For many years, Irish sex workers dreaded being captured by cops and imprisoned in the Magdalene laundries, where they were enslaved by nuns and forced into a life of unremitting toil to “cleanse” them from their “sins”. The last Magdalene laundry was closed only 19 years ago, but the nuns who ran these torture chambers did not merely go away; their zeal to torment and punish whores was so great that they re-invented themselves as Ruhama and rebranded their anti-whore crusade as a fight against “sex trafficking” and “pimps”, whom they depict as hiding behind every bush and lamppost like some sort of oversized fetish leprechaun. Longtime readers will remember that Ruhama is the chief force behind “Turn Off the Red Light”, a campaign to impose the Swedish model on Ireland; to that end they have fed tons of bullshit to obsequious Irish politicians and employed shills and sock puppets to sell their tragedy porn to the credulous press. My friend Laura Lee has been at the forefront of the fight against them for years, and on Wednesday she called my attention to the testimony of a sex worker who went in undercover to see what Ruhama really offers sex workers who come to them for help:
I decided to go to Ruhama after seeing their posters around train stations whilst touring. The posters advertised a number to text as part of their REACH Project, so I decided to contact them directly. I was aware that there was a lack of resources for sex workers to access support, and the one organisation that seemed to dominate the media coverage of the issue was Ruhama, so I decided to see what they would offer me. The Services Manager, Sheila Crowley, called to give me an appointment to see her, and a week later I found myself standing outside a pub across from St. Patrick’s college waiting to meet her. As we walked down towards her office I was told about the religious history of most of the buildings that we passed; going through the entrance to Ruhama felt like entering an old church, as their offices are located in All Hallows College (which has been run by the Vincentians since 1892).
I sat down with Sheila and discussed my financial concerns; I told her of my desire to go to full time education and the consequent worries of paying for the fees and not having enough time to work to earn the money to pay my bills and college fees. She discussed the different supports that Ruhama offers to sex workers, and explained that some women don’t want to leave the industry and just want practical support. However, she then said that after meeting with a Key Worker, it usually turns out that they do want to leave after all. She seemed to be telling me that sex workers don’t really know what we need, but that people who don’t live our lives would be able to convince us that what we need is to leave the sex industry. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that Ruhama would be eager to offer whatever practical support we was necessary to achieve that end, but such was not the case; as the meeting went on, it became clear that practical support wasn’t on offer. In fact, Sheila told me that they don’t have the financial resources to offer the kind of practical support I was expecting. This surprised me as I was aware that the EU had awarded a grant of €284,302 to the REACH Project; the beneficiaries of which are the Irish Department of Justice and Equality and Ruhama. In fact, as I write this, Ruhama have just launched a new campaign targeting the clients of sex workers; it would seem to me that Ruhama are more invested in awareness campaigns with no substance behind them instead of actually providing us with any real help when we come to them.
I’ve heard the audio recording this young woman secretly made during the interview; Crowley tells her to go on the dole for a while because she isn’t going to be able to get a regular job without references. No assistance, not even a job program; just emotional support and verbal urging to stop doing sex work. What struck me the most, however, was that Crowley clearly understands the reality of sex work quite well, despite Ruhama’s promotion of nonsensical “pimp” and “exploitation” mythology; she understands touring and advertising, recognizes that independent girls outnumber those with managers (“traffickers”) and even gets that most clients are very decent. Her issue with sex work seems to be due to some sort of belief in contamination, so that if three girls work together and the landlord doesn’t evict the one with a boyfriend, that makes the other two complicit in “trafficking” (or something like that; I had trouble following her “logic”). It just goes to show Ruhama’s incredible duplicity, spreading lies they know to be lies in order to further their rotten agenda.
It seems that Ruhama are only interested in what most charity organisations are interested in these days; funding. Where all this funding go would make quite a story.
It would be interesting to try a sort of experimental control here. The one25 organisation in Bristol, south-west England is not directly equivalent but is similar in size financially to Ruhama. What sort of advice would they give to the same person calling up and saying she wanted to leave sex work and study full-time.
I hope it would be good practical advice regarding financial planning, sharing student accommodation for companionship and to save cost, where to study to avoid dealing with a lecturer you might know etc
I don’t know if appropriate to do so ,but are there any plans to release the audio or indeed provide a transcript? That would be especially pertinent considering Ruhama representative ‘confesses’ the levels of independent sex workers relative to those being controlled in private completely contradicts what they market to the public.
I have a copy of the audio, but the sex worker’s real name is audible so I prefer not to release the file unless it can be edited or “bleeped” out.
It was Ruhama, if I remember correctly, who published their income/expenditure in an annual report. It stated something like an income of €601,000; administrative expenditure was €599,000. Doesn’t leave much over for support.
Meanwhile, nuns like Sister Linda Dearlove actually do many genuinely good things for prostitutes over in London, England. Maybe these idiots should take lessons from her. It would be a start. .
You met me. I am oversized and I’m Irish (leprechaun). So I take exception! Well, except for the fetish
This question isn’t entirely unrelated to the thread of Ruhama, above, et al: did anyone see Lena Dunham’s turn on Scandal a couple/few weeks back? Her character delivered a strong and coherent argument for the validity of sex worker vis a vis feminism.
The reason I post this question now is because I might have missed it in an HC post. If it was covered, please tell me where.
And, if indeed no one’s seen that epi, you can dial it up on On Demand, or Hulu or wherever one gets past and recent prime time TV shows. It’s well worth the time, because to see a highly-rated show take on such a controversial topic, and do it well, was simply wonderful and amazing. I’m glad I lived this long to see that.
It aired March 19, and it’s called “It’s Good to Be Kink.”
I’ve never even heard of this! Thank you for posting! I will always be dumbstruck by people who assume they know what is best for someone else….that narrow world view is so antiquated and no better than subscribing to racist, sexist beliefs, etc. Any assumption that you KNOW someone because of a stereotype is f*cked up.
none of this is very surprising, unfortunately. Very few of the prohibitionist organizations get very far past the “don’t do it” phase. If a sex worker wants to get out of the industry she would be much better off seeking assistance from the groups operated by former sex workers. They don’t have any better funding, but what they do have is a clue about the real world challenges and opportunities that are available.
“Crowley tells her to go on the dole for a while because she isn’t going to be able to get a regular job without references.”
Wow. Just wow. It doesn’t cost a whole lot of money to obtain references for a job. At the very least, they could do this.
I clicked over to that extraordinarily mendacious anti-Trafficking article (The Widening Gyre) and left the following comment;
“I want to see stringent documentation of these claims. This is a familiar narrative. The Victorians and later the Hearst Papers sold this as the White Slavery Panic, which historians now consider to be utter hogwash. I keep running into claims, like the one that the Superbowl is a big Sex Trafficking event, that turn out to be so much piffle and wind. I keep reading about anti-trafficking activists, like Somaly Mam, whose stories turn out to be fabrications and whose organizations appear to be scams.
There is little to no statistical evidence that availability of porn causes abuse of women, though the neo-Victorians keep trying to find some. There is considerable evidence that anti-trafficking initiatives put sex-workers at further risk and allow corrupt police to exploit them. Before I buy into the Sex Trafficking narrative I want to see evidence that it is not, again, the fantasy of a collection of upper-middle class women who (like their Victorian era sisters) just think men and sex are both icky.”
I don’t suppose it will do any good, but if enough people followed me, maybe we could jar some idiots into a little thinking.
I seem to have somehow posted this to the wrong entry; it was meant to be a comment for the “In The News” post from April 25. I’m sorry.
The money spent on Nonprofit industry/Charities generally goes on the costs of running the organisation. Rent, overheads, admin, salaries (often low for the workers, emotionally manipulated into thinking they are making a difference/doing a good thing) while some executives get well paid – lots of energy in keeping the whole thing going, performance management, monitoring, evaluation, data collection, justifying expenditure, finding future funding – most people are working very hard to keep the show on the road and they are so busy with the nonsense they can’t stop & think & realise its just bullshit-that what they have to actually offer is sometimes little more than a ‘helping relationship’ – Which isn’t very fullfilling for either side of the transaction – workers with a need to be needed unconsciously creating victims to fit with their narrative of the world. which is kinda ironic when you position it against sex work which is arguably far more honest. I say this not as a sex worker but as a disillusioned charity worker – I often think it would be better just to give people the money that all these ‘helping Interventions’ costs – but you can’t do that for some reason.
You see charities are not actually there for the people who need them, or who it seems like its all about – they are there to apease other people’s conscious, a way to make the sacrifice that Unequal societies need to function seem less obvious or sharp- those on the margins who have been dismembered from the ‘in group’ are conceptualised as vulnerable & In need of support & definitely not knowing what is good for them- but seeing as wealth is hoarded by the few up the chain the only thing on offer is ‘relational’ support, or ‘self esteem’ & empowerment & that, not tangible shit like housing, education, resources, opportunities – don’t forget that however sorry people say they are for groups of marginalised people they can’t be seen to reward their intentional transgressions – whether they are intentional or not – because that wouldn’t be fair the the ‘in group’ busting a gut not to wake up to the utter stupidity of how life is organised & demand change – it takes alot of energy not to notice, people are tired from doing the shit they’ve been told to do – so tired they need charities to figure out these difficult bits for them & Come up with solutions that sound good even if they are entirely illogical like prison reform or the swedish model or helping homeless people with anything other than secure housing
It’s not all charities, either. See this comment on the political lobbying of CARE , and another serious percute sinister against prostitution and the rights of sex workers.
Oh, selfslap! I meant https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2016/05/02/links-304/#comment-115045
Some days one should just stay in bed 🙂
Please edit my idiot ramblings so it makes sense, if you could be so kind. ❤