COVID-19 puts women in New Zealand’s sex trade in more danger than ever ; why isn’t the decrim lobby helping ?
▻https://www.feministcurrent.com/2020/03/25/covid-19-puts-women-in-new-zealands-sex-trade-in-more-danger-than-e
A 2007 survey conducted by NZPC to review the current laws showed that 10 per cent of women in prostitution say they “don’t know how to leave,” 8.5 per cent say they “can’t get help to leave,” 24 per cent “don’t know what else to do,” and 29.5 per cent “have no other income.”
Yet NZPC assumes that it is these very women who have the power and responsibility to shut down the industry. They assume it is the “supply,” not the “demand” — or more accurately, the victims, not the perpetrators — who should be threatened with state intervention in case of “failure to comply.” Will prostituted women be arrested? Are we going to see a return of the brothel raids that police used to carry out before the Prostitution Reform Act? Will this be endorsed by NZPC?
That the NZPC is putting full responsibility in the hands of these women, who have little if any alternative, and threatening them with police intervention if they fail to comply, demonstrates that the organization is not a feminist one, nor anything resembling a union standing for workers’ rights.
If New Zealand’s sex trade expands because of women’s vulnerability and the economic fallout resulting from COVID-19, it goes without saying that this will lead to a spread of disease, and not only this respiratory illness. Syphilis is on the rise in New Zealand. In the year ending March 2019, 548 cases were reported, up from 82 in 2013.
Yet NZPC continues to simply hand out condoms and pamphlets and promote the legitimization of the sex trade. It offers no exit services, and, as stated, even undermines the need for them when other people take on the task. It does not protect women from danger. The advice NZPC offers women in Stepping Forward, in terms of “dealing with violent clients,” is:
“Make as much noise as possible to attract attention. Try calling FIRE, a passerby will probably pay more attention. If you wear a whistle around your neck, blow it in his ear.”
Des féministes abolitionnistes se payent le STRASS local (#sex_work is work) qui renvoie systématiquement les prostituées à leur liberté de se prostituer, à leur agency et à leur empowerment... Autonomie, camarades ! Débrouille-toi pour repérer les johns qui ont la chaude pisse, débrouille-toi pour trouver un revenu quand tu n’as plus le droit de bosser. Un #syndicat qui commandite des études aussi accablantes sur le dernier recours que constitue la #prostitution et qui ne glisse pas le constat d’une exploitation de classe, de toute manière...