Until our society grows up and stops believing in ridiculous fairy tales about magical sex acts and ritual purity, sex workers will continue to be treated as disposable. And until the day that sex work is universally recognized as work and sex workers recognized as fully human, we must never stop reminding our society that it has our blood on its collective hands. – “December Seventeenth”
Last year, I wrote the words above just two days before keeping vigil with my sisters for our fallen; less than three weeks later the “authorities” in Seattle saw fit to destroy one of the means by which we try to prevent the violence which claims so many of us. It was a grim reminder of the deep evil of Prohibition, the sociopathic belief that a certain group has the right to dictate which kinds of peaceful, consensual behavior are acceptable within the confines of imaginary lines drawn on a map, and to send out armed thugs to destroy people’s lives in hope of “sending a message” that the so-called “authorities” don’t approve of the behavior in question. I want you to really think about the morality of that for a minute: these “authorities” know that they can’t ever stop consensual behaviors; everyone knows it. No form of prohibition in the history of the world has ever succeeded; the twisted monsters who pretend to “lead” us can’t even stop people in prisons from getting drugs, so how can they possibly succeed in stopping people who aren’t locked up from having sex with each other for the “wrong” reasons? It’s utterly, completely and absolutely impossible; nobody but a madman could possibly imagine it had even the slightest chance of succeeding in a million years. In fact, most prohibitionists willingly admit this, hence their oft-repeated statement that by inflicting savage violence on peaceful people they hope to “send a message” to others. But the morality of that motivation is even more profoundly sick, evil and vile than the idea that “authorities” have the right to control people’s lives in the first place; it is based in the notion that those “authorities” not only own every single person within their claimed jurisdiction, but that the worth of our lives to them are as that of pieces of paper, to be used to “send a message” upon at their whim. Under prohibition, my life, your life and the lives of everyone reading this are nothing but cheap, disposable and interchangeable objects with which “messages” can be sent to all the other pieces of human trash…and then crumpled up and thrown away. That is the real “message” sent by the very existence of prohibitionist laws: we own you and millions of others, and we can dispose of you at a whim. On this day, we remember the sex workers whose lives were destroyed by the State’s “message sending”, but the State sends similar “messages” using the bodies of others 365 days a year. Its agents shoot people down in the streets like mad dogs; it shovels them into holes in the ground like garbage. And though our bodies and those of our clients are the ones the State mostly uses to send its “message” against sex, that isn’t the only “message” it wants to send; it also wants to send “messages” against drugs and many other forms of pleasure; against free thought, free speech and free movement; against self-determination and self-ownership; and most of all against the dangerous idea that it does not own you and has no right to control your body, your mind or your possessions. And when its power-mad functionaries decide to emphasize a “message” that you happen to be a good example of, you will find yourself just as disposable to those functionaries as sex workers are to them now.
And that is the core of the matter. While decent people will be fine with any behavior that does not harm non-consenting others, authoritarians get mad and violent at anyone that does not conform to the usually very restricted set of behaviors they deem “acceptable”.
All those narratives about sex in non-approved ways, sex-work, drugs, rock-music (a past panic), the wrong or no religion, etc. actually being harmful to society (in some contrived way) and thereby to non-consenting others is just propaganda that aims to create fake legitimacy of the restrictions that the specific strain of authoritarians favor. Unfortunately, it is often successful propaganda, and the indoctrinated (and they are rather often self-indoctrinated) followers will quite often be willing to go to great lengths to eradicate the made-up enemy of the day. This also nicely distracts from real problems that those in power prove time and again to be unable to solve.
Hence, the way sex-workers are treated is just an indication of the actual mind-set of these “authorities”, nicely demonstrating what they would to do anyone they do not like if they thought they could get away with it. And the more we let them get away with one group, the more like this disease is going to spread.
There have been other oppressed groups in our history. Never have we collectively looked back upon that history without shame.
Sex workers are one of those groups.
I watched the press conference where two LE chiefs and one prosecutor spoke about a “rescue” when in reality earnings were taken, electronics were confiscated, evictions followed and a sense of violation was instilled most likely permanently. The realization that LE and that prosecutor had authorized two years of LE undercover “appointments” with the very people they said they “rescued” should result in the continued erosion of public trust.
One of the chiefs noted a loss of sexual autonomy. A phrase discussed often by Stanford feminist majors. But it’s theory, not law, and subject to debate. I’m sure that chief has never sat through a Stanford feminist discussion, it was most likely scripted for him by a feminist group who have also turned against sex workers. Feminists that treat their sisters as infants who should be talked over by other voices.
Clients were give felonies for their written words, sometimes for positive statements about sex workers they never met, but that group also saw that not all clients are in solidarity with sex workers. They saw that boundaries were tested, negotiating positions compromised, and a growing sense of entitlement was setting in. They saw the inability to reach out to LE when there was cause. They understand the difference between client and hobbyist.
Where do sex workers turn for support when the rest of the world, politicians, clients, radical feminists, LE, voices of the survivors, continue to seemingly exploit them?
We all need to speak up and provide that support and, hopefully soon, we will support our society’s most marginalized and not give lip service in exchange for exploitation. Rights! Not rescue.
Thank you for all the sex workers, their continued courage and their amazing fortitude. We appreciate you.
Call it what it is, and don’t sugar coat it. What the police do is terrorism.
ter·ror·ism
ˈterəˌrizəm/
noun
the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
And how do you intend to fight and defeat these terrorists?
Is it or is it not true that one of the main reasons to lock up – for instance – burglars is to discourage people from committing burglary? Beyond punishing a specific burglar to discourage them from doing it again, should the notion of discouraging burglary in general be a factor in sentencing? Is this something that society, that a judicary appointed by a democratically-elected government, has any business doing?
For instance – O.J. Simpson wurdered his wife and should have been found guilty. Had he been found guilty, wouldn’t it have been enough to simply make a court order forbidding him fro getting married again? Or do the courts have a legitimate role to “send a message” that killing your wife is not ok?
Oh sure, you can go on about how prostitution is a special case because it’s consensual etc. All you are really saying is “a law only counts if Maggie McNeil thinks it should”.
This comment is so completely idiotic, I’m going to assume you’re either drunk or making a very, very pathetic attempt at humor.