Whorephobia affects all women

[synesis]

Whorephobia affects all womenWomen are brought up to think of sex workers as 'bad women'. It stops them taking advantage of many freedoms

Comments

[moldycelery]

Whorephobia is a bit of an awkward word.

But besides that, yeah, this article is spot-on. I just hope no one simplifies the issue down to "legalize prostitution!!!" though.

[moldycelery]

So true, ugh.

[synesis]

Awkward word indeed, though I think it foregrounds the amount of irrational reaction that surrounds sex work.

Thierry has what I think is a strong position on sex work, advocating strong collective action and unionisation for sex workers, while promoting intelligent legislation to avoid both state/police interference in collectively-run brothels and criminal exploitation of sex workers.

[brewsternorth]

Interesting. Wonder what ontd_feminism would have to say on the topic?

[dragonhawker]

the English Collective of Prostitutes was criticised by the rest of the feminist movement in the 1970s for its slogan: "All women are prostitutes."

I can't imagine why.

[synesis]

Well, I actually think it's a pretty important slogan, on a couple of levels. The first is that it calls for solidarity between feminists and sex workers, whereas the sad fact is that sex workers are often denied any agentive status by moderate/reformist feminists, and are cast as always either exploited or delusional. The second is that contemporary exploitation of women in the labour market is bound up with having particular 'feminised' commodities to sell. The third is the point that I think Thierry makes strongly here, which is that male verbal violence against women comes down to calling women whores, and that's highly indicative of the kind of economic-cultural structure behind that oppression.

I do get that it's an alienating, even combative slogan. I'm not certain that's entirely a bad thing, though.

[dragonhawker]

I was thinking that "All prostitutes are still women" might work better for solidarity, except for the problem of also not being factually true.

[t3h_toby_chan]

The way a society treats whores can act as a microcosm for how that society feels about women. Unfortunate and unsurprising that whores are treated awfully. Most especially when they're 'high class' or 'respected' sex workers, because they're only 'respected' in as much as women in general are 'respected'; in the sense of being revered as something Other than a full person, as someone without full autonomy and without full access to the opportunities of society at large; revered as a sort of fancy pet, given special treatment, but not many opportunities, and not a voice.

[peacetrains]

oh hey, this is pretty much exactly what i came in here to say. are you inside my head?

[synesis]

This is an excellent fucking comment.

[azetburcaptain]

Whores are treated awfully everywhere. :(

[peacetrains]

it's not surprising that our society treats sex workers like this, because the way i see it a male dominated society treats female sex workers the way they wish they could treat all women. it's institutional misogyny being taken out against prostitutes because they're seen as the easiest target.

[synesis]

Ding! Too true.

To put my queer activist hat on for a moment, I will point out that young gay male sex workers also encounter horrific levels of violence. In this context, though, I think it's absolutely an extension of institutionalised misogyny.

[meganphntmgrl]

I think that the level of violence against sex workers in general comes from the fact that the majority of prostitutes- particularly streetwalkers, who are considered the very lowest of a profession that's already stigmatized in general- seem to be either women or young gay men, two groups that are regarded as weak in general, and there's really a lot of intersectionality between the ways they're discriminated against. Is there a word for the principles of misogyny when it bleeds over to men who are automatically perceived as being womanly or effeminate, regardless of whether they are? Homophobia alone doesn't cover it, considering how many times I've read about "if I wanted a woman/femme/etc I wouldn't be gay" within the gay male community.

[synesis]

Yes, I agree. I've read arguments that homophobia is simply an extension of misogyny, and to me that seems overly reductive, but there's certainly a confluence of different prejudices rolled into one structure here. Gay male misogyny is appalling, but unfortunately prevalent even in ways that aren't immediately apparent -- e.g., the assumption that all gay sex workers will be 18-25, hairless, twinkish -- and even in contexts where people are trying to do good, it underlies assumptions about people's inability to make decisions for themselves or act as empowered beings.