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It is still International Sex Workers Rights Day. At this moment, in places like NYC and NC, sex workers are gathering, face-to-face, talking and sharing and telling, planning and discussing.
And, yes, I will say now, I am feeling somewhat surly, but in a way, this does lead in nicely to something that I've blogged about before: The silence of our supposed allies.
We all have our main causes. It is not to say we do not find other issues to be of import, or realize how often various issues are entwined, but we all have our main concerns. We pick our battles, as it were. Race. Class. Disability Rights. Labor rights. Politics. Peace. Homosexual Issues. Trans Issues. Sexuality. Reproductive Choice. Religion. Sexism. Animal rights. We all have our thing. Often, these things blend; often these things are touched on in larger concerns of feminism, perhaps humanism, itself.
But I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noted something today. And I don’t much feel like lying.
Apparently, while I don’t expect Sex Workers Rights to rank real high at all on everyone’s radars… it doesn’t seem to rank much at all on anyone’s. Even on the feminist blogs.
“The Big Feminist Blogs”? One, Feministe, mentioned today at all. That’s it, one. Elsewhere out and about? Other than a few places like Amber’s, SITPS, and Sex Workers blogs, and a few shout outs, I see nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. And I’ve looked. I’ve looked on big blogs and small, radical and sex positive, PoC and white, labor rights concerned and sexual freedom concerned. I’ve searched high and low.
And there’s not much. At all. Nary you mind that the way things are currently, however many sex workers could get robbed and raped tonight and have it laughed off by the law, nary you mind that sex workers pulled over by the law will be black mailed into favors, nary you mind that sex workers of all races, genders, classes, political bent, religion, will still be seen by the majority of humanity as less than human themselves, nary you mind possession of condoms in the highly vaunted Swedish State is cause for arrest and possible immediate deportation. Nary you mind. It doesn’t rate. It doesn’t rate a post, a line, a shout out, even a mention that today is International Sex Workers Rights day and a link to places like UBUNTU, HIPS, SWOP, PONY or ISWFACE. Nary you mind. Sex Work? Hell, I thought it was a feminist issue. Apparently not. Clinton and Obama and McCain, JVal, teenagers getting pedicures, sexist women reporters. Well, I voted for Obama, but yeah...
And sure, I don’t expect something like International Sex Workers Rights Day to rate even a footnote in various circles. I mean hell, if you are for abolition; you are, by default, against sex workers rights (what, with all that normalization and everything). I can also understand that other people’s issues are of high import right now and consume a lot of time and energy.
Yet still, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed, and I don’t much feel like lying today.
If you don’t really intend to be an ally and speak up and out… don’t call yourself one. Don’t use us when it’s convenient and forget us when it’s important. Easier for all of us in the long run.
The full version of this post can be found at Renegade Evolution.
Tagged as: international sex workers, sex workers rights, sex, human trafficking, sex work
Ren is a sex worker and sex worker advocate.
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