Sex In The Public Square - sex - Comments

Liz Derrington's experience

Heather Derrington — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:46:26 -0700

What I find problematic is the fact that a university saw fit to intrude on the privacy on two students and a professor...this was a second job. The university will not pay Liz's bills...but they saw fit to pass judgement. So much for open mindness...the thing that really burns me was the gall of her dissertation advisor saying he/she/it would call the university where she had gained employment...wow, talk about stepping in it...there are legal ramifications there and I hope someone spoke to his RUDE and IGNORANT PERSON ABOUT THEM...their holy than thou attitude could have them their job...because of their BIG MOUTH.

Marriage in California

Elizabeth — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:31:18 -0700

Same sex marriages have now been legal in California for a full week. How is it going out there? Is the ballot-initiative work slowing down or speeding up? What kind of grass roots or online organizing is needed to make sure that it fails and marriage stays legal?

I understand your nervousness...

Elizabeth — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:38:00 -0700

I'm sorry to have missed this comment when it was first posted. It's been kind of crazy around here.

I totally understand your nervousness. I think the fact that it only takes a simply majority on a ballot initiative to amend the constitution is grounds for great nervousness. On the other hand, I suppose it is also grounds for some amount of optimism. Technically, I suppose, it means that the constitution can be amended very frequently should people decide to organize for change. Maybe this is a good reminder that people living in states with such simple amendment procedures should start combing through their constitutions for things that need changing.

And in California specifically it means that those who want to see equality protected need to organize voters in large numbers. Let us know if we can be helfpful at Sex In The Public Square. Unfortunately none of the site's founders are able to vote in California, but we are prepared to help mobilize voters there, to be certain! And California is our second largest source of readers after New York. Let us know what you need. And we'll keep following the story.

I'm nervous

papercutsandplastic — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:16:11 -0700

The court decision is really exciting! I wasn't in the Castro the evening it came down, but I hear it was a great party, a wonderful moment of community. It's the kind of thing that warms my hippie little heart and makes me feel a part of a great big family.

But as I said in my subject line, I'm nervous. I know that the Religious Right are really good at getting out their voters, and they will play with people's homophobia to get this ammendment passed. I'm worried that their tactics--which I think are lowbrow and hurtful but are nonetheless effective--might work to get California voters to put discrimination in our constitution. Which would obviously just be a shame. I love California, and I love living in San Francisco where people mostly have open minds. It would be so sad to see us pass something so...backwards.

Thank you!

Ducky DooLittle — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:25:43 -0700

Clits rule! (Thanks for the shout out. Very sweet.) xoxo - Ducky

Farley in Chicago

Michael — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:23:00 -0700

We became aware last night that a similar report to that published in Scotland, was going to be released shortly in Chicago, although we have not yet seen this. As in the Scottish study, it was produced in conjunction with a local group with a similar philosophy, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation. An article about this by David Heinzmann appeared in the Chicago Tribune today.

I agree that it's very

Adele — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:39:21 -0700

I agree that it's very important to deconstruct faulty, skewed "research" like this. Farley also has an article in the Spring 2008 issue of Ms. Magazine called "The New Abolitionists; Taking on the Global Sex-Trafficking Industry", which will serve to popularize her views that there's never consent in sex work and that not listening to the actual sex workers is "the" feminist response.

Not much more to say

Alyssa — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:21:26 -0700

But I agree so wholeheartedly with what's been said above. I was one of those who hoped that she would fight her conviction; I was inspired by her intelligence and strength in the interviews she gave. I am very sad to see this happen, and I think it's about time we did something to change the hypocrisy and idiocy of the laws that caused her conviction and, I think, her death.

I wrote about sex workers

Amanda — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:32:11 -0700

I wrote about sex workers who committ suicide earlier this year after a public arrest of a normal sex worker caused her to kill herself.

http://www.texasgoldengirl.com/afterhours/collateral-damage-from-the-war-on-sex/

A twisted sad indictment of our society

barkingstar — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:20:44 -0700

Her death is not an indictment of her, but of our twisted sad society, just as Brandy Britton's death was. Yes, Ms. Palfrey did make the choice to end her own life, whereas many probably hoped she would fight back against her conviction. It was probably too much for her to bare. These trials are less about justice than about political posturing. As with the disaster in Iraq, we are all casualties of bloated double dealing political con-men/women.

Rest in peace

Michael — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:34:19 -0700

I would also like to thank Amanda for those words. I think we are all unutterably saddened and frightened by this terrible tragedy.

"All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne (1572-1631). Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII

There will understandably be rage and fury, which we must channel constructively, but now is a time for mourning, for remembering and for coming together. Deborah Jeane's death is a great loss, but I think she would want us to also remember all those who have lost their lives, were brutalised or had their lives ruined through senseless prejudice and oppression. In particular we remember her associate Brandy Britton who lost her life last year. When five young women were found murdered in Ipswich in England less than two years ago, there was a public outcry about laws that made women involved in sex work vulnerable, yet no action was taken. When it was discovered that over 60 women in Vancouver's downtown eastside had been murdered there was an outcry- nothing happened. Will we let this continue?

As Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) wrote " Als sie die Juden geholt haben, habe ich geschwiegen.
- denn ich war ja kein Jude. Als sie mich geholt haben, hat es niemanden mehr gegeben, der protestieren konnte." (Then they came for the Jews,- but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.) Let us then remember a life and then rage against the dying of the light. But let us also ask ourselves, where were we? Were we there to protest, did we speak up against injustice, did we offer to help, were we we there in her last moments to offer help and sustenance?

Let Deborah Jeane's death be a call to arms, we can do no less.

“All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”

Albert Einstein

Now go here:

Emotional labour

Michael — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:38:00 -0700

The problems with this report are so many that it would not be possible to catalogue them all, rather it is important to look at the bigger picture of how these responses were obtained from men and how they were interpreted and reported, to demonstrate that one can deduce no new knowledge from it.

One objective appears to have been to provide a vehicle into which they could inject their largely erroneous interpretation of research in sex work. This demonstrates their remarkably facile understanding of sex work. For instance they attempt to compare men's assesments with that of the women, which led to headlines about 'deluded punters'. They never actually asked the women, but relied on an ideological position that women in sex work hate their job and derive no satisfaction from it. There are two major problems with this. The first is the fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of sex work, which Elizabeth alludes to, and has described in her research on strip clubs . This is work and the successful sex worker strives to satisfy her client, even if it is providing the illusion of a consensually satisfying relationship. Both partners indulge in a certain degree of fantasy. The other problem is that there is research on sexual satisfaction in sex work, for instance Anna Kontula' s paper "Sex workers view to sexual pleasure¹ ".

Finally this research is seriously compromised ethically, without any oversight or consent, or intent to benefit the population of men studied, in fact the opposite. There is no attempt at confidentiality, researchers were traumatised and most likely the subjects too, on learning of the deception. Unethical research should not be published, and indeed could not have been published, had they not resorted to publishing it themselves.

Updates

A consortium of researchers and other experts in sex work have submitted a critique of the report to the Scottish Parliament, and investigations are under way as to how public authorities funded unethical research.

Margo MacDonald MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament), has also written a critique in Scottish newspapers. Another article was published on May 5th in the The Scotsman.

^1. Seksuaalisuus seksityössä (In Finnish with English summary, as pdf . English translation in press, as 'The sex worker and her pleasure' Current Sociology ✦ July 2008 ✦ Vol. 56(4): 605–620)

I find it reprehensible that

Chris OSullivan — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:38:17 -0700

I find it reprehensible that academic professionals would marginalize and persecute an student for sexual misconduct that neither occurred nor was the concern of those involved in such conduct.

That a dissertation advisor who would otherwise claim to be a professional would abandon a student less than three months before her dissertation defense (due to allegations) has greater merit in calling for a conduct review than the original charges. This clearly can be construed as discrimination based upon sexual identity and should damage the reputation of the school as it failed in an institutional duty to the student to provide a non-hostile environment.

Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions about conduct, but to allow that to affect your professional relationship with a student is a moral and ethical failure in any measure of academic professionalism.

Thanks Heather

Elizabeth — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:22:25 -0700

Spelling has been corrected. Thanks!

This is a good follow up to

heather — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:06:13 -0700

This is a good follow up to the other articles and discussions I've read about this issue. I'd just like to note that the professor in question is named "Chavez," rather than "Chavaz."