[LAF] Disgusted by the misogyny on this list

Wed Jul 29 18:59:39 UTC 2009

Volodya

It is not correct to say that those opposed to prostitution are anti-sex, as if "sex" is the difference between prostitution and other exploitative occupations.  The difference is not "sex" but 'sexual abuse,' 'sexual exploitation'.  To say prostitution is sex, is to start with a meaning of sex as being the joyful expression of your sexuality (which is of course a good thing as Steve rightly pointed out that Wilhelm Reich promoted) but then to wrongly apply that meaning of sex to both the people who pay for sex and those who are paid.  Clearly the experience of people who pay (to dictate what they want, when they want it and with whom), and those who are paid to supply what the payers want, are not the same.  If we say prostitution is sex, we are giving a higher status to the sexual satisfaction of those with money and making invisible or of no importance the sexual desires and satisfaction of those who are paid to supply what the first group wants.  The sex in prostitution is the sex that the payer wants.  It is not designed to be the sex both of them want.  Prostitution therefore consists to some extent of:

1.  inequality.  Steve flagged up three types of exploitation - criminal, workplace, commercial but those three types of exploitation appear in other occupations as well.  The thing which distinguishes prostitution is sexual exploitation.  Nowhere else but in prostitution is sexual exploitation not only acceptable but mistakenly promoted as "sex".  In an office, for example, if the boss tries to extract sexual services from his/her employee it is illegal because it is recognised that the boss is trying to abuse his/her power over the employee (with the threat of the sack etc).  Perhaps the people who set up the laws against sexual harassment *were* anti-sex in that they were disapproving of people who have sex outside marriage.  We have no way of knowing but in any event their motives are beside the point.  That doesn't change the abuse of power (monetary lever if nothing else) and make it into just sex.  The "sex" in prostitution is not designed to give sexual satisfaction to the prostitutes.  When Masters and Johnson were researching sexual response in humans their subjects were initially taken from those who worked in prostitution because it was thought they would be good subjects.  They were found unsuitable because of problems such as pelvic congestion and other conditions which meant their responses were deadened and members of the general public were needed instead.

2.  violence, ie abuse of power by misusing the higher status which comes from having money (this ranges from overt to covert abuse of all types - physical, emotional, mental, sexual).

3.  misogyny (because it is mostly women and girls and men-who-have-the-status-of-women-in-this-society who 'work' in prostitution).

Prostitution is abuse.  I want it to end.  What I want is genuine sexual freedom - for all, not just for those who can pay for it or extort it, and certainly not for some people at the expense of others.  Anarchists say they want a society where people do not exploit or dominate others.  It will not come out of invisiblising the sexual needs of half the population, who are treated as though they exist just to service the other half.

To use the word sex together with prostitution is a contradiction in terms, unless you go by the definition of mainstream society - that sex is something a man does to a woman, or something a woman 'gives' to a man - rather than something people share together for mutual sexual satisfaction.

Joy

> Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:52:19 +0100
> From: Volodya at WhenGendarmeSleeps.org
> To: laf at lists.aktivix.org
> Subject: Re: [LAF] Disgusted by the misogyny on this list
> 
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> Joy Wood wrote:
> > Volodya
> > 
> > Your dismissal (using the words, "There's nothing in what is
> > written above that is even worth disputing, as it is simply made up") of
> > the email you quote below is invalid. On the contrary, I think the
> > phrase "if any one disagrees with you, that means they hate sex, so you
> > don’t have to listen to them either!" is clearly accurate and can be
> > backed up by reading many of your emails where you repeatedly ignore
> > anti-prostitution arguments by instead making personal attacks on the
> > people who speak, to avoid discussing their valid criticisms. To give
> > one example from the top of my head, you erroneously attempt to dismiss
> > valid analysis by referring to pro-women feminists as "anti-sex" in an
> > obvious attempt to discredit them and by implication their views.
> 
> No! I call anti-sex people 'anti-sex' that is what they are. People who oppose
> to prostitution on the grounds of capitalism (not sex) i call 'anti-capitalists'
> that is not wrong.
> 
> Discreditation of those views are is not done by me but by those views themselves.
> 
> > Nobody should put up with harassment of this kind and it is quite right
> > to speak out about it. All such harassment of speakers should cease,
> > and discussion should stay focussed on the facts, realities, experience
> > and ideas without personal attacks on any contributors. Personal
> > attacks are not amusing, and are not meant to be amusing to the person
> > or people attacked, they are just abuses of power and are used as a
> > tactic for several reasons, none of them valid in genuine debate and
> > none of them valid in promoting congeniality except amongst the
> > 'in-group'. No one should have to put up with such behaviour.
> 
> I agree, that is why i am not going to even respond to the act of harassment
> when the person has clearly crossed the line and was not arguing against what i
> was saying, but rather accusing me of things that i have not done.
> 
> Harassment is not 'disagreeing with anti-sex feminists', but trolling the e-mail
> lists is an act of harassment.
> 
> > Joy
> 
> - Volodya
> 
> - --
> http://freedom.libsyn.com/ Echo of Freedom, Radical Podcast
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> 
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