They say prostitution is the oldest profession… but really
isn’t it just the oldest
St. John's city council has lifted its moratorium on new
massage parlours. Council voted unanimously to lift the ban after debate about
regulations for safety and employment standards. Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O'Leary
said a later conversation is needed on safety of the workers, and amended the
motion, seconded by Coun. Debbie Hanlon, to include public consultation.
Look, I support women’s rights.
The idea behind lifting this moratorium and allowing more
massage parlours to protect sex workers is ludicrous. These parlours offer sex
for money. Let’s not pussy foot around that. They are operated by organized
crime. They Chief of Police has confirmed that.
If you normalize the buying of sex, then you are giving more
power to the men and less to the women who are abused. If you want to help sex
workers then tackle the core issues of inequality, like poverty, mental illness
and abuse that leads people into the sex industry in the first place.
Allowing more massage parlours does not give people
exploited in the sex trade power or empower them to have ownership over their
bodies. It will lead to an increase in sex trafficking. If you remove any
impediments to buying sex and normalize it, there’ll be an increase in that
act. People from the most impoverished and marginalized communities then get
trafficked in to meet that demand.
It is regressive and antifeminist to normalize an industry
were women are bought and sold for the pleasure of men. A store in which women
are lined up and a man gets to buy the one he wants is not empowering women.
When Canada supported the Equality Model in which only those
who buy sex as well as third party exploiters are criminally prosecuted, it was
to protect those who are bought and sold in the sex trade and keep them out of
jail and provide them with the medial care, housing and other social services
to help them leave the industry.
If you want to help sex workers, don’t be ok with men and
boys using their socio-economic power to buy sexual access to someone with less
power. Instead, the City of St. John’s should provide sex workers with the
services they need to heal.
The idea behind normalizing sex work is being ok with buying
sex from an 18-year-old. Do we want to say as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
that that’s ok?
The men who go to these places don’t differentiate whether
you’re in this by choice or if you’ve been kidnapped. They only see dollar
signs on the bodies of these people.
This conversation is about power and control over the bodies
of the most vulnerable and our willingness to look the other way.
Just because
Vancouver and Toronto are doing it, do we have to agree? Why not be the
province and city that says people don’t have to sell their bodies in order to
survive.
Research: In Style Magazine/ CBC website/ my own thoughts
