It is curious to speculate why pornography is considered especially likely to stimulate its readers into performing the activities described. The literature of murder is a vast one…but I have never seen it seriously suggested that…[it] tended to deprave and corrupt, or would incite weak-minded or immature readers into carrying out in reality the activities described in the fantasies. On the contrary…representatives of all the most respected professions have stated that detective stories are among their favorite reading. Musing about murder is apparently “healthy”; musing about sexual enjoyment is not. – Geoffrey Gorer
In the commentary following the Jill Brenneman Interviews which was later gathered into the second Jill Brenneman Q & A column, Amanda Brooks pointed out the real meaning behind the prohibitionists’ labeling those who support sex worker rights the “pro-prostitution lobby”; as Jill said, “There is NO ‘pro-prostitution’ as it is represented by the antis. I don’t know that people without experience from within the anti movement realize the horrible meaning [they] attach to that. [They] believe that all prostitution is bought and sold rape; what they are saying by calling us ‘pro-prostitution’ is that we are ‘pro-rape’, that we are deliberately trying to get as many women raped, assaulted and hurt as we can.” But as I pointed out in my column of September 24th: A number of cross-cultural studies such as this one have shown that in every culture where prostitution is legalized, the rape rate dramatically decreases; the author of the linked paper predicts a 25% decrease in rape in the US if prostitution were legalized. That’s right, the neofeminists and politicians know what’s best for women, so they allow an extra 25,000 of us to be raped every year rather than bury their opposition to a venerable institution which also provides income for many tens of thousands of other women. But I’m sure all the women who were raped by sex-mad men this year can rest assured in the knowledge that their torture was not in vain; after all, it was necessary to advance the holy neofeminist cause of preventing heterosexual males from having convenient access to sex.
In other words, there really is a “pro-rape coalition”, but it’s not those who support sex worker rights; it’s the neofeminists and politicians who oppose measures which have been shown to decrease rape. And decriminalization of prostitution isn’t the only such measure; as pointed out in Radley Balko’s Agitator column of last Thursday, widespread availability of porn is also associated with lower rape rates, so of course the Pro-Rape Coalition wants it banned as well:
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding more federal obscenity prosecutions. The letter was co-signed by more than 100 other senators and congressmen. Here’s an excerpt:
Last June, an important briefing in the Capitol outlined how pornography has changed, becoming more harmful, addictive, and available, and linked to other crimes. Researchers, scholars, and other experts explained, for example, how today’s hardcore pornography is typified by extreme violence against women and how pornography consumption can contribute to sexual harassment and sexual violence. Another expert warned that Internet adult pornography normalizes sexual harm to children, while another addressed the growing connection between pornography and sex trafficking…Simply put, we know more than ever how illegal adult obscenity contributes to violence against women, addiction, harm to children, and sex trafficking. This material harms individuals, families, and communities and the problems are only getting worse.
Hatch is full of crap. We don’t “know” any of these things. In fact, every conceivable social trend over the last 20 years obliterates the idea that porn is causing widespread societal harm. The rise of the Internet in the mid-1990s made porn increasingly accessible to the point that today, just about everyone can watch people have sex damn-near any time of day, in every conceivable manner, in every possible variety. If Hatch and his colleagues are right, over the last 15-20 years, we should have seen a massive increase in the social ills listed in Hatch’s letter. And in fact, every single one of these problems are trending in the opposite direction. And it isn’t even close:
Sex crimes against children: Down 53 percent between 1992 and 2006.
Abortion: The abortion rate has dropped by about 25 percent since 1993.
Teen pregnancy: In 2009, teen pregnancy hit its lowest rate in the 70 years that the federal government has been tracking the statistic.
Divorce: The U.S. divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1970.
Domestic violence: The rate of reported domestic violence in the U.S. dropped by more than half between 1993 and 2004.
Rape: The forcible rape rate in the U.S. has dropped from 41.1 per 100,000 people in 1990 to 28.7 in 2009. That latter figure is also an all-time low.These numbers are overwhelming. What’s more, there are at least a couple of studies suggesting that the widespread availability of pornography is partially responsible for some of these trends, especially the drop in reported rapes. Of course, like the activists pushing bullshit sex trafficking figures to shut down online escort ads, Hatch and his colleagues aren’t interested in actual data. This much is certainly true: There are substantially more people masturbating to pornography in America today than 20 years ago. And that’s really the only figure that matters to people like Hatch. (My favorite example of this line of thought: Concerned Women for America’s amusing attack on the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue a couple years ago. Note that the article is titled “Do the Math”, yet doesn’t contain any actual math.)
Expect no one to actually challenge Hatch or his co-signers on any of the letter’s claims…
Balko is of course right; with the exception of libertarians like himself, bloggers like me and a handful of ethical journalists, the claims of the Pro-Rape Coalition will be accepted without question and endlessly re-quoted until they are either marginalized by shifting public opinion or they achieve their goal of reducing every American woman to a state of cowering dependence on those who claim to want to “protect” them by entirely eliminating their sexual freedom.
I remember having such a visceral reaction to pornography the first time I really sat down and watched it. It pissed me off, because 1) I hated the scenarios and 2) I looked nothing like the women on the screen.
I wanted better and more interesting stories and I wanted to see women who looked more like me. So basically, jealous and bored.
The difference between me and most neofeminists is that I’m honest. Yes, those women (adult film actors) are intimidating, and I have a very different personal style.
I remember how fervently my women’s studies professors at university worked to make me think porn was evil, dehumanizing, exploitive blah blah blah… but really, it just wans’t the right porn for me.
And as for the whole porn makes men rape argument – what a crock! National Geographic doesn’t make me want to navigate the Amazon on a raft or go spelunking. It’s just neat to see other people do it. And I love Martha Stewart Living, but it will be a cold day in hell before I spend my Saturdays scouring estate sales for matching crockery.
neofeminist = bored jealous ugly hag
Solution: hit the gym, the salon and the lingerie shop, in that order.
Oops, I forgot. I have Stockholm Syndrome and I have adopted the perspective of my captors.
Hmmm. Is that the same kind of Stockholm Syndrome reaction that got me to march for “women’s rights” with my keeper – ah, Significant Other – twenty-five years ago on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade? I wonder….
(A few months later she threw me out for religious reasons: She’s a devout Democrat.)
No, no, that’s just your “recognizing the truth”. It only becomes “Stockholm Syndrome” when your actions contradict neofeminist or government dogma. 😐
One can’t ever shut up in the fight against prohibitions and the erosion of civil rights. People like Hatch will always be talking. Shrill, ardent, and constant. If you do shut up. He wins, as simple as that. Of course, there’s no guarantee people like him won’t win anyways, but it’s a definite guarantee they will control everything if they are greeted with cowed silence.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke
I’m a bit critical of the findings. The first study only shows a correlation, and not a causality. For example, it may well be that in Sweden and Finland simply a higher percentage of all rapes are reported since female victims are more accepted there and don’t expect being blamed. On the other hand, societies that decriminalize prostitution may respect peoples autonomy more, also the sexual autonomy of women.
The anti-prostitution lobby already likes to jump to conclusions too quickly, WE shouldn’t make the same mistake. I’m not saying that the conclusions of those studies are necessarily wrong, but that one needs more information to determine it.
The pro-rape coalition thankfully suffered noteworthy losses in last year’s Senate races. In Colorado, Weld County District Attorney lost by about 29,000 votes to hyperunpopular, grossly uncharismatic appointed Senator Michael Bennet after bragging about letting an admitted rapist go unprosecuted despite a taped confession. Buck blamed the woman for his refusal to prosecute, citing an apocryphal rape (actually a miscarriage ) on her part. In the same debate, Buck bragged about his opposition to abortion exceptions for rape and incest. Naturally outraged at Buck’s misogyny, women–who gave high marks to the accomplished woman Buck had personally savaged and beaten in the primary, former Lt Gov Jane Norton–voted against Buck by a 56-39 margin, providing his much-hated opponent an unexpected victory. In Nevada, Sharron Angle, having opened up a lead over a highly unpopular Senate Majority Leader showed her callousness toward her fellow women when she told a battered women’s group on the campaign trail women who become pregnant by rape should learn to “make lemonade out of lemons.” Unfortunately despite defeating Angle because of her stupidity, national Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just a few months later ordered–not asked but ordered–a joint session of the Nevada State Legislature to tighten regulations on the escorting industry there. I never knew a local state legislature was its state’s senior Senator’s personal vehicle to shake down local industries for not providing him with enough kickbacks–I mean, campaign contributions. Ay Dios Mio.
We shouldn’t forget the political motivation Hatch has in making his demands of Holder and the Justice Department: Hatch is facing a tough primary challenge next year from someone much more conservative than he in a state that last year dumped Hatch’s longtime colleague, Bob Bennett, in Bennett’s reelection bid before the primaries. Mormons make up a large portion of Hatch’s political base and voters as a whole in Utah. Thus, Hatch will play to the big government-loving purportedly conservative voters in the Mormon community in hopes of convincing them to turn out for him. What a huge shock a Senator facing a tough reelection bid should create a bogeyman for his own personal political gain. 🙄
In regards to the quote at the top of this post: THANK GOD there’s a huge amount of information out there on murder! It greatly helps us MVS in our recovery, dealing with the courts, etc. Also “musing about murder” isn’t seen as OK by all. I know this 1st hand, unfortunately, as do other MVS. We have to hear ###*** from ###*** about how it’s “morbid” and “sick” for us to read up on murder. What’s great is some do understand this need we have to learn all we can! I want to point out the wonderful true crime writer Ann Rule. She’s been talking about how serial killer Ted Bundy used pornography as ANOTHER of his evil excuses, etc. for years. Her book about Bundy “The Stranger Beside Me” is a classic in true crime. Her talking about Bundy using porn as an excuse is also a public service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy
Please see near the end of the above about Bundy and the whole porn issue. Also, hopefully Gorer knows that some former profilers for the FBI do talk about the pornography/murder issue. If anyone is interested in checking this out, please see the books of John Douglas and Robert Ressler.
What’s really amazing is how the puritans react to criticism. They are so used to being lauded for their “correct” views and having a subservient media repeat their poorly-research claims, that they get angry and upset when they are actually challenged with facts. Some time ago, we mentioned Gail Dines getting challenged on her BS on Penn and Teller’s show. She reacted to the broadcast by saying Penn had mental problems and spent the episode screaming at the camera (note: he didn’t; well, not more than usual).
I saw this in college too. People were just used to blathering whatever politically correct nonsense they wanted without anyone ever saying, “Wait a minute, is that actually true?” To bring in facts and muddy the waters was to show that you were part of the problem.
Puritanism is a religion, whether it’s bound up with a traditional faith or not. It’s the belief that if people are having a good time, there’s something wrong going on. People don’t take kindly to their irrational beliefs being challenged.
Two thumbs up!
There is no exception in the First Amendment for porn. No law means NO LAW.
In one of his books, Harold Schechter completely debunks the idea that Ted Bundy committed his crimes because of porn. Bundy was sex obsessed long before discovering porn. He used his porn addiction as a convenient excuse to absolve himself of guilt for his many crimes. Let’s not forget serial killers, when faced with a righteous punishment of execution for their crimes, will use any excuse available to prolong their worthless lives in most cases. Bundy was no different. About 99.9999999999999999% of porn connoisseurs never engage in Bundy’s kind of sadistic violence, so blaming his actions on that particular medium is pure sophistry at best.
Thanks for also speaking out on Bundy! It was just another of his evil and disgusting excuses. He was such ###*** that he hinted he’d tell about more crimes if given more time before his well-deserved death penalty. He used this information to get time for himself which showed how the MVS were just trash to him to be used to get what he wanted. Speaking of worthless lives, please remember that at least some serial killers have family/friends that aren’t in denial (like Bundy’s mother was) and also didn’t have any part in the crimes. Thanks for listening.
We are dealing with a non-issue here. The fact is that it would be virtually impossible for any government in any reasonably advanced society to restrict or control access to pornography, without taking technology back about 50 years first.
Anyone with internet access has access to virtually unlimited amounts of porn, and no matter how hard they try, the government is not able to exercise control over it.
Even before the internet appeared people were swapping porn on community bulletin boards using an old dial-up modem. If the government took computers away people would probably be faxing the stuff to each oither.
Not only are the ‘anti porn’ brigade completely wrong about their policy assumptions, but they are completely unrealistic in terms of policy implementation too.
I totally agree with you in principle, Thomas, but the impossibility of accomplishing something never stops government from wasting billions of dollars and persecuting millions of citizens in the attempt. The ongoing “War on Drugs” and “War on Whores” are perfect examples of such eternally-prolonged windmill-tilting campaigns. 🙁
You make an excellent point, and I can only shake my head and wonder at the paradox that is the United States of America.
I should clarify – I’m Australian, and have never lived in the U.S. I do, however, feel close to the U.S. culturally (as Australia has been since World War II) and of course, pay attention to what is going on there politically (as it impacts the entire world).
As an outsider I am bound to say that the U.S. never ceases to amaze me, both in good and bad ways. It seems like there are so many contradictions – it’s the paragon of freedom, and yet has the largest prison population in the world. Free speech is both lauded in its constitution and violently suppressed at times. It has many of the greatest universities and some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and yet it seems like half the population believes in the bible literally, and not evolution.
I still have a hard time comprehending the fact that prostitution is mostly illegal there. It seems to me an insane idea. Not to mention hypocritical – don’t people realise that it is the same people making these laws that are no doubt patronising prostitutes in their free time? Believe me, the outraged preahcer who takes money from all the old ladies every Sunday is going out and blowing it on strippers during the week.
Anyway, I am preaching to the choir here, no doubt.
Don’t misunderstand me, I am a big fan of the U.S.A. and as a country it has done – and still does – much good in the world. I fear, however, that it has been hijacked by christian fundamentalist types and I wonder if U.S. citizens aren’t going through dark times right now, and will have to endure darker times still, in the years to come.
I can only cheer on ‘enlightened’ people like yourself Maggie, and hope that you and others like you eventually prevail over the puritanical preacher-types U.S. society.
Thomas, my feelings about my country are very much like yours; I love it for what it has tried to be and still could be, but I am sorrowed by its descent into a police state. The puritans are much of the problem, but as I have pointed out elsewhere many if not most of American puritans are secular rather than religious, which may even be worse.
I remember something an Aussie told me some years ago: “Thank God we got the convicts while America was stuck with the Puritans!”
I got to admit, we Yanks got the raw end of that deal. 😉
They can’t stop it, but as with the war on drugs they can make life more difficult and risky for users.
For example, some anti-porn feminists have called for possession of all porn to be criminalised, in the same way that certain types of porn (e.g. ‘extreme’ porn in the UK) are currently illegal.
Of course they couldn’t raid the home of everyone in the country looking for porn, but they could try their best to scare people by prosecuting unlucky individuals.
That seems to be the case with ‘extreme porn’ in Britain, where there have been some really random seeming arrests. Some examples:
http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/porn_found_on_phone_1_1503344 – This wasn’t even a porn clip, but just a short video from a body modification site that went viral as a gross-out joke.
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/8346808.Dorset_Dentist_spared_prison_over_pain_porn/ – A BDSM enthusiast put under curfew for possessing a few clips of male submissive porn. What I find especially creepy is that he underwent ‘treatment’ to cure him of his fetish to escape a prison sentence.
http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/94175/flintshire-man-didn-t-realise-possessing-pornographic-images-was-illegal.aspx – Raided by the police and dragged into court for possessing just 8 ‘offensive’ images. It’s no surprise that he didn’t know he was breaking the law when the question of whether an image is “grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character” is so subjective and ambiguous.
To me cases like this are a hint of what things would be like for viewers of ‘normal’ porn if the anti-porn lobby had their way.
It’s also what they want for prostitutes and our clients; in my April 13th column I mentioned efforts to class all sex workers as suffering from a psychological disorder, and in Colorado clients caught in so-called “stings” face ruinous fines if they refuse to submit to brainwashing.
Truly frightening. I didn’t realise this was going on in the U.K. It’s the stuff of dark ages.
Actually, it would be trivial. All the government has to do is pass a law denying access to the internet. Yeah, I know it’s largely private property, but that won’t stop them. After all, the US Supreme Court has already found that property can be seized from one private party to be given to another who will pay more in taxes (see Kelo vs. New London, CT) because this has a “public purpose” (although the Constitution requires “public use”). It’s a short step from that to denying the people access to the internet because preventing the “bad things” that result has a “public purpose”.
That’s true, but it would expose the U.S. as a totalitarian state like China, and our politicians are still too invested in the pretense of “freedom” to do that. Plus, in articles about Obama’s proposed “kill switch”, I saw a number of engineers opining that due to the sheer size of the US and the number of offshore servers it would be much harder to do here than in, say, Egypt.
The Internet was designed to survive nuclear war. It can’t be killed. Even in Egypt, you look at that chart, you see that while Internet traffic in Egypt nearly vanished after the government “shut down the Internet,” the line was slowly trending back upwards as people found ways to connect anyway. They “turned it back on” because they realized that all they were accomplishing was to teach the public how to connect in spite of government efforts.
I’m not technology-happy, and think some innovations do more harm than good. But I’ll tell you this: I think the internet may be the greatest development for human freedom and opposition to collectivism and tyranny since the printing press because it completes the work the press started. The printing press allowed everyone affordable access to information, but the internet allows everyone to publish information without having to pass the corporate and governmental gatekeepers.
Ah Maggie. A google of “Echelon Project” might be salutory. Step one of an Orwellian state : record everything the citizens do or say. 😞
If politicians really wanted to reduce the number of rapes, they could decriminalize prostitution and free up police resources to track down rapists.
There were an estimated 88,000 rapes *reported* in the US in 2009. There were about 21,000 arrests for rape. 24%. When you factor in how many rapes go unreported, in part because women know it might not do any good, the number of rapists who go unpunished is staggering.
Meanwhile, there were over 71,000 arrests for prostitution. That’s 50,000 more hookers arrested than rapists.
Yes, thank you! Taking the time and resources to put people in prison for prostitution, drug use, etc., takes away from the need to put away rapists, murderers, etc. This is a big reason that so many murderers get parole to begin with. God help us. Parole protest petitions for murderers are a wonderful thing but there shouldn’t be a need for them to begin with! It’s the same with rape and other violent crimes! Thanks for speaking out on this. That’s very needed.
Some years ago (like 15) the FL authorities announced they’d be releasing 800+ violent offenders (murderers, rapists, armed robbers) early to make room for non-violent drug users, because of the federal mandatory minimum sentences required for non-violent drug users.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’ve never had someone attempt to force me to partake of an illegal drug. I’m not worried about it ever happening. Letting out people who are a threat to me or my loved ones to make room for people who are not is so stupid only a government would do it.
I’ve stated before *while gazing into my crystal ball* that should prostitution be de-criminalized the amount of ‘reported’ rape cases would go up (I theorize). Not due to there actually being more rapes committed, but due to the ability of whores to report crimes safely.
Some will point this out and cry “SEE! Prostitution does NOT decrease instances of rape!”
Others (like myself) believe that with more cases reported, the chances are higher that more rapists will be caught and therefore WILL decrease the number of rapes over a period of time.
I can’t remember where I heard this, hell it may have been on an episode of Criminal Minds or Law and Order BUT most rapists and serial killers START with victimizing prostitutes until they build up the confidence and hone their skills to move up to killing non marginalized persons. If prostitutes are empowered to report these bastards perhaps we can nip that shit in the bud so to speak.
“most rapists and serial killers START with victimizing prostitutes until they build up the confidence and hone their skills to move up to killing non marginalized persons. If prostitutes are empowered to report these bastards perhaps we can nip that shit in the bud so to speak.”
That would be an excellent argument for garnering public support; while I don’t reckon the vast majority of the general public is any too concerned about the murders of whores their tune might change if they think the “morally sound” could follow as the victims of the exact same misfortune.
Sad but true.
There’s a way to logically apply the potential numbers. If there are 443,323 prostitutes in the US and over the course of an average year 1% were to report being raped that would be 4,433.23 added to the 88,000 already reported. If 5% were to report being raped it would add a whopping 22,166.15.
What do you figure is the percentage of prostitutes who would report being raped over the course of a year? 5%? 1%? Less? More? I really don’t know…
We have a serial killer that has murdered 10 women in Long Island. Vice in NY is now conducting more prostitution stings, rather than trying to cooperate with the sex workers to catch the killer.
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/syracuse_police_charge_36_in_p.html
A man in Long Island, reported a women coming to is door screaming she needed help in May 2010 and he called 911 as the women took off when he said he would call the cops to come help her and the women was never seen again. Law enforcment did not contact this man for a follow up till Aug 2010 and even the CNN reported asked “was there no prompt investigation to these murders because the women were prostitutes?
Yet after they found the first 5 bodies that cops told the media “that serial killer rarely murder hookers”.
Heres another guy who was kidnapping women and taking them to a torture chamber in his trailer.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42772382/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
More stories at
http://theproviderpage.com/news/TheProviderPage-News.php
I have no idea, though obviously it would be much higher among streetwalkers than among escorts. I suspect a lot of escorts would still let non-violent rapes go unreported simply because they wouldn’t want their business exposed for all the world to see. After all, lots of amateurs prefer not to report for exactly the same reason.
All sex workers will not report violence against themselves because the cops will only arrest THEM, they will not bother into investigate the crime against her.
Some people commented on the recent prostitutes murdered saying “what if the killer starts killer regular women too” like its OK if he only kills HOOKERS.
Escorting use to be a bit safer , before law enforcement started STALKING THEM ONLINE. The cops also ran several articles about prosecuting clients over the escorts black book.
It’s now much harder to get a client to give screening information to ensure my personal safety.
Many of the arrests are illegal and they arrest the escort even if the can not get her to agree to an illegal act, keep in mind escorting is legal and even when the attorney generals office took craigslist to court, they lost and the court ruled saying that there are many legit adult entertainers and it was up to law enforcement to figure out who was legit or not. Now anytime they see an adult ad that says 250 a hr, they tell the media the women was advertising online sex services. They do not seem to even need probable cause to make the arrests.
Legally they are suppose to have enough evidence where a grand jury would indite, yet they make most of their arrests with no real evidence.
This is another form of harassment for sex workers.
Seems like a lot of trouble for LE to go through beings that prostitution laws were created as a public nuisance ordinance.
If I’m correctly interpreting the information from New Zealand, 1% would be accurate.
http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/commercial-property-and-regulatory/prostitution/prostitution-law-review-committee/publications/plrc-report/4-health-safety-and-well-being
According to the report, 3% of all prostitutes were raped over the course of a year and out of that 3% 32.1% reported the incident to police and 65.0% reported the incident to another person besided police. Since my question was in terms of how many additional official police reports of rape there would be if prostitution were to be decriminalized, the estimate according to NZ statistics would be approx. 1/3 of 3% = approx. 1%
We spent 250 million tax dollars last year to arrest 80,000 consenting adults for prostitution. They could have housed, feed and gave heathcare to 80,000 women and children for 10 years with 250 million, but this is BIG BUSINESS, just look at how many law enforcement jobs this creates and then we have the PRIVATE PRISONS who make a PROFIT off these non violent offenders.
We recently had 2 teachers fired 1 use to escort in college and the other did porn 16 years ago, and neither one had even been arrested, but we do not prosecute SPITZNER and he gets his own CNN show. Perhaps we should be creating laws that make sense and protect women and children rather than bad cops and politicians.
Once criminaized as a prostitute the women can NEVER GET A JOB AGAIN, do we expect them to go live in the streets and not complain about living in POVERTY.
Until we create laws that allow women to report abuse and also that gives PREDATORS who exploit children 25 years on the first offense and laws that give “people in power” 50 years for using their position to exploit or harm others.
It also seems to be legal for a women to pick up a strange man in a nightclub and take him home to have unprotected sex with him while her small children are in the next room, yet this is LEGAL. We are trying to sell the idea to the public that our tax dollars needs to be spent STALKING MIDDLE AGED CONSENTING ADULTS DOWN LIKE RABID DOGS. This is the biggest form of discrimination ever, and we even encourage society that HATE CRIMES against these women are OK.
To Do List:
-Send Melissa Farley the link to this post and ask her opinion
Check!
If Farley is silly enough to attempt to comment here, you can be sure I’ll put her in the backyard cage so we can all poke her with sticks. 😀
Yay! Fun fun! Can I use that great big stick momma can I can I? Pretty please????
Letter writing is turning into a pastime of mine.
*evil laugh*
Ms. Farley,
To mention that our viewpoints are diametrically opposed would be a drastic understatement; with all due respect, at this juncture it can be said with absolute certainty that I am not a fan of your work. My feelings concerning the subject would in fact fall into the category of very strong dislike.
At a future date I assuredly will take the time to write to you and explain in detail exactly why that is, however in the meantime I’d like to call your attention to this article written by Maggie McNeill and ask that you attempt to read it with an active mind.
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/the-pro-rape-coalition/
I would be interested in hearing your response to the issues raised within. Please feel free to respond at your convienience.
Regards,
Kelly James
Just as long as it’s a pointy one. 😉
*sharpening big stick*
We don’t fit her agenda.
aka We are proof her research is lies
According to those who know her personally she thinks we’re all illiterate as well. At the very least I hope she gets it through her head that’s not the case.
Jill told me that one of the big prohibitionists (I don’t recall if it was Farley or another one) found her reading a book about airline deregulation at a conference and made a crack something like “I didn’t know they made comic books that thick”.
If I’m correct Jill said it was Ms. Farley herself who apparently feels that reading comic books is the extent of whores’ mental aptitude 🙁
Actually, I do enjoy reading comic books sometimes. Maybe if Miss Farley did occasionally she might not be so full of herself she’s about to pop.
The Japanese ones are best … 😉
OMG, don’t forget to send Nikki Craft a copy.
One of Farley and Craft’s tag team works is this stupifying piece of shit.
http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/WhyIMade.html
oh no Maggie it’s “Dr.” Farley.
My professional diagnosis of “Dr. Farley” is that she needs to get fucked a nice good hard time or ten. How many years you figure it’s been since she last got laid?
That’s it, I’m starting off the Hire A Male Escort For Melissa Farley Fund with a personal contribution of $100.
Anyone else in?
Not only do I agree with you that Dr.Farley needs to get laid, but wonder how she legally has been collecting donations for THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING, while providing NO SERVICES for victims.
I have no doubt if I were collecting donations for starving kids and did not send food that I would be in jail for fraud.
We also have laws that say any no profit group that supports any type of prostitution can not receive FEDERAL FUNDS.
DR FARLEY is putting TEENS AT RISK by telling these runaways they are victims. When the truth its they are ungovernable teens that ran off with someone who exploited them.
Yeah, she’s a “doctor” all right; doctor of misinformation maybe. But I don’t think her getting fucked will help; she clearly had some considerable early trauma (perhaps involving a male relative) which has caused her to hate men with a passion and devote her life to trying to keep them from enjoying sex.
Japanese comics! Manga.
Oh crap, now I’m thinking about My Balls again! I’m back in my own place, now that the AC is on, and while staying at Laura’s to escape the heat, I’m sure glad I was able to take My Balls along. Yep, I crammed My Balls into the ol’ flash drive to take with me. I wouldn’t want to leave My Balls behind! Now for a moment I thought, “Hey, I don’t think I’ve got all of My Balls with me!” But they were just in the wrong order.
In 1907 when they passed the MANN act which was suppose to be about white slavery, it was because they claimed foreign women were being smuggled into the US and were being forced to work in brothels. I wonder if these where relatives of DR. FARLEY’S ?…..)
Yes, it was Farley who felt I could only read comic books.
[…] McNeill’s post about porn, prostitution, and rape got me thinking about statistics. (By the way, if you find my blog interesting, you should check […]
I have quite an incisive personality, and here is essence of the human condition as I see it: All bigotry and conservatism comes from one source: the fact that humankind cannot and never will control Nature — especially sex and death. Everyone you know, including yourself, is going to die, and your death will be eternal and there is nothing you can do about it. Nothing. This causes massive anxiety in most people, thus we create false hierarchies such as God, Government, Military, Race, Sexuality, Affluence, etc. to ease our anxieties. We want someone above us to believe in and someone below us to put down. It takes a great deal of courage to face the reality of Nature honestly. In my experience, most people lack this courage. This is why liberty and equality are so difficult to maintain. Fortunately, some of us have the courage to discard false hierarchies and let people who deviate from convention live in peace.
I very much enjoy reading your blog; thanks for the hard work.
You’re very welcome David; it truly is my pleasure. I agree with you about the human fear of Nature, and I wrote about it a little in my post of March 27th (though only in reference to neofeminists rather than humanity in general).
I think indoor prostitution should be decriminalized, not legalized as there is a HUGE difference.
http://www.alternet.org/books/148327/how_19th_century_prostitutes_were_the_freest,_wealthiest,_most_educated_women_of_their_time
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/on-the-records-a-well-preserved-roadmap-to-perdition/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mann_Act
Once you do a bit of reading what you find out is that back in the 19th century, marriage WAS SLAVERY. Women were not allowed to leave home till they married and marriage was a BUSINESS. Women were not allowed to go in public alone, nor work or vote and if they inherited property it became their husbands and the husband was FREE to beat and rape his wife.
In 1910 we created the MANN ACT (the white slavery act) that was suppose to be to stop Human Trafficking, yet the real reason was to stop white women from fraternizing with black men. The Mann Act also gave CONGRESS its power and formed the FBI.
Our federal law states that each state has the right NOT make its own prostitution laws and in order to be charged with the Mann act one would have to exploit another person into prostitution and cross state lines. This was the way the Fed’s are suppose to intervene.
Yet in 2010 the FBI spend a 800,000 grant in just 3 days supposedly to do a 3 day nationwide child prostitution sting. After arresting 884 people, we had 69 TEEN RUNAWAYS, along with their 99 pimps boyfriends and also caught up in the mix were over 700 adults looking to meet with another consenting adult in private. During this sting, more middle aged people were arrested than THE TEENS THEY WANTED TO RESCUE.
Now we have Bill hr 5575 gong to congress which is to ask for hundreds of millions for services for these TEEN victims and the bill clearly states that any women over the age of 20 would NOT be eligible for services, and most of the money would be spend training FBI and vice to STALK MIDDLE AGED ESCORTS ONLINE.
Now every city already has a whole juvenile court, a dept of child services, foster homes, boot camps and reform schools, but the women OVER 20 years of age have NO SERVICES. These people are trying to convince us that these RUNAWAY TEENS ARE VICTIMS and they are really UNGOVERNABLE TEENS that ran off with their boyfriends that exploited them. Are we not suppose to hold these teens accountable for their own behavior, why return them them with no real intervention to just run off again, and why is the parents not being held accountable for the COST OF RESCUING THEIR UNGOVERNABLE TEEN. Why not lock these teens up to protect them from themselves?
Original prostitution laws were created “to stop a women from showing her wares in public” The media likes to portray all prostitutes as curb crawling drug addicts and yet most are really middle aged single parents desperately trying to escape POVERTY.
Last year we spend 250 million to arrest 80,000 people for prostitution, that 250 million could have housed 80,000 women and children long term.
Yet anyone wanting to legalize prostitution wants the women to help pay off the deficit, nobody is even considering creating long term services for women who do want to exit the industry. Or they want these women to be forced to work in brothels where they would have to give half their earnings to the brothel owner, pay rent and then pay taxes and not be able to refuse any clients.
We are no dumb women, we know how to screen clients, advertise and choice our rates for our time. We not not need to be regulated anymore than any other business does, so why would we place regulations on this industry that is not placed on any other business. Why do we make it our business?
In Rhode Island, in 1976 a federal laws suit was filed in RI by a women named Mona St.James who later formed the organization COYOTE . The complaint was what right did they state have in the sexual conduct of consenting adults, and also they were only arresting the women and not the men. The case was dismissed by a compromise and indoor prostitution became legal in RI in 1979.
For 30 years there was never one case of human trafficking, women could work for massage spas or from their homes. There was never one public nuisance complaint in over 30 years (too bad we can’t say that about nightclubs). The police never bothered to go into any spa, and check for ID to make sure the girls were of legal age and in the country legally. Yet they did run front page news articles about how sad it was that one could buy sex a block from city hall. These businesses were licensed and paid taxes and they even donated money to the state police and other local charities and the women spend their money in the other local businesses.
In 2009 the Craigslist killer, killed a girl in Boston and then went to RI and robbed a escort and he was CAUGHT because the escort dialed 911 as she had PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW.
Then in Nov 2009 they criminalize indoor prostitution (putting all the women in the state in harms way) as they claimed they could not investigate human trafficking without criminalizing us.
Ironically the police go in to strip clubs all the time and do ID checks and ask the girls if they are OK but for some reason they insisted this would not work in RI.
Now we have 10 women who have murdered in Long Island and even though they knew at least 5 of these girls were online escorts, the cops told the media that serial killers rarely murder hookers, one man on Long Island reported the women coming to door asking for help and when he told her he was calling the cops to help her, she ran off and has never been seen again. The man reported this in May 2010 and it took till Aug 2010 for them to follow up, and even a CNN reported wants to know if a prompt investigation was not done because after all these girls were JUST HOOKERS.
Theproviderpage.com/cms is a place dedicated to THE SAFETY & PROTECTION of escorts, we are trying to find services for women WHO do want to exit the industry and we are also trying to create new laws to protect sex workers and stop the discrimination against them.
Some cites want to create JOHN school so the men can walk away within criminal record. Even if a women has a 20 year old prostitution conviction, she can never get a job, or even rent an apartment.
Law enforcement is in the news weekly, for exploiting these TEENS themselves, or for abusing hookers and some of these women are even raped and beaten while in custody just because they are prostitutes.
To go a step further we ENCOURAGE society to hate these women with the “they get what they deserve attitude”. The cops brag to the media that they will continue to run these women from there communities. Do we really think these women would be better off or an safer living in the streets?
Since they criminalize all the women in RI, the homeless rate for women in RI has increased 20% so far this year and the shelters are FULL.
Now lets look at MORALS. It is legal and even sociably acceptable for a women to pick up a strange man in a nightclub, bring him he and have unprotected sex with him, while her small children are in the home. Men are now reporting that most women give it up by the 3rd date.
Then we have the REAL HATERS that say they do NOT want it in their neighborhoods, while I agree with no allowing BROTHELS or Spa’s In a residential neighborhood, but who a about the independent escort. If you can have sex with whoever in your home, why can’t I, and we seem to only have issues with sex WHEN ITS NOT FREE.
A Canadian judge ruled last year “that no public nuisance equals allowing women to be murdered” of course its ow in appeals court and they are trying to stop the sex workers from being able to testify in court.
Then lets look at how the cops investigate these women, they use SWAT TEAMS to kick in the doors or these women homes, and then issue them a summons to appear, and some of these women are held on bonds as high as 20,000 even though they have not been charged with a felony.
Sex workers are always court ordered for STD testing but the MEN/CLIENTS are not, even though they are the ones with the riskiest behaviors and even though our own heath dept studies show that “hookers have less std’s than the general public does and this is also true in Canada and these facts were presented to RI politicians by a Canadian Dr.
NY has created a law that ANYONE CAN BE ARRESTED FOR CARRYING CONDOMS, that is not the way to promote safe sex, I think law enforcement WHO is swore to PROTECT & SERVE should be out handing out condoms to the street girls to help protect them and the public.
Now lets look a the Human Trafficking advocates that have been collecting donations for the fight against human trafficking for years, the provide no services to the victims; instead the spend the money touring the country, like a politician, lying to the media about how many teens are being exploited. These grouped are anti prostitution groups in disguise and are the one PUTTING OUR YOUTH & WOMEN AT RISK by REFUSING US the same SANCTION & PROTECTION under the law given to all other citizens. Now if this is really about human trafficking, then why when they find a middled aged escort do they arrest her?
THE SOLUTION:
If we decriminalize and make these women pay for a year license which would go to the heath dept so these women would have access to Health care, the women could pay taxes into state, federal and social security and even unemployment, but part of their taxes would go directly for services for women WHO want to exit the adult industry.
I always want to ask one of these DO GOODERS that if they were cold enough and hungry enough don’t they think they would turn a trick for a blanket and burger, so why be so JUDGMENTAL about SEX.
Here is yet another example of the cops exploiting women.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11118/1142648-100.stm
Seems like PA has real issues with escorts, as last year the chief of police engaged in sex acts with 13 different women and then arrested them for prostitution. Of course all the cases were dropped. In CA there was a cop convicted of soliciting a prostitute and he was only demoted and not fired and even got a paid leave of absence while he was under investigation.