Sexual Slavery, Melissa Farley and sex work

Sexual Slavery, Melissa Farley and sex work

Excerpt from Melissa Farley’s Statement from her website prostitutionresearch.com

• Prostitution can’t be made a little bit better any more than slavery could be made a little better.
  

Jill Brenneman writes in her blog, www.myspace.com/jillbrenneman

This statement is a contradiction. It would work well with a picture of a trafficking victim that has been brutalized or a child that has been sexually exploited commercially, but that is the extent of it. A soundbyte. A very good public relations statement that in context could make a powerful statement. One that in context I would also endorse. But this has to stay in the context and with a significant disclaimer.

If we go back to say the year 1800 when slavery was still legal in much of the world and part of many countries cultures and use hindsight as a guide knowing it would be 90 plus years for the majority of slavery to be abolished and in 207 years there would still be slavery, would we say that nothing should be done to make the lives of the slaves better knowing in this scenario that they will remain slaves throughout their lifetimes? Would the slave in Alabama or Brasil be better off by a statement that we should focus all resources on abolition and creation of awareness of all the horrors of slavery or should their be both? People working to abolish slavery and people working to better the lives of the slaves? It would be vastly unfair to those in slavery to say nothing should be done to improve their lives even a little bit because the institution is evil. Should we say that all resources should go toward fighting the slave owners and slave traders and with a set goal of freeing them but ignoring their plight during the struggle? Essentially if they are not free and aren’t going to be, better to leave them without rights and protection, because improving their living conditions may degrade the war against slavery?

With the assumption that they will remain slaves, they would be far better off having any rights and any improvement in their living conditions. If they are allowed to join together, to have their voices heard, to have the right to legal protection when victimized by crimes such as rape, assault, treatment for diseases without fear of stigmatization, and if they get out their status as once a slave not used against them, they only benefit.

The same thought process works for the sex industry. Those in the sex industry today can not be thrown away in the pursuit for social change. Sex worker rights advocates calling for basic principles such as referenced below from IUSW may be making prostitution a little bit better. I there any reason sex workers should not have the right to form unions, to work on the same basis as other contractors? Should they be taxed without rights and representation? Should they be denied the right to sue those who exploit their labor? Is it better to dirty unsafe places to work? Is denying the right to say no, denying access to clinics, denying training to those who want to leave a positive social stance? Are they better off being stigmatized by social attitudes?

Before we jump to a stance of saying prostitution should not be made a little bit better, perhaps we should look at the views of many actually in the sex industry and what they are truly advocating rather than relying on myths about sex worker rights activists and sweeping generalizations about trafficking and slavery. Those trafficked and those that are slaves deserve much better than being generalized with those who are not. And those that are not deserve much better than saying they should not have the right to improve their lives because there is exploitation in the industry the work in. They deserve better than those outside the sex industry making sweeping statements of blanket victimization regardless of what the life experiences and worldviews are of the sex workers. Feminism that states all of a segment of the female population are victims equal to slaves and those that say they aren’t are just not understanding reality is an insult to the women the feminism is supposed to represent. The abolitionist movement and abolitionist activists can do important work toward social change. But this work has to be done in alliance with those it states as representatives of. Not on top of them, not against them, not saying they are brainwashed by wanting their lives to improve and not linking them to present and historical evil or worse portraying them as collaborators with historical and present evil for taking steps to improve their lives.

• from IUSW International Union of Sex Workers website

• Decriminalisation of all aspects of sex work involving consenting adults.
  

• The right to form and join professional associations or unions.
  

• The right to work on the same basis as other independent contractors and employers and to receive the same benefits as other self-employed or contracted workers.
  

• No taxation without such rights and representation.
  

• Zero tolerance of coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labour, rape and racism.
  

• Legal support for sex workers who want to sue those who exploit their labour.
  

• The right to travel across national boundaries and obtain work permits wherever we live.
  

• Clean and safe places to work.
  

• The right to choose whether to work on our own or co-operatively with other sex workers.
  

• The absolute right to say no.
  

• Access to training – our jobs require very special skills and professional standards.
  

• Access to health clinics where we do not feel stigmatised.
  

• Re-training programmes for sex workers who want to leave the industry.
  

• An end to social attitudes which stigmatise those who are or have been sex workers.
  

Jill Brenneman, SWOP East, Sex Workers Outreach Project

Statement of Sex Worker Human Rights

To end misconceptions about sex worker human rights, here is the SWOP East Sex Worker Human Rights Statement.  Many thanks to Canada’s IUSW for being the inspiration for this statement.

Sex Worker Human Rights

from SWOP East  http://www.swopeast.org

by Jill Brenneman

Ending criminalization of sex work involving consenting adults creates opportunity for positive social change.  With an end to criminalization, sex workers are no longer marginalized for abuse and victimization by customers, the legal system and law enforcement.  Instead, the legal system would serve to protect sex workers, to represent them in the event they are victimized by a crime.  Rather than having to fear the police and be easy targets for renegade cops abusing their positions, sex workers would be able to access assistance from the police just as any other citizen victimized by a crime.  STORM’s website has many testimonials from individuals victimized in the sex industry that had no recourse due to current social views regarding sex work, criminality and the stigma and marginalization that comes with them.

Current policies of criminalization also really serve no value for those either in the sex industry in a non-consenting situation, trafficking victims or those underage.  Those who; coerce, traffic or exploit both adults and youth are aware that criminalization keeps the victims from viewing law enforcement and the legal system as allies to assist them in getting out of the sex industry.  The victim becomes imprisoned by a system that is allegedly setup to protect them.   It is both unrealistic and simplistic not to recognize that people who prey on those who are coerced into the sex industry will use criminalization – the knowledge that the victim fears being punished by the law as a criminal – as reinforcement in a dynamic of fear that makes it difficult for such a victim to leave. Predators use criminalization and the legal system to coerce and deny access to people under their influence who want to leave the sex industry.

The right to form and join professional associations and unions allows for empowerment of sex workers to have greater authority and rights within the sex industry through the strength of a group and networking.

Sex Work, Taxation, and Representation.

Currently the Internal Revenue Service requires individuals to report income earned from illegal sources.  Criminalization denies the sex worker access to legal rights and representation related to taxation as admission of how the income is earned may not be covered under client privilege.  This causes denial of the ability to receive accurate and complete legal rights and representation.   Ending criminalization would allow the sex worker to fulfill requirements of paying taxes, consult with tax specialists without fear of the session being used against them in court.

Coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labor, rape and racism.

Sex workers should be entitled to protection from coercion, violence, sexual abuse, child labor, rape and racism just as any employee in any citizen working in any occupation in the United States of America is.  Coercion is enforced by criminalization.  Knowing that turning in the coercing party may lead to the sex worker being arrested is a substantial barrier from leaving a coercive situation.  Those that coerce are aware of this dynamic realizing the victim has little recourse to escape the coercion through the legal system without significant risk.  The victim is likely to think of themselves as a criminal because of current laws and social attitudes and to see the legal system and law enforcement not as those that can bring justice but as those who will likely arrest, prosecute and further victimize the person they should be protecting.

Sexual abuse and rape in sex work is virtually unaddressed as an issue.   Social attitudes most often assume sex workers can not be sexually abused, assaulted or raped by virtue of being a sex worker.   Sex workers are at very significant risk of sexual abuse and rape.  Exchange of money for agreed upon services does not negate the fact that anything beyond what the sex worker consents to is rape.  Payment of money or anything else of value is not a blank check to force any sexual act upon a sex worker.  Yet, current legalities and social attitudes make bringing a rapist of a sex worker to justice virtually impossible.  Many rape crisis centers either will not accept clients that are sex workers or are improperly trained to assist them.  Medical care providers are also often improperly trained or not trained at all to deal with rape and sexual assault of sex workers.  This along with criminalization leaves the sex worker often unable or unwilling to access medical services after an assault.  Sex workers are easy targets for violence.  Violent offenders realize the marginalization and criminalization aspects of sex work leave the sex worker with little legal recourse in the event of being victimized by violence.  Violence sometimes extends all the way to the murder of the sex worker with little legal interest as in the case of the Green River Killer, Gary Ridgeway who killed dozens of prostitutes before finally being caught.  Had the victims been seen as “regular women” rather than prostitutes there would likely have been a much higher emphasis on the capture and prosecution of the killer.

One of the most controversial topics is child labor related to the sex industry.  The vast majority of youth in the sex industry in the US are runaway/throwaway youth.  There is a significant issue that often goes unaddressed.  Critics will state that youth should not be in the sex industry.  They are correct.  However, this requires more than press releases, position statements and pusillanimous policies of government.  The youth that are in the sex industry often have no other way to earn money.  They are in a situation of survival sex which is trading sex for survival needs.  It is nothing short of a waste of time to state this problem exists without concrete solutions.  Suggestions advising the youth to just go home are unrealistic.  Often times the youth left for a reason, the street was safer than home or where thrown out.  Going home may not be an option.  Suggestions advising them to go to the local McDonald’s or like employer and get a “normal job” are absurd.  Where do they get the work permits?  What do they list as an address on the job application?  What telephone number do they give for the job application?  What do they do while they are waiting for this “normal job” to consider and process their application?  Unless resources are created which provide food, clothing, shelter and education this will always be a problem.

In many countries outside the US, child labor is a different issue.  Families so poor they have no choice but to either have the children work in the sex industry or even sell children into the sex trade are common scenarios.  The basic issue is poverty and often sexism as the male child is considered more valuable, the female child more easily dispensable into the sex industry.  Children are not a tourist attraction and it is the responsibility of governments to address this issue including the governments of the “first world” countries to punish their citizens that engage in child sex tours.  It is simplistic to blame the parents of these children.  Poverty has to be addressed as a global issue.  Also, often unaddressed is the myth that a job in a sweatshop making minimal money for epic work hours is a better option for children or anyone for that matter.  Both amount to little more than slave labor.

Compounding the problem is current the US Governments ban on funding unless organizations helping child sex labor victims unless they take a specific anti prostitution pledge.  This is absurd.  The problem isn’t going to be legislated away with a quick stroke of the pen, a nice photo op, with mission accomplished written as the answer to this problem.  Access to needed resources including medical attention, prophylactics, and education on sexually transmitted diseases are being denied by an alleged effort to fight human trafficking by cutting off funding to agencies that “collaborate with traffickers”.  Until the issues of poverty and other factors are addressed in realistic form, this is going to be a problem.  Denial of service for political gain through the December 19, 2003: Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 is nothing but a disingenuous play to convince the world that a social problem is being addressed.  What is really happening is an unrealistic US Government has aligned with some feminists and the religious right to posture about fighting trafficking while their actions endanger and often end the lives of victims around the world.  Victims supposedly helped by this legislation.

Legal support or sex workers who want to sue those who exploit their labor.

The focus on fighting to end the sex industry and continuing to maintain the status quo of criminalization places too much emphasis on the punishment of men that are either pimps or clients.  Forgotten is both the reality that women and transgendered bear the brunt of arrests.  Also lost in the fight to end the sex industry is the reality that criminalization takes away civil remedies for sex workers that are exploited for their labor.  The current social and legal environment empowers those who exploit the labor of sex workers as criminalization leaves no option for legal recourse.  Knowing the legal and social implications of sex workers attempting a lawsuit to gain compensation for exploitation of their labor, those who exploit have little to fear in using current circumstances to their advantage.  This leaves the sex worker vulnerable to inadequate payment for doing their job, exploited by having to pay a series of fees to work such as in the case of many strip clubs, overtime pay laws become irrelevant as many sex workers are not even paid an hourly wage but instead tips and only after paying fees to club management, bartenders, security, disc jockeys and other staff.  In the event the sex worker suffers exploitation or harm there is little ability to sue for financial, physical or emotional damages.  In the event of workplace injury there is often no workers compensation, disability pay or other benefits.

Ending criminalization would allow for labor rights allowing sex workers to file suit against those who exploit their labor, to seek compensation for various forms of damages, fair compensation for their work, legal benefits in the event of injury resulting from accident or negligence on the part of the employer and a much stronger legal remedy having the effect of keeping potentially predatory employers accountable for their actions.

Clean and safe places to work

Ending criminalization would bring sex work out from underground.  Without fear of arrest, incarceration, criminal record and other legal issues, sex workers would have the same legal protections as an employee of any other industry.  Rather than having to fear law enforcement, it would become the police’s responsibility to enforce the same laws and same rights afforded employees of other industries.  Ending criminalization, stigmatization, marginalization and other forms of isolation and discrimination would provide opportunities for clean, safe work environments, access to medical services without fear of being victimized by the judgment of the medical provider or denial of services due to their occupation.  Ending criminalization would allow for the same laws which protect workers in other industries from workplace hazards to be enforced providing clean and safe work environments for sex workers.

The right to choose whether to work on our own or co-operatively with other sex workers.

Current legal environments in various countries, states, provinces and municipalities either force sex workers to work together as in the case of legalized brothels in some counties in Nevada, or to not be able to work together in other areas fearing it would bring too much awareness and catch the attention of law enforcement.  Sex workers need to have the right to choose their work environment just as any other individual does.  That choice may be to work for an employer, to work as an independent or to create their own business of the size they choose.

The absolute right to say no.

One of the greatest flaws of criminalization is the absolute lack of protection from clients or employers refusing to respect the sex workers boundaries.  There is virtually no recourse for a sex worker forced into sexual acts against their will either by a client that exceeds the agreed upon terms or an employer that forces the sex worker to go beyond personal boundaries as part of their job.  The exchange of money does not eliminate the sex workers right to say no, it does not give a client the right to exceed the sex workers boundaries and does not give the employer the right to force a sex worker to engage in sexual acts against their will, ones they consider dangerous or simply ones they do not feel comfortable with.  Sex workers have the right to their own bodies and if and when that is violated they need the right to recourse.  Current legal and social stances often deny the sex worker the right to control what happens to their bodies. 

Hypocrisy, Randall Tobias, Radical Feminists.

 

Anti Prostitution Czar Randall Tobias, architect of the USaid anti prostitution oath, which ostensibly is a war on human trafficking.  This call for abstinence from prostitution, from the sex industry, this war on human trafficking which is great for PR, for photo ops, great for President Bush to declare war on something else.  This time human trafficking, which anti prostitution radical feminist activists have conflated trafficking as any woman in the sex industry going as far as Hooters Girls being made into victims of sexual slavery by the vast forces of the radical feminist titled rhetorically named Pro Porn/Pro Prostitution movement.  Which in itself is a misnomer.  But let’s deal with Randall Tobias first.

 

Randall Tobias was Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).  Randall Tobias, a pro-abstinence zealot who couldn’t abstain from enjoying the services of D.C. Madam Jeane Palfry’s escort service.   A high level government administration member hiring an escort is probably not much of a shock in most cases.  Then again, in most cases it shouldn’t be a big deal.  Except Tobias was Director of US Foreign Assistance and Administrator for US Agency for International Development, USAID.  USaid, the same organization that required the anti prostitution oath from organizations seeking USaid.  By taking the anti prostitution oath an NGO and it’s members could access large amounts of funding from USAID.  Organizations that would or could not take the pledge and deliver needed services to sex workers in need of medical care, education, housing, and many other needs worldwide were shout out of the funding.  Many programs using harm reduction models simply were financially suffocated leaving the very sex workers without needed resources all in the name of fighting a supposed war on trafficking.  Only the war wasn’t on trafficking it wasn’t even inherently a war, just a creative alliance between the Bush Administration, many radical feminist activists and organizations and the religious right.  Spun into their war on trafficking was a creative way to grab all the funding for themselves and financially starve programs that were harm reduction or sex worker human rights based.  This war to end trafficking, which allegedly is a war to end sexual slavery, had little to do with ending human trafficking and forced labor.  It was a financial ploy for a certain sect of the government to show it’s war on prostitution, for radical feminists to shut out the sex worker rights movement and harm reduction movement from funding and the religious right to demonstrate their faux war on trafficking.  This was all a great chance for a Bush Administration/radical feminist/religious right campaign to position themselves as the moral beacons fighting a war on trafficking.  All of this this conveniently began at the height of Bush’ popularity.  When mission accomplished was being declared in Iraq. 

 

Had Randall Tobias not been the outspoken anti prostitution czar and leader of this alliance to end prostitution, his hiring of escorts probably would have gone unnoticed.  But while he publicly campaigned to end the sex industry, he was privately hiring escorts.  The very escorts he was seeking to force out of the industry if his alleged goal to end the sex industry were to succeed.  Which time and truth have shown, it was just a nice high paying government job high in the Bush Administration.  Should it be a problem for Tobias to hire an escort, an escort who is an adult and a consenting sex worker?  If it weren’t for who he is and what he espouses and his actions the answer should be no.  But he is who he is.  The hypocrite who sought to steal the occupation and rights of the sex workers he hired, was himself hiring them.  The hypocrisy is blatant. 

 

Now onto the radical feminists.  Melissa Farley, Donna Hughes, and so many others have joined this alliance, have profited from it, have become what their egos have always desired, to be considered leaders in the war on prostitution.  A war on a topic in which neither was a first person participant.  Neither Farley or Hughes were sex workers although Hughes often claimed she wished she had been so she could better understand.  But lack of knowledge is power in their case.  They have their studies and academic writings to allegedly make up for their deficient knowledge of sex work and the sex industry.  

 

These radical feminists made their alliance to cut sex worker rights orgs and harm reduction orgs worldwide out of the funding pie. For the radical feminists, it apparently was a great idea in 2003 in the post 9/11 national willingness to support Bush’ war on terror, on anything.  These same radical feminists who are so willing to criticize sex worker rights activists and organizations with real and imagined transgressions as being pro porn, as being unwilling to address the harm caused by some men to women, children, transgendered in the sex industry suddenly are silent about a client.  A client whom otherwise they would be stating bought rape through a Madam who they would say sold rape of “prostituted women”.  Only since the client was the poster boy of their war.  They are silent.  Apparently “purchased” rape in this case was ok since it was their man doing the buying.  While the radical constantly posture about their opposition to the men “prostituting” women as all encompassing evil in this case they are silent.  If they were a true movement with true motives, they would oppose Tobias as he is what they claim to be fighting.  Instead silence.  In other words it is ok if he is their man.  I guess they feel they can’t bite the hand that feeds.  

 

As Director of SWOP East, which was once an anti sex industry political organization, I choked in 2003 on the lies, the rhetoric, the hypocrisy that I saw inside the radical feminist movement, inside the beltway conferences, even from the invitations from President Bush to attend dinners, events to showcase us as one of their token organizations.  I choked on this and balked.  It began my personal realignment with the sex worker human rights movement and initiated the process that lead the complete change from being an anti sex industry activist leading an anti sex industry organization to a sex worker human rights activist taking what is now SWOP East, to a sex worker rights position.  

 

This transition has come with a price.  I am essentially the anti Christ to the radial feminist movement.  Our organization has been shut out of funding and is relying on all volunteer efforts for survival and growth.  But it is worth it.  The sex worker rights movement is fighting oppression, marginalization, exploitation and stigmatization of sex workers through human rights and labor initiatives.  We too take on issues of coercion and have zero tolerance for coercion, for forced labor, for human trafficking.  But we choose to believe there are many if not most in the sex industry who are their by choice and their exploitation is due to lack of labor and human rights.  Not some vast pro porn/prostitution machine as stated by the radical feminists and some vast network of human traffickers enslaving all women in the sex industry as the government plays it to be.  

 

I am very happy that I listened to my intuition in 2003 and walked away from the radical feminist movement and it’s alliances taking what is now SWOP East with me.  The price was high for me, facing threats of injury and death from alleged radical feminist activists, facing lies, distortions, censorship.  SWOP East has been a target of hatred for years because of the change in ideology.  But time is proving our point.  We were right to walk away.  Heretics to radical feminism?   Yes, and proudly so.  Am I the radical feminist anti Christ?  The Judas of the movement?  Probably.  I’m glad to be and see it as proof of doing the right thing.

Right now Randall Tobias’ hypocrisy is blatantly obvious.  The Bush Administration’s war on trafficking is a pathetic misappropriation of funding for those who align with him.  The radical feminists hypocrisy is perhaps the worst.  They refuse to take the very stand that they trumpet as their core value because it would mean criticizing their now disgraced leader and the hand that fed them so well.  Their intentions and self serving goals are now apparent. 

 

For the sex worker human and labor rights organizations, for those doing harm reduction for sex workers in need, the criticism we have faced, the financial suffocation we have endured to stand in the face of hatred, in the face of hypocrisy, in the face of those who would like to destroy our activism and abandon sex workers in need now for some alleged end of the sex industry, supposed end of sexual slavery in some mythical day in the future.  

 

Please, now is the time to reassert our voices.  Our movement is the mainstream, is seeking practical and pragmatic social change which can bring great advances in human and labor rights for sex workers.  We endured and the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration, the radical feminists and the religious right have been exposed.  Now is the time to speak, to be heard, to claim our space as sex workers and sex worker rights activists for a movement about ending oppression and exploitation of those in the sex industry.  There was take back the night.  Now lets take back our rights.  This can only be done by networking, by speaking out, by joining together which we have and are!  Great advances have happened in just the last year.  Stay strong, stay together and speak out about sex worker rights!

 

Solidarity

 

Jill Brenneman

SWOP East Coordinator

www.swopeast.org

www.myspace.com/jillbrenneman

www.myspace.com/swopeast

www.myspace.com/swopeastnc