ok, now that we are clear on your experience in the industry.
i have worked for years collecting data about violence in the industry not just from consumers but police, other workers and the greater system at large. i never try to "push an agenda" except that we are fighting for decriminalization of people working, owning businesses or purchasing services in, the sex industry.
promoting the idea that violence is wide spread and trafficking rampant does nothing to help anyone and it is not the truth of the way things are.
yes, violence and pimping happen, they happened to me. read my testimony to the missing women's commission and its clear i am not sugar coating anything.
males work in this industry as do female and trans persons. women also purchase sex and quite often. for real change to happen, we need to stop focusing on one aspect, the violence that happens, and work towards safety for everyone engaging in the sex industry.
your origional post regarding a female sex worker who was killed is about a woman killed by her partner, not violence in the sex industry. domestic violence is a different issue than violence in the sex industry.
the fact that she was a sex worker should have had no bearing on the story but as always, the media love to bring in the sensational aspects of anything involving our industry.
here's a link to the website highlighting all of the work we have done;
www.bccec.wordpress.com
and if you read the occupational health and safety training we developed here;
www.tradesecretsguide.blogspot.com
you will see clearly that we are not trying to sugar coat or promote some kind of idealism and if your experiences in the industry were negative, i am sorry. some workers however never experience violence in this industry and that should also be known.
i don't base my comment on my own personal experiences, i base them on our collective experiences as expressed the hundreds of pages we wrote and the projects which engaged hundreds of sex workers across the lower mainland and bc. i have been up to the north numerous times, i have worked with workers in all areas of the industry.
i am an acknowledged researcher and was deemed an expert by the missing women's commission specifically for all the work i have done unraveling the causes of violence in our industry. i provided evidence in both charter challenges, have trained over 200 new recruits for the vpd, members of the RCMP, border services and even revenue canada.i am a member of the city of vancouver task force adressing safety for sex workers along with police, city staff, coastal health, the attorney general's office, sex workers support services and MCFD.
i have worked on street, indoors in parlours and agencies and for myself independently. i have survived 4 attempts on my life and served time in prison. i have seen my fair share of the shit in my 26 years working in this industry.
focusing on negative aspects will get us nowhere in terms of change. if we focus instead on the positive things, we can learn from them and help to keep more people safe.
maybe you should read bit of the work we have done and hear from your fellow sp's how best things could move forward especially since as a former worker, you will not be directly affected by any changes that do happen..
so, as much as you would strip me of my voice as representing my "agenda", sorry you are wrong. i fight to combat the "victim" ideology promoted by unethical researchers like meillsa farely as it justifies anything they want to do to us. we are so victimized that we couldn't possibly know what we need and the wealthy educated women who promote abolition know whats best.
working in the sex industry was not why the woman was killed. it was domestic violence. i refuse to bow to the victim label. many workers share my feelings in this regard. i know this because i engage workers.
i respect that you feel strongly about this, but hope you will step back and treuly look at the bigger picture. promoting the negative aspects of the industry to "men" as you say, will not help. how about promoting equally as much positive things that happen. like when a client pays a workers rent for them or when men intervene in a rape in an alley off granville street? or when men on this board defend workers from mailicious reviews?
if you promoted both aspects equally, the positive and the negative, i wouldn't feel like you are here simply to make people feel bad about working. talking about murder doesn't really take into account the feelings of workers still working ...now we all have to think about being murdered today or about violence we have experienced. you may have triggered someone with your story and now they are at risk. did you consider the emotional impact your story would have on the people who are workers here?
perhaps you should think a little more about the things you post especially the impact they may have on the people you claim to want to help.
again, the work i have done is not me making wild claims or having an agenda or me thinking i know it all because i haqve been working in this industry for 26 years. it is me conveying the feelings of the hundreds of workers we have engaged and describing the results of the research we have done.
where is your research? what work have you done engaging with other workers? what research do you use to support your claims? or should we just take it on "faith" that you know what you are talking about becuase you were a worker?
susie