– “Playing The Whore” Melissa Gira Grant, p. 5-6

Dear Radical Feminists and Other Anti-Sex Work Advocates, 

  When sex workers in the US tell you that the policies you support hurt us and do not reflect the best paths for our well-being, you often point out that we are not representative, and that therefore, our assessment of our lives in invalid and unworthy of a public platform. Ironically, you never seem to have stats that haven’t been debunked from here to the moon and back on your side, but, for the moment, that’s irrelevant. 

 But this is what I want to ask you about: Durbar, as a peer-led health and advocacy group, is over twenty years old, and has over 65,000 sex working members. This study survey more than twenty one thousand sex workers. Even if I were to concede that your picture of tumblr-using sex workers as “unrepresentative” privileged happy hookers were accurate (and I don’t, it’s trash and you don’t fucking listen), Durbar generally and this study specifically is pretty much a perfect fit for your definition of representative. Right? Right.

And let’s look at what they found: More than twice the number of incidents of police violence than there are actual workers. Police are one dozen times more likely to abuse or be violent towards a sex worker than a client is. Twelve fucking times more likely. 

And yet, somehow, “male demand” for sex work is the problem? It appears to be something less than eight per cent of the problem.

Please, radical feminists, who care so very much about protecting me and my colleagues from violence, explain to me how can you look at this situation, and think that the solution is any legal model that increasespolice presence, that ensures  that law enforcement feel they have a right to interfere in our lives and our work, that demandsthat we remain isolated from any sort of non-police support (by making it illegal to rent to us, or be supported by us, or provide services to us)?  How can you, with even an ounce critical thinking skills, and even a shred of decency and compassion, look at those numbers and think that more policing is what keeps the most vulnerable of us safe? 

When you advocate for End Demand policies, you focus on eradicating a tiny portion of what makes sex work dangerous, unpleasant and stigmatized, without actually providing alternatives for the people you claim to care most about (those among us who don’t have other options). And as you do that – as you rail on our behalf against an enemy that isn’t actually our enemy, you deliver us right into the hands of the people who are the most dangerous to us. 

Please explain to me why that’s what you want. 

Love, 

Leigh Alanna

PS: Here is the link to Durbar’s donation page. If you really want to show how much you care about representative sex workers and their well-being, go put your money where your mouth is. 

(via leighalanna)