I was appalled to read Donna Hughes's opinion piece in the Providence Journal entitled "R.I.'s Carnival of Prostitution ," where she resorts to ad hominem attacks on women who speak for themselves about their experiences in the sex industry. She is an endowed chair at the University of Rhode Island's Women's Studies Program, and I am forced to wonder what her students are learning. She condescendingly refers to one woman as "tattooed," and derides another (while constantly mentioning her ethnicity) for referring to her profession as "it." As one commenter pointed out,
That never ever ever happens with other professions, right? I mean who, when asked if they enjoyed teaching women's studies for example, would say "oh yes, I love IT."
It has been a long-standing issue with sex workers that we are silenced by the media and others; spoken for and about but never with . People even caution others to not listen to us, as we are under "false consciousness" about what we choose to do with our bodies. Thank goddess at least the RI senate seems to be listening to us.
I suppose the good news in all of this is that generally, folks don't resort to these tactics unless backed into a corner. This is a good thing for the sex workers rights movement.
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Great post! As a teacher of feminist theory and literature, I certainly feel that I can learn a lot from women who actively face women's issues in all kinds of work, especially sex work. I hope that you keep writing and that women active in work, culture, and cultural production can establish continuous lines of communication.
Thanks for your voice!
Wow. Just... wow. Rgh, it makes me so angry when this sort of shit comes from people who are supposed to be all feminist. Isn't one of the central ideas of feminism LISTENING TO WOMEN? Maybe HEARING THEM OUT? Or even perhaps NOT JUDGING THEM IMMEDIATELY NO MATTER WHAT SOCI-YETI TELLS YOU?!
I can't believe she's a woman's studies professor!
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. How condescending and narrow-minded of this woman, especially considering her job. It's shameful.
Then a tattooed woman, calling herself a “sexologist and sex educator,” spoke against the bill. She is also a reporter for a prostitutes’ magazine called $pread. (I couldn’t make this stuff up!)
I'm sure she couldn't, because she could never fathom that prostitutes are anything other than poor trafficked victims who hate themselves.
I feel sorry for this woman's students.
Wow- thanks for the supportive words!
Megan, the sex educator, responded with her own letter here.
I am glad I am not the only one who sees this as a little off. I was hoping all women's studies programs weren't flavored with such classism.
It got me thinking about a piece I read a long time ago by Jo Weldon, called "Shut up, I can't hear you!"
Jo was asked to appear on a panel at a conference at NYU, but because of her "experiential advantage" she was kicked off the panel by Janice Raymond. She was only going to speak about her research on the brutal closing down of the brothels in Tanbazar, but because she had been a sex worker herself, she was not permitted.
Sadly, these situations still happen-- both the brutal closing down of brothels and the elimination of sex workers from panels. Thankfully, the latter happens less often. But the former is a real problem.
Thank you for sharing that information on the brothers in Tanzabar with us. People need to know this stuff.