point! “Fair” use and all! Oh, and you might hear Gail call a tall, athletic blonde model “hideous”. A few times. And a few historical inaccuracies and a lot of assumption. But nope, no real live in the hear and now really real sex workers. Those you will not find at the Stop Porn Culture Event. I am curious though, if anyone reading this goes to that event, please do tell me if they card people at the door!


In Chicago, well, you will have an event swarming with real live sex workers, from all realms of the business, from all over the world, and their allies, talking about the real issues they face: safety concerns, legal concerns, rights and freedoms, medical and labor rights, workplace safety, outreach agendas, discussions of the issues face transgender sex workers, privacy…and guess what? This event? Sponsored and run by, you guessed it, real live sex worker outreach groups with real live sex workers in them! God, Goddess and all the little deities, can you imagine?

So yes, does anyone want to hazard a guess as to where the people I actually consider allies, and not opportunists capitalizing on sex workers for their own agenda, will be? In my head, sorry, people who actually care about sex workers are more interested in oh, the issues sex workers have than if some “hideous” model makes them feel bad about their own bodies or if Vivid heralds the downfall of Western Civilization, oh, and buy my book!

And the thing is, I do think we, you know, sex workers and our allies, can do it. I think we can change things so that getting a fucking condom isn’t such an issue, so that sex workers are seen and treated like human beings, with the same rights and protections as other human beings. But I also think that these other supposed allies do nothing to make this easier. In fact, I think they make it harder. In fact, hell, I’ll go ahead and say it, I think they have a vested interest in (book sales, speech deals, moralizing, academic careers, maintaining forefront positions in feminist and anti-industry circles) keeping sex work illegal & stigmatized, as well as keeping the image of sex workers they present the primary one out there. So no, these people, they are not fucking allies. At all. And they hinder those folk who actually are. After all, a lot of anti-industry arguments lose their punch if the sex workers involved aren’t the victims needed to fuel the cause.

Humm…wonder if that is why they speak to so few or only select sex workers and just assume for everyone else? What do you think?

Abusive pimps? Trafficking? Rape? Sex tourism involving forced child sexual labor? Kiddie porn? Yeah, it’s real fucking easy to be against those things. Everyone I know is. However, actually being for sex workers, and rights for sex workers is a hell of a lot harder. It’s not comfy or easy or a matter of sitting around going “oh those poor agency-lacking dupes…they make me look bad.” There is a hell of a lot more to it than that. Namely listening to actual sex workers, and not those building careers on them, and hearing what they say, what they want, what they need.

Yeah, that sounds like a good start. If you can’t do that, maybe you’re better off trying to save the sock monkeys, because at least then you won’t be fucking with real people and their lives.

Allies and Saviors, there is a difference. Saviors, huh, not how sure I am that we need them.

The rest of us? We can do it.