"Go for it. Tell me. Tell me right here in this comment thread what you think about sex workers / prostitutes / hookers / whores / prozzies. Tell me about your ideology, let’s debate the theory. A free for all in my comment thread. Do it. Just please, when I’m writing on this blog and elsewhere, if I’m talking about the practicalities, let people comment on the practicalities. Talk to me about the practicalities. Stop letting your preconceptions and ideologies rule my threads, you’re in the way, people argue with you, you shout back some more, and lo - I’ve lost my thread and sex workers’ safety and rights are put on the backburner."

Yet another slam dunk by Caroline. I really need to blog about this. Perhaps I will get time tonight.

"I can't wait for the day when feminists, the Supreme Court, and everyone else figures out that the only reason we condemn prostitution is that it is condemned in the Holy Bible, a document that I personally do not subscribe to."

This is a very frustrating article. I'm tempted to pull out my Bingo card. :P As usual, no sex workers are asked about their thoughts on all of this.

Welcome to the Directory of Health and Social Support Services for Sex Workers in Europe

"There's no 'one answer' in sex industries, and I would hope that these stories serve as a testament to that and underscore that black and white debates over sex work serve no one and only perpetuate a fantasy that certain kinds of men pay for sex and certain kinds of women become sex workers. The guy you work with pays for sex, and the girl next door sells it. If you see yourself in these stories, the players gets humanized, rather than stigmatized."

"In the nearly ten years I've been working in the sex industry, everyone I've met has had an opinion about my work. When it comes to prostitution, everyone has an opinion. Moreover, everyone feels entitled to their opinion, and sure it's based on some sort of reality about the sex industry – even if the limit of their knowledge is seeing the hooker get shot in the first reel of the movie to get the plot going. Indeed, there seems to be some sort of inverse correlation between the ignorance of the speaker and the vehemence with which they hold their opinion. So it is with the laws being proposed by the Home Office today. Well-intentioned they may be, but they are entirely out of touch with the reality of working in the sex industry, and they would know this if they had chosen to listen to sex workers themselves."

"So what do we do with this? The danger that prostitution may be pushed underground is real and it’s effects are seen in Scotland. The advantages of decriminalisation are shown in New Zealand (h/t to HangBitch). It would seem logical to talk about what is most adventageous to sex workers. All barring one of these examples above are sex workers working on the street. These examples of what’s been happening in the UK this year is on the tip of the iceberg. God only knows how many sex workers have been sexually assaulted these past few years in England and Wales. So do we, British society, talk about decriminalisation? No. We talk about definitions, semantics. 'Sex worker' or 'prostitute'. Is it work? We talk about the ickiness of prostitution as though that justifies all these crimes against women. We debate the morality of it, is it right to sell sex? We place ideology above the safety of these women."

"However, to be perfectly frank - my opinion on sex work is, essentially, inconsequential. One may think sex work is immoral, anti-feminist, 'icky', whatever. The simple fact is there are women out there who are vulnerable and made more vulnerable by bullshit laws. Let’s say we do nothing, keep the laws as they are now. What next? To quote the indomitable Renegade Evolution (a sex worker, sex workers rights activist and blogger), what’s the plan? Harm reduction (discussed here by Ren for Feministe) is the priority here, religion, morality, feminism, that’s not the major concern right now. The need to protect vulnerable women, respect women’s right to choose to sell sex and ensure a safe working environment for women are the priorities. There are times I’m at a complete loss as to why feminists cannot agree to this." Caroline wrote a great post; but the "discussion" (I use the term loosely, bc basically it's one jackass derailing) in the comments is SO frustratingly typical.

This is a blog about prostitution and the law, especially in the UK,

Instead, having sent a 12-year-old girl to the hospital after a severe beating by grown men, police apparently stewed for three weeks, and then compounded their error by arresting the victim at school for putting up whatever meager resistance such a girl is capable of under attack from three adults. So the Galveston Police Department's position is that it's a criminal act for a little girl to resist being dragged into a van by strange men? If that's the lesson the police want to send to the community, then it's nothing more than an association of thugs intolerant of the slightest challenge to its authority. It's certainly not an agency for preserving the peace and defending the rights of local residents.

*sigh* indeed. Via Caroline.