Slavery works as a public fantasy through which the real problems of the world can be pushed to one side and replaced with…“evil slave-owners” who allegedly lurk behind such phenomena. – Frank Furedi
Many organizations…receive inquiries from potential volunteers whose primary desire is to kick in doors and rescue…victims…once a potential volunteer learns that the organization does not have a covert SWAT team…they seem shocked and in disbelief. The concept of private entities using…armed…[“rescue”] teams…is fueled by Hollywood and…non-governmental organizations…who play DVDs at anti-human trafficking events indicating their organization uses [such] teams…some even indicate their activities are unhindered by the bureaucracy of governments…
I find this number very credible, given that 1% of comparatively-prudish Western women have worked as whores, plus an unknown (but certainly larger) number in other kinds of sex work:
…economist Yasuyuki Iida…says that five percent of women in Japan have [done some kind of sex work. He]…begins by estimating that there are 10,000 clubs, bars and parlors offering sex nationwide… “each employs 30 women on average…That puts the number of women…at 300,000”…Iida settles on 10 years as the average tenure…based on data from the Ministry of Justice…the average woman enters the biz between the age of 25 and 29. Census data…indicates that a total of 700,000 women fall within…that…group. If 30,000 women [per year]…enter the fuzoku trade, that would represent…4.29[%] of that total…
The Vietnamese government has just passed a decree under which clients of prostitutes will be punished more severely than the call girls…sex buyers will be fined VND500,000-VND1 million (US$23.7-$47.4)…prostitutes…will be issued a warning…in less severe cases or a monetary fine of VND100,000-VND300,000 (up to $14)…If the prostitutes are foreigners, they can be deported from Vietnam…
Legal Is As Legal Does (TW3 #7)
Another example of the need for eternal vigilance:
A delegation of former prostitutes…[and] advocates have appeared before…Parliament calling for a change to prostitution laws…the organisation Freedom from Sexual Exploitation (FFSE)…says…”the Prostitution Reform Act…not only encouraged more men to buy sex, but transformed prostitution into an acceptable, even attractive job for young, poor woman in New Zealand”…FFSE is asking the government to…[criminalize] the purchase of sexual services…
Three more “isolated incidents”:
Nearly twenty years after two young women were shot and stabbed to death at a Kentucky massage parlor…former [cops]…Edward Carter and Leslie Duncan are among three men charged…Tammy Papler, the woman who once ran the parlor, claimed years ago that she had been bribing police…and that the killings took place after she stopped paying.
Of course, it isn’t only whores they target:
A…San Antonio [cop raped a young woman]…Jackie Len Neal pulled [her] over…[on the pretext] that her car was reported stolen. Even though [she] produced a sales slip…Neal insisted on patting her down…[then] placed [her] in handcuffs…[in] the back of his patrol car…[and raped her]…video cameras mounted in Neal’s cruiser were not functioning…[but] a GPS tracking system did corroborate that…[it] was parked for 18 minutes…as the woman had claimed…
And an update from the original “Above the Law”: “A victim of a…Pittsburgh police officer…filed a federal lawsuit…Adam Skweres…failed his psychological examination before [hiring and]…the city [allowed him to keep working]…after it received complaints against him…[for] three years…”
You know a moral panic is nearing its zenith when you start seeing mobs with torches:
Hundreds of people [gathered]…on Long Beach Boulevard in Compton to march against the sex trafficking of children and teenagers along the notorious strip. The march…[followed] the route often used by johns and pimps in buying and selling young victims…”We are marching tonight to shine a light in the darkness and let these men know we see them,” [politician Mark] Ridley-Thomas said…”And to let businesses that profit from this vile trade…know that we’re coming for them”…
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (TW3 #34)
“Don’t believe our data; believe our dogma instead!”
…In Maine…its hotline netted 19 of what Polaris Project defines as high- or moderate-level indicators of trafficking in the most recent year…Destie Sprague…[of] the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said…Mainers should not reach the conclusion that only 19 people in the state were victims of trafficking in the past year…the number is in reality much higher…
The federal government is backing away from the nationwide “blueprint” for campus speech restrictions issued this May…the new head of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)…said that “the agreement in the Montana case represents the resolution of that particular case and not OCR or DOJ policy”…the Montana agreement included an overly broad definition of punishable sexual harassment: “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” including “verbal conduct” (i.e., speech)…Serious First Amendment and due process problems remain with…other recent OCR pronouncements…
Wouldn’t you love to see articles like this in the US?
Media organizations worldwide have been busy crucifying Rob Ford for his alleged crimes and intoxicated buffoonery…but mainstream outlets in Canada…need to apologize for repeatedly presenting Ford’s crimes in conjunction with allegations of “prostitution”…Having sex for money is not a crime in this country. Even though many activities associated with it remain illegal, having sex for money…is a job…Every major mainstream media source in the city latched onto the “hanging out with suspected prostitutes” allegations…what makes someone a “suspected prostitute,” anyway? Fishnets?…
Backwards into the Future (TW3 #329)
Though registration is a poor idea because of the inevitable bottleneck, the general tone of this article is far more sensible than anything from the US:
…Swaziland’s sex workers are not a major contributor to the spread of HIV…[it] is spread widely by people in [unpaid] sexual encounters …However…if HIV is to be contained in any country the need to protect sex workers from HIV is a requirement…Identification of sex workers is the first step, allowing a registry of sex workers for contact and communication. Thus reachable, these individuals can receive advice on health issues, HIV testing…counselling…treatment …and a supply of condoms…public health crises require realism…
A woman who sold her virginity…for $780,000 but was unable to consummate the transaction has decided to put herself back on the market…Catarina Migliorini was initially promised to a 53-year-old Japanese millionaire, but the deal fell through after Natsu ended up being a 21-year-old who looked nothing like his online profile. She also had a falling out with the documentary filmmaker who recruited her…
Another example of “sex trafficking” as default bogeyman:
…bitcoin…is not backed by any central bank or government and can be transferred “peer to peer” between any two people anywhere…By largely eliminating intermediaries, bitcoin allows individuals to conduct transactions without being subject to anti-money laundering controls, which makes it an attractive currency to criminals — particularly those who prey on the weak. Sex slavery and human trafficking generate $9.5 billion yearly in the United States alone, with each trafficked child yielding between $150,000 to $200,000 to her pimp, who controls four to six girls on average…
It’s That Time Again (TW3 #334)
The cuckoo clock is striking 13:
Cindy McCain slammed the National Football League…for not being “willing to deal” with the issue of sex trafficking at the Super Bowl…McCain…said the Super Bowl is the “largest human-trafficking venue on the planet,” but she will be working to tackle the issue in [Arizona] in 2015…McCain emphasized the necessity of bringing the issue to…Congress. “This issue’s not sexy on Capitol Hill yet, but we’re going to make it sexy”…
Given all the one-handed writing politicians do about “child sex slaves”, I’d say they already find it plenty sexy. But McCain’s comments, however idiotic, are at least coherent, which is more than I can say for those of her sidekick:
…Saada Saar spoke about her involvement in shutting down “adult services” ads on Craigslist in 2010…“I will never forget that morning getting calls from some of the girls who were still out there saying, ‘Oh my God! The pimp’s [sic] are losing their minds because they can’t put us up for sale. We are no longer for sale’…”
I knew this would turn out to be bogus, but I’m very pleased that it came apart so quickly:
The first stories in the London slavery reports…all gave the same horrifying account: three women had been rescued by police after thirty years held against their will…But as details emerged, it seemed to be an entirely different affair…after contacting the charity, the women were encouraged to leave the house, which they did…with no dramatic police raid…[they] had joined a radical Marxist collective…which…was like a microcosm of a Soviet state- workers toil unrewarded for the benefit of the leader…”social services, education and housing departments had all had contact with the household” and…both the leaders had been previously arrested. The presence of these women in the house was not a new discovery by any means…
And in Spiked, Frank Furedi uses the incident as a springboard for a strong criticism of the way the word “slavery” is used to describe phenomena which are absolutely nothing like chattel slavery.
Here are two more stories in which “sex trafficking” is described using ludicrous Victorian phraseology; this one from Ohio tells us that the mustache-twirling villains behind the “perfidious crime” are not usually stopped by “swift apprehension”, and that arresting sex workers “[fights] the vexing scourge” by “helping to restore a semblance of normalcy to [their] lives”. The other, from California, gasps in horror at the idea of “children…at risk” from people having sex “in a home right across the street from an elementary school,” opines that “the horror of human trafficking…has destroyed the meaning of what it means to be ‘safe’ in a free world,” and tells us that “expanding shackles” (presumably, a technology related to “invisible handcuffs”) are “fueled” by “assumptions that these are consensual interactions with women flaunting their sexual desire alongside pimps in outlandish suits with expensive cars.”
Meanwhile, if you click back to the original column by this name you’ll see something about how New Port Richey, Florida has a scheme to allow “authorities” to persecute “known prostitutes” at will. Well, here’s an open letter to the town from its most famous daughter, Dr. Brooke Magnanti:
…Profiling has a false positive rate greater than zero, and some of those false positives will no doubt lawyer up. Also, picking up people because you think they might possibly commit a crime in the future is not the same as detecting people who are actually breaking the law. It is – hm, how you say? – oh yeah, now I remember the word. “Unconstitutional.” (My time in Florida’s schools did not go to waste, as you can see)…
Think of the Children! (TW3 #346)
Buried down near the bottom of this farrago of pearl-clutching nonsense about a persecuted Calgary massage parlor: “Human trafficking is not a widespread problem among sex workers in Calgary massage parlours, police say…”
Activists seeking to criminalize “revenge porn” say they are…[preparing] federal legislation that would force Internet companies to take [it] down…law professor Mary Anne Franks…is helping draft the bill…”Going after intermediaries is a really bad idea,” says Matt Zimmerman…[of] the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The entire speech ecosystem…[suffers] because those service providers…decide what people can and cannot post”…Internet companies would likely respond to such a law by removing content any time there’s a complaint, to reduce their liability and…save time…
This ugly exercise in arse-backwardness repeats lurid nonsense about “sex tourism” in Brazil using Justin Bieber clickbait while describing dry stories about sex workers’ language lessons and business improvements as “titillating”; it then dismisses UN recommendations for decriminalization in a flurry of “sex trafficking” hoo-hah (describing the fringe group Equality Now as “many NGOs”), and adds insult to injury by mentioning Gabriela Leite’s Davida without stating that it’s a sex worker rights organization. Compare it with this one, which despite being fixated on “grittiness” is at least basically honest.
Sarah Ratchford’s Vice article about Rob Ford that you link to implies that the word prostitute is now politically incorrect but that the word whore is okay. I’ve been reading material from a sex-worker rights perspective for quite a few years and this is the first time I can recall encountering the suggestion that we should avoid the P-word. I’ve seen debate about whore but not about prostitute. Have I missed something?
Only a little. Getting the media to stop using “prostitute” is one of the big things in Australia right now, and I did see an article from Canada (last year, I think) discussing how getting them to use “sex worker” instead helps change the readers’ perceptions. I’m not sure I personally buy that, because I’ve seen “sex worker” used (especially in Asia but also in the US) in articles chock-full of exactly the same whore-stigma and “trafficking” mythology as those which use “prostitute”. As I’ve stated before, I refuse to let labels upset me because it’s just gives one’s opponents a weapon; it seems organized whoredom is following black people’s playbook (“only we are allowed to use traditionally-insulting terms, not you”) rather than that of gay activists (who have successfully reclaimed queer to the point it doesn’t really sound pejorative any more no matter who uses it). Given the relative successes of the two strategies, I think the choice is a mistake; however, I also know there’s little point in pushing against the tide, so I advise people to use “sex worker” when talking to new acquaintances so as to avoid getting off on the wrong foot if they have strong feelings about the traditional terms.
Personally, I prefer “whore” to “prostitute” because the latter is used by cops and politicians, and therefore carries that strong association with criminalization. However, I use “prostitute” more often when writing or speaking to a general audience (not my regular readers) because the average person considers “whore” to be rude and vulgar and “prostitute” to be more formal. The problem with “sex worker” IMHO is that it’s too broad; sometimes I want to talk only about hookers, excluding strippers, porn actresses, PSOs, etc. But when I’m writing or speaking to an activist audience, I usually use it because it’s the one they prefer.
The other day I pointed out that they are trying to hang the same kind of extra baggage on sex worker that every other term for courtesan has. I also see the problem with sex worker (which include people working in porn and others) because it’s too broad.
I usually use escort when I want to talk about sex workers who see men in their private hotel rooms to play a few rounds of Magic: The Gathering (or whatever it is escorts do in hotels with men… I prefer not to get involved in wild speculation).
My reason for using escort is simply that you can advertise an escort service in the phone book, but whore, hooker or prostitute service would likely not be accepted. (Obviously, working from a US perspective here…)
“Prostituted” has another meaning, not necessarily including sex work. It can also mean “someone who offers their skills, efforts or reputation for unworthy ends” (Chambers Dictionary). An artist who uses his/her creative skills purely for money has “prostituted themselves”. So, I guess this pejorative association could be said to taint sex work, and is knowingly so used instead of a neutral term. Harlot and whore don’t have this association (except in archaic terms for corrupt religious practices).
A little etymological research, courtesy of Chambers, reveals that ‘whore’ is Old English, from Old Norse; ‘harlot’ is from Norman French; but ‘prostitute’ is from Latin. This Latinate derivation probably accounts for its popularity in legal circles, and with those who wish to be seen to be educated.
Style guides to (English) English usually advise the use of short ‘English’ words, preferring them over longer French and other imported words whenever possible. But then Nell knew this instinctively, when she said, ‘I am the Protestant whore’.
“Prostitute” sounds like an infection disease.
The ludicrous panics over slavery, in which magical “pimps” and “Traffickers”, invisible to police, are able to move through walls and snatch women and girls from their homes, shuffles thousands about invisible to the police, and maintain an amazing hold over their supposedly unwilling victims hides the actual slavery in our world, and that’s why it’s useful.
Sweatshops around the world, many of them churning out goods for American companies such as Gap, Walmart, and Apple depends on slaves, or nearly slave labor. Agribusiness in the USA often uses undocumented labor, people with no rights, who are often abused.
Capitalism is a system that aims to pay workers as poorly as possible and seem them as disposable.
Instead of focusing on the real problems, the media parrots titillating tales of captive sexy young women, forced to unspeakable acts by villainous, all powerful traffickers, ignoring the fact that it’s our economic system that has pushed most of these women into prostitution.
You and I define “capitalism” differently; to me, prostitution is the purest form of capitalism. However, even if we use your definition, I have to disagree with your conclusion: women sell sex in every economic system, not just capitalism. The historical record indicates that more women sold sex under feudalism than capitalism, and despite the efforts of communist governments to hide the fact, it also seems to have been true under communism. It is true that a larger fraction of the female population sold sex under the more unbridled capitalism of the 19th century than in the current system, but that seems to have more to do with increasing female equality in the job market than in governmental restrictions on business practices. The only economic system for which you could make a valid argument for the relative number of whores being lower than it is now would be a tribal system, and that only works for groups of a couple of hundred people at a time.
I think that was kind of the main point of 1984. Prostitution existed under Soviet style communism in that book, although it seems it was based more on barter than on actual payment. Julia was an escort for the Inner Party, she would probably have been all right if she had been more mercenary and hadn’t followed her heart. (Well, maybe, that system was Stalinism in English, arbitrary and capricious.)
We do indeed define capitalism differently.
And I agree, that working as an independent escort is about as close to “pure” capitalism as it’s possible to get, and if all capitalism were practiced on that level, I’d have no problem with it.
In fact, if I could magically impose my idea of socialism on the world, there would still be plenty of examples of privately owned businesses, those in which the business depended on the talent of the individual owner, and he or she was the sole employee.
My definition of capitalism is, somewhat fairly, I think, described by you, Maggie as fascism, an unholy blending of government and corporations. That’s what we have today.
And yes, prostitution has existed under every economic form, and I would certainly expect and hope it would continue under socialism.
What I mean by capitalism driving women into prostitution is that when one compares working for some boss, making low wages while he soaks up most of the profit, controlled and bossed, working the sex business is often much more appealing. I think both you and I have that experience in common, in choosing what we did over the alternatives available in a rational choice.
Wonder if these reports encourage people to try out the business. An average salary of $1 million for trafficking a few kids makes we want to set up some snares for the neighborhood brats
Of course, women who work in those factories, and have no rights that their factory bosses will respect, are _never_ sexually abused by their bosses.
That could _never_, _ever_ happen. Because if it could, no doubt the rescue industry would be trying to protect factory workers from it… which they never make a peep about. (Much like sexual abuse of women never happens in prison, or the Polaris project would be all over that.)
Ok, the sarcasm above is just to make a point: whatever lies the rescue industry tells about why they are doing it, what they really care about is the fact that women are behaving “immorally,” according to whatever version of “morals” they are using. (Whether feminist “all hetero sex is rape,” or the more common “i don’t want sex workers luring my husband,” or “the Lord forbids it.”)
One reason why sex workers prefer the term is because “worker” is in there. They are doing it for money, some do it to eat, some to put money in their child’s college fund. If they wanted to just be “party girls” they’d do that and not have to worry about all the headaches involved with the “for pay” version.
Speaking of invisible, I recently watched the excellent documentary from about 2011 about kids and families taken out of Romania to beg and commit theft in Western Europe. Lots of great footage and detail. Then halfway through the program, the director, a Romanian himself, mentioned that some of the adult women work as prostitutes. Then I realized two things:
1. No mention AT ALL about underage prostitution of these kids. It was all about begging and thievery. The handlers can make thousands of dollars a month from just one kid doing this.
2. The guy followed them around everywhere. He camped out to film where they live, showed them walking to the bus stop, followed them into town, filmed them begging and committing theft, he camped out filming in front of a Spanish government office that was supposed to be helping the kids and saw that they just released them to walk about without an adult, stuff like that. So, uh, if this guy can film and document all this, can’t anyone film the thousands and thousands and thousands involved in the child sex trade here? How come the gypsy thieves aren’t invisible?
Here’s that documentary, btw. It’s called Gypsy Child Thieves.
Yasuyuki Iida’s figure does not include compensated dating (enjo kosai), hence is actually an underestimate. However, more important than the raw numbers is how normalized sex work has become in Japan, where someone like Rina Nakanishi can be a major pop star, then go on to great success in adult video, and then get married and have a child. Without the marginalization or otherization of sex workers, recriminalization is unthinkable.
This is why prohibitionists are so fanatical in opposing those with a background in sex work, such as teachers. Normalization is a natural process; it takes great effort to keep marginalization in effect.
good job maggie. So glad you are saying all the stuff I’d love to say if i had the time and talent. Did you see this new tv show clip? Annie
Dear anti-trafficking and sex workers rights communities, We have drafted a letter to respond to MSNBCs Slave Hunter reality show. See the attached press release from MSNBC, our proposed letter, and click below to watch the preview. http://www.msnbc.com/documentaries/watch/slave-hunter-freeing-victims-of-human-trafficking-trailer-62944835941 Please let me know if you would like to sign on with your organization, contact name and contact number, byThursday, December 5. Unfortunately, we cannot edit the letter, but feel free to also compose your own letter or petition so that MSNBC can hear a range of concerns. Feel free to forward, and there will be more opportunities to sign-on in future! In Solidarity, Sienna Baskin, Esq. Co-Director Sex Workers Project Urban Justice Center p/646-602-5695 http://www.sexworkersproject.org Stay informed! join our low-volume listserv | “like” us on Facebook | follow us on Twitter This message and its attachments are sent by a law office and may contain information that is confidential and protected by privilege from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, you are prohibited from printing, copying, forwarding, or saving this email and any attachments. Please notify the sender immediately if you believe that you are not the intended recipient.
Oh, yes, I saw it; it’s the talk of Twitter, and for good reason. Unfortunately it came in a bit too late for this week’s column!
OT in respect of today’s topics, but ‘on-message’ for the general tenor of your blog.
I’m not sure if it’s available in the US; Borgen is a fictional TV series from Denmark. It’s about politics, and while that might seem as dull as anything, the episodes are remarkably engaging, and it has a loyal audience here in the UK, where it’s (mostly) subtitled. Mostly, because there are occasional lapses into English, where all the actors speak an alarmingly fluent English. Birgitte is a former prime minister who’s trying to form a new political party, Kirstin was a TV journalist who is now Birgitte’s media advisor; and these two are the ‘lead’ characters.
One episode tonight was about trafficking and prostitution in Denmark; sorry, ‘sex work’, for it was made very clear that that was the preferred term. All the usual memes of the anti-sex brigades were brought out. Starting from the rescue of trafficked foreigners, there was an immediate call for criminalisation of the buyers, and at first Birgitte was inclined to support this. The ‘evidence’ from Norway and Sweden was advanced, along with the usual support from dodgy sociologists. Birgitte had second thoughts, and wanted empirical evidence; Katrine found an escort who was willing to talk publicly. And so on.
The programme gave a quite remarkably nuanced and accurate view of the political pressures and the reality of sex work, though I can’t say if it was truly representative of what happens in Denmark. Even the language of ‘selling your body’ and slavery was realistic. At the end, though, Birgitte didn’t achieve her aim; but this was ‘realpolitick’.
Do watch it if you can; I’m sure there’s nothing like it on mainstream TV. It should be available sometime as a DVD; add it to your wish list.
Doh! She’s Katrine. Sorry, I’m going gaga 🙁
I second this recommendation for Borgen. I haven’t watched the entire series yet but what I’ve seen is amazing.