this is how Monday feels. - DS

Sometimes this is how the internet makes me feel… - DS

fullten:

Don’t. 

Drawn by TEN

trashprincesss:

I Heart Sex Workers (2012)

by OLIVE SERAPHIM on SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 · 2 COMMENTS

in REVIEWS

Written by Lia Claire Scholl and published by Chalise Press, I Heart Sex Workers is positioned as “a Christian response to people in the sex trade.” As such, I, a Christian sex worker, posted about it on my blog IN CAPITAL LETTERS TO SHOW MY EXCITEMENT SAYING “I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE I HAVE THE MIGHTEST OF NEEDS!” It’s a saying you’ll often see on the blogosphere, though for me it’s not just a meme; the degree of social isolation I feel from my Church and my cognitive dissonance between these two aspects of myself mean that I do sorely need someone somewhere to reach out their hand and welcome me as a Christian and a sex worker into Christian life.

This book is not that hand. Rather than being a direct response to people in the sex industry, this book is more of a 101 for people outside of the industry on what it is we (whores, strippers, camgirls, dommes, etc)  do and why we do it. The book begins with the story of Tamar from the Old Testament, who pretended to be a hooker to force her family to honor their obligations, in an aptly titled chapter called “Playing the Harlot.” Each of the book’s four sections opens with a similar biblical story, telling it from a first-person perspective and illustrating how each example would be viewed today as a form of sex work. Personally, these are my favorite parts, so much so that I want “Tzadkah mimeni”—the Hebrew phrase “more righteous than I” that Tamar’s father says when he finds out what she’s done—tattooed somewhere. Reading these retellings, I can’t help but think Scholl is trying to prompt Christians to see sex work in a new light, perhaps even as people making a legitimate choice in their lives. Unfortunately, Scholl stops short of actually saying these words. She does offer some choice ones though, such as the exhortation that  “we need to grow up about sex,”something I wish people in general, not just Christians, would hear.

I actually found reading this book painful—I could feel the tension in Scholl’s writing; she’s treading the impossible line of not condoning sex work, lest she alienate her audience, and not condemning it either or painting us as helpless victims as this, as she writes herself, is one of the major failings of non peer-based organizations, the savior complex. Still, the overarching feeling I get is that she is trying to justify sex work to people whose value systems find us reproachable. Discussions of agency, of privilege, of “the cycle of sex work” (as opposed to the cycle of retail or factory work?) all seem … well, patronizing. This book is not for me, and while I appreciate the incredibly delicate position Scholl is in and think this book is a huge step in the right direction, it’s not a direct challenge to religious arguments against sex work, which is what we really need. It’s also not an invitation for sex workers to shed the internalized shame we’ve grown up in and reach out to organized religion.

The main goal of this book as far as I can tell is to make Christians—in particular, those in positions of authority in Christian churches—more understanding of sex workers; that understanding being that we are people operating under our own perception of agency in difficult situations that lead us to sex work. While Scholl does parrot the sex positivity party line, repeatedly pointing out that we often do this work because we enjoy it and it allows us sexual freedom, the overall message of the book is one of “love the sinner, not the sin.” While I appreciate the huge step she’s taking in standing up for us at all, I can’t help but feel dissatisfied with the representation of sex workers in this book. Our experiences are as diverse as we are and I’m sure Scholl, as a board chair at the Red Umbrella Project,  is very aware of that. However, the fact that I couldn’t relate to anything she said about sex workers, to myself or anyone I know, is problematic. I don’t feel that I fit the downtrodden narrative that comes up a little too often here,  nor do I feel there is a particularly strong relationship between my sexuality and my job. Conversations about sex work and sexuality comes up a lot between my friends and I, and I’ve not heard anyone say that our jobs gave us an outlet for our divergent sexuality; it’s more like we adapt to our clients’ sexuality and work around it. This is a conversation outside of the scope of the book, but as the sexuality of service providers was discussed, it feels like an oversimplification not to expand on it.

In addition, there is a very strange chapter where Scholl states (correctly) that the reasons why clients visit sex workers are as unique as each individual but then goes on to list certain “types” of clients: the clichéd lonely hearts client, the power hungry client who thinks he is purchasing a person rather than a service, the “manipulator,” and so on. Reading this chapter in particular, I continuously had the experience of being incredibly dubious about what was being said, then having my faith restored by the following explanation, only to run up against something problematic again. For example,

“The men who visit sex workers are no different from you and me.” Okay, normalizing clients, good start. She continues, “we all have hurt, angry, and wounded feelings.” Ummm  . . ? “We all seek to fill empty spaces in our lives with different things. Some people fill them with lovers, friends or family. Some people fill them with obsessions, sports, shopping, food, drugs or alcohol. Some fill them by visiting sex workers. Others fill them with becoming sex workers.”

Christian sex workers: not an oxymoron, and not just for hot nun cosplay blasphemy (Photo via Pinterest)

Statements like this keep coming up again and again,  perplexing me. While I don’t personally spend a great deal of time ruminating on why my clients like to see me (beyond how this applies to my advertising, anyway), I find the implication that sex workers have “hurt, angry, and wounded feelings” and are trying to “fill the empty spaces in our lives” with sex work downright offensive. In the context of the rest of the book, which seems to focus so much on the economic factors that affect sex workers, this statement stands out as glaringly incongruent. Scholl is right, I am trying to fill a void. That void is in my wallet.

There are hypothetical scenarios painted of women getting into sex work, using alcohol and pot to “help [them]  stay awake overnight on the street” (laughing out loud here, weed and booze are not stimulants), which  then leads them to hard drugs, criminal records, time spent away from their children, etc. While Scholl makes the point many, many times that we must understand that the sex industry is nuanced, the overall tone of the book and the vignettes she offers—aside from the biblical ones—continue to depict sex workers as victims and sex work as something inherently bad. When she points out that sex work allows some sex workers to be accepted by a community of other workers, especially in activist circles, or to fulfill sexual fantasies they may not be able to enact in everyday life, and that many of us enjoy what we do (because we either love it or hate it? Are those the only options?), it comes across as more of an afterthought, or even just as placating her potential sex worker readers. I neither enjoy my work sexually nor am I a creature of the night. I work for the money. While I appreciate her explanation of the economic factors that lead one to sex work, I am no more a victim of my circumstances than any other kind of worker. Scholl seems to understand this—she asserts it herself several times—but the emphasis keeps coming back to all the negative tropes  Scholl herself is arguing against while she simultaneously perpetuates them.

Still, there are many positive things in this book. The section on how antis have hijacked the discussion of sex work and the way they conflate sex work and sex trafficking is something everyone should read. Working conditions at strip clubs—the way dancers are forced to pay fees to work—are an important issue for anyone concerned with sex workers’ rights. The acknowledgement that stigma surrounding sex work contributes to sex workers being exploited by club owners is an important one, though this should be contextualized beyond just sex work and applied to the wider problem of workers’ rights under capitalism. Yes, there are specific nuances that make the struggle for workers’ right in legal sex work difficult due to stigma but again, most (and arguably, all) workers in all industries experience exploitation to a certain extent. This is not specific to sex work.

Eventually, as I read on, it seemed to me that Scholl herself is against the sex industry, though she doesn’t explicitly say so:

The profamily and antitrafficking movements work to end the sex trade, but I don’t agree with their methods.

Lia Scholl (Photo via Chalice Press)

Really, if one is pro-sex workers’ rights, there should be no support—methodological or otherwise—for antis who are seeking to put us out of work. Scholl writes that rather than fighting the sex industry head-on, we should be fighting the social and economic injustice that leads people, particularly women, into the sex industry in the first place. Her model of how to respond to sex workers sounds great on paper (“don’t use victim language, respect sex workers’ choices and agency” etc.) , but if your final goal is to eradicate my livelihood, then you will never gain my trust or that of other workers. Perhaps I should be taking her words in good faith, but having had so much experience with antis who use concern as a justification for silencing and oppressing us, it’s not an easy thing to do.

At the end of the day, this book is not for us. This is a book written for Christians, particularly those in ministry, who want to serve sex workers. This book does not challenge the fundamental assumption in Christianity that sex work is immoral and damaging but rather asserts that sex workers are people too, whom the the ministry could serve if they were just more aware of the realities of our lives. To serve parishioners and people in general is a fundamental point in Christian ministry, so I cannot fault Scholl for this message. I do think this book is a big step in the right direction towards sex workers not being treated like shit by Christians who are receptive, but it only makes it part of the way there. My difficulty reading this is working out where Scholl’s own opinions end and where her desire to placate both sex workers and Christians (as there is no mention of people like me, who are both) begin. I had hoped for a book that challenged the premise that sex workers cannot be Christians, that we’re not spiritual; that pushed other Christians, particularly those in hierarchies, to welcome us into their churches. In the end, Scholl seems unaware that in addition to all the stigma and whore hate we experience, we are also isolated from our kin in our own churches and religious communities. Scholl seems to be well versed in theology, with a deep understanding of scripture. Her expertise here strikes me as a missed opportunity. Challenging traditional interpretations of the Bible might be too controversial for what is already no doubt a controversial book, but there isn’t really a way to form a truly pro-sex worker argument without doing so.

As a Christian sex worker, there is so much to be desired from my own Christian community. I have been shunned and ignored by almost every non-sex worker Christian I have disclosed my status to, including those in queer Christian groups. Ideally,  I would like to be welcomed into my Church without having to hide what I do, and I want the same for every other sex worker. I would like my work not to be held up as sinful. I would like to be able to be baptized without renouncing it and throwing my sex working brothers and sisters under the bus. Unfortunately, the teachings against full service sex work specifically go right back to the New Testament with Mary Magdalene, everyone’s favorite exited prostitute. Sex work is a challenge to fundamental Christian theology and New Testament interpretation. Indeed, doctrinal justifications for whorephobia within Christianity could fill a book all by themselves. Perhaps Scholl or another Christian ally will write a book which deconstructs them soon. I certainly hope so, anyway.

But for now,  we can at least hearken back to a story retold in I Heart Sex Workers: Christ dined with the most sinful of the community, the tax collectors, and when criticized, stated that those who are ill are most in need of a physician. By that logic, whether or not Christian churches can accept sex work as  moral, sex workers should be embraced by these churches. Moreover, we don’t see priests, preachers and clergy denouncing the IRS or the ATO. Clearly, there is something else going on here beyond theology, and if Christian leaders and laypeople are serious about inclusion, they are going to need to start asking some tough questions.

It’s not something you expect to hear from a women’s rights group: our prostitutes are better than yours. But that’s the tone struck by Equality Now in their new campaign against United Nations recommendations that sex work be decriminalized. Claiming that the UN “ignores survivors of prostitution,” Equality Now and their allied anti-prostitution organizations have offered their own experts who have worked in the sex trade - who all also happen to agree with them that prostitution must remain illegal.The UN’s reports concerning sex work weren’t front page news outside of some HIV and human rights circles. To recap: after several years of consultations with a range of stakeholders, including sex workers, two reports published by the United Nations in 2012 called for an end to laws that criminalize sex workers. A joint report from UN Development Program (UNDP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) assessed laws in 48 countries in Asia and the Pacific; likewise, UNDP’s Global Commission on HIV and the Law examined 140 countries. Both reports draw from hundreds of firsthand accounts; stakeholder submissions, including those made by sex workers, are available to read online. The joint UNDP/UNFPA/UNAIDS report reads, “Sex worker organizations were key partners in this study,” including developing study methodology itself.What’s so galling for anti-prostitution groups about the results, then? “The legal environment in many countries exposes sex workers to violence and results in their economic and social exclusion,” the Global Commission report concluded - identifying more than 100 countries that criminalize some aspect of sex work. “There is no evidence that decriminalization has increased sex work,” the joint report finds. Evidence gathered also indicates that “the approach of defining sex work as legitimate labour empowers sex workers.”

The FBI says killer truckers are abducting prostitutes and other women at truck stops, raping them and leaving their bodies along the nation’s highways

Props to Time for including the testimonial at the end of the person saying that despite the danger they still like their job. A much more nuanced report than the usual “Serial Killers Attacking Prostitutes” story.

Ruling: Exotic Dancers Deserve Minimum Wage at Rick’s NYC

Legalization of prostitution in Australia benefits traffickers and the government, but not women, including sex trafficking victims.

Oh the end sentence of this article. Hey Youngbee Dale, have you ever tried talking to them?

worklabournewsresearch:

”’Could the oldest profession be losing its customers?’ TheLos Angeles Timesposed that questionthis week on the heels of a new study showing that American men are becoming less and less likely to say that they’ve exchanged money for sex. The latest iteration of the University…

audaciaray:

Tomorrow night’s the night!

Red Umbrella Project and the S.H.I.N.E. Project of the Community Health Network are teaming up to present a free healthcare workshop on November 19th at 7pm. This workshop includes a free, confidential Sexually Transmitted Infection testing.

This event will be free and open to the public, but especially designed to meet the needs of those in the sex trades. 

Uniformed medical professionals can be ignorant or rude towards your needs and you may not know if you can safely disclose your involvement in the sex trades, which might be key to getting the care you need.

Free safe sex kits will also be provided. Please feel free to join us anytime between 7:00-8:30pm on November 19th.

Directions: Our office is located at 147 Prince Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. If coming from the Jay St A/C/F/R stop walk east down Willoughby and take a left at Flatbush. If coming from Dekalb walk north up Flatbush. Pass the carwash will be a side road off of Flatbush (Prince Street) with a green office building called Green Desk. If you have any questions please contact us at emma@redumbrellaproject.org or (757) 303-1404.

itsawomansworld2:

This is why we can’t have nice things: the Swedish edition

So I’m a Swede. I haven’t talked too much about it on my blog, but there you go. I’ve been a feminist for a really long while, but I’ve always felt quite uncomfortable with mainstream Swedish feminism for various reasons. One of the…

Mired in years of economic downturn, Spain continues to struggle with record unemployment rates hovering around 26 percent. Brain drain endangers the country’s economic future, as hundreds of thousands of Spaniards have left to find work abroad.

…According to The Local, the number of Spanish women officially registered as prostitutes in Switzerland, where the practice is legal, has risen considerably amid Spain’s recession. Geneva city police registered 80 women in 2010, but local authorities estimate that number is four times larger now, with twice as many suspected of working illegally.

“They are mostly mothers who have come here to feed their families,” Marianne Schweizer of Aspasie, a Swiss sex workers charity group told Geneva’s Le Matin.

The newspaper notes, however, that the majority of the women are not of Spanish origin, but rather, Eastern Europeans who have migrated to Spain from Bulgaria or Romania. Spain shares free economic movement with Switzerland as part of Schengen agreements, meaning Spanish citizens may move freely to seek work, unlike their Eastern European counterparts.

Prostitution in Switzerland has been on the uptick for the last decade, The Local writes, soaring from 800 registered prostitutes in Geneva in 2004 up to 4,140 in 2011. The increased supply has also lowered prices, with a 15-minute romp dropping from 100 Swiss Francs ($109) down to just 20 Swiss Francs ($22).

And as 20 Minutes notes, Geneva is no exception. Bern recorded 715 requests for work permits from Bulgarian and Romanian sex workers, and Zurich registered more than 2,000.

btchflcks:

"Fairytale Prostitution in Angel” by Elizabeth Kiy

Angel, a 1984 cult film, attempts to be both a melodrama about a teen hooker forced to face her life choices (as the trailer proclaims it “A Very Special Motion Picture”) and a very 80s crime thriller where a tough-talking street kid teams up with a cop to catch a killer, but the resulting film is a mess of clashing tones that seems more campy than hard-hitting.

[click here to read more]

A campy film depicting prostitution? Shocking.

alotofbastards:

The world has offered two dichotomous representations of people who sell sex: the “happy hooker,” or the “victim,” often underage, who is coerced into the industry and forced to work by a trafficker or pimp. As a sex worker, I resembled neither of these characters. Who was I then? I wrote to find out.

"There is nothing inherently comforting to me about the word “feminist.” I used to see or hear that word and think it was someone I could feel a tiny bit safer with or at least relate to on a basic level. Unfortunately, I’ve been told by some feminists that by being in the porn industry, I was degrading and hurting women. Most of those feminists have been white scholar-types, which made it hard to notice that feminism has extreme class and race issues. Feminism without intersectionalism is nothing, especially when we’re talking about sex workers’ rights, considering a lot of sex workers do sex work for survival, not for empowerment/liberation/fun.

There have been feminists who have spoken over my sex worker peers and myself about how degrading porn is because you can’t prove what is consensual and not. They know this because of things they have read and they “know a couple of girls in the porn industry.” Hello! I’m a sex worker who works in porn! And I happen to know reputable companies generally give you a release to sign—a form that says you aren’t pressured to do anything you don’t want to—and even film you saying that before you do anything.

Obviously, there are flaws because the industry is run by humans, and I will never deny the incredible amount of terrible things in porn that need to be reformed. My point is, I have felt dismissed and silenced by feminists who thought their research was more credible than my first-hand experience. There is room for both opinions and both things to be talked about, but the moment their research is given more representation than my voice, it’s a problem. That’s my main concern.

The feminist spaces that have made me feel completely safe as a sex worker are usually accepting of trans/queer peoples and have little to do with what mainstream feminism focuses on.”

paradoxesforeveryone:

Sex work is not trafficking!

sexworkerproblems:

With a law against revenge porn recently passed in California, and increasing concerns about harassment, bullying, and o…

Here’s an article I stumbled across talking about a terrifying website.

Please, TALK TO YOUR CLIENTS about fake ads, and how to spot them. Whether you reach out to them through your email or discuss it with them over the phone or talk to them when you see them, try to remind them that there are ways to protect both themselves and us.

Folks who want to target clients often don’t realize that by targeting our clients, they are actually targeting us too.

Although it is often annoying and, at times, inconvenient, consumer education is one element of our success. Spread the word. 

check out the-pinkphoenix - see why we do what we do!