WEEK 13: Sex Worker Activisms

This is my last blog post of the semester, and its topic is appropriately sex workers activisms. We’ve returned in the last few weeks to Ditmore’s argument that we move “beyond the ‘sex’ in sex work” in our consideration of the politics, policies and “problems” of the global sex industry. As we’ve discussed, she argues that sex workers are never only sex workers; like all people, they have lives that are separate from their work, and should thus be recognized and valued as human beings, valuable members of their communities, and labourers in the global economy.

This, as you know from our reading last week, is why, despite the difficulties of doing so, feminist researchers insist that sex workers’ voices and experiences be included in research processes – especially those whose objective is policy creation and implementation (O’Neill and Pitcher, in Ditmore 2010).

Our readings this week focus largely on the ongoing debate between sex workers and (some) FEMINISTS and the particular brand of feminist politics they advocate. This is not a new conversation, either for them or us, but ending the semester by identifying the fundamental conflicts and debates between factions is necessary to moving forward: As these readings make clear, sex workers (many of whom are also feminists) need the support of feminists and other social justice allies in order to achieve their goals of safety, improved working conditions, etc.

Ditmore refers to this in the Section 5 title as “organizing beyond divides, and the two chapters in this section describe the ways in which sex workers, friends and advocates can work together to achieve success. Garofalo focuses on sex worker organizing in Europe, out of which has emerged two recent documents, the Sex Workers in Europe Manifesto and the Declaration of the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe. Pay attention as your read this chapter to the following issues: the concerns of conference organizers, the process by which participants were chosen for the conference, where the funding came from, why political alliances were/are so important for sex worker activisms and organizing in Europe, and why the author argues that those political alliances should mobilize around migrant and labour rights rather than anti-trafficking discourses.

Ditmore’s chapter closes out the book by discussing the wide variety of sex worker activists and organizations that have been created in the last four decades or so, most of which have mobilized to form the Global Network of Sex Projects.

Nagle’s Section 5 undertakes a similar project, which is to document the trajectory of sex workers activism – but by highlighting the voices and experiences of sex worker feminists themselves who are involved in (at least) both political movements. Carol Leigh discusses her passionate engagement with feminism, her disagreements with anti-porn feminists, and the importance of the feminist critiques of language that led her to be the first person to use the term “sex worker.” Other chapters in this section engage in similar discusses about the contradictions and incongruities inherent in identifying and both a feminist and a sex worker, and these are what we’ll discuss in class.

And led by Leigh’s statement that “like many other women, [she] was raised to trade sexuality for survival, or some social advantage (i.e., a good husband or boyfriend)” (229), we’ll return to the argument that we ran into in Jeffreys several weeks ago that heterosexual marriage/sexual relations are just another form of prostitution. This argument justifies her (and other abolitionist feminists’) argument that all prostitution is a form of violence against women, while Leigh uses it to argue that prostitution is a form of work like any other in a patriarchal society in which women are taught/expected to use their (hetero)sexuality to get ahead. Here you start to see how one very old feminist critique of the gender imbalances between men and women (remember, British political theorist Mary Wollstonecraft was the first to make this argument back in 1792) can be mobilized for two very different – yet both feminist – agendas.

So, in addition to the specific issues I’ve flagged above, our overarching question for this week will be: What has been the cause of such historical animosity between sex workers and (some) feminists? And what might be done to repair the relationship?

Your Final Project and Some Other Stuff, Too

As I’ve mentioned in class, because Monday, April 9^th is a holiday, our last class will be Wednesday, April 11^th, and your Term Projects are due in hard copy at the start of class on that day. I’ll also be talking about the Final Exam on that day and will answer any questions that you have.

With all that in mind, don’t forget about my office hours if you have any questions, would like to brainstorm about the Term Project, or just want to chat!

 

I’ll see you all in class! In the meantime, happy reading, and please don’t hesitate to stop by during my office hours or e-mail me at kawilliams(at)mtroyal.ca if you have any questions.