tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38277676304973355822024-03-03T16:25:35.204-08:00This is not an advertisementUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-52226909152669524462015-11-04T23:11:00.001-08:002016-02-18T20:43:01.500-08:00What being at #Junket was like from someone who didn’t at all fit in. <div class="MsoNormal">
Christian Vega<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was weird being invited to #Junket. I don’t know how they got my contact details
but an invitation turned up in my inbox one day <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://junket.junkee.com/home" target="_blank">“Junket is an un-conferencehosted by the folks behind Australian pop-culture and opinion site Junkee.com.Junkee are inviting 200 of Australia’s best and brightest young minds to gatherat the QT Canberra from November 1 to 3, to share ideas, get advice, beinspired, innovate, teach, learn, network and have fun -- all with the(suitably ambitious) aim of helping set the agenda for Australia’s future.”</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>WTF?! Hm. OK. Someone’s obviously been punk’d… or
they’re about to be</i>. When one has
experienced the lifetime of stigma and prejudice that I had, an intense
apprehension accompanies any social situation that does not explicitly state
that your community or allies will be present.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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My thought process eventually concluded with, <i>“y’know just go, it’s not like I’ve got much
in your diary these days*?”</i> and this would be the thought I would keep
coming back to in order to convince myself to go. (* I’ll eventually get to this)<o:p></o:p></div>
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So in the lead up to the (un)conference, delegates were
invited to sign up to the event’s app, allowing one to check out who else was
going. This didn’t make it any easier-
there was CEO of this and founder of that; the twitter elite and the tumbler
famous; next-level hipsters and celebrated youf leaders - everyone was
intimidatingly impressive- and though I had worked hard to make achievements in
my own little corner- I felt this wasn’t comparable to what others had done
with their careers. Also, at this moment,
I am unemployed, technically homeless, completely robbed of my professional
confidence* and I’m not really one who naturally enjoys mingling and meeting
new people- what could I possibly contribute to this self-declared “junket”? </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguU8PjdPQCpMq4xN0lWrtf47USyeFmDZglvpUl1YY64QlfaT7RulQZ3RJyo9hLhApg_7Iwn8v_bhR0SvfJH0FFfgzAbIRJkaEaX5Gj_0RHoAdysexurknNkae4cuno5feJ-D_VuoHvwSi0/s1600/12112067_10153757308496474_3505385228022527738_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguU8PjdPQCpMq4xN0lWrtf47USyeFmDZglvpUl1YY64QlfaT7RulQZ3RJyo9hLhApg_7Iwn8v_bhR0SvfJH0FFfgzAbIRJkaEaX5Gj_0RHoAdysexurknNkae4cuno5feJ-D_VuoHvwSi0/s200/12112067_10153757308496474_3505385228022527738_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome Donuts</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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After driving down from Sydney, I checked in to the
ridiculously lush QT Canberra. There was
lots of fanfare out to welcome delegates who had gathered around the hotel
lounge. I made a bee-line for reception so I could quickly get to my room and
hide in my self-doubt and anxiety until just before the welcome session. <o:p></o:p></div>
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5:30pm finally rolls around and after a quick shower and
shoving the hotel “welcome donuts” into my face to settle my nerves, I made my
way to the hotel’s conference space and found no one I knew (or maybe just one
person I hardly knew) and sat down. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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“This is a safe space for optimism; this is a safe space for
altruism,” Jess Scully, the “curator” (ie: the person who headed up the
delegate selection process) announces. <i>OK.
Keep an open mind, you cynical arsehole.</i> “Go to this fun thing and that-
there’ll be free drinks!” Hm. Not that effective for someone who doesn’t drink
and with already massive reservations. <i>What
am I doing here?!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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“Now all of you who are hosting a session get up and you
have 60 seconds to pitch your idea to the audience.” My heart rate shoots
through the roof. You see, in the week before
the conference Jess had encouraged (pressured maybe?) me to identify some a
topic I might want to discuss. Again,
being so full of self-doubt and super time poor* I kind of ummed and ahhed and
bashed out a rough idea on my keyboard and emailed it through. I didn’t think I had refined it enough to
actually lead a discussion with a bunch of young go-getters who I didn’t know
let alone throw it into a pitching session, a competitive corporate process that
isn’t really part of the way I work. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A line for the microphone had formed. I deliberately placed myself behind about 60
other delegates- giving myself about an hour to observe others pitch and start
to put together something I could present.
Again, this didn’t make it easier; everyone was super articulate, racing
against a 60 second countdown, the professional development and training that formed
the public speaking skills being exercised was obvious. But then some of the
ideas people were pitching were ones that embodied a politic I could identify with-
encouraging more young people to vote, dismantling white supremacy, preserving
indigenous culture in a digital age, challenging sexism in video games, normalising
differently abled people, making representations of sex in the media less weird.
Every pitch was met with applause and encouragement. <i>Hm, while I’m out of my comfort zone, at least there’s stuff I can talk
about</i>. Then came a pitch that surprisingly that was surprisingly
reassuring. <o:p></o:p></div>
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“… how do we value introverted leadership as much as
extroverted leadership?” Again, massive applause. Encouragement. This was a moment that I
thought, <i>alright, so you’re a bit
different, that’s fine. These peeps seem cool, it’ll be ok…</i> oh wait… <i>Argh,</i> <i>What the hell was I going to say?!</i></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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With about 5 delegates in front of me my mind retreated to
its zen-like survival state. <i>“Just do what you always do,”</i> I told
myself. So I did… <o:p></o:p></div>
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“Hi. My name is Christian and
while I don’t have a lot of time to introduce myself I’ll say 2 things: I’m someone with a history of being an
actual junkie and a whore and while those words may be slurs to you- ones that
you probz shouldn’t use- to me they, are my job, my life, and my community.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Everyone became silent. <i>Just
keep going and no one’ll hear the crickets…</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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“So people like me spend a lot of
time fighting for acceptance, to be recognised as a legitimate part of the
broader community. But the prejudice, stigma and discrimination we are tired of
dealing with is not experienced by us alone. Laws are a way of saying who is in
and who is out in this country. So rather than constantly arguing for
recognition- because I think we actually shouldn’t have to- I want to turn this
conversation around and ask instead, in Australia, what is a crime?”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Applause. Encouragement. Just like any other pitch. <i>Phew. </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/B2BYCBZnlW0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B2BYCBZnlW0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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Following the pitching session was dinner and as I made my
way to the eating space out of nowhere some random walks up to me, shakes
my hand and says, “hey I really respected what you did up there and I’d like to
talk to you more.” When acceptance so earnestly expressed one takes a moment to
scan for insincerity… <i>nope… whoa! </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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In fact that was a recurring instance. People were genuinely curious to hear from
someone of my experience- but more than that, people were interested in
building solidarity- either by self-identifying their own drug use or sex work,
or some other personal link to it. I made lots of connections, planned future collaborations, and met a few new friends
out of the experience. Even the issue of the exclusion created by alcohol (at
one stage the hashtag morphed from #Junket to #Drunket) was discussed. It’s weird, all of this kum-ba-yah positivity was not something with which I was used to being comfortable but it made me realise
something- I had been punk’d. <o:p></o:p></div>
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*For the past eight
months I’ve been involved in a fairly intense bullying situation. I don’t
really want to go into the details of it (it involved me losing my job and
moving interstate as recently as a week before Junket) but I’ll say when one is
the victim in that situation it becomes second nature to retreat, to hide, to
shut down. I hadn’t engaged with social
media in any significant way during that time and my once on-the-verge-of-burnout
portfolio of community activity had now faded to near obscurity. It made me scared. I had been tricked into seeing everything through the lens of doubt and cynicism. And it was fucked.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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As well as learning heaps, being inspired, and having way
too much fun, Junket made me face these fears and reconnect to a world I had
hidden away from. I needed that pressure- no, encouragement- I needed the opportunity to step out of the cage that had been built around me. Of course the process
wasn’t perfect (what process ever is first time around?) and “the brightest minds” are aware
enough to know that Junkee and corporate sponsors were gaining from our
participation, but ultimately it’s indisputable that the organisers had made
good on the (urban) dictionary definition of what a Junket was going to be: “An…
event for which an individual personally pays little to nothing, but reaps
extreme benefits.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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For me, what I gained was summed up by a delegate during the
feedback session: “it’s OK to be uncomfortable.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m back, cunts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4DerAaCHyhXc7YQ3qJo_vfAwFBMEMU6dIsCrHhwtXrQ17RRgCjhc1iYXvDjJnma9PLDZT1FF6rDRv5PUBeiMeslo59Xu9lRECZ2vGQzSylHuhSqSD55hfZxOXGC9JQbd5uotMF2X3Z-5/s1600/11219661_10153760932026474_6081003025014515423_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-4DerAaCHyhXc7YQ3qJo_vfAwFBMEMU6dIsCrHhwtXrQ17RRgCjhc1iYXvDjJnma9PLDZT1FF6rDRv5PUBeiMeslo59Xu9lRECZ2vGQzSylHuhSqSD55hfZxOXGC9JQbd5uotMF2X3Z-5/s200/11219661_10153760932026474_6081003025014515423_n.jpg" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#Junket Last Day 6AM Alone contemplating an amazing 2 days of listening, learning, sharing, and being welcomed and inspired.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-4686120380065453202014-09-21T19:26:00.001-07:002014-09-21T19:52:08.747-07:00Eamonn Duff convinces his readers that raping sex workers is a “dream job”<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s come to light that a man has claimed to have raped sixty
sex workers. Instead of condemnation, here
are some quotes written by Eamonn Duff and published in the Sydney Morning
Herald over the weekend:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Never in a million years would I have imagined ... doing
it," the 60-year-old said, with a hint of a smirk.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“I enjoyed myself.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While Mr Allen said he enjoys the thrill of [raping sex workers]...<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To date, he has only shared his secret with one other person: "I
told one of my mates ... he was a bit incredulous and a bit envious, too."
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[about his sons finding out about what he did] “... I hope they have a
good chuckle”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It’s a pretty horrendous way to describe sexual assault. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/this-man-has-had-sex-with-60-prostitutes-8211-and-sydneys-ratepayers-footed-the-bill-20140920-10iwug.html" target="_blank">Yet that’s exactly how Duff reported about how New South Wales councils had hired operatives to entrap sex workers working in brothels that may not have received planning approval for the provision of sexual services by paying to have sex with them. </a> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s be clear: What these operatives are doing is
rape. From the government’s Australian
Institute of Family Studies, <a href="http://www.aifs.gov.au/acssa/pubs/issue/i4.html" target="_blank">“If the accused knew the other person consented to sexual intercourse only because ... they held a mistaken belief about the nature of the act that was brought about by the accused's fraud, then the law treats the accused as knowing the victim-complainant was not consenting.” </a>Sex without consent is rape. The nature of these sexual interactions is to
gather evidence; the sex workers obviously haven’t consented to that. Therefore, what these operatives are being
paid to do by councils with ratepayers’ money is rape sex workers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In neither of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/councils-hire-sex-spies-to-catch-parlours-in-the-act-20140920-10jigg.html" target="_blank">the stories that appeared in the SydneyMorning Herald over the weekend</a> was there any mention that what was happening
was sexual assault. Eamon Duff clearly
doesn’t have much respect for sex workers- fine, whatever, he’s entitled to his
opinion. But it’s absolutely disgusting
that he would use his position at the Sydney Morning Herald to persuade readers
that raping sex workers is not only acceptable, it’s something to be admired. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Looking at <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sydneymorningherald/posts/10152798641596264?comment_id=10152799005801264&notif_t=like" target="_blank">the paper’s Facebook page, comments from readers</a>
included: “Hahaha Frikken legend! What a sweet gig.”, “Good for you Fred - go
gettem tiger”, “half his luck”, “Dream Job”, “Hahaha well done FRED. ENJOY IT
ALL”, “Livin the dream”, “Lucky prick.” Let’s be clear, these people are
talking about rape.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Imagine what this does to sex workers. A person rapes a number of people like you, they were
paid to do so by local government, a journalist practically high-fives the person
who did it and the public responds by calling him a “frikken legend”. It just made me sick.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How this can be considered ethical, professional journalism
is absolutely incomprehensible. We are
pretty used to mistreatment by the media (who can’t even use the correct words
to describe us) but what Duff and the Sydney Morning Herald did this weekend is
just appalling. Sex workers deserve more respect than this. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-7649354777772415412013-06-27T15:54:00.001-07:002013-06-29T07:23:54.180-07:00Stop Tolerating Sexual Assault- Decriminalise Sex Work Now<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">
<img alt="Tom Meagher: 'The justice system failed Jill'" height="179" src="http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/img/2013/news/jun/tom.jpg" width="320" /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">On the day the person who raped and murdered his wife was sentenced, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-19/tom-meagher-says-justice-system-failed-his-wife/4766620" target="_blank">Tom Meagher said, "I'm aware his previous victims in previous cases before Jill were sex workers, and I'll never be convinced that doesn't have something to do with the lenience of his [earlier] sentence."</a> (at 4:33 in the video)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Adrian Bayley was previously convicted of 16 charges of sexual assault against 5 victims. He served less than half the maximum sentence for one when he was on parole- and free to attack Jill Meagher. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">"It sends a disturbing message. What it says to women is if we don't like what you do, you won't get justice. And what it says to people like Bayley is not 'don't rape', but 'be careful who you rape'."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">There’s no denying that I, along with many of my fellow sex workers, were very moved by this sentiment. This is the first time I’ve heard a member of the public articulate the impact of the prejudice that we suffer on their lives. And for his respect and his compassion during what obviously has been a very distressing time, I say thank you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It’s clear. The more we de-legitimise sex work and exclude sex workers, the more we accept sexual assault, misogyny and degradation as a part of our community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">The light sentence Bayley received is merely the tip of massive iceberg of whorephobia entrenched in the practice of policy and underpinned by moralistic community attitudes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">5 victims of sexual assault. How did you think it was for these sex workers? Do you think the immediate thought that these people had after being violated was, 'I must go to the police'? These are workers who avoid the authorities on a daily basis- if the role of the police is to prosecute them- routinely initiating operations that threaten their freedom and livelihood, how can police effectively protect sex workers?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dig a bit deeper; these were 5 people that came forward. How many more would there be out there that didn’t? We know that sexual assault is underreported in the general community- it's horrific to think of the number of people- including sex workers- that were possibly targeted by people like Bayley.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Turn towards the justice system- we know in our community that the Victims of Crime Compensation sex workers receive is significantly reduced if we continue to work. This is reduced even further if the victim has been previously convicted of a violent crime. A victim of crime is a victim of crime- it shouldn't matter what their job is or what's in their history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We should be furious. Meagher probably doesn't know how true his words are, " What it says to women is if we don't like what you do, you won't get justice. "<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Street based sex workers are human beings- they deserve the rights and protections that we all enjoy. It will not help them if we continue to perceive them as victims or desperate. If we infantilise them and undermine the perception of their agency- we perpetuate the idea that what they are different to the broader community. If we exclude and marginalise them then what we are doing is serving them up to perpetrators of violent crime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What’s sickening is the reaction from sex work abolitionists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Kathleen Malthzahn was quick to jump on Meagher’s words to push her own agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In her <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/21/sex-workers-violence-australia?CMP=twt_gu" target="_blank">article appearing in the Guardian, </a>Maltzahn calls for “adequately resource specialist organisations that support women subjected to violence in the sex industry,” a poorly veiled appeal for money for the organisation she founded, Project Respect. (Or as it has become known as amongst the sex work community, Project DisRespect)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Until recently, the organisation had among its aims, “the promotion of policies and practices that reduce the conditions which cause the sex industry to thrive.” Perhaps this was changed after <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/gaining-respect-in-the-sex-industry/4625454" target="_blank">it was embarrassingly pointed out to executive director KellyHinton while on air on ABC radio </a></span><span style="font-size: 16px;">(skip to 26:39) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">that this runs contrary to their other aim of “supporting and sustaining the wellbeing of women in the industry.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What’s clear from <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1114950.htm" target="_blank">its history, its founder</a>, its persistent masquerading as an authority with the prerogative of speaking on behalf of sex workers is that Project Respect is anti- sex work. They don’t believe in the legitimacy of our work- they just want to rescue the poor sex workers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sex workers don’t need another hero. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If we experience violence in our workplace there are already mechanisms in place that should appropriately respond to such cases. And if there’s any justice in the world it’s the same service that you would call if you experienced violence in your own workplace- to say we should be treated differently just furthers discrimination against us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If we are interested in protecting sex workers in illegal settings from the experience of violence then the first step is the decriminalisation of all sex work. <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10644559" target="_blank">As we’ve seen in New Zealand, sex workers feel more enabled to access legal recourse in instances of violence.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">We don’t need to fund another rescue organisation. Abolitionsinsts are forever on a crusade to reduce the needs of sex workers to responding to "violence against women." Well guess what?- We're not just women. While violence may be a challenge faced by some sex workers, <a href="http://sexworkerproblems.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">there is a plethora of other stuff that we struggle with. </a> If you want to dedicate resources to improving the lives and working conditions of sex workers then fund sex worker organisation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1987, Melbourne was the first place in the world to see an organisation of sex workers receive government funding. Through mergers and acquisitions in the community sector, the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria was replaced with a service that was no longer made up of sex workers. It has been more than 10 years since a funded peer based organisation has existed in our state. Maybe it's unsurprising that<a href="http://www.sexparty.org.au/Media-Releases/no-one-is-listening-to-us-sex-workers.html" target="_blank"> I was probably the only person who paid tribute to the hard work of sex workers who had come before me</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">It’s not like sex workers are incapable of speaking- how about you as a community be more capable of listening?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sex workers are just like you, regardless of the way we work. Look around you. I can guarantee there are sex workers in your life. And if you think that you'll never hear from someone who was a drug dependant street based sex worker- you just finished read reading an article written by him. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-42112448285100587602013-04-28T05:25:00.000-07:002013-12-16T18:23:06.945-08:00A Comment Mamamia Wouldn't Publish<i style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">So in the last week somewhat of a blog war broke out between Brooke Magnanti and Mia Freedman after they both appeared on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3723150.htm" target="_blank">ABC's Q&A on Monday the 8th of April</a>.</i><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></i></span>
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 21px;">Magnanti asked, </span><a href="http://sexonomics-uk.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/should-mia-freedman-apologise.html?spref=tw" style="line-height: 21px;" target="_blank">"Should Mia Freedman Apologise...?"</a><span style="line-height: 21px;"> and Freedman had posted </span><a href="http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/mia-freedman-sex-worker-comments-q-and-a/" style="line-height: 21px;" target="_blank">"No, I won't..."</a><span style="line-height: 21px;"> and supporters and detractors have aired their opinions across the internet. When I attempted to post the comment below on Freedman's site it disappeared. An editor's note appeared later claiming that "</span></i></span><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><em style="line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Any comments overly personal in nature towards Mia Freedman or Brooke Magnanti will be deleted.</em><i><span style="line-height: 21px;">" People who know me, know that I don't take to being silenced submissively, so I'm publishing it here. Is this too personal? I'll let you be the judge.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="line-height: 21px;">I'm not going to ask Mia Freedman to apologise. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, I am going to share a story because I was in the similar situation to her- except rather than being the parent (I don't have any children) I was the one who heard my mother say something like what she broadcast over national television. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When I was little- perhaps I was around the same age as her child, seven- I overheard my mother say something like, "I wouldn't want my son to be gay." Which was fine at the time, I was really young, my sexuality hadn't dawned on me. I could just put it down as an attitude my mother had just like many others that had no bearing on me at the time. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But then I grew up and things changed. I realised I was queer. And one of the most devastating things for me was the sudden realisation that I would possibly no longer have the support of my mother. I questioned whether she would be there for me if I needed help or if she would ever understand what I was going through as a teenager. These are sad burdens to carry as a 14 year old. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The weight was much more than that. I realised that the lack of acceptance I could expect from my mother was the tip of a very big iceberg of rejection that existed in the world. The ideal of "unconditional love" had been forever shattered for me. My identity as a young person- a queer person- became confusing and my life, chaotic. Some people use the word that Mia does in her article, "appalling". </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; line-height: 21px;">This is the experience of sex workers everyday. People wonder why many of us hide- it's the judgments Mia made- judgements she gives other mothers and people permission to make (and if you'd like to read this judgement one doesn't have to look beyond the comments some of her readers have made on her post)- that keep many of us silent. It is this silence that isolates family members from each other is the same silence that prevents sex workers seeking recourse if they have been assaulted, discriminated against or otherwise need help.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As a fellow writer/broadcaster, I feel I have a responsibility to not perpetuate prejudice- but perhaps that is a value that I hold and Mia Freedman doesn't given our different backgrounds. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Years later, I have made peace with it all. I am on speaking terms with my parents again and they accept who I am- but I had to reach an age and a strength where they had no choice in the matter- if they weren't going to accept me, I could turn around just as easily and not accept them. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> And I am a sex worker. They had had to accept that too. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I'm not going to ask any mother for expressing their prejudice to apologise for two reasons- </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1) I feel sorry for them and their children because</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2) the people their judgement is going to have the most profound impact on is not me but those children. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The question of whether a parent wants their child to be a sex worker or not is irrelevent. The issue is that parents who act in the way Mia Freedman does have sent a clear signal- if your children are ever to become sex workers they cannot rely upon you for support and, as someone who knows what that is like, it can be a hard and sad place to be. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And here is where I feel most proud of people in my community who are parents. These are rare and special creatures. These are the minority of parents who are equipped with the knowledge and experience that could support a son or daughter who has chosen to do sex work. This is a support I could have only dreamed of when I grew up. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PS: the use of the word "sex worker" is not a mere preference. It's use is identified by J<span style="line-height: 16px;">oint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS,</span> <a href="http://www.unaids.org.fj/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=273:unaids-terminology-guide&catid=25:technical-documents&Itemid=74" target="_blank">as best practice to ensure scientific accuracy, the preservation of human rights and respect for minority populations</a>. As a supposedly professional writer, one should become familiar with these international standards.<br /><br />The terminology guide can be found here: </span><br />
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2011/JC2118_terminology-guidelines_en.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/unaidspublication/2011/JC2118_terminology-guidelines_en.pdf </a> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-70713295962817988732013-04-10T06:18:00.001-07:002013-04-10T06:38:27.704-07:00How To Date A Sex Worker <br />
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<i>The following text was originally published as a zine. I had the pleasure of speaking to the writer of these words on<a href="http://joy.org.au/thevixenhour/2013/04/for-the-love-of-hookers-sex-work-relationships/" target="_blank"> The Vixen Hour</a>. There are scant resources for the partners of sex workers so I am very grateful that someone has made this effort and shared his story. It's with his permission that I am able to share these words with you. </i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">My girlfriend is a sex
worker, and I love her deeply. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This article is intended to
be a resource for people in or considering a relationship with a sex worker,
with advice on the more common difficulties that come up. (Stuff I would have
liked to have been told back when I started dating my girlfriend, basically,
and couldn't find any advice on the subject.) Most of what's written here
translates into relationships of other genders and orientations, but because
I'm writing from my own experience, the advice contained here will be primarily
directed towards heterosexual cisgender men.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">I hope it helps someone get
the love they deserve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">1. Talk about it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This is crucial. A lot of
guys, when put in the situation of their partner/crush informing them that they
do sex work, will instinctively reach towards some agreement like, “<i>Well …
okay ... you can do that, just never mention it to me.</i>” This way lies
madness. You'll build the sex work up in your head into something far worse
than what it is – which is<i> </i>a job – and give your jealousy a virtually
infinite amount of tawdry ammunition to work with. Talking about it will
probably be awkward at first, but <i>talk about it anyway</i>. When you're able
to discuss her day at work openly, it loses its power over your ego. The
unspoken always hurts us more than what's said aloud. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">(Note: lots of sex workers
might not be immediately keen to volunteer information about their work. Based
on prior experience, they may assume that you won't be able to handle it, and
frankly, most of the time they'll be right. It will probably be up to you to
ask.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">2. If you feel insecure,
don't hide it – work through it.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">If you've never been in a
situation where your partner having sex with someone else isn't cause for
IMMEDIATE BETRAYAL-PANIC, feeling jealous (or at least a bit unnerved) is to be
expected. Sex is an intimate thing, and there's a panicked little voice in the
back of all of our minds that worries that if your partner has sex with other
men, even in the most detached way, she'll never be 'fully with you'. That
panicked little voice is an idiot. A sex worker can be a fully committed part
of a deeply loving relationship – you just need to make sure that your
insecurities allow her to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Sex workers who've tried to
have relationships often have stories about guys who swore that they were fine
with her job, only to have it surface later in much uglier ways (i.e. endlessly
putting off having her meet their family, or suddenly calling her a “whore”
during an argument). Don't be that guy. Don't lie to her, and don't lie to
yourself. Jealousy is natural, but it's also conquerable. The most important
thing is that you don't pretend that you're okay with it when you're not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This is the hard part. The
internal part. Our culture tells us so much damaging bullshit about sex
workers, but do everything you can to block it out. Instead, try and focus on
these four basic, golden, obvious truths:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What other men have to pay tons of money for, she
shares with you for free.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Not even having sex with those other men – some of
whom can be pretty unpleasant –
puts </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">her off wanting to be with you.<br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Work-sex is a performance. With you, she gets to be
herself – animated and vulnerable in a </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">way that she would simply never be at work. <br /><br /></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 13pt;">She didn't choose to be with those guys. She chose </span><i style="font-size: 13pt;">you</i><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Keep those four things in
mind, and the prospect of dating a sex worker becomes the exact <i>opposite</i>
of emasculating. Even though there are all these men who pay to have just a
brief experience of (heavily mediated) intimacy with her, it's you that she
wants to share something real with. It's you that she chose. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Don't make her regret it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">3. You shouldn't need her
job to suck.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">A lot of sex workers love
their jobs, and will have some really
great, enjoyable sexual experiences there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">This is not a threat to
you. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">If a client turns out to have
been a really amazing lover, you should just be glad that she had a good day at
work – the same as you would if she were a teacher, waitress or CEO. If you
require her to hide whenever she's had a great time at work, purely to satisfy
your insecurity, it's going to drive a wedge between you. When she feels like
she can speak openly about her experiences at work (the good stuff and the
bad), it will bond you closer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">4. Respect her boundaries.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Crucial advice for any
relationship! But particularly so with a sex worker. The 'playing a role'
aspect of sex work can be disassociating, and as her partner, part of your role
is to know how to make her feel like herself again. Sometimes this might mean
giving her time as she adjusts from one sexual environment to another;
sometimes this might mean backseating your desires. The idea that sex workers
do not have the right to refuse sex is one of the most damaging aspects of the
cultural bigotry surrounding them. Everyone has the right to refuse sex.
Respecting boundaries doesn't end there, but it's a necessary first step,
before any others may be taken.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">5. Don't tell other people
she's a sex worker without permission.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">A minority of sex workers are
completely 'out' to everyone they meet, but most are somewhere on a spectrum
between 'my friends know' and 'you're the first person in my real life I've
told'. It is not up to you to decide who else gets to know. In certain circles,
telling people that you're dating a sex worker might get you appreciative gasps
of shock, a smattering of activist/feminist cred – whatever, it doesn't matter.
It's her choice who she lets know what she does. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">(And none of that “telling
someone but making them swear they won't tell anyone else” bullshit. What was
true in primary school is true now: when you do that, it gives implicit
permission for the person you told to do <i>the</i> <i>exact same thing you
just did</i> – that is: tell one other person – and before you know it,
everyone knows and you no longer have a girlfriend.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The ideal thing would be if
our whole society grew the fuck up and let sex work be seen as a regular,
respectable profession, but we're a long way from that. Pressuring her to be
more 'out' than she's comfortable with is <i>exactly</i> as bad as pressuring
her to hide her profession more than she wants to. These are her decisions, and
you need to respect them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">6. Don't tell her to stop.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">When she's had a bad day at
work – the clients were annoying, one guy's dick was uncomfortably big, she
forgot her lip balm, et cetera – the correct response is not “You should quit.”
Everyone has bad days at work sometimes, and it's wrong to use those days as
evidence that she should stop working, when bad days are accepted as inevitable
in other professions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">There's a tendency in some
guys to try and 'save' women from sex work, which is a devastatingly
condescending attitude when the work is freely chosen. If the respect you have
for a person doesn't include room for their autonomy, that isn't real respect.
(This is why “I respect you too much to let you do this kind of work” is a
bullshit, paradoxical position. “Let”?) As with #5, the important thing is to
respect her capacity to make decisions about her own life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">7. Be on her team.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">If you're anything like me,
after you start dating a sex worker you'll start to notice disparaging comments
made about them <i>everywhere</i>. All of the fashion advice that's based on not
looking like a streetwalker; all of the jokes that treat 'dead hooker in the
trunk' as an amusingly incidental consequence of a wild night out. Small
signals that you don't accept the ignorant and destructive premise of shit like
this – even if it's just squeezing her hand when someone in a movie says
something stupid – can make her feel a little less attacked by them. It's a way
of showing that you're on her team: of affirming her humanity in the face of a
culture that frequently seems intent on taking it away. This is a small,
important thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">8. Listen to what she
tells you.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">There are lots of different
kinds of sex work, and a variety of perspectives and needs held by those that
do it. This article was written from my own experience, and it's limited by
that. If a sex worker tells you that she's uncomfortable with something because
of an experience she had at work, <i>listen to her</i>. If she tells you she
loves her job anyway, <i>listen to her</i>. If she tells you to never call her
by her work-name (even playfully, because it's a really important way she
demarcates between her work and the rest of her life), <i>listen to her</i>. If
she tells you that a particular piece of the advice I've given here doesn't
apply for her,<i> for fuck's sake listen to her</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;">There's a lot to unlearn
around this stuff, and it hides in the language we use. Sex workers don't 'sell
their bodies'; they sell an experience to lonely guys that need it. Their
bodies remain their own. We have this received notion that because a sex worker
has sex with their clients, they're somehow 'spent' – unavailable to a
boyfriend in some crucial and irredeemable way. It's not true, any more than
it's true that kindergarten teachers ignore their own children.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">The truth is harder to face.
The truth is that what most often blocks relationships between men and sex
workers is <u>men</u> – our insecurities, jealousies, and need to own the
people we love. If you work on yourself and are honest about your needs,
there's no reason that your partner doing sex work needs to be an issue.
(Honestly, the only times it's still weird that my girlfriend's a sex worker
are when we're forced to conceal it in front of people who'd judge her.) The
problem isn't that sex workers are incapable of devoted love, but that our masculinity
is too scared and anxious to accept that love. The problem isn't sex workers,
but the culture that degrades and dehumanises them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">Changing that culture begins
with changing ourselves. Go for it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 13.0pt;">by anonymous, because #5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-79341251832100009372013-01-20T15:01:00.001-08:002013-01-20T15:01:25.885-08:00Headlines that Perpetuate the Stigma of Sex Work<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Stigmatising, derogatory, misleading, the media reporting of sex work is often more about shocking the audience than being accurate and respectful towards sex workers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These are all real headlines from the last few years. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They come from a diverse rage of media outlets. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This list is by no means comprehensive; it is a snapshot of the how the media perpetuates the stigma against sex workers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part of show 3 of <a href="http://www.facebook.com/SexWorkerRadio" target="_blank">the Vixen Hour </a>on JOY 94.9, 11pm on 21/01/2013</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F75745219" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-12663051719188040822013-01-16T15:03:00.002-08:002013-01-17T14:45:50.953-08:00The Vixen Hour in MCV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">To keep up-to-date with the Vixen Hour, like our <a href="http://www.facebook.com/SexWorkerRadio" target="_blank">Facebook page</a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBV2OAFi3Xd2xkr5tRfFdgqdfMa5z0ImpxYyjQhOqNnQ5CYk3RHE8VKIk2X1FQXwmgQHLOTKIjfYQBB7gqi4FEsy12baQbnYYLlHA7BF4ksgds_LQdhhLtj_fz9lf789UIF1iUG2puAqwj/s1600/VHMCV.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBV2OAFi3Xd2xkr5tRfFdgqdfMa5z0ImpxYyjQhOqNnQ5CYk3RHE8VKIk2X1FQXwmgQHLOTKIjfYQBB7gqi4FEsy12baQbnYYLlHA7BF4ksgds_LQdhhLtj_fz9lf789UIF1iUG2puAqwj/s1600/VHMCV.png" /></a></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-88320271974872413412013-01-07T15:25:00.000-08:002013-01-20T15:34:00.794-08:00Exploring the Curiosity Around Sex Work: a Vixen Hour Vox Pop<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.aonm/SexWorkerRadio" target="_blank">The Vixen Hour</a> is a radio program that is entirely produced and presented by sex workers and broadcast on JOY 94.9.<br />
<br />
On our first show we discussed why sex workers were putting together a radio show. Part of this was acknowledging the many unanswered questions people have about sex work.<br />
<br />
This vox pop is a compilation of responses that contributors made when asked the question, "If you could sit down and ask a sex worker a question, what would it be?"<br />
<br />
A big special thank you to all the volunteers at <a href="http://www.joy.org.au/">JOY 94.9</a> who took part.<br />
<br />
This vox pop was discussed as part of the Vixen Hour that was broadcast on the 7th of January, 2013. You can listen to the whole show <a href="http://www.cpod.org.au/page.php?id=424" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F75745219" width="100%"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-72344212204403166852012-12-26T19:25:00.000-08:002014-12-09T18:52:17.570-08:00For NadaI made this short film for one of the most interesting and beautiful people I know, my friend, Nada. Merry Christmas 2012. <br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-4465253755382383582012-10-30T23:41:00.000-07:002013-12-16T18:38:11.951-08:00Interview in Fjorde Magazine<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiROk47bn5KmRIEHXsKj2piwBmHa-ZBIBg0_o_kl3C3gZkUZOH8eOL4gH-hWavyR2AZQPPzdW1IHnD4t84ae1wYVTKs-0TyaHL2-HI_pUNIZXH7qRpPTdYGGD19_Gq6HVzC8UcIJOsdHb/s1600/lasw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjiROk47bn5KmRIEHXsKj2piwBmHa-ZBIBg0_o_kl3C3gZkUZOH8eOL4gH-hWavyR2AZQPPzdW1IHnD4t84ae1wYVTKs-0TyaHL2-HI_pUNIZXH7qRpPTdYGGD19_Gq6HVzC8UcIJOsdHb/s400/lasw.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>This interview was part of a feature on sex work. to view the edition of Fjorde Magazine this appeared in <a href="http://issuu.com/fjordemagazine/docs/fjorde_magazine_issue_11/31" target="_blank">click here</a></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">FJORDE: Age?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">CHRISTI AN: 29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Why did you get into the industry? How old were you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was about 15 years old and it started when I was hanging out with other homeless queer young people and it was something we just did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Do you have another job?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: I work as a community drug educator for a primary health service.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Have you ever tried to leave?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: A couple of times I’ve needed a break. It was pretty easy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How did your loved ones react when you told them your profession?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: My mum simply said, “Look you’re a grown up whose always been strong and made grown up decisions.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How has being in the industry affected you mentally, spiritually?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: This industry has taught me so much about what it means to be human, in our bodies and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">what they are capable of. It’s taught me so much about sex and intimacy and emotion and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">control. It’s given me an appreciation of the diversity of humanity and the fact that beneath<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">our clothes we are all equal but so different. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How does your work make you feel about yourself?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: Work makes me feel empowered, strong and independent. It’s made me think positively about my body and its value beyond dollars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How is your sexual life outside of work?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: Pretty good. I’m in a long term relationship and sex is very different in that context and sex work has given me the opportunity to appreciate the difference between sex with someone you love and someone you don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Although the number of clients and hired time is different, what is the average you make a night?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: I might see 2-3 clients a week, which is enough to keep me comfortable and fits in easily around my day job and my boyfriend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: What is the weirdest thing someone has asked you to do, and did you do it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: This question assumes I would judge someone as weird. I am just not that judgemental.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How offensive do you find the word ‘prostitute’?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: People who use the word prostitute either hate us or are ignorant. It says more about them than it does about me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Working at night means this profession can be quite dangerous. Do you ever get scared?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: No. As a sex worker you quickly learn how to be safe in whatever situation and how to avoid potential danger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: What is the most dangerous situation you have been in? And how did you get out?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: The most dangerous situation I’ve been in was when a bunch of homophobic teenagers turned up with baseball bats on the street I was working on. All the sex workers gathered in the area around at the time and the teenagers weren’t expecting us to act as a community to protect each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: What are your boundaries? Do you say no?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: My boundaries are negotiated prior to the service and I say no by saying, “no”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Who is your typical/stereotypical customer? What do they ask for?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: There is no typical customer - they’re all different with different needs and from different backgrounds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: Have you ever dated a client? Or fallen in love?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">No. I feel that would be unprofessional.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: How have your clients treated you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: My advertising pretty much lets my clients know that I’m intolerant of bullshit. They know they have to be respectful or they’re out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">F: If you had the chance to change anything, would you go down that same path?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">C: Everything I’ve done has taught me so much. Sex work is the best job in the world, why would I change?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-77722584760042471612012-10-05T20:39:00.000-07:002012-10-05T20:50:22.136-07:00Chasing Tales- Without Listening to Sex Workers, You’re Going Nowhere<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIvPBMZRQiZegz13YupfyFRy-KrvLjeXnBmjPoZgoqpbgSOJmSX_IT69Nimw0TZT8xl87LqM5pbogwj-dAV0pJQzx9LctXDhH7O1E_pNnUSROT09EWEQEnKIaOXdzlnZWr4RuBTgv4Dr5/s1600/smells_like_bullshit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjIvPBMZRQiZegz13YupfyFRy-KrvLjeXnBmjPoZgoqpbgSOJmSX_IT69Nimw0TZT8xl87LqM5pbogwj-dAV0pJQzx9LctXDhH7O1E_pNnUSROT09EWEQEnKIaOXdzlnZWr4RuBTgv4Dr5/s320/smells_like_bullshit.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="248" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In </span><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/phone-apps-shifting-sex-off-the-streets-20120929-26sht.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a
recent article in the Age</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> all sorts of outlandish claims were made
including-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">St Kilda Street Sex Workers Are
Migrating to Footscray and Dandenong!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Street Sex Workers Are Using
Grindr!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Social Media Is Putting Sex Workers At Risk!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Police Operations Are Having
Unwanted Consequences!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I read through, the stench of bovine excrement almost
made my eyes water. The lay person may
have little option but to accept these statements as news but anyone familiar
with any of these issues would ask a few questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Firstly, street sex work doesn’t relocate itself to another suburb on the other side of town. Sex Workers don’t have a closing down sale
and put up signs telling their customers they’re moving shop; it’s not how
street sex work works. If there is street
based soliciting for the purposes of transactional sex in a particular area, it
is because individuals in that community do street sex work, there is not an
itinerant population of these workers who move en masse from one place to the
next like migrating wildebeest across the African savannah. Sure, there are common members of one
community of street based sex work and the next but to claim that this is a
single herd moving to a community near you is assuming the highly
questionable. I know this because after
spending almost nine years working with street based sex workers in St Kilda,
I’ve now worked with the marginalised of Footscray for a year and there is but
a tiny intersection between the two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why the assumption?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s more comfortable for people to think that sex work
doesn’t happen in their community.
“Surely everyone in my neighbourhood is law-abiding and
respectable. None of them would ever be
that desperate. I’m offended by the mere
thought of it…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorry, but I have news for you: WE ARE SEX WORKERS AND WE
ARE EVERYWHERE!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That’s right, we are there- in every neighbourhood, in every
community, in every family. In all likelihood, you know a sex worker but they
are so oppressed by social stigma that they have yet to tell you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But back to street based sex work. Individuals who make the choice to do street
sex work exist in many communities. They
do so because they have to pay bills, feed children, make rent. Some may have drug and alcohol issues. Some may not.
Some may be experiencing homelessness.
Some may not. The reality of the
situation is that people are in need- sometimes dire need and for many, myself
included, making the choice to do street sex work is a way of meeting those
needs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a bitter pill to swallow for many communities. It’s much easier to assume that street sex
workers must board a shuttle from planet Whore to our
neighbourhoods under the cover of darkness before disappearing as the sun rises. (I have to credit <a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/nm/australia/wa/cornes_080507/" target="_blank">Janelle Fawkes for that metaphor</a>) But the reality is sex workers are a part of
your community. Some of us go to
brothels to work, some of us wait by the phone for people to respond to our
advertising – and yes, some of us may work on the street. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now I want to focus on the apparently innovative notion that
sex workers may be using smart phone apps to do sex work. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well Duh. Of course
in any form of social media that people use to create opportunities to meet
people for sex, the potential for sex work to happen is there. It’s not rocket science. But to imagine that there is an exodus of sex
workers from the street into cyberspace is a tad fanciful (I'm imagining them boarding this magical shuttle again). Of course, some resourceful sex workers may
explore as many opportunities to do sex work as possible but apps as an
alternative to the street? Really? I doubt it.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For one, it’s hard to work on apps- believe me I have
tried. These apps are used for sex-
their creators are hyper aware of the potential for these programs to be used
for sex work- and because a number of them were created in the United States,
where sex work is highly criminalised, it is always stated (or at the very
least heavily implied) in the terms and conditions of use for these apps that
you can’t use it to do sex work. Further,
these apps are internally moderated- if you are explicitly soliciting other app
users for money, your profile’s going to get shut down pretty quickly. Look, using apps to successfully do sex work
is a painstakingly slow and tenuous process. I’m not going to say it’s impossible
but as a viable alternative to street sex work, where sex workers have
immediate and quick access to clients- I don’t think so. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other tell that gives away the cheese is the claim that
apps “could be taking [sex workers] to more dangerous areas for work.” Clearly,
the person claiming this hasn’t used these apps. There is absolutely no reason
why using new technology to do sex work is going to present more or less risk
than anyone else using apps to get laid. Appeals to safety are clichéd but I guess that’s
what you say when you’ve got nothing useful to contribute. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So why the claim? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s a tasty little sound bite, isn’t it? You hadn’t thought
of it, had you? Interesting? Perhaps. Titillating? Sure. But the ultimate
function of this MacGuffin is to make its speaker seem like they know what they’re
talking about. But upon examination we can see what this claim is: utter rubbish.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And what can we learn from this. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When speaking about street sex work there are a number of
stakeholders, the article is made up of quotes from a welfare worker, the
police, a lawyer. But where are the
voices of street sex workers? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a fact that is almost always overlooked in the
seemingly endless search for the answers to the questions of what to do about
street sex work- there have been thousands of people who have experienced
street sex work. Some of these people
have ceased sex work, some continue and have transitioned from the street to
other ways of sex working. This is a rich
resource- perhaps the most effective in coming up with ways of responding to
the issues associated with street sex work yet it is NEVER drawn upon. Not a single person employed at RhED has this
knowledge- not one. Without this
experience informing practice, any response is a mere shot in the dark. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The police are quoted in this article as saying, “We might
be creating things that we haven't thought of yet.” And yet the article
pontificates on a couple of unlikely hypotheses. If you want to read about some of these
ACTUAL consequences, I discuss them in <a href="http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/">an
article that appeared earlier in the week in the Port Phillip Leader.</a> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are enough issues to resolve within street sex work
before making up a bunch of rubbish to deal with. Without listening to the voices of sex
workers- particularly street sex workers- we’re just going to be asking the
same questions over and over again. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-64657347826664366162012-09-20T18:15:00.000-07:002012-09-20T23:39:07.334-07:00Police putting St Kilda sex workers at risk<span class="js-socialise js-socialise-facebook-like"><fb:like action="recommend" href="http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/" layout="standard" ref="rec-top" scheme="light" send="true" show_faces="false" site="port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au" width="500"></fb:like></span>
<div class="article-info">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">21 Sep 12 @ 09:06am by Dana McCauley</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="module-content">
<div class="content-item media media-caption">
<div class="media-caption-inner">
<div class="media-image">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Original Article here: </span><a href="http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/</span></a><br />
<img alt="Police launched operation nocturne on Carlisle st. recently" src="http://images.whereilive.com.au/images/uploads/2012/09/20/e4141aa76803f5d61d8dc3bca42af342_resized.jpg" /> </div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Police launched operation nocturne on Carlisle st. recently</span></div>
</div>
<div class="content-item">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">THE STATE'S peak body for sex workers has slammed the police crackdown on street prostitution in St Kilda.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vixen Victoria spokesman Christian Vega said violence against sex workers statistically increased after police operations in red light areas.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"It sends a message that sex workers are an easy target," Mr Vega said. "Perpetrators think 'she won't go to the police'.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When social stigma reaches such an extreme level, people don't recognise the humanity of these people."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said sex workers were forced into risky situations when the men who visited them became paranoid about getting caught.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"When clients are targeted, it puts the pressure on them to get in and out of St Kilda quickly," Mr Vega said.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Previously, they would wind down the window and have a conversation."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when police presence was high, he said, workers were more likely to jump in the car and be driven to another location.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Once they're in an unfamiliar area away from the other sex workers, it maximises the opportunity for violent crime," Mr Vega said. "It's really dangerous."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">He said workers could be more likely to agree to unsafe sexual practices when clients were scarce.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Police have increased their street sex work operations in the past month, targeting "kerb crawlers" during Operation Nocturn and both sex workers and clients during Operation Biscuit.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/">http://port-phillip-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/have-your-say-police-putting-st-kilda-sex-workers-at-risk/</a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-57887065114089560992012-08-31T00:20:00.005-07:002015-09-27T20:22:35.031-07:00International Overdose Awareness Day Speech<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white; clear: right; color: white; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i> </i> </span></div>
<div style="color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i>So this is an address I made at work on the 31st of August, 2012</i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsmze8OVGnj0K2xx72ctAqI7oq8i60e2dz07K_Hld24k6AY-WgSQ8HZ7YoSd5Dv3gyev09h3gSGz1TaUhQscExokZfIXj_xJihNT3vfDhS0Cvi52NBiVvbIEWxlTEkjhyvfv_FOz-ZDSOj/s1600/International-Overdose-Awareness-Day---Horizontal-Stack-CMYK.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="90" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsmze8OVGnj0K2xx72ctAqI7oq8i60e2dz07K_Hld24k6AY-WgSQ8HZ7YoSd5Dv3gyev09h3gSGz1TaUhQscExokZfIXj_xJihNT3vfDhS0Cvi52NBiVvbIEWxlTEkjhyvfv_FOz-ZDSOj/s320/International-Overdose-Awareness-Day---Horizontal-Stack-CMYK.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">When
I think of overdose and Overdose Awareness Day, I think, I am truly
blessed.
It’s unusual for me, I’m not at all religious or spiritual. All of the
pain, all of the sadness, the people I miss- and yet I am able to find
comfort and today I thought I might share why.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I am blessed.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But
not because my life has been drug free- it has not. If we are to
challenge stigma,
as this day of remembrance strives to, then one cannot remain closeted-
so I say before you now, without guilt or shame, that yes, drugs have
played a role in my life. I do not condemn or encourage the use of
drugs but I can say the experience of using drugs;
the hard times it has seen me through, the people who have been there
along the way, the lessons I have learnt about senses, about my body
about my place in the world- I am truly grateful for.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But that is not why I feel blessed today.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Nor
is it because I have been fortunate enough to evade overdose- I have
not. Things
go wrong, we are not perfect people who do things perfectly and drug
use is no perfect process. I count myself as very lucky- the
circumstances were such that I survived and people looked after me.
Upon reflection of my overdose I realise that, life is precious,
our bodies are wonderfully forgiving and to be there for each other is a
humbling source of strength and life.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But still, that’s not why I feel blessed today.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">No,
today I feel blessed because I remember the gift of many friends,
friends who are
no longer with me. For me, despite the stereotypes, to be part of a
community of people who use drugs has been a blessing. These friends
were strong, talented, bright and beautiful spirits, who, through some
twist of fate, crossed my path, gave me something
very special and enriched my life in a way I couldn’t put into words.
And though there have been many funerals I have attended and many
funerals I was not invited to, to remember our loved ones, I feel truly
blessed.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Today
is a day to remember the ones we have loved and the ones we have lost.
This might
be the first time you have been able to do this but we gather here
today to tell you that you are not alone. The silver badges we wear
signify the profound loss of someone cherished and are a symbol of
understanding, of condolences and – when we wear them
together as a community- they are a symbol of solidarity. </span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">But remembering is not the only blessing of the day.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">A
friend of mine, Sally Finn, and NSP worker in St Kilda, began Overdose
Awareness day
back in 2001. At the height of heroin deaths, I was homeless in St
Kilda. Yet Finn and others reminded me that yes, we are important to
each other and that those of us who can, have a responsibility to not
only remember but to contribute to the bettering
the lives of our fellow community members. I feel truly blessed
because I have been given the opportunity to honour the memory of my
friends through the work I do today.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The service I work for has had a number of service users pass away in the past year from drug
overdoses and they - like those before them- will be remembered on Overdose day and remain in our hearts into the future.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> As
well as being a special time to remember our friends, Today is an
opportunity to
honour their memory by being aware of the importance of overdose
prevention. Over the past month, Harm Reduction Victoria, our state
drug user association, has facilitated workshops to teach drug users the
skills to not only recognise but respond to overdose.
We do this to remind those of us who remain and still use drugs to be
careful and to instil in each and every current and former drug user
that, yes, you matter, that we value you as a member of our community
and that you can make a difference. I believe
it is not said enough, but as a representative of my team I would like
to say, we believe in you, we are proud of you.
</span></div>
<div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="color: white; margin-bottom: 16.2pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Tahoma","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">We
thank you for participating in this year’s Overdose awareness day.
Please stay and
share some food with us and remember those we have lost by placing a
star on our memorial board, lighting some incense or burning some prayer
paper. Again, thank you all for being here today. That you are here
with me today is truly a blessing.
</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-57265401909001861052012-08-16T04:16:00.000-07:002015-09-27T15:22:07.025-07:00 The Hypocritical Victimisation of Asian Sex Workers in Victoria<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOrFK3ljSKVju99NTVHumku5hmWkzs1qTWFMrYetD_tMcO7KcZ_rMMx0V2NgCRp80xbxmDVbfEZyvmD6Qn7-KY2RxBZ7m7SQea6noN8gc_ofjoNVMMkRPcs75AsZs-VgAMIRQQy13By4F/s1600/236370-brothel-raid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOrFK3ljSKVju99NTVHumku5hmWkzs1qTWFMrYetD_tMcO7KcZ_rMMx0V2NgCRp80xbxmDVbfEZyvmD6Qn7-KY2RxBZ7m7SQea6noN8gc_ofjoNVMMkRPcs75AsZs-VgAMIRQQy13By4F/s400/236370-brothel-raid.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This Asian woman was accused of operating an "illegal brothel" in suburban Melbourne. She could not hide her face from the newspaper cameras who published it in their paper and online. <a href="http://video.heraldsun.com.au/1686836352/Police-swoop-on-massage-parlour" target="_blank">Click here to watch the dramatic police raid. </a>All of this because she was offering hand jobs at a massage parlour- evidently all that's required to deem a premises an "illegal brothel". </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> By Christian Vega*</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
*No, my name has not been changed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Are you HIV+? No offence I’m just asking coz you’re Asian.” That was
an actual question asked by an actual client to me, an actual Asian sex
worker. I cannot tell you how offended I
was and needless to say the only thing this person caught off me was angry
vitriol. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At a pub with an acquaintance I had described the Australian Sex Worker
rights movement, the importance of sex worker organisations and the reflected
on the reasons I was not only a sex worker but an active advocate for our
rights. The conversation (and our
relationship) went downhill when they said, “that’s all well and good for you,
but what about the thousands of sex slaves in Australia? ”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>During a public forum I organised as part of the Melbourne Festival of
Sex Work, a member of the audience and came up to me and disclosed that he had
regularly visited a Asian brothel but he felt overwhelmingly guilty because he
could not tell if the sex worker he was seeing was a “trafficked victim” or
not. He had conversations with this sex
worker but still could not be entirely persuaded to believe that the sex worker
was there by choice, even though that is what she had repeatedly articulated to
him</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These incidents are a constant reminder of my place within
the Australian consciousness- I am presumed to be a vulnerable victim of
exploitation, unworthy of being trusted, incapable of agency and in dire need
of rescue. I must be stripped of my
human rights, indeed my humanity, in order to fit within the public’s
understanding of who I am: an Asian Sex Worker. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trust.org/dotAsset/e7cf315f-37cf-43ad-b67c-b2af11e8de7c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.trust.org/dotAsset/e7cf315f-37cf-43ad-b67c-b2af11e8de7c.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trust.org/alertnet/blogs/photo-blog/thai-ngo-advocates-safe-sex-in-bangkok-red-light-districts/" target="_blank">Trans Sex Workers in Thailand Support each other</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The constant
reporting of the supposed tragedies faced by Asian sex workers is a relentless
kick to the guts. Not merely because I
am an Asian Sex Worker and these tales do not at all reflect my experience of
sex work, but more so because I am an advocate for sex worker rights whose goal
is to work towards a future where me and my community are not perceived to be
the bottom rung of Australian society.
These reports do nothing but keep us down. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Adding extra bitterness to this disappointment is the fact
that I have had contact with these journalists.
Both <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/truth-lies-and-suspicion-in-the-sexslave-trade-20120811-241lk.html">Maris
Beck of the Age</a> and <a href="http://www.melbourneweeklyportphillip.com.au/news/local/news/general/sex-in-the-city/2648291.aspx?storypage=0">Beau
Donnelly of the Port Phillip Review</a>, in my conversations with them, had
expressed a desire to be respectful of sex workers and listen to their
voices. It is such a shame that neither
of these wishes is reflected in their writing.
The bigger shame is that these stories broadcast to the sex worker
community a clear message: “We are not interested in your stories unless you
fit into our agenda”. They forfeit the trust of sex workers who exercise agency
about choosing to be a sex worker (the majority of my community) and, in turn, our stories are seldom told. Without this
authentic perspective being made available to the broader community, enough
ignorance is created to perpetuate the prejudice against Asian sex
workers. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGi72AniMBbmwfA74NDhZ6k0CZYt07p-InX4yi7MH0Sm5WJpcFb5Fi7Rio42RUcQVO-TrGFNcpOw3KKqnsgHv32s3RJuqZ5cgDtcqAleGpVZw0mBxr4GhvL3olS3NykAejbLbH9_Uv91z/s1600/sufs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbGi72AniMBbmwfA74NDhZ6k0CZYt07p-InX4yi7MH0Sm5WJpcFb5Fi7Rio42RUcQVO-TrGFNcpOw3KKqnsgHv32s3RJuqZ5cgDtcqAleGpVZw0mBxr4GhvL3olS3NykAejbLbH9_Uv91z/s320/sufs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The fact of the matter is there is high value attached to
the stereotype of the poor exploited Asian sex worker victimised by criminal
Asian syndicates- and the money is not flowing our way. Academics and journalists have built their
careers on it and non-government organisations have made an industry of
convincing the public that I am some sort of hapless victim. Project Respect,
repeatedly referred to in media reports of trafficking as somehow an authority
on the sex industry , <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1114950.htm">has an agenda
to see the entire sex industry re-criminalised</a>. It’s interesting, the organisation claims to
see approximately 20 “victims of human trafficking” annually, that is 0.2% of the estimated 10,000 sex workers in
Victoria, yet this organisation not only provides the representative case studies
that journalists base their media coverage on, they are influential at a policy
level. All of this would be harmless
charity- except it’s not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85xaziVdXZJLTv_5l7DZEe50bbk4n4prZ7Pt7jLKYCB3aPdJcW4cDhqKyyY2WuGtrgypmPawrwXQ-dakX__BtuFxB3NJDpnFjTue8mnGpHSESOjyUIIL5wUwhxuzsmukSpPGFHr-9vS4/s1600/Sex+workers+protest+01+%28AP%29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi85xaziVdXZJLTv_5l7DZEe50bbk4n4prZ7Pt7jLKYCB3aPdJcW4cDhqKyyY2WuGtrgypmPawrwXQ-dakX__BtuFxB3NJDpnFjTue8mnGpHSESOjyUIIL5wUwhxuzsmukSpPGFHr-9vS4/s320/Sex+workers+protest+01+(AP).jpg" width="219" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ki-media.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/sex-workers-protest-against-alleged.html" target="_blank">Cambodian Sex Workers protest<br /> against police abuse</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The rights of sex workers- particularly Asian sex workers-
are constantly being</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> undermined.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In
addition to the episodes of racism I have experienced directly, this prejudice
entrenches itself in the policy and practice of sex work regulation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout our community we have heard of sex
industry workplaces targeted by the race of workers alone.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where premises have workers from a range of
ethnicities, Asian sex workers are sorted out from the rest to be
questioned.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Despite the fact the
majority of migrant sex workers come from countries such as New Zealand, the
USA and the UK, rarely do these sex workers face the same scrutiny as their
Asian colleagues.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When discussing our
industry, </span><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-10/study-to-focus-on-mine-town-illegal-prostitution/4120852" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“does
not speak English” is treated as an indicator of exploitation</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">According to current Victorian advertising
regulations I’m not even allowed to say I am Asian, doing so places me at risk
of receiving a $5,633 fine.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And while some
commentators may point out that this policy applies to everyone regardless of
ethnicity, it is undeniable that this policy has much more of an impact on sex
workers of colour than it does anyone else.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the sheer number of the examples</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">of the victimisation
of Asian workers it's hard to feel much other than that these are</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">part of the wider
racist agenda in Australia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thegrandnarrative.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/korean-sex-workers-protest-ap-photolee-jin-man.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://thegrandnarrative.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/korean-sex-workers-protest-ap-photolee-jin-man.jpg" height="195" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thegrandnarrative.com/2012/04/01/korean-sex-workers-prostitution/" target="_blank">Sex Workers in South Korea threaten self-immolation in </a><br />
<a href="http://thegrandnarrative.com/2012/04/01/korean-sex-workers-prostitution/" target="_blank">protest </a><a href="http://thegrandnarrative.com/2012/04/01/korean-sex-workers-prostitution/" target="_blank">against</a> <a href="http://thegrandnarrative.com/2012/04/01/korean-sex-workers-prostitution/" target="_blank">the crackdown on their workplaces</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Further supporting the investment in the ‘Asian sex workers
as victims’ paradigm are the entrenched systemic causes of issues of
non-compliance and clandestine activity.
While much attention is paid to alleged exploitative intentions rarely
are the more mundane factors examined.
While licensees of non-English speaking backgrounds are over represented
amongst CAV’s reporting of non-compliant operators, there is a negligence to
report that all of the information resources regarding sex work regulation only
comes in one language: English. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/20/scm_news_scmp_18mar08_ns_ziteng2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Photo" border="0" src="http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/20/scm_news_scmp_18mar08_ns_ziteng2.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ziteng.org.hk/platform/pfc03_e.html" target="_blank">Hong Kong Sex Worker Organisation Zi Teng</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just as ignored is the discriminatory immigration policy
that prohibits single </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">women flying in from Asia.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sex workers wanting to enter Australia cannot
elect to do so in an open and transparent way. Instead, they are forced by our
policy to engage with agents who organise not only the workplaces and
accommodation for these sex workers but facilitate the process that circumvents
Australia’s closed door, which may include bribing government officials or
paying a male companions to create the facade these women are not single. The
expense of this whole process might amount to $40,000 and is then charged to
the sex worker (this what is interpreted as debt bondage), which she can pay
off in about 2-3 months.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the
Australian government was serious about addressing this problem it could bust
the business model of these supposed traffickers, just as it is interested in
doing so for people smugglers, </span><a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/truth-and-visas-will-set-asian-sex-workers-free/2008/04/03/1206851098330.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by
granting working visas to migrant sex workers</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">, as has been recommended by
sex workers for years . The product of supposed “people traffickers” is
passage, this is an easy enough demand to eliminate with small, cost neutral
changes.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But no, if I was a more cynical
sex worker I could suggest that the government’s inertia on this issue is more
indicative of an interest in maintaining the problem.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7omo2Tr9a1ra0u5ao1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7omo2Tr9a1ra0u5ao1_1280.jpg" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sexworkersglobalvillage.tumblr.com/page/3" target="_blank">The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Worker<br />Projects, in Kolkata for the <br />Sex Worker Freedom Festival</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These causes are not sexy topics of conversation. People would rather read about stories of
desperation, victimisation and exploitation.
It’s easier to believe that there are evil exploiters in the world and
the solution is to stamp them out. It’s
hard for Australians to believe that their own policy is complicit in the
perceived problems of human trafficking.
It’s hard for Australians to believe that people of colour from
countries much poorer than our own and who speak a language other than ours
could have enough agency to stand and make a choice. I am not saying that incidents of criminal activity
do not exist in the sex industry, I’m saying, if one is genuinely interested in
addressing these it cannot be done while ignoring or disrespecting the people
who are not only most affected, but the people who are most familiar with the issues and are the people that can most
effectively assist in the implementation
any resolution: sex workers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am Asian. I choose to be a sex worker. I have as much
control over my life as you do. I deserve to be respected as much as you
are. Just because I use my real name and
my real face to tell this story shouldn’t make it less believable than some
anonymous case study. Asian sex workers
deserve to be listened to and we don’t need anyone speaking on our behalf. It’s time the Australian public puts away its
prejudice and start listening to us. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.crossbordersydney.org/images/307_XBorderCollective_Poster-Pack---webpage-v1_31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.crossbordersydney.org/images/307_XBorderCollective_Poster-Pack---webpage-v1_31.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Within Australia,
Asian Sex Workers are active in supporting each other as well as representing
their own community. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Scarlet Alliance
Migration Project is staffed by migrant sex workers and </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">supports migrant sex
workers and the services that may work with them. <a href="http://www.crossbordersydney.org/#poster6">Click here to read about the
project, its message and how get contact them.</a></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Organisations of sex
workers exist across Australian States and some of these have sex workers of
non-English speaking background providing peer education and support for
migrant sex workers. Two such
organisations are <a href="http://www.acsa.org.au/sin.html">SIN in South
Australia</a> and <a href="http://www.respectqld.org.au/">Respect Inc. in Queensland</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unsurprisingly, there
is no funded sex worker organisation in Victoria. </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-53794877075401726882012-08-13T21:19:00.000-07:002012-08-23T21:19:45.972-07:00ABC Radio: Fair Work blitz on sex industry clerical work<div class="body">
Listen here: <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3566832.htm">http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2012/s3566832.htm</a> </div>
<div class="body">
<br /></div>
<div class="body">
MARK COLVIN: The Fair Work Ombudsman is conducting a blitz on Victorian brothels. The campaign will focus on clerical employees in the industry, rather than sex workers.<br /><br />The Victorian Sex Industry Network has cautiously welcomed the announcement. But it's warned the Ombudsman's office not to get caught up in a moral witch hunt.<br /><br />Rachel Carbonell reports. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: The Fair Work Ombudsman plans to audit about 100 brothels in Victoria, mostly in Melbourne but some in regional Victoria too.<br /><br />Craig Bildstein is a director with the Ombudsman's office.<br /><br />CRAIG BILDSTEIN: Each year we run between 5,000 and 7,000 targeted audits so it may be the hospitality sector, could be the cleaning industry, it could be the retail sector. Or in this latest case in Victoria it's the sex industry. But in particular our focus is on the clerical workers, the licensed brothel managers and the receptionists. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: Craig Bildstein says it's possible clerical workers in the sex industry may be more reluctant than others to speak out about poor working conditions.<br /><br />CRAIG BILDSTEIN: It's put to us that a large number of clerical workers in this industry would be female. They'd probably be young women. They're most likely from a non-English-speaking background. They probably have a limited professional and personal network which may be restricted to the industry.<br /><br />I guess in other words they might be reluctant to rock the boat for fear of jeopardising their employment. So it's important for us to come in and ensure that the employers in these premises do understand their lawful obligations and to remind the staff that there is an employment regulator that can assist them if they are concerned. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: The Fair Work Ombudsman is also concerned about sham contracting.<br /><br />CRAIG BILDSTEIN: The suggestions that have been made to us at the moment is that some brothel owners are requiring their business managers for example to have an ABN and take on the position as contractors. <br /><br />So obviously we're concerned to ensure that sham contracting is not in play in these premises so we'll be apprising the operators of the modern award, the Clerks-Private Sector Award 2010 and obviously the National Employment Standards. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: But some in the sex industry are concerned that the clerical award isn't necessarily the best fit for those in the clerical part of the sex industry.<br /><br />Christian Vega is a spokesperson for VIXEN, the Victorian Sex Industry Network.<br /><br />CHRISTIAN VEGA: What I would caution is that there is this assumption that, yes the managers and receptionists do perform a clerical function but that is a small subsection of the skill set and knowledge base that is required to perform their role effectively. <br /><br />We're talking about people who are in effective control of a workplace, quite often in late hours of the night, dealing with a clientele that can be unpredictable, that can be intoxicated. You know, these are not just normal admin office workers. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: Christian Vega says some clerical workers in the sex industry are reluctant to speak out about poor pay and working conditions is because of the stigma attached to the industry and the moral judgements that are often made about it.<br /><br />CHRISTIAN VEGA: The part that I guess I have concerns about is that whenever somebody does any sort of accountability or investigation into the sex industry, there is this automatic assumption that because things aren't running as they should do, there is either a criminal or an exploitative element that's present there. It has the potential of turning into a bit of a witch hunt. <br /><br />RACHEL CARBONELL: But he says overall he's hopeful the Ombudsman's investigation will be positive.<br /><br />CHRISTIAN VEGA: This investigation is a step towards decriminalisation and what that means is treating our industry just like any other industry. I think there should be, there needs to be a frank, open, objective discussion about working conditions in our industry. <br /><br />And I would urge the Fair Work Ombudsman to actually look at the impact of stigma, you know, stigma that our industry faces on actual working conditions and the impact that it's had on things like reporting, you know, substandard work practices or pay conditions that aren't up to scratch. <br /><br />MARK COLVIN: Christian Vega from the Victorian Sex Industry Network ending that report from Rachel Carbonell. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-38351424752937891992012-08-09T01:10:00.000-07:002012-08-16T15:44:21.153-07:00Supporting the Human Rights of Sex Workers: Sex Party Policy- And Damn Proud of It!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
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<div class="ecxmsonormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">By Christian Vega, Sex Worker, Secretary of Victorian branch of the Australian
Sex Party</span></div>
<div class="ecxmsonormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.sexparty.org.au/ASP-News-Updates/supporting-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers-sex-party-policy-and-damn-proud-of-it.html">http://www.sexparty.org.au/ASP-News-Updates/supporting-the-human-rights-of-sex-workers-sex-party-policy-and-damn-proud-of-it.html</a> </span><span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfaDOXrTDAKzD-GVGUKE8vwJ4zG7i_uChWVrn6Ac_Lpu9rWJEVR_LB4Piqyt3xFD7wCqsR1jRuNE9KKMgQysewF4pItqH2JJ6En-zd-sGXcstmSRbf0t2yKjIyU8cTaxDVkUx7vti7W8_/s1600/pm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKfaDOXrTDAKzD-GVGUKE8vwJ4zG7i_uChWVrn6Ac_Lpu9rWJEVR_LB4Piqyt3xFD7wCqsR1jRuNE9KKMgQysewF4pItqH2JJ6En-zd-sGXcstmSRbf0t2yKjIyU8cTaxDVkUx7vti7W8_/s320/pm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Aristotle wrote, “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing,
be nothing.” Conversely, when one has much to say one must be prepared for an
onslaught. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Such has been the fate of the Australian Sex Party in the
aftermath of the 2012 Melbourne by-election. Having been denied a win
that was thought to be in the bag, the Victorian Greens have been indignant and
rather than take time for some critical self reflection, the party and its
supporters has sought to blame everyone else for their loss, targeting the
younger and much smaller Sex Party in particular. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Megan Tyler, anti-sex
industry colleague of senior Greens member, Kathleen Maltzahn, has joined the
tirade (</span><a href="http://theconversation.edu.au/political-party-or-lobby-group-the-dark-side-of-the-australian-sex-party-8525?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+conversationedu+(The+Conversation)"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Political party or
lobby group? The dark side of the Australian Sex Party</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">,</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
31/07/2012). <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">From the headline it’s clear her position, she doesn’t much like
the Australian Sex Party. It’s a strange question to ask<i>: Political Party or Lobby Group?</i> Could this question not be asked
of any political party? To support the interests of a part of the community-
isn’t that what all political parties do? Perhaps she thinks we are somehow
different...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_98003073"><img border="0" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0QABPPOa6z1a57DDKndJIizXmkfzTXB7Y1NV7_d8FSXtMRVxyTj1GzhbHh2aOG1khlkVlA-GsVZdt4a9LcO2ifXBVIAWqc7XRRWZ6rw4rLkLuGdQ3uFdBhrjCteQuOp2GytMoMGvMrv_/s200/sdrr.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s720x720/487932_10150942886923927_543188623_n.jpg" target="_blank">One of the Sex Party Campaign pamphlets</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler writes, <i>“The
carefully selected policies that appear in Sex Party pamphlets, however, fail
to mention what is at the centre of the party’s very being; a push for the full
decriminalisation of prostitution.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3827767630497335582" name="_GoBack"></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Well that’s sort of true. Identified as best practice for
human rights throughout the world by </span><a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/july/20120725asexworkers/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">international
public health bodies</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> as well as </span><a href="http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13034"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Australian sex
workers themselves</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">, decriminalisation of the sex industry is a worthy enough goal
that the Sex Party would, of course, adopt it as </span><a href="http://www.sexparty.org.au/Party-Info/sex-work-australian-sex-party-victorian-policy.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">policy</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">.
Supported by evidence, upholding human rights, promoting civil liberties, good
health outcomes and social justice, I am proud to be a member of a party that
would make such a stand. The centre of the Sex Party’s very being though? Now that is a stretch. The decriminalisation of sex work is no doubt
an important policy, but to call it the centre? Hmm. Perhaps if one is obsessed with the sex
industry one may fail to notice the range of other policy areas that have
shaped the Sex Party’s identity- Anti-Censorship, Equality and
Anti-discrimination, Drug Law Reform- hall marks of our civil liberty platform
that were around much earlier than our sex work policy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifuP8l0lzsqFTBQbcMRgFSgXpYHk9z0GJV5RrYC2VHCl4SGNnUV1NigVyzYqMTedsBM372m6ElU1n2u57tTNCXJnCVtLZPbefZLgWgWqJ30jlPidzAGL321RzLJPLAcP-NPWqbKaHq5nq3/s1600/swff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifuP8l0lzsqFTBQbcMRgFSgXpYHk9z0GJV5RrYC2VHCl4SGNnUV1NigVyzYqMTedsBM372m6ElU1n2u57tTNCXJnCVtLZPbefZLgWgWqJ30jlPidzAGL321RzLJPLAcP-NPWqbKaHq5nq3/s200/swff.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://health.india.com/news/international-aids-conference-2012-red-umbrellas-mark-sex-workers-rallies-in-kolkata-and-washington/" target="_blank">Sex Workers worldwide advocate for decriminalisation</a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler portrays decriminalisation of sex work as <i>“basically end the criminalisation of all
forms of prostitution and make them free from any special government
intervention,”</i> and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“legalisation means regulation and the sex
industry would rather have free rein to boost its profits.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This is a fallacy anti-sex work lobbyists often use: to equate
decriminalisation with deregulation when the two are entirely different.
To clarify- decriminalisation is the removal of criminal codes related to sex
work. This does not mean that all activities under the label of sex work
are allowed to happen; advocates for decriminalisation are not asking for the
sex industry to operate “free rein.” Decriminalisation
is not an attempt to legitimise crime; child sexual exploitation and rape would
remain illegal under the current criminal code.
It is an approach that seeks to clarify the distinction between acts
that are clearly unacceptable and those that are legitimate. It is a system
that has been introduced into New Zealand and more recently in Canada; the
outcomes of adopting such an approach are </span><a href="http://policypress.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1332/policypress/9781847423344.001.0001/upso-9781847423344"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">clearly outlined in
research</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">: greater enablement of sex workers to exercise choices that
make them less vulnerable, greater empowerment of sex workers to seek justice
in instances of violence and other crimes , the number of sex workers remained
stable and in the case of some street sex working sectors- had actually
reduced. Tyler and her ilk (those that
have built a career that hinges on the perception that all sex workers are
victims) must ignore this legitimacy in order for their position to hold. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLImiCmfEEpTetauALlFdUGfIn5opBp6CdzZq6k1o1tLClvskmCPx7OfAbRc9BvgiPF-SY4hNxs2r_3UUK322IHtYUwLRyybTbbKveLmihs-H6T_nDSzmJDK1u5jRUj4RY90dY4Zy64-o/s1600/bkm" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLImiCmfEEpTetauALlFdUGfIn5opBp6CdzZq6k1o1tLClvskmCPx7OfAbRc9BvgiPF-SY4hNxs2r_3UUK322IHtYUwLRyybTbbKveLmihs-H6T_nDSzmJDK1u5jRUj4RY90dY4Zy64-o/s1600/bkm" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2009/12/01/world-aids-day-2009-ban-ki-moon-calls-for-removal-of-laws-which-hinder-fight-against-disease/" target="_blank">UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon <br />has called for the decriminalisation<br /> of sex work since 2008 </a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The fundamentals of decriminalisation are these: Sex Work is
Work. Therefore, Sex work should be regulated in the same way that every
other occupation is regulated. When additional laws are in place (the current
legislative situation in most states throughout Australia) they prevent the
standards and conditions that can be expected in any other workplace
(industrial relations, occupational health and safety and equal opportunity)
from being applied to the sex industry. In short, we just want to be treated
the same as everyone else. This is the position of sex worker activists,
this is the policy of the Australian Sex Party. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler claims<i>, “Patten
helped make the real aims of the party quite clear in the lead-up to the
election when she claimed that the ASP didn’t attempt a preference deal with
the Greens because of concerns about an “anti-sex feminist element” in the
party.” <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">That is an interpretation built on an inaccuracy. Firstly, the Sex Party did attempt to contact
the Greens to talk preferences, as written in the </span><a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/greens-snub-could-cost-preferences-in-melbourne-by-election/story-e6frf7kx-1226429424427"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Herald Sun</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> and
acknowledged by at least one Greens volunteer,</span><a href="https://twitter.com/kade_m/statuses/226847761302183937"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> “maybe [it’s] the
Greens fault for not picking up the phone.”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> While it’s our concern
that the anti-sex feminist compulsions may have prevented the Greens from engaging
with us- and ultimately contributing to their defeat- it hardly defines the
“aims of the party.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Again, Tyler’s attempt to be coy is rather feeble <i>“The “anti-sex” slur was most likely just a
veiled reference to Kathleen Maltzahn, who served as a Greens local councillor
in Yarra and stood as a Greens candidate in the 2010 Victorian state election.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Even </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Maltzahn"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Maltzahn’s Wikipedia page</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
doesn’t beat around the bush: “The Australian Sex Party have accused her of
being an "anti-sex campaigner” and preferenced Labor ahead of the Greens
in the election for the seat of Melbourne on July 21 2012 which caused The
Greens narrow loss." The tensions between the Sex Party and Kathleen
Maltzahn first began to influence the political relationship between the two
parties during the state election in 2010.
During a radio interview on Joy 94.9, Maltzahn declared her preferences-
even though they had yet to be finalised.
Perhaps it should have been expected but the supposed feminist had
preferenced the only other female candidate last- perhaps it was because of
that candidate’s status as a sex worker, perhaps it was because she was the Sex
Party’s candidate. Either way, Maltzahn-
and by extension, the Greens- had sent a signal that they were not interested
in working with us. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler continues to sing her colleague’s praises, <i>“Maltzahn is also a prominent
anti-trafficking campaigner and founder of Project Respect... Part of its
vision is given as “a world where there is no longer demand for prostitution.”
Now, why wouldn’t a sex industry lobby group be happy with that?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4pNK72kkNm2CtAksod1mqCPHy-KtEQr-gk8U1dXd7qnSWvEK-euTo85ca60peIK1obUUGvGIMJD2Y3X_S5H1u5M53jedlqdY0ggqIpmAtKZuuc672v_4yCZS4yap4_kF4CUJe__bk2Li/s1600/ff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4pNK72kkNm2CtAksod1mqCPHy-KtEQr-gk8U1dXd7qnSWvEK-euTo85ca60peIK1obUUGvGIMJD2Y3X_S5H1u5M53jedlqdY0ggqIpmAtKZuuc672v_4yCZS4yap4_kF4CUJe__bk2Li/s320/ff.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Supporters of sex workers protest against Maltzahn, 2011</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What Tyler fails to mention is that sex workers themselves
reject the position of Project Respect.
To quote </span><a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/laws/fed/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">the Scarlet
Alliance, the Australian Sex Workers Association</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">, “It
was reported in a May 2004 Lateline interview that Project Respect, a Victorian
NGO, had called for the re-criminalisation of the sex industry as a way of
addressing what the Government refers to as the trafficking of women for the purpose
of sexual servitude. These and other anti-sex work views have had a harmful
impact on sex workers in Australia. However the anti-sex work lobby has been
increasingly using the issue of trafficking to hide their broader agenda of
making all sex work illegal.” Organisations such as Project Respect and Tyler’s
CATWA are part of the ‘Rescue Industry’, a whole sector of NGOs who gain their
funding through the portrayal of sex work as victimising and exploitative.
Their positions often hijack supportive and harm reduction based responses for
moralistic/abolitionist ones. The
Australian Sex Party believes that front line workers in the industry must be
listened to in order to implement policy that is both informed and would
support their human rights. It’s clear
that Tyler does not agree. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19lqQeHdqQLbp3ba6HNaibPWTAky9MIf7OkyhKkFdDqjBeICwcNf8WdOg2EB4t5UB_VR2AG4Qf-8wM6SuI0ccYGS0rUNpUGb8DAk0kS3TDGmknD92SrQDXlMWXEl9ansc64N0jAJgkZ74/s1600/rs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi19lqQeHdqQLbp3ba6HNaibPWTAky9MIf7OkyhKkFdDqjBeICwcNf8WdOg2EB4t5UB_VR2AG4Qf-8wM6SuI0ccYGS0rUNpUGb8DAk0kS3TDGmknD92SrQDXlMWXEl9ansc64N0jAJgkZ74/s200/rs.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Sex Party's Robbie Swan</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler, <i>“Many of my
colleagues are quite shocked to hear about the intimate relationship between
the Sex Party and the sex industry”</i> Uh, really? This may be the first
accusation the political party has received that our name is too subtle. But by establishing ambiguity, Tyler has created
an opportunity to make yet another inaccurate interpretation: that when one
says “sex industry” one must be talking about brothels, right? Actually,
no. As Robbie Swann explains in an this</span><a href="http://www.vexnews.com/2012/07/greensparty-shoots-itself-in-the-foot-once-more/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> response to Guy
Rundle’s attack on the Sex Party</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">, “The Eros Association
stopped taking brothel owners as members over a decade ago when it became the
adult ‘retail’ association. As a result we now only have one brothel in
Victoria as an associate member on a fee of $590 per year. The only other
brothel to have supported the Sex Party with a donation of $500 was The
Boardroom of Melbourne, a couple of years ago. Mr. Rundle’s [And Dr. Tyler’s] suggestion
that the Victorian brothel owners are big supporters of the Eros Association is
demonstrably untrue. Rundle [and Tyler] appear ignorant of the fact that the
legal Victorian brothels have their own industry association anyway. The annual
returns of both the Eros Association (an incorporated not for profit adult industry
association) and The Sex Party (a registered political party) are on the public
record.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“That the commercial
interests of the sex industry might occasionally clash with the pursuit of
civil liberties, or other important things – like say, gender equality – is
apparently unthinkable.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Yet another tired strategy used by
anti-sex work moralists, positioning civil liberties against gender equality-
as if the two are somehow incompatible. Tyler
fails to recognise the efforts made by the Sex Party regarding gender equality,
it is party policy to promote greater inclusion of women in government, to
strengthen current equal opportunity legislation and fight discrimination where
it currently exists. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler
Claims, “<i>The Australian discussion around
the sex industry exists largely in a bubble where liberal notions of choice
reign supreme.”</i> If only this were true.
Unfortunately, in the state of Victoria, the law is pretty clear (</span><a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/swa1994129/s17.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sex Work Act 1994,
Section 17 subsection 3</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">): “A person must not publish or cause to
be published a statement which is intended or likely to induce a person to seek
employment as a sex worker; or in a brothel or with an escort agency or any
other business that provides sex work services” In addition to prohibiting
businesses from advertising for workers, this law also prohibits the
distribution of information about working in the sex industry. This means that the information that would
help people make an informed choice about working (or even not working) in the
sex industry is not currently available. For many of us, sex work is a choice
but clearly it is not the dominant ideal, to claim that this notion “reigns
supreme” is more than just a little exaggerated. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler
writes: <i>“This creates an unusual climate
where it is thought that, to be progressive, you must be sympathetic to an
industry that principally relies on the buying and selling of women.”</i>
Placing aside the rancid and disparaging characterisation that sex work is the “selling
of women” (as opposed to the consensual trade of services provided by workers
of all genders sexes and sexualities), what’s so unusually progressive about
supporting people whose rights are being trounced every day? This is another
attempt to conflate supporters of sex worker rights with proponents of
exploitation, if you want to see similar examples of this one only needs to
look back to a time when support for gay rights was touted as promoting
paedophilia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Elsewhere in the world, however,
socialists, social democrats and other social progressives are moving towards
understanding prostitution as a form of violence and as a barrier to women’s
equality. In terms of legislation, this is epitomised by the Nordic Model,
which criminalises the buying of sexual services, but decriminalises selling” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Tyler
is speaking about legislation that was adopted in Sweden. By saying “social progressives” I’m wondering
if she is referring to writers of not only this policy, but the policy of </span><a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/02/sweden_transgender_sterilization/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">sterilisation of
transgender people seeking gender reassignment surgery</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">, the
</span><a href="http://www.independentliving.org/docs5/sterilization.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">forced
sterilisation of people with a disability</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> and the </span><a href="http://www.svenskabrukarforeningen.se/system/files/Another%20story%20about%20the%20Swedish%20Drug%20policy.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">zero tolerance
approach to drug use</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">. Yeah, real
progressive...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHRY0R7U9VFUO1JIBbkQuvU1RQ9b6WTAyPGU8Ok85VZV-Nl1nYhH_B1Kak3dqlkCqByWcwXpkWks4D8Hi8sfTWVN_VQGGxjBvWrOEiGA8qJx8GO4VX40Ush5e5jfKJReLuY3GXxE5e1t-I/s1600/po.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHRY0R7U9VFUO1JIBbkQuvU1RQ9b6WTAyPGU8Ok85VZV-Nl1nYhH_B1Kak3dqlkCqByWcwXpkWks4D8Hi8sfTWVN_VQGGxjBvWrOEiGA8qJx8GO4VX40Ush5e5jfKJReLuY3GXxE5e1t-I/s200/po.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Swedish academic, Petra Ostregren <br />
opposes the Swedish Model</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Despite mounting evidence that the Nordic
Model is effective in curtailing prostitution and sex trafficking, it continues
to be derided and dismissed in Australia.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Rebranding the
‘Swedish Model’ (perhaps she feels the brand has been too damaged), Tyler
ignores the mountain of evidence produced by </span><a href="http://www.lauraagustin.com/behind-the-happy-face-of-the-swedish-anti-prostitution-law"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">academics around
the world</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> as well as within </span><a href="http://www.petraostergren.com/pages.aspx?r_id=40716"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Sweden itself</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">,
that demonstrates how ineffective and harmful the legislative framework is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Earlier this year, for instance, the
Kirby Institute at UNSW released a report on the sex industry in New South
Wales, which claimed that the difference between the Nordic Model and full
criminalisation (often favoured by conservative political regimes) may be
“largely illusory”.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> At this point of her piece, Tyler reveals much about the
approach one must take in order to stand in a tenuous position as she
does. Clearly, one has to ignore a
highly respected academic body has conducted evidence based peer reviewed
research in order to commit to a position that oppresses sex workers. This “pre-scientific” approach is often
adopted by sex work prohibitionist and is </span><a href="http://maggiemcneill.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/weitzer-the-mythology-of-prostitution.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">well documented. </span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“It also trotted out the tired claim that
criminalising the buying of sexual services automatically positions “sex
workers as victims”.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Actually, the most significant portrayers of “sex workers as
victims” were the policy writers to first put together Tyler’s beloved ‘Nordic
Model’. This re-emerges the </span><a href="http://nppr.se/2010/07/02/evaluating-the-swedish-ban-on-the-purchase-of-sexual-services-the-anna-skarhed-report/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Swedish
government’s evaluation</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> of the abolition of sex work: “[Sex
workers] describe themselves as having chosen to prostitute themselves and
don’t see themselves as being involuntarily exposed to anything. Even if it’s not forbidden to sell sex, they
feel hunted by the police. They feel as
if they’ve been declared incapable of managing their own affairs in that their
actions are tolerated, but their will and choices are not respected. Further, they believe it is possible to
distinguish between voluntary and forced prostitution… (These) negative effects
of the ban that they describe can almost be regarded as positive when viewed
from the perspective that the aim of the law is to combat prostitution.” So basically the Swedish model says that sex
workers’ sense of stigma, being hunted down and lack of respect are good things,
a means to an end. And Tyler wonders why
such a framework is derided in Australia.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="ecxmsonormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt;">
<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“Assertions such as these continue to
fuel an odd situation in Australia. If, when talking about prostitution, you
raise issues of exploitation or structural inequality – traditionally hallmarks
of Marxist analyses – you get accused of being a right-wing moralist.” </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">No
Tyler, no one is calling you a moralist because of your views on equality and
human rights, we call you a moralist because you are not willing to apply these
to sex workers. The policies she
advocates for are demonstrably harmful towards women, she would rather see us
without rights, without protection in an ineffective effort to stamp us out,
regardless of the cost. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“But perhaps this
constant bias shouldn’t be surprising in a country where the sex industry not
only has its own political party but has also managed to con a bunch of
academics, among others, into voting for it.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Let’s look at what is clear- there are two sides of the debate-
pro-sex work and anti-sex work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><br /></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8gRnjplnH6Zg-JVrrFg1yhVnANqo3TZuiC64Kg2sh2Zk5UmRVaOydIoKHTL4lCeUzlAZGesnfIt2y0iN4kONt3ASN2DbeF8p_q484o4RALB9tmiDver0vbPxfLhnhNFs7GWRXy87NjO1H/s1600/rur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8gRnjplnH6Zg-JVrrFg1yhVnANqo3TZuiC64Kg2sh2Zk5UmRVaOydIoKHTL4lCeUzlAZGesnfIt2y0iN4kONt3ASN2DbeF8p_q484o4RALB9tmiDver0vbPxfLhnhNFs7GWRXy87NjO1H/s200/rur.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fiona Patten, Speaking at a rally for <br />
sex worker rights earlier this year</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #eeeeee; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> Whatever you believe, the
Australian Sex Party -with its sex work supportive policies, it’s consultation
with sex workers, it inclusion of sex workers with in its membership and its
pre-selection of sex workers as candidates- is very clear about where it stands
in this debate- we are not trying to con anyone. I think The Sex Party has done a great job in
promoting discussion of the issue and if people listen to sex workers and
happen to agree with them- I don’t think that’s a con. Tyler seems to be
labouring under the delusion that people couldn’t possibly make up their own
minds to agree with us or not; just as she believes that I could not possibly
freely choose to do sex work. <br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="ecxmsonormal" style="line-height: 17.75pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> On the other hand, the
Victorian Greens have not been as transparent.
When Kathleen Maltzahn was pressed on radio during the 2010 state election
campaign about her party’s stance on sex work she denied her party had any,
despite her party’s website clearly stating it will </span><a href="http://greens.org.au/policies/care-for-people/women"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">“end the
criminalisation of consensual adult sex work.”</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">
Perhaps this omission was an innocent oversight or perhaps it indicates an
awareness of the tension within the Greens, that such moralistic conservatism
is best covered up- after all it did just cost them valuable support that could
have secured them a win in the Melbourne by-election. So what’s it going to be Victorian Greens-
Are you pro- or anti- sex workers?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-85030369848627260462012-08-06T02:01:00.000-07:002012-08-16T15:43:23.449-07:00Whore Pride- A Short Film<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/D4LjNMiHPvQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So this was a digital story I made a couple of years ago. It's a snapshot of achievements I had made at the time. Sex Workers, stigmatised and hiding, are often erased and silenced throughout history. I refuse to be made invisible. I am here. We are here, and if I have anything to do with it, we will not be forgotten. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been lucky enough to screen in a few times alongside other digital stories by other sex workers. I've even taken these stories across the planet to share with other sex workers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm really grateful to Zero-One-Zero, an amazing, community minded multimedia collective who gave me the skills to put this- and so many future projects- together. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-74300268618653726622012-06-20T18:47:00.002-07:002012-08-16T15:42:53.384-07:00The Lies That Obstruct The Human Rights Of Sex Workers<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 13.1pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">According to academic Caroline Norma,<span style="color: blue;"> </span></span><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/standing-up-for-sex-workers-is-standing-up-for-pimps-20120618-20k84.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">I am a “prostituted woman</span></a><span style="color: blue; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">While her inaccuracy might be obvious, the layers of her misrepresentation of me and my community are numerous as an onion’s and as eye-wateringly bitter. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Firstly I am not a woman. I am male and I am a sex worker. The assumption that all sex workers are female may be seen as clumsy oversight, innocuous and naive. Did you fall for it?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The representation of the entire front line of the sex industry as female is a deliberate distortion of the actual workforce. The charade may or may not be obvious but the intention is clear; so long as everyone believes that all sex workers are women then gender plays an active role in defining who are the victims and who are the oppressors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">There is a sad irony in this rhetoric; supposed “feminists” portray women (sex workers) as weak, inevitable victims of exploitative men (‘pimps’ and clients). Sad because the truth, ignored by these academics, paints a starkly different picture of sex workers than these doomsayers purport.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Some sex workers are the strongest people I know. Some have overcome incredible hardship. Some have reconciled traumatic personal histories. Some have demonstrated fantastic resilience and resourcefulness. They have made choices in the face of immense social stigma, discrimination and prejudice. I’ve been inspired by what we have achieved together despite our differences. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Sex workers are of all sexes, genders and sexualities. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">While some estimates place female sex workers at 80% of the workforce, 15% male and 5% transgender, particular sectors of the industry have a different representation of gender (for example, statistics from the Business Licensing Authority indicate independent private workers closer to 50% male, 50% female). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">While these numbers may be interesting, they’re greatest power is that they debunk the traditional feminist representation that all sex work is violence against women. How do I, a male sex worker who sees male clients, pose a threat to all the females everywhere?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The second misrepresentation Norma and her ilk assert is loaded in the language they use. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Flatly ignoring the voices of sex workers to be referred to as “sex workers” and continuing to refer to us as “prostituted women” show their true colours. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">By interpreting what we do as “prostitution” her description of my job as “commercially mediated sexual abuse” might pass. Using these terms, loaded with all of their values and judgements allow for all sorts of prejudice to be expressed at the mere mention of our occupation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">If one is interested in being objective, upholding values of social justice, equity and fairness then one ought to follow the protocol we have used for all people throughout history- use terms minority groups have determined as appropriate. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">We are not asking for special treatment; history contains many examples of groups demanding the right to be named by themselves- it is why we use the term “African-American” and not “Negro”, it is why we say “Intersex” instead of “hermaphrodite”. In our case, please call us ‘sex workers’ and not “prostitutes” or “prostituted women”. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">In fact there are already precedents that have come into practice. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, considers the words “prostitution” and “prostitute” inappropriate and directs people to use the term “sex work” in their </span><a href="http://www.unaids.org/en/aboutunaids/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">terminology guide</span></a><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Following this, in 2010 the Victorian Government renamed the law that regulates the sex industry from “The Prostitution Control Act” to “The Sex Work Act” and changed all references accordingly. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The term “sex work” was coined by American sex worker activist, Carol Leigh, in the 1970s. The term emphasises what we are doing: work. The rights we are fighting for are labour rights. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Framed as work, the problems associated with sex work can be addressed via the recourse available to all other forms of employment: with good standards in occupational health and safety, industrial relations, human rights, equal opportunity and non-discrimination. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">The resistance that some feminists exhibit in using our preferred terminology not only demonstrates a lack of respect towards us but also an unwillingness to address any of the genuine difficulties we face. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">By not framing sex work as work the problems can feel insurmountable. From this perspective, exploitation appears uncontrollable. The only solution seems to be that we just have to do our hardest to stamp it out at all costs. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">While everyone is emotionally caught up in the tragedy of what is presented no one focuses on real solutions beyond the false promise of prohibition. Academics can build a career churning out books and articles, profiting from the perpetual myth-making that I am a helpless victim. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">I am not saying my occupation is without its flaws. The hardships that are present in our work can be overcome, not by abolishing sex work and exiling us to the underground, but by embracing us and allowing the standards that legitimise all other occupations apply to us. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Put plainly: sex work is work. Anything else is selling us short. </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-64321616001446775762012-06-20T18:08:00.000-07:002012-08-16T15:41:58.076-07:00Anti-Sex Work Academic's Feeble Attempt at Stigmatising Us<br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jun 19, Caroline wrote an opinion piece in the Age, <em>Standing up for sex workers is standing up for pimps. </em>You can read her vitriolic bigotry here: <em> </em></span></span><a href="http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/standing-up-for-sex-workers-is-standing-up-for-pimps-20120618-20k84.html#ixzz1yNviycSl" style="color: #003399;"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/standing-up-for-sex-workers-is-standing-up-for-pimps-20120618-20k84.html#ixzz1yNviycSl</span></a><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The shortsighted moralist tone of Norma's words isn't lost on the readers, many of whom (both sex workers and non-sex worker) voiced their disapproval in the comments. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amongst the 158 posts is mine. You can read it here: </span><br />
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<em><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I am a sex worker. This article is moralistic, abolitionist rubbish that further contributes to the debilitating stigma that already negatively impacts on the mental and physical health of sex workers. </span></em></blockquote>
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<em><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">From the headline, Norma is arguing that we should not stand up for sex worker rights, as if we have none. She is advocating for our poverty, our prosecution, our social exclusion. She wants everyone to think the worst of us, victims incapable of making a choice. With that prejudice in the minds of the community, it is no wonder we are treated as second class citizens, no wonder people don't recognise our human rights, no wonder we get no protection from the police or the law, no wonder perpertrators of violence against us feel that they can get away with it. </span></em></blockquote>
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<em><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I am sick of constantly being portrayed as a victim. I've never been pimped out. I used to work for an escort agency but I chose to leave and support myself by working independantly. I chose to. The clients I have chosen to see are diverse- some have disabilities, some have lost their long term partners, some are super busy,some are extraordinarily lonely. The reasons they see sex workers are as varied as their lives. None of them want to exploit, assault or victimise me. </span></em></blockquote>
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<em><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">I know I'm not alone in my experience because I've also chosen to stay connected to my colleagues - sex workers of all sexes and genders- for emotional, occupational and community support. </span></em></blockquote>
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<em><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">We are not going anywhere. We are part of one of the most enduring professions in human history. Elite Academics like Norma can bad mouth us all she likes. But the truth is we are workers and we have human rights- how about you start recognising them?</span></em><br />
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<dt class="hiddenVisually"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Commenter: <cite>Christian Vega</cite></span></span></dt>
<dt class="hiddenVisually"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Location: Melbourne</span></dt>
<dt class="hiddenVisually"><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Date and time: Jun 19, 2012, 11:32AM</span></dt>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-88767682543227867492012-06-09T16:01:00.003-07:002012-08-16T15:41:03.929-07:00Sex Workers Speak Out For Law Reform, SameSameAfter my appearance on the Project, this piece was written in SameSame:<br />
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<img alt="www.samesame.com.au" height="213" src="http://ic.s.tsatic-cdn.net/361/635_340/f89a7_361900.jpg" width="400" />
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<a href="http://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/8526/Sex-workers-speak-out-for-law-reform.htm">http://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/8526/Sex-workers-speak-out-for-law-reform.htm</a>
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A gay male sex worker has spoken up about his role in the sex industry as the campaign continues for various Australian states to loosen up their prostitution laws.</div>
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“The world would be a really sad place without sex workers,” says 29-year-old <strong style="color: black;">Christian Vega</strong>. “For a lot of people, sex workers are their only form of sexual expression. There’s nothing wrong with those people.”</div>
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He adds that sex work helps him supplement the small income he makes doing a job in the community sector that he’s passionate about.</div>
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In NSW alone, there are an estimated 10,000 sex workers, with a fair percentage of them working in the queer community. In most parts of Australia, private sex work is legal, but some states ban brothel work and most of them ban street work.</div>
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Experts in the sex industry say decriminalising various forms of sex work leads to safer working conditions as workers feel able to contact the police with their concerns. Anti-discrimination laws would also benefit the often stigmatised profession.</div>
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“We as a community have a choice,” says Vega. “Do we make these people’s lives harder than they already are, or do we support them as part of our community?”</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-46837583599238811782012-06-07T22:21:00.000-07:002012-06-10T00:47:28.734-07:00On Channel 10's the Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I've made it onto prime time television. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the Festival of Sex Work was written about in the Age, Festival Organisers were bombarded with a whole bunch of media requests, Channel 10 was on of them. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-30468383379182536652012-06-05T22:07:00.000-07:002012-06-10T00:43:26.387-07:00On 3CR's 'Done By Law'<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Podcast of an interview with me on 3CR's 'Done By Law' program on Monday night about the festival, sex work and the law.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.donebylaw.org/images/bw3crlogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #7d181e; float: left; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://www.donebylaw.org/images/bw3crlogo.jpg" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.199219) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.donebylaw.org/2012/06/05/sex-workers-speak-out/" rel="bookmark" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #cc3333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" title="Permanent Link to Sex workers speak out">SEX WORKERS SPEAK OUT</a></h2>
<small style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Written by Annie on <abbr style="border-bottom-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-bottom-width: 1px; cursor: help; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="2012-06-05">June 5, 2012</abbr></small><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
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Last week venues around Melbourne hosted talks, public forums and screenings for the city’s first<a href="http://festivalofsexwork.blogspot.com.au/" style="border-bottom-color: black; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; color: #cc3333; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Festival of Sex Work</a>. Sex worker and advocate Christian Vega from VIXEN (Victorian Sex Industry Network) joins Done By Law to talk about how current laws and policies affect the rights of sex workers in Victoria.</div>
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<a href="http://www.donebylaw.org/2012/06/05/sex-workers-speak-out/" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.donebylaw.org/2012/06/05/sex-workers-speak-out/</a></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-33831142028083968552012-05-30T22:20:00.000-07:002012-06-10T00:45:07.366-07:00Festival of Sex Work in the Age<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-workers-shine-light-on-their-trade-with-qa-20120529-1zhqk.html#ixzz1xFfKMqLP" style="border: 0px; color: #003399; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/sex-workers-shine-light-on-their-trade-with-qa-20120529-1zhqk.html#ixzz1xFfKMqLP</a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 17px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Sex workers shine light on their trade with Q&A</span></span><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /><br /><img alt="Forum: Angela White, Cassie and Christian." src="http://images.theage.com.au/2012/05/30/3335692/art-sex-workers-420x0.jpg" />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A PORN star, an escort, a tantric practitioner, a dominatrix
and a rent boy walk into a bar … and willingly answer any question thrown at
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At least that's what happened last night at a public forum
in the Secret Society Bar in Bourke Street.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a bid to demystify their profession, the sex workers
appeared on a panel open to the public, as part of this week's Festival of Sex
Work, the first festival of its kind in Australia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Organised by Vixen, a collective of current and former sex
workers who promote civil rights in the industry, the impetus for the festival
was to give a voice to sex workers. The festival receives no corporate
sponsorship or government funding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last night's event, Ask A Sex Worker A Question, invited
members of the public to ask any question in exchange for a gold coin donation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">''We're tired of other people talking about us,'' said event
co-organiser Tabitha. ''We're a very diverse group of workers.''<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The stars of last night's panel were Australian adult actor
Angela White, our most popular internet porn star, and dominatrix Lady Ambrosia
Noir, who, along with the rest of the panel answered questions about their
ideal day at work, labour rights in the industry and depictions of sex workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Age asked the panel about the portrayal of sex workers
in the Craig Thomson scandal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Private escort Cassie said she found the emphasis on
Thomson's alleged use of sex workers, rather than of misusing his credit card,
offensive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">''Particularly the way most media threw around the term
'hooker'. Sex work is a legal service,'' she said. Male escort Christian, who
has worked in the industry for 15 years, said: ''We want people to hear from
us, instead of thinking they can speak on our behalf.''<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other events at this week's festival included a historical
sex work walking tour of the city, a forum today at Melbourne University on sex
work policy and law, a film screening at ACMI and workshops for sex workers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The festival culminates with International Whores' Day on
Saturday, a celebration of sex workers' rights, celebrated locally with a Red
Umbrella Rally on the steps of Parliament House.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">''There's a lot of stigma around that word,'' said Tabitha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">''We're trying to reclaim it back for ourselves.''</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-65444229972691820522012-05-27T22:09:00.000-07:002012-06-10T06:05:42.230-07:00Interviewed on the Naughty Rude Show, SYN FM<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the second day of the Festival, Nada, Leni and I were interviewed on the Naughty Rude show for SYN. It was a totally fun interview, responding to listeners' querstions and getting a few points across ourselves. Podcast is at the link. </span><br />
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<a href="http://syn.org.au/program/naughty-rude-show/episode/audio/2012/06/06/festival-sex-work/8041">http://syn.org.au/program/naughty-rude-show/episode/audio/2012/06/06/festival-sex-work/8041</a>
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<a href="http://syn.org.au/sites/default/files/synfm_logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Home" border="0" src="http://syn.org.au/sites/default/files/synfm_logo.png" /></a><br />
<h2 class="episode-parent-link" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<a href="http://syn.org.au/program/naughty-rude-show" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #cc3333; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Naughty Rude Show</a></h2>
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Festival of Sex Work</h1>
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Submitted by patricianiklas on Wed, 06/06/2012 - 10:29</div>
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We chat to Christian, Nada and Leni from the inaugural Festival of Sex Work. We discuss the events of the festival, why it's important for sex workers to tell their own stories, and why sex workers are called sex workers in the first place. </div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3827767630497335582.post-69238459662252828792012-04-25T00:34:00.000-07:002012-06-10T00:42:42.235-07:00Festival of Sex Work VideoHaving learnt video shooting and editing skills through the digital storytelling workshop I had done with Zero-One-Zero, I was able to write, shoot and edit this video promoting the Festival of Sex Work. <br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Beginning on Saturday 26 May concluding with International Whores' Day, Saturday 2 June 2012, the Melbourne Fesival of Sex Work is a celebration of the lives, skills, culture and community of sex workers, and will include a number of different events. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">For more information please visit www.festivalofsexwork.com</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">NB: The content of this video was accurate at the time its making and circumstances may have changed. Specifically, the statement "Vixen is the only organisation made 100% of sex workers in Victoria" does not account for the creation of any new sex worker organisation that may have been created since.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0