Today is a day to shamelessly celebrate our shameless history, not a day to cater to the precious fee-fees of amateurs by neutering our terminology so as not to offend their delicate sensibilities. – “Unsanitized”
Last year, I observed every one of the days I usually observe with polemics by instead providing quotes from and links to all the previous essays for that day. I did this “lest I grow irrelevant due to repetition. Besides, I’ve already written plenty“…but I did make one exception: this one, International Whores’ Day, because for the past few years I’ve noticed some sex worker organizations and social media accounts trying to sanitize our struggle by eliminating the “nasty” word “whore” rather than celebrating our long history as sexual outlaws. I already explained last year why this is misguided and counterproductive; this year I’m going to bring this observance into line with the others by quoting previous years’ essays.
Yes, things are very damned bad right now…and it will pass, as everything does. And when it does we will still be here, just as we always have been. – “Eternal as the Sea”
Politicians who up until recently coudn’t even be bothered to accept that sex workers have basic civil rights are now actively calling for decriminalization. – “Galvanized”
It is the intrinsic nature of government to continue growing ever more tyrannous until a revolution becomes inevitable. – “Cornered Animals”
Every day, sex workers of all backgrounds, all around the world, work to debunk prohibitionist lies and expose the ugly truth about government persecution of individuals for the “crime” of consensual sex. – “Whores’ Day 2017”
We are winning at last. And there’s not a damn thing the prohibitionists can do about it. – “Whores’ Day 2016”
Most feminists of 1975 still actually supported women’s choices. – “The Revolt of the Prostitutes”
Prohibitionists…have…in[vaded] the public’s imagination with…lurid masturbatory fantasies of gypsy whores, weeping teenage “sex slaves” and leering “pimps” with magical powers. – “A Day for Whores”
Though the crusade was rooted in American Protestant notions of “pure and pious womanhood”…it is the poorer countries of the developing world which have borne the brunt. – “International Whores’ Day”
The tide of history is toward greater individual and sexual rights, and those who would restrict others’ sexuality, no matter what propaganda they employ, will eventually be swept away. – “The Birth of a Movement“
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