Herstory

The loose morals and tight wit of history's whores.

For those of you who have not yet read the long account of the terrible situation Jill Brenneman & Amanda Brooks find themselves in, get a cup of coffee and go do so. Their several year long or...

Sociopath Houston attorney crashes plane with two escorts, hires goons to beat one to death, rapes the other, and gets away with it. Betrayal of trust, traumatic brain injuries, fraud, felonies, and violence against women.

The Feminist Times has an excellent series on sex work, covering a diverse range of issues. (Sadly, it is only found by searching for the hashtag #SexIndustryWeek, as if finding it on Twitter was more important than a person being able to find all the discussion on the site.) Because it is a diverse series, there are plenty of articles I do not agree with; but that’s what makes it a good discussion, so, please, do take the time to read them. However, there’s one article in particular that raised my hackles and prompts me to write today ~ primarily because it has gone without comment. Such absence of comment might make people think it is “right”. And it is not.

The article is #SexIndustryWeek: Dworkin Was Right About Porn, by VJD Smith of Glosswatch. In it, Smith uses the words of Andrea Dworkin to align all porn as patriarchal misogyny abusing and raping female victims:

I have a modest collection of vintage vanity items. (My collection and I have even been featured in Collectors News magazine.) And indeed, I’ve often wondered about the vast popularity of Rachel as a powder shade. I’d rather believed the hype that this particular shade was named after a popular actress at the time — but in Antique Personal Possessions, Silvia Druitt gives another possible reason...

The existence of courtesans is a glaring refutation of neofeminist dogma about objectification, the eternal victimhood of whores, etc; the fact that the most celebrated, successful and highly-paid harlots of all time were often those who were educated and could match or surpass men in intellectual pursuits throws a huge spanner into the catechism that prostitution is a manifestation of male dominance over women, that our clients hate us, and so on.  Whenever possible, neofeminist historians deny that courtesans were prostitutes, pretend that accomplished women were not really courtesans, or describe them with circumlocutions like, “she chose to cohabit with several men who supported her financially.”  And when all else fails, they simply ignore them.  Fortunately neither male historians nor female ones with less parochial views feel the need to dissemble about such women, and among them Tullia d’Aragona is rightfully viewed as worthy of respect and study.

Chuck Wendig asked women authors to tell the idiotic/sexist/misogynist/offensive questions they get asked. Read the whole comments thread.

I love Tina Fey, but apparently she’s anti-sex worker.
bawnjourno:
“ Tina Fey talking about her daughter Alice.
”

Our society turns a blind eye to the murder of sex workers, deeming them less than human. Why is that?

...Twenty years ago I first asked two questions that continue to unsettle me today. The first is answerable: What does a woman who sells sex accomplish that leads to her being treated as fallen, beyond the pale, incapable of speaking for herself, discountable if she does speak, invisible as a member of society? The answer is she carries a stigma. The second question is a corollary: Why do most public conversations focus on laws and regulations aimed at controlling these stigmatized women rather than recognizing their agency? To that the answer is not so straightforward.

I would be fine with politicians' redemption if sex workers were allowed the same dignity of returning to normalcy.

Female porn stars are healthier and happier than other women, according to a new study. The Journal of Sex Research discovered than women working in the adult entertainment field tend to have a better body image, increased self-esteem, and higher energy levels than their non-sex worker peers.

Researchers compared 177 porn stars with a similar sampling of women employed in less erotic careers, according to Now.MSN.com. If the Journal of Sex Research study is accurate, the findings shatter some commonly held stereotypes about adult film actresses.

The study reportedly discovered that female porn actresses were not more likely to have been sexually abused as children than the average American woman. Feminist commentator Dawn Foster warns that the Journal of Sex Research study should not be used as an excuse to “gloss over” the “exploitative aspects” of the porn industry.

An excerpt from the study reads:

“Stereotypes of those involved in adult entertainment have been used to support or condemn the industry and to justify political views on pornography, although the actual characteristics of actresses are unknown because no study on this group of women has been conducted. Some descriptions of actresses in pornography have included attributes such as drug addiction, homelessness, poverty, desperation, and being victims of sexual abuse.”

Merriam-Webster defines feminism as an organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests. Instead of porn stars being considered the objects of exploitation, perhaps they should be noted among the ultimate feminists. The adult women who work in the erotic entertainment industry willingly enter a career which pays them a lot of money for doing a task. Since female porn stars are often paid more than their male counterparts, an equal pay argument could be for men in the industry.

Who's The Boss is a short film by Maxine Doogan. It poses a rhetorical question in post Proposition K, San Francisco Ballot measure in 2008 to stop the enfor...

An estimated 100,000 sex workers currently earn a living working in the brothels of South Mumbai’s red-light districts. Most of them are not there voluntarily, but rather, have been sold into sex work, sometimes by a relative or trusted family friend. Some are born into it. Life within the red-light districts isn't easy. In fact, it's pretty much like living in a giant toilet bowl full of syringes and awful people. These women live on the fringes of a society defined by the unrelenting harshness of its edges. They are frowned upon and ignored.

I began my photo essay on a group of sex workers based in the red-light districts of Kamathipura, Falkland Road, and Worli. The prostitutes work with Social Activities Integration (SAI), a small NGO modeled on the Didi ("Sister") Project. These women take what they learn about HIV, STDs, and women's rights back to their communities and teach others about the importance of condoms and HIV testing, giving them a sense of purpose and self-respect—in addition to helping them reduce the risk of sexual disease.

After getting to know some of the women, I felt the need to make my project more personal, in order to tell their stories. Obviously, each of them was a sister, a mother, or a daughter, not just a sex worker. I looked to create images of intimacy, femininity, and tenderness that would contrast with the often brutal reality of their lives. I wanted the viewer to gain insight into the lives of these women. This set of photographs is a selection focusing on violence against these women, taken from my project ,The Sisters of Kamathipura.