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Laura in Toronto: VENUE CHANGE for sex trafficking, sex work and rescue talk

19 November 2011 in migration by laura agustin | No comments | print print

PLEASE NOTE CHANGED VENUE BUT SAME TIME

Maggie’s Sex Workers Action Project is hosting my talk in their home town, Toronto. Last night’s Sex Work Café at Stella in Montréal was a great success; thanks to everyone who helped that happen. Before the Toronto event I will be in Ottawa.

Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry

Thursday 24 November 2011
7:30pm
The Raging Spoon
761 Queen Street West
Toronto, Canada

Map

Endorsed by No One Is Illegal–Toronto

Books available for purchase, courtesy of the Toronto Women’s Bookstore

Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project is proud to host Laura Agustín, an internationally renowned sex worker rights advocate and an expert on undocumented migration and informal labour markets. She will be giving a talk based on her book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry.

We’re delighted to announce that No One Is Illegal-Toronto is endorsing this event and that the Toronto Women’s Bookstore will be selling copies of Sex At The Margins.


Jorgenson Hall

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Sex at the Margins in Vancouver: sex trafficking, migrant sex work and rescue

17 November 2011 in migration, sex work, trafficking by laura agustin | 3 comments | print print

Grassroots activists have raised money for me to go to Vancouver, British Columbia. If you come to this talk, you get to pass through this beautiful space downtown, on the West Coast of Canada.

Here is the announcement from the organisers:

FIRST is proud to host Laura Agustín, an internationally renowned sex worker rights advocate and an expert on undocumented migration and informal labour markets. She will be giving a talk based on her book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry.

Sunday 27 November 2011
7:00pm – 9:30pm (1900 – 2130)
Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
350 West Georgia Street
Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Room (lower level)
Vancouver, British Columbia

Map

Admission by donation – no one turned away
Wheelchair accessible room and washrooms

Other sponsors
The Women’s and Gender Studies Program, UBC
The Naked Truth
PACE
BC Coalition of Experiential Communities
Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women – Canada


–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Lost Boys and the disclaimer about sex-trafficked ‘foreigners’

12 November 2011 in sex work, trafficking by laura agustin | 1 comment | print print

Those who want to save women and children from sex trafficking have a ready-made excuse every time research shows people have taken up selling sex for their own reasons: Whatever methodology was used for the study could have missed the really enslaved people, the ones in chains in a back bedroom or cellar.

This idea is not informed by quantities of research carried out with migrants who sell sex, including my own, and fails to see how difficult it would be to hide people for long who, by definition, are meeting and interacting with members of the public (as clients) every day, and who cannot provide sexual services while chained up or tied down. Moral crusaders promote the idea that all possible customers are monsters who don’t mind violating slaves, but the majority of those buying sex are not demons and are likely to be disturbed by miserable-looking women and sometimes willing to carry distress messages to the world outside.

The Rescue Industry always transfers the conversation to a discussion of the Worst Cases, avoiding the ambiguous, ambivalent, everyday majority who sell sex – which is the large group of people I insist need more attention. It’s not a question of who’s happy or whether life is fair but of what kinds of proposals are useful to those selling sex, or, if Rescuers are not interested in them, what interventions have a chance of ameliorating injustice and social conflict.

The study discussed by the Village Voice last week is not new but was published in 2008; these are the relevant excerpts commenting on the research methodology.

Lost Boys
Kristen Hinman, The Village Voice, 2 November 2011

. . . Finkelhor’s single caveat: While RDS is efficient in circulating through a broad range of social networks, certain scenarios might elude detection—specifically, foreign children who might be held captive and forbidden to socialize.

. . . “It turns out that the boys were the more effective recruiter of pimped girls than anybody else,” Curtis says. “It’s interesting, because this myth that the pimps have such tight control over the girls, that no one can talk to them, is destroyed by the fact that these boys can talk to them and recruit them and bring them to us. Obviously the pimps couldn’t have that much of a stranglehold on them.”

The same, of course, might be true of the elusive foreign-born contingent Finkelhor mentions.

Curtis and Dank believe there is indeed a foreign subpopulation RDS could not reach. But with no data to draw on, it’s impossible to gauge whether it’s statistically significant or yet another overblown stereotype. . .

So, no evidence means the possibility is still open, but how likely is it that this possibility will involve large numbers of people after years and years now of Rescuers and researchers trying diligently to find them? Not very likely, is the answer. The old cliche about hidden populations is abused easily.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Sex work, migration and the Rescue Industry in Ottawa

4 November 2011 in migration, sex work, trafficking by laura agustin | 1 comment | print print

My signature talk Sex at the Margins comes to Ottawa, which possibly will not look so white when I arrive in a few weeks. It is many years since I’ve been in any part of Canada and I have never visited Ottawa before. There are events in Montreal before this one. Please come meet me if you can, to talk about sex work, Rescue Work and the troubled relationship between them.

21 November 2011
1900-2100

University of Ottawa Law Library
Fauteux Hall Room 351
57 Louis Pasteur Private
Ottawa, Ontario K1N6N5   Map here

Free and open to the public. The talk will be in English, but you may ask questions in French if you like. Vegetarian snacks and beverages provided.

Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry

The Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and Students for Sex Worker Rights are proud to host Laura Agustín, an internationally renowned sex worker rights advocate and an expert on undocumented migration and informal labour markets. She will be giving a talk based on her book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry.

Sex at the Margins questions several popular beliefs about migrants who sell sex: that they are all passive victims, that the job of selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín argues that the label ‘trafficked’ does not accurately describe most migrants and that a Rescue Industry  disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell sex as well as social helpers, Sex at the Margins demonstrates how migration policy marginalises informal-sector workers and how anti-prostitution campaigns turn sex workers into casualties of globalisation.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Sex Work Café in Montréal with Stella, Laura and Carol Leigh

2 November 2011 in sex work by laura agustin | No comments | print print

Next week I will be in Montréal for several events: a book launch, an anthropology conference and a Sex Work Café. English details after the French.

L’Alliance féministe solidaire pour les droits des travailleuses(rs) du sexe et Stella vous convie au SEX WORK CAFÉ!

11 November 2011 – 1830-2030 chez Stella (l’adresse sera envoyée par courriel)

Nous accueillerons deux sommités du mouvement de défense de droits des travailleuses(rs) du sexe, de Malmö-Copenhague et de San Francisco! Joignez-vous à nous pour une discussion sur la question de la migration des femmes et l’anti-traffic.

Laura Agustín, PhD, auteure de Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, connue également comme The Naked Anthropologist, nous présentera le fruit de ses importantes recherches.

Carol Leigh, travailleuse du sexe activiste et réalisatrice, nous présentera des extraits de son film Trafficking in The Media: Sex, Power and Representation (VO sous-titrée en français).

Le lieu est accessible aux fauteuils roulants par ascenseur.

Discussion bilingue mais les présentations de Carol et Laura seront faites en anglais avec traduction simultanée chuchotée – volontaires recherché-es.

Bienvenue aux enfants: il y a un coin de jouets et la surveillance peut être assurée par une rotation de responsabilité – RSVP.

Contact: alliancefeministesolidaire[at]gmail.com

***

Friday 11 November 2011 – 1830-2030 at Stella (address sent by email)

The Feminist Alliance in Solidarity for Sex Workers Rights and Stella warmly invite you to the SEX WORK CAFÉ!

We will welcome two international stars from the sex workers rights movement, coming from Malmö-Copenhague and San Francisco. Join us for a Sex Work Cafe that aims to focus on the question of women’s migration and anti-trafficking.

Laura Agustín, PhD, author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry, also known as The Naked Anthropologist, will discuss her crucial and influential research.

Carol Leigh, sex worker activist and film maker, will present segments from her work-in-progress Trafficking in The Media : Sex, Power and Representation (VO sub. french).

Wheelchair-accessible by elevator.

Bilingual discussion with English presentation by Carol and Laura and whispered translation to French – we need volonteers.

Children welcome: there is a play area where surveillance will be assured by a rotation of responsibility – please contact us to let us know.

Contact: alliancefeministesolidaire[at]gmail.com

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Lancement de Luttes XXX, Montréal: Travailleuses du sexe

30 October 2011 in sex work by laura agustin | No comments | print print

Les Éditions du remue-ménage vous invitent au lancement de

Luttes XXX: Inspirations du mouvement des travailleuses du sexe

de Maria Nengeh Mensah, Claire Thiboutot et Louise Toupin

Une anthologie qui présente différentes formes de résistance qui ont inspiré les travailleuses du sexe au Québec. Un appel à la justice et à la reconnaissance sociale!

Le jeudi 10 novembre 2011

17 h Cocktail – Un verre de vin sera offert aux 30 premières personnes arrivées

18 h Luttes XXX : Lectures et performances

Soirée animée par Maria Nengeh Mensah, Louise Toupin et Claire Thiboutot

Laura Agustín, Chercheure indépendante et écrivaine – Malmö-Copenhague.

Anna-Louise Crago, Stella – Montréal

Leslie Jeffrey, Université du Nouveau Brunswick – Saint John

Jocelyne Lamoureux, Université du Québec à Montréal – Montréal

Véro Leduc, Stella – Montréal

Carol Leigh, Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network – San Francisco

Julie Marceau, Alliance féministe pour les droits des travailleuses du sexe – Montréal

Sylvie Rancourt, Bédéiste et artiste peintre – Barraute

Mirha-Soleil Ross, Réalisatrice, performeuse et sex worker – Toronto

21 h Musique!

Dj Radikale & Dj Sam

Le jeudi 10 novembre 2011

dès 17 heures

au Royal Phoenix!

5788, boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal (coin Bernard, métro Rosemont)

en collaboration avec l’Institut de recherches et d’études féministes (IREF) de l’UQAM et le Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (CRSH).

rsvp avant le 7 novembre : info@editions-remuemenage.qc.ca

*Accessibilité : Le lieu et les toilettes sont accessibles aux personnes en fauteuils roulants

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Good intentions: what religions have, right? Nonsense on sex trafficking

26 October 2011 in trafficking by laura agustin | 5 comments | print print

 

So a bunch of clergypeople want to stop sex trafficking. Well, their expensive move against Backpage and The Village Voice is silly, and how much does a full-page ad in the New York Times cost these days anyway?

There are no rules of the moral universe because there is no moral universe, even about children and sex, not to mention about the exchange of money for sex. The idea that there is some absolute place where everyone will agree on morality is an illusion held by some people with little imagination, who universalise their own experiences. On top of that fantasy they build campaigns in which all other moral senses are turned into crime, sin and perversity. Shame on these members of the clergy for taking such a cheap shot, for ignoring the subtleties of what many people say about their own experiences with money and sex and for spending precious money on such promotional self-congratulation. Ashton Kutcher is clueless, okay, it is understandable. But the clergy?

There is no universal clergy either, for that matter, so I imagine there are plenty of people employed by institutionalised religions that do not appreciate this advertisement.

To add insult to injury, the Huffington Post, which is rabid on the subject of sex trafficking, has illustrated their story on this clergical error with a repellent photo of Demi Moore, an archtypal white saviour-lady, patronising a brown Indian lady. Rank colonialism, ghastly. Words fail.

–Laura Agustin, the Naked Anthropologist

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Teen prostitutes don’t want to be saved so they must be brainwashed, right?

20 October 2011 in sex work by laura agustin | 8 comments | print print

Psy theories brought to people exchanging sex for money (again) – child prostitution, so-called. We have already seen ludicrous psychologising in reports on Lithuania, and police confusion when migrant sex workers refuse rescue in India and China. Here it’s New York, and a new anti-sex-trafficking division, heaven help us. Law & Order will start a new series for this, mark my words (subcategory of Special Victims). My comments in green.

Teen prostitutes hard to save, cop tells City Council

Alison Bowen, Metro, 19 October 2011

New York City police say they are trying to rescue teens forced into prostitution, only to find that the girls often don’t want their help. A state law enacted last year considers prostitutes under the age of 18 victims, not criminals, and police are encouraged not to charge them with a crime.

But according to Inspector James Capaldo, head of the NYPD’s new anti-sex trafficking division, their efforts to help girls forced into prostitution are often spurned, he told the City Council at a hearing on sex trafficking yesterday.

So far so good, we know this happens all the time. But where do they go with this? To the cheap psychology department.

The teens are often terrified of being punished by their pimp, or they’re brainwashed into thinking he is a boyfriend, said Capaldo. They also often lie and say they are 19. “Sometimes they refuse to talk,” he said. “If it takes a man six weeks to put this woman in a situation, how do we undo that in 46 hours?”

Lots of people refuse to talk to the police all the time, but here we see how Rescuers use that fact to explain their failures. Brainwashing was the explanation heard at the BBC debate in Luxor, and terror-by-pimp is the idea proposed by social workers on an NPR show on child sex trafficking in Nevada. Not to say it never happens but you need to be suspicious when Rescuers need to justify their own jobs. See, this is a new unit on sex trafficking. They even imply that slowness is not their faults because they are undoing brainwashing. And in an age of cuts and Occupy Wall Street – shameful.

The teen prostitutes often advertise their illegal services on Backpage.com, according to the Brooklyn district attorney’s office. Earlier this year, in Brooklyn, a tip led police to “Jennifer,” 18, who refused to testify against her pimp. Instead, prosecutors found him through a prostitution website. He was charged with sex trafficking.

Is the assumption that a female under 18 is not capable of placing an online ad? Pure infantilisation of women, inexcusable. Check out recent comments from a lot of men assuming that women would be incapable of flying budget airlines to Amsterdam to sell sex and go home again. Excuse me?

Anyway ‘Jennifer’ was 18, so what is this detail doing here? Did Backpage.com force her to place the ad? Gah!

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Decriminalise sex work says Society for the Study of Social Problems

19 October 2011 in sex work by laura agustin | 3 comments | print print

An impressively coherent resolution on the decriminalisation of prostitution and sex work has come from the Society for the Study of Social Problems, which aims to promote and protect sociological research and teaching on significant problems of social life. They took this resolution in early October, which is written for the US context – one of the world’s hardest for people who sell sex. So despite the horrible reductionism and man-hating from people like Melissa Farley and Swanee Hunt, some mainstream folks understand the difficult complexity of this social problem and how to begin breaking it down: how pleasing.

RESOLUTION 3:  Sex Work

WHEREAS the criminalization of prostitution and other forms of sex work negotiated between consenting adults perpetuates violence and social stigma against sex workers, including by law enforcement, and prevents trafficked individuals from seeking medical care or protection from law enforcement and holding custody of their children; and represents one of the most direct forms of discrimination against women, trans individuals, and other gender minorities;

WHEREAS the criminalization of prostitution and other forms of sex work denies sex workers basic human and civil rights, including healthcare and housing, extended to workers in other trades, occupations, callings, or professions;

WHEREAS the decriminalization of prostitution would lead to safer working conditions and better health for both the worker and client, and allow workers to report nonconsensual activities to law enforcement without fear of being arrested;

WHEREAS the decriminalization of sex work would allow sex workers to enjoy their lives and livelihood without having to hide, and thereby seek and receive the same legal protections enjoyed by workers in other trades, work, occupations, or professions against crimes such as sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and rape;

AND BE IT RESOLVED that the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) supports occupational support and sexual self-determination for adults engaged in sex work;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that non-consenting adults and all trafficked children forced into sexual activity (commercial or otherwise) deserve the full protection of the law and perpetrators deserve the full punishment by the law;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the SSSP supports international AIDS relief that allows access to reproductive health for sex workers and renounces anti-prostitution legislation such as the APLO, or Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath, which prevents U.S. aid from being allocated to health organizations that provide medical support for sex workers;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the SSSP supports non-profit organizations that supply housing and other resources to trafficked individuals in the sex industry without mandatory, moralistic, ‘therapy’ or diversion programs;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the SSSP supports: (1) bipartisan legislation to decriminalize prostitution (2) public education regarding the costs of policing sex workers and (3) normalization of the occupation.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Sex on Sunday: Sex work and sex workers in new film on Mexico, Bangladesh, Thailand

18 September 2011 in sex work by laura agustin | 5 comments | print print

Most people don’t know what any sex-industry venue looks like apart from the street or someone’s bedroom viewed through a web camera. But even people who do know how some places look – where they themselves work, or where they themselves are customers – have little idea of what other sorts of places look like. Since I am a proponent of the cultural study of commercial sex, I like to disseminate things that show lesser-known kinds of people and places, so here are some clips from a new film directed by Michael Glawogger called Whores’ Glory (which I have not seen). The venues shown – in Mexico, Bangladesh and Thailand – are neither the most horrible nor the most comfortable. Try not to fall into generalising from these to whole countries or cultures, they are just random venues chosen for whatever reasons by the director.

We men are a commodity here – we supply the money, says one client here in Thailand. Observe how both sets of people are objectified in this venue.

They pay me and I enjoy it - A Mexican woman describes why she likes working.

Love requires money- A madam explains her career in a crowded Bangladeshi venue.

I wish we could hear more background sound and I wish we could smell the air, but I am glad at least that we can see and hear something of these places. And I don’t intend to launch into any reductionist ‘analysis’ of what are just small captured moments about whose origin we know nothing: how the director found these places, what he told participants, whether he compensated them in any way. And so on.

Oh, and the photo at the beginning is meant to depict a sex club located near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn – possibly now closed.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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