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