Erotophobia, Justice, and Sex Work
Last week I attended a fascinating and anger-making workshop sponsored by the London Alliance to Support Sex Workers at our local Centre for Research on Violence against Women and Children. Leading the workshop was Samantha Smythe of the Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Workers. Smythe talked about the coalition, its work and their goals and I was shocked at how straightforward and simple some of these issues seem to me and yet how hard it is to achieve change. (Smythe’s explanation: misogyny + erotophobia.) Whether or not one’s ideal world includes sex work (and for me that issue is tied to the larger one of whether my version of utopia includes anything like paid labour in general) surely one can see that the people currently employed in the sex industry are working. Working in the sense that labour laws ought to apply, workplace health and safety ought to matter, and that workplace discrimination ought to be illegal. Instead, many of us turn our heads away from the industry and while we are busy thinking that because it ought not to exist we can treat it as if it doesn’t, women are being hurt and killed on the job. Interestingly and frustratingly, feminists of very different stripes seem to engage in behavior that ultimately hurts sex workers. Feminists who focus on sex work as inherently exploitative don’t want to view it as work because the fear that to do so will have the result of making it seem normal, "just a job." But to fail to classify sex work as work, when the services in question are performed by adult women, further victimizes women, framing their choices as illegitimate and casting their activities into the shadows. Other feminists–pro-sex and pro-women’s choices–sometimes ignore the bad side of sex work as work because in our efforts to view women’s choices as legitimate we are sometimes too anxious to look for the bright side of sex work, ignoring the grim reality which frames many women’s choices to enter these professions. To do this ignores some basic facts: that most sex work is performed by young women for older men, making compromised choices, in pretty horrible conditions. (And yes, of course there are exceptions: women who work for women, men who work for women, and men who work for men, tough women, educated women, burlesque dancers of all ages, dominatrixes, etc etc.) All this said then, what are the easy issues?
- Well, a quick repeal of the laws against soliciting and keeping a "bawdy house" would be a start. How on earth can we think it’s anything other than a concern for appearances that makes sex for cash not illegal but criminalizes the negotiation of the deal and where it occurs? (Smythe used a great analogy to make this point. Imagine if it was legal to do another person’s taxes for money but that one couldn’t advertise one’s services, solicit clients, negotiate a price, or rent an office in which to do the work.) Street sex workers routinely complain that the laws against soliciting mean they have no time to evaluate clients and to negotiate a fair price for services. The laws against keeping a "bawdy house" mean that sex workers can’t cooperatively rent or buy space and watch out for one another. Fear of a charge under this law also can result in unsafe sex practises. In my hometown used condoms in garbarge cans were used as evidence that sex was going on at a body rub parlour. Now the women who work there are instructed not to use condoms for fear the ownder will be charged with keeping a "bawdy house."
- Oversight of municipal by-laws for the effect they have on women: Most people think of municipal regulation as harmless but the NIMBY motivated laws that send strip clubs and body rub parlours to the industrial edges of town hurt the women who work there the most. Likewise, the rules that limit the number of clubs in a town might seem sensible but since they don’t also limit the size of clubs, such laws effectively put the workforce under the control of a small group of employers, often associated with bike gangs. In London where there can only be 10 body rub parlours, this means women can’t quit and open up their own places or even plausibly threaten to do so.
- Extension of work-place safety laws and non-discrimination laws: This should be easy. I’ve just endured lots of supervisory workplace safety training and if these rules were applied in strip clubs the world might be a different place. Smythe talked about dancing on a small wooden box in stiletto heels and I can’t imagine that passing occupational health safety standards. Worse yet, she talked of staph infections from touching poles that are are rarely cleaned and the long term ill health effects of artificial tanning. White women were forced to tan in order to dance without being given any information about the risks of skin cancer from tanning. Smythe talked about the so called "black girl limit" in local clubs in which minority women are routinely denied work because the clubs already have enough women of colour on the floor. She also talked about the unwanted touching that goes for which it would be impossible to get charges laid or customers thrown out.
- Shifting our focus from moralizing to harm reduction: The coalition for which Smythe works is neutral on the question of whether sex work is utimately good or bad for women. The coalition contains sex positive feminists as well as abolitionists. They have agree to set aside differences to work together on the easy questions. A focus on workers’ rights and harm reduction are their main goals.
We also met a writer for a new magazine by and for sex workers. 
Spread Magazine is described as "a quarterly, glossy
magazine by and for sex workers and those who support their rights. The
magazine has a focus on personal experiences and political insights,
and contains practical information like news, features, health columns,
and resources related to the sex industry. $pread builds
community in the sex trade by featuring the honest and diverse
perspectives of those who know it best: the women and men who work
within this sensationalized, highly stereotyped industry. …..$pread actively
confronts various stigmas surrounding sex work, raises awareness of
legal and political issues affecting sex workers, and encourages
support for the rights of all people working in the sex industries."
And nothing I’ve said here is anywhere near as articulate as the words of my favourite Opinionated Lesbian, Eleanor Brown. Brown’s blog entries on prostitution draw connections between GLBT rights and the rights of sex workers in a way that’s compassionate, principled and persuasive. (The Op Les is now the editor of the Sherbrooke Record and is no longer blogging her days away in Montreal.)
