I totally agree that street prostitution is degrading and causes victimization of pros. I feel the same way about any kind of pimping, in any venue, unless the management is extremely benevolent and caring toward workers, which is rare.
Melissa Farley and her ilk and anyone who agrees with her needs to realize that ending prostititution is not the answer…helping the workers get off the street, decriminalized and PROTECTED is the answer.
I’ve worked as an independent “escort”, and I’ve written two books about the lifestyle, and in those books I make it clear that I don’t like third party management, which is exactly what a madam (or pimp or agent) is doing. I feel that such management steals authority and personal power from the actual sex worker.
However, with that said, I want to make the point right here that Palfrey has been a victim of a system that prohibits women from engaging in the one, true solid profession that women will always dominate, one that self-respecting sex workers will always draw great power from. That such a profession is disallowed is true oppression of women, and this is something that even the feminists miserably fail to grasp.
Whether Palfrey offed herself or was murdered, the truth is prohibition killed her. All of us involved in prostitution die a little bit each day, because of prohibition and oppression.
Palfrey was forced to dare (commit a crime) and she was also forced to hide (launder money) in a woman-oppressive system. And now she’s dead.
The fault is everyone’s.
Aphrodite Phoenix
I got arrested once. The cops wanted names from me. I gave them nothing. I was already so outraged about my own arrest, there was no way I’d give them ANY more than the satisfaction they already had from nabbing me.
Fact: in most states, prostitution is a misdemeanor. That rarely means any jail time. Just a fine. Fact: in most states, pimping or pandering is a felony. A pimp, agent or madam IS looking at jail time. So the pimp, agent or madam is very highly motivated to turn in clients’ names in order to avoid jail, but the individual sex worker is not.
That’s just one more reason for my opposition to third-party management.
What a sickening disappointment!!!!! All she did was the same-old same-old: she interviewed the most accessible prostitutes in the country, the streetwalkers and brothel workers, so OF COURSE she saw mostly just the downside of the work, the pitiful junkies and women who are pimped or managed. OF COURSE such women aren’t happy, so OF COURSE Sawyer portrayed something seamy, sad, degrading, and ambivalent at best….WHY did she only speak to ONE courtesan???? WHY did she NOT go to www.independentescort.com, and approach the women there, or seek out the sex workers’ union that’s proliferating??? WHY THE SAME-OLD SAME-OLD???
ANYONE can go into the street and talk to the women out there. They’re so demoralized, they’ll talk to anyone…they hardly even care if they get arrested. And the Nevada brothel girls are easy to talk to because where they are it’s legal.
You call that INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING, Diane??? You call that DIGGING for the WHOLE TRUTH???
Shame on you.
Here’s a new addition to the intro to (the soon-to-be reprinted) Book Two, entitled Forward: A Sex Worker’s Lament. I composed it this morning:
But for now, it’s just another drab morning, just another day of clamorous finger-pointing, just another klatch of blogs full of ire. Two days ago Eliot Spitzer, the governor of New York, got caught patronizing an “escort.” People are enraged, calling for his resignation, and feeling sorry for his wife and teen-aged daughters.
Well, it seems to me that if “escort” sex work were legal, there wouldn’t be much of a scandal. No one would have snooped on the governor’s digression, and few people would have cared. And if Spitzer himself weren’t so duplicitous, posing as a moralist and talking down prostitution, then once again, who would have cared? It’s hypocrisy that’s burying Spitzer, far more than the act itself.
What will it take to make America see that it’s not the “escort service” that’s wrong, but the big deal that’s made of it? Maybe Spitzer’s wife is “standing by her man” because she understands this.
It’s true that this man’s phony stance is appalling. It’s mildly redolent of those priests who preach abstinence, and are raping little boys out back. But the outcry with regard to the service Spitzer needed is making me want to yawn.
Catch them all and there goes the government.
******************************
The world-famous prostitutes rights activist and author of Cop to Callgirl, Norma Jean Almodovar, emailed with me
today about the Spitzer scandal. She gave me permission to copy her email here:
I’ve been doing interviews nonstop since the scandal broke. And amazingly, I said the
same thing about the politicians and catching them all… I phrased it:
If all the politicians who had ever frequented a prostitute were forced to resign,
there would be no one left to run the government!
We can only hope that this dude is prosecuted for HIS crimes against
prostitutes- that he prosecuted them with such zeal and enthusiasm. May
he get whatever he dished out to the victims of his morality crusade!
It will be interesting to see who are the other clients of this
“Prostitution ring” were- if they get exposed by the government…
Best,
Norma Jean
*2007 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers** *
December 17th 2007 marks the 5th Annual International Day to End Violence
Against Sex Workers. This event calls attention to hate crimes committed
against sex workers. Originally conceived by the Sex Workers Outreach
Project as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River murders
in Seattle Washington, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers
empowers workers, clients, and our supporters to come together to organize
against criminalization, discrimination and to remember victims of violence.
*At 11:30 am on Monday, December 17th, 2007 *on the steps of San Francisco
City Hall, the Erotic Service Providers Union Sex Workers will join the Sex
Workers Outreach Project and Supervisor Jake McGoldrick’s press conference
to raise awareness about the violence committed against this unprotected
workforce.
Following this public speak out, ESPU will hold a public vigil at *3pm on
Monday, December 17th, 2007 *at Bancroft and Telegraph in Berkeley,
California to call attention to a recent incident of violence against a sex
worker while attending a UC Berkeley event hosted by the Ethics Department
that depicted sexually violent graphic images of sex workers as normal.
We will be asking the universities to host forums to ensure that students
and teachers have access to facts from actual sex industry workers and our
supporters about what forced labor actually looks like in the sex industry.
All Erotic Laborers must be supported in accessing our own agency to report
theft, assault, battery, rape, coercion and murder. Existing laws that
criminalize prostitution and immigration as well as other forms of
regulations of erotic labor prevent workers from reporting violence. Please
join us by calling attention to hate crimes against sex workers, namely
prostitutes.
“By demanding the end to anti-prostitution laws and regulations, we will end
the stigma, discrimination and violence against us and the stigma against
our clients”, says Starchild. The Erotic Service Providers Union demands
that all workers and clients, female and male alike, have the ability to
negotiate for our labor and work conditions irregardless of our legal
status, country of origin, or government documentation.
Hey Jamie, thanks for posting. It was very interesting to see what you have to say. If you ever read my books you’ll see that I’m extremely opposed to third party management. I believe in ONLY independently working. I’m sorry to hear that the managers of the Nevada brothels can be pimpish… but I’m not surprised. On the other hand, though, do you think it’s right for people like Melissa Farley to be trying to TOTALLY END prostitution?? Why aren’t they trying to HELP US ESCAPE the pimps instead???
Anti Prostitution Group Commits Violence On Sex Worker At UC
Berkeley Performance
By Maxine Doogan
11/11/07
An altercation involving Maxine Doogan of the Erotic Service
Providers Union, followed a performance sponsored by U C Berkeley
Ethic Department at UC Berkeley Worth Ryder Gallery on Nov. 9th
2007 which resulted in the U C Berkeley Police issuing a 7 day stay
away order to Ms Doogan, Lisa Roelillg one other companion.
“My Real Name” was a One New Earth Production performance by
Students and Artist Fighting to End Human Slavery. Sponsored by
the UC Berkeley Ethics Studies and promoted by the SAGE Project
violent scene after violent scene was played out against
streetbased prostitutes. This play actually turned out to be a
propaganda piece conflating incest, rape, domestic violence,
economic disparity, homelessness, drug addiction with the
occupation of prostitution by depicting graphic sexually violent
images and reenactments.
The producer had stated that this performance was meant to be
interactive and invited audience members to interact with the
people depicting the violence during the performance. It was
unclear if the people relating the violence were actors or the
actual people who had experienced the violence originally. The
producer also said a discussion about trafficking in the sex
industry would follow the performance.
Many people walked out before the end as did Doogan, who returned
at the conclusion expecting to find a discussion under way but
instead found her comrade, Lisa Roellig, a former streetbased
worker surrounded by anti prostitution activist, like researcher
Melissa Farley, who recently called for the closing of the legal
brothels in Nevada.
Roellig, an ex-streetbased worker and Doogan attempted to converse
with the producer about her relationship to the issues raised in
the performance. The producer responded by yelled and waved her
arms saying she didn’t believe in the comodification of women and
that no discussion was going to take place. However a loud
discussion ensued between all parties with the producer stating
that Doogan ‘sucked the dicks of corporate America’ and was ‘a
white and privileged’. Another anti prostitutionist, also a former
streetbased worker, stated that all prostitutes are dogs, and used
physical intimidation to push Doogan out the door while evoking the
name of blood of Jesus Christ. Doogan responded by leaving the
building and calling the anti prostitution group “poverty pimps”.
Annie Fukushima, U C Berkeley Doctorial Candidate, threatened to
call the cops and Doogan encouraged her to do so.
Doogan, Roellig and the third person made statements to the police
that Doogan had been physically assaulted. UC Berkeley Campus
Officer Sanchez only wanted to know if the women who called the
police were women of color. All three women were issued 7 day stay
away orders.
Said Roellig, “While they were privileged enough to call in the
cops because two women show up to question their view of our lives,
I was not ever privileged enough to call the cops when I was raped,
assaulted or robbed on the street because I was a criminalized
worker. These women are outspoken on their abolitionists views and
are advocates of the continuation of the States oppressive laws
that control our bodies, our economies and most important make us
easy targets for police abuse and corruption”
Please call, write or email the Berkeley Police Department and tell
them to receive the report of battery on Maxine Doogan. And the UC
Berkeley Ethnic Studies Department because it failed in its
commitment to be understanding of the deep multiple meanings of
racial diversity in the Americas in the area of prostitution when
they sponsored the performance and facilitated racial violence
against sex industry workers.
Talk to me about this SOOO unbiased, reasonable, judicious, fair, and balanced individual!!! Melissa Farley, who is a psychologist researcher firmly opposed to the decriminalization of prostitution, has in the past chosen ONLY the forced and the coerced amongst prostitutes for her bigoted interviews. She insists that prostitution is ALWAYS “paid rape.” I go after her bigotry with a chain saw in Book Two, to smite her balderdash reportage, which was written mostly during years past.
BUT NOW Farley’s spewn out ANOTHER biased finding, this time specifically about our very own American-grown ranch-brothels in Nevada. She makes them sound like prisons or cattle ranches.
I’ll agree with any abolitionist that managed prostitution is NOT the way things should be. The ONLY WAY a working girl can guarantee her freedom from exploitation is to totally work for herself. But Farley, as usual, goes bonkers with bias. She’s determined to color prostitution in the grays and blacks of coercion and despair.
You need only take a look at the glowing countenances of the Nevada working girls on HBO’s “Cathouse” series to know that they don’t feel imprisoned or like cattle. Just watch them laughing and talking about how much they love their work!
And Farley’s never done their work! Just who does she think she is….I’m so sick of these people getting academic accolades, all at the sex workers’ expense.
Comments, please!
I’m happy to announce that my new web site, including the blog, is now fully up and running to coincide with the launch of A Woman Whose Calling Is Men. Please check back often for updates to this blog.