“save us from our saviors: sex work, human trafficking and rape culture.”
TRANSCRIPT
SAVE US FROM OUR SAVIORS
SEX WORKHUMAN TRAFFICKING
AND RAPE CULTURE
Agenda• Intro Culture of Commercial Exploitation• Intro Sex Workers Rights Movement • “Rape Culture” v. Sex Workers• Meet the Rescue Industry• Considering paths to resistance – How to be an ally to people who trade sex– Creating inclusive language – Resisting carceral feminism
Human Trafficking…it’s sexy!
• Rape Culture: cultural practices that excuse or tolerate rape
• Culture of Commercial (Sexual) Exploitation– Sees women, children, GNC, POC as commodities– Focus on sexual violence to the exclusion of other
experiences– Normalizes institutional violence and exploitation– Sex work is trivialized, normalized, parodied,
commodified– (white) male is always the savior!– Consent is not regarded re: sex, labor or identity (eg
the fantasy of “outing.”)• Rape culture is built on a culture of
commercial exploitation
Who We Are, What We Do
All volunteer, grassroots direct-service and advocacy organization for and by women in Philadelphia’s sex trade, with a focus on women surviving in the street economy in Kensington.
Barriers to care are material, social, and structural. Services include:
•late night street outreach •bad date sheet •home deliveries •case management •health & safety
tips •overdose response training •rape and assault referrals
•ladies night drop-in
What is Harm Reduction?
A public health theory addressing behaviors that carry risk.
We all do things we know are bad for us, and only the individual can decide what measures to take to mitigate harm
Those who engage in these behaviors should have a leading voice in any organization or program they utilize
Moving beyond “Rape Culture”
“Affrimative consent” falls short.
The criminal justice system does not work for
us.
Meet the Rescue Industry!• The feminists, social
workers, academics, campaigning journalists who create the industrial complex of “rescuing” people
• ...actors, professional Christians, cops
Young Women’s Empowerment Project (2011). Girls Do What They Have To Do To Survive: Illuminating Methods used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal.
What about thePimps?
Dank, M. et al. (2015). Surviving the Streets of New York: Experiences of LGBTQ Youth, YMSM, and YWSW Engaged in Survival Sex.
Reports of “Bad Encounters” from YWEP (2012)
“we know what you need…”
Guilty Until Proven Innocent • Project Rose
– A project of ASU + Phoenix Police Department
– jail or “treatment”• New York Human
Trafficking Intervention Courts– Zero cases of human
trafficking found– Racial
Disproportionality– Jail or “treatment”
The Reality • A contiuum of explotation and violence• Multiple, intersecting forms of oppresion• Institutional violence• Lack of viable work, especially for single
mothers, transgender or gender nonconformign people, undocumented immigrants, people with criminal records
• We are not advocating for sex work, saying it is safe, fun, cool – but we are saying: how can you criminalize our survival
