I can laugh at a puppet show, at the same time I know there is nothing in it worth my attention or regard. – Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
By the end of the nineties, neofeminist leaders knew their movement was in trouble; though they had become extremely powerful in the Scandinavian countries, their power and influence had begun to wither nearly everywhere else. The reasonable goals of second-wave feminism had been met, and feminist ideas had become so normal that mainstream feminism no longer had a monopoly on them; the neofeminists had lost the crowbar by which they had pried and beat so many young women into their ugly, twisted gender war, and the internet had made it more difficult for them to sell their anti-sex snake oil to the impressionable. But fanatics are driven by their psychoses, and are thus unable to admit defeat; instead, the neofeminists formed an alliance with another large group of anti-sex authoritarians, namely fundamentalist Christianity, and together they repackaged their old ideas so as to sell them all over again. Instead of being merely “sinful” or “misogynistic” porn became “addictive”, and mercenary “researchers” with questionable credentials were hired to supplement the fabrications of the True Believers on any aspect of sex work one might name.
The keystone of this whole strategy was the myth of “sex trafficking”; as the “Nation Strategy” of Swanee Hunt’s Demand Abolition organization clearly states, “Framing the Campaign’s key target as sexual slavery might garner more support and less resistance, while framing the Campaign as combating prostitution may be less likely to mobilize similar levels of support and to stimulate stronger opposition.” In other words, the anti-sex coalition recognized it had already lost the war on sex work, so it was necessary to use its favorite tactic, re-framing (i.e. calculated lying), to paint prostitutes (and to a lesser extent strippers and porn actresses) as “sex slaves” controlled by evil “pimps” straight out of 1970s blaxploitation films. There was, however, a problem with this scheme; as I explained in “The Odor of Socks”,
…they present the “reframed experiences” of “survivors” to support their claims, but since these are a small minority the usual approach …is to present the same stories over and over again with slightly-altered details so as to “pack the collection” of available narratives. This can only go so far against the huge number of vocal whores, however; even the most credulous of prohibitionist marks will eventually notice that while we regularly post new material and interact with our readers, the supposed plethora of “human trafficking victims” are represented only in third person. And so a new weapon has become necessary: the sock puppet…while the anonymity of the internet makes it possible for whores to speak out without fear of arrest or other persecution, it also allows trolls to set up multiple accounts so as to create phantom “supporters” of their views…
Right now in Ireland, the nuns who enslaved many thousands in the Magdalene laundries are trying to once again suppress whores, this time via the odious Swedish model. Like other modern prohibitionists they use sock puppets, but because Ireland really isn’t a very big country they don’t have a large number to choose from…and it shows. Irish activists called these three videos to my attention; even with shaded faces, it’s pretty obvious that this is the same woman under three different names. Let’s start with “Mary”; you needn’t watch this whole thing, just enough so that you can be pretty sure you’ll recognize her voice, accent and characteristic syntax when you hear it again.
And now here’s “Sandy” who is supposedly a different woman:
And then “Marian”:
And just for good measure, let’s look at “Lisa’s” word choices and syntax:
…I got tired of being used and to being sold like a tissue; – used, then throw away. I believed Ruhama was for foreign girls but I wanted out and I was willing to try anything…so I rang straight away and was greeted with kindness, understanding and offered so much help…I wandered in like a stray dog, I felt so low, only then to see I have a future there…Ruhama have it all, its up to you to ask…no money is worth what prostitution takes, every thing in life has a cost, sell your body and your soul goes.
The real woman behind all these aliases is Justine Reilly, shown here in a photo from the 2003 prohibitionist book Sex in the City; if she didn’t want to be recognized she probably should have changed that rather distinctive hairstyle. Irish sex worker groups repeatedly petitioned the government to allow them a say in the hearings on imposing the Swedish model, but this kangaroo court never had any intention of allowing real testimony; the only ones allowed in were Justine and other Ruhama shills. They spouted the usual nonsense such as you can hear in the videos above, including the lie that there are literally NO independent sex workers in Ireland, because all of them are “controlled” by pimps. But perhaps that’s less a lie on Justine’s part and more a case of wishful thinking, since she herself was convicted of “pimping” twelve years ago yesterday:
A woman has been fined £11,500 and given a 12-month suspended sentence…for managing and running brothels in Dublin. Justine Reilly (33)…pleaded guilty…to four…counts of brothel-keeping and one of managing a brothel on dates from October 1999 to March 2000. She admitted full responsibility and told gardai she was earning about £3,000 a week.
My, my, what would Stella Marr say? With her brothels closed down, she apparently had trouble paying off that fine, because a year and a half later she applied for and was granted a taxi license in Dublin:
A convicted brothel keeper was yesterday granted a taxi licence after a court heard she needed to work as a cabbie to pay off a €14,600 fine. Justine Reilly (36) challenged a Garda decision to refuse her a public-service vehicle licence…She said since her conviction she had been ostracised by her family and…had done a number of jobs, including cleaning and working in bars and restaurants, but it was not enough to meet the fine…
Running a taxi in fiercely-competitive Dublin wouldn’t be enough to pay it, either; my sources tell me it would be extremely difficult for a cabbie there to clear €14,600 in a year, and that’s before living expenses. Somebody eventually paid that fine…perhaps in exchange for PR services rendered? Ruhama was certainly a good fit for Justine; take a look at how she was already reinventing herself by the time she got the license:
The brothel operation she had been involved in was a joint arrangement between herself and other women who had previously worked for “unsavoury characters…Myself and a few girls decided to get an apartment and when the police came I accepted responsibility because these other girls had husbands and children and I didn’t. I went forward and said I was responsible, although I did not realise the seriousness of the situation”…
You can see that she isn’t yet denying the independence of most whores, though her journey toward victimhood (by way of martyrdom) is clearly well underway. It’s clear that the Irish government fully intends to fund and assist evil religious fanatics in their persecution of whores, just as it has for almost a century. But its rather insulting that they have invested so little effort in disguising the puppeteers, and given Ruhama’s wealth one would think it could afford more than one makeshift puppet.
(I am indebted to several activists for providing the information contained in this column, but they prefer to remain anonymous due to the fact that the UK’s tyrannical libel laws make it very easy for the wealthy and well-connected to censor those who are less so.)
