Showing posts with label prostitution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prostitution. Show all posts

this just in: sex with someone coerced into prostitution illegal ... in the future.

Posted on 7:05 AM, under ,

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While bit-torrenting, I noticed an interesting add (and no, I'm not talking about the 1 Rule to a Flat Stomach add). It led me to this site.

On 1 April 2010, it will become an offence to pay for sex with someone who has been forced, threatened, exploited or otherwise coerced or deceived into providing the sexual services by someone else, who has engaged in such conduct for gain. If convicted of the offence you could face a fine of up to £1,000, a court summons and a criminal record, and risk having your name mentioned in newspapers. It will be no defence for a person to say that they did not know the prostitute was being forced or threatened.
Shaming, seriously? Scarlet Letter much?

The key objectives of the strategy are to:

  • challenge the view that street prostitution is inevitable and here to stay
  • achieve an overall reduction in street prostitution
  • improve the safety and quality of life of those communities affected by prostitution
  • reduce all forms of commercial sexual exploitation

    (Source)
I would say prostitution, in any form, is inevitable and here to stay. Whatever the form.

But many street-walkers are exploited, and the relation of coerced prostitution and drug abuse and traffic is there. So by tackling the demand, I'd say yes, we can tackle one side of the problem.

What this fails to address is the safety and quality of life of the women it seeks to protect. A truly comprehensive programme would also include job alternatives for them, training, counseling. Access to shelters and day care, maybe. Or, simply, access to the alternatives other women have. Think about it.

You've cracked down on every pimp and drug dealer and thus "freed" these women. These women, that at the very least, had a roof over their heads while they were being pimped. I am fully aware that being forced into prostitution is nothing short of being a slave. But what would happen to a woman after her only way of earning a living is taken from them? If she knows nothing else, she will continue doing what she did. And there you go: you still have street-walkers.

In short: targeting the well-being of exploited women will be what reduces exploitation, combined with more stringent laws regarding coerced prostitution, abuse, and drug trafficking.

As many doubts as I might have about it, I don't want to miss the core: this is a step towards helping reduce coerced prostitution. Big or little, we won't know until the law comes into effect and results are presented. That's going to take a while, of course.

But what baffles me the most, however: why is this law coming into effect just now?

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prostitutes: we have our own voice. kindly shut the fuck up, thank you.

Posted on 10:24 PM, under

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Confession 1: for almost five years, I worked as a call girl. True story. (And it was legen ... DARY.)*
Confession 2, and a Nice Little Story:

I didn't have the slightest idea of who Belle de Jour was until one of my Nights of Endless Channel-Surfing and I came across re-runs of Secret Diary of a Call Girl. After initially dismissing it as a very fictionalised version of what being a call girl is really about, I gave the blog a chance.

Fast-forward to today and after having read all of Belle's blog posts, I am enamoured with this witty, intelligent, sassy, educated woman that went into a very stigmatised job and came out if it (as far as I know) relatively unscathed.

I recently read this post by Tracy Corrigan. My siding with Belle is, surprisingly, not related to my being a fan. It’s more about Tracy Corrigan being ... well, I’ll let you judge for yourselves:

It is possible that Belle has emerged from her experiences without incurring psychological or physical damage. But it’s no excuse for projecting prostitution as a rather fun, pragmatic passtime for smart girls.

(...) I recently heard a former prostitute explain on the radio that many prostitutes are drug addicts not only because they work to finance their habits, but also because they need to medicate themselves in order to be able to ply their trade.

My problem with Belle is not so much that she chose to turn to prostitution, just because she didn’t want to do a job that was boring and poorly paid, but that she then chose to promote it as a cool career option.

Here’s some shocking news for most of you: there are many women, intelligent and educated, working in the Sex Industry. Willingly. And come out “without incurring psychological or physical damage”.

What’s up with how we look at sex work, overall? Somehow, for some reason I don’t understand at all, the sex worker is normally a plastic-looking vixen or Casanova that’s actually a broken and post-abuse child from a broken home inside. And in most cases, they’re nursing a drug habit “because they need to medicate themselves in order to be able to ply their trade.”.

Here’s the kicker: if we switch our point of view, if we stop for a minute to think a very normal person could willingly go into sex work and keep its personal integrity mostly intact? It’s glamorising prostitution, and that my dears won’t fly with most.

As Belle has done in the past, I would never say that prostitution is “a cool career option”. More often than not, you come home exhausted, angry, and sad. Don’t even get me started on the fictional demons it can bring into your dating life, the stigma being a sex worker carries, and the potential dangers and hardships of having your work personna discovered by friends and family.

I will also say that, hard as it might have been at times, it has provided me with many stories – some hilarious, some cringe-worthy, some ladden with advice. From the other side of sex-work, I can say I went into it and came out of it relatively unscathed. Maybe slightly bruised, never broken, and loads wiser. Still, I wouldn’t reccomend sex work ... like I wouldn’t reccomend going into med school, or Political Science, or a career as a stokebroker.

I have a bit of advice for Tracy Corrigan: please stick to writing about business and finance, which is clearly your area of expertise. And let us, the sex workers, write about prostitution.

*Inside joke between Partner and I, who was present at the time of writing and publishing this post. Also, proof that I cannot take anything seriously.


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