The prostitute is not, as feminists claim, the victim of men but rather their conqueror, an outlaw who controls the sexual channel between nature and culture. – Camille Paglia
Ignorance of a subject never stops fools from opining about it, but when the subject is prostitution the ignoramuses aren’t just wrong; they tend to actually turn the facts backward and upside-down, then proclaim their own ignorance to be knowledge and brand the knowledge of the real experts, the whores themselves, as propaganda. In the looking-glass world of the prohibitionists the real is unreal and vice versa; common situations are called “rare” and rare ones an “epidemic”, an independent businesswoman is a “victim”, a female-dominated profession is characterized as “exploitation of women”, ignorance is strength and freedom is slavery. To be sure, this isn’t a new problem; insecure men have been claiming their own lust is “really” female lust for at least three or four millennia. But the sick, twisted weltanschauung of neofeminists, born as it is out of their own wounded, frightened psyches, has found an ally in the fragile, infantile ego of the male politician and this marriage made in Hell has given rise to an anti-whore catechism which makes the myth of the wanton seem positively reasonable in comparison.
Brandy Devereaux recently brought a perfect example of this to my attention; in this article from Statesman.com political grandstanding and lies are called “remarkable”, financial independence is called “economic dependence”, social networks are called “isolation”, work is referred to as “being purchased”, the majority is called a minority and vice-versa, firsthand accounts are called “myth” and making one’s own choices is called “demeaning servitude”. The neofeminist author of this article refers to women as “objects” and proclaims laws which characterize adult women as incompetent minors to be a “giant step forward”. But see for yourself:
One recent morning two Georgia lawmakers did a remarkable thing…speak up for teenage prostitutes. Girls are manipulated and violated, held captive through violence, isolation, threats, economic dependence and emotional abuse, said…Edward Lindsey…”Right now there are hundreds of girls all across Atlanta and this region who are waiting in hotel rooms to be purchased by men on the Internet,” said state Rep. Buzz Brockway…Maybe there are some happy hookers, but they are a comparative few within a sea of misery that their outsized myth helps create. If you meet such a person, ask her how she started out in the business and how old she was. Increasingly, the prostitute is now understood to be a trafficked object, a slave to a pimp, a victim trapped in demeaning, dangerous servitude…
With so many conflicting views, it can be difficult to write laws to help people brutalized by those who buy and sell them. If she’s a victim, she should be protected. If she’s a criminal, she should be prosecuted. In grappling with such conflicts, states across the country have been rewriting laws to make it tougher on traffickers, pimps and johns and easier on those they prostitute…The Georgia House recently passed some of the most progressive legislation in the country on the subject. The vote was 168-1, and when it passed the lawmakers broke into applause. For traffickers, pimps and johns, the bill imposes higher fines and longer sentences, which get even longer if their victims are young. There would be a 25-year minimum prison sentence for using coercion to traffic someone under 18. Buying sex with a 16-year-old would bring a sentence of at least 5 years. Younger than that and it’s a 10-year minimum. At least as important, the bill would make it harder for the sellers and buyers of sex to defend themselves. Didn’t know her age? Wouldn’t matter…
On this issue, people usually on opposite sides came together: religious groups and feminists, Republicans and Democrats. The new Republican attorney general, Sam Olens, contributed ideas he picked up from the National Association of Attorneys General. Prosecutors worked on the bill with a group called A Future Not a Past, which aims at ending the prostitution of girls. Georgia Women for a Change suggested approaches from national anti-trafficking organizations. A Baptist group that last year opposed a bill that would have banned prosecuting underage prostitutes supported this one…
I’m sure I’m not alone in recognizing the Swedish reek on all this; as I predicted last year, it’s rapidly becoming more popular because it lets sex-haters of both types, the neofeminist and Puritan, infantilize prostitutes and attack our livelihood while claiming to “help” us. Note the implication that all prostitutes start as teenagers (a myth I busted back on November 27th) and mention of the organization “A Future Not a Past”, which commissioned the bogus Schapiro Group “study” I analyzed two days later. As for the Georgia law touted in this mirrored manifesto, I pointed out the potential for abuse inherent in it on February 19th. I’m not surprised the legislators broke into applause; they had succeeded in getting widespread support from the sheeple for an expansion of government’s power to enrich itself by accusing citizens of vague, unprovable and poorly-defined crimes. While most of the rest of the world moves toward greater liberty and increased choices for women, we in the “Land of the Free” are allowing our leaders to steadily row this country backward into the Dark Ages.
It’s easy to paint happy hookers as some rare beast, elusive as the Sasquatch (which, after all, may not even exist), because happy hookers dare not step into the light if they want their happiness to last. What you can’t see might not exist, and if you can keep them out of site, you can put them out of the public’s mind.
The Internet is making that difficult (thanks, Al).
Yes, exactly. The prohibitionists absolutely HATE women like me and even more so women like Tracy Quan or Belle de Jour who are really in the public eye; hence the ridiculous propaganda (of which you see a hint in the article quoted above) that we’re paid off by or part of the mythical “pimp lobby”. If I’m being paid off I want to know where my checks have been since I started this blog last July; I’ve got a lot of bills I could pay with them!
It reminds me of how many hate MVS (the surviving family/friends of murder victims). They don’t want to hear about what we have to deal with in recovery. That’s “not positive” and things have ALWAYS got to be positive! Bringing up the negative in life, can’t have that! What they won’t even bother to find out since MVS remind them of murder (which they arrogantly think won’t ever happen to THEM…and I used to think that along with them…that’ll always make me ashamed) is that there’s a lot of positive in the MVS who choose TO recover. The other MVS have inspired me for years and we help each other heal along with exposing the evil stereotypes/blanket statements about us. Good CAN and DOES come out of our tragedies. Some of the things that do: breaking the cycle of abuse (has happened to a degree in my family) and a really big 1 which is more laws to truly help the MVS and keep murderers in prison longer, etc. What’s disgusting is there’s at least a few groups of people who ARE hated. This is a big reason those of us who belong to any of these groups can never quit speaking out no matter what comes our way.
BS. It’s lazy reporting and researching and propaganda. I can stand and yell and wave my arms in front of a reporter and yet would seem as if I am in a vacuum. They look right past me and say “Nope, don’t see any happy hookers here!”
That “comparative few within a sea of misery that their outsized myth helps create” crack tells me it isn’t just lazy reporting but neofeminist propaganda on the part of the (female) writer. I’d like Jill’s opinion on it, but it strikes me as exactly the same sort of rhetoric as Bedelia’s accusation that Norma Jean Almodovar, Stacy Swimme and I are all paid by the mythical “pimp lobby” (the neofeminist equivalent of the “International Jewish Conspiracy” so beloved by Neo-Nazis). It’s a direct accusation that successful whores (rather than criminalization and the punitive American mindset) are “responsible” for the misery of drug addicts and teenage runaways.
The 1 reporter who contacted me online at least a few years ago in regards to my familys’ case hasn’t even had the decency to get back with me. Disgusting and RUDE. Maybe it’s just as well because someone who takes the time to contact you and can’t even tell you years later I won’t be getting back to you, not interested anymore, etc., probably wouldn’t even show the basic courtesy of giving condolences (like most people I’ve run into). If this 1 ever does contact me again, IT’ll get an earful. Unfortunately, I’ve not the only MVS to get this rude treatment. But, on the positive side, there ARE some GOOD reporters who DO get back with MVS and don’t just see their stories as ghoulish entertainment and when they write about their cases don’t do so in an exploitive way and also help expose what MVS go through, etc.
The prohibitionists hate all prostitutes except those who tow the political line without question. They prey on the most injured women in the sex industry for recruits for their movement. The ones most likely to comply with their fanaticism. There are two sectors of the prohibitionist movement. The academics who control it, and the “survivors” who will both accept their pain being spread open as a message that allegedly represents all of us along with being willing to do the political bidding of their academic masters. They will turn on their own in a moment when they don’t get the compliance they demand.
Their hatred for Robyn Few, Renegade Evolution and I have hit some serious highs at various times.
Their support for the Swedish model is a farce. They only talk the talk. They have constantly fought efforts to decriminalize the sex worker. In the case of Rhode Island, Donna Hughes led a successful campaign to criminalize sex workers. They want us arrested and mandated into their programs. Jail or a program. Be a criminal or a compliant student of their re-education without input, without rights, without say. We get arrested for the job we do, get mandated into their programs and lose the right to our identity. We are supposed to totally reframe our minds and our lives to their political agenda. They are an industry and hungry for power. They need our criminalization to keep their places, their careers, and their power.
The scariest thing is that it isn’t just us they hate, but ALL women; that’s why they want us to become something we’re not. They hate feminine clothes, feminine grooming, feminine conversational styles, typical feminine tastes and the way most women view work as a way to make money rather than an all-consuming substitute for a family. A couple of years ago I read an article in a mainstream source (I think the New York Times but I’m not sure) in which this neofeminist lunatic called homemakers “lazy” and “traitors to the cause” and advocated that all women should be forced to work outside the home. This is not feminism by any stretch of the imagination; it’s more like some depraved, tyrannical cult.
What’s disgusting is it needs to be pointed out that some housewives do wonderful things, like volunteer work, etc. Why don’t they point that out? That would break their evil stereotype thinking and can’t have that! Personally, I’m disgusted by anyone who doesn’t work and doesn’t do ANY volunteer work or SOME kind of activism, etc. who is able-bodied and CAN work. But, that doesn’t mean that my view should extend to ALL housewives! It wouldn’t be fair to say so. Also wouldn’t be fair for me to say there should be NO housewives!
Housewifery is not easy work, unless you’re rich and can hire somebody else to do the tough, dirty, tedious parts.
A friend of mine saw the comment above and helpfully sent me the link; the article was in The American Prospect and the collectivist fanatic who wants to force women to do the kind of work the neofeminist committee decides is right for her is named Linda Hirshman. She also wrote a book explaining to good little neofeminists why making your own choices and doing what makes you happy is bad.
Careful, Maggie; you’re thinking for yourself. That’s a no no.
I can do that, but you better not.
That’s what infuriates me most about neofeminists; the repression they advocate for women is far harsher than that advocated by the staunchest Victorian patriarch and indeed resembles that of Muslim societies. They’re not interested in empowering women, but rather establishing a neofeminist oligarchy. 🙁
Would these women hate the “wild women” like me? It sounds like they would. I don’t think I’ve run into any of them unless they were the 1’s who looked at me like I’d killed people when I said couples can have arrangements and that they can work, etc. These experiences haven’t been many because I was more afraid than I am now about saying these things. Over time I’m speaking out more as don’t care as much what they think, etc. To be honest, that feels great!
Absolutely they would; they hate any woman who isn’t a prude and doesn’t co-operate with the neofeminist campaign to hold men hostage to neofeminist demands by withholding sex. Make no mistake, that’s what the whole anti-porn, anti-whore campaign is about: Neofeminists want to reduce men to slaves by using their sex drives against them, and women who provide sex fairly rather than using it as a tool of extortion are the enemy. 🙁
Georgia has a terrible history with sex laws. You may have heard of the Genarlow Wilson case — an incident in which a 17 y/o athlete had consensual oral sex with a 15 y/o and was facing 10 years in prison. The legislature changed the law, but NOT retroactively to apply to Wilson. There’s also the Wendy Whitaker case — another case a of 17 y/o performing oral sex on a 15 y/o. They had her on sex offender registry and were making her sell her house so she wouldn’t be near a school.
I lived in the state for 15 years. While Georgia has its charms, the legislature has sex hysteria on the brain. A perfect place for this sort of garbage.
Only big telecoms and waterboarders get retroactive immunity.
And of course Wilson and Whitaker are children when they want to make a decision, but they are adults when it’s time to punish them. Certain “wise, mature adults” need to make up their damn minds.
Dear Sailor Barsoom, I agree housewifery isn’t easy. It’s really sad and disgusting that SOME bitches (not all women are these bitches, thank God) have said this job doesn’t mean anything, isn’t enough of an achievement, etc. 1 thing that WAS better about what you and I call the “good old days” is that this job was given the praise it deserved!
Dear Maggie, what exactly do you mean by “using it as a tool of extortion” in regards to sex by the neofeminists? What are they trying to extort?
A few (non-lesbian) neofeminists have come out and said point-blank that the reason they’re against prostitution is that it allows unmarried men a way to get sex without committing to support a woman. In other words, they want prostitution suppressed so that men have NO option other than marriage if they want sex on a regular basis. You might say that plenty of women give sex nowadays without being married, but don’t forget that neofeminists also support “palimony” (money given to an unmarried long-term companion), child support and legal pursuit of all rape charges even if they’re “he said, she said” affairs without anything which could pass the most basic standard of legal evidence. In other words, neofeminists want any man who enters into a sexual relationship with any woman to be at her mercy for as long as she wants him to be, or else to pay whatever price she cares to extract. Women like you are too rare to worry about, so neofeminists go after us because we charge fair, set prices rather than extortionate, open-ended ones as wives do.
Of course, they couch the whole thing in rhetoric about “forcing men to recognize the value of women’s contributions”, but it’s there nonetheless.
You pointed out, “In other words, they want prostitution suppressed so that men have NO option other than marriage if they want sex on a regular basis.”
Also applies to “respectable Christian leaders.” “Sex is good only if you’re married to each other. Sex with a prostitute is wrong because he’s not married to her.” Ditto all other forms of sexual non-monogamy, of course.
Different starting-points, obviously; but same end point.
[…] blog post today from The Honest Courtesan about the rhetoric currently being spewed about sex work. In […]
Dear Maggie,
I recently discovered your blog, and have been enjoying reading your intelligent, humorous, and insightful articles and blog entries. I’m looking forward to reading more!
However, I have a question:
This article or post presents a compelling image of the “happy hooker” (or honest professional), and points out how unfairly such a person is treated not only be existing social mores but also by our legal system. I’ve read other stories that are not unlike your own, by women who seem to be highly intelligent, well in control of their loves, and ultimately happy with their decisions.
But what about all the “unhappy hookers”? The women who are coerced into prostitution at a young age, abused, hooked on drugs, etc?
Surely they’re not a total fabrication, right? So what is their story like? How common are they? Are they the majority or the minority? What can be done to help them?
If you’ve posted on this elsewhere (or someone else has), a simple link or something similar would be very much appreciated!
Thanks again for the wonderful blog.
The women you speak of are a minority, but even if they weren’t decriminalization is still the best thing for them. There are three posts which might help you understand this: “A False Dichotomy“, “Thought Experiment” and “Straining at Gnats“.
And you’re very welcome. 🙂
Thanks, Maggie!
I also found Laura Agustin’s blog by looking around on yours, so there’s lots of good information there. Thank you for such a prompt reply and happy Easter!