Sheila IS my sister
May 23, 2009
Sheila Jeffreys IS my sister. This is a post in response to this ridiculousness here. If you support Sheila Jeffreys and her wonderful work against the sexual exploitation of women in prostitution please copy this graphic and past it into your blogs. If you don’t have a blog come and share your love in the comments here. Let it be known that there are plenty of women (including women who have been prostituted) who love and support Sheila’s awesome, radical and powerful voice. Let it be known that she is our sister and we won’t let her be silenced.
Radfem Hub
Gorgon Poisons 
I have been in prostitution and harmed by the sex industry, as have several of my friends, and I am inspired by Sheila’s work and I would like to see the end of prostitution and pornogrpahy – because the sex industry harms way too many women. I have just finished reading ‘the industrial vagina’ and loved it. I don’t think the pro-sex industry mob speak on behalf of most women in prostitution. I definitley consider Sheila to be my sister.
I could not paste it on my blog (so far) b/c of a file size problem. I might try later.
Anyway, Sheila Jeffreys IS my sister. 🙂 She’s a wonderful radical lesbian feminist. I love all her book, esp. The Lesbian Heresy.
I’m so glad she speaks out against the sexual slavery of so many womyn and girls in her latest book.
[…] 24, 2009 at 5:46 am (Uncategorized) via allecto’s post. Sheila is my […]
It saddens me that certain parties feel the need to launch such a public and personal attack on Sheila Jeffreys, without actually knowing her or being aware of the compassion and respect with which she regards ALL woman.
It’s heartening to realise though that this nastiness is largely driven by Sheila’s success- she has a voice and will continue to use it in support of the many women who have been harmed by the sex industry.
Sheila is certainly my sister!
Sheila is my sister.
Such an amazing woman, she does not deserve the crap that gets hurled her way.
Sheila is my sister too.
Thanks for posting this Allecto.
[…] Sheila is my sister too. Jump to Comments Thank you, Allecto. […]
I love Sheila. I wanted to post the link to the great talk she gave on Kate Millets book, but I could not get it to work.
Sheila is my Sister. Guiding light, and inspiration. She lifts me up when I am down. I can’t, of course, speak for Andrea Dworkin, but I would bet anything that Sheila was her Sister.
Sheila is my sister.
Did i missed hexys coronation? The one where she became the official spokesperson of all sex workers everywhere?
No? I didnt think so.
Hi Allecto, yes thanks also from me for posting this!
Sheila is definitely our sista
The work she has done so far is remarkable and not to mention her courage…
Shelia is my sister!
Allecto, please see http://thelongestwar.wordpress.com/.
Top post tonight is: Sheila is my hero.
Thanks for letting us know. I’m new to blogs (and not very technical), but wordpress seems to make it easy, and I have some time most weekends to post images. There’s no time to weed out what trolls would write in hateful response to what I’ve posted, so I’ve not enabled comments on the blog.
My blog is about the images of global misogyny, the media brainwashing, the appalling denial most people seem to have about man’s longest war, the battle for continuing supremacy over womankind.
You have no reason to trust me, but you can trust the images as being what they appear to be, because with your heightened feminist and artistic talents, you’ll resonate.
Allecto, would you have this picture available as a Jpeg file, by any chance? As I could not upload a Btm file like this one from my computer.
Otherwise, it would have been on my blog already (had it been a Jpeg file). I’m so sorry. 😦
*hugs* Allecto.
Sheila is our sister.
Sheila is my sister and a hero to me and many thousands of women throughout the world.
Thanks for this post, Allecto.
xo
Sheila is my sister too 🙂
I have worked in the sex industry and been damaged by it, and seen other women and girls damaged by it.
Sing it Sheila, loud and proud!!
Although I find it quite difficult that the words of academia are taken more seriously than the words of exited prostituted women – I am very saddened that Sheila Jeffreys is attack so much.
It does not surprise me though, for to speak out against the sex trade and to speak of harms that are the norms is to be ridiculed, threatened and often stalked.
To me, that shows the truth of the anti-sex trade argument, for the pro-prostitution lobby can can only fall back on mental and sometimes physical violence to uphold their propaganda.
[…] Read the background to this at Gorgon Poisons. […]
Sheila is my sister too! Thanks for posting, allecto.
Sheila is my sister!
[…] May 26, 2009 Sheila is my sister Posted by citywood under Feminism No Comments From allecto. […]
Sheila is soooo my sister!
Sheila is a sister and a bold fem.travellar. Her work and activism in defense of the rights of womon to be free from patriarchal tyranny are legend. Those who pretend otherwise are false and anti the cause of womonkind and should hang their heads in shame for their abject betrayal of their own sisterhood.
Sheila is my sister too 🙂 Thanks allecto
I finally managed it, Allecto 😀
see: http://supporterofwomensliberation.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/sheila-jeffreys-is-my-sister-too/
Hi, all. Just got pointed over here by another blogger. Didn’t realise this was going on.
I’m quite genuinely glad you’ve all gained so much from Jeffrey’s writings, and feel a bond of sisterhood with her. Seriously.
But Australian sex workers have demonstrated that we don’t. And my post, in this context, wasn’t about you lot, or about any other group of women or feminists. It was about Australian sex workers, and our anger at Jeffreys’ attempts to speak for us and inform policy that actively hurts us.
I have no objection to your show of solidarity, save for that it seems to have missed the point of the “ridiculousness” it claims to respond to.
Thank you, thank you! Sheila is my sister too 🙂
I saw that nonsense a week or two ago and I was soooo pissed. These “sex positives” use this tactic of claiming that you’re personally attacking them whenever you oppose some kind of sexual exploitation that they like – and then they come out with these kind of blatant personal attacks! The hypocrisy threw me even though I ought to have expected it. Thank you for this post!
hexy, you are assuming, incorrectly, that all the women who have expressed their support for Sheila in the above comments are not women who have been intimately harmed by the sex industry, whether it is here in Australia or elsewhere. Besides all women are harmed by the fact of women being seen as objects that can be bought and consumed as sex by men. Prostitution harms all women, especially women within the industry. Every woman who cares about women should be fully invested in bringing the buying and selling of women as sex to an end.
Allecto: I’m assuming nothing of the kind. Don’t put words in my mouth.
My post was an observation of the words, behaviour, and response to the sex-worker created bag by Australian sex workers attending the only Australian sex worker convention.
Every woman who cares about women should be fully invested in bringing the buying and selling of women as sex to an end.
Fortunately, the “buying and selling of women” has little to nothing to do with Australian sex workers standing up for their rights. But we both know this semantic game, and I’m sure neither of us feel like battling through eight rounds of it.
Rachel: I am not a “sex positive”. I am an Australian feminist and a sex worker.
Hexy: There is an implication, whenever pro-prostitution feminists mention organizations like Scarlet Alliance, that, since their membership is either comprised or claims to be comprised of prostituted women, they represent the views of all prostituted women. In other words, there is a tendency to characterize the prostitution debate in terms of a polarization between anti-prostitution feminists on the one hand and prostituted women (and their allies) on the other. This is just simply not the case. I’m not going to argue whether or not this was your intention, but I think it’s a common reaction of pro- and anti-pornography feminists alike.
I don’t know what “silencing” entails but tagging posts “Sheila Fucking Jeffreys” doesn’t seem very sisterly to me.
Oh and Sheila is my sister.
Hexy, if I were pro sex industry I would feel threatened by Sheila’s work as well, because Sheila points out the harms of prostitution (which affects all women).
Obviously, though, there is little point in getting into a debate about whether we do or don’t agree with Sheila and you have every right to criticize her work, but her writing has been empowering to lots of survivors of prostitution and other women affected by prostituion and pornography, and I think it is really inappropriate and juvinile tactics to use slogans that attack individual women and incite such hatred against a woman and to make her a personal target of your campaigns to the extent you do with the bags and other stuff. There are lots of feminists with similar views to Sheila. I don’t even think most women in the sex industry will have heard of Sheila or know what the f**k you are talking about, it’s about as relevant to most women in prostitution as having a slogan saying ‘Amazon Mancrusher is not my sister’ – if anything it may just make women in prostituion want to read Sheila’s stuff and Im sure many will connect with it.
Yep, not interested in a debate. And I agree that you have every right to disagree with Sheila and her work. But I would echo Bearded Lady and Amazon that attacking a fellow feminist in the way that you have is not a reflection of feminism or woman-centredness as I understand it. There are many women who call themselves feminists who’s views I vehemently disagree with. But I would never make and sell bags which disavowed those women as my sisters.
I’m not sure why, but I’m only getting email alerts when Allecto herself replies to the post. If someone addresses me and I fail to respond, this is most likely why.
Bearded Lady: I am not “pro-prostitution”. Please do not label me with terms I disagree with.
Scarlet Alliance membership does consist entirely of current or former sex workers, I can vouch for that.
And, as I said to Allecto, I did not assume and did not intend to imply that there are no sex workers or prostituted women “on the other side”, or who are fans of Jeffreys’ work. My objection is to the bit where people are ignoring that everyone who conceptualised, designed, handed out, and clamoured for those bags is an Australian sex worker. Every single person. That keeps being dismissed.
Amazon Man Crusher: I’m not “pro sex industry”, either.
but her writing has been empowering to lots of survivors of prostitution and other women affected by prostituion and pornography
I both accept and respect that. It doesn’t change the fact that her work actively harms other women. I’m afraid I’m not comfortable with me and mine being written off because someone else benefited from some other writing she did.
and I think it is really inappropriate and juvinile tactics to use slogans that attack individual women and incite such hatred against a woman and to make her a personal target of your campaigns to the extent you do with the bags and other stuff.
I disagree that rejecting her work and her claims to represent sex workers constitutes an attack, or that it incites hatred.
I don’t even think most women in the sex industry will have heard of Sheila or know what the f**k you are talking about
Victorian sex workers who have an eye on legislation (more than usual right now, since the legislation is under review) have a very good idea of who she is. So do many Australian sex workers who have even glanced at the Australian sex workers rights movement, or who participate at all with their state based sex worker organisation. Again, it is being ignored that the women making and jumping on these bags were all sex workers. They all knew who she was, and they all object to what she’s trying to do. I find it insulting that you’d presume most sex workers would be unaware of someone whose work has an impact on our lives and legal situation, simply because we’re sex workers.
if anything it may just make women in prostituion want to read Sheila’s stuff and Im sure many will connect with it.
They’re more than welcome to!
Allecto:
But I would echo Bearded Lady and Amazon that attacking a fellow feminist in the way that you have is not a reflection of feminism or woman-centredness as I understand it.
I still don’t see it as an attack. But if you do surely posts like this, calling my post “ridiculousness” (and the other insults that have been popping up) also constitute an attack? Surely the blog campaigns launched across the feminist blogosphere constitute attacks? Anti-porn feminists have hardly been innocent there.
Or, maybe rejecting someone’s claims to speak for an underprivileged group they aren’t a part of isn’t an attack, or slander, or anything like that. Maybe it’s just women sticking up for themselves and stating unafraid that they can speak for themselves.
There are many women who call themselves feminists who’s views I vehemently disagree with. But I would never make and sell bags which disavowed those women as my sisters.
Important note: the bags weren’t sold. They were made by and for sex workers, and provided free of charge.
~
Thanks for being civil, all. I appreciate it. It’s been a while since I ventured into the anti-porn feminist section of the blogosphere, but I vividly remember circumstances where people have not been so.
Ok, hexy, this is the last comment of yours that I will publish or respond to.
I still don’t see it as an attack. But if you do surely posts like this, calling my post “ridiculousness” (and the other insults that have been popping up) also constitute an attack? Surely the blog campaigns launched across the feminist blogosphere constitute attacks? Anti-porn feminists have hardly been innocent there.
Yes, you are right. I should have called it woman-hatred rather than ridiculousness. No, I do not believe that standing up for the rights of a sister to speak without being attacked, is an attack.
Sheila does not speak on behalf of, or for, women in prostitution. Rebecca made it clear in her comment that she speaks for herself. Sheila speaks as a woman against the sex industry, which is an industry that ALL women have a stake in bringing to an end. From everything that I’ve read, from the conversations that I’ve had, from the speeches that I’ve heard, Sheila Jeffreys is a woman who cares deeply about the rights of women being harmed in the sex industry. She is one of the few women who has the courage to say that women’s bodies are not for sale and that message benefits all women. She believes that women have a fundamental right not to be prostituted, not to be bought by men like so much meat, not to have their Selves defined as ‘whore’, or reduced to ‘cunt’. It does not surprise me that there are many women who are not able to respect the integrity of their Selfhood, the integrity of their bodies, when so much around us tells us that we are ‘cunt’ that we are ‘whore’. It does not surprise me that there are many women who are unable to hear what feminists like Sheila have to say when being against prostitution is called “sex-negative”. When women who are bought by men as sex call themselves ‘sex workers’. As if there is any logic in that. As if sex is a job. It is saddening but not surprising.
Anyway, I think we’ve both had our say. I am not interested in continuing this conversation.
So wonderfully put, Allecto. 🙂 Womyn were not put on this earth to be owned as sexual properties by men, whether in prostitution or in any other male-supremacist institution.
I should have called it woman-hatred rather than ridiculousness. No, I do not believe that standing up for the rights of a sister to speak without being attacked, is an attack.
Sheila does not speak on behalf of, or for, women in prostitution. Rebecca made it clear in her comment that she speaks for herself. Sheila speaks as a woman against the sex industry, which is an industry that ALL women have a stake in bringing to an end. From everything that I’ve read, from the conversations that I’ve had, from the speeches that I’ve heard, Sheila Jeffreys is a woman who cares deeply about the rights of women being harmed in the sex industry. She is one of the few women who has the courage to say that women’s bodies are not for sale and that message benefits all women. She believes that women have a fundamental right not to be prostituted, not to be bought by men like so much meat, not to have their Selves defined as ‘whore’, or reduced to ‘cunt’. It does not surprise me that there are many women who are not able to respect the integrity of their Selfhood, the integrity of their bodies, when so much around us tells us that we are ‘cunt’ that we are ‘whore’. It does not surprise me that there are many women who are unable to hear what feminists like Sheila have to say when being against prostitution is called “sex-negative”. When women who are bought by men as sex call themselves ’sex workers’. As if there is any logic in that. As if sex is a job. It is saddening but not surprising.
Exactly! When pro-prostitution folks portray us as “sex-negative”, for instance, it in fact means that we are against the whole narrow-minded, fetishizing, objectifying and degrading view of ‘what sex is supposed to be’. If I’m so “sex-negative”, then tell me why I do enjoy and dream so much about a NON-patriarchal womyn-centered vision of (lesbian) sexuality that preserves female well-being & selfhood? They’d only call me “sex-negative” just because I reject the patriarchists’ view of ‘sex’, a sexuality that disconnects womyn’s minds from their bodies and reduces them to being sex objects for men’s use. Mainstream sexuality is 100% male-centered. When you see pornography, you see through the misogynistic male gaze, i.e. how he views women. When you see & advocate prostitution as “work”, you’ve internalized HIS view that women’s work is to sexually serve HIM. HIS view of the world, too many females have internalized it unfortunately, to the point that only conscious unlearning of patriarchal socialization can break the chains. But one has to be willing for it though. Took a bit of time for me anyway…
Here is a quote from Rebecca’s blog on the johns (punters), those who buy women’s bodies for their sexual use:
Allecto, still lovin’ you. 😉
I am a sex worker. I respect the integrity of my body. Those two statements are not in opposition to each other.
I would appreciate it if you would publish one more comment, as I thought I had said this here but had actually said it in the comment thread at my own blog: I do believe that Sheila Jeffreys genuinely believes she has the best interests of women (or at least some of them) at heart.
I do believe that to attack Sheila Jeffreys, and others who speak against the horrific conditions that far too many prostituted women and girls have to live in, is to back the sex trade.
I do not believe that attacking Sheila Jeffreys does anything to improve those conditions. Instead, it give permission for the sex trade to carry on as normal.
That is to carry on with sexual torture, carry on with ignoring the raping of women and girls, carry on giving men permission to own a woman or girl.
Although, I would like that exited prostituted women were listen to more.
That people saw the conditions of the sex trade without having to shown by academia or a documentary.
That is unrealistic.
So I pleased that Sheila Jeffreys is placing in one place, what has been known by millions of prostituted women and girls for centuries.
It just shows that Sheila is on the right track if the sex industry activists are singling her out to have a go.
Sheila is my sister.
yes hexy, so the people who designed and sold and bought the bags are all apparently sex workers (assuming that no johns or otherwise interested peoples, say partners or parents of sex workers, or anyone else politically interested in supporting the sex industy were also at the convention to buy these bags, is that right?). however, even if every t shirt sold went to a self identifying sex worker, (which could just mean they talk dirty on the phone for extra cash, lets be clear that the phrase itself is murky as hell and could mean anything the self id’ing person wants it to mean for them, individually) that by no means means that australian sex workers are in agreement about hating sheila jeffreys.
i mean – you could sell a t shirt that read ‘sex workers love maccy ds’, or one that said ‘sex workers love vegans’, or one that said ‘sex workers love neighbours’, or one that said ‘sex workers think neighbours is shite’ etc. that wouldnt mean that those who designed sold and bought the shirt represented everyone else. theres a massive fail of logic here, isnt there?
sure, those women who could be arsed to turn up to the convention, who no doubt are a small proportion of those who actually identify as sex workers as opposed to prostitutes or dancers or etc, well some percentage of that already biased sample of the so called ‘sex worker’ population bought the t shirt. this would seem to be several layers of ‘biased sample’, wouldnt it? am i going insane or is this just basically quite a bit crap?
@v: Good point – the women who show up at a National Forum for sex workers are going to be those who identify as “sex workers” and hold a view of the industry which according to hexy I am not supposed to call “pro,” although I’m sure I can’t think of what else it could be called. The rest of the prostituted women, who don’t see themselves as “sex workers” or their interests as aligned with those of the industry, aren’t showing up to conventions to attack other women. So by saying that “Australian sex workers” are overwhelmingly excited to attack Sheila Jeffreys, that seems to me to be right along the lines of what radical feminists are always accused of doing, that is speaking for all prostituted women.
It’s really just propaganda to make any women in prostitution who do have the misfortune to go to those conferences understand that if they speak out against the sex industry, they too will be brutally de-sistered. I have experienced it and seen it happen to other women!
Andrea Dworkin wrote so many times that ‘speaking truth to power’ was/is a dangerous game….how right she was! The rapid growth in trafficking, prostituting and sexually abusing womon is staggering. Those who speak out whether involved in the trade, exiting the trade or just expressing their hatred of the trade are always targets to ensure they are silenced. Sadly it is other womon who are policing and attempting to silence womon who want to expose the vileness of using womon and girls as objects for male abuse for it can never be described as pleasure. Men who are the agents and procurers of these crimes against womonkind just sit back while womon battle it out.
What ever ones view, womon have a right to feel betrayed by womon who defend the abuse of womon and justifying such a foul trade as a ‘ womons right to chooses what she does with her body is a doomed argument witin the patriarchal project, no womon owns her own body!. Even if this is,’ a right’, then I am happy to work and campaign for that ‘so called’ right to be abolished and when womon through their hard work and commitment take on the malestrop establishment then they are a true sister to all womon, whether womon in question like it not….I ask any of you who are supporters of womon being prostituted how can that be right to have to engage with any godawful male unlimited times per day…how can those supporters even attempt to normalize such obvious abuse and violence…and then say ‘there is no harm’!!!!!
[…] Read about the details of this campaign at Gorgon Poisons. […]
amazon mancrusher – yep.
instead of attacking a whole load of women with these juvenile and insulting t shirts – “anti sex feminists”, oh hexy please do fuck off with that, seriously, you dont see any problem with that slogan? – perhaps some sort of sex workers against abuse and traffiking slogans might be a bit more useful, i mean if the point is to send a political message?
I got this message loud and clear, hexys group is more concerned with putting out anti feminist slogans and perpetuating a misogynist message (women who object to prostitution are anti-sex) than they are with confronting abuse of sex workers and rapes of those who are forced into prostitution. We can see the priorities right there on those t shirts.
Maybe we should congratulate them, they are after all wearing their privilege on their chests.
Sheila Jeffreys is my sister.
Prostitution is first and foremost about the entitlement of men to women’s bodies. Whatever profit or sense of agency or empowerment that falls to a few women involved in it is secondary (or tertiary, etc.), to the extreme. To say that pro-prostitution advocates and organizations care about the “rights” of those women who feel as though they get some benefit out of the trade is a misdirection. It’s first and foremost about the rights of johns (many of whom are also pimps and traffickers).
I mean, I can’t even believe hexy actually said that anti-prostitution work *harms* women! I don’t understand why more women don’t see that it’s no use fighting for “rights” for women that are tied to our continued subjugation as a sex.
[…] Hat tip Allecto […]
I just think it’s really interesting that Hexy says “I am a sex worker. I respect the integrity of my body” as though that’s what the argument’s about!
It’s not all about *you* Hexy, it’s about women as a Class and the way our bodily integrity – as a Class – is bought and sold by men.
Sheila Jeffreys is my sister.
hexy does not believe that “being against sex work makes one ‘sex negative'”, which means she has some smoking gun non-prostitutional reason to have reached her conclusion that Jeffries hates sex and is against the having of it. Probably from that interview Jeffries gave where she said, “My feelings on sex are that I hate it and am against it.”
Feminists who have written thousand-word blog posts dissecting how misogynistic terms like “sex positive” and “anti-sex” backhand women are seemingly too wedded to their need to be considered sexee to stop using self-sexying terms at other women’s expense. In theory they know it’s anti-feminist, but in practice being The Sexy Feminists matters more than rejecting divisive, sexist language.
she said, “My feelings on sex are that I hate it and am against it.”
Sam, I’m sure you already know she most definitely meant the mainstream patriarchal definitions of ‘sex’:
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/Porn/orgasmpol.html
~ Sheila Jeffreys
Sheila has, for a long time, opposed the patriarchally-defined sexuality based on objectification and a dynamic of domination and submission that Redmegaera talked about on her new blog:
Sam:
Feminists who have written thousand-word blog posts dissecting how misogynistic terms like “sex positive” and “anti-sex” backhand women are seemingly too wedded to their need to be considered sexee to stop using self-sexying terms at other women’s expense. In theory they know it’s anti-feminist, but in practice being The Sexy Feminists matters more than rejecting divisive, sexist language.
Exactly, I agree. 🙂
[…] to allecto. For an alternative perspective, click […]
whoops
of course i meant Jeffreys
I would like to reiterate the fundamental point made by allecto and witchywoo: the radical feminist analysis of prostitution does not address itself soley to the experiences of individual prostituted women but to the status of women as a CLASS.
For radical feminists like Jeffreys, prostitution is a patriarchal institution socially constructed out of male dominance and female subordination. The fundamental difference between anti-prostitution feminist and the sex worker’s rights movement is that anti-prostitution feminists believe that any institution based on the commodification, trading and selling of women’s bodies cannot be reformed. The idea of prostitution is incommensurable with our vision for a post-patriarchal society.
I made a similar point on Hexy’s blog. In self-promotion new, Allecto’s blog has inspired me to start my own! Thanks Allecto.
ex-Bearded Lady, now redmegara.
Red, I endorse everything you have said. The UK governments attempts at reform will be wasted because the fundamental issues are never addressed…the fact is mainstream society starts from the premise that prostitution is a fact of life, ‘the oldest’ profession and just needs reforming. There is no real debate about womon as a class and as such have the right to be free from all forms sexual exploitation.
The next thing we shall see here in UK is that prostitution will be offered by schools to girls as a ‘career choice’, already pole dancing is seen as a legitimate way to earn a living!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love the name Sheila 🙂 And Sheila J. is one of THE great ones!
Sheila Jeffreys is my sister.
Great thread Allecto.
I had not heard of her. Thank you for the introduction.
Sheila Jeffreys is my hero! She just rocks my world! Sheila is also a truth-teller. And you know how much that upsets the patriarchy! It throws such a wrench into the spokes of all those lies that patriarchy spins its wheels on.
Viva la revolución, Sheila!
I just discovered you blog, sister, and I love it! Not enough womon have the courage to speak out against male oppression. You are doing the Goddess’s work.
*edited: sorry, I don’t allow women to talk about other women like this on my blog.*
People who don’t know Sheila Jeffreys tend to fall into the predictable trap of believing the hysteria against her which is issued largely by the sex work lobby, academics that support Queer theory and people afraid and/or unwilling to resist male dominance of women and children.
Sheila has been my sister for a decade and during that time has challenged me, accepted differences in our views (usually after robust debate – what a relief to find someone who is capable of engaging in intelligent, robust debate) and has changed my life in ways that have been confronting at times, but ultimately healing.
I would like to share one recent experience because sometimes it is easy to forget the humanity of our sisters, such as the sex work lobby appears to have done with Sheila in this instance.
In early 2009, my home came under threat in the Victorian bushfires. The first people to call were my family and the second were Sheila and her partner who, at 10.30pm on Black Saturday, rang to offer me and my animals a place to live during the evacuation. For two days, they cooked for me, took me out, listened to the emergency radio droning in their kitchen, made me laugh and feel right at home.
Sheila is the most honest person I know, utterly without guile and deeply kind. She vitiates against male dominance from this place of deep kindness for women and I think that’s worth remembering.
[…] at Gorgon Poisons started a bit of a spat with sex-positive feminists with her post, Sheila IS My Sister about her support of anti-prostitution writer and activist Sheila Jeffreys. Redmegaera writes her […]
I was surprised and disbelieving when I read that academics of Queer Theory attack Sheila Jeffries. I can’t imagine they would or that that’s true. The ideas upon which queer theory is based, the ways in which it’s proposed we might see the world and those who live in it, mitigate against seeing anyone such as Sheila Jeffries as inimical; in fact, quite the opposite.
No one, that I’ve seen, anyway, has said what I think true about prostitution, that is, that it’s a form of slavery. And for those who would say that prostitutes are paid, I would respond that all of their money goes to the pimp, not they themselves. They’re given back, if anything, just enough to survive. The idea of the rich call girl is myth, or applies to a very few women who prostitute, the exceptions.
I see prostitution as slavery because what is true about both is that those who are slaves and those who are prostitutes cease to be seen as people. Their value is the body and how it’s used by the person who has bought them, whether long-term or by the hour. And secondly, their work comes from the economic structure of society. Slavery built the United States. Without slavery, the economy wouldn’t have survived those early days. And the current economy doesn’t allow women, as a class, to succeed financially. Even before the current crisis in the business world, women weren’t hired for jobs that paid well or allowed for significant promotion. When I was working in offices, it was common for women to have children but no husband, and to work not just two jobs, but three, all of them poorly paid.
Hi Allecto,
It’s been a while since we’ve communicated together. I run a new board for radfems and likeminded folks. You might wanna come over with friends: bring cookies!
I am a former sex worker who is anti-industry through and through. I’ve taken serious crap over my exposure of the pro-industry’s tactics to inflame and manipulate others to their ‘side.’
I’ve been called a ‘wounded animal’ by the very same pro-sex industry women who complain that us radfems don’t 1)listen to them; 2)slut-shame them and 3)deny their experience! The irony of this is amazing.
Here are some videos that all your readers will be interested in:
A pro-sex industry emotionally charged rant at anti-sex industry feminists:
My response video:
My truth about working in this effed up industry:
Much love and solidarity,
Diana aka Digital Dryad and my current blog Feminist Outlaw (on blogger)