A big Friday Feminist FUCK YOU to Knoxville, Tennessee and the Knoxville News Sentinel!
Knoxville, Tennessee, even with its groups pushing for progressive movements, is still a town of Good-old-boys. This is extremely evident with a web gallery on the city paper's site in which visitors can rate women convicted of prostitution a'la Hot or Not.
Additionally, the paper seems to be searching for some action among the prostitute population with recent articles, one titled "Addictions to drugs, thrills keep Knoxville prostitutes on the streets."
Another, which states that Prostitution is not a victimless crime st arts to touch on the idea that not all prostitutes *want* to be in that line of work, and that many of them ("them" being the prostitutes arrested walking the streets or advertising on the street corner, not sex workers who are able to be more discrete or cautious) are in a cycle that they have difficulty getting out of. The article even goes so far as to *almost* state that the Johns are also legally responsible. The article is, still, about shocking the readership about how these women are "bad."
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Thanks for this Feminist Friday FUCK YOU!! So happy to see that others are also saddened and disgusted by the pathologizing of prostitutes and sex workers.
Knoxville has been on a recent mission to damn prostitutes lately, as many of their articles show. Most are written by the same guy. I really don't get the point.
They've been blamed for a syphilis outbreak, disrupting highway traffic, and other various things, they've been portrayed as victims occasionally, but mostly as "dirty whores" who must be controlled.
When will people realize that this is a feminist issue? We are not hated because we sometimes do drugs (many populations fit into that category but are not hated or stigmatized for it). We are hated because We have sex for money. We negotiate our sexuality on our own terms. We do not obey anyone's predetermined and narrow world view about sexuality. And so we are punished.
Supporting bodily choice and self-determination means that we must also support choices we might not make for ourselves in the interest of ensuring that we ALL maintain the freedom to make our own choices.
Let's see a "hot or not" of the Johns.
What galls me most on the issue of prostitution is the arrogance and ignorance of people who blame the sellers, who are usually women. Let's be honest: Would there be any prostitution if there were no buyers, no Johns?
Those who work as prostitutes are not carrying guns and forcing people at gunpoint to have sex with them. Rather, the buyers are approaching the sellers, wanting the service and thereby creating the market. It is the Johns who create the market, not the prostitutes.
It's very much like the issue of abortion rights where people focus on the issue of the abortions instead of the fact that there are unwanted pregnancies. In both cases, the solution is the same: Deal with the cause, not the symptom.
I could be reading this wrong, but it seems that you are saying that clients are the cause of prostitution.
I would say that it is far, far more complex than that. I think the slogan "Outlaw poverty" applies here. Economic conditions and a host of other social issues are the "cause" of prostitution.
voluptuouspanic, are you trying to suggest there would be any trade of prostitution if there were no Johns? It doesn't matter how good the sales pitch is or how good the product, if there's no market, nothing will sell no matter how low the price.
Poverty (or rarely, enjoyment of sex) may lead some people to go into prostitution, but unless someone is willing to pay, selling sex will be impossible.
The Johns aren't supposed to bring attractiveness to the table, they're paying to play.
You give folks too much credit. Despite much protest, physical attractiveness is not a requirement for plenty of men wanting quick, casual sex. It's a plus, sure. Something to bring to the table though?--Don't think so. Paid, unpaid, whatever. So often--too often-- it's not about the woman bringing anything to the table except the word, "Yes".
And frankly if it weren't for this nonsense of rating women, and this "hot or not" ego feeding bullshit, there would probably be less anxiety about casual sex all the way around, meaning more people getting laid *for free*.
This story is appalling and shocking. You would think that people would know better, but then again, maybe it shouldn't surprise me.
I have an idea. Why don't they post pictures of all the johns that they arrest, too? It's only fair. You know, so that we can all have a good laugh about men so pathetic that they have to actually pay for sex? I would like the opportunity to decide if I think the city's mayor is hot or not (ok fine, I don't know that the mayor is actually banging hookers, but it seems as if there is no shortage of public officials who wind up in the news because of frequenting prostitutes). My best guess is that he's not hot, because after all, if he was he wouldn't have to pay for it.