Saturday, May 26, 2007

more seriously

you can read this article, o Concerned Feminist/pro-feminist/earnest citizen:

...This is why I get so upset when feminists criticize the progress that sex workers’; organizations are making towards increasing the rights, safety and agency of women working in the sex industry. It’;s not because I think that sex work is so fabulously radical or that I’;m trying to start the next sexual revolution by twirling round a pole; it’;s because some of the most vulnerable and oppressed women in the world work in the sex industry, and feminists cannot afford to support these women conditionally.

...There is no one perfect solution to the complex problem of mass exploitation and oppression within the worldwide sex industry. Just the other day I overheard a discussion between a couple of women in the dressing room at work. One was complaining about the extortionate house fees which strippers are forced to pay to work in some upscale clubs, and proposing that the government should put a stop to this illegal behavior, while the other argued that state regulation of strip clubs would only force illegal workers, like herself, to work in dangerous underground clubs. This is only one example of the many dilemmas facing political and activist organizations trying to find the most practical ways to improve the lives of sex workers all over the world. Sex worker activists do not agree on everything, nor do we have one ideological vision; some of us are socialists, some of us are spiritualists, some of us are libertarians and some of us are feminists. Some of us believe that a world without a sex industry would be ideal and some of us believe that a world with a radical queer feminist socialist spiritual sex industry would be ideal, but most of us realize that neither of these ideals are just around the corner. In the meantime we are taking small steps to improve the lives of people working in the sex industry now, in this reality. We would really love the support of all feminists.

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