Ugh, coming up on the last hour of a 9-6 shift and not one client! Fuck! A bunch of calls, and two walk ins who said they’d “be back later.” Yeah, right.

So I’ve had a lot of time, then, to read endless strings of links and “radical feminist” vs. radical sex worker blog flamewars. Yikes. In all of my experience in the, uh, real world, radical feminist thought usually seems to encompass sex worker rights and advocacy. But oh no, not on the internets. Do I care, though? Not that much. It’s upsetting, though, to see how absolutely polarized these two camps can get, when really I see merit to both sides. Yes, a lot of sex workers are forced into their profession, a lot have been assaulted during and/or outside of work (hello!), there are lots of pimps out there, trafficking exists, and on and on. But listen here, you “radical” feminists (who apparently, on the internet, haven’t moved ideologically beyond 1975), it doesn’t matter if you think that men buying sex is fucked up. It’s still going to happen, and your ideological rantings against it do nothing but stigmatize sex workers. Righteous Indignation Fail.

Some of these arguements are just fucking silly. Like, oh yes, the police should target johns instead of the poor sex workers. Brilliant! Why not erode my client base via legal action? That’s how many more hours waiting in the cold/at the phone/at the incall just to make rent? Way to make life easier for sex workers. Besides, Ms. Suzy Second Wave, it’s not like the government gives two shits about your opinions.

Oh, does it ever boil my kettle that some people (forget dumbasses writing on their internet pedistals, more like politicians and shit) think it’s ok to impose their harmful moral judgements on others who’s harmless lifestyle choices make them “uncomfortable.”

It reminds me of two friends who were dating once- one who was doing various sorts of sex work to get by, and the other said it made him feel “unsafe” and that she had to stop. Now, seeing as she was doing work with minimal contact, and was using protection when necessary, this wasn’t exactly a legit complaint. Upon further probing, it turned out it just made him uncomfortable (“it endangers my mental state”), and that he thought sex work was fucked up “unless the sex worker had kids to support.” My friend who was working responded, of course, saying that he could pay her rent if he was “uncomfortable” with the sex work. This is such a spot on microcosm of general attitudes towards sex workers-

“it’s only ok if…”

“the idea of sex work is hurtful to women because…”

When actually the real issue is that these anti-sex work people are so stuck on this idea of sex “being commodified,” as if their sex life is this sacred thing that is being crucified by the armies of vice.

I’m still under the influence of this brain-stewing flu, so this probably isn’t that coherent, but I’ll end with two quotes from Alexa Albert’s Brothel:

“…the ‘What’s a nice girls like you doing in a place like this’ cliche [is] asked of any woman who resists the social restrictions that govern most of us, and who is involved in types of behaviour we normally classify as ‘taboo.’ It’s as if knowing the answer, we can reassure ourselves that we’ll never walk in their shoes.

Prostitutes have been cast as victimizers and victims, as dead to the pleasure of sex as too alive to it. Whatever else, they have always been Other, sufficiently unlike the rest of us as to evoke sympathy, not empathy. Usually with the best of intentions, psychologists pathologize prostitutes by suggesting sweeping causative associations between prostitution and disadvantaged situations, [drug abuse], and previous traumatic experiences, especially sexual abuse. And knee-jerk moralists speak of prostitutes as flawed characters lacking in values.”