International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

i received an email from a friend who is a sex worker. She is rife with frustration and anomie. She is alone and angry about all the violence she experiences.  she asks with despair “why do we celebrate this day?”

No one told the pimps, the booking agents, the drivers and most certainly the CLIENTS that could make this holiday significant for sex workers. The vast majority of women working today won’t know or experience this day for what it is. They will get forced to work, ripped off, manipulated, coerced as they would any other day. In extreme cases they will be raped, abused and murdered.

The red umbrella is a symbol of sex worker solidarity. It is also a sentinel of violence. This violence is common place and it takes diverse and insidious forms.

The sex worker identity is so powerfully subversive that even to write about it constitutes grounds to ostracize.  At the same time, appropriation of whoredom is rampant, especially today. It’s a day to atone through social networking sites for all the stigmatization you’ve meted out on sex workers personally, organizationally or politically.

The day does nothing to address the socio-economic nature of sex worker violence. Red umbrella works as a symbol because it’s universal, it doesn’t exclude or differentiate the experience of white, middle and upper class hoes. Violence amongst sex workers is ubiquitous, however, the willful ignorance of the particular experience of poor, racialized and dis/abled workers who live with a slew of overlapping oppressions, is reflective of a broader omission amongst the mainstream feminist movement that is well documented by women of color media-makers. This isn’t about oppression olympics ,it’s about real life. The more poor you are the more likely you experience violence because of the proportionate limitations on options and resources.

If you really need the money you increase your likelihood of forgoing thorough client screening, for instance. You have to live with the fact that any client could be the next craigslist killer no matter what. However if you are able to get a solid reference from another provider, screen his phone number or call his work phone to confirm his identity, then you’re breathing a lot easier for your next appointment.

Your personal finances as a sex worker also dictate the safety of your work environment. A high-end worker will stay at the luxurious and secure Westin while a newbie ho will post up at the Red Roof Inn swarming with cops, creeps, pimps and other such predators. Women with little or no internet access, skills training and funds most often end up working the street.

This is not to say that the day does nothing to promote a unified stance against sex worker violence. The dedication of day to commemorate violence against sex workers is a clever media move. It is both sensationalistic, sexy and important, even if the latter point is often relegated to a side-note. Every city and town boasts a long list of sex workers who are missing, mostly indigenous and Black, women of color, poor… Red Umbrella Day creates a media window and policy opportunities to bring attention to these atrocities.

For most working women it’s another day to make a living. Sex workers aren’t completely unlike secretary’s, after all, they clock into work on the daily. The rule is to plan for the worst but don’t get too stressed about it. Try to have a good day on the grind, try not to go missing, try not to get arrested. Try to stay well enough to do it again tomorrow or whatever the next day is, that you need to hustle.

Phyrecracker

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