there goes the neighbourhood

There's so much involved in this issue and I'm not 100% confident I have the brain to express it all. But I'm going to try.

Street-based sex workers have been getting targeted by the general public, the media and predators (I know, I know, it's hard to tell the three apart sometimes...) in Islington, near the Hunter Valley here in NSW lately.

A forty-plus year history of street-based sex work is being called on to be shut down, and no cry of "clean up the streets" is complete without rampant stereotyping, Church involvement, moral outrage and... an increased incidence of assault against the sex workers at the heart of it all.

Yes, that's how the morally upstanding and ethical citizen handles an increased awareness of the hookers in his local neighbourhood: he rapes and assaults them!

What the hell is up with that?

I'll tell you what the hell is up with that: media coverage hysterically denouncng sex workers, dehumansing and condemning them, revealing widespread opinion that they're regarded with disdain and contempt by "normal people" convinces your average revolting predator that these are not people the world cares about and so are fair game. No one will respond if their rights are violated; they won't be heard and so the predator will get away with it. In fact, the predator probably considers he's done society a bit of a favour.

Not that the local conservative press reports anything about the dirty whores being abused though; they had it coming! That's been reported by the outreach worker from the local area - in the past 3 weeks, since the furore has been building, she's heard of four incidents of violent asault/rape and states that she has not encountered such a high level of violence in her role before.

But who cares about them? Worthwhile people are being inconvenienced here!

So inconvenienced how, exactly?

The righteously indignant will assure all and sundry that hookers are frotting in innocent people's front gardens, flinging loaded syringes about willy nilly and assaulting anyone who gets between her and her "trick".

In truth? Most street workers prefer to conduct their work discreetly and generally have places they prefer to take clients that they know is secure and private. As for the accusations of intimidation and harrassment - seriously? We're really expected to believe that?

I find it hard to believe for the same reason I find it hard to believe sexual activity is happening openly:

Sex workers are often the subject of stigma and discrimination.

Stigma and discrimination? Generally makes life a lot harder for people it's targeted towards to go about in a peacable way. Just ask anyone who's had to live with it. People... interfere. They harrass you. They insult you. They disregard you. Sometimes they hurt you.

Yeah, see, I'm not getting a whole LOT of motivation for the street workers of Islington to be all out and in the neighbourhood's faces about their work right there.

There's a disparity of power here, that's probably also integral to the indignant residents of Islington characterising this situation, and that disparity of power is NOT in favour of the sex workers. Do I need to draw comparisons between this and the old "all gays take drugs and have AIDS" or "all black people are violent criminals" stereotypes and similar hysterias around that rubbish that has occured in the past? I mean, are you with me on this? I don't want this to be freaking Marginalisation 101 here.

Newcastle MP Jodi McKay said the meeting was an opportunity for people to put their views on several potential measures.
She said these included setting up a designated sex-work area, increased policing, traffic changes, and improving street safety and cleanliness.

Yeah, GREAT idea there - just stable all the whores together so everyone can further Other and marginalise them and all the predators can capitalise on that and it can become a little tourist zone where all the nice, respectable people can drive through and gawk for Saturday night giggles.

Also, um, did the supposed sex worker in that photo give her consent for that image to be used? I'm going to guess, oh, leesseee.... NOT.

Yeah, memo? That's NOT okay, actually. I realise you see sex workers as subhuman, but it's still nice to get permission.

Behind the house of an Islington family my wife knows is a lane that is used by the prostitutes who work Islington's streets as a toilet. They defecate in the lane - hey, this is a blog - they crap in the lane, and jammed in a gap in a fence is a rag they use to wipe their bum.

Really? You've all gone down there and watched, have you? I hope you paid them something at least, you perverts.

Seriously, this kind of violently dehumanising characterisation makes me sick. Where's his proof?
To me this smacks of the old, tired association of whores with filth. I can already see it - some busybody has heard a few girls sharing a joke in the lane, has gone stickybeaking and has seen a rag jammed into the fence. Hey, there may even have been poop, who knows. It doesn't mater, even a middle-class busy body can add two and two and get five!

There's also a classism here that is really severely detached from the reality of life on the streets. Whilst I really doubt there's a communal rag that just hangs around for anyone to use, people I've known who've lived on the streets either routinely or for certain periods of their life, have openly discussed the fact that whatever materials are to hand will do instead of toilet paper. That's what happens when there's no easily accessible toilet facilities and you don't have a home to go to. Oh yeah, and those materials? Don't get reused.

I'm not saying this is the situation for the sex workers this ass supposes he's writing about, but of course he hasn't considered anything else might be involved here.

Also, I love the way he is associating hookers with deliberately "depraved" behaviour. Yeah, actually, given the choice? Most people, regardless of who they are, will take functional toilet facilities, actually. They're not doing it - supposing they even truly are, and I kinda doubt that - just to insult your wife's friends, mate.

Nearby are the pimps, ferals on BMX bikes often,

Look, Jeff, mate, I hate to out you as a client but it's the only way I can figure you know those guys are pimps and not just part of the local colour.

Seriously, this stereotype is so fucking American. Pimping is barely, barely a presence in the Australian sex industry.

You know, on that, I've yet to meet or encounter an American sex worker with a pimp.

Commenters on the articles (the various ones linked) are indicating the neighbourhood is quite a diverse and alternative one, suggesting to me this moral outrage is actually a symptom of gradual gentrification, rather than their upstanding neighbourhood being overtaken by debauchery. I'd be interested in hearing more about this. Certainly this commenter seems convinced (scroll to comments):

nice one guys....buy a cheap house becuase of the issues, then get rid of the problems and sell a expensive house. How dare you threaten to take money out of my pocket cause that's what you would be doing if you sue the council. You guys knew what you were in for when you bought a cheaper than average inner city home...live with it

But back to my pal Jeff....

As I ride my bike through Islington on some Saturday mornings between 6am and 7.30am they're there, prostitutes and pimps; they're there during the day; and they're always there when I've been driving at night.

OH MY GOD THEY'RE FUCKING IN THE MORNING! BUT THAT'S WHEN CHILDREN ARE AWAKE!!! NO! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

On another note... Jeff, you're... driving around the hookers an awful lot. Just "when [you've] been driving at night", eh?

You just dig fresh air and late night aimless drives do you?

Wait, am I making assumptions based on vague and cliched data? I am? Well, we can't say you didn't teach me anything in that case.

Thanks, Jeff. It's been real.


Moving on.

She said she had been working with the council, government agencies and sex workers' advocacy group ACON to identify plans to tackle the matter of sex work in Islington.

Well, Islington sex workers may as well roll over now if ACON's on board. They're fucked. Fuck you, ACON AND YOU'RE NOT A FUCKING SEX WORKER ADVOCACY GROUP.

That said, if the outreach worker up there is from SWOP NSW - she seems kinda awesome so with her on their side they may get a decent outcome. I wish her all the best with her endeavours cos I know she's extremely distressed by this situation.

And from the comments on that last article:

This is all a very strange business. Islington is booming, property prices are high, the suburb is so much better than when I purchased my house in about 1980. Prostitution is lower and there are far less issues. The best way to reduce prostitution is to help the street workers with their issues like housing, gambling, education, child management and drugs. The considerable number of residents who are clients should not be overlooked.
Posted by Bigfeller on 5/03/2009 9:34:39 AM

Interesting... still reductionist and marginalising, but at least the crazy pants are off. Thanks Bigfeller.


WE'RE HEADED FOR CHAOS!!!

THE prostitutes in Islington can't work from legal brothels, as they will not be allowed to do so ("Uneasy streets" Herald H2 7/3).
They are either drug- or alcohol-addicted or under-age, and the brothels exclude them, rightly.

Um, you know I hate to keep on asking this but... where's your fucking proof? Seriously. I mean, is Islington a town of detectives conducting impeccable and highly intimate investigation into the detailed lives of these sex workers? Or have they just watched too many episodes of Special Victims Unit?

Also, what the fuck? The brothels will "rightly" exclude them? So what's your solution, genius? You don't want them on the streets and you don't think they deserve to be in brothels. So how are they supposed to work?

I shouldn't have asked...

Alcoholic and drug-addicted mothers have babies to strangers and are allowed to give birth to damaged children. Enforced sterilisation is the only answer.

Hookers and junkies: just like animals, in a way!

I don't even know how to go on, after that.

There is some balm for this gaping wound. An anecdote shared by another worker in response to this issue. Formerly a brothel worker, she noticed walking her way to the parlour, befriending the women and even renting a room from one of them, that the Islington sex workers were making stacks more money than her, chose when and how they worked, had no overheads and never had to deal with stupid brothel owners.

She ended up quitting brothel work and starting anew on the streets.


I fucking love those stories.