Cindy - sex work

I've been trying to write this article for quite a while, and it's been really hard because I wanted to write it really intelligently but I think I write better if I just write what I'm thinking.
Anyway, I wanted to know more about sex work and what sex workers thought about things and stuff, so I got out two books from the library: Working Girls: Women in the NZ Sex Industry talk to Jan Jordan and Sex Work writings by Women in the Sex Industry edited by Frederique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander. I really learned a lot from these books. Cause they destroy any misconceptions or stereotypes about sex workers all being desperate, sex-crazy drug addicts with low self esteem. Sex workers are often seen as a target by some feminists as someone who's being exploited and doesn't realise it. There are sooooo many different types of women who work in the sex industry from all different backgrounds, with all life experiences, lifestyles, opinions etc and it's ridiculous to stick to one single stereotype on anyone.
Women in the books identified as a whole bunch of stuff: lesbian, bi, straight, feminist, and had a whole range of opinions on stuff, like some hated their work and often took drugs to help cope with it, while for others it was the other way round: they were addicts first and got into prostitution to pay for it. While other never touched drugs.
Some girls had sexual abuse in their backgrounds, some didn't. Some ladies loved their work and would choose sex work over any other profession. So you see, every sex worker is different and there is no single stereotype that you can pin on anyone.
So why are people so anti-sex work?
Sex is special and sacred for some people, for others it isn't. Why should it be? A lot of it is based on Christianity and the whole idea of saving sex until marriage, i.e. you are only supposed to have sex with one person in your lifetime, and it's a really special thing between you two. For some that's how they feel, and there's nothing wrong with that. But there's also nothing wrong with feeling any other way, and if someone wants to do something with their body it is their choice and their right to do so, and it is nobody else's business.
I like the whole idea of how selling sex is just like selling a service, like any other service, for example a waitress is in a way selling her body because she is walking around all day on her feet, delivering coffee with her hands, and smiling and being nice etc. A receptionist sells her body by typing documents with her hands, running errands with her feet etc. Anybody who works is selling their body. They're saying "I'll do this, if you pay me". What is the difference between a waitress selling her services and a prostitute selling hers? The only difference is in people's minds because sex is still seen as so sacred.

There were lots of different experiences in the books of each girl. One girl who started working as a prostitute got into it one day when she thought "hey, I'm going out every weekend and having meaningless sex, I might as well get paid for it!". Another woman was saying how prostitution is not that different from being a housewife. The housewife is kind of saying "okay, I'll clean the house and give you sexual favours in exchange for you looking after me and giving me food and money".
One lady who stripped was saying how there is nothing wrong with being perceived as a sex object. Like she was saying that when she stripped that was exactly what she was - a sex object - and she loved it! She absolutely loved her work and turning people on and stuff. And she was a lesbian feminist.
The books also talked about women-run massage parlours, strip shows etc. Often when massage parlours are run by men, the women working there get treated really badly, like the boss will say "if you wanna work here you have to give me head once a week" and stuff like that, and often the premises isn't a very pleasant place to work, like it's dirty and stuff, but often when a woman is the boss, things are run better and the girls who work there get treated better and the environment tends to be really nice. I think all sex work places should be run by women. Girls who worked in women-run places said it all just seemed to be more positive and less sleazy.
But if you want to learn more, you should DEFINITELY get out some books or something. There is a list of books you could get at the end of this.
Sex workers need a lot of help. Because do you know what's fucked, it's LEGAL for a guy to pay a prostitute to have sex with him, but it's ILLEGAL for a prostitute to accept money for doing it! How fucked is that?! Prostitutes in the books talked about how prostitution should be decriminalised, but NOT legalised. Cause I think legislation makes it so that cops or whoever can place a whole bunch of rules on the place and monitor it and stuff, when really it's none of their business.

HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP SEX TRADE WORKERS:
- get some books out with sex trade workers telling their own stories. Get lots of people to read them.
- make leaflets about sex workers and how they deserve respect, and about the bullshit that goes on with the cops and stuff, and hand them out at shows, or leave them at all sorts of places where people can pick them up (skools, libraries, community notice boards...think of some more!). Or paste them to traffic light poles for pedestrians to read.
- make posters that will get people thinking.
- if you live in New Zealand you can contact the NZ Prostitute's Collective. They do a magazine called Siren. Click here for the branch nearest you.

BOOKS TO READ
- Bell, Laurie, Good Girls/Bad Girls: Feminists and Sex Trade Workers Face To Face, Seal Press, Seattle, 1987
- Jaget, Claude, Prostitutes: Our Life, Falling Wall Press, Bristol, 1980
- McLeod, Eileen, Women Working: Prostitution Now, Croom Helm, London, 1982
- Perkins, Roberta and Bennet, Gary, Being a Prostitute, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1985
- Pheterson, Gail, A Vindication of the Rights of Whores, Seal Press, Seattle, 1989