Fluent Essays

Based on your readings, lecture slides, and videos from  this week, please make an argument regarding how the sex workers rights  movement either undermines OR advances the cause of  feminism? In other words, do you think it is possible to be both a  feminist and a sex worker? Please provide examples from your readings,  lecture slides, and videos from this week. You must draw upon at least one of the readings from this week in your response. Be sure to use APA formatting in your initial  response (including in-text citations and references), add word count,  and adhere to the proper word length. Addressing the Failure of Anti-Sex Work Organisations The Smart Sex Worker’s Guide NSWP exists to uphold the voice of sex workers globally and connect regional networks advocating for the rights of female, male and transgender sex workers. It advocates for rights-based health and social services, freedom from abuse and discrimination and self-determination for sex workers. SEX WORK IS WORK: Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs NSWP is part of Bridging the Gaps – health and rights for key populations. This unique programme addresses the common challenges faced by sex workers, people who use drugs and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in terms of human right violations and accessing much needed HIV and health services. Go to www.hivgaps.org for more information. http://www.hivgaps.org 1 Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 About this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Consulting NSWP members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A Note on Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 A Note on Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Who is Harming Sex Workers and Why? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Types of Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1 FUNDAMENTAL FEMINISTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2 ANTI-TRAFFICKING GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 RELIGIOUS GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Setting the Standard: Identifying Groups Doing Harm to Sex Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Using The Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT) to determine if services are using a rights-based approach . . . . . 13 Harmful Activities of Anti-Sex Work Groups and Useful Resources to Counter Arguments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1 Bad Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2 Conflation of Sex Work with Trafficking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 3 Targeting Young People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 4 Nordic Model Lobbying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 5 Criminalisation of Third Parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 6 Common Tactics: ‘Not Representative’; ‘False Consciousness’ . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 7 Former Sex Workers in Anti-Sex Work Organising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2 Sex workers and their allies face significant obstacles in the fight to improve the health and wellbeing of sex workers globally. In their struggle for equality and fundamental human rights, sex workers’ rights activists experience significant opposition from opponents claiming to be working in the best interests of sex workers. Anti-sex work organisations and anti-trafficking groups which reject an evidence- and rights-based approach to sex work are creating harmful policies and programmes that compromise the health, safety, and security of sex workers around the world. Organisations which threaten the human rights of sex workers hold a variety of core beliefs and priorities, but share a lack of concern for the negative impacts their interventions have on the lives of sex workers. Due to the pervasive stigma and discrimination against sex workers that exists in many contexts, these groups have a considerable advantage when it comes to advancing their anti-sex work agendas. Sex workers’ rights advocates today are not only fighting the centuries-old cultural stigmatisation that has pushed sex workers to the margins of society, they are also fighting against well- funded anti-sex work organisations that have mainstreamed the use of false claims, bad research, and the silencing of sex workers’ voices throughout their work. Introduction Sex workers’ rights organisations, often under- resourced, are dedicating time and energy to resisting well-funded and institutionally supported groups that dismiss evidence-based research in favour of unsubstantiated ideology.1 About This Guide This Smart Guide explores organisations whose work puts sex workers at risk, directly and indirectly. It explores different types of organisations that have been involved in anti-sex work organising. This includes fundamental feminists, anti-trafficking groups, and religious organisations. Respondents to NSWP consultations reported that it has become increasingly difficult to identify anti-sex work groups in their communities. Many organisations now mimic the language of the sex workers’ rights movement, but do not share the goal of upholding the safety and human rights of sex workers. This Smart Guide firstly addresses the most common activities undertaken by these organisations, followed by resources that may help sex worker-led organisations to respond effectively to them. 1 Ronald Weitzer, Sex Trafficking and the Sex Industry: The Need for Evidence-Based Theory and Legislation, 101 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 1337 (2013). http://scholarlycommons.law. northwestern.edu/jclc/vol101/iss4/4. http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol101/iss4/4 http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc/vol101/iss4/4 mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 3 Finally, a collection of resistance strategies is compiled through conversations with sex workers’ rights organisations. Some of the strategies are direct responses to the activities of anti-sex work groups, while others are recommendations for operating in a political climate where anti-sex work groups dominate. Sex worker advocates have devised numerous strategies to counter the efforts of anti-sex work organisations. A collection of efforts that have progressed the fight for sex workers’ rights, health, safety, and autonomy can be found in feature boxes throughout this guide. Consulting NSWP members NSWP consultations revealed several common challenges faced by sex worker-led organisations who have experienced push-back from anti-sex work groups. Variations between regions were also reported, reflecting the unique socio-political histories of the respondents’ respective countries. For example, whereas sex workers in northern Europe struggle against morally conservative cultural views on sex and sex work, this is less of a concern for organisers across India, who are lobbying to gain access to national worker pension-plans for sex workers. SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE INDIA “We are protesting, we are marching. Sex workers are marching on the roads for social entitlements and against anti-trafficking laws that are being proposed in our parliament. We have a self-regulatory model in the red light areas since 2000. Peer educators, who are sex workers, identify new sex workers who are new in the profession, so she is sent to the self-regulatory board. It’s 50\% who are sex workers, the other 50\% are lawyers, doctors, and other civil society members. This model is entirely run by sex workers and we believe that sex work is work. We are identifying what their real issues are and addressing discrimination and stigma. We say it’s a democratic process to prevent trafficking. We are working on media advocacy and interactive sessions with the media. These are strategies to discuss all of sex workers with local media and English media. To say ‘what do sex workers really want?’ Apart from this we have contacts in civil society who are raising our issues as well. They are collectively mentioning sex worker issues in their common agendas. They are putting us in front of policymakers and governments. This is another way to address the issues of sex workers. Universities and institutions invite us to speak, so sex workers are going there for interactive sessions to put our issues forward” mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 4 SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE CANADA Sex workers are compiling comprehensives local guides to document how well local services work with their community. Some are exploring a ranking system for services, where a series of standards must be reached to earn a stamp of approval as a safely accessible space. When asked about the harmful activities of anti- sex work groups in their communities, several political strategies were revealed as common across most regions. These included: a reliance on bad research which ostensibly provided evidence of sex work’s harmful effects on individuals and society; the conflation of sex work with trafficking; and, the dismissal of sex workers’ testimony and activism through a number of discrediting narratives, such as being under ‘false consciousness’ and being ‘not representative’. Instances of direct threats and harassment were recorded, including examples of public ‘outing’ of sex workers who were vocal in rights movements. Collaborations with law enforcement that resulted in violent raids, arrests, displacements, and deportations of sex workers were also reported. Sex workers’ rights groups lamented the time and money spent responding to biased research and false statistics that could have gone towards much needed advocacy and support for sex workers. The toll of these activities extends beyond the strain on finite resources and into the emotional well- being and lives of sex workers’ rights activists. Respondents described feelings of frustration, anger, and trauma from dealing with groups that are dedicated to hindering the advancement of human rights for sex workers. “Our members generally find it very difficult to be confronted by the arguments of the anti-sex work movement. Some members have tried to reason with them, tried to explain that we want industrial and workplace rights but we are often dismissed or insulted. Most of our members can’t continue in this for long before it affects them too much” AUSTRALIAN SEX WORKER mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 5 SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE NORWAY “We have succeeded in the way we have manage to get national LGBT-organization to establish a resolution against the ban on purchasing sex and our engagement in Oslo Pride. Our perspective have many supporters who also participates in public debates but... our threshold is the governmental level” A Note on Language NSWP uses the terms ‘sex work’ and ‘sex worker’. Exceptions are made in this guide where quoting the specific language of anti-sex work groups. Fundamental feminist groups addressed in this Guide typically employ language that is considered pejorative in the sex worker rights movement. The term ‘prostitute’ and the passive ‘prostituted woman’ are standard in abolitionist feminist literature. The word ‘abolitionist’, describing the political desire for the total erasure of sex work, will be used to describe the core goals of these feminists. The decision by fundamental feminists to prioritise victim-centric language effectively silences, insults, stigmatises, and misrepresents sex workers. It is therefore considered a harmful practice within the scope of this Guide. A Note on Privacy Organisations that fail to protect the human rights of sex workers often directly target those who do. The names and locations of respondents in this document have been changed in some cases and certain examples have been presented without specific details, for the sake of privacy and security. Sex worker activism at Oslo Pride, Norway © PION mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 6 SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE BRAZIL In Brazil, one community of sex workers organised a large presence at a Sao Paulo anti-rape protest to show their support for ending gendered violence, after years of being alienated by local feminists. In 2002, pressure by the sex worker organisation Davida contributed to the Brazilian Ministry of Labor adding “sex worker” to an official list of occupations. Groups that undermine the human rights of sex workers are motivated by a variety of ideologies. Outlined below are the most common ideologies employed by these organisations. 1 Fundamental Feminism (also referred to as ‘abolitionists’) These campaigners consider sex work a form of violence against women. Despite copious evidence to the contrary, fundamental feminists believe that the complete elimination of sex work is possible and a desirable goal. They promote laws and policies that attempt to inhibit or hinder sex work, with the aim of making it disappear. These laws and policies include, for example, the ‘Nordic Model’, and other forms of sex work criminalisation. These laws and policies are promoted regardless of the negative impact they have been shown to have on female sex workers. “I had the chance to speak to an abolitionist face-to- face, calmly, and asked her ‘what do you genuinely think sex workers will do when they can’t work under the criminal model you’re campaigning for here? How do they feed their kids tonight? Not a month from now or a year from now, but tonight?’ And she just didn’t have an answer. And I realized that they really don’t consider the immediate impacts of what they’re doing”. SEX WORKER IN NORTHERN EUROPE Fundamental feminism has dominated popular discourse on sex work since the 1980s. While the issue of sex work has always had a place in discussions of women’s rights, key abolitionist campaigners have significantly shifted the way sex work has been taken up as a feminist issue. Some of the most notable figures in this movement include Catherine McKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Kathleen Barry, Janice Raymond, Who is Harming Sex Workers and Why? Demonstration for sex workers’ rights in Norway © P IO N mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 7 Melissa Farley, and Sheila Jeffreys. In their advocacy against sex work, they rely on certain common assumptions about selling sex and about women, including: • Women’s sexuality is constructed for the benefit of men.2 • Sex work irreversibly damages women (as well as “men who are like women”.)3, and • Women are not capable of consent within a patriarchal society.4 “Really, most organisations somewhere in their hearts are anti-sex work. You’ve got the ones who don’t even know they’re anti sex work right up to the ones who are screaming it. We call them ‘mutant feminists’ – they call themselves ‘radical’, but radical means something good to us. They’re this mutant strand of feminism” SEX WORKER IN THAILAND Within this approach, sex work represents a symbolic violence rather than literal violence. Even if a sex worker has never experienced physical violence, the act of selling sex is considered a form of violence in itself, due to gendered imbalances of power.5 Sex workers and other feminists point out that this definition of violence could easily encompass any type of job or personal relationship that takes place under patriarchy 6. Yet it is sex work and the women who engage in it that are targeted by these groups. For sex workers’ rights activists and many other feminists, the logic of these arguments omits any concept of female sexuality as an entity in itself, preferring to see it as only a source of disempowerment relative to male desire.7 Within this framework, any woman who claims sexual agency is said to be suffering from a false understanding of her own social reality, termed ‘false consciousness’. In these critiques, “there is no space for the [sex worker] herself as speaking subject, particularly if her speech might contradict the feminist construction of her”.8 “[during government consultations] everyone agreed that prostitution is bad and that they must do something against it. They just disagreed on how to fight prostitution. So the consequences on our lives, they don’t care at all. Most think that it is normal for sex workers to suffer from violence abuse and disease ‘cause this is the definition of what prostitution is in their head. Their aim is for us to stop sex work so the problem is solved” SEX WORKER IN FRANCE 2 MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1989. Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 3 Dworkin, Andrea. 1987. Intercourse. New York: Free Press. 4 MacKinnon, Catharine A. 1989. Toward a feminist theory of the state. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 5 Agustín, Laura María. 2007. Sex at the margins: migration, labour markets and the rescue industry. London: Zed Books. 6 Koken, Juline A. “The Meaning of the ‘Whore’: How Feminist Theories on Prostitution Shape Research on Female Sex workers,” in Ditmore, Melissa H, Antonia Levy, and Alys Willman. Sex Work Matters: Exploring Money, Power, and Intimacy in the Sex Industry. London: Zed Books, 2010. and Nagle, Jill. 1997. Whores and other feminists. New York: Routledge. 7 Vance, Carole S. 1984. Pleasure and danger: exploring female sexuality. Boston: Routledge & K. Paul., see also Rubin, Gayle. 2011. Deviations: a Gayle Rubin reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 8 Bell, Shannon. 1994. Reading, writing, and rewriting the prostitute body. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 8 SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE CANADA One group in Canada organised a national event that encouraged fellow community groups to challenged myths that conflate sex work with trafficking. They spread the word on social media with the hashtag #harmsofantitrafficking. 2 Anti-Trafficking Groups Many sex workers have been harmed in the name of anti-trafficking initiatives. Due to the persistent conflation of sex work with trafficking, the anti-trafficking movement has provided an opportunity for some to push an abolitionist agenda more effectively. Some organisations that previously operated for the sole purpose of criminalising ‘prostitution’ now identify as ‘anti- trafficking’ organisations, working towards the same abolitionist goals. Sex workers in the global South and migrant sex workers are most directly impacted by these interventions, experiencing the brunt of ‘raid and rescue’ operations. They report a wide range of organisations that compromise their safety and livelihoods, including non-governmental organisations, religious groups, and police that violently enforce harmful laws. “We had a group of 121 women who were arrested in a raid. At least 21 of them were detained illegally. We contacted the group responsible and we said ‘what are you doing for the women that you have had arrested, plus the other 280 that were made unemployed by your raid?’ and they said they had no responsibility for that; it’s none of their business.” SEX WORKER IN THAILAND In some contexts, trafficking has also become a euphemism for anti-migration fears. Many countries interested in stemming the flow of migrants have passed anti-migration policies in the name of anti-trafficking.9 The resulting strict immigration requirements make migrants even more vulnerable to labour abuses as undocumented workers, as well as debt bondage to cover the costs of high-risk border crossings.10 For migrant sex workers who are caught up in raids, they are not only vulnerable to criminalisation for sex work, but risk deportation as well. “The trouble is for migrant sex workers. They’re big targets. [Police] can get them for immigration, for working without a permit, for ‘trafficking’, whatever you need to meet your quota. It’s one stop shopping” SEX WORKER IN THAILAND 9 Agustín, Laura María. 2007. Sex at the margins: migration, labour markets and the rescue industry. London: Zed Books. 10 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, “Smuggling and Trafficking: Rights and Intersections” 2011. http://www. gaatw.org/publications/Working_Papers_Smuggling/ WPonSmuggling_31Mar2012.pdf. http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Working_Papers_Smuggling/WPonSmuggling_31Mar2012.pdf http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Working_Papers_Smuggling/WPonSmuggling_31Mar2012.pdf http://www.gaatw.org/publications/Working_Papers_Smuggling/WPonSmuggling_31Mar2012.pdf mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 9 Understanding the long history of anti-trafficking narratives can put today’s climate in perspective, as anti-sex work campaigners have been conflating sex work with trafficking for over a century. During the ‘white slavery panic’ of the early 20th century, stories about the abduction of young women for the purposes of exploitation were circulated widely. Sex workers bore the brunt of these narratives, as campaigners refused to believe anyone would willingly choose to do sex work, thus equating them with slaves. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in the United States typified the standpoint of these organisations with the statement: “There is a slave trade in this country, and it is not black folks at this time, but little white girls – thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, and seventeen years of age – and they are snatched out of our arms, and from our Sabbath schools and from our Communion tables.”12 Evangelical moral reformers of the day entered brothels and passed ‘anti-prostitution’ legislation in the name of saving victims. No evidence was discovered to support the widespread claims of this traffic in women. The media’s obsession with these stories faded with the beginning of the second World War.13 Publication by Empower © E M P O W E R 11 United States Government Accountability Office, “Human Trafficking: Better Data, Strategy, and Reporting Needed to Enhance U.S. Antitrafficking Efforts Abroad,” 2006. 12 Abbott, Karen. 2007. Sin in the Second City: madams, ministers, playboys, and the battle for America’s soul. New York: Random House. 13 Doezema, Jo. 2010. Sex slaves and discourse masters: the construction of trafficking. London: Zed Books. Many anti-trafficking organisations are notorious for relying on unfounded and vague statistics to support their claims.11 “When it comes to anti trafficking groups, they feed into this myth and misrepresent sex work, so you get the ‘sex slave’ stories and all those images, which is a misrepresentation of reality. Then, on the ground, they do these entrapment exercises, these abuses, and they work with authorities to do a raid. There will be about 50 armed police on the raid, which is a lot of big armed men for a lot of little women. Anti-trafficking NGOs are a part of those raids” SEX WORKER IN THAILAND mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 10 3 Religious Groups “Tours run by [a religious group in our area] have charged people to be placed in a volunteer program that goes out to brothels and attempts to do outreach (no training or very minimal training is given). They have used blackmail to obtain entry into brothels to preach – by using the fact that activities around sex work (such as being on premise of a brothel) is still heavily criminalised [in our area]” SEX WORKER IN AUSTRALIA Religious groups that oppose sex work have exerted significant power over international and country-level sex work laws and policies. Religious groups, namely Christian reformers, date back over one hundred years as organisers of the first social programmes to abolish sex work or ‘rescue fallen women’.14 In some countries, such as Canada and Ireland, groups that perpetrated severe abuses through these programmes now act as key stakeholders in government conversations on the rights of sex workers.15 In the United States, evangelical groups are heavily involved in the anti-trafficking movement and played an integral role in passing criminal legislation against sex work in the early 2000s, through strong lobbying efforts.16 Fundamental feminists have also collaborated with conservative Evangelicals under an anti-trafficking agenda.17 SEX WORKERS FIGHT BACK: RESISTANCE IN PRACTICE HONG KONG “Some religious groups collaborated with us to challenge the moral arguments against sex work. To say ‘actually, the bible doesn’t say it’s bad...’. One year we asked to be the leading group of the labour protest. Some of the groups were against it, but we have so much support from feminist groups and workers group and religious groups, so they came up and supported us. I think the support of the allies is very helpful. The organizing model of the sex worker in HK is different. It is more of a workers’ rights model. This is a workers’ rights issue. Other than the religious and feminist organizations, we also work with labour organisations” 14 Valverde, Mariana. 2008. The age of light, soap, and water: moral reform in English Canada, 1885–1925. 15 Backhouse, Constance. 1991. Petticoats and prejudice: women and law in nineteenth-century Canada. Toronto, Ont., Canada: Published for the Osgoode Society by Women’s Press. 16 Feingold, David A. “Think Again: Human trafficking.“ Foreign Policy. October 20, 2009. http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/20/think- again-human-trafficking/. 17 Bernstein E. 2010. “Militarized humanitarianism meets carceral feminism: the politics of sex, rights, and freedom in contemporary antitrafficking campaigns”. Signs. 36 (1): 45–72. http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/20/think-again-human-trafficking/ http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/10/20/think-again-human-trafficking/ mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight mdunn1 Highlight 11 In the contemporary political landscape, identifying groups opposed to sex work can be challenging. With the practice of deceptively naming organisations and programmes being used by fundamental feminists and abolitionists, alongside the growth of an anti-trafficking movement, the landscape of sex work-related projects is murkier than ever. Historically, organisations opposed to sex work stated their positions loudly. Victorian- era abolitionists in England considered it their moral obligation to end ‘prostitution’, which they considered a social evil and moral scourge.18 Moral reformers of this time sought to cure society of the vice of ‘prostitution’ and to protect the virtue of women. The argument that sex work was simply morally depraved, that female chastity should not be tarnished, and that women are better off in the home, shaped much of the cultural framework for how sex work is understood today. Consistent with campaigners of the past, modern anti-sex work organisations have used language clearly stating an abolitionist standpoint, where terms like ‘prostituted women’ are preferred, and the term ‘sex worker’ is rejected. However, in recent years, the vocabulary of many organisations has evolved to mimic that of sex workers’ rights groups. There are self- identified ‘sex worker rights advocates’ and ‘harm reduction advocates’ who in fact work from an abolitionist standpoint, rather than the rights- and evidence-based approach that these terms generally imply. This new vocabulary does not accompany a change to their fundamental anti- sex work ideology. The widespread conflation of sex work with trafficking has further contributed to this problem, by creating opportunities to disguise discriminatory policies aimed at sex workers. The language of ‘anti-trafficking’ has been adopted by many anti-sex work groups so much over the last two decades that the term ‘trafficking’ has become synonymous with not only forced labour in the sex industry, but with voluntary involvement in sex work.19 Countless organisations worldwide now work on ‘human trafficking’. The terminology has allowed them to access available anti-trafficking funding and increased public support. Setting the …