Sex Workers: Take Back the Media!
Posted at 12:04 PM May 15, 2008
Sex Worker Rant runs on Tuesdays (late this week, sorry) and is written by Renegade Evolution, a sex worker, sexual mercenary, and all around fan of “The Sexy” living somewhere near our nation’s capital. Quirky might as well be her middle name.
You know, it's tough to be a sex worker of any sort. When you become one, you know going in: there will be stigma. People will stereotype you as everything from creepy to utterly broken without ever knowing you, and why yes, they will use you for whatever agenda suits them at the time. Sex sells, right? That being the case, I think we're all owed a big fat check from mainstream media. What with everything from Bill O'Reilly eviscerating advocates like Amanda Brooks on his "news" programs to dead hooker of the week on Law & Order Special Victims Unit, these people are making a ton of money off sex workers, and at the same time, doing nothing to help us, at all.
Spitzer? Palfrey, the DC Madam? Her suicide? Great for ratings! Yet, do you ever see much of actual sex workers on TV? Other than what "Dateline" or "20/20" tell you? Edited and filtered through their lens of course. When was the last time you ever saw big media coverage of a Sex Workers Rights Rally, or a piece on a happy porn star, or time given to those speaking on the decriminalization or legalization platform?
Let me guess, never. Which is why when sex workers say, we need our own media, no filter, no cutting room floor, no agenda other than our own, I agree.
Oh hell yeah. Blogs, books, radio shows, conferences? Bring it on.
Because frankly, don't you think sex workers get stereotyped and used enough?
FOX, NBC, Washington Post, NY Times?
Let me guess, the check is in the mail?
And on that note, I'd like to leave you with this: A little video I made about sex workers, sex workers rights, those who use us, and how it is long past due that we start speaking for ourselves. Everyone from Diane Sawyer to Melissa Farley has used sex workers to sell themselves, so yeah, it's about time that credit is given where its due: The Sex Workers themselves.
Read Renegade Evolution's blog here.
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