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more sex workers as politicians? why not?
It was interesting to see the parallels of issues between the Gay Rights movement and of Sex Worker rights. One line out of the movie has stuck with me ever since, “We need one of our own in office to look out for out rights.” or something to that effect. Don’t we as sex workers need one of our own in office? We have plenty of activist groups out there, why not take the next step by having a former sex worker run for office of some sort? How can we expect to change laws or affect people without physically being in office and changing things ourselves? A few months ago Stormy Daniels, a very popular mainstream porn star, was drafted by a political group to run against David Vitter (aka Diaperman Vitter who was involved in the D.C. Madam case). The political group, named DraftStormy figures that having someone working for the U.S. Senate without any hypocrisy about family values would be better than Dickhead Vitter, your typical conservative republican with a buttload of skeletons in the closet. The media of course portrayed the story as some type of political stunt, but I guess someone has taken her campaign seriously, enough to blow up her campaign manager’s car. Another point that kind of surprised me was the fact that Stormy was actually concerned with raising campaign funds. You’d think that the mainstream porn crowd would come to her aid, since they’re supposedly political enough to try something like this, why wouldn’t they contribute to having one of their our own in office protecting their our rights? Audacia Ray posted a blog on her lessons from a year in professional feminism. One point she made was about American sex worker collectivism,
Why not elect a former escort to office to fight to decriminalize prostitution? Why not elect a porn star to office to fight against censorship? Politicians are supposed to reflect the voice of the people, or so I thought, and it seems like for the past few decades we’ve been letting the gov’t get away with a lot, from the “patriot” act, to the war on Iraq to lett Fox news decide that Bush was actually the president. When are we going to decide that this is a people’s government? When are we going to decide that its time to elect people that reflect who we are? Then again, maybe closted, hypocritical, bible thumping, lying, and cheating representatives are perfect for us. Perhaps they really do reflect the American people right now. Why else would we let them run the country and affect our lives? 13 comments to more sex workers as politicians? why not? |
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The other day I watched Milk with Sean Penn, which is a movie based on Harvey Milk’s political career in San Francisco as one of the first men to be an openly homosexual politician.
Not quite what your proposing but in Australia we have “The Australian Sex party“.
They have been successful enough in the polls that they are still around and at the least balance out some of the more puritanical view espoused by some of the small right wing puritanical christian parties. From their mission statement:
The Sex Party is fed up with wowserism in Australian parliaments. It is frustrated by the lip service paid to gender equality and sexual identity by the major parties when real and meaningful law reform stalls on factionalism and behind the scenes handshakes with religious leaders.
Basically what I’m trying to say is why not have sex workers in politics, involved first hand so we can write the laws we want to see enacted.
Jessi Winchester (former brothel worker) ran for state office in NV. Forgot which office but she seriously ran. And Norma Jean Almodovar ran for state office in CA. It happens but not often. It’s something I’ve wished for!
Problem is, sex workers are usually way too ethical to be successful politicians.
XX
“Problem is, sex workers are usually way too ethical to be successful politicians.”
hahaha, ain’t that the truth.
Hmm..I’ve been reading your blog for years now but I think this is my first comment. Anyway..
I was going to mention the Australian Sex Party too, which grew out of the Eros Foundation which is asex industry lobby group here in Australia.
I totally agree with you about the importance of getting sex-workers into office. There are a few different approaches to this challenge from what I can see, ranging from setting up parties like the ASP to campaign for sexual freedom to trying to get sex workers onto mainstream party tickets. Personally I think the whole range of approaches are worth a shot. At the very least that attempt will start a debate in wider society and may even force a change in the socio-political climate around sex and sex workers.
On the other hand we might be looking at this the wrong way. The REAL question may be how do we get more politicians to become sex workers? ;p
Sequoia:
Agreed with most of your blog concerning sexworkers being in politics. Also agreed with you in general about Bush’s policies concerning “The Patriot Act” and the war in Iraq which was unfortunetley supported by a majority of the Congress. One thing which I beleive you are wrong on however is that Fox News did not decide that Bush was President but, that the Supreme Court of the United States did, during Bush’s first contested election against Al Gore.
Interesting topic… (am new here and curious).
Personally i guess that having one of ‘your own’ in politics would work, but it would still be one agains…. (how many).
It just takes one step though.
I’m trying to take a link to The Netherlands (small country by size) in Europe. Here protitution is legal (sex workers even pay taxes) and so is porn(making) (excusez le mot).
This is not a result of having a (former) sexworker in politics (though these days there is a kind of union for sexworkers
), but due to in general laissez faire state of mind (in short as long as you dont Bother me with whatever you do, i wont bother you either). But how a liberal state of mind can be achieved in the US? It all starts by education and knowing whats going on in the world (also outside the U.S. borders).
One tricky part of the legalisation however is the forced prostitution. How to put some sort of contro on that. Politics and internal affairs are busy with that, but still a long way to go. When is someone acting free and when are they ‘force to’.
Hope i made any sense at all
, but as you might be able to make out english isnt my mother tongue.
Oh man, I hate disagreeing with you, cause I think we agree about most things, but…
I think that the government isn’t going to change from the inside, it’s going to absorb and change people who get inside it. Just like a forest. And if the government legalizes sex work, well, it would be good for me but they would still be killing the world. Which, you know, we all need. So while I’m down for all kinds of activism, anything that might make a difference, I think the answer is really to resist and not participate in the manipulative farce that is the government.
Hmmm interesting topics Tara.
We do seem level on lots of things.
Politics can be a farce, though it does depend a lot on which government en country. Unfortunately there are few that are open in any way. I am glad that in my country things are pretty good compared to many other countries (dont misunbderstand theres a lot, and a lot to be improved here too).
I do disagree about the not participating. There ar emany ways to participate. Democracy (true democracy) has a way through enough votes. The thing always is are there enough people that feel / think the same way you do…
.
In general it has more to do with a state of mind of people. Accepting differences (or rather seeing lack off between people) and stop living in fear.
There are two very good sayings:
1. What you dont want done to you, dont do that to another (crooked english sorry)
2 From the bible: He (or she) who is without sin, throw the first rock. (ie who are you to judge on someone else, are you yourself so clean from ‘sins’?).
If we all could just live by that… wouldnt the world be such a lovely place
.
I think, aside from Stormy (who is doing a great job representing sex workers as political candidates so far, in my opinion), we could in the next few years/next decade seriously see more current or former sex workers running as Libertarian candidates, as mayors or state and local Congressional representatives of some cities and states…
It’s probably a few decades out before we have our first sex worker president, but who knows… Look at how far the marriage equality movement has come in a fairly short amount of time. (Still not nearly far enough, but in 1996 we wouldn’t have predicted that gay marriage supporters would be a major political bloc worth catering to in 2006…)
I think Sabrina is on to something. Sex workers are the perfect people to run for Libertarian candidates. Afterall, they are screaming about getting our rights back yet in the last century sex workers have had their taken away under the pretense of morality; standards of which are supplied by the same church that state is to be separate from. In that same light: Why was abortion ever an issue? Prohibition? Weed? Prostitution?
Reading the constitution and Bill of Rights should be mandatory reading for Americans. One would see they were perfect intruments in their original form. By reading them a person would actually have an intelligent reference point to argue for their rights and the rights of others.
The gay rights movement was fast and furious because they had an adhesive tenacity to get things done. Every issue is about the people sticking together and fighting for the rights of others, even if you don’t like them.
Our govenment spent over $100million to get the details of Clinton’s blowjob. The government could buy all of Sequoia’s DVDs and online stuff and still get those details and more for about one hundreth of a cent per member. Now that’s a fuckin’ taxpayer bargain!
We could send a strong message to government if everyone wrote their favorite sexworker and told them they would support their run for any public office. This country needs a real grass stain movement.
Just wondering…
You made the link from milk to sexworkers. Does that mean you consider sexwork liberation more important than global (or national) organic and green production?
Or am i mistaken making a link like that?
It would take a very sexually mature society to elect a sex worker to office. In order for that to happen our culture needs to shift away from all the religious dogma that oppresses biology. Given that technology is helping to bring all of our “nasty” little urges to the surface, the thought of a sex worker elect might become a reality sooner rather than later. I’d give it 50 to 100 years.