So Hexy, cross posting at Hoyden About Town, brought this to my attention yesterday.
June 2nd, 1975. Lyon, France. A bunch of sex workers occupied a church in an act of protest against discrimination and failure by police to investigate or prosecute crimes against them. The cops responded by threatening to take their children away if they did not vacate the church.
Once this threat was uttered, the situation changed dramatically. Non sex working women from the town were shocked from their complacency, and joined the sex workers in the church, rendering the police unable to tell who was and wasn’t a sex worker. Bit of an “I am Spartacus” moment, that.
International Whore’s Day is held every June 2nd, to commemorate this action. It is considered to be one of the formative moments of what we now know as the sex worker’s rights movement. This year, Scarlet Alliance is holding a Red Umbrella protest march.
So very many things I love about that story. I love the womens’ initial willingness to stand up to the police in defence of their own rights, which were clearly being completely disregarded for no better reason than that ‘who cares what happens to a whore’?. I admire the courage involved in that as they would have known in advance the power imbalance and that it could end badly for them.
I love the fact that the other women in the town were moved by empathy and came into the church to support other women against the police. I love the statement of solidarity that results. First that women who are not directly affected by the situation protested about are willing to intervene in that secondary injustice, (the threats of the police during the protest) and second that (and perhaps I’m reading too far into it) there seems to me to be a larger shift from a complacent acceptance of the misogyny behind the word whore – rather than engage in that day to day dodging of the consequences of misogyny, and a pushing away of its effects by disavowing the label whore, pretending it’s not there, or doesn’t apply to ‘you’, there was a willingness to stand in solidarity with women who more directly bear the brunt of the incredible violence of misogyny.
When I spoke of this in the office, my boss was confused. He was flappy and shocked. “WHY would they use the word WHORE?? Isn’t that an insult? “. Well I would think that it’s deliberate and for many complicated reasons. Yes. It’s a word deployed to label negatively a woman who engages in sex work. And there is massive amounts of damaging violence behind it. And it is also a word used against women who do not engage in sex work. It is a word that is deployed against women all the time to spit misogyny to insinuate that women who have sex are worthless/non people/can be treated like shit with no consequences. And we have seen historically that there is truth in this, in the reluctance to investigate and prosecute rapes of women generally, and against sex workers specifically.
There is something lovely about standing together and instead of disavowing whore as a label for ’someone else’ and trying to obtain the (conditional and always uncertain) societal approval from maintaining a self definition as a ‘good girl’ and continuing to uphold that stupid and ridiculous and incredibly damaging and violent binary of ‘damned whores and god’s police’, of madonnas and whores, instead of pretending that there is something “about” a woman who is a sex worker, standing and saying it’s fucking ridiculous that a woman’s rights to bodily autonomy, respect, protection from the law and financial independance can be threatened by virtue of their occupation, and/or their perceived sexuality and at its root it’s ugly agrressive misogyny and we’ll stand together and reclaim the word whore and support all women rather than accept the bullshit discrimination and violence.
Anyway:
Sex workers at the Sydney demonstration will be wearing red and carrying red umbrellas in solidarity with sex workers around the world & to fight discrimination.
Meet Outside Parliament House, Sydney
Wear Red, Bring a Red Umbrella
THIS Tuesday 2nd June, 12:30pm
Sex workers are demanding protection under anti-discrimination and equal opportunity laws in response to unfair bias from financial institutions, lenders, Local Councils and in advertising. Supporters are invited to join us.
I can’t make the protest, but I’m hoping to pick up a red umbrella and to discuss International Whore’s Day with everyone in the lead up to Tuesday. I don’t see how a society that has a demand for sex work can then treat sex workers like shit and get away with it – at bottom, when pushed it is clear that it is because society still thinks any woman with a sexual appetite, any woman who engages with sex on her terms, any woman who does not manage to maintain society’s view of her as a ‘pure and chaste’ girl (and society will take it away on its own terms) is less than, is a certain ‘kind’ of person, does not deserve the same rights and protection as ‘other people’, deserves any vigilante violence and/or discrimination that comes her way and with no other basis than misogynist aggression and a punishment of women, particularly women who work in the sex industry.
So thanks Hexy for posting this, and for making me think through my alliance to sex workers. I like the notion of reclaiming the word whore and using it to fight with. I like the way deploying the word can force a reconsideration of stupid assumptions about the ‘kinds’ of women who engage in sex work as opposed to the ‘kinds’ of women who “would never”. I like the symbolism of the colour red, and the inability of the public to distinguish who is an who isn’t a sex worker to drive home the point that of course you cannot ‘tell’ just by looking at someone. I like the discussions this sort of demonstration can spark, and I like reading your posts. And I love the notion of a red umbrella and a day to proudly proclaim that I am a whore and I am proud, and there is nothing negative about it and to stand in solidarity with women the world over whose rights are imperilled by virtue of their employment.
I LOVE this post! Thank you so much for writing it!
Hexy, that comment from a writer such as yourself, it makes my heart sing.
“So very many things I love about that story.”
I love it too but it makes me sad as well, because it happened in 1975, and I know it would be far less likely to happen now. Reminds me of how far we haven’t progressed.
Excellent post. Thank you.
it happened in 1975, and I know it would be far less likely to happen now.
Sadly true.
Yeah…I like to think though that there are stories like this all through history. It’s not the majority of stories, or the majority of people, but I need to focus on the capacity I guess…and that’s why I love the event. All women, wherever they are can carry a red brolly, wear red clothes, proclaim themselves whores, confuse the shit out of people and explain, stand in solidarity…or it could just be that it’s late, I’m tired and getting sentimental and optimistic.
Thanks s-j
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Love the story and hope I would do the same as the French women if the sitch arose. Love that my mother gave me a red umbrella with no idea it would mark me as a whore! Will carry it with pride.
[...] International Whore’s Day – Scarlett Alliance Red Umbrella March [...]
Pity that despite the “international” label, there doesn’t seem to be much recognition outside of Aus.
Of course, my only research is flicking through the first 2 pages of Google results, so feel free to prove me wrong =P
Dee: That would be the work of one very proud Australian sex worker activist who holds the day very dear to her. She’s done amazing work encouraging other Australians to make use of the day and keep the story alive.
The English speaking net is very US-centric, and Americans tend to get far more enthusiastic about days that have their origins in the US.
["I don’t see how a society that has a demand for sex work can then treat sex workers like shit and get away with it – at bottom, when pushed it is clear that it is because society still thinks any woman with a sexual appetite, any woman who engages with sex on her terms, any woman who does not manage to maintain society’s view of her as a ‘pure and chaste’ girl (and society will take it away on its own terms) is less than, is a certain ‘kind’ of person, does not deserve the same rights and protection as ‘other people’, deserves any vigilante violence and/or discrimination that comes her way and with no other basis than misogynist aggression and a punishment of women, particularly women who work in the sex industry"]
I know there’s a lot of debate going on in the feminist blogosphere so I thought carefully while writing this. I don’t align with a particular group but my work in social welfare certainly makes these issues part of my everyday life. I support the rights of sex workers to be treated with respect and given the same legal protections as any other person. However, I find it hard to accept sex work as a legitimate employment option for women. I don’t believe that our bodies should be commodified like that. Sex work exists in response to the demands of a male culture that promotes to men the idea that they can detach themselves emotionally from sexual experience and turn it into another thing to be bought and sold.
I don’t wish to pass judgement on the choices women make. Money making decisions are underpinned by a variety of motivations and circumstances. However, it does bother me that we are culturally conditioned to believe that men need sex and that it can be a perfunctory exchange with no bearing on emotional or mental identity. Just like so many other aspects of capitalist Western society, men decide that money holds the highest value and overrides everything else. At the same time, that does not mean that women don’t enjoy sex – it’s the economic exchange I am uncomfortable with and the cultural acceptance that women can sell their bodies.
My views are certainly coloured somewhat by my experience in social work. The people I meet often find themselves engaging in sex work when they feel they have no other options. I am disturbed by the notion that a man can rationalise to himself that it is okay to give someone money so you can borrow that person’s body for a while and can gain some sort of pleasure from that. I must admit, I just don’t get it.
I understand there is a distinction to be drawn between those who engage in sex work when they feel desperate or believe they have no other way to make money, and those who make a choice to actively pursue this type of work. I can see that one group is definitely being exploited through their vulnerable circumstances. However, I find it hard to accept that a woman would choose sex work and is not being exploited.
This is not a judgement against anyone who makes this choice. I don’t believe that the women who make this choice are any less worthy or less intelligent than other women. I certainly would not want to make victims out of women who don’t believe they are. I don’t profess to be an expert in the area and my contact is mainly with very vulnerable people. I guess I am just struggling to reconcile my gut reaction with other points of view.
Ultimately, though, International Whore’s Day is an opportunity for women to join in solidarity. At the very least we need to watch one another’s backs. The other battles can’t be fought and won if we don’t work together.
I hope you don’t mind me commenting in such a lengthy way – it’s obvious that I am quite conflicted about this.
Hexy: Yes, that is certainly something I’ve noticed about Americans. It extends further than special days, too… they seem to have more interest and enthusiasm for anything American. But, being the self-perceived pinnacle of the western world their knowledge of (and care for) other countries is alarmingly sub-par.
Oh boy, I could go on for a while, but it’s too far off-topic. If the lovely OP ever makes a post about America, though… watch out!
Ok…well I thought a long time before allowing the comment through. Not because you aren’t entitled to wonder, or to explore you own position, but because it’s a thread on International Whores Day and I needed to think through allowing a comment that might derail the thread.
But I guess in the end, I allowed it as I don’t have answers and I’m happy for (respectful) discussion to take place around this. I won’t allow comments that simply assert that sex workers cannot possibly be acting with agency. I don’t think your comment quite did that, it seemed to be much more you attempting to think your position through.
Having said that, there does appear to be some slippage in your opinions about sex work between sex work itself, and surrounding issues which are not necessarily connected to sex work in and of itself – or no more so than to the rest of society, so misogyny, dehumanising attitudes and objectification/copmmodification (so that the ethics of sex work/the agency of sex workers should not be judged on *those* issues is I guess what I’m saying).
I don’t know that sex workers *are* allowing someone to ‘buy their bodies’…or that sex work itself is necessarily any more of a commodification of bodies than other (less remarked upon, less judged) areas of our culture (fashion, movies etc).
And as regards the slippage between sex work itself and men’s attitudes to women/bodies/sex/sex workers: I don’t think that to assert sex worker’s rights and right to be respected as autonomous individuals means ignoring men’s attitudes – it’s the disrespect and violence that are the issues rather than that sex can happen in a business like setting to my mind.
I’m a bit nervous about opening up these sorts of discussions, as I’ve seen from other sites that they can explode. I guess to be clear, I am happy for people to honestly examine their own concerns, so long as it is with respect and not asserting ‘truths’ such as ‘no woman would choose this’. I am hoping that this would be a space in which any person involved with sex work could comment knowing that their views will be respected and their rights not to be attacked for their views will be protected through comment moderation.