UK Sex Workers need decriminalisation and unionisation, not condemnation!

Decriminalisation and unionisation

Between November and December 2006 the bodies of five murdered women were discovered in Ipswich, Suffolk. All of the women were prostitutes or sex workers from the local area. In the media furore surrounding the gruesome discoveries, traditional stereotypes of prostitutes spread like wild fire....writes Vicky Thompson...

The prostitutes were not being portrayed as women, they were not workers; they were addicts, whores, barely human. In The Daily Mail, Richard Littlejohn wrote: ‘It might not be fashionable, or even acceptable in some quarters, to say so, but in their chosen field of “work”, death by strangulation is an occupational hazard’. According to Littlejohn, the death of these women was ‘no great loss’. When it came to sex workers, journalists waited in line to condemn and to dehumanise.

When people are asked what a prostitute is they almost invariably respond with ‘someone who sells their body for money’. But this is deceptive: at the end of the transaction, the client does not own the woman (or man’s) body. What is actually being sold is a sexual service. If prostitution is defined purely in market terms, it represents the co modification of sexual practice. Traditionally, many feminists have labelled sex work as violence against women, arguing that no woman would ever choose to sell sex. In doing so, they have given into the temptation to moralise, rather than enter into an honest and open dialogue with sex workers. For them, proposals to improve safety , either by decriminalising or promoting self-organisation, are seen not as a real method for improving the lives of working women, but as another step along the road to legitimising violence.

Prostitutes are workers just like the rest of us

Are prostitutes workers, just like the rest of us, or are they merely victims? Karl Marx asserted that ‘prostitution is only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the laborer’ and this is every bit as true today as in the 19th century. Britain’s first major trade union to invite sex workers into its ranks was the GMB, a union with over 600,000 members, whose delegates voted unanimously in favour. This is a positive step forward for women in an industry where drug use and violence is rife. The Guardian’s Julie Bindel - the same “feminist” who believes that homosexuality is a conscious choice - asked ‘how can a union on the one hand campaign against violence against women, but unionise it at the same time?’ In doing so, she completely failed to listen to the voices and needs of sex workers. In fact, unionisation is an integral part of seeking a way to protect some of the most vulnerable women within the framework of the capitalist system. More importantly, in being able to organise themselves as workers, those who work in the sex industry are able to empower themselves.

LIberation not subjugation

We live in an age when pole dancing is sold to us as a fitness exercise; when the line between liberation and subjugation is continuously being blurred by a media telling modern women “you can have it all” and that the need for feminism or women’s liberation movements is dead. Moreover, as elements of sexual subculture go mainstream, not all of them are negative. Burlesque performance, a form of erotic dancing filled with comedy, irony and plenty of sequins, has a huge number of female fans. Its roots can be traced to a form of comic satire, popular in 19th century music halls. Most burlesque performers cite their work as a form of female empowerment: as positive, liberating and, above all, extremely fun.

These are not the only positive steps being taken today. Sex workers and their allies developed ‘Ava Caradonna’, a kind of collective identity designed to overcome the stigma directed at them. And recently on prime time TV, a minority of members of the Women’s Institute, formerly the home of knitwear and jam-making, decided to go on the hunt for the perfect brothel. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t find it. What they did find, however, was a lot of intelligent women, who were convincing in their certainty that they didn’t need to be rescued.

I have heard some feminists cite Sweden - where men can be prosecuted for hiring prostitutes - as an example of where the UK should be heading. However, according to the English Collective of Prostitutes, this ‘disregards prostitute women's experience[s]… Swedish sex workers describe being forced underground, hunted by police, social workers, media and even anti-prostitution feminists.’ For the English Collective of Prostitutes there is only one solution: decriminalisation. Calling for a safer working environment for sex workers isn’t about ensuring there’s plenty of women to meet the needs of demanding men. It isn’t about bringing new recruits to the sex industry. It’s about a shared respect and understanding for the experiences of thousands of women in the UK.

Fri 26, September 2008 @ 17:16