Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Organisations Comment’ Category

Harlots Changing Twitter account.

Posted in Escorting Lives, Organisations Comment, Sex Positive, tagged , , on 25 April, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

I would like to say a huge thank you to all those who follow Harlots Parlour on twitter. Caroline as many people know handed Harlots to myself and Catherine Stephens to run a few years ago. Over that time we have made changes to Harlots and have encouraged and welcomed new authors and contributors. We hope we have continued Caroline’s objective which was to provide a forum for a variety of views and opinions within sex work and about sex work.

The Twitter account was set up by Caroline Shepherd who has now moved on. The problem is neither Catherine Stephens or myself are able to access the twitter account to answer questions, follow people or unfollow /block if need be. Also the email address on the twitter account does not direct to Harlots Parlour and of course we cannot change any information.

Harlots Parlour is therefore moving to @HarlotsP

I would therefore like to ask everyone to move across to this new twitter account and to delete the old @Harlots_Parlour account. For the next month or so I will post in both accounts but obviously the sooner we can move everyone across the better.
The new Harlots twitter account hopefully will allow more information to be posted as I invite authors and contributors to post links to posts, Blogs and information relating to sex work and sex positivity around the world.

Harlots is also looking for new writers or for bloggers who wish to cross post in order to increase their audience and more importantly to share experiences and information. Harlots is not the property of one person but a forum for all sex workers.

Harlots is especially looking for the following voices which are seldom heard in the sex worker debates:

Sex Workers who have experience of street work,

Sex Workers who work through third parties,

Managers willing to talk about their experiences,

Harlots is a space for all sex workers to reference their experiences of sex work regardless of how they work, their politics, their race or their gender.

Thank You,
Douglas Fox
Catherine Stephens….

Read Full Post »

BINDEL TALES…

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Feminism, Gaze Review, In the Media, IUSW, Julie Bindel, Organisations Comment, Politics, sex worker politics, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on 21 April, 2013 | 7 Comments »

photo 1

Julie Bindel, bless her little cotton socks, is “managing editor” of a magazine not owned by her or Paul Burston, called “Gaze – A Modern Review”. One of her leading articles is called “An Unlikely Union” which naturally, as expected, is a vicious attack on the IUSW (International Union of Sex Workers) and the sex workers trades union branch of the GMB. What was surprising to some people however was that a few so called sex worker rights campaigners, notably Thierry Schaffauser, was not only critical of his fellow activists but was even praised by Julie Bindel and was then described as a “young and handsome Schaffauser”. In contrast Catherine Stephens who is the branch secretary of the sex worker GMB branch and active in the IUSW was described as a bully and her personal appearance criticised in a very personal attack which bordered on misogyny. I was referred constantly, in the article, as a pimp/manager and as a disruptive and almost malign influence, responsible for “sex workers” leaving the IUSW and the GMB branch.

The whole article was full of untruths and distortions, as one would expect from Julie Bindel who hates the sex industry and advocates for its demise. It was an article designed to hurt the IUSW and its reputation and to divide sex worker rights activists.

Anyone who knows anything about the sex worker rights movement knows that, like any group, there are varying opinions. Sex worker rights is not a cohesive movement politically, the only thread that holds activism together is a desire for social justice for sex workers and a desire for decriminalisation. Sex work is varied, multi layered, nuanced. It is work that is often transient and secretive. Sex work is stigmatised and criminalised. Activism carries risks both legally and socially. The result of this is that there are few activists prepared to put their heads above the parapet to be shot at by a hostile media and wealthy abolitionist groups. This is why it is important that those few who get involved in activism, regardless of personal political allegiances or understanding of our industry or how we would like to see decriminalisation delivered, should support each other. There is more that unites us than divides us but it seems that for some activists their voice is the only voice that must be heard, should be heard and if that means joining the enemy to hurt your fellow activists then they will happily oblige.The forwarding of a confidential email from myself to other IUSW activists explaining my reason for leaving the “confidential” IUSW list to Julie Bindel, who then used it in her article, explains why some activists are very cautious of others in the movement. Such actions undermines confidence and trust both in lists and in fellow activists. Who ever did this should be ashamed.

For those who have read the article I would like to correct inaccuracies made by Julie Bindel.

Catherine Stephens the bully

Catherine Stephens advised myself and others against giving an interview to Julie Bindel because she feared that our words may be twisted. No one was forbidden, least of all Thierry Schaffauser. She has never bullied me or anyone else to my knowledge. Catherine Stephens has however been the target of persistent bullying by Thierry and friends at branch meetings.

Inaccuracies in reporting the court case.

With regard to the court case. The legal technicality that led to my acquittal (and my partners) was that the police had pre-prepared statements, in advance, for the escorts to sign. One escort brought this to the attention of our legal team, after refusing to sign it, who then informed the judge of these findings. The judge then heavily criticised the police for their conduct and lack of professionalism. I am sure any journalist could obtain the public court record, should they investigate it fully. In subsequent twitter exchanges Bindel claims to have seen police records pertaining to myself. I am not a criminal so what records could she see and if they did exist how did she access them?
photo
The last person to access police files on myself was a lady called Victoria Thorne. She was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court almost 3 years ago, which is in the public domain and at the time I was interviewed by Northumbria Police who informed me that an individual had, on a number of occasions tried to access personal data. Perhaps Julie Bindel could clarify her twitter comment and how she obtained Police information. I have no criminal record and therefore wonder what police records she’s been reading and how she obtained them.

The infamous competition my partner ran.

The competition giving a free appointment to the winner, with an escort of their choice did not mean that the escort did not get paid nor that she/he had no choice in whether to accept the appointment or not. It was simply a sales gimmick agreed at a meeting between my partner and the escorts he represented. They were paid in full for any competition appointments and were never out of pocket.

There is no overwhelming evidence of me being a manager.

In the documentary there was no overwhelming evidence of my involvement in running the agency. I never once answered the telephone, arranged an appointment, interviewed any escorts, or involved myself in any way other than counting out some money for theatrical purposes. At the end of the documentary I was also filmed composing profile descriptions to accompany some photographs. This was simply my partner bouncing ideas off me, which I am sure many partners do in their comfort of their own home. Julie Bindel insists on calling me a pimp and a manager, both in the article and on twitter. I have called her a liar and will continue to do so until she desists or takes me to court where she can prove I am not a sex worker who sells sex.

My partner using the GMB kite mark

With regard to using the GMB/IUSW kite mark on my partners agency site. It is a hardly noticeable kite mark. He does not use it in advertising and the reason it is there is because I, as a sex worker joined the GMB branch as did several other escorts and all escorts who join the agency are told about the GMB branch. It is up to them if they join or not. It is not used to promote or advertise anything other than the GMB branch itself. The agency is not advertised or mentioned in any GMB literature or websites. The logo is there simply to promote the branch and let escorts and clients see that there is a trade union for sex workers. There is no other agenda where this is concerned.

Inaccuracies regarding Thierry

Thierry Schaffauser was never the president of the IUSW. The IUSW is separate from the GMB branch. He was president for a time of the GMB branch during which time he was heavily criticised and a number of accusations of bullying were made formally against him.

Sleazy Michael and others leaving the branch/IUSW

Sleazy Michael did indeed leave the IUSW list and quite possibly the GMB branch, as did some others, because they were tired of the arguments over my membership. Those arguments were driven by Thierry and his friends. Sleazy Michael, like Thierry and others knew that I was not a manager. Thierry disapproved of my politics and my notoriety on the internet promoting the IUSW for which I raised (with others) in a short space of time some considerable funds. Thierry and friends however wanted the GMB branch to be the dominant vehicle for sex worker rights. Myself and others pointed out repeatedly that the GMB branch was governed by GMB rules and could not be used as a political tool unless strict GMB procedural guidelines were followed and they were often limiting. The IUSW in contrast had no such restrictions.
Thierry and his friends seemed unable to accept this and the nonsense about managers being in the branch is just that. I was not a manager and as far as I know there were no managers who were members of the branch. I also did not involve myself in the branch. I was a member but I am not a socialist so the internal politics of the GMB were mostly irrelevant to me. I eventually left the branch when I read that a branch meeting had decided to affiliate to a republican group. It was totally undemocratic.

Those who left the IUSW/GMB branch

As far as the claim that people left the branch because of me the truth is this. A small number of extreme leftists did leave the GMB branch and the IUSW list. As far as I am aware they set up X talk, SWOU etc and became involved with the ECP (English collective of Prostitutes) to the extent that all three are now interconnected and mutually supportive. Using me as a scapegoat is disingenuous. The reason was that the IUSW (which has to produce its own reply) from my understanding did not wish to be pressurised into an extreme leftist position but rather wished to remain an inclusive group representative of all views and opinions within sex work. The GMB branch equally had its own rules and regulations put in place by the GMB. These were obviously not flexible enough for Thierry and his friends who as the article suggests are now preparing to establish a sex worker union that will reflect their own political agenda. It is up to the GMB to reply to the Julie Bindel accusations and to those made by Thierry. I am no longer a member and have little interest in the branch although I remain supportive of those who do wish to join and who believe in it. The strippers who left the branch to join Equity did so for good reason. I would join Equity if given a chance. As a sex worker I have a closer affiliation with actors than with boiler makers. Equity, however does not accept sex workers into their union.

My relationship to/with the IUSW.

I remain supportive of the IUSW although I resigned from the list, I was not thrown out, as Julie Bindel suggests. My reasons for leaving the IUSW list are:

1) I was very disappointed with changes made to the IUSW constitution (which I partially wrote). I wanted a strong IUSW with elected officers and with a membership that paid a nominal amount and who were involved democratically in decision making. I lost that argument and I was hurt by it.

2) I objected to the IUSW becoming a closed list with membership only by invitation. As the one inclusive and welcoming sex worker organisation the IUSW could become I argued an enormous force for positivity and support for all sex workers. I lost that battle. I accept that. You win some battles and loose others. It proves however that I am not the dominant manager Bindel presents me as.

3) I was exhausted with fighting a small but quite vicious group who for their own motives targeted myself and the IUSW. I now want to have an independent voice, supportive of the IUSW but able to concentrate on other projects while being useful and helpful when needed.

In conclusion I was not surprised by the article or by the accusations made primarily by Thierry. I am a sex worker. If I were a manager I would happily say that I was. I am supportive of managers and the role they play in our industry. There is no stigma in being a manager in my eyes. If you are a good manager then you should be praised just as any good sex worker should be praised and supported. We all need to be supportive of one another if we are to achieve decriminalisation and establish a good industry in which all sex workers can have a free choice to work as independent or through third parties. As a recent academic paper “HERE”reveals, third parties, managers are important to our industry and we must support them equally along with migrant, street and indoor workers

Finally ……. Punters

Errm where is the reference to them. For a front page article, claiming to mention them, Julie rarely features them in the entire article.

Read Full Post »

A RESPONSE TO THE LEFT.

Posted in In the Media, Organisations Comment, tagged , , , , , on 10 April, 2013 | 3 Comments »

images (10)

The death of Baroness Thatcher has apparently polarised opinion in the UK. There are those who believe that she was a national heroine and those who take a very different view. In one sense this is a sign of a great leader. Only a great leader can stir such emotions. What has been a shock however has been the vitriol of those who oppose her political views. This vitriol has gone beyond disagreement on a political level to often quite shameful and misogynistic insults. I noticed some leftist sex worker rights activists, some who probably where not even alive during her eleven and a half years of premiership, were especially vile. Terms like Tory scum were used and even worse insults directed at the dead Baroness and those who shared if not all then some of her political values and beliefs.

I wondered if these people ever thought that some of their fellow sex workers and sex worker activists may be Tory or were they inferring that to be a sex worker or at least a sex worker activists then you have to at the very least publically adhere to a leftist vocabulary. I also wonder if these people ever stop to think about the real industry they speak for, the industry outside the cosy little world of organised activism.

I have been involved in the sex industry for over fifteen years and in activism for probably over ten. During that time I have enjoyed the best the industry has to offer but I have been arrested twice and almost had my life destroyed. Despite that I love the industry. My ten years of activism however has on occasion been an ordeal. It would have been easier and certainly would have favoured my activism career to have adopted a leftist vocabulary, to have spoken of working on the streets, to identify with migrant sex workers, to have pretended an identity (and many do) with some imagined working class militancy. I did not. It would have been dishonest not only to my self but to the people I work with and the industry I work in. This has nothing to do with politics, the fact I am a Tory (actually more libertarian) is irrelevant but what is relevant is that I work within an industry that encapsulates entrepreneurialism, capitalism, free enterprise, self interest. All those things that the left says it is against.

I do not live in some gilded cage, some privileged world. I live in the North east of England, labour party territory. I meet with, socialise with and work with sex workers from every social class. From students to trainee doctors to single parents on benefits to migrants who hardly speak a work of English. They probably share all types of religious and political affiliations and allegiances. The one thing they all have in common is the shared desire to get on in life. They all turn to sex work as a means to an end or perhaps as a career. All of them, every single one of them wants to better themselves and to help their families. It does not matter if they want to sell sex to put food on the table or buy designer hand bags, the shared common denominator, the shared truth and reality is they want to make their lives better, easier. Sex work provides that means to an end.

The truth is that I know lots of people whom the left tells us they care about. I know single mothers who sell sex and do so not because they think their benefits are too low but because they do not want to be trapped by benefits. They want to work but they realise that their situation does not make “regular work” easy. They want to work hours that accommodates their family situation. Sex work provides that flexibility and pays comparatively well. Migrant sex workers, another group of workers that the left exploit on both sides of the sex work debate, only turn to sex work because sex work provides them with income, cash in hand, sex work allows them to realise their desire for a better life for them and for their families. They are not victims of sex work but rather exploiters who manipulate a social need for their own benefit. When Lucca for example (chosen for no particular reason) who heads the SWOU project proclaims in an “interview” his migrant and street work credentials he is telling the world what? That he is some sort of victim? That he shares some working class solidarity and his sex work is a reflection of his oppression? That may be the political message he chooses but in reality, like so many others he took an opportunity when it was presented and chose to exploit his abilities and his clients needs for his own benefit, in other words capitalism. This is sex work, this is our industry and we should be proud of what we are and who we are and what our industry stands for which is opportunity in a society where so many restrictions smother the entrepreneurial spirit that allows individuals, especially those from less privileged back grounds to succeed.

On the left the language is one of worker solidarity and against exploitation and they talk of unionisation as though it were the answer to every problem. They lament that so few sex workers are involved in “their” class struggle and point to India and South America where sex worker unions and groups have memberships of thousands. Those countries however have a very different cultural heritage. In the west, ever since the enlightenment, society has recognised and applauded individualism and sex work in the west represents that individualism. Individualism, self motivation is something activism neglects to praise, almost as though it is ashamed of the most important force that drives our industry, makes it survive and makes it succeed.

Those who have vilified Baroness Thatcher and all Tories, including sex worker Tories as scum forget that Baroness Thatcher, most certainly with out knowing, exemplified the individualism inherent within sex work. Sex workers share a strong Raison d’être with working class families who bought their council homes and sold them for a profit, who bought their first shares and sold them for a profit and who created their little business that grew into big businesses. These people are the cultural allies with whom every sex worker shares a common heritage and they are the people who, if engaged, will give us the support we need to achieve our goal of decriminalisation.

Historically, politically and morally the left has proven that it cannot help sex workers. State collectivism, state imposed morality and ideals of societal behaviour that expects collective rather than individual responses cannot easily find common cause with sex work no matter how much any individual may want it. Sex work is too much an expression of self both in the act and in the desire.

Personal politics are just that. Those on the left may think they are morally superior and have a stronger desire for civil liberties but the desire for freedom which is the root of civil liberty, the root of freedom is equally strong on the right, perhaps even more so. Thatcher did many things wrong, she introduced clause 28, she introduced the poll tax and I could go on but she also created a society unafraid of and supportive of enterprise. As a nation we had lost that. Anyone who remembers the 70s will have little affection for what trade unionism did to this country.

I understand how it must gall the left that the greatest advocates of sex worker rights and civil liberties such as gay marriage comes from the libertarian right. Personally I don’t understand why that is any surprise. If you have read the history of socialism in the UK especially you will understand the orthodox Christian roots of socialism.

In conclusion can we have less talk of Tory scum and more celebration of our industry? Can we discuss what we want from decriminalisation? Can we discuss how we want our industry to evolve? Can we have less discrimination and more creative thinking? Can we celebrate our shared heritage within sex work? There is much we can agree on if we put our minds to better use than name calling.

Read Full Post »

UKNSWP statement.

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Law, NSWP, Organisations Comment, Research, Safety, Uncategorized on 9 November, 2012 | 7 Comments »

I am pleased to publish a response from UKNSWP regarding a recent post that illustrated concerns felt within the sex working community with regard to the pilot Nationwide Ugly Mug Scheme.
Alex has asked for feed back, so please either contact him direct or comment on this forum, which would be helpful for any discussion on sex workers concerns with regard to the NUM scheme, or you can email me direct as dearharlot@googlemail.com and I will be pleased to pass comments, suggestions on.

UKNSWP is proud to be part of a tradition of “ugly mugs” and third party reporting schemes which give options for sex workers to alert each other and to report crimes. In our reports and public presentations about ugly mugs we have always acknowledged that “ugly mugs” originates from sex workers themselves and that sex workers have been and are resourceful in finding ways to protect themselves, often in challenging legal and social contexts. Before the National Ugly Mugs (NUM) Pilot Scheme was established a year-long development project was undertaken by the UKNSWP which consulted widely with sex workers. We still welcome feedback from sex workers and reply personally to anyone who sends us any comments which we take on board and make changes if we can. The vast majority of the feedback we have from sex workers has been positive and we are constantly told that the scheme is really useful. It has to be remembered that this is a pilot project and thus we are continuously learning from the experiences of scheme participants. The scheme is also being evaluated by two academic members of UKNSWP (on a voluntary basis), and they will be seeking the views of participants early next year to inform the final evaluation report and make recommendations for ways in which the scheme might be improved.
UKNSWP is pleased that there is discussion about NUM amongst sex worker online communities. We would welcome such forums to get directly in touch with us so we can consider their feedback and views through constructive engagement. In fact to date, many of the changes we have made to the scheme have come about as a response to constructive feedback from sex workers or those who run forums or escort sites.
NUM aims to support all sex workers, whether male, female or trans, and whether working on the streets, in parlours, flats, advertising online or working in any sector. Some sex workers do not necessarily have access to the internet or websites for information-sharing and it is important to make reporting as accessible as possible to all sex workers, through a range of options.
We are fully aware that sex workers who take bookings over the phone would find full numbers and profile names useful as it makes it easier for them to block people. For escorts taking bookings over the phone we do try include as much information as possible (if we have it) which might alert people to individuals to avoid such as whether the incident was an in/out call, their name, their accent, their telephone manner, the area they live in and any other details or habits which may come to light before actually meeting the individual in person.
With regards to phone numbers, our current policy is if we have a full phone number to include, this will be included with three digits taken out. This policy was based on the legal advice we took during the development of the scheme. As well as the legal issues with publishing full details of reported perpetrators, we have a duty to individuals making the report not to put them in danger of repercussions if the alert fell into the wrong hands. In compiling any alert we therefore have to consider how any details or content might identify the victim, so this can sometimes limit what is included. The other main reason why we cannot fully identify alleged perpetrators is that it could undermine a prosecution of an ‘ugly mug’ and ultimately lead to a court case falling apart. By fully identifying people we mean by including full details that identify a specific individual – telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, car registration numbers and names of alleged perpetrators are all details which we need to be extra careful about. We must also be mindful of the possibility that malicious reports could be made into the scheme.
For clarification some of the posts about NUM imply that we would include a phone number in an alert with more than three digits removed – we would never do that. In addition, in alerts where there is no phone number included that is because the person reporting the incident didn’t provide us with a phone number. The same goes for descriptions of perpetrators – we include as detailed a description as we can with the information provided to us. We encourage all NUM members to include as much information as possible about perpetrators; this will enable us to provide fuller alerts. We provide alerts in cases of limited information because members have said they want these.
That leads me on to the other main aspect of the NUM Scheme which is to support sex workers in reporting information to the police. Less than 30% of the victims reporting into NUM feel comfortable enough to make a full report to the police. That is why, if and only if the victim gives consent, we will feed the information (including full details about the perpetrators) to the police without giving any information about the victim. We have already seen positive results from this and many police forces are actually investigating them as if they had been formally reported. This is one area where NUM can really complement other schemes, whether being run by forums or escort sites or sex work projects.
We acknowledge that the laws around sex work are problematic and can undermine sex workers’ access to the criminal justice system – that is why we need schemes like this. Currently, whilst challenging laws and policies detrimental to sex worker safety, we are having to work within the existing framework to try to make a difference. Engaging with the police on our terms has already had positive outcomes in many areas.
NUM is supported by a range of organisations and individuals and we hope to build the network of supporters. Although the scheme is supported by some projects and individuals who take an abolitionist approach, the scheme is run independently and autonomously by the UKNSWP, which is fully committed to recognising sex workers’ right to self-determination. It is also important to note that the board members of the UKNSWP are unpaid and the NUM Scheme is run on a small budget by two members of staff who work very hard to manage and develop the service.
It is hard to see how a scheme which raises awareness about how the law and bad police practices contributes to sex workers being targeted by criminals, and makes them reluctant to report to the police, could be used to support abolitionist policies. UKNSWP has a long history of opposing criminalisation of sex work, and if the scheme were ever misrepresented in such a way, we would strongly oppose this.
The purpose of NUM is to complement, not replace, the work of local projects working with sex workers as well as forums, escort sites or agencies who share warnings and alerts. It may not be the perfect model for everyone working in the sex industry and we know that the alerts would be more effective, especially for those who arrange bookings over the phone, if we could identify perpetrators, but we have outlined the legal considerations we are working within that shape our practice.
However, we have already had some positive outcomes in the four months since the scheme launched. Within this short timescale, NUM has already been instrumental in the arrest and charging of 3 criminals wanted for the aggravated assault and robbery of at least 9 sex worker premises in London, the arrest of one male wanted for rape in Merseyside and the recalling to prison of a well-known scammer of male escorts.
Taking on board the feedback we have received, we will re-examine the issue of our legal requirements regarding telephone numbers and other key personal information with our legal advisers. We are also currently looking into the possibility of introducing a number checker which would allow members of the scheme to type in a number to see if it matches any that have been reported to us. As we stress, this is a pilot scheme and we genuinely want to reflect and develop.

Alex Bryce
Coordinator
National Ugly Mugs Pilot Scheme
you can email direct alex.bryce@uknswp.org.uk
or follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/NationalUglyMug

Read Full Post »

RESEARCH PAPERS AND Sexualities Journal Special Edition on LGBTQ sex work

Posted in Escorting Lives, Human Rights, LGBT, NSWP, Organisations Comment, Uncategorized on 8 October, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I was forwarded the following by Rossie Campbell at the UKNSWP.
It is a link to Sexualities Journal Special Edition on LGBTQ sex work. Many of the readers may be interested in acquiring the journal “Sexualities” .
I have also very kindly had links to research papers forwarded which readers may find of interest.
Permission has been granted for their publication. I have included the abstracts and links to the full papers after this introduction to the special edition of the “Sexualities Journal.”

Enjoy.

    Special section
    Introduction: Working
    outside the (hetero)norm?
    Lesbian, gay, bisexual,
    transgender and queer
    (LGBTQ) sex work
    Nicola J Smith
    University of Birmingham, UK
    Mary Laing
    Northumbria University, UK

Recent scholarship on sex work has highlighted the diversification of the sex industry under late capitalism. There is now a wealth of research that interrogates and documents how sex is sold in a plethora of spaces, through multiple mechanisms and by a multitude of actors for diverse reasons (see for instance Agustin, 2007a; Cavalieri, 2011; Kotiswaran, 2010; Sanders, 2006). By exploring the complexities of commercial sex in analytical, empirical and normative terms, this literature has done much to expose and challenge the entrenched polarities – such as those between oppression and liberation, violence and pleasure, and victimhood and agency – that have long underpinned political and philosophical debates surrounding the sale and purchase of sex. For example, commercial sex has been theorised in terms of a wider discourse of ‘intimacy’ and central to this has been an emphasis on how understandings, experiences and performances of intimacy are not fixed but instead change over time and space (see especially Bernstein, 2007; Zelizer, 2011). It is thus surprising that much of this varied scholarship remains focused on the sale of sex by women to men, be it on the street, over the telephone, in a brothel, via escorting, on the internet or through a multiplicity of other means. While these debates are extremely valuable in terms of their academic merit and often in terms of their policy relevance, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) sex work is rarely treated as an object of substantive concern. Although there is undoubtedly an extant literature on men who sell sex to men (see inter alia Aggleton, 1999; Kaye, 2007; Kong, 2009; Logan, 2010; Mai, 2009; Morrison and
Corresponding author:
Nicola J Smith, University of Birmingham, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Edgbaston
Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Email: n.j.smith.1@bham.ac.ukWhitehead, 2007; Padilla, 2007; Whowell, 2010), other embodiments and performances of LGBTQ sex work remain largely unexplored.
The overarching aim of this special issue is to shine a spotlight on LGBTQ sex work and, in so doing, enrich the existing body of scholarship in four specific ways. First, we hope to contribute to the literature in empirical terms, in particular by
self-consciously broadening the empirical focus beyond that of analyses which, whether explicitly or implicitly, are predicated on the imaginaries of the female worker and male client. The contributions to this special issue cover a whole diversity of empirical case studies – including lesbian exotic dance, male street work, transgender migrant sex work and gay hospitality services – that are drawn from a variety of social and political disciplines such as history, geography, sociology, criminology, and political science. As such, we aim to bring a multidimensional and multidisciplinary voice to debates about the sex industry that moves beyond
preoccupations with commercial sex as a moral issue but rather attempts to document empirically ‘a rich field of human activities, all of them operating in complex socio-cultural contexts where the meaning of buying and selling sex is not always the same’ (Agustin, 2007b: 403).
Second, by exploring sex work through the lens of non-normative sexualities, we wish to interrogate the complex ways in which sexuality, intimacy and, importantly, ‘sex itself’ can be performed within the commercial sexual exchange. Our intention here is to broaden the multifarious ways in which ‘sex work’ can be conceptualised, not least withrespect to heteronormativity. For example, in her article ‘Dancing for women: Subverting heteronormativity in a lesbian erotic dance space?’ Katy Pilcher explores how the performance of erotic dance by women for women reinforces and reproduces heteronormative prescriptions for femininity even as it challenges and subverts them. Conversely, in ‘Gay hospitality as desiring labor: Contextualizing transnational sexual labor’, Dana Collins discusses how ‘gay’-identified hosts in Malate are able to ‘negotiate the exclusionary relations
of gentrification and neoliberal gay travel’ precisely by constituting themselves as active participants in the production of gay culture. Jody Miller and Andrea Nichol’s paper, ‘Identity, sexuality and commercial sex among Sri Lankan nachchi’, provides an important contribution to the literature on desire and subjectivities in sex work as they explore the nachchi, who are described to be ‘transgender’ and ‘homosexual’. Miller and Nichols explore the sexual desire of the nachchi for men, their need to be desired as men, whist being treated like – but not as – women.
Some of the key themes explored demonstrating the complexity of commercial sex in this context include exploitation, violence and sexual desire through nuanced conceptualisations of gender and sexual encounter.
Third, a key motivation behind the special issue, and a prominent theme to emerge in many of the articles, is that of exposing invisibilities. This allows for a consideration of how and why LGBTQ sex work has tended to be rendered invisible in debates about commercial sex and it also encourages reflection on how current debates concerning sexuality, inclusion and exclusion might be reframed in the light of LGBTQ sex working.

In ‘The fractal queerness of non-518 Sexualities 15(5/6)heteronormative migrant sex workers in the UK sex industry’, for instance, Nick Mai notes how the reproduction of heteronormative understandings of gender relations and identities serve to obscure the diversity of migrant sex workers’ experiences and identities, including those of ‘non-heteronormative people’.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with male and transgendered people working as migrant workers in London’s sex industry, Mai discusses the complexity of their life and work experiences as they seek to navigate the queer, homonormative and
heteronormative worlds that they traverse through migration. Similarly, in ‘Body issues: The political economy of male sex work’, Nicola Smith highlights the crucial contribution that feminist scholarship on global sexual economies has made to the study of globalisation and capitalism, but points to continued gaps and silences surrounding the existence, experiences and status of male and transgender sex workers. She then offers an example of feminist political economy research on male sex work through discussion of her qualitative fieldwork with men working as gay escorts in San Francisco.

Fourth, this special issue offers comment on the impact of formal and informal regulatory and punitive actions taken by communities and official bodies in areas of outdoor sex work. In Becki Ross’ and Rachael Sullivan’s incisive historical article ‘Tracing lines of horizontal hostility:
How sex workers and gay activists battled for space, voice, and belonging in Vancouver, 1975–1985’ there is a discussion of the historical decimation of street beats in downtown Vancouver by local anti-prostitution campaigners. The article demonstrates the lack of cultural, political and social capital felt by street-involved sex workers as they were unable to fight back against the homonomative, masculine and neo-liberal politics at play in a gentrifying neighbourhood. Conversely in ‘Walking the beat and doing business:

exploring spaces of male sex work and public sex’ Atkins and Laing explore a space of sex work which also operates as an area used by men for public sex. They offer a richly empirical conceptual analysis of how ‘beat’ spaces are created, exist and dissipate through embodied peripatetic and sexual practices.

With these four threads running through the special issue, we very much hope that it will be of interest not only to scholars who are specifically interested in commercial sex but also to a wider interdisciplinary audience, as the contributions featured consider the overarching themes of (in)visibilities, regulation, practice, sexualities in the city, spatial control, inclusion, exclusion, embodiment and sexual citizenship. We would very much like to thank Sexualities – and, in particular, Ken Plummer and Agnes Skamballis – for making this project possible, and
special thanks must of course go both to the contributors themselves and to the colleagues who gave up their valuable time to act as referees for the articles included.
Funding
Nicola J. Smith would particularly like to thank the Leverhulme Trust for supporting this
project.

Papers and Abstracts:

    Sexualities 2012 15: 622
    Michael Atkins and Mary Laing
    and public sex
    Walking the beat and doing business: Exploring spaces of male sex work

    Abstract
    This article draws on two research projects to explore how spaces of public male sex
    work come into being through commercial and public sexual practices. Utilizing a
    blended methodology of ethnography, participant observation, interview materials,
    map making and photography, the article explores an area known for commercial and
    non-commercial sexual encounters between men in a city in the UK. It makes conceptual arguments about the material and discursive significance of walking in the making,
    and continued existence of ‘red light district’ spaces. Specifically, we will look at how
    men engaged in sex work (those described to be ‘doing business’) and other men
    seeking non-commercial sexual liaisons recognize the potential for sexual encounters
    in the space through environmental and embodied signifiers. We also discuss how
    patterns of walking and waiting mediated by this reading of the environment contribute
    to the emergence and persistence of a ‘beat’ space

    “full paper”

    DOI: 10.1177/1363460712445980
    Sexualities 2012 15: 538
    Dana Collins
    Gay hospitality as desiring labor: Contextualizing transnational sexual labor

    Abstract
    This critical ethnographic research explores gay hospitality as a ‘testimony of desire’ by
    working-class and ‘gay’-identified Filipino sexual laborers who ‘work’ as companions for
    foreign tourists in a gentrifying tourism district, Malate, the Philippines. I analyze gay
    hospitality as informal sexual labor by applying the concept of identity work, which
    involves hosts’ construction and maintenance of their ‘gay’ identity and connection to
    urban place. I argue that their testimonies of desire are subaltern development discourses, which speak to significant lived experiences of work and place and, which offer
    alternative configurations of identity, relationships, and economic exchange.

    “full paper”

    1
    Sexualities 2012 15: 570
    Nick Mai
    sex industry
    The fractal queerness of non-heteronormative migrants working in the UK

    Abstract
    Contemporary debates on migration and the sex industry have been characterized by a
    marked emphasis on the extent of trafficking and exploitation of migrant women in
    heterosexist contexts and relationships. Migrant sex workers’ complex understandings
    of exploitation and advantage have been reductively manipulated into a heteronormative dichotomy between free (male) migrants and (female) coerced victims. In the process, non-heteronormative migrant sex workers’ experiences of advantage and
    exploitation were neglected. This article draws on original research material and
    findings about the specific life and work trajectories of non-heteronormative people
    working in the UK sex industry. It focuses on the way they understand the opportunities and predicaments posed by the homonormative and heteronormative worlds
    they ambivalently reproduce and challenge by migrating and working in the global
    sex industry

    “full paper”

    Sexualities 2012 15: 554
    Jody Miller and Andrea Nichols
    Identity, sexuality and commercial sex among Sri Lankan nachchi

    Abstract
    This study investigates the complex and contradictory ways in which gender identity,
    sexuality, and desire are configured in nachchi understandings of their lives in Sri Lanka.
    Nachchi was an insider term used by a group of sex workers best conceptualized using
    western understandings as both transgender and homosexual: nachchi celebrate their
    feminine gendered subjectivity, but also embrace key facets of their biological ‘maleness,’
    and are ardent in their sexual desire for men. We examine the relationships between
    nachchi gender and sexual subjectivities, including how they compare and distinguish
    themselves from women and men. Particularly in the context of transactional sexual
    exchanges, we investigate the intersections of economics, desire, stigma and exploitation in shaping nachchi experiences.

    “full paper”

    Sexualities 2012 15: 521
    Katy Pilcher
    space?
    Dancing for women: Subverting heteronormativity in a lesbian erotic dance

    Abstract
    This article utilises participant observation, interview and collaborative visual data,
    collected with women erotic dancers, management and customers, to ascertain how
    far heteronormativity is subverted in a UK lesbian leisure space, Lippy (the name is a
    pseudonym), which provides erotic dance for women customers. The potential for
    a female ‘gaze’, the ‘normativity’ of gendered and sexualised bodies, and the notion
    of a ‘women’s space’ are taken as areas for analysis. Women’s engagement with erotic
    dance is complex, and this article examines the connections between sexual agency and
    gendered power relations, questioning how far women can exercise autonomous sexual
    expression in commercial sexual encounters.

    “full paper”

    Sexualities 2012 15: 604
    Becki Ross and Rachael Sullivan
    battled for space, voice, and belonging in Vancouver, 1975 −1985
    Tracing lines of horizontal hostility: How sex workers and gay activists

    Abstract
    In the mid-1970s, indoor sex workers were pushed outdoors onto the streets of
    Vancouver’s emergent gay West End, where a small stroll had operated for several
    years. While some gay activists contemplated solidarity with diversely gendered
    and racialized sex workers, others galvanized a campaign, alongside business owners,
    realtors, police, city councillors, and politicians to expel prostitution from their largely
    white, middle-class enclave. Sex workers commanded inadequate capital to thwart
    the anti-vice, neo-liberal lobby. Instead, an assimilationist, homonormative gay politics
    played out on the backs of an even more vulnerable and stigmatized sexual minority –
    the majority of whom were low-income, street-involved women, men, and maleto-female (MTF) transsexuals of colour.

    “full paper”

    Sexualities 2012 15: 586
    Nicola J Smith
    Body issues: The political economy of male sex work

    Abstract
    The analysis of global sexual economies has emerged as an important part of a wider
    feminist project to re-imagine the boundaries of what constitutes the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of globalisation and capitalism. Emphasising the importance of such an agenda, the
    article argues that continued understandings of commercial sex as ‘women’s work’ place
    male and transgender bodies on the outside rather than the inside of the analysis of
    global sexual economies. Highlighting the need to address this gap in contemporary
    theorising and empirical analysis, the article then offers an illustration of research into
    male sex work through discussion of how male escorts in San Francisco negotiate the
    complex meanings and practices surrounding gender, sexuality and political economy

    “full paper”

    Read Full Post »

NATIONAL UGLY MUG SCHEME, IS IT GOOD NEWS?

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Government Reviews and Change, Human Rights, Law, Organisations Comment, Research, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 16 August, 2012 | 3 Comments »

Time will tell if the introduction of the first UK nationwide Ugly mug scheme will be good news for sex workers or bad, or more likely indifferent. An ugly mug, for non sex worker readers, is a client of a sex worker who has been violent or abusive.
Ugly mug schemes are nothing new. Although in this “article” it is claimed that local sex work projects have operated ugly mug schemes for twenty years, real sex workers, however, have operated them for as long as there have been sex workers. In the north east where I work, local agencies have shared information for the last fifteen years, and most agents/brothels have lists of hundreds, if not thousands of clients who have either, in the worse case scenario, been abusive or violent, to repeat, no shows clients. (Clients who book appointments, in call and out call, but who never show up, or, who/and, send sex workers to the wrong address deliberately).
These schemes work very well on a local basis and in theory should work nationally. There are however flaws in this system which are being ignored in the enthusiasm to welcome it.

The scheme relies on local projects. Local projects are social work groups who provide out reach to sex workers. The effectiveness and the usefulness of these projects is a post code lottery. Most work only with women, usually, street workers or sex workers who are socially disadvantaged. Most projects have little or no contact with the vast majority of sex workers who work indoor, ie in brothels, through agencies or who work independently. Often, not only are projects selective in terms of whom they support, ie, only street women, but they often have age restrictions, especially gay projects, who only work with so called “rent boys” or very young boys, men. Effectively, most sex workers never, or rarely, have any contact with any outreach project.

The scheme also relies heavily upon the co operation of the police. Sex workers do not trust the police, with very good reason. The police, as sex workers know to their cost, are more interested in persecuting sex workers than in caring for the safety of sex workers. Brothels and agencies, representing consenting adults, are still being raided across the UK and sex workers prosecuted and their assets seized. This is one recent “example”.

Before any national scheme can be truly called successful the relationship between the police and sex workers must improve. Although the new national Ugly mug scheme promises that sex workers can report crimes anonymously through their local project, the real advancement would be if sex workers were able to report crimes against them, just like every one else, to the police directly, with out fear of arrest or harassment. One is tempted to suggest that the first ugly mug listed on the scheme should be the police themselves, or perhaps the government, who empower and encourage the police to target sex workers. This important point aside, the ability to report crimes to projects, depends therefore, largely upon the relationship, if any, that exists between any projects and the sex workers, and often, as I have explained, there is no such relationship.

The NUM (national ugly mug) scheme also promises sex workers and agencies etc the ability to share and access telephone numbers. The problem is that the law prevents the sharing of full phone numbers. So sex workers, if wanting to check a client, will only be able to access part of a phone number. Better than nothing one may think, but hardly fool proof and unlikely to replace or improve on existing, local, sex worker run, ugly mug schemes. It is of course these very important local schemes, already established within sex worker communities, that are so often destroyed by the police, our new protectors, when they raid brothels and agencies (yes I am being ironic). The same also goes for car registrations and names. If the police were truly interested in creating and maintaining a comprehensive list of ugly mugs then they already have a valuable source to tap into. Sadly the lure of easy convictions and lucrative proceeds of crime confiscations are currently however, more important than the safety of sex workers.

Sex workers have told me personally, when discussing this scheme, that the sharing of incomplete phone numbers is pointless. Mobile phones do not pick up ugly mugs by imputing incomplete numbers and sex workers, often in a hurry to organise and confirm appointments; do not have the time to troll through hundreds, if not thousands of phone numbers or car registrations. The reality is that this is a pointless exercise for most sex workers. It is an exercise for the police and for projects. As one sex worker said, “It makes them look like they are doing something”.

So we sex workers have to ask if this is a good idea, will it be helpful to us in our work?

My answer, as a sex worker, is that it probably is a good idea, although, its real worth is not to sex workers as a practical tool in their work, but rather it is an aid to projects and the police, who hopefully, will now more easily coordinate the sharing of information about ugly mugs, especially those who target street workers.

If I were to be cynical I would also argue that it will also certainly provide monies and opportunities for projects regionally, and probably, will also be helpful in creating a whole new tier of administrators. If this is the case, it will be nothing new. Sex workers have always provided lucrative opportunities for saviours on both sides of the debate, those who persecute us and those who live off us by, erm, helping us.

There is however, a danger, not yet mentioned, that the scheme may, at some point, also be used against sex workers. Any future anti sex worker government, like the last labour government, for example, may use the information gathered in a national ugly mugs scheme, to justify further persecution of the sex industry. The information, they may claim, of hundreds, possibly thousands, of ugly mugs, wanting to rape and murder, poor, abused, sex workers, could, if wrongly interpreted by moralists, (of any governing party) be used, to justify for example, the criminalising of all clients, which is what the Labour party, when last in government desperately wanted to do. Information is dangerous in the wrong hands.

In conclusion, as an ordinary sex worker, I give this nation wide ugly mug scheme a tepid welcome and wait to see how it develops. It is up to sex workers to comment and inform projects and the authorities in general, what we, British sex workers, really need. What we really need is a discussion about decriminalisation and a trusting relationship with the police. I don’t think that this is it. I may be wrong.

It will be interesting to read comments from other sex workers and also from projects.

Read Full Post »

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF THAILAND.

Posted in Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Human Rights, In the Media, Organisations Comment, Safety, sex worker politics, Thailand, Uncategorized on 8 June, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The sex workers of Thailand have sent an open letter using the offices of the Empower foundation to the Prime Minister (also sent to related Ministeries, UNIAP and various media) of the royal government of Thailand calling for the recognition of the human and labour rights of Thailand’s sex workers. The open letter is below.

Thailand is a country that is not represented especially well on Harlots. I am doing my best to remedy this. If any one of our readers would like to write more about sex work in Thailand please contact me and if you wish you may join our list of authors.

Open Letter to: The Prime Minister of the Royal Government of Thailand,
On the occasion of 5th June 2012, National Anti Human Trafficking Day, Empower alleges that successive Thai governments have sacrificed the rule of law, their international human rights obligations and the well-being of migrant sex workers and their families, in an attempt to please the US government and satisfy the American anti trafficking agenda.

We accuse the United States government of using the issue of human trafficking to coerce its allies into tightening border and immigration controls. The US agenda has also created a climate where women crossing borders are all seen as suspect ‘victims’ of trafficking.

Recently on the 21st February 2012 Empower released an in-depth research report, ‘Hit & Run’ done by sex workers which clearly identifies how the State is breaching rule of law and police procedure while arresting wrong people. (Report available “HERE”)

Even though Thai governments have tried hard to appease the USA, Thailand remains on a Tier 2 watch list and risks being further downgraded in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) due for release later this month. Empower sees the Trafficking in Persons Report issued by the US State Department as subjective and bias against the Thai Entertainment Industry in particular.

Furthermore Empower says the Thai government has so far failed to recognize the many improvements the Entertainment Industry has undergone in the last decade. The old days of the ‘green harvest’ and locked brothels are over. In the modern context, sex work is similar to other jobs. Exploitation in the industry is an issue of access to identity and work documents, labor rights and occupational health and safety. These are labor and human rights issues, not police or criminal issues.

Society is all too familiar with media images of uniformed police, fully armed storming Entertainment Places and apprehending young unarmed women. Women desperately try to hide their faces; sometimes the women are naked and not even given time to cover themselves. The women and girls never fight back; most don’t even dare to think about trying to run away and not one woman or girl has ever been found carrying a weapon. These events were commonly shown in the media well before the new human trafficking hysteria. The image of a hero or rescuer has now been added to the scene…it’s all very exciting.

However society never sees or hears of what happens after the rescue. Society is not told that the women are put through a range of unnecessary medical tests regardless of consent or their human dignity. They don’t know that women have been detained against their will for over a year in government shelters. No one knows about the pain and suffering brought about by the separation from children and family. Who could imagine that the women, who are the main family providers, are not compensated in any way by the State, and given just 3,000 Baht, (about 200 Baht per month) from private anti trafficking fund when they are eventually forcibly and formally deported?

Under the law there are provisions for social assistance but in reality the focus is on punishment. Little wonder women escape from their rescuers when they can.

Police enforcement of the law using raids encourages violence. We suggest that instead of continuing costly, and ultimately useless “raids and rescue” missions, it is time Thailand resisted being bullied by foreign governments and instead worked to ensure migrant sex worker’s access to documentation and fair working conditions in Entertainment Places.

Today Empower Foundation is calling on the Prime Minister of The Royal Government of Thailand to:

Review the practices of anti trafficking act in relation to the protection of human rights and the rule of law
Stop using sex workers as scapegoats in foreign policy and other political games.
Stop police entrapment which contravenes police policy. Stop raids on entertainment places which are violent actions usually reserved for apprehending dangerous criminals. Stop arbitrary detention of sex workers.
Protect the human rights of women arrested or assisted under the Anti trafficking Act and ensure they receive the full entitlements according to the Act e.g. translation, legal representation, compensation.
Work together to promote accurate information about the modern context of sex work in Thailand to all agencies involved in anti trafficking.

The letter has been endorsed by:
Sex workers of Krabi
Sex workers of Phuket
Sex workers of Samut Sakon
Sex workers of Nontaburi

Sexworkers of Chiang Mai
Sex workers of Mae Sai, Chiang Rai
Sex workers of Mae Sot, Tak

Sex workers of Mukdahan
Sex workers of Ubon Rachatani
Sex workers of Udon Thani

Sex workers of Pattaya, Chonburi
Sex workers of Soi Cowboy, Bangkok
Sex workers of Soi Nana. Bangkok
Sex workers of Patpong, Bangkok

CC:

National Human Rights Commission
Office of the Prime Minister
Ministry of Social development and Human Security
Department of Special Investigations (AHTD)
Office of the Attorney General – Public Prosecutor, Ministry of Justice
United Nations Interagency Project on Human Trafficking UNIAP

Read Full Post »

“Are they bad girls or brilliant?”A Harlots review of a brilliant book by Aphrodite Phoenix.

Posted in Escorting Lives, Feminism, Government Brutality, Human Rights, In the Media, Law, Organisations Comment, Religion, Safety, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 10 May, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I was delighted to be congratulated by Aphrodite Phoenix on a paper that I recently presented at the Brunel university sexual cultures conference.

Aphrodite asked me if I would be interested in reading and possible reviewing her book “Are they bad girls or brilliant?” I was delighted to be asked and agreed at once.

The book is actually two books in one. The first is entitled “A personal journey” and book two is called “18 audacious essays”.

The first book primarily details her experiences working as an escort in the USA. Aphrodite tells us about her reasons for joining the business, her family life, illness and tragedies and joys and also about her intellectual journey and her spiritual awakening through her work as an escort. In book two Aphrodite gives us her thoughts about feminism and sex worker activism through a series of essays. She includes an idealised manifesto for a sex worker future where sex work is once again revered and understood as a positive force within society.

I found myself agreeing with so much in this book which reaches out both to the public and academics. It is an easy and enjoyable read that is also insightful and positive.

Aphrodite’s experiences as an escort in many ways resembled my own experiences. Her thoughts about her work, her views on activism and about feminism also mirrored in many instances my own thoughts.

Her book intriguingly is titled “Are they bad girls or brilliant?”. She used the question mark because she wants her book to answer the questions that an outsider to the sex industry may want to ask in order to understand why someone like her would enter the sex trade. She leaves the answer to the question posed in the title however, to the reader.

This is a journey that we can all empathise with in so many ways. Aphrodite, for example, describes in an early chapter; entitled, “Just an afternoon of terror and joy”, the mixture of excitement and terror that escorts in the USA, where prostitution is a criminal offense, feel when meeting a new client. That excitement is however tinged with a real sense of danger. The fear is not that the client may be dangerous but rather that the meeting may be a police sting. The danger, the fear felt by the escort is also experienced by the client who is equally fearful of a police sting on him, because in the USA the client also is criminalised. The sense of relief felt by both the escort and the client as they hug and discreetly frisk each other for hidden wires is palpable. It is a story of two people in danger, not of criminals.
At the end of that chapter Aphrodite gives an early explanation for why she is prepared to risk arrest. She writes:

“I walk back through the bustling housekeepers. We resume all those sweet wordless greetings. My heart goes out to them now. I think of all the cleanings they have to do, and how, as with me, their work is performed for strangers. They purge away dust, lint, litter, loose hairs. Used sheets, semen-streaked towels like the one I’ve just left behind, tub scum, toilet filth…I consider their low pay. I consider how awful some people think my work is. How much “worse” it must be for the maid’s.
I think of the pleasure I give. I think of the stress I relieve. I think of how I do it all-naturally. Not Toxically. Not pharmaceutically.
And I think of the money I make.
I feel so good I could shout.”

I think this just about sums up how most sex workers feel about their work when criticised for their choices. I am sure the public will also sympathise with the fear and ask; where is the crime?

I also felt a personal resonance when Aphrodite describes how sex work has had a positive effect upon both her physical health and mental well being. She understands this as part of her personal awakening to an awareness of Goddess worship. She describes (with many references) the fact that healing once was the preserve of women and that part of that healing process was sexual healing. The sacredness of sex as practiced by priestesses who were also sacred prostitutes resonates through out the book.

Aphrodite describes her life as an escort as a learning experience, a journey of discovery. It is an experience in which she learns not only about herself but also about the human condition. She writes:

“I INTUITED RIGHT FROM THE ONSET, THAT SEX WORK CAN BE HEALTHY BECAUSE SEX WORK CAN BE SPIRITUAL”.

Aphrodite goes on to say:

“I was a mother, homemaker, gardener, exerciser, healer, writer and whore. All were seamlessly, wholly, my path”.

“Are they bad girls or brilliant?” is a revelatory vision of a woman’s journey of discovery. It is the story not of a “Happy hooker”, and many will try and dismiss her as such, but of a real woman who falls in love, is arrested, brings up children, is a mother, who copes with illness and loss and does all of this while also being a sex worker.
This is a story of an intelligent and well read woman whose intellectual and emotional journey has resulted in the writing of a book that will become a classic.

This book is available exclusively as an ebook from Aphrodite’s web site “HERE”.

The book will also be available in good old fashioned print very soon. Details will be available on Aphrodite’s web site and also from Harlots Parlour.

I genuinely recommend this book….enjoy and please write and leave reviews.

Both myself and Aphrodite will be speaking on the Charlie Spice show tonight at 8pm UK time. We will be discussing the book and coming out as a sex worker activist.

Please join us: “HERE”

Read Full Post »

Sex work,pleasure or rebellion. Paper presented at Brunel University 21st April 2012.

Posted in Anti Sex Work, Campaigns and Groups, Escorting Lives, Feminism, Organisations Comment, Religion, Research, sex worker politics, Uncategorized on 23 April, 2012 | 5 Comments »

This is my paper that I presented at the Sexual Cultures Conference held at Brunel University in April 21st 2012.It seemed to be well received. They are a collection of comments taken from a manuscript that I am working on for publication.
Comments are welcome.

My name is Douglas Fox. I am the editor of Harlots Parlour which some of you may know. For those who don’t Harlots is a pro organic human, sex worker and supporters blog featuring a number of writers. Some of the writers are academics; others like my self are sex workers and activists while others are supporters of sex worker rights.

I am also a Pagan, which I mention because it has a direct relevance to how I understand my work as a sex worker and also how I relate to sex worker rights as a political experience, as a form of rebellion far more dangerous than the sword or the gun or the written word.
The work I am referencing today forms part of a manuscript that reflects partly disillusionment with some of the sex worker rights establishment but also a positive reappraisal of the heritage of the prostitute and the positive image of prostitution that is rarely referenced.

For I am the first and the last
I am the honoured one and the scorned one,
I am the whore and the holy one…
Excerpts from “The Thunder, Perfect Mind”, (1)

This excerpt from a very powerful piece of writing which formed part of an early Christian gnostic library which perhaps references an early non orthodox Christian fusion with a Pagan understanding of the sacred feminine, of the Goddess, as the great whore.
For me this encapsulates the position of the prostitute within society today, who is the scapegoat, the foil, equally for outrage, disgust but also love, as an inspiration for artists and poets and also of compassion in a society where even thoughts are not just dangerous but criminal.

Sex workers present powerful images of rebellion against prescribed behaviours and of pleasure with out responsibility. Sex opens a Pandora’s Box of personal freedoms and possibilities for individual expression and aspirations.

The sexual imagination naturally aspires also also to commercial possibilities that will pander to the sexual fantasies of societies fearful of and yet perversely yearning for sex that is not prescribed.

Within populist culture however the prostitute has become emblematic of failure or depravation, a victim of this thing that some feminists and other so called progressives equally refer to as the patriarchy, of men, of crime, of class, of poverty.
The prostitute has become symbolic of social and individual failure, the perpetual victim.

This mythology of the prostitute and prostitution is a far cry from the real and original heritage of the prostitute as a positive image, the prostitute as civilising.

In Babylon situated in Mesopotamia, which many understand as the cradle of civilisation there was once an inscription to Ishtar the great creatrix, the great mother Goddess. The inscription read “A prostitute compassionate am I”.

Think for a moment about the power behind those words and the understanding they express of the prostitute as something extraordinary.
These words provide a positive heritage that is rarely referenced within the sex worker rights debate which has mostly failed to challenge an orthodox context in which the prostitute is confused with other social/fixable problems.

The empathic nature that these words reference and which is the basis of our humanity is in danger therefore of being lost. Empathy with others can not exist with out an understanding or self. The words” compassionate am I” refers to a choice and choice itself has become a contentious word within sex worker rights.

Civilisation is a reflection of on going individual choices. We accept for instance that an individual must be educated and of a certain age to think through political issues before they can vote but we neglect the essential basis of human society which is the education to compassion which prostitution as sacred once provided.

Prostitution reflects a compassionate and empathic relationship that is offered unencumbered by commitment which makes the prostitute a unique reflection of celebration rather than of duty, of the exploration of self.
With out being aware of ourselves and comfortable with all parts of ourselves; including our sexual self, how can we have true empathy with others or communicate honestly within society?
The triumph of orthodox monotheism and the integration into our very language an understanding of the sexual as dangerous is reflected in how we now understand and how we reference the prostitute.

As progressives, libertarians, as liberals, as intellectuals and as activists we have to reconnect with the prostitute as a symbol of compassion and hope and understand the prostitute as a symbolic image of rebellion against orthodoxies that prescribe which of our human experiences are valid. Sexual freedom, sexual imagination, fantasy is not a corruption of power or liberty but true freedom that transcends into every minutiae of our lives.

Why does society have a hypocritical and often violent attitude toward the prostitute?

You see because of our taught societal fear of sex our language has adopted an often hypocritical and violent attitude toward the prostitute. This fear of sex reflects how authority has manipulated the emotional and physical relationship we have to our sexual needs and fantasies, burdening them with guilt and shame. That manipulation, that corruption, has allowed authorities power over how we think and how we behave within a personal and societal context.

Sexual freedom and prostitution collide equally with conservative and so called leftist liberal ideologies because both are uncomfortable with sexual liberty.
Both conservative and the Marxist theory equally; for example, desire the subjugation of individual sexual freedom, for the assumed redemptive hope of personal and societal well being which necessitates sacrificing the individual. Both idealise notions of brotherly, comradely love which negates the individualism of the sexual act as undesirable. As the sociologist Max Weber wrote, “The brotherly ethic of salvation religion is in profound tension with the greatest irrational force of life; sexual love” (2).
I argue in agreement that even within our so called modern, tolerant, secular and allegedly permissive society to have sex not sanctioned by the state or in the west not preconditioned by the at least the nominal notion of “love” undermines centuries of societal compliance to an orthodoxy that understands sex in terms of ownership and control.
By this I refer to a conservative, patriarchy that subordinates both women and younger men to dominant male authorities and is intolerant of individualism and equally the modern so called rational, liberal, leftist idealism of gender equality and supposed egalitarianism which also subjugates individualism to the authority of the state.

While the focus of authority may have changed to accommodate alleged egalitarian notions, the context and the language of power remains the same. (Quote)As C Wright Mills observed “In modern relationships woman is the darling little slave of the male and the man her un weaned dependent”(3).

The prostitute in contrast, represents and offers sex with out these corrupted ideals that subjugate both men and women equally into values and morals that exist not for their benefit but for the convenience of authorities temporal and spiritual, conservative and so called liberal. The ex prostitute and activist Nicki Roberts noted in her book Whores in history, “Until the whore archetype is honoured, there will be whore stigma”(4).

The patriarchal sex guilt trip, the legal penalties that enforce prescribed sexual behaviour represent more than a desire to contain unchecked libidos. They represent repression of the spirit and the body and the mind.

Sex for sale, Sex as organised labour in the context I have discussed therefore threatens prescribed social cohesion endorsed by the orthodox politics equally of both the left and the right. Both have responded with increasingly punitive legislation that endangers the prostitute who fulfils a role of easy scapegoat, villain and perversely also victim within a populist culture ill at ease with human sexual expression. The result is that hysteria and mythologies about prostitution and prostitutes over and over again replace factual evidence. We see this in the responses of governments who marginalise research evidence methodically evaluated and peer reviewed in favour of their own self produced, prejudiced hysteria. The dying days of the last Labour UK government exemplifies how whipped up government hysteria drove through legislation. The policing and crime bill 2008/9(5) that was almost universally condemned by academics and sex workers for making sex work more dangerous is an example. This view view was further recognised when even the association of Chief Police Officers called for the reform of prostitution laws, which they did in December 2010,(6).

“Our responses to anti sex legislation however are doomed when argued within orthodox contexts”

Today we have a conversation about prostitution where the prostitute is at best marginalised and more often silenced. Our positive voices are hijacked by governments, by the rescue industry and even by some sex worker activists. The discussion is then reframed as a problem solving exercise that understands the prostitute and prostitution as victim or abuser and as a solvable, fixable societal problem.

This ultimate aim to get rid of the prostitute has created an understanding of prostitution and indeed all aspects of sex work as at odds with the joy of sex, the aspirational qualities within a modern context, or the spiritual heritage that belongs to the prostitute.
Instead prostitution especially has become confused with other social and political issues and with ideologies which effectively confuse and even silence voices of sex workers who want to talk about the prostitute as a positive figure rather than as a victim. The vociferous anti sex language of leftists, some so called progressive feminists and conservatives has colluded in reaffirming a language that reflects a patriarchal understanding of sex as a problem and as a result the debate has become about the degrees of toleration and control rather than about freedom.

Even within parts of the sex worker activist establishment the arguments about who is or who is not a sex worker, who is privileged and therefore not representative, who is white, middle class, a happy hooker stands opposed to who has worked on the streets and who is a real migrant worker, who has “suffered”, what ever that really means.
This has effectively marginalised voices that do not agree to a politicised perversion of rights which are in fact about controls and creating and maintaining divisions within sex work. The negatives of sex work have perversely become virtues within parts of the sex worker activism agenda and the term “Pimping the poverty” increasingly sums up aspects of the current sex worker rights movement which shares a close familiarity with the rhetoric of the rescue industry.

So what are the positive, aspirational and spiritual language that will create a context in which sex workers can appropriate sex and prostitution as once again being a creative experience that is at once positive and exuberant.

Well as activists we have to understanding that the language used within debates that presents sex work as a societal problem has to be reappraised and the emphasis adjusted to recognise the aspirational and spiritual nature of sex work. Words like “choice” must not be a dismissed word because by doing so you judge the prostitute as different, none human and with out any understanding of self or personal autonomy. Choice is an affirmative word that recognises our shared human experience regardless of our socio economic situations. We all have limited choices, yet a limited choice for a prostitute means for some in the prostitute debate, no choice.

Then we have to revaluate an increasingly entrenched position where activism is confused with social work. We have to emphasise that social problems that may affect prostitutes also affect others within society and therefore those issues such as addiction, homelessness, migration or simply chaotic lifestyle choices must be addressed when referenced to prostitution as a shared social problem and not as issues specific to prostitution.

Prostitution is world wide but how prostitution reacts to and integrates within a multitude of cultural identities has to be acknowledged and understood. The prevailing consensus that there is one shared identity to the prostitute has to be re-evaluated. We have become used to talking in global terms and about global solutions.
We cannot however neglect the intricacies and intimacies of cultural nuances to prostitution and how the prostitute understands his or herself.
Decriminalisation as a rallying cry is meaningless for example unless it is a product of its indigenous culture.

Prostitution is after all a business that responds to markets that are often multidimensional and increasingly multinational and international and this is something we need to celebrate.

And the most important thing for activism to promote is the prostitute as a unique expression of joy which in societal terms allows individuals and society to explore a language and form of Dionysian exploration that is natural. The prostitute rather than being understood as chaotic must again be understood as the bridge that allows the healing of the individual and by doing so society. Sex worker activism has to rejoice the role of the prostitute as the restorative conduit between the rational mind with the ecstatic, the natural physical material world and the spiritual.

And for those who only understand the prostitute as a societal, fixable problem and equally those who reference prostitution in terms of a politicised world view, then both equally totally misunderstand the rebellious nature of the prostitute which is necessarily, eternally dissident to their world views.

The prostitute is a symbolic eternal rebel from the constraints of prescribed behaviour which makes the prostitute the eternal subversive, the eternal critic, the eternal rebel.

END
IMAGES USED.
Image 1. Harlotsparlour jpg. Original artwork.
Image 2 http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html The Nag Hammadi Library.The Thunder, Perfect Mind.Translated by George W. MacRae
Image3. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/sex-and-sexuality-19th-century/ image of Male anti-masturbation device, 1880-1920.
Image 4. Ishtar source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ishtar_goddess.jpg
Image 5. http://www.chinahush.com/2010/07/29/prostitutes-paraded-through-streets-causes-debate-responsible-police-suspended/ From ChinaHush website July 29th, 2010 by Key | Posted in News |
Image 6. Sticker handed out during the European conference on sex work – 2005, Source: http://www.rodedraad.nl
Image7 Extract from presentation by Douglas Fox Brunel sexual cultures conference 2012
Image8 Henri Matisse, The Dance I, 1909, Museum of Modern Art, New York taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art.

Quotes:
(1) http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html
The Nag Hammadi Library,The Thunder, Perfect Mind, Translated by George W. MacRae.
(2)Max Weiber. Essays in sociology edited, with an introduction by H.H.Gerth and C Wright Mills. (Routledge and Regan Paul. Page343, 7 the erotic sphere.
(3) C Wright mills. The socioloogical imagination 1956 (in (penguin book copy, p17 1975)
(4) Nicki Roberts. “The whore in history” quote noticed on Elizabeth Cunningham Sacred prostitution by http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/other_news/ishtar.htm
(5) http://www.criminaljusticealliance.org/policy%202010.htm.

Read Full Post »

Greater Manchester Police chief backs brothel debate

Posted in Government Reviews and Change, Law, Organisations Comment, Safety, sex worker politics on 4 November, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne said there was “no perfect solution”
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Q&A: UK Prostitution Laws
Decriminalising brothels could solve problems linked to prostitution, says a Greater Manchester Police chief.

Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne said he would welcome a debate about alternative approaches to policing prostitution and sexual exploitation.

Mr Byrne, who leads the policing of prostitution for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), made the comments on the Police Chiefs blog.

He said there was “no perfect solution” but it had helped in other countries.

“There is a great amount of academic research available, much of which supports the view that an alternative approach is needed,” he said.

While the decriminalisation and regulation of brothels in Australia and New Zealand was not an answer to all related issues, he said it was “certainly a solution to some”.

He added: “More of those involved in sex work [there] can now access health services with ease, whilst maintaining more personal security.

“An approach like this would help to bridge the gap between tackling neighbourhood nuisance and the exploitation of sex workers by organised criminals and gangs.”

‘Local approach’
Mr Byrne added that policing prostitution needed effective partnerships to support victimised individuals and communities with appropriate legislation and enforcement resources in order for it to work long term.

Responding to Mr Byrne’s comments, a Home Office spokesman said: “Current laws to protect individuals and communities from the harm of prostitution have a clear focus on tackling exploitation.

“At the same time the law on sexual and violent crime is unequivocal, regardless of whether the victim is involved in prostitution.

“We believe local agencies know how to best respond to the needs of their particular communities and the most effective responses are therefore developed at local level.”
Read rest of article with links etc “HERE”

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 334 other followers

%d bloggers like this: