Sex Workers Unite: A History of the Movement from Stonewall to SlutWalk by Melinda Chateauvert. $20.31; Beacon Press; 263 pages
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Who are we talking about here? "Sex workers are laborers who earn money to perform sexual services or who provide erotic entertainment to clients individually or collectively," explained the author in her introduction to this fascinating recounting of how people in the sex industry have strived to change the thinking of lawmakers, law enforcers, social workers, health care providers and the public in general.
The phrase "sex workers" was invented by Carol Leigh, a prostitutes' rights activist, to take the loaded meaning out of designations such as escorts, exotic dancers, porn stars, rent boys and prostitutes, among others. The majority of Sex Workers Unite focuses on female sex workers, the forces opposing them, and the organizations that have sprung up to support them.
Sex workers have fought the thinking that variously states they are victims who need to be helped out of their occupations, that they deserve the rough treatment or social stigma they may receive, and that they do not require the same civil and human rights as the rest of us. They have been marginalized and underpaid, denied health benefits—and worse.
A central point of the book is that sex workers have chosen to work in their field for varied reasons ( by choice, circumstance or coercion, as the author puts it ), and they demand and deserve justice. Chateauvert is an academic and an activist involved in many grassroots campaigns to change policies and attitudes about many of the issues raised here.
Important viewpoints brought out include: 1 ) Sex work is often a survival strategy used by homeless boys, undocumented immigrants, transgender people of color and other marginalized people to put food on the table and cover other essential expenses because the United States does not affirm the right to shelter, food, or health care; and 2 ) Criminalizing sex work perpetuates structural and interpersonal violence, thereby endangering sex workers, according to Robyn Few of the Sex Workers.
Because of the tough nature of their work and how they are treated, sex workers are fierce fighters for their rights, according to the author. They have become shrewd political activists. They fight to decriminalize sex work and to gain respect.
Much of the book focuses on activities in San Francisco. It also touches on struggles in other cities around the world. Chicago gets its due. Disbanded in 2013, The Young Women's Empowerment Project ( YWEP ) was a social justice organizing project led by and for young people of color who had current or former experience in the sex trade and street economies. YWEP conducted workshops with youth service providers, had a hotline and a zine. They practiced transformative justice, the practice that looks at an offense as an opportunity for victims, offenders, and other affected community members to learn and change.
Chateauvert's history begins with Stonewall. She cites Martin Duberman who, in his work Stonewall, states that many of the bar's patrons were sex workers. The politically correct version of the Stonewall patrons ( advanced by the mainstream LGBT-rights movement ) uses the more acceptable designations of "gays" and queers."
She further states that LGBT and queer history should include sex workers since many sex-worker activists are queer and some of them support themselves through sex work ( citing Gail Pheterson's "Whore Stigma." ).
SlutWalk ( reference the title of this history ) began in Toronto a few years back as pushback toward the Toronto police. Now a transnational movement, it consists of protest marches whose participants protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance and call for an end to rape culture.
Chateauvert points out that, in 1990, one in 100 women was estimated to have done some form of sex work in her lifetime. Her source here is health researchers as reported in "Female Sex Workers: Scapegoats in the AIDS Epidemic," an article by Cohen and Alexander in Women and AIDS.
Whatever your views of sex workers when you begin this read, be prepared at minimum to learn an arsenal of information about the trade and their activism to claim their human rights. I found Sex Workers Unite to be instructive and stirring. The account of this movement opened a new perspective on the importance of activism, the integrity of the human spirit and the power of transformative justice.
The book is fully notated with a bibliography.
