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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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

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OldLadyKnowsNothing · 17/03/2013 00:17

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

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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.


10. My father wanted me to do it.

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

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

13. 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.

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

15. I wanted to be treated like a lady.

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

17. 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.

18. 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.
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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?

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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?

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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?

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:23

I think those are intended to be reasons that no prostitute said, ever. Unless of course you know prostitutes that became prostitutes because of those reasons?

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:24

Why shouldn't the stats be trusted?

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:25

Do you not agree with the stats produced? Is that why you are trying to discredit her?

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LineRunner · 17/03/2013 00:26

I hope this is a brilliant ironic thread that I'm not quite getting yet.

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Trekkie · 17/03/2013 00:27

Has melissa farley "named and shamed" sex workers?
Your posts are flitting all over the place.

what are you on about

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:27

Do you actually want to engage in discussion or just fire some more questions at us and expect us to know what is going on in the head of another woman we have never met and never even heard of until about a week ago? D you think we are responsible for her?

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homeo · 17/03/2013 00:27

itsjustahobby.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/melissa-fucking-farley-thinks-gang-rape-is-funny-and-it-gets-worse/

1. I saw Pretty Baby and it reminded me of my stepfather and I thought I could get paid for it.
Yes, you read that right, it is a joke about incest.

2. I saw Pretty Woman and I liked the clothes.
All sex workers are shallow, and stupid.

4. 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.
Just holy fuck! A joke about gang rape, Not just that but a slut shaming joke about gang rape as apparently there is no difference between liking getting fucked and being raped. Of course when you believe sex work is rape you don?t really see consent as important.

9. 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.
Yeah, lets laugh at victims of domestic violence

10. My father wanted me to do it.
And those sexually abused by their parents, I mean that is just hilarious, my sides are splitting.

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Sunnywithshowers · 17/03/2013 00:28

My answer to your OP is no. And I do so wish you'd feck off with your bloody hobbyhorse.

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:31

It isn't intended to be funny homeo. Really it isn't.

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:31

The fact you think it is supposed to be funny is the worrying part.

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homeo · 17/03/2013 00:34

"Why shouldn't the stats be trusted?"

  1. Because she writes a sick "joke" page at the expense of sex workers


  1. According to the link below the Canadian courts threw out her stats. I wonder why?


itsjustahobby.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/melissa-fucking-farley-thinks-gang-rape-is-funny-and-it-gets-worse/
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LineRunner · 17/03/2013 00:35

homeo, I believe it's meant to be laying into the people who find those kinds of excuses or images funny or stylish or even imaginable.

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:43

Well the link you have provided gives no reference, validity or context to why the Canadian Courts threw out her stats.

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AbigailAdams · 17/03/2013 00:45

Are you worried about the End demand model homeo? Is that why you are repeatedly attacking Farley?

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homeo · 17/03/2013 00:54
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homeo · 17/03/2013 00:55

[353] I found the evidence of Dr. Melissa Farley to be problematic. Although Dr. Farley has conducted a great deal of research on prostitution, her advocacy appears to have permeated her opinions. For example, Dr. Farley?s unqualified assertion in her affidavit that prostitution is inherently violent appears to contradict her own findings that prostitutes who work from indoor locations generally experience less violence. Furthermore, in her affidavit, she failed to
qualify her opinion regarding the causal relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and prostitution, namely that it could be caused by events unrelated to prostitution.

[354] Dr. Farley?s choice of language is at times inflammatory and detracts from her conclusions. For example, comments such as, ?prostitution is to the community what incest is to the family,? and ?just as pedophiles justify sexual assault of children?.men who use prostitutes develop elaborate cognitive schemes to justify purchase and use of women? make her opinions less persuasive.

[355] Dr. Farley stated during cross-examination that some of her opinions on prostitution were formed prior to her research, including, ?that prostitution is a terrible harm to women, that prostitution is abusive in its very nature, and that prostitution amounts to men paying a woman for the right to rape her.?

[356] Accordingly, for these reasons, I assign less weight to Dr. Farley?s evidence.

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LineRunner · 17/03/2013 01:03

The judge was being a bit partial there herself, if quoted correctly.

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LineRunner · 17/03/2013 01:06

There will always be tension between some sex workers and those who might benefit from sex working, and those who analyse the conditions of sex working and would wish to oppose exploitation.

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TheDoctrineOfSnatch · 17/03/2013 02:07

Didn't you post the exact same links last time, OP?

Can you copy and save LineRunner's post about how Melissa farley's list is laying into those who think those "reasons" are imaginable? Then you can refer to it whenever you get confused.

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Sunnywithshowers · 17/03/2013 03:22

OP, why do you come here again and again with the same links? To be frank, we all agree here that despite our views on sex works that sex workers do not involve abuse.

If you want people in this section to agree that sex work is a good thing you might be waiting a long time.

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