The women I killed were filth-bastard prostitutes who were littering the streets. I was just cleaning up the place a bit. – Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper)
Today is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, which was first established in 2003 by Dr. Annie Sprinkle (in conjunction with Robyn Few, Stacey Swimme and Michael Fowley of SWOP) as a memorial for the victims of serial killer Gary Ridgeway on the eve of his sentencing. In the ensuing eight years the observance has grown dramatically, with events and vigils in many cities around the world, all intended to call attention to the violence committed against whores by sociopaths, bad customers and especially the police…violence which is largely engendered and enabled by criminalization and the marginalization which grows from it. In recent years, some of the worst and most widespread violence against us has sprung from sex trafficking hysteria; the propaganda which drives this moral panic paints all prostitutes as pathetic, childlike victims suffering from mental illnesses which render us unable to make decisions for ourselves, thus justifying our abduction, imprisonment, deportation, robbery and rape. And though the actual violence is most often perpetrated on us by men, many of the chief enablers of the outrage are women: namely, the neofeminist prohibitionists who use us as scapegoats onto which they can project their own sick fantasies of gender war.
One year ago today I wrote about the origins of both the day and of the red umbrella, which has become the most widely-used symbol of sex worker rights; I urge those readers who are not already familiar with the Day To End Violence to go back and read it. In that column I reported the first news of the serial murderer now known as the Long Island Killer, whom police have recently decided is only one man after all after a few months of claiming it was more than one (possibly in an attempt to spread panic or to call attention away from the fact that the murderer is very likely a cop). Even though I do recognize that finding a single psychopath in New York must be a difficult task, I can’t help thinking that the police aren’t exactly trying very hard, especially since there are No Humans Involved and the District Attorney says it was the victims’ fault for being whores anyhow. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that the New York cops are “handling” the case in much the same way as their “brother officers” in Vancouver, BC handled the “investigation” of serial killer Robert Pickton:
RCMP Cpl. Catherine Galliford…said top Mounties had “enough evidence for a search warrant” of serial killer Robert Pickton’s farm in 1999 [but failed to act upon it, allowing] 14 women [to be] brutally murdered [over the next three years]. She says she will testify that both RCMP and Vancouver Police Department officers, even after the Missing Women Task Force was formed in 2001, engaged in sexual liaisons and harassment, watched porn and left work early “to go drinking and partying.”
“The saddest part of this is that the women who were killed were the most vulnerable people in our society, other than children,” she said. “I will not be testifying on behalf of the RCMP at the inquiry,” she said, saying her first concern is for people whose loved ones didn’t have to die. “Tell the families,” said Galliford, her voice breaking…”I’ve got their back.”
…Galliford said [that] after the gruesome details had begun to emerge about how Pickton butchered women and scattered their remains at his…farm or dumped them at a Vancouver rendering plant, …a group of RCMP personnel were…constantly “making jokes about sex toys,” laughing and giving each other “fist bumps”…[they told her that] “They wanted to see Willie Pickton escape from prison, track me down and strip me naked, string me up on a meat hook and gut me like a pig,” said Galliford, who also recounted the episode in her formal statement to RCMP…
As this disgraceful conduct demonstrates, the kind of men who victimize whores are the same sort who might victimize any other women, but they choose to act out their impulses on prostitutes because society gives them implicit permission to do so by branding us “criminals” and “undesirables”.
Beside the Long Island Killer, we’ve seen many other stories about violence toward sex workers in the past year. There was the Florida cop who murdered an escort, the Surrey cops who decided to rob a madam instead of prosecuting men who threatened to burn her and her ladies alive, cops raping streetwalkers in New Orleans, Bakersfield, California and Houston, a judge raping an escort in New Mexico, Canadian government attorneys arguing that prostitutes don’t deserve legal protection, more serial killers in Memphis, Tennessee and North Carolina, police beating and robbing prostitutes in South Africa, and a gang robbing and murdering prostitutes in China…and that’s not counting the innumerable arrests, repeated attacks on our advertising venues and constant, malicious persecution of our clients and family members. To top it all off, politicians in Ireland, France and even Nevada have agitated for further criminalization of prostitutes, which invariably leads to more violence and less recourse for that violence. And just three days ago, Google announced that it is donating over $11 million to pro-criminalization organizations in the name of “fighting slavery” (SWAAY has announced protests to be held Wednesday).
Perhaps next year I’ll have fewer such incidents to report, but until the United States and other prohibitionist regimes follow in the footsteps of countries like Australia, misogynistic misfits (both in and out of uniform) will still be encouraged to attack us with little or no fear of consequences for their actions.
That’s it for Google with me. Thanks, Maggie.
From the Google link …
God … I am so tired of these people.
More people in slavery now than any other time in history? Please.
That’s like when people say we have more Americans living in poverty than ever before – it’s completely false and it’s because people don’t know what real poverty is. Go to East Timor or the Phillipines – you’ll see it there. It’s an insult to those people to somehow identify any American with them.
And the same here really.
And why does Google need to take a political stand on anything? Really.
Are people saying there are more Americans in poverty than in anywhere else in the world at any time in history?
Or are they saying that there are more Americans in poverty than at any other time in American history?
I admit that I dislike the idea that because a poor person in America isn’t as poor as someone in East Timor then the American isn’t really “poor”. American poor have to deal with American taxes, American prices on necessities, etc. Telling someone who is living in poverty on a Native American reservation or in an inner city ghetto that “at least you’re not in East Timor” doesn’t solve the problem (or make them feel better) of not being able to afford the basics here…in America.
Thank you.
**tips her jaunty cap**
An International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. Now there’s a grand idea. I’m with it.
Unfortunately, whores aren’t the only murder victims who get trashed. It’s gone on for ages. An example of others who get this treatment are gang members and/or ex-gang members. ALL kinds of murder victims get this ###***, unfortunately. I know this 1st hand. This reminds me of a passage in 1 of my favorite books: the book is by Deborah Spungen and her daughter Nancy was murdered by Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistols). When Deborah and her husband got to the police station, they heard the cops talking about Nancy. They were saying Nancy would have sex with anyone, etc., etc. (Nancy WAS a groupie), but to have been saying that at ALL was disgusting. It’s also another example of non-whore women and whores getting the same ###*** for being sexually wild. No matter what the lifestyle, background, etc., of murder victims, they shouldn’t be trashed based on that. However, on a positive note (always needed), there’s been murder cases where the detectives, cops, etc., have been disgusted at the way people trashed the victims and they worked tirelessly on the cases despite the talk about the victims. Some examples: Detective Leroy Orozco on the “Sunset Murders” case, Dectective Dave Grogan on the “Hillside Stranglers” case and 1 of the detectives and/or cops on the Gary Ridgway case. The 1 with Ridgway I don’t remember his name, but his caring towards the victims was detailed in the movie about the case on the A&E cable TV network. The ###*** about the murdered whores shows that more education is needed. There’s people out there educating tirelessly and they’ve already made progress. Those of us who are educating won’t give up EVER even though we know there’s people who choose to be WILFULLY ignorant about the issues we talk about (unfortunately, this isn’t the only area where education’s needed in regards to murder victims), and don’t WANT TO care either. Thanks for the info on Annie Sprinkle. It’s wonderful they had a memorial for the victims. This is something I’d be glad to take part in and I hope to 1 day (hopefully I’d have the $ to get there plus have the time to go).
I’ve know women killed “on the job”, or maybe because their killers thought it wouldn’t matter, and in some cases, they were right. The cops did nothing.
The public will remember the name and face of Robert Pickton, but will be hard pressed to name one of his murder victims, even right at this very moment. What does that say about our society?
You’re exactly right, Reneg; that’s why I did a column on the victims of Jack the Ripper last year. So many people are fascinated with these monsters, but reduce the women they murdered to mere numbers.
There’s many who are interested in BOTH groups. You can have a strong interest in the victims PLUS the perpetrators. Many who are the surviving family/friends of murder victims have strong interest in both groups because to learn about the perpetrators also helps them learn about their OWN cases. Also, to learn about the victims helps the survivors heal and learn about what can be done to prevent murder to begin with. There are some whose only interest in murder cases is ghoulish and they could care less about the victims and survivors overall (1 example of the worst of this is the 1’s who only care about the victims in THEIR group and not victims overall), but credit should be given to those whose interest isn’t ghoulish (and they’re many, thank God). Thanks for listening.
The wonderful group Parents of Murdered Children puts up on its website every day without fail the picture and name of a murder victim (each day it’s a different 1). There’s a message board I belong to where the woman who runs it will make what’s called a “memorial page” at no charge which are tributes to murder victims (memorial pages are usually put up by the family and/or friends of the murder victim). POMC also started what’s called the “National Day of Remembrance” which is to remember ALL murder victims:
http://www.examiner.com/family-grief-bereavement-in-national/pomc-national-day-of-remembrance-for-murder-victims
If the neo-feminists want to attack sexism, then they can start with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who allowed 14 women to die on their watch. Only after that can the neo-fems be anything other than the useless waste-of-space they are today.
It’s too bad that I’m not PM of Canada, because if I was, I’d put Galliford in charge of the RCMP and give her carte-blanche to start cleaning house.
Correction: I would put Galliford in charge of the RCMP right after decriminalizing prostitution.
There’s a lot of sexism in the world to attack. In China and India, female embryos are aborted because females simply aren’t considered “worth as much” as males.
In many places in the world, women are basically bought and sold into marriage like property belonging to their fathers.
Women are denied education, health care, the right to own property, drive cars, vote.
In many places women can be punished harshly for disobeying a husband or father, or some other man. Or for having an affair, or being raped.
Let’s take on all that before we harass women who’ve chosen sex work as a profession.
In India, it’s even more complicated than that; even the more modern Indians prefer boys because they fear the huge costs of a wedding and dowry.
I take it then you two saw that recent ABC news story about females in India? Watching that story was disturbing, of course, but I also stopped and thought for a moment. Perhaps this wasn’t the time to not be ethnocentric, but this was the conclusion I came to.
With few exceptions, the only people who can (and should) change a system are those affected by it. That reporter interviewed a group of men who are concerned that because of this warped view of reproduction, there are now no women for them to marry, thus endangering their continuation of the bloodline (sounds not unlike Western countries currently below replacement level, eh Maggie?).
It is my hope that those men go on to change the way the marriage culture works in India and find a way to return to equilibrium between the sexes.
“the only people who can (and should) change a system are those affected by it”…so it’s OK to exclude certain people who want to help? Excluding people will SLOW DOWN any progress. ALL who want to help should be acknowledged and given a chance. I know a woman online (haven’t met her yet in person) who has never had a family member and/or friend murdered but started a wonderful message board specifically for these people. For anyone to have told her “you’re not part of the group so you shouldn’t be involved in this at all” would have been an outrage because this woman has helped a huge amount of people for years. This is a form of snobbery and closed-mindedness that slows down progress for ANY group.
I don’t watch television, but I read a lot; I was thinking about this column I did on Indian children.
And Laura, YES, it is OK to exclude people whose “help” one doesn’t want. The only person or people who have the right to decide what “help” they want, or who should give it, are those affected. It’s not the business of outsiders to force their idea of “help” on anyone, whether the one supposedly “helped” is an individual, a group or a whole society. Unwanted “help” nearly always involves strings and usually involves loss of autonomy even if it isn’t a straight-out attempt at control by the “helper”, and for many that’s too high a price to pay.
Some people’s notions of “progress” need to be slowed down if not eliminated entirely.
You got what I was saying completely wrong. I wasn’t talking about people FORCING help on ANYONE, OK? The Quiet Man was saying the only people (with some exceptions) that should help any group are the 1’s who were directly affected. I pointed out that’s very arrogant and closed-minded. I was talking about groups that DON’T FORCE ANYONE into ANYTHING, OK? I was talking about groups that help that people JOIN ON THEIR OWN. There’s many like this. I gave an example of a woman I know online who hasn’t had a family member and/or friend murdered but because 1 murder case that happened in her city affected her so strongly she started a message board for the surviving family/friends of murder victims. This board is for people who WANT IT ONLY. I know there’s people out there who would say this ###***: how dare this woman start this board when it’s never happened to her? Talk about arrogant and closed-minded! This lady has helped many. What I was saying is that people who haven’t been through a certain thing can STILL help. In fact, it’s even MORE commendable because they’re going outside their comfort zone and experiences. It’s a wonderful thing. Many hands make light work and the more who help groups that people FREELY JOIN the better. THAT is what I was getting at. We have to be careful to not judge people who join groups because they “haven’t had it happen to them”. You can then get into what I call “suffering contests”: she hasn’t had it happen to her so she has NO understanding at all. WRONG! Even those who haven’t been through something still have SOME understanding because they’ve read up on it, etc. Also there’s this: they didn’t go through as much as me or they were victimized less than me so they just don’t know at all what it’s like. Wrong again. When people talk about this stuff it doesn’t automatically mean they’re talking about stuff involving force, OK? There’s many groups that help people who COME TO THEM ON THEIR OWN. Those are the only 1’s I was talking about. There’s many people who help others in the world only when people come to them for help. This positive needs to be mentioned as much as possible. Thanks for listening.
Laura, you seem to have a very rigid view of the concept of “force”. You and I both know that not all force comes at the point of a gun; some is accomplished by pure effort of will or subtle coercion (“let me help and I’ll give you money”). But the fact of the matter is, an individual or group MUST have full autonomy over his own interactions. He or they have the right to deny interaction with anyone, even if the party represents that interaction as “I want to help”.
It is my hope that those men go on to change the way the marriage culture works in India and find a way to return to equilibrium between the sexes.
India could follow the example of neighbouring Tibet, and move towards Polyandry (one woman married to multiple men). It seems to work, and a shared wife is better than no wife at all.
Saudi Arabian women will be able to vote in 2015:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/world/middleeast/women-to-vote-in-saudi-arabia-king-says.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
Those horrible Muslims have made progress? That can’t be (eyeroll)! The groups that are fighting for the right of women to drive have made progress also. Yes, there’s still work to do and many things aren’t completely right still, but credit should be given for the progress already made. 1 way to help girls in other countries with education, healthcare, etc. is to “sponsor” them. “Sponsoring” is a way to help the girls financially. Children International is an example of organization that does this. The forced abortion evil in China is also being exposed all over the Internet and there’s petitions online to sign, etc. It’s wonderful these people are doing what they can. Petitions can and do work.
There has long been a cultural presumption in China about the worthlessness of girls. Partly this is because the parents of the husband can live with them in their old age, but not the parents of the wife. There is no such problem in Japan where both sets of parents are culturally free to live with their children.
The problem has been made far worse by the Chinese Communist Goverment’s one child policy.
>That reporter interviewed a group of men who are concerned that because of this warped view of reproduction, there are now no women for them to marry, thus endangering their continuation of the bloodline
Talk about sexism and patriarchy! See, even the policy of aborting female fetuses is all about how it affects the men! And who set up the burdensome dowry system? You can bet it was men.
Hello Maggie,
As i have been a very open admirer of your writings ( i wish i could formulate as well as you do ;-)…) i linked your page to mine and the article underneath mine as well, i hope you don`t mind….
Brooke, you and anyone else who appreciates my writing are ALWAYS welcome to link me anyplace on the internet you see fit. Not only is it flattering, it also helps us to get the truth out so as to counter the lies of the prohibitionists. If you look at my “Offsite” page you’ll notice I gave you a link there when you first added my link to your blog. 😉
I agree with you :-)…oh thank you , no i did not notice that you gave me a link…wow….now i feel really flattered…..thank you…..Brooke
btw: you might love that article , i do love it very much : http://plri.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/stop-feminist-violence-against-sex-workers/
Thanks, Brooke; we all need to keep speaking out about the lies spread by prohibitionists in order to advance their anti-prostitute agenda. Back in June Furry Girl wrote:
I agree with her; we all need to refer to prohibitionists as anti-prostitute or anti-sex worker activists rather than anti-prostitution or anti-sex work activists because though they pretend that their hate is only for our work, in truth it is real human beings they hate, attack and harm, not merely some abstract concept.
Wow, Brooke, I’m impressed with your website. It’s beautiful.
I think you project a great image. And it intrigues me, quite a bit.
When working (“retired” now) My style was about as different from yours as one can get. I’ve always admired those who could present that classy style. (I just wasn’t up to it. I’m a non-college educated, working class girl, and my main attributes were a lot of energy and durability, I suppose. Never could pull off being a class act.) I worked the nasty end, and was fine with that.
It just shows the amazing variability of human desire, that your approach and mine both fill a desire, and work.
Good luck to you.
Comixchik: Thanks for your flattering comment. I come from a working class family too, and am the first child attending university. In Europe it`s a but easier to do so than in the USA, because university is free. I have worked both ends of the spectre and my homepage was not always like that. (Although when it wasn`t my rates were different too. What i can`t handle are women pretending to have class, demanding many dollars and then not even their homepage is reflecting that ;-)….) I am non-judgemental to any “end” of the spectre of the demi-monde. I think when you are younger it`s better to work the “energy and durability spectre” and when you get older you can do it the other way round. I think class comes with age. And experience. And i am sure you could have pulled that off , too, if you hadn`t retired ;-)). Best wishes to you as well, Brooke
I grew up in Europe, well the UK. until I was 13. (I can tell you, ask any Yorkshireman, and he’ll point south and tell you that Europe is over there, across the channel!)
I continued to work the high energy end until I retired, in my middle 40’s. By then my arthritis (diagnosed as a teen, fought it off for years) was really having an effect. Plus, I got a lover who wanted me to quit.
I’m curious, if you don’t mind, (and if you do, tell me to bugger off), did you make higher rates at the highly physical style, or at the classy end? Sorry, I’m probably not even using the proper terms. Which did you like best?
I still miss my old life, really, I had a good bit of fun at it, and I was good at it. I was still very busy up to quitting.
It is different to work at higher rates, but you don`t get as much demands as you do at the “other end”. You just travel a lot more, with longer bookings, but less frequent, that is all. I made higher rates later, of course. At the beginning you have to start different – that is – if you use any business approach at all. You can`t start high end in my opinion. The ones who do, end up making too many mistakes, especially when it comes to the blurr between business and private life, which tends to be more “undefined” at the higher end rate. Other than that – there really is no difference (don`t believe any hype that might say other wise, i know many HDH believe they are the more intelligent ones out there, but reality tells another picture. After all – it seems to be that there is a more inflated sense of self coming at a higher rate, but that is the only real difference). 🙂
Thanks!
Starting out, I can’t say I ever had any career plans other than having a good time. A job was just a way to fund that. (Oh, I’d had plans as a kid, but all that went arse up when my grandmother died and I came to the US to live with my mom and her husband.)
So I admit, I never really thought it through much. I didn’t understand marketing or any of that until much later on, when I went independent. (It was way harder before that, before the days of the internet.)
I was making more at the end of my career than previous, at least in hooking.
[…] 1,018 more words and many women who are now dead or damaged might still be alive and healthy … Please check out this post and my comments on here […]
For all of your (and mine) reasons to dislike police officers, the one thing that caught Peter Sutcliffe was a lone Police Sergeant who went back to the place, on his own accord, where he’d arrested Sutcliffe in the company of a sex worker the night before after having a false registration plate, on a hunch and found a hammer Sutcliffe had dropped and called it in, which provided vital evidence needed to stop him being released on station bail and potentially killing again.
I don’t think all cops should be judged harshly as you (and often I) do. A lot aspire to the Durk/Serpico approach of actually doing performing the duties many grew up wishing to do, treating ALL people with the respect they themselves would like to receive and uphold the law as fairly and evenly as possible, with a sense of reasonableness and proportionality (yes, all cops should be mandated to do a Law degree).
[…] I do not approve of violence against sex workers. For more information on this subject see this article about the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, on the blog of the sex worker and […]