As one of the oldest professions, sex work is well known, but people do not understand the real life of sex work. Sex workers, on the other hand, are often forced to become marginalized, not respected, less able to enjoy basic rights and to endure unfair treatment by legislative enforcement in addition to the risks posed by the work itself.
Playing the Whore demystifies sex workers, analyzing socially, ethically and legally why they are treated unfairly and the changing attitudes of society towards sex work. This book will also change most people's stereotypes about sex workers, many of whom are actually more independent and powerful than expected.
Melissa Gila Grant is a writer, journalist and former stripper. She is an active advocate for human rights, especially the rights of sex workers, and volunteers in gender equality organizations and sex work groups. Her articles have been published in The New York Times and The Guardian.
1. The living space of sex workers is squeezed
Our society tends to see things as absolute, black is black, white is white. For example, people think that the police will keep everyone safe and that all sex workers are not good people. What about the facts? Of course it's not that simple. In the United States, for example, police work often makes sex workers' lives more insecure. What's going on?
A survey conducted by the U.S. Sex Worker Program in 2003 found that more than two-thirds of sex workers in New York City had been harassed by police, often even routinely. Not only that, but 30% of sex workers have been threatened with police violence. Most of them believe that in the event of customer violence, it is useless to find the police.
To tell a real-world example, a sex worker was gang-raped, but because of her profession, the police refused to file an investigation and felt that she was not worthy of protection. Under the influence of this attitude, many sex workers' distress calls were not taken seriously, and eventually many sex workers simply gave up asking for help.
By 2005, the Sex Worker Project found that 14 percent of sex workers interviewed in New York City were victims of police violence. In addition, 16% of sex workers said that the police even tried to have sex with them.
A similar problem is not limited to New York, but in the Indian state of West Bengal, a survey of 21,000 sex workers found that most of the violent attacks they suffered came from police, not customers. The data shows a startling truth everywhere – that customers are often thought to be the most dangerous and can cause harm to sex workers. In fact, however, the greater danger comes from the police.
2. The opening of the sexual liberation movement
Ever seen Victor Hugo's Les Misérables? There was a woman named Fantine inside. She was originally a female worker, but because she was abandoned by her boyfriend, she was fired from the factory, and in order to support herself and her daughter, she eventually became a prostitute and became a marginal figure abandoned by society. Therefore, it is often assumed that prostitutes mostly start selling their lives because they are desperate.
Fortunately, with the development of the times, the situation of sex workers has changed. In the 1960s, with the beginning of the sexual liberation movement in the West, there were many positive changes in society's perception of sex work. At the time, there were positive images of the first sex workers in pop culture, such as jane Fonda who won an Oscar in 1971 for her role in the film Willow Lane Yerba Buena, in which she played an independent and powerful call girl.
That same year, Dutch sex worker Savira Holland published an autobiography that broke into the top 5 of the New York Times bestseller list. The book has an interesting name, "Happy Whore."
At the same time, the sex worker movement also emerged. In 1973, The First Sex Workers' Rights Organization in the United States was also founded under the leadership of Margot St. James.
Two years later, in Lyon, France, sex workers organized a sit-in in front of a church to protest their unequal imprisonment. To this day, street prostitution remains illegal in France, but sex workers are exempt from arrest as long as they are not honourable.
Today, if you want to truly fight for the rights of sex workers, you must ask international agencies for help. For example, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and several UN committees, including the Commission on Human Rights, are constantly calling for the legitimization of sex work.
This view is also supported by the International Labour Organization, which recognizes sex work as a legitimate occupation and protects sex workers from discrimination, such as mandatory AIDS testing. They also require sex workers to have equal rights and interests as other occupations, including social security and health insurance.
3. Enactment of laws for sex workers
People are always arguing about the morality of the sex trade, but when sex workers come forward to speak up, people ignore their views. What's going on? Because the leaders of these debates are intellectuals, politicians, and moral leaders, who usually only care about personal image, where do they care about the lives of sex workers?
In 1983, for example, sociologist Catherine Barry spearheaded the first World Conference on Human Trafficking, but she declined to invite Margot St. James, founder of the organization Human Rights for Sex Workers. Why? Barry believes that sex workers themselves live by selling themselves, and they will certainly accept or even support sex trafficking, so their views have no reference value.
In addition to this, sex workers cannot participate even when laws related to sex work are being enacted. In 1999, Sweden passed a new anti-prostitution bill without consulting any sex workers. Until then, only prostitution had been illegal, but the new law had added customers to the ranks of offenders, and prostitutes could be fined or jailed.
Although some see this as a triumph of feminism, arguing that the new bill shifts the transgression of the sex trade from female sex workers to male customers, it has been criticized by sex workers. After all, men are afraid to hire prostitutes for fear of being arrested, so what else can they do with their business?
In addition, the process of buying and selling between sex workers and customers has become very tense, customers are in a hurry for fear of being caught, and sex workers have to quickly decide whether to pick up customers, which makes them not have enough time to judge whether customers are safe, whether they are drunk or violent.
So these laws, which were supposed to protect sex workers, actually make their jobs more dangerous.
4. The illegality of the sex trade puts sex workers at risk
In the past brothels, prostitutes did not have a good life, their personal freedom was controlled by the brothel bustards, and most of the money earned from selling their bodies was taken by the bustards. But then again, they have a mother mulberry cover on them, and if any guests dare to cause trouble, there will be strong men who will immediately beat them up.
Today, however, sex workers have little protection from their employers, especially in some countries where the sex trade is illegal. Agents often sign agreements with sex workers to give them assurances that they won't have sex with their guests. But how is this possible? The intermediary is obviously doing the skin and meat business, of course, in order to hide the eyes and ears of the people, do not want to pay legal responsibility, even if sex workers are caught illegal prostitution, they can not be caught.
Where sex work is illegal, the responsibility falls on sex workers. In order to maintain a pure appearance, intermediaries certainly do not formulate policies to protect employees, such as teaching them how to negotiate terms with their guests.
This hypocrisy can even hurt other women, such as those who carry condoms, who may be suspected of prostitution. As late as 2012, in big cities like San Francisco and Washington, U.S. police used condoms as evidence to judge women for sex work. If the police suspected a woman of prostitution, they could detain her and then search her home, and if enough condoms were found, they could be used as evidence of her prostitution.
Ironically, far from reducing the sex trade, the practice discourages genuine sex workers from using condoms. As a result, they are at higher risk of working, potentially contracting AIDS, various sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention unwanted pregnancies.
5. Visibility of socially non-inclusive transactions
Many people see homeless people begging on the side of the road, do they turn around and act as if they don't see it? Like begging, sex trafficking is something that many people don't want to see. In other words, the public is more concerned about whether the sex trade is justified, and is not concerned about the safety of sex workers.
For example, the humanitarian organization Equality Now recently asked Village Voice magazine to stop advertising sexual services with female nudity. As a result, Village Voice magazine made a change, requiring sex workers not to put sexy full-body photos when advertising, but to put a photo of their ID.
Have you found out what the problem is? In fact, what the public really cares about is the visibility of the sex trade, they are not willing to accept the fact that there is existential work in society, and in the eyes of the public, if the sex trade is made bright and upright, it will corrupt the social atmosphere.
However, under U.S. law, sex workers do have the right to advertise. In fact, many states have tried to ban ads for sexual services, but have been rejected by the courts. In Washington State, for example, a bill to ban sexual advertising was proposed, which was eventually declared null and void. Why? The judge said the bill was too broad and that if it did pass, all online speeches could be judged illegal.
Also, in Tennessee, a regulation prohibiting sex trafficking in advertising was also rejected. What's going on? For the same reason, its description is too broad, because the term "sex trafficking" can be used to denote any form of sexual service.
6. What is sexual freedom?
American drama "Sex and the City", the four beautiful women in the emotional life can be said to be quite rich, the boyfriend has changed one after another, they have been beaten into the image of the beauty of the big city, it can be seen that the popular culture is still very accepting of open women. But acting is acting, in the real world, people still have views on women who are sexually active.
This moral judgment of women is actually closely related to people's views on sex workers. Why? Every time there is an incident of women being raped, there will be "straight men" who come out and say that they are "self-inflicted" and "who makes them dress so revealingly and behave so stylishly?" This is called "slut-shaming."
This view was reinforced by a 2006 lecture by Toronto police officer Michael Singunidi, who told female college students how to dress to avoid becoming victims of sexual violence. According to this logic, as long as the clothes are exposed to the slut, should the slut deserve to be raped?
This is simply robber logic! Women, of course, were reluctant, and in 2011 they organized their first "slut march" protest in Toronto. They want sexual freedom, they want to wear whatever they want, and they don't have to feel ashamed of it.
However, the sad truth is that it is not only men who participate in "slut shaming", but also many women who help reinforce this moral judgment. In the eyes of these women, women are divided into two categories: "serious" and "debauched". For example, if a girl is called a "slut," her girlfriends might say, "She's not a slut!" ”。 On the surface, they seem to be helping their friends to fight grievances, but if you think about it, this means that they actually have a solidified "slut" image in their concept, but her friends are not like this.
These people do not realize that the so-called "sluts" may just be sexually open-minded, and they are unwilling to accept the traditional concept of "women's way". Isn't the so-called "women's way" just an old idea? Abandoning this stereotype is itself an aspect of sexual liberation.
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