This is nothing short of shameful
Apr 18th, 2008 by Rebecca
So, we have another developing shambles of a situation - and once again, the self-described defenders of the wimmins aren’t coming up smelling of roses.
Earlier in the week, the brilliant Renegade Evolution was invited to speak at a forum at William and Mary College on sex work, pornography and such. It was supposed to see Ren and the also-excellent sex workers’ rights advocate Jill Brenneman debate male “feminist” John Foubert and anti-sex work crusader Sam Berg. I’d have loved to have seen it. However, it seems that the organisers are under pressure to uninvite Ren because Berg feels uncomfortable with her presence.
The likes of Berg frustrate me to no end. I may be roughly the most unlikely “sex-pozzie”, considering that I’m about the biggest prude around, and I’ve been putting off doing a full post on sex work for a while, now not being the time seeing as I’m a bit drunk and tired. But ultimately, it seems to me that the likes of Berg love to spruik how they’re saving the wimmins while doing absolutely fuck all to actually help anyone who doesn’t want to be doing sex work out of doing sex work. Ren is a vital voice in that discussion, seeing as, y’know, she’s an actual sex worker and all (Brenneman also being a former sex worker), and a damned intelligent one at that. I’m very uncomfortable with the fact that Berg, coming from a far greater position of privilege, could threaten Ren’s very right to speak on her own fucking experience because it clashes with Berg’s theory.
I urge those organising the sex work debate at William and Mary College to stand behind their original invitations and let both Ren and Jill Brenneman speak for the sex workers’ rights side of the discussion. If Sam Berg is too afraid to debate an actual sex worker in the flesh, then let her relent and not show up, and find someone who can. For all that Berg and their cohorts would love to make sex work/pornography a moral discussion, this will always be, first and foremost, about people’s lives - and I will always listen to those who are directly affected, first and foremost, before those who are distant and choose to run with theory. The prospect of silencing those who most need to be heard is nothing short of disgraceful.
Between X appropriating WoC’s writing and then shitting all over threads, and Seal Press shitting all over BlackAmazon’s blog and shitting on WoC in general, and a certain white, straight, cis, ablebodied, neurotypical middle-class blogger letting everybody who doesn’t fit that demographic that she’s doing us a favor and trying to universalize women’s experience, and the cultfems shitting on trans* folk, and Sam Berg and the rest of anti-sex-work crowd shitting on sex workers, and, and…I wonder, is there really such a thing as feminism? Or does it apply only to that white, straight, cis, ablebodied, neurotypical middle-to-upper-class demographic? (I’ll note that I’m part in and part out of that demographic: I’m white and middle-class. And being Jewish adds a kind of weirdness to being white, given our history, especially before WWII).
Kind of makes it tough to identify as a feminist.
[…] Rebecca at Burning Words is as disturbed by these developments as I am. Belledame is pointing out that this scenario is all too familiar. […]
GG: You noticed that too? As I just posted:
“I mean, how often have we seen this lately? Sex workers who aren’t “anti” are scary? WoC are “Scary”? Transwomen are “scary”? Lesbians into BDSM are “Scary”, and it is used to push them out, silence them, and keep them out of “Feminist” spaces and debates?
Enough is enough.”
Thanks for your support all, it means a lot.
***and, and…I wonder, is there really such a thing as feminism?***
I’ve been asking myself the same fuckin’ question as of late.
Great post, Rebecca.
Natalia, Ren, GG: Yes, me also.
I find myself believing more and more in a feminism of the “scary”; WoC, transfolk, the disabled, the queer. These people, I will happily stand with. Marcotte, Berg, these people? We’re not even on the same ideological planet.
[…] as it may be. Other people have written also, and they have good things to say: Natalia Antonova, Burning Words, Astarte’s […]