The backlash has started

[whiteman 14028]

Seems like most of the SPs and agencies on this board are pretty pleased with the recent court ruling in Ontario. Well, here's the other side, former sex workers against the ruling:

 

Indoors isn't safer: Former prostitutes

http://www.torontosun.com/news/torontoandgta/2010/10/05/15593446.html

[fortunateone 156618]

Many of the Falle comments just made no sense. Other comments were simply insulting from the assumption that the majority of sex workers are pretty much too stupid to do anything else. You know, the comments I have seen from the worst of the online client/review board member, is pretty much exactly the same kind of contempt as these socalled former sex workers who are supposedly trying to "help" sps.

[Andee 220524]

I suppose if I worked under the thumb of pimp for years, I might feel the same way as them. But that is just one aspect of this business. There is a myth that women cannot be empowered and be sex workers.

 

I chose to be a sex worker and no one tells me how to work, when to work or who to see or how much to charge and I don't have to give my money to a pimp.

 

Forced labour is not limited to the sex trade. There are other industries where people who have ended up in lower power positions are forced to work long hours for low pay and little appreciation and even abuse. Some of them are trafficked, some are not.

 

So it's a problem that does not begin and end with the sex trade. But it is a real problem that still needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of others who are doing this type of work by choice and are comfortable with doing so.

[whiteman 14028]

Many of the Falle comments just made no sense. Other comments were simply insulting from the assumption that the majority of sex workers are pretty much too stupid to do anything else. You know, the comments I have seen from the worst of the online client/review board member, is pretty much exactly the same kind of contempt as these socalled former sex workers who are supposedly trying to "help" sps.

It does seem like these particular women were the former streetworkers who were treated in the worst way. To them, working indoors simply meant they were working out of a shack their pimps set up, no difference from the street for them.

[Guest s******ecan****]

Forced labour is not limited to the sex trade. There are other industries where people who have ended up in lower power positions are forced to work long hours for low pay and little appreciation and even abuse. Some of them are trafficked, some are not.

 

 

Yes and the solution in those industries was not prohibition or abolition but child labour laws, workplace safety laws, laws governing workday standards etc.

[Megan'sTouch 23875]

All these women show is that working indoors isn't perfect. It's not. There is still the risk of violence. That being said, no one can reasonably argue that working out of a bawdy house is safer than the streets or going to clients' houses, speaking generally of course.

 

Just one quote from the article: "MacLeod said she worked with girls as young as 12-years-old."

 

It's obvious these are not your typical escorts. There are already laws against child exploitation, we don't need bawdy house laws too.

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

On CBC TV's "The National" News, 6 Oct 2010:

 

First, Wendy Mesley reports: "Is Canada becoming a Haven for Sex Traffickers?" She starts things off with the outageously false claim that the Ontario court ruling "makes pimping legal", and asserts that therefore the ruling increases the dangers faced by sex workers. She interviews Natashia Falle, exec.dir. of sextrade101, who characterizes prostitution as organized crime, plain and simple, with emphasis on guns, drugs, stolen goods, and pimping of children.

 

Secondly, Paul Hunter presents a short piece on Antonio, a male escort, who is allowed to very briefly present the counterpoint that "escorting is just another job". His message to government: "It's a living ... let me live it!"

 

From CBC's promo:

When the Ontario Superior Court struck down some of the prostitution laws in September, many cheered the decision as a win for the personal safety and rights of sex workers.

 

But police and some women say that striking down parts of the laws against living off the avails of prostitution and running a common bawdy house is a boon to sex traffickers with ties to organized crime, many of whom virtually enslave vulnerable women, coercing them into a life of prostitution from which it is nearly impossible to escape.

 

Meanwhile, there's a crackdown in the U.S. on escort ads on [CL].org, the local community classified ad website. [CL] has taken the ads down in the U.S., but not here in Canada. And police say some of those ads are helping pimps sell young girls for sex.

http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/wendymesley/2010/10/is_canada_becoming_a_haven_for_sex_trafficking.html

[SteMarie 165]

Whilst this is a different side to the issue of totally legalizing the sex trade, one must remember it is possible for lawmakers to specifically tailor laws to protect women, of all ages, from the abuse that pimps and clients heap upon these women.

 

Himmel's ruling is a step in the right direction, it just needs to be expounded.

 

Ciao

D