BOINKOLOGY | Why The Media Hates Sex Workers

BY Garrett
October 24, 2008
1,567 views
7 Comments

Why The Media Hates Sex Workers

Man, those sex workers are freaks aren’t they? I mean, selling your body? The body God gave you and your parents loved? Anyone who does that must be mentally ill. Or on drugs. Or involved in violent sex games. Or engaged in sexual contact with children. Sex Workers must be monsters, right?

Well that’s the perception you’d get from the media.

Reading a recent story on San Francisco’s upcoming vote to decriminalize prostitution I was laughing at the ludicrious connections made by the writer.

First, let’s shame San Francisco. The author refers to it as a “live-and-let-live town, where medical marijuana clubs do business next to grocery stores”. Setting the perfect juxtaposition of mundane and scandalous. You can get Wheaties and pick up some smoke? The world has clearly gone made.

Then we get the first of several mentions of the sadomasochism fair. This is actually the Folsom Street Fair, a decades old street fair that celebrates the gay and leather community. It’s also one of the largest fairs in California. All those freaks, right?

The article’s very tone (selling your body) is the quavering moralising that pervades the mass media on the topic of sex work The one quote from Carol Leigh, head of the Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network is framed by two damning assessments from law enforcement. Cause someone who has devoted their life to making sex workers safer doesn’t know nothing about the topic. We need cops, and male cops at that, to tell us about pimps and drugs all those things that are what sex work is all about. Of course.

Putting aside the sarcasm and snark, why bother to pick on this one silly article. Because of where I came across it. The top of the Drudgereport, which is essentially the national media’s crib sheet for the coming news cycle. Pundits on television, talk radio and any number of blogs will link in and spread one more slanted, badly written scare story about decriminalizing sex work.

Here’s a suggestion, you can off-set this mental melange. Donate to SWOP, the Sex Worker’s Outreach Project, or just sign up for information. Give some support to saner sex laws and fight back against the dull drone of scare-tactic media.

[Photo by blackcustard]

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.