Ok...I have spent the last few days trying to link my last 4 months of posts from one blog site to this..my original blog site. I don't know why I changed in the first place except I thought there were some added benefits to the "homepage" site but as it turns out it lacks one impt. thing for me.....links to other people's websites & blogs and I want to connect w/ other artists, sex workers, and in general give people some good sites to check out. I LOVE sharing information w/ people!!!So, my blog today is one of the events I attended (and partially participated in) while in Chicago last week. There is this old, well-established restaurant, Lincoln Restaurant (I think it was built more than 60 yrs ago or so in the Irving Park area) which hosts a weekly free speech forum "College of Complexes" and has been since Jan 6, 1951 (they display the date proudly on their fliers). In the subtitle section it reads "The Playground for People Who Think...sustaining the academic tradition of One Fool at a Time"...CUTE!
Anyway, I was invited by one of my new friends in Chicago to attend last week's forum "Decriminalization of Prostitution: a sex workers perspective" to be presented by a great speaker and member of SWOP-Chicago (Sex Workers Outreach Project- Chicago), Jackie. There were 4 of us known sex workers there at the restuarant and about 30 or so present and it was a pretty long evening of explaining the problem of keeping prostitution illegal, a question and answer session and then an hour of rebuttals by the attendees.
During the question and answer section I did both ask a question of Jackie- relating to filling up the courts and jails w/ people who consent to selling a desired service (sex) and the effect on families, children and our socieity in general to something we, Americans, CLEARLY want (otherwise why can't it be stopped?)- and answered a question from the audience- "Don't women feel degraded/disrespected by the men who call on them and isn't it so that these workers destroy marriages?". In my answer I stated, "No, I never feel disrespected because I get to screen people I choose to spend time with and turn down people I feel are not going to be enjoyable for me." and "No, if anything I think I am saving marriages, because wives cannot be everything to their husbands. Wife, cook, housekeeper, mother, worker and entertainer! I provide intimacy without fear of interferring and wrecking homes. The men who call on me are lawyers, doctors, accountants, ministers/preachers, traveling salesmen, and other nice white-collar careers."
During the question and answer section I did both ask a question of Jackie- relating to filling up the courts and jails w/ people who consent to selling a desired service (sex) and the effect on families, children and our socieity in general to something we, Americans, CLEARLY want (otherwise why can't it be stopped?)- and answered a question from the audience- "Don't women feel degraded/disrespected by the men who call on them and isn't it so that these workers destroy marriages?". In my answer I stated, "No, I never feel disrespected because I get to screen people I choose to spend time with and turn down people I feel are not going to be enjoyable for me." and "No, if anything I think I am saving marriages, because wives cannot be everything to their husbands. Wife, cook, housekeeper, mother, worker and entertainer! I provide intimacy without fear of interferring and wrecking homes. The men who call on me are lawyers, doctors, accountants, ministers/preachers, traveling salesmen, and other nice white-collar careers."
I think our presentation was well received for the most part, but of course there are always a couple people who thrust their moral indignation into the discussion and just cannot handle the sensitive nature of sex and just refuse to set aside judgement. That is ok. Not everyone can handle discussing much less THINKING about sex outside the monogomy box! : )
The funny part was the rebuttal period. We either gave such good arguments for our point of view or we were sitting in a room with "the choir" (which I think is more likely) and they got us. But the men were so funny......getting up to the podium and ranting for 3 to 4 minutes and backing up our case for decriminalization. One man said some gem like this "The most money I have ever spent was on my wife! The second most costly relationship was my mistress/girlfriend who required lots of money/gifts to stick around. The least costly woman I have ever had was a working girl. She told me what she wanted and I gave it to her and that was the end of that! She never bothered me and kept her professional distance." There was such a roar of laughter from the crowd. I joined in....it is sooo true.
I didn't stay for the entire hour since it was kind of late and we wanted to go out and meet up w/ some other fun sex workers at a bar giving away free drinks for an hour. I could care less about the drinks, but I didn't want to miss out on meeting up w/ some of the cool workers I met from the Desiree Alliance Conference last month.
The photo is from the night of the forum. I have blurred out faces to protect those in attendance.
PEACE & JOY,
xoxoxoxoxoxxo
Emma : )
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