Hooked on a feeling

Regular readers know I fully support the rights of sex workers to conduct their business safely and  without harassment. As one sexpert put it, ''Nobody screws more prostitutes than the government.''

This is also why I believe in the decriminalization of the vagina-for-rent trade.

Note that I said decriminalization and not legalization. There's a fine distinction, which you can read about here.

Which brings me to Victor Malarek's latest book on the sex trade. It was the topic of today's treeware column, posted here in its entirety, with some annotations and links.

Victor Malarek is practically shouting over the phone.

Maybe it's because he's talking on his mobile, on his way to satisfy a craving for strawberries and ice cream.

More likely because the investigative reporter, formerly with CBC's the fifth estate and now with CTV's W-FIVE, is frustrated with my objections to his new book, The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It.

It's a follow-up to his The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade.

It's not that we disagree on many points. Human trafficking is, indeed, very wrong. Child prostitution is horrifying. Sex tourism is disgusting. What happens to women who hit the streets, where they fall prey to drugs, violent clients, brutal pimps, corrupt cops and even serial killers, is unspeakable.

As for the misogyny online, where Malarek found 16 "johns" he interviewed and "five thousand posts" he analyzed, well, tell me something I don't know. Cyberspace is one-handed nirvana for misogynists who cruise degrading porn and talk trash about women.

And many of them try to post their trash in this blog's comments section.

What I object to is Malarek's contention that all sex work is wrong; that there is, for all intents and purposes, no such thing as, to use his words, a "happy hooker.''

Which infuriates "Ginger,'' one of several women I know, maybe even the mom next door to you, who love their escort jobs.

A fortysomething divorcée with two teens, she stumbled into the trade through a friend 10 years ago. When she discovered that she could support her family working only a few days a week – with NHL players, touring rock stars and even (former) provincial premiers – she quit her social services job and never looked back.

"(Malarek) just cannot see anyone choosing to do this," Ginger tells me, echoing other professional escorts. "It's a very paternalistic, patronizing attitude he has and he chooses to ignore all the women – I know women are talking to him. I know women are saying, `Listen to me' – and he brushes them off as the happy hooker contingency."

To Malarek, those who lobby for the decriminalization of prostitution are "bozos'' who are "unrelenting and vociferous shills for the sex industry" and "staunchly defend women's rights to sell their bodies and men's rights to buy them.''

Now, before you jump all over me and attack me for being a feminist who supports the ''sexual exploitation/objectification'' of women, I have to say that I am not alone in this seemingly paradoxical camp.

Far from it -- although there are rifts.

But, the point is, it's a woman's body and she's free to do what she wants to do with it. Choice is choice.

So ...

Well, as a supporter of this "happy hooker lobby," I must say that most of the groups he lists do not represent men at all, except for those men who work in the sex trade.

Instead, what the groups, such as SPOC (Sex Professionals of Canada), do is fight for the rights and safety of adults – mostly women – who choose to work as "call girls.''

After all, sex is not illegal here. Neither is buying a woman a drink and/or dinner and getting consensual sex in return. And neither, for that matter, is prostitution.

What is illegal are the means that protect sex workers from harm.

Canada's Criminal Code, for example, prevents the keeping of a "bawdy house." That means women can't set up shop together. Isn't there safety in numbers?

It also prevents people from "living on the avails'' of prostitution. That means, if you're working to put your live-in teenage son through college, he could be construed as a "pimp.''

(Note that, in Ontario, SPOC is fighting a legal challenge against these laws.)

Malarek's book really doesn't get into the legal details, except to rant against how legalization – which he conflates with the very different decriminalization – has been a failure in other countries.

But where is his research? His footnotes? His citations?

Instead, he relies heavily on American clinical psychologist Melissa Farley, whose work is subsidized by a group that equates sex work with human trafficking.

But, if there's so much human trafficking in North America, how come there haven't been mass arrests? Why do abolitionists such as Malarek (and Farley) focus only on street workers and sex slaves?

As Ginger points out: "There aren't data on average mainstream sex workers because they don't get arrested, don't have drug problems and don't fall within statistics. The only thing I do that's illegal is that I work for an agency."

An agency that supplies drivers to keep an eye on things, maintains "bad client lists'' and takes about $45 from every $200 one-hour "call." All sex is "covered'' – i.e., safe – and, according to Ginger, who has never had a bad experience, makes up only a few moments of the typical hour.

But Malarek ignores such escort services – which are legion – to complain that "in the world of prostitution, there is no such thing as safe sex. It is a world prone to violence, drug addiction, degradation, disease, depression, vulnerability.''

No argument there, with one caveat: That usually happens only when sex workers are treated like criminals, pushed to the margins and have no rights.

In fairness, Malarek reserves his harshest judgment for men who, in his opinion, should never have a reason to buy sex, no matter what. Even if they're infirm, socially awkward or butt-ugly.

"They can get a relationship!'' he shouts into the phone.

To him, it's simple. Go after the "male urges.'' Punish the johns.

But to Ginger, that's simplistic.

"I think the abolitionist theory is dangerous," she insists. "You're not going to abolish it, first of all. So that makes the book profoundly unrealistic.

"The problem is, if you punish the johns, if you go by the Swedish example, the only customers you lose are the good ones, the ones with good jobs and lives who are afraid of infringing on that with criminal charges. The ones who stay are the bad guys who don't care.''

And, as Malarek insists, there are enough bad guys buying sex as it is.

One more thing: As I suggest, you'd be surprised who is in the escort biz. Professionals and professors, police officers and students. As one friend in the game joked,''It's just like going back to the 60s. Only now there's condoms and money.''

More myths about sex work shattered via here.

And this video came to me via My Sex Professor.

Comments

[Frank]

Excellent column! to be honest i haven't been following you since you stopped your media blog which I loved! But in stumbling on this, I am overwhelmed with how well written and researched it is. very intelligent and insightful. Also it is so "new media" with the links and the video at the end. Sorry to be so gushy but after a long day at work, the quality of this article kind of cheered me up! Thanks.

[Antonia]

Hey Frank. Take off your coat. Stay a while.

[Chrystal Ocean]

Great post Antonia, as always. I too support decriminalization of the sex trade.

[Danielle Best]

I really appreciated your column today. I go to YorkU and i just got back to residense from a call. I'm an escort. This job is a godsend and lifesaver for me. My parents both died 2 years ago. I have no family support and I am debt-phobic.

My job is not hard for me. Men adore me. They have boosted my confidence. These are nice guys and I haven't met one (yet) who was anything but charming. I thank God for every call I get. And my hooker sisters @ school feel the same.

I feel about this like I do about abortion. I am prochoice. I -alone control my body. Autonomy is my right. That being said, hooking is my right autonomous right too. Don't try Malarek and other prohibitionists to stop me. I will kick your ass! This is my right!

On March 10th we attended an on-campus meeting about decriminalization and we have at least 50 hookers at this school. I even met streetworkers who weren't on drugs & were highly intelligent students. See even I have to stuff to learn about other types of workers.

I feel that we will prevail. If we all stick together and work with the feminists (i'm a feminist) who are finally getting on board with us. Go Ho's!!!!!

[Paul]

Thanks for this article. It is indeed well-researched, contrarian, and gosh darn it, I agree with you.

[Antonia]

What????????????

No lectures on schisms within the feminist movement on prostitution and porn? No Andrea Dworkin citations? No accusations of hypocrisy regarding the exploitation of men's sexual needs? No nothing about pay equity?

Jeez. I am slipping.

[Natasia]

Fantastic. Articulate, impassioned, informed. Thank you!

[Keith]

What most of the media ignore is that there is a large indoor sex business that has been tacitly, but increasingly, tolerated for about 30 years or more. It may involve hundreds or even thousands in the Toronto area. Is it really all that surprising that many have started to speak up, wanting the same rights as any other profession?

If Malarek wants people to believe his stories that they're all slaves, well, hmmm, why have the police been so incredibly lazy or incompetent in finding these thousands of slaves, when most of the sex business advertises quite openly so that customers can find them? It doesn't add up. It's like the fiction-inspired "white slave" panic of 100 years ago. How stupid does he think people are?

It's really quite embarrassing that he would insult the sex workers who speak up, and urge people to ignore them just because they point out he is incorrect and disagree with him. He and the whackos like Farley and her "self-published" book (because no reputable publisher would touch it) are the ones who should be ignored, not the sex workers.

[Antonia]

OMG. Is there a full moon or something?

First Paul, now Keith, agrees.

[Paul]

Indeed, I was as surprised as I was delighted that you landed on the same side as me on this one, but there it is - neither of us can take it back now.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

"OMG. Is there a full moon or something?

First Paul, now Keith, agrees."

Hallo ... Esteemed and Beautiful Moderator,

Me too.

"Human trafficking is, indeed, very wrong. Child prostitution is horrifying. ..... What happens to women who hit the streets, where they fall prey to drugs, violent clients, brutal pimps, corrupt cops and even serial killers, is unspeakable."

Couldn't have put it better myself. You draw pretty much the same distinction as I do. Now I don't have to read Malarek or Farley's books.

And I absolutely agree with Danielle Best as well. One of the posts which helps me form my own view.

Except ... in the light of "schisms within the feminist movement on prostitution and porn ..... Andrea Dworkin .... hypocrisy regarding the exploitation of men's sexual needs .... etc."

You're both on the right side regarding these issues. We'll talk you round.

[Keith]

Sorry Antonia, that wasn't me. It's a non-issue for me. I think there is a need to keep it out of family oriented settings and only laws can do that, but the oldest profession will always be no matter what laws there are.

[Paul]

"No lectures on schisms within the feminist movement"----
--------
Depending on how far or how often you you shop this argument, I'd warrant that you will get far worse than any lecture I've served you, and you'll get it from your feministahs. I see from the followup thread that the polite opening salvos have arrived on cue. It gets much worse from there.

[Molly]

Here is a rant I did about the sex industry...inspired by a favorite commercial titled "I am Canadian"

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090515011146932