“If You’re Against Sex Work, You’re A Bigot: How Anti-Sex Activists Use the Tactics of Homophobes and Racists To Marginalize, Criminalize, and Oppress Decent People” written by APAC Vice President, Conner Habib, shows a direct comparison between anti-porn/anti-sex work activists and other bigots.
The tactics he cites are:
- Distort and Destroy Consent
- Create a framework of good vs evil.
- Cherry-pick voices.
- Play the victim while holding the power.
- Create apocalyptic urgency.
The essay exposes the ties between anti-sex work activists, the media, legislators, and police, and urges sex workers not to engage in debate when attacked by these activists. Instead, it suggests, adult performers should deal with them like any other type of bigot, by protesting, shunning, and dismissing.
Here’s an excerpt:
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Does this rant from an anti-sex activist sound familiar?
“The insistence that there’s nothing unusual in ‘work’ that involves male strangers penetrating your body and ejaculating inside of you goes right along with the ‘sex positivity’ popular with young Leftists. Women are likely to sustain injury (vaginal tearing) during heterosexual intercourse if we are not genuinely aroused (rather than performing for an audience); we are more likely to contract infections and diseases than our male partners; we are more likely to be harmed by male sexual partners (who are almost always larger and stronger than we are); and we are 100% more likely than our male partners to face unwanted pregnancy.” —Anti-sex bigot (CITED IN ORIGINAL)
Compare that to this from a video called “Medical Dangers of Anal Sex” posted by Christofer L, an antigay Christian You-Tuber:
“Let’s look at some simple biological truths… The rectum… [is designed] strictly for the removal of waste, moving it outward away from the body. This is why the blood vessels in the rectum break when a phallic object goes against the natural flow of movement by its muscles. Believe it or not, this causes rectal/anal damage. Many sexual experts and medical personnel discourage anal sex because of the danger… Safe sex? Mechanical damage to the rectum will happen regardless of the safe-sex measures.”
Same gesture, same hate, same simplifications.
When it comes to sex work, professionals who are generally invested in keeping their bodies healthy often know better than most how to avoid damage. Sex-worker-advocacy groups provide sexual-health resources, like the Adult Performer Advocacy Committee’s Porn 101 video and in-person services like the sex-worker-operated St. James Infirmary in San Francisco. And sex workers aren’t repeating the same sex acts over and over. Many clients want different things.
The deeper problem here isn’t that there is no such thing as rough sex or anal tearing. The problem is moral crusades like these dressed up in science.
Here’s porn performer Stoya addressing this on her Twitter feed in June of 2015:
“Performing in porn is work that you use your body for. Maybe the upper & upper middle class should also examine their ideas about manual labor? My grandpa destroyed his back as a stone mason. A football player might get tackled. Sometimes at work, I injure my cunt.”
Biological “proof” stuff is nothing new for bigots. In the early 20th century, bigoted scientists argued only certain groups of people should be allowed to procreate. It was quite a sensation: Race-mixing would create undesirable babies with repulsive characteristics that would erode society.
Take out the factor of having a baby: Only certain people are allowed to have certain kinds of sex with certain other people. If we don’t obey this “scientific” maxim, we’ll have a class of damaged people and a society that’s falling apart at the seams.
The “damaged pussy” argument is eugenics for anti-sex bigots.
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#antisexwork #antiporn