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Sex Workers Plan Brothel in 2010 Olympics City

By Wency Leung, Women's eNews. Posted October 13, 2007.


Will building a brothel help curb violence against women?

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VANCOUVER, Canada -- Susan Davis considers herself one of the lucky ones.

In her 21 years as a sex worker, Davis, 39, has known countless peers who have died of suicide, murder, AIDS or drug overdose in Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside.

She herself has experienced four heart attacks from smoking crack cocaine and survived several assaults by violent clients while working on the streets.

"I'm a one-percenter," Davis said, referring to the notion that the other 99 percent fail to survive this impoverished, drug-infested neighborhood. "It's nuts down here."

Now, Davis and other local sex workers have banded together to establish Canada's first cooperative brothel in an attempt to offer women a safe place to work.

The group, formed by a sex workers' alliance based here, called the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women, will incorporate next month and is already setting the groundwork to open the co-op brothel.

Members have begun scouting for a location and are enlisting the backing of local businesses, police and labor organizations.

Faced with the task of cleaning up the city to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver authorities said they are open to the idea.

"We would be willing to explore anything that ... would be helping the situation of sex trade workers, and make it safer for them and make it better for the community," said Vancouver police spokesperson Howard Chow. He noted one requirement: "It has to be something that is lawful."

Aiming for Official Exemption

Prostitution itself is legal in Canada. However, since most activities associated with it are not -- such as soliciting sexual services in a public place, operating a bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution -- the group is planning to appeal to the federal government for an exemption.

The government has already allowed the operation of a safe, supervised injection site in the city, where authorities give amnesty to intravenous drug users.

"Vancouver truly is the testing ground for new ideas," Davis said, citing the site as well as other initiatives, such as free needle exchange programs and the testing of prescription heroin on addicts.

"We can't do anything that would put police in a position to arrest us," she said. "So, what we're saying is, 'This is such a little place. Let us try and demonstrate to you what we think will happen, which is it will greatly diminish the complaints from the neighborhood and will greatly increase the safety of the sex workers of the Downtown Eastside.'"

The Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter objects to the idea of a co-op brothel, as it views prostitution as a means of perpetuating violence against women.

An overwhelming majority of prostitutes would leave the sex trade if given a choice, said shelter spokesperson Daisy Kler.

"The idea that there are women who, given an autonomous decision, given all other options, would stay is a fantasy," she said.

She added that a co-op would not protect Vancouver's most vulnerable women, as those who work the streets solely to survive would not likely have the money to join.

Cracking down on pimps and johns would more effectively improve the safety of sex workers than offering a place where men could continue to exploit women, Kler said. "We don't think men should be entitled to buy and sell women to satiate themselves."

Not Alone in Choosing Sex Work

Davis acknowledged that, ideally, those women who wanted to leave the sex trade could do so. But she maintained that she entered the trade on her own accord and she is not alone in choosing sex work.

"This is hard for feminists to swallow," Davis said. "Having your own destiny is really appealing to everyone. There's a lot of people with no lived experience trying to impose what they think is right on us."


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Wency Leung is a freelance journalist based in Vancouver, Canada.

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View:
Wow
Posted by: ankhet on Oct 13, 2007 2:26 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's progress. Wow.

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» Agreed Posted by: EKSwitaj
» RE: Wow Posted by: vasumurti
» if you build it they will come Posted by: KaptainSpiffy
But... but "CHOICE"? Choice is ONLY for abortions!
Posted by: Q30 on Oct 13, 2007 6:28 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"This is hard for feminists to swallow," Davis said. "Having your own destiny is really appealing to everyone. There's a lot of people with no lived experience trying to impose what they think is right on us."

Surely, this poor creature was abused as a child and she only THINKS she's freely choosing things for herself. Damned Patriarchy, how dare you pull the wool over her eyes!

As I've gathered from the radical feminists here at Alternet, women aren't capable of choosing anything if it's not an abortion. Whether it's pornography, plastic surgery, sex work, aerobics- NONE of those vocations were freely chosen by women, but FORCED upon them by Teh Oppressive Patriarchy which manipulates women like sock-puppets.

But abortion? That's a choice.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» ???????? Posted by: Zenobia
» RE: YOUR COMMENT WAS OFF TOPIC Posted by: soft2u47
Harm reduction is a sensible policy. Unfortunately, we are NEVER going to
Posted by: albrechtkrausse on Oct 13, 2007 6:54 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
get rid of things like drugs, prostitution, porn, vice, alcoholism, etc. However, society can mitigate the harm from these things by having sensible policies. One of the steps is to legalise them (or certain types of them) and have zoning, controls, medical checks, and rules pertaining to their practice. Legalising also allows the workers/victims more ability to get help if needed, get medical check ups, call police if crime happens, and even pay taxes. Instead of spending the money on 'crack downs' and 'imprisoning' the workers/victims (prostitutes, drug users, drunks, etc) we should be spending it on intervention programs, half-way houses, prevention efforts, medical treatment, outpatient programs, etc. We also should be REALISTIC about consquences of certain 'vices'. If children are told they'll become a derelict, prostitute from smoking weed (or even trying cocaine) they will know it is a lie and won't listen to the more serious facts. We policies that admit all use is not abuse. That people can recover. That just because you try something doesn't mean you should never be able to work again. Sure in a small, homogeneous population tactics like fear and shame can work to control vice to some extent, but in a large, multi-ethnic, anonymous city, or country, the only way is to be realistic and sensible and not moralise the issues. It will be cheaper also.

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Rose colored glasses need to come off...
Posted by: Gisele on Oct 13, 2007 8:54 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If life were as wonderful as we'd like it to be, there would be no need for the sex trade - but the fact remains that the sex trade is the oldest profession in the world. And it ain't going away - so let's deal with it in a more responsible manner. I agree with the idea of a brothel for a number of reasons:

1) It's physically safer for the worker primarily, but offers the johns/janes some safety too.
2) It keeps the business confined to an area, and most everyone will know where the area is. If the idea of prostitution is distasteful to someone, the answer is easy - Don't Go There!
3) There should be a medical component to oversee the health of the worker, help to insure that safer sex practices are being used - and STD's aren't being shared at the alarming rates we're seeing now.
4) It would allow for a greater degree of self-respect for those supplying a service that will always be in demand, whether we like it or not. It's time for us to respect that fact, as well as those who provide such services.
5) It's more honest - they won't have to hide behind the facade of an "escort agency," a back alley, or someone's vehicle...they'll be in a brothel, no games - no need to hide. No wonder those agencies are worried!

There are a couple of statements in the article I have issues with:

"The idea that there are women who, given an autonomous decision, given all other options, would stay is a fantasy," she said.
Bullsh*t. There is NO doubt that some workers would leave the sex trade "given all other options"...but many won't. For the simple reason they're comfortable with their job/career/profession - they like what they do. What makes most of them uncomfortable is the judgement of society in general, and feminism in particular.

Cracking down on pimps and johns would more effectively improve the safety of sex workers than offering a place where men could continue to exploit women, Kler said. "We don't think men should be entitled to buy and sell women to satiate themselves."
Taking pimps/johns OUT of the equation is one of the surest ways to improve the safety factor of most prostitutes. The best way to do that is by giving the workers control of their own businesses - and yes, prostitution is first and foremost a business.
Get off the pot with the men "exploiting" women routine, the women in these transactions are selling sex. The men are paying for it. Period. There is no more exploitation in that transaction than there is in any other human services transaction.
Where did Ms. Kler get the idea that men felt an "entitlement" to buy/sell women to satiate themselves? And why is it she only sees that "men" are satiating themselves with the purchase of sex - sorry to burst the bubble but women also feel "entitled to buy and sell Men and Women to satiate themselves." Time to pull the blinders off and start asking some hard questions Ms. Kler.


Until the reasons for the purchase of sex change...we will always have sex workers. How many sex trade workers are fulfilling the fantasies of men/women who have spouses? Any idea how many johns/janes go to a prostitute because they can't, or won't, ask their spouse to do what a prostitute will? How many would be horrified to think their spouse could possibly act in such a manner?! Yet they expect it of someone they don't even know, and may never see again.

Until such time as we can talk openly and honestly about sex, with all of it's rights and responsibilities - until we deal with the stigma surrounding pure lust and fantasy...we will always have prostitution. I have nothing but respect for prostitutes of both genders, they're doing a job I couldn't do. Dealing with the Pickton's of this world is a horror beyond comprehension, yet they do it every night. If not for them - there but for the Grace of God go you and I.

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Brothels,as a deterrent to sex crimes
Posted by: donl51 on Oct 13, 2007 9:13 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm personnally not against good,legal,controlled brothels,however as a deterrent to sex crimes I believe the idea won't work ,a reg.guy going to a brothel wants female companionship,something differant ,etc. those who rape etc.I beleive don't really want any of that ,I'm no scientist but I do read,these people want control,or they hate and are seeking revenge for something in their past,,build the brothel but not for the reason given

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why then is is those with the least options?
Posted by: easter on Oct 13, 2007 10:04 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
she chose sex work, feminists can't handle that she said.
I wonder if she is from a background that gave her every option to be whatever she wants to be and she just really wanted to sell her body for a living. She really wanted to deal with being a "one-percenter" because this was her dream as a little girl.
NO, just like inner city men who sell drugs on the corner, you may have chose it, but from not so many options to begin with.

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Coyote
Posted by: Sparks56 on Oct 13, 2007 2:17 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Coyote was/is an organization, a union if you will, for sex workers started by Margot St. James in San Francisco in the 1980's. It promoted the legalization of all aspects of the sex trade, primarily to prevent violence against and exploitation of women. The continuing violence and exploitation will continue until prostitution is legal and sex workers are afforded the same rights and protections as other workers.

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Prostitution is legal in Canada?
Posted by: YogiBear on Oct 13, 2007 10:30 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
When the heck did that happen? And why wasn't I informed?

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» When the heck did that happen? Posted by: Bearzerker
» Hey, Boo boo! Posted by: LMNOP
So - will building a brothel curb violence against women?
Posted by: Cruella on Oct 14, 2007 8:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Firstly - no, of course not, that has never worked. It is well known that allowing people to sleep with prostitutes doesn't cut rape crime numbers any more than opening a boxing gym reduces fights in the street - it increases them.

Secondly - surely we know of better ways to protect women - education, police presence, rape alarms, self-defence classes, CCTV cameras.

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» It might for THESE women. Posted by: Allison
feminists don't kill prostitutes, johns and pimps do
Posted by: anotherday on Oct 14, 2007 11:25 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"I mean how moral is it to let people die?"

Even if the sex worker moving up the economic ladder to brothel pimp who said this pretends not to know who kills prostitutes, I hope you can see the johns and pimps who actually kill women were passively left out of this anti-feminist statement. I say anti-feminist because verbally hiding the real perpetrators of rape and battery makes it out as if feminists against men's right to unlimited sexual access to women cause women's deaths. Feminists don't "let people die", pimps and johns kill them. It is flat-out wrong to put blood on the hands of anyone but the men who are murdering these women, the johns and pimps left out of this article entirely.

A few weeks ago an 18-year-old woman LEGALLY working in Portland's vast and LEGAL sex industry was murdered by her 37-year-old LEGAL pornography producer. It's not feminists or laws against sexual exploitation that kill prostituted women, it's johns and pimps like the ones left out of this article entirely.

Mom says murdered daughter was lured into porn
http://www.komotv.com/news/local/9469032.html

18-year-old Emily Egan was found dead Tuesday in the downtown apartment of 37-year-old Paul Eugene Frizzelle, who is charged with her murder. Frizzelle's MySpace account links to a pornography production Web site that lists Frizzelle as the site's contact.

on legalization:

Has the legality of war ever slowed the genocidal harms of warmaking? Stopped the invasion of Iraq? Did the Geneva Convention make war less deadly and destructive in the 21st century, or did it merely reaffirm once again men's age-old entitlement to steal, torture and massacre people at will and with impunity? There has never been a large group of women who took up arms in organized fighting; it's men who wage war as if it were their right and it's men who wrote the laws insisting deadly aggression done legally is moral, noble, and good for humanity.

The organized rape of impoverished women proposed here is no different from the legalized rapes of the Comfort Women; they are both men demanding their legal right to appropriate that which they believe is their property just because they have always taken it without asking "please" before and they're not going to start now. Liberal men who wryly ask "How did our oil get under their soil?" would never ask "How did our wet holes for masturbation get on those women?" as they appropriate women's bodies for rape the way they always have.

The article says prostitution is legal in Canada but it's clear from the article that legalization has not stopped men's violence against prostituted women. It's grotesque to suggest letting men legally access women's bodies whenever they want will reduce rape when rape is men accessing women's bodies whenever they want and this selfish entitlement to control women sexually is men's oldest obsession.

For thousands of years men have had access to all the wet hole-havers they could physically dominate, emotionally manipulate, chemically impair, or economically bribe (often all at once) and that high level of legitimized, legal control over women's bodies has never historically lessened men's sexual tyranny of women before so why would it do so in this modern guise?

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Make it a new "event"!
Posted by: Sushi on Oct 14, 2007 11:45 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Might as well go ahead and make a sex-event out of it...scored on performance, style, innovational moves, all set to music. What the hell.

Sushi
"The unanswered questions are not nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."

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I'm all for it as long as no one but the prostitutes profits from it
Posted by: Mercurial Georgia on Oct 14, 2007 1:26 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There are a minority of women, who, without pressure, chose the sex trade.

It is for the majority of women who doesn't have a free choice, that I believe, these venues need to exist, as long as it is needed especially.

Women with options, who freely chose the sex trade, can freely chose to accept or reject clients, they might even chose clients they would have slept with anyways.

Oh, I'm for discriminalization, but not legalization. Criminalization hurts the prostitutes, but legalization makes the state their pimp.

Women without options, have less choice, maybe they need it to pay food and rent...or tuition.

We must work to first ensure that no one is without food and rent, and then, money to pay tuition. For now, for some reason, there are women who need to sell their body to pay rent, tuition. They are there, and we need to make their situation less horrible in whatever ways we can until it's not there anymore.

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Protitution is legal in my state
Posted by: Aussie Kim on Oct 14, 2007 6:03 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Prostitutes have their own Sex Workers Union (actually strippers have their own union, too, as of 2006), have minimum pay rates, health checks, must only work in legally registered brothels (street prostitution is illegal because it's ugly and dangerous and illegal brothels get raided and shut down) and with the exception of the poor girls who are sometimes smuggled in from Asia to work as sex slaves (usually by brothel owners who are _also_ Asian, I might add), the prostitues are all doing the work of their own free will. No pimps involved. No drug addictions necessary.

A guy was jailed a few years ago for raping a prostitute. Sure - he paid money to have sex with her, but she was _not_ there to be beaten and savgagely attacked.

My city (Melbourne) is also home to the only brothel in the world that's on the stock market. :) You can buy shares in the Daily Planet brothel, although they aren't cheap. ;)

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Men who turn to Prostitutes are disgusting.
Posted by: morningstar1972 on Oct 15, 2007 12:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
She has slept with over a thousand men.
She is loose, and rancid.
She smells like fish.
I am sure you have had better.
Why would anyone want to sleep with a woman who has slept with everyone?
aren't you concerned with what her pie had in it right before you?
is Rosie Palm and her five sisters just not good enough now?
I understand that Prostitution is the world's oldest profession, however Men have a bad habit of treating women like pieces of garbage if they do not have to work for what they have. If anything, I would say "no way" to brothels just because
if a man can pay for it, than a woman becomes an object and not a person. and objects get abused.
or killed. not good.

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Re: Wow
Posted by: pgw on Oct 15, 2007 12:29 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wow is right – Alternet actually publishes something that doesn't mindlessly condemn the sex industry across the board. I guess Alternet won't get any feminist doggie biscuts from Robert Jensen or Riane Eisler this time.

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I would rather scrub toilets.(not)
Posted by: ajmartin on Oct 18, 2007 6:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I don't like the fact that millions of my fellow women around the world work in such a repugnant job but I am not sure that it isn't better than scrubbing someone else's toilets or hauling a strangers bedpans for $8 an hour with no choice of work hours and no chance of advancement is any better - especially if the women can be assured a safe work place.

There is now a fair trade house of prostitution in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A co-operatively run venture which protects and enriches the workers. There is no getting rid or prostitution any more than there is a way to rid the world of violent and abusive men. We can only hope to make it better and this is the way to go.

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