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Kosher Computer (Yes, I'm posting an e-mail I was forwarded)

2008-11-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you know this, but you can now purchase Kosher computers! They are made in Israel by a company called DELL-SHALOM. The price is so low... Even with the shipping from Israel ! However, before you purchase a kosher computer of your own, you should know that there are some important changes from the typical non-kosher computer you are used to, such as:

1) The 'Start' button has been replaced with a 'Let's go!! I'm not getting any younger!' button.

2) You hear 'Hava Nagila' during startup.

3) The cursor moves from right to left.

4) When Spell-checker finds an error it prompts, 'Is this the best you can do?'

5) When you look at erotic images, your computer says, 'If your mother knew you did this, she would die.'

6) It comes with a 'monitor cleaning solution' from Manischewitz that gets rid of all the 'schmutz und drek.'

7) When running 'Scan Disk' it prompts you with a 'You want I should fix this?' message.

8) After 20 minutes of no activity, your PC goes, 'Schloffen.'

9) The PC shuts down automatically at sundown on Friday evenings.

10) It comes with two hard drives - one for fleyshedik (business software) and one for milchedik (games).

11) Instead of getting a 'General Protection Fault' error, your PC now gets 'Ferklempt.'

12) The multimedia player has been renamed to 'Nu, so play my music already!'

13) When your PC is working too hard, you occasionally hear a loud 'Oy Gevalt!'

14) Computer viruses can now be cured with matzo ball soup.

16) When disconnecting external devices from the PC, you are instructed to 'Remove the cable from the PC's tuchus.'

17) After your computer dies, you have to dispose of it within 24 hours.

18) But best of all, if you have a kosher computer, you can't get SPAM

Doonesbury calls it!

2008-11-05T10:32:00.000-08:00

While all the other strips were making jokes about how far in advance they are written, Doonesbury just went ahead and predicted the results:

Garry Trudeau might have felt comfortable "calling" Obama's victory in this morning's "Doonesbury," but not all the cartoonist's 1,400-plus clients were so at ease with a "Doonesbury Defeats Truman" scenario had John McCain won.

Days before the actual win, Trudeau "called" the election for Obama. (UPS) Enlarge Comic
"I figure I can survive a little egg on my face" if I'm wrong, Trudeau told Comic Riffs last week of his "prediction strip." But some newspaper editors weren't prepared to eat humble pie for breakfast this morning if Barack Obama had not emerged victorious.
In Obama's hometown of Chicago, for instance, the Tribune decided not to run the strip on the comics page. "The Tribune will not run the strip as is on the comics page, due to early typesetting of those pages," Tim Bannon, editor of the daily features section Live!, said to Comic Riffs. Bannon did note Tuesday, however: "We are not ruling out the possibility of running the strip with Obama winning elsewhere in the paper, once we know the result."
Some papers, though, cited early deadlines as a reason to run the original strip in the comics. Carole Carmichael at the Seattle Times, for instance, told us that the decision to run the Obama-victory strip was simple and clear cut. "It was already paginated," Carmichael said, and the Times "decided to run it as is, and run a short story explaining that these are done in advance and it was too late to tear up."

One Day More!

2008-11-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's election day already. I'm ready for this campaign season to be over!

Justice Talking: Legalizing Prostitution (12/30/2002)

2008-09-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

I just listened to this 2002 Justice Talking show where Christine Stark (co-founder of Escape "an educational organization working to end prostitution and pornography") debates Carol Leigh (Scarlot Harlot.)
This is, as far as I am concerned, the gold standard of sex industry debates. I cannot think of any issues from either side which were left out, and then they took questions from a variety of very interesting audience members.

Listen to it here:
http://www.justicetalking.com/ShowPage.aspx?ShowID=219

Whew!

2008-08-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

Got through the first week of classes without falling too far behind. Here's hoping this continues!
*fingers crossed, knock on wood, ect...*

This American Life: Three Women and the Sex Industry

2008-08-24T17:10:00.000-07:00

I had been wondering for a while how This American Life, one of my favorite radio shows, would tackle the debates around the sex industry. It didn't occur to me until today to actually search their website to see if they had already done one. It turns out that they did do a show in 1997, not about any of the debates, but with three different stories involving the industry in some way.
You can listen to it here.

In the usual fashion for this show, they start out with something unexpected and relatively light-hearted (an interview with a woman who works as a stripper and says she likes it a lot better than a previous job she had writing grants), move on to something more disturbing (the search for Susan Walsh, a go-go dancer and journalist who disappeared in 1996), and end with something extremely sad and/or disturbing (a story about a formerly anorexic female therapist counseling a violent and misogynistic male patient with a porn addiction.)

I don't have much to say about the show personally, except that the last act really made my skin crawl. It had the same elements I always like about this show, namely that it always looks at different sides of an issue through extremely personal stories and avoids stereotypes and easy interpretations. I was also a bit disappointed because it only scratched to surface of some of the issues I have been trying to look into. I would have been hugely impressed if Dateline or 20/20 had done a show like this, but I have enormous expectations for This American Life which are probably unfair on my part. They only had an hour, after all.

Anyway, give it a listen if you can.

Grumble Grumble...

2008-08-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Talk of the Nation show from 2005 wouldn't play on my computer.

Beginning of semester panic.

2008-08-23T16:35:00.000-07:00

Classes start on Monday, and I feel like I'm already behind on homework.

I'm focusing on Sociology this semester, since it is the major I'm currently going for. Last semester I only took one Sociology class and two Geography classes. I have been very tempted to add a Geography class this semester, but I think I should focus on one major at a time for the moment. It took me long enough just to get to this point.

I always feel like I'm hanging on by the skin of my teeth when I'm in class. I don't want to feel like this. I want to be the perfect student and always have my assignments done with time to spare. Not likely, but maybe I can at least stay relatively sane this semester.

I should really take up regular meditation again. I think that would help.

Thoughts on "Teen Prostitution in Oakland"

2008-08-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

I just listened to this Forum show on Teen Prostitution in Oakland. My dad sent it to me when it first aired and it took me until now to listen to it. Teen and child prostitution is one issue that just about all the activists on the different sides of the sex industry debates see as a problem. However, on this show the guests and callers keep switching from just talking about teen prostitution to prostitution in general without making a lot of distinction. They kept saying things like "we are just talking about child prostitution here," but it seemed to me that ideas about prostitution in general kept creeping unremarked upon. This made it harder for me, as someone who is skeptical of some of the generalized claims of the abolitionists, to listen objectively to what was being said. One of the guests (Norma Hotaling, I think) makes the connection by saying that johns learn to buy the services of child prostitutes (or prostituted children) by going to adult prostitutes first. I don't really know what she means by that. Does she mean that men who go to adult prostitutes know how to find child prostitutes, or that they internalize that one exchange is ok, so another must also be ok?

I feel that I must point out that Norma Hotaling is a former prostitute, and undoubtedly knows a heck of a lot more about this stuff than I do, but what am I to make of people with just as much experience who advocate completely different solutions? I would like to hear her debate a sex worker rights activist to see what they agree and disagree on. It looks like she did that on this Talk of the Nation show from 2005. I shall have to listen to it later. Maybe while I'm cleaning tomorrow.

Ewok Song Performed by Barbershop Quartet

2008-08-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

Commentary on "How to get an activist movement to keep women in prostitution."

2008-07-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading the article titled "How to get an activist movement to keep women in prostitution", and frankly, I don't get it.
Ekis, the author of the article, is a writer, activist, and former prostitute from Sweden. In the article she describes the activism she observed on a trip to Barcelona, Spain by groups which wanted prostitution to be legalized as opposed to the current state of decriminalization. (I found this interesting, since most of the sex worker rights activists whose writings I've read think decriminalization is better than legalization, fearing that under legalization, "the government becomes the pimp," but this particular debate is not brought up in the essay.)

I can see some of the author's points about the disconnect between some of the activism going on (especially the youth activism) and the realities of survival prostitution, but I do not understand how the activist movement(s) she refers to are specifically keeping them in prostitution.

She starts out describing a street protest against a police effort to "clean up the streets"

A Sunday in April, around 300 people have gathered in the middle of Raval for a day of protest against civismo. Some are handing out free food in protest against homelessness, others are speaking about the right to squat empty buildings while house prices rocket and another group of people hand out condoms. Many are wearing red t-shirts emblazoned with: “jo també soc puta”— I am a whore too — and on the back “stop the stigma”. The t-shirts are handed out by an organisation called Àmbit Dona. I approach their table. A young man, who apparently thinks wearing the shirt is a funny ploy, explains sweepingly to anybody willing to listen “everyone should be allowed to do any job they want”. A woman from Ghana standing beside him says we should all thank prostitutes - if they weren’t around, there’d be more rape. They hand me a flyer with the text: “No-one from the council has set up a dialogue with the prostitutes. This is about a collective that is historically excluded from active citizenship and has only ever had duties but no rights.”

So you guys have all been prostitutes? I ask. “No, No,” they laugh as though this question were completely bizarre. They tell me that they’re just showing their support and that even though they themselves are not prostitutes, others have the right to be.

I don't completely disagree with most of the sentiments presented, "prostitution prevents rape" being the exception. I am all for stopping the stigma, and I think actually doing that would result in more voices of prostituted women/sex workers' voices being heard, which would hopefully result in more practical solutions to the problems and abuses around the sex industry.

The author than talks about visiting the Ambit Dona center, where, in her words, "prostitutes can get HIV tests, free condoms, have a shower, cook and wash clothes." From the start, she seems very dismissive of the center and the people who run it. Talking to the woman who runs the center:

“First of all we have to fight trafficking, not harass the street prostitutes. What they’re doing is not illegal! What’s illegal is trafficking - a fine law on paper but how is it meant to be implemented? Many women don’t have papers and if they report the crime, they’d be deported straight away. There’s no witness protection, nowhere they can stay during the trial and nowhere for them to be safe from the mafia.”

And this stuff about civismo, who’s that meant for?

“Basically, that’s coming from neighbours who want a clean city. They don’t understand that a woman should be allowed to do this if she wants to. At the end of the day it’s a moral question: it’s tolerated and sanctioned on an up-market level but not on the streets. We at Àmbit Dona don’t judge people. We don’t discuss why, how and where prostitution begins, we focus on how we can help the people who are in it.”

This help, she explains, is about minimising the risks of contracting STDs, getting translators so that foreign women can explain their needs and so on. Àmbit Dona was founded in 1995, contacting street prostitutes and offering help. Volunteers walked the neighbourhood handing out condoms and information. Nowadays, the centre is well known and people find their own way here. The organisation receives grants and contributions from the state, private sponsors, banks and charities.

The author's criticism of the center is as follows:

Firstly, there’s a lot of talk about the individual. (It is implicitly understood that the individual is the prostitute and not the john or pimp.) To ‘see the individual’ as Marcela says, means ‘don’t see the whole picture’. That’s to say: don’t look at the sex industry and its turnovers, what kind of needs and tendencies that are being marketed there, who is being sold, who buys and who benefits. Every time you try to get an overall view, the answer is, ‘we’re talking about the individual here’. If you then try to talk about the individual, you quickly realise that this doesn’t work either because the forbidden overall view stretches into the individual’s history as well. They don’t ask why someone ends up in prostitution or what her alternatives were. If they did, they’d figure this so-called ‘free choice’ was ‘made’ in teenage years and that she often found herself in circumstances that were not so free after all. No, talking about the individual is a red herring, and the aim is to obscure connections between things. What it means is this: there are no structures, the world is too complex to be understood, everyone is different and it’s impossible to draw any conclusions. (The fact the pimps and the mafia have to understand the structure and logic of supply and demand is another matter that is never mentioned.)

My understanding of the center is that they are trying to offer non-judgmental help to people who are usually looked down on. "The big picture" may be important when forming laws and policies, but it is not "the big picture" that usually walks through the doors of organizations like this asking for help. It is individuals with individual needs. Judging from what the woman at the center is quoted as saying, she is under no illusion that there are so many women in prostitution because it is such a wonderful choice of profession.
The author asks the woman at the center if they help women leave prostitution, and she replies that many women come to them asking, but that they simply don't have the funds. The author is highly critical of them for this.
I googled "Ambit Dona and found this description on the download from Cities Against Social Exclusion:

“Ámbit Dona” is a programme created since 1995 (it has been created in different phases) by the Association Ambit Prevenció. Ambit Prevenció is an NGO which works in the field of prevention of drug use and VIH-AIDS, either to a community level as for specific groups such as young people, drug users and sexual workers (women and transsexuals). The project Ambit Dona began as an action included in the Programme for the Prevention and Assistance for AIDS of the Generalitat de Catalunya (regional government), and is managed by Àmbit Prevenció.
In this framework, Ámbit Dona is a programme/project addressed to sexual workers (women) of Barcelona, which counts, as the most important element, with a centre (premises) located in the Raval, where a high proportion of this population work and live. Raval is a neighbourhood located in the old part of the city, with high problems of poverty and social exclusion.

The project is created for several reasons:
• Existence of a large number of women who work as prostitutes in the old part of the city. When the project began (1995), despite the lack of a proper estimate, it was known that there was a large number of women practising prostitution in Raval.
• They are in a situation of acute social exclusion, with problems at different levels: economic, social, health, etc. There are some studies about the social, economic and cultural characteristics of this group.
• Lack of services to answer the specific needs of this group. The prostitutes are reluctant to acces the network of public services (healthcare, social services) for the general population
• These problems affect an increasing number of people (new types of people and nationalities)

Objectives:
• To reduce the damage caused by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, through the actions of attention; information and education about health (AIDS and other sexual diseases prevention) and other biological aspects.
• Under a broad idea of health care, attention to psychological, educational, social and legal aspects of prostitutes
• Place of meeting to enable the development of human relations, mutual help and association for this group.

*****

Activities In the Ambit Dona premises: Distribution of preventive material; information; links to other services (sanitary, social, formative/educational, labour, legal); training workshops (personal skills; teaching of basic literacy; social related advice; basic food necessities cover; therapeutic massages; psychological individual therapy)
Outside the premises of Ambit Dona: Accompaniment to the normal (for all population) welfare services (to bring together this group of women to these services and also to introduce these women to the professionals (doctors, employment advisrs) of these services.

Reading this, it looks to me like they provide a lot of services which could be very helpful to a person trying to leave prostitution as well as services which could keep them alive until they do. If the author has any better ideas for what the center should be doing with the funding they have, she doesn't share them.

The author goes on to argue that this movement supports the right of women to be prostitutes, but not their right not to be prostitutes. I honestly don't see how. She brings up what sounds like a very good point that former prostitutes are often discriminated against when they try to get jobs, and says that in that situation, "these organizations don't give a shit about you." She then takes the anti-stigma youth activists to task for not going into brothels and hotel rooms to protest johns calling prostitutes "whores." I think it would make more sense for her to take them to task for not protesting job discrimination, given her concern in the previous paragraph, but what do I know?

The rest of the essay consists of the profiles of three women, one who has been in street prostitution for a while, is an alcoholic, and is apparently involved in trafficking (the author says at the end that she came back later to find that this woman had died of alcohol poisoning), one who is just turning to street prostitution because she has been unable to find work, and one who has given up on getting a degree in engineering because escorting pays more (and she wanted to go into engineering for the money in the first place.) These may be very informative in some ways, but I don't think they do much to support the title (and what is supposedly the main thesis) of the essay.

I would like to know how the author's experiences in prostitution have effected her views on what should be done. She alludes to them only once to say that when she was in prostitution she didn't consider it just another job. I understand that people who have had bad experiences of that type often don't want to talk about it, but some information on what helped or what she thinks would have helped her would be useful in understanding her point.

All in all, I think the author failed to prove that there was any validity to the title of the essay. I do not think that the activist movement in question is keeping women in prostitution, and I also find the tag line to be highly misleading:

What use are sex worker groups that give out condoms and showers, but can’t help women who want to exit prostitution?

I guess "What use are sex worker groups which only offer condoms, showers, training workshops, and help accessing other social services?" didn't sound as catchy.

My Answers

2008-07-28T01:33:00.000-07:00

The following is a response to this:

Ok, I'll bite. I do not consider myself an expert on this subject, but these are my guesses from what I have read:
Q: Do you believe that women would participate in sex work if we did not live in an oppressive, misogynistic culture?
A: My guess would be yes, though probably not as many.

Q: If so, what would the sex industry look like in a world in which women were seen as possessing the same humanity men do?
A: The absolute right to say "no" in any situation would be recognized.
Having a job in the sex industry would not be used against accusers in rape trials (if rape still existed in such a culture), nor would it be used as a reason to dismiss women from jobs such as teaching (such a situation was recounted in a recent issue of $pread magazine.)
If a prostitute was raped on the job, she would be more likely to press charges and win the court case.
Strip club owners would find it harder to make strippers pay fees out of their tips in places where doing so is illegal, meaning that strippers would not have to sue to get their money back (as has happened in a few places.)
As for subject matter in porn, there might be less misogynistic content.

Q:Do you believe that pornography and prostitution negatively affect some women’s lives (obviously some sex workers suffer abuse, but I am referring to women outside the sex industry here)?
A: Possibly. However, I think the bigger issue is how women's sexuality is viewed by society in general. I think sex workers often see the uglier side of our society and its views on women's sexuality because they are visible as sexual women. I think they are treated how all of us would be treated if society thought of us all as sexual beings who didn't conform to "acceptable" forms of sexuality.
Q: If so, does any of the responsibility for that lie with sex workers, or does it lie solely with the producers and pimps? Or somewhere else?
A: It lies with everyone who has ever looked down on another person solely because of their sexuality, which in this society is most of us.

Q: Why aren’t there more men out there arguing for women’s “right” to participate in sex work? What do you make of the fact that very few men call sex work a feminist choice?
A: If this is true, I think it is because the men do not want to be seen as sleezebags who don't respect women, which is how a lot of people see men who do argue the above.

Q: Can women like Jenna Jameson can be considered feminists for taking leadership roles in the production of pornography?
A: In my opinion, there is one thing that defines a feminist, and that is the belief in equality between the sexes. If you are asking if the taking of those roles can be considered a feminist act, my answer is only if the porn in question challenges cultural assumptions about gender (and, of course, does not involve coercion of any of the people involved.)
Q: If the answer is yes, how can we reconcile the negative effects pornography has on women’s lives with referring to a producer of mainstream pornography as a feminist?
A: See my answer to the third question.

Q: How can sex work empower individual women when it requires that women submit to being objectified and performing acts for money rather than out of genuine desire to do them?
A: I do not think that sex work is inherently empowering, I just do not think that women who do it, out of free choice or not, deserve to be disrespected for it.

Q: Alternatively, if one genuinely enjoys something and gets paid for it, does it become a feminist act?
A: No. Did someone say it does?

Q: In other words, does feminism exist to advance the cause of women as a whole or for individual women to use as a justification for their personal choices?
A: The former, though I think some feminists need to walk a mile in other women's shoes before judging their personal choices.

EDIT: Renegade Evolution's response to the above question may have been better than mine:
Your wording is loaded. Feminism exists to advance the cause of women AND to allow for individual women to MAKE choices, personal or otherwise.

Q: If sex work is a valid, feminist choice, what are we to make of women who say that their participation in sex work resulted from dire poverty, drug addiction, etc.?
A: I think it CAN be a valid (I am assuming you mean free from coercion), and under some conditions feminist choice. Not that it ALWAYS is.
The real argument between the feuding sides when it comes to these cases is finding the best solutions.

Q: I see sex work as a reductionist commodification of human sexuality. Do you think that the reduction of sex to a commodity has a negative effect on our ability to explore and express the potential of human sexuality? If not, why not?
A: I don't know. If so, I think it can be countered with a bit of rebellion and creativity. Either way, it's not my biggest concern on the issue of the sex industry.

And now a question for you. In your post you said this:

"I’ve had untold numbers of dudes make comments to me that let me know how men really see sex positivism. One example: some asshole, in trying to belittle my blog and feminism in general, commented, “Get off the internet. But if you’re one of those sex-positive types, I do oral.” Mmmhmm."

These guys sound like jerks and idiots. They are certainly not the kind of people I respect. You do not seem to respect them either, and yet you are treating them as the foremost authority on us. Why is that?
Does it occur to you that what they are really just calling us sluts, the same way they would call you ugly man haters?
They do not "love sex positive feminism," they are just using a standard sexist insult against us, and you are falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

EDIT:
Nine Deuce responded to this here, and my response to her response is here.

Books I've started but not finished

2008-07-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

Just for fun, I decided to round up all the books I've started and never finished. Here is the list so far:

An Introduction to the Theories of Popular Culture
by Dominic Strinati
(One of my textbooks for the upcoming semester)

The Wizard of London
by Mercedes Lackey

The Master of all Desires
by Judith Merkle Riley

Our Nig
by Harriet E. Wilson

Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South
by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese

Making Comics
by Scott McCloud

We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists
edited by Melody Berger

When You are Engulfed in Flames
by David Sedaris

The Thief Lord
By Cornelia Funke

Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter
by Steven Johnson

The Year of Living Biblically
by A.J. Jacobs

Showcase Presents: Wonder Woman
(Yeah, I can't even finish a comic book)

The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies
by Guenter Lewy

Mapping the World of Harry Potter
edited by Mercedes Lackey

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Graphic Novel
by Nat Gertler and Steve Lieber

The Great Women Superheros
by Trina Robbins

The sad part is, that's probably not even the whole list.
On the upside, when looking for these, I found a sketchbook that has been missing for a year!

Friday Doll Blogging!

2008-07-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

So, this is a doll I have been working on for, is it three years now? I was at Lacis in Berkeley where they sell the pattern and they were displaying an already made doll with her wardrobe (much like this photo), and I realized that the only way I would get to play with one was to make my own. Mine isn't quite as elegant as the one in the store, but it is a lot more colorful. I keep meaning to make her a yarn wig when I have the time and creative energy, but it's just easier to keep making her more clothes.

Mixed Feelings

2008-07-22T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have mixed feelings about this, and it seems I'm not the only one. On one hand, I do get sort of annoyed when just about everything women do gets labeled as "feminist," and that article is a prime example of exactly what annoys me. From the article alone, it does not sound to me like the burlesque show is making any sort of major feminist statement (though it's entirely possible that some of the quotes were taken out of context as well.)

In general, I don't trust the mass media and pop culture to tell me what is a radical political statement, and in that sense, I agree with some of the comments. On the other hand, going by what I know of the show from that article, I don't really have a problem with the show itself either.
I'm not saying that burlesque isn't at least partly about what men want, or even possibly not-so-great notions about female sexuality (I do not actually have an opinion on that). I just have some serious issues with all this anger at the women who "send the wrong message" with their behavior, causing men to act in an undesirable ways towards other women, as demonstrated in this comment. I think the best thing we can do as feminists with regards to sexuality is to send the message that individual women should be listened to with regards to what they want, that consent happens on a case-by-case basis, and that saying "yes" to fourteen men does not invalidate a "no" to the fifteenth man. It is that message or nothing as far as I am concerned. Anything less furthers the patriarchy more than any burlesque show ever could.

Studies I have gathered so far.

2008-07-21T00:24:00.000-07:00

These are the studies I have downloaded so far:

*3 studies on Trafficking in Women from the National Criminal Investigation Department in Sweden made in the years 2000, 2001, and 2002.

*Purchasing Sexual Services
in Sweden and the Netherlands
Legal Regulation and Experiences
An abbreviated English version
A Report by a Working Group on the legal regulation of the purchase of sexual services (2004)

*New Zealand
Key Informant Interviews
Review of the Prostitution Reform Act 2003
Prepared for the Ministry of Justice by
Dr Elaine Mossman and Pat Mayhew
Crime and Justice Research Centre
Victoria University of Wellington
October 2007

*Reclaiming Their Lives
and Breaking Free
An Afrocentric Approach to Recovery
From Prostitution
Valandra
College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN

*Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland
A Research Report Based on Interviews with 110 Men Who Bought Women in Prostitution
Women’s Support Project & Prostitution Research and Education

*Prostitution & Trafficking in Nine Countries: an Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Farley, M., Cotton, A., Lynne, J., Zumbeck, S., Spiwak, F., Reyes, M.E., Alvarez , D., Sezgin, U. 2003

If anyone should happen to be reading this and knows where I can find more studies, I would be glad of the information.

Also, I must post about something non-serious before Friday!

Human Rights and Activism Around the Sex Industry

2008-07-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was just reading this article which came up in my Google alerts. It reminded me of what impressed me about the sex worker rights movement when I first found out about it.

On 12 April 2008, Carlos Garcia was convicted of the murder of Andrea Rosa Machado in Córdoba, Argentina. The case was a landmark, the first time that anyone had been convicted for the murder of a sex worker in the Latin American country. Garcia was cleared in 2005 in a first trial due to lack of evidence, despite Rosa's body being found buried beneath the patio of his home.

Corruption throughout the legal system and sex work stigma mean violence against sex workers is rarely taken seriously and often initiated by the police, who elicit bribes and detain women for up to 21 days. When Mirta, Rosa's sister, reported her missing and told police she suspected she had been killed, no-one listened. It was not until AMMAR took up the case that people began taking notice.

AMMAR is the Argentinian Union of Female Sex Workers, with over 3800 members across Argentina. AMMAR offer empowerment classes, re-training, gender awareness workshops, micro-enterprise and healthcare. Elena Reynaga, the General Secretary, says these activities are all important 'to remove all the guilt they have put in our heads: that you are bad, a sinner, dirty, drug addicted . . . it is important to work with our co-workers, to elevate them and to tell them that [sex work] is dignified, as dignified as a gynaecologist, as a sociologist'. Alongside social, education and political programmes, these women are revolutionising approaches to HIV/Aids prevention.

This sounds like a good thing to me. It sounds like a group of people working with what they have to improve the lives of themselves and others and to do good in the world.

At the same time, I don't want to ignore the critics of these kinds of groups. Critics of the sex worker rights movement generally claim that the majority of women in prostitution have no interest in these kinds of organizations and only want out of the industry. I even read an article by Melissa Farley which referred to a similar sounding organization in India as a group of female pimps. Usually the critics of these organizations cite the studies on Farley's site, which is in turn criticized by sex worker rights advocates and as having studies with flawed research methods.

I would really like to get to the bottom of this. I want to read through and analyze all the studies which have been done on prostitution in various countries with different laws and different social groups and services. I have heard that it can be hard to get good data on prostitution, especially when it is illegal, but I would like to find out exactly what has been done so far to try and collect it.

Of course, it's easy to say what I want to do, and quite another to get myself organized and fit it in with the rest of my life. *sigh*

Testing...testing...

2008-06-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hi there! Welcome to my blog, where I may write something at some point!