The profession of a prostitute is the only career in which the maximum income is paid to the newest apprentice. It is the one calling in which at the beginning the only exertion is that of self-indulgence; all the prizes are at the commencement. It is the ever-new embodiment of the old fable of the sale of the soul to the Devil. The tempter offers wealth, comfort, excitement, but in return the victim must sell her soul, nor does the other party forget to exact his due to the uttermost farthing. – William Booth
Today is Saint Nicholas’ Day, on which Dutch (and some German) children traditionally received presents from the Saint, who of course later became known as Santa Claus. One year ago today I discussed the many traditions surrounding him, and pointed out that beside archers, children, merchants, sailors, students and repentant thieves, the jolly miracle-worker is also the patron saint of prostitutes. But like perverts using candy to lure unsuspecting schoolchildren into vans, a certain anti-whore cult has co-opted the saint’s familiar and comforting image in order to lure unsuspecting good-hearted people into funding a campaign to hound and persecute hookers.
I’m speaking, of course, of the Salvation Army, which every Christmas employs Santa impersonators to ring bells beside hanging kettles into which passersby may deposit money. Now, to be fair, I must point out that the great majority of the cash thus donated goes to helping the poor via various programs; that’s highly commendable and the SA deserves to be praised for it. However, from the time of its founder William Booth, it has always agitated for the criminalization of prostitution. Indeed, it was among the earliest groups to promote the “white slavery” hysteria; by 1884 Salvationists were composing lurid accounts of “child sex slavery” and soon launched a campaign to raise the age of consent in the UK from 13 to 16. The moral panic they helped to create was the driving force behind most modern anti-prostitution law, especially in the United States. Once these laws were in place the Salvationists’ efforts to persecute whores became much less energetic, and for most of the 20th century very few (including myself) knew of the SA’s pivotal role in engendering the official oppression of hookers so common in the modern world. I used to put money into those kettles every time I passed one, though I can no longer do so in good conscience because of the organization’s history of hatred toward my profession and its recently-renewed efforts to persecute and impoverish us.
In 2003, the Salvation Army reclaimed its prominent place among crusaders against harlots by establishing its “National Anti-trafficking Council“, one of whose principles is “Prostitution and related activities are not forms of work, are inherently harmful and dehumanizing, and contribute to the phenomenon of trafficking in persons.” It was one of the instigators behind the “Anti-prostitution pledge“, a U.S. government policy which denies funds to any health or aid organization unless it refuses help to prostitutes: “Supporters of the pledge requirement argue that prostitution is inherently harmful and needs to be abolished, reject harm reduction approaches, and hold that legalized prostitution increases demand for sex trafficking.” Its propaganda calls all prostitution “sexual slavery”, and its name is always found alongside that of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Polaris Project, the Hunt Alternatives Fund, Shared Hope International and other anti-sex worker organizations whenever they agitate for further criminalization in the United States, Canada, the U.K. and other countries, or recriminalization in places like Australia and New Zealand.
Though its ubiquitous bell-ringers make it very easy to donate to the Salvation Army, I strongly suggest y’all find other worthy charities this Christmas (such as my own favorite, Toys for Tots). Though it did a great deal of good in the 20th century, the SA has returned to its anti-sex roots and has recently diverted large sums which should be going to the poor into efforts to persecute hookers instead. I urge everyone who reads this to boycott them, and to spend your charity dollars on organizations that care more about helping the unfortunate than about fighting to rob millions of women of their livelihoods and to suppress the sexual choices of consenting adults (including queers) in the name of “saving” them.
I never knew this about the SA, Maggie. Britain at that time was hopping with morally superior Christian saviors who actually were the pressure group that made Britain colonize Africa. Conservatives were opposed to it because they said ultimately they would cost more than they were worth.
Never mind. Those African women were in shocking need of dresses to force them to dress ‘modestly’ and those degenerate African men needed to abandon polygamy as soon as possible. Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to seal up the mouths of fanatics with wax.
It’s not just the SA – you can’t trust any of these guys anymore – they are all buying into the hype.
I thought C.A.R.E. just handed out food – but they are knee deep in the trafficking hysteria too. How could they NOT be? Most of these people who get involved in these organizations are good people – and, it’s because they desperately want to help people and have a genuine empathy for people who are disadvantaged that they fall for this stuff.
In fact, I was reading something about German FKK’s and the guy who was writing about them (a punter) even claimed that some of the FKK girls were trafficked. I really don’t know what that says for a punter who actually believes that – and yet still patrons FKK’s.
It just seems to be one of those things that everyone falls for. And well, even including myself to a certain extent (as you know) after I took my yearly “Trafficking In Persons” training. It’s really powerful and compelling propaganda that pulls at your heart – which makes it the most devious and damaging forms of propaganda.
I fully understand the argument about the general hysteria around female trafficking. It’s odd that the hysterions (a new coinage) don’t scream about young men sold into slavery. I’m very willing to bet that the vast majority of trafficked females work in the garment industry (the textile industry has always been unkind to workers, to say the least).
However, in southeast Asia, from India to China, parents do sell their girls to brothels. By the time these girls are adults, it’s the only thing they know. They also sell boys to brothels or to contractors. In these cases most of the trafficking is to the nearest big port city, not out of the country. Given the abysmal poverty in Zimbabwe, the humane person will suspend judgment about these “terrible” parents and the whole business.
Terrible poverty is the driving force here. As Victor Hugo pointed out, the woman who sells herself to feed her children is doing something noble, not criminal.
The US government and the UN lump everything into their human trafficking “statistics”. This includes all people “trafficked” for non-sexual labor, child soldiering … along with the sex trade … and even little girls having their virginity “sold” in India.
I work for the government and I’m required to complete “trafficking awareness” training once a year – because I travel worldwide. I just finished my training for this year about a month ago. To be honest – last year I wasn’t really into Maggie’s blog and I just clicked through the answers to get the training over with.
But … this year I actually paid attention to the training and the part about the little girls really pissed me off. It’s easy to get me so angry about something like this that I’m ready to charge the gates of hell with a water pistol. So I emailed Maggie and asked her … “Maybe some of this is true?” And – she set me straight.
But you just have to think about this … the way the US and the UN treat “human trafficking” means they EQUATE a guy from Bangladesh who’s been bussed into Saudi Arabia to drive a cab by lumping him into the overall statistics with an 8 year old girl in India having her virginity sold to the highest bidder.
They aren’t even remotely the same. Give me an M-14 and have Ross Perot finance some helicopters and I’m willing to go into India myself to save those little girls. However, I’ve already talked to that cab driver in Riyadh and he’s happy he’s there – so no, I won’t risk anything for him.
What ENRAGES me – is that yeah, I actually believe some stupid shit like virgins being sold in India is happening. And – I also believe that maybe not every woman who’s in prostitution is there voluntarily. IT’S THOSE PEOPLE that we need to help and … we are NOT helping them when we lump them in with a 40 year old, high-class Russian escort who’s “trafficked” herself from St. Petersburg to Copenhagen, Denmark because she can get more money for her services there.
And – it’s intellectual outrage to tell US servicemen that if they purchase the services of that 40 year old escort then they are also contributing (somehow) to a demand for trafficking people against their will.
My attititude to such organizations and people that are anti-prostitution is this: Don’t you have anything better to do with your time, money and other resources? What you are doing is a huge waste of these. You could put all of these into more worthy causes.
Do you want to know why? There are impoverished men whom almost noone at all cares about nor does anything for including veterans.( I’ve heard 20% of the homeless population are veterans.) There are impoverished women who get little more sympathy than impoverished men. There are still impoverished children who would have difficulty fending for themselves because they are children and really shouldn’t even be expected to do so unlike the adults. Even an adult can use genuine charity so children should deserve at least as much.
Anti-prostitution is the biggest waste of your resources including time, money and effort etc. It is something which should be decriminalized and legalized along the Dutch, German, Swiss and Austrian model or something genuinely better. Most problems associated with prostitution are because of its illegality. Most women who become prostitutes do so because they need the money just like men who do dirty, dangerous and difficult work like joining the military, being an oil rigger or coal miner etc. A large minority of women become whores because it offers them more money and freedom etc. than they would otherwise have doing something else even if they could make a lot of money etc. at something else. Almost noone is forced into it unlike the drafts the militaries have issued from time to time. A large minority if not an out right majority of young men of particular generations have been drafted e.g USA 1942-1973. I say this as an U.S. Army war veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who was always a volunteer. I’m willing to bet that a higher percentage of military personell especially men were stop-lossed than people especially human females were forced into prostitution since 2001 A.D. I’m not a much of a gambling man, but as God as my witness, you don’t want to gamble against me on that one because once the truth is known, you will lose.
Things like stop-loss let the military have a “draft” of sorts without the problems associated with a traditional draft, like people moving to Canada or burning the cards. Indeed, most people don’t even know it exists.
The American military has the enlisted for 8 years by contract whether one is federal regular active duty, federal reserve, National Guard or inactive ready reserve. This is where they get you is the inactive ready reserve. You are out and don’t have tp train, but the can still call you back.
Oh man, it’s getting to the point when I’m having trouble finding charitable organisations worth supporting. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked about this over an organisation that thinks of itself as God’s army. All that’s left are neutral organisations like Médecins Sans Frontières.
I decided a long time ago to only support charities that do direct action and avoid all that want money to lobby the government.
The good ones are usually small, local charities.
(grumble) See, now if I’d read this article when the email notice first arrived this morning, and BEFORE I’d gone to the mall, they’d have five less bucks. >.<
Seriously though, this is a powerful article. First rate info. I don't think most of us have had any idea what ELSE the SA does with our donations in addition to feeding the hungry, or that they only feed the hungry who meet their strict moralistic standards.
Thank you, Hinoron; I plan to repeat the warning (with links to this post) every Christmas for new readers, probably earlier next year so we can head them off more.
Bell, Hook and Kettle…
I have to assume that you are not inducting the Boothers as honorary Wicca, then?
The title is of course a play on Bell, Book and Candle, itself a reference to the folk ritual for exorcising a witch: ring the bell, close the book, blow out the candle. Substitute harlots for witches (not a far stretch) and the Salvationists are trying to”exorcise” us by bell, hook (in the advertising sense) and kettle.
Yes, sometimes my thought process really is that complicated. 😉
[Like!] 🙂
I thought that that was where you were coming from. My thought processes tend to be similarly convoluted; when I explain I usually get a look like, “Wow, you really are nuts!”
But most people don’t understand the thrill of making connections between historical schools of thought; for instance, Hitler’s Fuhrer principle was really just a more particular version of Hegel’s Weltgeist (World Will) even though Hitler explicitly repudiated Hegel as an ideological ancestor. Or that Lenin deliberately modeled his October revolution after the ’93 Reign of Terror including mass repression and executions.
As for substituting harlots for witches, the movie made from your namesake book makes it pretty clear that that was S.O.P. for the Roman Inquisition as I’m sure you are well aware. And it was a tactic favored by witch hunters everywhere.
Actually, that’s how one is excommunicated. The bell is rung (tolled) as for a dead person, the book is slammed shut, and the candle(s) are extinguished. The general idea is that, to the church, the excommunicated one might as well be dead until he/she makes amends and is reinstated.
I know…what is WITH the antitrafficking brigades?
Also – if you really want to help prostitutes this Christmas – YWEP is an organization I donate most of my extra cash to. (sorry if this is not within the bounds of your comments section – feel free to delete!) You really can’t go wrong with an organization that does no-judgment harm reduction and empowerment and gives paid outreach positions to young women of color in street-based economies.
http://ywepchicago.wordpress.com/
An appeal for a harm-reduction group is very much within bounds! 🙂
Here’s a vid I did on a Salvation Army training document from their anti-trafficking wing. It’s out-fucking-rageous. : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTncdkjtl4s
I heard that Julie Bindel called it an abomination 🙂
Thank you, Feminist Whore! We need to get the word out about these fanatics as much as possible. 🙂
I’ve always refused to donate to the Sallies because they are anti-LGBT. Here’s another reason.
Good info. I wouldn’t contribute to the Salvation Army anyhow, since they are a religious organisation, but it is always good to know that there are more reasons to avoid them. 🙂
What if instead of dropping cash into the kettles, we drop pieces of paper telling them why they’re reading that instead of looking at George Washington’s or Abraham Lincoln’s pretty faces?
“Dear Salvation Army: Instead of looking at a $1 bill, look at the reason why I am not donating to you this holiday season. [insert various reasons]. Signed, a former donor.”
I was thinking of something like that. 🙂
I noticed that the SA anti-trafficking flier or poster included in this blog entry says “No Freedom”. Sex workers also have no freedom when they’re being locked up in jail cages under anti-prostitution laws the SA promotes, but I seriously doubt the SA will acknowledge this comparison.
I used to shop at SA thrift stores, but won’t anymore until they stop promoting oppressive policies and attitudes against sex workers in prostitution.
You can still shoplift from the Salvation Douchecanoes. Not that I would know anything about the 5-finger discount. Nope. Not me… *whistles*
Charities and 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations are forbidden by federal law to engage in lobbying or campaign for political ends. I suggest we all write to the IRS and try to get the Salvation Army’s exemption revoked.
If you need another reason to boycott SA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXcSQ6OW6oA&feature=relmfu and its follow-up video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLF2AVZ94uA
This is an old thread, so I doubt anyone will see this except Maggie, but with regard to the quotation from William Booth, I thought I’d mention that in Indonesia, where I worked for several years, many brothels charged less for the new girls and more for the ones who had worked for a few years, on the grounds of the newbies’ lack of experience (and presumably, sensual skills).
Yes, that’s true of most places and times. I think what Booth is referring to is mostly the fact that virgins went for a very high price in Victorian brothels. But other than that, inexperienced whores can’t command nearly the price experienced ones can. Booth’s assertion is based on the common prohibitionist myth that prostitutes’ clients care only about simple animal rutting, so that the older a girl gets the less “fresh” she is and the less in demand. Not only is this exactly false, it reveals the deep misogyny of the prohibitionist mind. Real clients want the full experience of a woman and will not pay top dollar for whores with abrasive personalities; it’s the prohibitionists who think women are only valuable for what’s between our legs, as they demonstrate in their favorite phrase, “selling her body”, which implies that sexual service is all a woman has to offer.
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