Baby steps. Maybe next week.
I was just looking through the Whoreganisation photo drive for a picture to accompany an article, and I found some shots I took at the National Forum in Brisbane last November. (For the newcomers, it's the annual Australian sex worker only forum I organise as part of my work with the Whoreganisation)
We hand out an "info kit" each year, that includes everything from directions and information on the forum, to our Annual Report, to updates and reports from each of our member organisations, and a copy of our magazine. Last year, we handed out the info kits and other material in bags that had been screen printed with various slogans by one of our member organisations as part of a project. Each attendee was allowed to select their preferred slogan, as long as they lasted.
Here are the bags lined up on the table for people to peruse and select. You can see that the ones at the front bare the incredibly clever "Pro S.T.I tute" slogan, referencing the idea that sex workers are the safe sex experts.
This bag, "For a personal safe sex update, visit your local sex worker", presents the same idea in a more blatant format.
We had a few slogans that I didn't get to photograph, including the "Someone I love is a sex worker" slogan that always gets snapped up by allies, friends and family when its printed on patches or T-shirts and sold at events.
One particular slogan was far and away the most popular, though. It was, in fact, so in demand that I had to sneak one away from the table and hide it to ensure I got one myself! Want to see what it was?
"Sheila ain't my sister: anti-sex feminists do not speak on behalf of sex workers."
The Sheila referenced is of course Sheila Jeffreys. And the attendees of the National Forum, every single one of whom was a current or former sex worker from all around Australia (and some international guests), pounced on bags bearing this particular slogan as though they were full of money and chocolate.
Sex workers do not like this woman, her views, or her impact on our lives.
As for my bag? It's sitting next to me on my desk. I use it as a gym bag. :)
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11 comments:
Please please please make Whoreganisation make fundraising T shirts, I want them all.
We do them from time to time :) I'll let you know next time fundraiser-y stuff is going on, and if you're not in Sydney I'll try and nab something for you!
Nice! I want one of those Sheila bags!
They're neat, aren't they?
Oh oh oh! I wants one, I does!
God that is just so stupid and low. I mean attacking someone personally like that. Don't you have another strategy or better arguments then that says pretty much. I'm telling you those feminists would never dream of making bags with "califia is not my sister". Seriously you've sunk so low. It's pathetic.
Gosie: Attacking someone personally? What post did YOU read?
It is not a personal attack to reject the false, damaging idea of "sisterhood" presented by women who do not have the best interests of sex workers at heart, and whose activism actively threatens our safety and autonomy. Trust me, if I wanted to make personal attacks on Sheila Jeffreys I'm more than capable of making them blatant, accurate and mildly hilarious.
Interesting that you'd choose Califia to target as the apparent opposite to Jeffreys. Not surprising, though, that you'd misgender him. Califia IDs as male, and I hold as a basic standard for commenting here that people respect pronoun preference. Don't do that again.
god is Jeffreys still around is she? I remember some (radfem) friends telling me that at a (radfem) conference she said that (cis) women enjoying anal sex was all a patriarchal scam - because unlike (cis) men, they don't have a prostate gland! fuck you Sheila and your biological essentialism, although, better, fuck me up the arse i promise i'll enjoy it.
Still around, still informing policy that hurts sex workers, still doing all her horrible Sheila-Jeffreys-style bullshit.
You do know, Hexy, that some of the GenderBorg radfems (aka Maggie Hays, Witchy-Woo, and others) have launched a counter-offensive against your "slandering" of Shelia Jefferys, do you??
See Caroline Shepherd's new blog for the details:
Loserdust: The Usual, But With SloagansAnthony
Anthony: I had no idea, thanks for the heads up. New post on this just went up.
I really can't comprehend how "She doesn't speak for us" is construed as slander or a "personal attack".
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