I’m not easily surprised, but I definitely raised an eyebrow when I saw this on Monday:
…we propose to help build an international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups from around 30 countries who have called for such a strike. The idea is to mobilize women, including trans women, and all who support them in an international day of struggle – a day of striking, marching, blocking roads, bridges, and squares, abstaining from domestic, care and sex work, boycotting, calling out misogynistic politicians and companies, striking in educational institutions. These actions are aimed at making visible the needs and aspirations of those whom lean-in feminism ignored: women in the formal labor market, women working in the sphere of social reproduction and care, and unemployed and precarious working women…
The hypocrisy of that call for sex workers to give up a day of income to make these cunts feel “inclusive” is amply demonstrated by the fact that sex work is notably absent from this list of forms of institutionalized violence against women:
…the violence of discriminatory policies against lesbian, trans and queer women; the violence of state criminalization of migratory movements; the violence of mass incarceration; and the institutional violence against women’s bodies through abortion bans and lack of access to free healthcare and free abortion…
There’s plenty of Marxist claptrap in this essay, but nothing for whores except the call for us to carry water for people who don’t give a damn about us. As I said on Twitter, “The only water I’m going to carry for them is the water in my bladder, with which to piss on them & their hypocrisy.” I also said this:
Until mainstream feminism starts calling for decrim – not Swedish model or other BS falsely represented as decrim – they can fuck themselves. So, “feminists”, you want the support of sex workers in your pathetic little Lysistrata ripoff? Start demanding decrim, and let female legislators introduce bills to decriminalize sex work in all 50 states & denounce “sex trafficking” hysteria in Congress. THEN we’ll talk, and not a minute before. We’re sick of your lies & insults, sick of being thrown under the bus. Fuck you and your “protest”. “Blah blah blah ‘male violence’!” Except mainstream feminism promotes & enthusiastically cheers male governmental violence vs whores. I don’t just “call out” misogynistic politicians & others on one day that YOU get to choose; I do it EVERY FUCKING DAY OF MY LIFE.
And yeah, I mean every word of that. As Mistress Matisse said, “You really don’t get to just whistle us up when you want us & throw us right back under the bus when you don’t.” You want sex workers’ help, feminists? Actually prove you’re our allies in some substantive way. Then, and only then, will you have the right to ask us to do anything at all for you.
Ah, Maggie, what a woman, I love your Spirit, the Breath of Life! Keep up your wonderfully true spirituality.
I always enjoy and learn from your whiplash and caressing words.
From Jack, Humantheist, Autarchist, Polyamorist in Auckland, NZ.
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Jack Carney [image: https://]about.me/freeeach
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Jack Carney [image: https://]about.me/Self-ActualizationCoachJack
On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 11:04 PM, The Honest Courtesan wrote:
> Maggie McNeill posted: “I’m not easily surprised, but I definitely raised > an eyebrow when I saw this on Monday: …we propose to help build an > international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive > rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups fro” >
Damn right!! As a smut writer (or, more politely, “erotica author”) I’ve had my run-in with fauxminists who don’t get that my freedom of expression would be one of the first things trampled in their utopia. Even more so for sex workers like you, Maggie. They need to earn your trust – and mine!
Where were the feminists in 1975 when the prostitutes of Lyons took sanctuary in the Church of Saint Nizier? And sex workers all over France joined them in occupying churches and chapels in solidarity? Yes, Simone de Beauvoir joined one group in Paris, but that was it.
Now the organizers of this strike ask you to join them, when not one of their demands includes sex workers’ rights? I don’t think so.
Truer words such as these are sorely needed in this day and age.
This is wonderful. Maggie, this needs to be shouted.
**** Angela Keaton Executive Director Antiwar.com 323-512-7095
My electronic communications are terse -ak
On Thu, Feb 9, 2017 at 2:04 AM, The Honest Courtesan wrote:
> Maggie McNeill posted: “I’m not easily surprised, but I definitely raised > an eyebrow when I saw this on Monday: …we propose to help build an > international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive > rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups fro” >
Let’s see after making it harder for sex workers to make a living by closing down Backpage, feminists want these women to forgo any work they might get on this particular day as solidarity with a group that do not show any solidarity with them.
Sure, the current president has appointed a man as attorney general who has it in for all sex workers, even those who work in the currently legal porn business. However, how is not doing work that he doesn’t want them to do opposing him?
The louder feminism gets, the more capacity it seems to have to slit its own throat.
That’s the nagging feeling I get, from these things.
I mean, how can I support something that seems to want to demonise my gender?
How can I support something that denies our complementary, different, and (aren’t they supposed to be) mutually supportive natures?
How can I support something that denies even the proven biological differences that make our joint union a Great Thing of Awesome Amazement?
I…can’t. Sorry. It’s just making it worse. 🙁
Just to play devil’s advocate here, but let’s imagine the people behind this have an epiphany, make a complete 180 degree shift and start calling for full decriminalization.
Would anyone here be any more inclined to join in this little gesture?
Speaking as an activist who has seen similar situations, it’s never an “all or nothing” proposition. Many times, groups achieve rapprochement and eventual agreement in piecemeal fashion — a variation on the “march separately but strike together” theme. So while I wouldn’t hold my breath for mainstream feminists and sex workers to start singing Kumbaya, I wouldn’t be surprised if minor tactical agreements occurred over the long haul.
Feminists dislike the idea that men — especially men with money — can get easy access to sex and that’s the main reason they never fully get behind sex workers. They’re ready and willing to throw a select group of women under the bus because it hurts men in some way. This is similar to the methods of the women in the temperance movement. Back then quite a few women liked to drink. But a small group of women got behind the banning of alcohol because they saw it as a male vice — so the rest of all women got punished as well.
These calls for women’s strikes only help remind people what would happen if all men went on strike for a day.
It’s like their attitude to male abuse victims.
‘We’ll feign sympathy and ride on your coat tails by telling you that the problem is “patriarchy” while we secretly chuckle at your misery because you are our “oppressors”, derail every attempt to help you while we accuse you of doing the same, claim that we’re already helping you but discard you whenever you ask for our help, but the dictionary definition of feminism means you’ll still support us, right?’
Wrong.