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CLOSED: Live-blog response to Melissa Farley, Bob Herbert and the Mainstream Media bias against sex work
You know we've been challenging the Bob Herbert/Melissa Farley stories here, so I'm glad to be able to tell you about a "blog-in " over at Bound, Not Gagged where sex workers and their allies can respond to the mainstream media's reliance on distorted research on prostitution, its conflation of sex work and human trafficking, and it's reflexively anti-sex work bias. Thanks to Iamcuriousblue, of the Blog for Pro-porn Activism, who let us know about this in the comments on my Bob Herbert post.
Call to Action!!! ***Please circulate widely***
Who: Desiree Alliance and Friends
What: Live-blog response to Farley
When: September 17, 2007 Beginning at 3pm PST 6pm EST and going all night
Where: http://www.BoundNotGagged.com
Why: The mainstream media (msm) buys Farley's point of view without any care or concern for those who actually work in the sex industry. BNG is where sex workers go to respond to the media blackout that distorts and ignores our voices. We will put an end to Farley's lies!
Are you tired of 'researchers' like Melissa Farley using lies and manipulation to demon-ize your work? Are you sick of reading article after article written by journalists who go for all of her sensation without digging deeper for the REAL stories of people working in the sex industry?
Now is your chance to speak out! BoundNotGagged. com is hosting a live-blog event Monday, September 17th, 2007. Articles and blogs about Farley's recent visit to Las Vegas will be linked to the blog. These links are also available below. This blog event is an opportunity for sex workers and our allies to respond to the lies and hypocrisy that have dominated this debate! Please take a few moments this weekend to prepare a post that you can put up on the blog, respond to other posts and make comments out in the public arenas.
All sex worker comments and stories are welcome! Some angles that would be especially helpful are: critiques of Farley's research from experts (however one defines oneself as so,) stories from workers who have participated in Farley's research, stories of Farley's abuse and manipulation of international allies when researching in other countries, summaries and links to credible research, experiences from workers in Nevada, community-based peer research experiences, etc. Ideas for topics are below if you need a little inspiration, but please feel free to post anything you feel is relevant.
Current material is also on the site relating to Palfrey, Sen. Vitter, Larry Flynt and the on-going DC-Madam circus. Please respond and comment to some of those articles as well!
Details about how you can contribute are below!
From workers and allies we need:
1.) An RSVP (for the sake of ensuring that you have access to the blog in
advance) Just send me a note from the email address that you prefer to use that says "I want to blog on Monday at: (whatever time you can do it)" email: Stacey@DesireeAlliance.org
2.) Prepare (in advance if you can) one post that is your personal
reflections, experiences, opinions, concerns, etc relevant or related to any
of this news (since we've been attacked on so many levels, there are a
number of angles to take on this!) ***Please sign your handle name at the
bottom or top of your post. For some reason when there are multiple
contributors, wordpress doesn't do it for us.***
3.) Hang out at the blog for a couple of hours reading and responding to
news articles and other people's posts.4.) Spend some time commenting on other blogs or at news sites (links below)
5.) Link to your personal blogs from BoundNotGagged (if I figure out how the blog roll works I will get you hooked up that way, I will be spending the weekend figuring out how things work!)
Topics/Issues that may come up (there are tons more, just to get the wheels
turning):
A proper spanking for Bob Herbert
Farley's flawed research practices (especially highlighting the way that she
lies and manipulates to gain access)
Point to reliable research (especially Barb and Kate who are the real
experts for years living in the actual region.)
Oscar Goodman (ugh, that could go in many different directions)
Voices from women in Las Vegas (non-workers) Do you feel degraded just
because you are a woman in LV?
Underage prostitution- the real concerns, the real solutions
Challenging the 'trafficking' connection (can a woman of legal citizenship
be trafficked from a small town in another state into LV? Much much more)
Are the rates of sexual assault in NV truly higher than in any other state?
Could this be because the state exists so that people can come and get
intoxicated, lowering their reasoning and better judgment? Alcohol is served
24hours. It seems to me that the sw's have more clear boundaries than most
of the vacationers who are there to party)
John Miller- Farley paid by Feds in a biased ANTI-woman administration
Articles (all text available here):
Nevada Coalition Against Trafficking
Former Prostitutes Wage War Against Prostitution
Prostitution in Nevada Panel Discussion Held at UNLV
Bob Herbert:
(Below are multiple free online sources of the article "City As Predator," by Bob Herbert, originally published in the New York Times on September 4, 2007 -- Chris Hall, Sex in the Public Square)
Behind the Times
Green Pagan
Free Democracy
Akron Beacon Journal
Pasadena Star News
Franklin Now
Free Republic
Megan Edwards: Adventures in Vegasland (Commentary on "City as Predator")
Bob Herbert on "Times Select" Pay Service
Barb Brents and Kate Hausbeck:
Face to Face (4-part newscast)
**When you click on link above, pay particular attention to "Demeaning City?":
Outlaw industry, ex-prostitutes say: Researcher spotlights human trafficking
Defending/Attacking Las Vegas and Nevada:
And it won't get you tossed from the Senate either... (Las Vegas Gleaner)
Vegas the epicenter of North American prostitution? (KVBC, Channel 3)
Jeff Simpson on the recent attention to the local sex trade (Las Vegas Sun)
Reaction to Bob Herbert's columns (Vegas Pundit)
I guess Bob Herbert didn't take Oscar's baseball bat threat too seriously (LasVegasVegas.com -- Reprints Herbert's Sept. 8 column, "Escape From Las Vegas.")
New book: brothels as concentration camps? (Reno Gazette-Journal)
Defending sex workers:
Another Irresponsible Piece on Sex Work (Sex in the Public Square)
Prostitution/Trafficking/Goodman/Debates:
Let's talk about prostitution (CityLife)
Las Vegas mayor threatens to murder N.Y. Times columnist after anti-sex-trade column (Shakesville)
Consenting Adults and a Conservative-Liberal-Libertarian Split (Ex Post)
Panel: Brothels aid sex trafficking (Pahrump Valley Times)
Prostitution (Vice Squad)
Is Las Vegas really so bad? Column saying it's the city most degrading to women sparks varied reactions (Abigail Goldman, Las Vegas Sun)
Are rampant gambling, prostitution part of the image Las Vegans want to create? (Jon Ralston, Las Vegas Sun)
Mayor's leadership is ahead of its time (Letter to the Editor, Las Vegas Sun)
Book exposes harsh reality of Nevada prostitution (Taipei Times reprint of review from London Guardian)
Mayor's remarks not helping Vegas at all (Letter to the Editor, Las Vegas Sun)
The town pickled herring (Las Vegas Gleaner)
How Goodman views women is on display (Letter to the Editor, Las Vegas Sun
Links transformed courtesy of our HTML/CSS god, Chris Hall
Photo of London Sex Workers Unite protest by Emma Campbell on Flickr
Smear campaign?
Doesn't this sound like a plan for an online smear campaign? "Let's all get together and smear this person's reputation because we don't like what she says."
Can't we just focus on the issues and leave the smearing out of it?
Not really – just a much-needed response
The way I see it, the nature of Farley's research has a direct bearing on the issues. And if that research is going to be used to craft public policy and put laws into place that we're all supose to live by, then I think that in a democratic society, people have a right to quite ruthlessly question the nature of the claims that are being used to justify such policies and laws. Farley makes some sweeping claims as a result of her research, far more sweeping than most other researchers who done research on prostituion. The natural question then, is whether her research results are really as active as she claims they are. Especially given Farley's degree of access to the media and policymakers, which is far greater than other researchers have had.
A focus on the issues
I think a focus on the issues is exactly what is being called for here.
For example, one issue is that the mainstream media very often relies on flawed research or very narrowly defined research questions to then make broad claims about an entire population. When that happens, it is important for critical voices to speak up.
Another issue in the case of sex work in particular is that there is a great deal of variation in working conditions, autonomy, risk, and so on across the "industry." To take the situation of some of the most vulnerable sex workers and then use their stories to support overreaching claims about how exploitive and dangerous "all prostitution" or even "all sex work" is, is irresponsible at best and conscious deception at worst.
It is true that Melissa Farley's work will certainly be directly criticized during the proposed blog-in. That is precisely because well respected journalists and columnists, like Bob Herbert, have relied heavily on it without revealing to their readers any of its weaknesses. Readers need to know as much about her research as possible if they're going to be using it to formulate or support their opinions.
So is this a smear campaign? It doesn't sound like one so far, and I'd bet given the intelligence of the people at Desiree Alliance that it won't turn into one. It is a broadening of the discourse around sex work to include a range of voices and a critical perspective on the mainstream media and its sources.