I've never claimed to be an expert on anything much. What's that saying - Jack of all trades and master of none? I guess that applies to me; I know a lot of things about a lot of things, some of them useful (like electricity and water don't mix, so don't put that toaster in the bath), and some of them not so useful (like Jeffery Dahmer's brain was kept for scientific study after he got his head smashed in in prison); but you could never call me an 'expert' even on the things I'm passionate about, like art, literature and music.
Of course I went through the know-it-all phase, especially as a teenager. As far as feminism goes (ah, the dreaded F-word), I suppose part of it was innate: I knew I was just as good as the boys from a young age; in a lot of respects, my smugly-superior teenage self reflected, I was better. According to all the statistics I was smarter, more mature than boys the same age and would live longer; I was just as capable as any bloke of doing any job in the world and don't you dare try to bring me down, you horrible smelly boys! The precocious feminism of a teenage girl can be frightening...
Then, of course, I got older and a little more aware of the real world. I was a little more political, a little more opinionated and a little more certain that I was secure in my femininity. I remember being horrified in my second year at university when a male lecturer taught us about feminism; I bridled at the thought of a MAN daring to presume to teach ME, a WOMAN, about feminism (sorry, Paul - you were actually a bloody good lecturer and I learnt a lot from you). But that was kind of the point - I learnt a lot and, over the years, I kept learning. I learnt about the many breakthroughs the feminist movement had made over the years in its various waves, but I also learnt with horror about the sufferings of the Suffragette movement and their struggles for some form of equality; I learnt with dismay the widely-held conviction of many feminists that, in order to truly call myself a feminist, I needed to become a make-up-shunning, dungaree-wearing, man-hating lesbian; I learnt with fury about the gender-specific oppression of cultures, religions and governments. It was confusing: on the one hand, I was an outspoken and passionate advocate for ending domestic abuse; on the other, I loved my red high heels and wearing make-up occasionally. Did that mean I wasn't really a feminist? Could I not stand up for women's rights while still looking and feeling like a woman?
Over time, I've come to feel a bit more comfortable in my feminist skin. There are some branches of feminist thought that I agree with and some that I don't; for example, unlike some of my sisters, I've never had a particular problem with pornography. This statement is guaranteed to get me lynched in certain circles, but frankly whatever consenting adults want to do with their bodies is none of my business; as long as everyone involved is there of their own free will, enjoying what they do in safety and getting paid for it - and the porn industry is one of the only sectors where women are paid more than men - then go for your life as far as I'm concerned. Porn has its place and whether you choose to be part of it or not, either actually working in the industry or looking at the end product, is entirely down to you as a rational and consenting adult. I will not be picketing my local Spearmint Rhino in disgust; if anything, I've always secretly had a hankering to learn to pole dance! But one of the things I've always been 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' about is prostitution.
Now lets just make one thing clear: I absolutely, categorically and unequivocally think that the prostitution laws in this country need an overhaul. It's completely ludicrous that in this day and age we are prepared to standby and let these women put themselves at risk because we refuse to acknowledge that prostitution exists. And it is mainly women who work in this field, where not only are they more likely to contract sexually transmitted infections, they're also in danger of assault, rape and murder; I read a report somewhere that states that women sexworking on the streets are 18 times more likely to be murdered. 18 times!!! That's just utterly unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. Of course, every time there's an incident like the Yorkshire Ripper murders, or the more recent tragedies in Ipswich and Bradford, the public go up in arms for a while, the spotlight is turned on the sex trade and then it all goes quiet again once the murderer is caught. But they're just the ones that make the press; almost every day, a woman working the streets is attacked, and yet there have been reports even in recent years of women reporting rape only to be told by the police, "you're a prostitute, how can you have been raped?" So it's about bloody time something was done to protect them.
Feminist attitudes to prostitution have, over the years, tended to veer towards the 'exploitation, degrading, woman-as-victim' train of thought and I must admit that, when I considered it at all (which wasn't often), I tended to agree; all those stories of trafficked women and pimps beating up their girls, getting them hooked on drugs to make them more compliant...I was all for hunting these men down and beating them senseless. As to the men who picked up the women; well, I was torn between disgust and derision. But now I'm starting to have a change of heart, and it's actually thanks to my boss...
See, I'm doing a whole truckload of research at the moment on prostitution, because we don't know what's really going on in our streets and frankly we don't want to be the next Ipswich or Bradford (not my words, or my bosses, I hasten to add). We need to find out what works in supporting the working women and what we could do in our area to ensure that we don't have a serial murder case on our hands. And it's because of this research that I've gained a new perspective on prostitution and what can be done about it, and a lot of that has come from the women themselves. There is now a union for sexworkers in this country, as there are across the world, and they are campaigning for their rights like anyone else. When the last Home Secretary Jacqui Smith suggested that we follow the Swedish model by decriminalising the girls and making the punters the criminals, the union and many of the women were furious; they argued that by making the men who buy sex criminals, you would push the trade even further underground and put the girls even more at risk. This was something I'd not thought about, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense; we would just be driving women straight into the arms of the Peter Sutcliffe's of this world without so much as a backward glance. And not all the women who go into sex work are there because they were trafficked, or because they're drug addicts, or have pimps waiting to beat them senseless: some do it because it's a job and they enjoy it, something else I'd not really considered.
So yes, we need to look at the legislation and we need to do something about the current and frankly ridiculous laws surrounding sex, but I think it's about time we started actually speaking to the people who know most about it: the sex workers themselves. Make use of the unions; legitimise them in the eyes of the public and give them a voice on things like this, things that concern them. Start supporting initiatives to protect them from those people who would hurt them; let's live in the 21st century, for crying out loud, and be realistic: prostitution is happening whether we like it or not, and if we really want to do some good - by which I mean cracking down hard on those people who traffic women for the sex trade, and those who force women and children into prostitution - then we need to stop being so puritannical and actually start a debate about it, involving the women as well as the so-called experts. Let's stop being so blinded by our aversion to 'the oldest profession' and our blinkered, outdated opinions of those who work in it and lets engage with them, make use of them and find out what the hell it is they want. Women in the sex industry have been murder statistics since before Jack the Ripper took to his knife; if we want to ensure that it doesn't happen any more, now is the time to act and to engage with the women as well as the 'experts'.
The prostitutes known as 'Winchester Geese' buried in the Cross Bones cemetary in Southwark were given a license to operate by the Bishop of Winchester; they and the other 'outcast poor' are still buried in unconsecrated ground for their immorality. It's time we struck a balance and found a new way forward; it's time we stopped burying our heads in the sand and pretended it wasn't happening. We have to do something and we have to include the sex workers in the process; how many more women working the streets have to be beaten, raped or murdered before this country finally wakes up and does something to protect them? In memory of the Winchester Geese and of all the other women who have died working the streets, I ask you to support this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/swsafety/ We can do something about this, something that will make a difference, and it doesn't matter if it's 'feminist' or not - it's humanist and, as we are all human beings, surely that has to count for something...
Of course I went through the know-it-all phase, especially as a teenager. As far as feminism goes (ah, the dreaded F-word), I suppose part of it was innate: I knew I was just as good as the boys from a young age; in a lot of respects, my smugly-superior teenage self reflected, I was better. According to all the statistics I was smarter, more mature than boys the same age and would live longer; I was just as capable as any bloke of doing any job in the world and don't you dare try to bring me down, you horrible smelly boys! The precocious feminism of a teenage girl can be frightening...
Then, of course, I got older and a little more aware of the real world. I was a little more political, a little more opinionated and a little more certain that I was secure in my femininity. I remember being horrified in my second year at university when a male lecturer taught us about feminism; I bridled at the thought of a MAN daring to presume to teach ME, a WOMAN, about feminism (sorry, Paul - you were actually a bloody good lecturer and I learnt a lot from you). But that was kind of the point - I learnt a lot and, over the years, I kept learning. I learnt about the many breakthroughs the feminist movement had made over the years in its various waves, but I also learnt with horror about the sufferings of the Suffragette movement and their struggles for some form of equality; I learnt with dismay the widely-held conviction of many feminists that, in order to truly call myself a feminist, I needed to become a make-up-shunning, dungaree-wearing, man-hating lesbian; I learnt with fury about the gender-specific oppression of cultures, religions and governments. It was confusing: on the one hand, I was an outspoken and passionate advocate for ending domestic abuse; on the other, I loved my red high heels and wearing make-up occasionally. Did that mean I wasn't really a feminist? Could I not stand up for women's rights while still looking and feeling like a woman?
Over time, I've come to feel a bit more comfortable in my feminist skin. There are some branches of feminist thought that I agree with and some that I don't; for example, unlike some of my sisters, I've never had a particular problem with pornography. This statement is guaranteed to get me lynched in certain circles, but frankly whatever consenting adults want to do with their bodies is none of my business; as long as everyone involved is there of their own free will, enjoying what they do in safety and getting paid for it - and the porn industry is one of the only sectors where women are paid more than men - then go for your life as far as I'm concerned. Porn has its place and whether you choose to be part of it or not, either actually working in the industry or looking at the end product, is entirely down to you as a rational and consenting adult. I will not be picketing my local Spearmint Rhino in disgust; if anything, I've always secretly had a hankering to learn to pole dance! But one of the things I've always been 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' about is prostitution.
Now lets just make one thing clear: I absolutely, categorically and unequivocally think that the prostitution laws in this country need an overhaul. It's completely ludicrous that in this day and age we are prepared to standby and let these women put themselves at risk because we refuse to acknowledge that prostitution exists. And it is mainly women who work in this field, where not only are they more likely to contract sexually transmitted infections, they're also in danger of assault, rape and murder; I read a report somewhere that states that women sexworking on the streets are 18 times more likely to be murdered. 18 times!!! That's just utterly unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. Of course, every time there's an incident like the Yorkshire Ripper murders, or the more recent tragedies in Ipswich and Bradford, the public go up in arms for a while, the spotlight is turned on the sex trade and then it all goes quiet again once the murderer is caught. But they're just the ones that make the press; almost every day, a woman working the streets is attacked, and yet there have been reports even in recent years of women reporting rape only to be told by the police, "you're a prostitute, how can you have been raped?" So it's about bloody time something was done to protect them.
Feminist attitudes to prostitution have, over the years, tended to veer towards the 'exploitation, degrading, woman-as-victim' train of thought and I must admit that, when I considered it at all (which wasn't often), I tended to agree; all those stories of trafficked women and pimps beating up their girls, getting them hooked on drugs to make them more compliant...I was all for hunting these men down and beating them senseless. As to the men who picked up the women; well, I was torn between disgust and derision. But now I'm starting to have a change of heart, and it's actually thanks to my boss...
See, I'm doing a whole truckload of research at the moment on prostitution, because we don't know what's really going on in our streets and frankly we don't want to be the next Ipswich or Bradford (not my words, or my bosses, I hasten to add). We need to find out what works in supporting the working women and what we could do in our area to ensure that we don't have a serial murder case on our hands. And it's because of this research that I've gained a new perspective on prostitution and what can be done about it, and a lot of that has come from the women themselves. There is now a union for sexworkers in this country, as there are across the world, and they are campaigning for their rights like anyone else. When the last Home Secretary Jacqui Smith suggested that we follow the Swedish model by decriminalising the girls and making the punters the criminals, the union and many of the women were furious; they argued that by making the men who buy sex criminals, you would push the trade even further underground and put the girls even more at risk. This was something I'd not thought about, but the more I think about it the more it makes sense; we would just be driving women straight into the arms of the Peter Sutcliffe's of this world without so much as a backward glance. And not all the women who go into sex work are there because they were trafficked, or because they're drug addicts, or have pimps waiting to beat them senseless: some do it because it's a job and they enjoy it, something else I'd not really considered.
So yes, we need to look at the legislation and we need to do something about the current and frankly ridiculous laws surrounding sex, but I think it's about time we started actually speaking to the people who know most about it: the sex workers themselves. Make use of the unions; legitimise them in the eyes of the public and give them a voice on things like this, things that concern them. Start supporting initiatives to protect them from those people who would hurt them; let's live in the 21st century, for crying out loud, and be realistic: prostitution is happening whether we like it or not, and if we really want to do some good - by which I mean cracking down hard on those people who traffic women for the sex trade, and those who force women and children into prostitution - then we need to stop being so puritannical and actually start a debate about it, involving the women as well as the so-called experts. Let's stop being so blinded by our aversion to 'the oldest profession' and our blinkered, outdated opinions of those who work in it and lets engage with them, make use of them and find out what the hell it is they want. Women in the sex industry have been murder statistics since before Jack the Ripper took to his knife; if we want to ensure that it doesn't happen any more, now is the time to act and to engage with the women as well as the 'experts'.
The prostitutes known as 'Winchester Geese' buried in the Cross Bones cemetary in Southwark were given a license to operate by the Bishop of Winchester; they and the other 'outcast poor' are still buried in unconsecrated ground for their immorality. It's time we struck a balance and found a new way forward; it's time we stopped burying our heads in the sand and pretended it wasn't happening. We have to do something and we have to include the sex workers in the process; how many more women working the streets have to be beaten, raped or murdered before this country finally wakes up and does something to protect them? In memory of the Winchester Geese and of all the other women who have died working the streets, I ask you to support this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/swsafety/ We can do something about this, something that will make a difference, and it doesn't matter if it's 'feminist' or not - it's humanist and, as we are all human beings, surely that has to count for something...
3 comments:
Are we twins? Not long ago had exactly the same discussion. Problem is I fear that THOSE elements of feminism would come to the fore and openly win. I still remember the shock when I was verbally berated for holding a door open for a woman. "Women died to stop people like" me!
Like all things, legalising it won't stop some of the negative elements involved but at least these people would have some form of protection. Prostitution can be a dangerous job, these girls who CHOOSE to go into it know that but it's made worse than need be.
Consider my support handed in.
Yeah, I think my 'militant feminist' side has definitely gone into retreat in the face of things like this. I've spent the afternoon reading a truckload of American research into their way of dealing with prostitution and it's quite terrifying. All hail the religious right, nut-job militants and so-called feminists who bleat that trafficking and stripping are exactly the same thing...*rolls*
Thanks for signing, though - I don't expect our poxy Government will do anything about it except criminialise it further (is it me or do female Tory politicians in particular just not like other women?) but at least people can try and make their voices heard.
Oh, incidentally...I'm considering going to the Cross Bones cemetary after the main Forumbat meet next week, if you fancy it? It's a slight detour on the way home, I know, but I figured while I was there I might as well stop by and pay my respects...
Signed. Intrestingly the WI have been campaigning for prostitution to be legalised for quite a long time now. It should be.
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