Sex In The Public Square - A Goodbye to Deborah Jeane Palfrey - Comments

I Too Am Saddened and Frustrated

WilliamC — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:49:09 -0700

I'm glad that Chris mentioned Ira Craddock, who is one of my heroines. Her work in the 19th century would be considered radical even today. The death of this young landy is just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many people who suffer at the hands of left-wing and right-wing moralists. It is really time for us to have conversation about sexual expression, sexual desire and sexual reality in the Public Square. Deborah Jeane Pelfrey is in my thoughts and meditations. I think the way to honor Deborah Jeane's life is to keep organizing for the rights and dignity of all people to make choices about their sexual identity, sexual expression with judgement or reprisal. Adios, Deborah Jeane. You have fought the good fight for all of us. Even if you were not consciously fighting a political fight. I think it is vital that the fight become more obvious and more political. THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL AND THE POLITICAL IS PERSONAL.

WilliamC

And thank you.

Chris — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:13:30 -0700

That means a lot, coming from you, Amber.

Thank you

Amber Rhea — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:55:41 -0700

Chris, this is beautiful.

Those are the only words I have right now.

Real radical feminism and moral urgency

Elizabeth — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:27:00 -0700

Chris, thank you so much for your post. I am glad, more than anything, that you so poignantly describe the real radical feminist need to take the shame away, to avoid hypocrisy and to support women, whether their work is sexual or not. It is so important that we do not concede the term "feminist" and so important that we see our work as morally grounded. It is.

It is about right and wrong.

Harassing sex workers until they kill themselves iswrong.

Shaming women who use their sexuality instrumentally is wrong, as is shaming men who seek sexual exchanges.

Conflating sex work, labor abuse, and trafficking is wrong.

What is right is expanding protection of labor rights and of basic human rights (including reducing inequality, providing support for the poor, and making sure everybody has health care, drug treatment and job training -- oh, yes, and jobs with livable wages) so that we can be more confident that those who do engage in sex work are doing so in conditions that are no more exploitive than most other work.

A Goodbye to Deborah Jeane Palfrey

Chris — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:40:08 -0700

As is true of a lot of people in the sex-positive community, I've been thinking a lot about Deborah Jean Palfrey's death this past week. I didn't know her personally, and never met her in person, so I can't speak of her death in terms of personal tragedy or grief. But grief and anger are what I'm feeling, because Deborah Jeane Palfrey's fate could have been written onto the lives of so many women and men. And the anger comes from the fact that it has, and it will be.

The real tragedy of her death, from where I'm standing, is not anything extraordinary about her story, but how common and familiar it is, to the point of being cliché. If the story of Deborah Jean Palfrey had been laid out in a novel or play or screenplay, I would be angry at having my time wasted by a writer who was unable or unwilling to rise above cheap hackery that was old and worn out in the days of the Victorian penny dreadfuls. But Palfrey was a real person, and it makes me sick and angry to think how often the lives of people who should live peaceful, untroubled lives are forced into old patterns.