Cybersolidaires

10 Reasons to Fight for the Decriminalizaton of Sex Work

This document by Maria Nengeh Mensah and Chris Bruckert is available on Slideshare or in PDF.

Last Rescue in Siam

This is the first film ever made by sex workers in Thailand. It is a short black and white movie inspired by the tradition of the old silent movies. The film accompanies the Empower research report Hit & Run. Sex Worker’s Research on Anti trafficking in Thailand exposing the impact of law and law enforcement, raids and rescues used against sex workers in Thailand and around the world. "We have now reached a point in history where there are more women in the Thai sex industry who are being abused by anti-trafficking practices than there are women being exploited by traffickers."

Sh*t They Say To Sexworkers

As part of the 'shit people say' meme, sex workers mock the most commonly-heard offensive remarks from everyday folk. And there's still so many more things to be said!

The Myths of “Ending Demand” for Prostitution

Conservative MP Joy Smith’s public campaign to criminalize the purchase of sexual services reflects a troubling global campaign to “end demand” for prostitution. “End demand” campaigns are premised on an absolutist view of prostitution as exploitation, wherein all sex workers are cast as victims, and all clients as perpetrators. This panel will address the harmful consequences of “end demand” strategies, with a view to advancing alternative social and legal policies that can make a difference for socially marginalized workers in and beyond the sex industry.

The Mythology of Prostitution: Advocacy Research and Public Policy

By Ronald Weitzer, Sexuality Research and Social Policy Journal. Published online on February 21st, 2010.

Over the past decade, public policies on prostitution and other types of sex work have been increasingly contested, both in academia and in popular debates. One perspective, the oppression paradigm, is increasingly reflected in media reporting on the sex industry and is steadily being articulated by government officials in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere. The proliferation of myths based on the oppression paradigm is responsible for the rise of a resurgent mythology of prostitution.

A Complaint against Melissa Farley

By Dr Callum Bennachie from the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, 09.19.2011

In my complaint to the American Psychology Association (APA) lodged against Melissa Farley, I highlight the problems with her methodology of diagnosing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in 15 minutes interviews, and not seeking ethics approval for some of her studies.

Impacts de la criminalisation suédoise de l’achat de services sexuels sur les travailleuses du sexe

Impacts de la criminalisation suédoise de l’achat de services sexuels sur les travailleuses du sexe (traduction de Impacts of the Swedish Criminalisation of the Purchase of Sex on Sex Workers), présenté le 4 juillet 2011 à la conférence annuelle de la Société britannique de criminologie, par Jay Levy, Cambridge University.

BACKGROUND ET MÉTHODOLOGIE
LES CONSTRUCTIONS SUÉDOISES DU TRAVAIL SEXUEL
LE MODÈLE SUÉDOIS DE PROVISION DE SERVICES
La réduction des risques
Usage de drogues
La police et les forces de sécurité & le système judiciaire
ENVOYER UN SIGNAL
CONCLUSIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHIE.

Pour en savoir plus, lire La loi suédoise contre l’achat d’actes sexuels : succès affirmé et effets documentés (une traduction de The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects) de Petra Östergren et Susanne Dodillet (2011), un rapport très documenté qui l'analyse sérieusement en la confrontant aux faits.

Feminism, Sex Work and Women's Worlds 2011 - Letter to the Conference

by Justine Little on behalf of FIRST

I attended the Women’s World conference as a representative of FIRST, the national coalition of feminists that works to support sex worker rights and the decriminalization of sex work.

I am writing to express my deep frustration and disappointment in Women’s Worlds approach to the issue of sex work and to the attacks on sex workers the Conference allowed and, in many ways, facilitated.

After reading the following statement on the official website, I feel it imperative that I write an official letter of complaint to add my voice, backed by the voice of all FIRST members, to support every sex worker who felt neither valued nor respected at the conference.

Dangerous and under the radar

Sex work is unprotected, increasingly dangerous and needs to be decriminalized, according to a new report published in the Canadian Review of Sociology. Co-authored by Concordia University and University of Windsor researchers, the study calls for sweeping changes to sex work performed on and off the streets.

“We must not only change our laws, we must also revamp our attitudes and implement policies that protect the social, physical and psychological rights of sex workers,” says first author Frances Shaver, chair and professor in Concordia’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. “Regardless of where and how they conduct their business, sex workers are left on their own to ensure their health and safety on the job.”

The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects

Published on March 2011, The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects is probably the most important English language source on the Swedish sex purchase law to date. Petra Östergren and Susanne Dodillet have systematically interrogated the official report on the effect of the law after ten years, and compared it to the actual evidence, and found nothing to support its claims, and often the direct evidence completely contradicts the official claims.

Safer sex work. The case for decriminalization

“In my view the law plays a sufficient contributory role in preventing a prostitute from taking steps that could reduce the risk of such violence.”

With these concluding remarks by Justice Susan Himel, the laws that kept sex work illegal in Ontario were struck down in the fall of 2010. The ruling, however, has been stayed, pending an appeal by the federal government that’s scheduled to begin in June, 2011.

If the appeal is unsuccessful and these laws do indeed fall in Ontario, it would likely set off a chain of challenges across the country, which would be a major victory for sex workers and those advocating for their rights.

An article by Robyn Maynard.

Satanic Sex: Gunilla Ekberg, Sex War and Extremist Feminism

"Feminist Satanism. No, that’s not right. Satanic Feminists. To be fair, no, it should be Feminists Who Believe Men are Pedophilic Satanists (or Satanist Pedophiles). No matter how you look at it, these words don’t immediately make sense together. This is the Rescue Industry with a vengeance – and Extremist Feminism indeed.

Gunilla Ekberg has not appeared in public in Sweden in quite a while, I believe, but she has been giving anti-prostitution talks in Canada in support of a campaign to defeat Judge Himel’s decision to decriminalise many aspects of sex work in Ontario (Ekberg is apparently a citizen of Canada). Her notoriety derives from her unyielding attitude as a campaigner, so authoritarian even some Swedes with similar ideas stopped wanting to be associated with her.