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Original poster

Do sex workers deserve to be named and shamed in the media?

80 replies

homeo · 16/03/2013 23:11

Irish tabloid SundayWorldNewspaper has posted a video showing a sex worker's face and address. The reporter pretends to be a client but goes in with a hidden camera.

twitter.com/AlisandeF/status/308165744452046849

OP posts:
Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:22

"Who is melissa farley?"

She is a feminist against sex work. Rape Crises Scotland, Object, Rhuma use stats she has provided.

But can these stats be trusted?

OP posts:
Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:19

Who is melissa farley?

Why are we being asked to respond to things that other people have said?

Your question was, do sex workers deserve to be named and shamed.

EVERYONE has answered NO.

Happy?

LineRunner · 17/03/2013 00:18

Hannah Betts is arguing 'isn't it about time we came to terms with prostitution?' What's the problem?

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:18

Rape Crises Scotland uses stats from the woman who wrote the following:

www.prostitutionresearch.com/WhyIMade.html

I became a prostitute because . . .

  1. I saw Pretty Baby and it reminded me of my stepfather and I thought I could get paid for it.
  1. I saw Pretty Woman and I liked the clothes.
  1. I saw a Demi Moore movie and I thought, Wow, what an easy and fun way to make a million dollars.
  1. I like getting fucked by the football team, the fraternity brothers, and law students at graduation parties. I realized that gang rape could be a transcendental experience.
  1. I figured that laying on my back and getting fucked by hundreds of men, and getting on my knees and sucking thousands of dicks, was the most profound empowerment a woman could have.
  1. My vocational counselor and I discussed a whole lot of possibilities: doctor, lawyer, women's-studies teacher, legal secretary. I was offered a four-year scholarship at Stanford, but frankly, prostitution seemed the most rewarding job option available.
  1. I worship the goddess and she told me, "Fuck mankind." I misunderstood her spiritual message and found myself in lifetime sexual servitude instead.
  1. I came to appreciate the depth of Hugh Hefner's, Larry Flynt's, and Bob Guccione's understanding of my sexuality.
  1. My boyfriend wanted me to do it. He said that being part of a stable of whores who worked for him could help me learn how to get along with other women.

  1. My father wanted me to do it.

  2. I met a nice man on alt.sex.prostitution.

  3. Camille Paglia told me it was the feminist thing to do.

  4. I felt coerced by my landlord, the day-care center, the utility companies, the grocer, my dealer and my plastic surgeons to pay my bills every month.

  5. I didn't want to work at Red Lobster.

  6. I wanted to be treated like a lady.

  7. I went to COYOTE's Halloween extravaganza, the Hookers' Ball, and found out just how glamorous prostitution could be.

  8. It's complicated, but I thought that working in the sex industry would increase my self-esteem. It's sort of like saying to the world, "I am the best Grade A ground beef" and being the cow.

  9. And then, ya know, even though it all sounded really good, and selling fucks and blow jobs sounded really empowering, I realized that talking about it and writing books defending it would be even more empowering.

OP posts:
OldLadyKnowsNothing · 17/03/2013 00:17

Thread's moved on, but thank you, Abigail. Will now catch up.

AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:16

OK you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about Melissa Farley. How about you take that up with her if she hasn't already blocked you and got a court order ensuring you don't come within a mile of her.

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:16

"you would need to look at some studies."

Studies from where? From a feminist who makes jokes about gang rape?

OP posts:
Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:14

No not all of them.

A good proportion though, you would need to look at some studies.
Certainly anyone who is a child, has been subjected to sexual abuse in the past, has no other means of income, has a drug or alcohol habit to support, has children to support and no other way of getting money, or who is controlled or coerced, or has been trafficked, and you know what loads of other situations, I would see as victims, yes.

I am sure there are some women who choose to work in the sex industry who enjoy their work, earn lots of money and their work does not have any detriment on their physical or mental health, or impact on their relationships.

At a global level, whichever way you look at it, those people are in a vanishingly small minority. Hence why there are so many charities to help women and children (and men) who need help to get out.

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:13

Never heard of Melissa Farley? Organisations like Rape Crises Scotland, Object, Rhuma use her stats. Oh and she makes jokes about gang rape.

OP posts:
Darkesteyes · 17/03/2013 00:13

homeo why dont you save your vitriol for the women who really DID hate other females .....the Magdelene nuns. Im watching a doc on More 4 +1 as i type ...thats why ive mentioned it.

OP posts:
AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:11

What are you asking us all these questions and not answering any of ours?

AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:10
Hmm
AnnieLobeseder · 17/03/2013 00:10

This is getting silly. I'm out.

Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:09

Am also confused by that question.

Julie Burchill apparently does - maybe you could look for some articles / books she has written and see why she believes that.

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:09

Do you think all sex workers are victims of sexual assault, unable to consent, weak poor creatures who need feminists to save them?

OP posts:
AnnieLobeseder · 17/03/2013 00:09

But you do think prostitution and rape are the same thing?

Not always, no. But very often, yes. I would suspect that the large majority of prostitutes are not in the profession by choice. Which means they are subjected to intercourse against their will. Which is rape.

AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:08

Why do you ask? What has this got to do with your OP?

AnnieLobeseder · 17/03/2013 00:07

Feminists are also against FGM and forced marriage. Do you think this would mean we would also hurl abuse at the victims of these practices? I think you may be somewhat confused as to what feminism is actually about.

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:06

But you do think prostitution and rape are the same thing?

OP posts:
Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:05

I don't think annie has thrown abuse at anyone Confused

many feminists have a problem with the glamourisaton and normalisation of the sex industry, the same as many people have issues with the glamourisation of violence in some hollywood films, the glamourisation of alcohol use on the telly and so on.

If someone is against a certain activity because they believe it to cause more harm than good, they are often uncomfortable with situations where it is talked about in an unbalanced was as a "good thing".

That doesn't have anything to do with "throwing abuse" though.

AnnieLobeseder · 17/03/2013 00:04

Of course it's not. Where did I say feminists would throw abuse at the high class one? I just said they might be annoyed if she denied the very dark side to the sex industry. Being annoyed at and hurling abuse at are very different things.

You seem very determined to find an angle for feminism to be against sex workers. I don't think you'll find one.

AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:04

But we aren't Confused. So why do you keep posting this here?

Original poster
homeo · 17/03/2013 00:00

I don't think any "high class" worker is denying there are some who do suffer.

But I don't see how throwing abuse at these "high class" workers is going to help anyone.

OP posts:
Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:00

In your link to the guardian piece the only bit about feminists is here:

"Notably, said bashing includes a cohort of feminist critics who, in abhoring the activity, choose to hate the perpetrator. This is evident not only in Julie Burchill's string 'em up stance, but the notion that, as "all prostitution is rape", sex workers cannot know their own minds, or be in control of their bodies, and thus consent. "

If Julie Burchill has a position that all prostitution is rape, then far from hating prostitutes, she sees them as victims.

That article doesn't back up what you are saying at all.

If you want to find people who despise women working in the sex industry, start with men, then drill down to right wing / religious attitudes, and there you will find the vitriol.