Comments on: Invisible Men and Blind Curation

By: Iamcuriousblue

Iamcuriousblue — Tue, 27 May 2014 05:35:02 +0000

In reply to Robin D. I noticed this as well. Actually, Melissa Farley has been quote-mining 'Rent Girl' for years now, and I'm pretty sure that's where they got it from. I have no idea whether MT knows about it, but even given that her jaundiced view of clients, I doubt she's approve of this use of her words to justify the kind of legislation these people are pushing.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Tue, 20 May 2014 02:03:31 +0000

IMP is not art in any instructional or uplifting sense and is the lazy “exposure” of sociopathic feminism. Anyone can bully and harass sexworkers and many cowards do. What judgemental non sexworkers have to remember is that the patriarchy they so hate will come for them once they have removed their sexworker sisters. Hatred only begets more hatred. We need decriminalisation and respect for people’s life choices and if rad fems are so righteous lets sponsor their field trips to Saudi Arabia to experience absolute patriarchy and see how many women they can save.

By: Kathleen Treubig

Kathleen Treubig — Sat, 03 May 2014 10:39:57 +0000

There are all kinds of clients. I’ve had wonderful clients who appreciate the woman, the woman’s body and actually giving her pleasure too. I’ve had clients who were greedy misogynists who wanted their pound of flesh for their penny to the nth degree and wanted sex multiple times for the same dollar and got nasty when they were reminded that wasn’t the arrangement. As in any business, there are all types of clients. However, I resent the mask of the “Invisible Man” … how dare anyone assume the “john” is an invisible man or a victim … you get what you give. If you treat the woman with the consideration, you get the same thing back. The person who is really “Invisible” is the sex worker. The sex worker is only visible as an object of social indecency and not as a person with feelings, a brain, constitutional rights. The sex worker deserves decency. The “Invisible Man” is b.s. and they/he should take off the mask.

By: Robin D

Robin D — Fri, 02 May 2014 19:51:59 +0000

In reply to Caty Simon. I just didn't get where the "orgs" thing came from, I don't know of any sw orgs that concern themselves with review culture since yeah there's a lot that should and rightly does get priority.

By: Caty Simon

Caty Simon — Fri, 02 May 2014 19:46:32 +0000

In reply to Bubbles.

Yeah, it’s from Rent Girl, and it’s absolutely out of context. I wonder if Tea knows about this–wouldn’t it be a copyright violation?

By: Bubbles

Bubbles — Fri, 02 May 2014 18:45:34 +0000

In reply to Robin D. I noticed that Michelle Tea quote, too, and I suspect the curators just decided to post it on the wall free of context.

By: Robin D

Robin D — Fri, 02 May 2014 18:43:59 +0000

What’s this about organizations and the Scarlet Alliance? That is so confusing. Like TAS is an organization? It’s a blog. Or did the author mean IMP, which is an org but not a sex worker one? Anyway in the U.S. the sex workers who rely on reviews are more like the “middle class” – not the bottom nor the top tier. However people in most all strata can wind up with reviews anyway, whether they’re aware or not or become aware of them later or become so when they move strata or whatever else. But that’s way beside the point as far as orgs because they aren’t involved. This website could surely use some more viewpoint diversity and diversity of gender, race, trans status, orientation, experience, etc. but I’ve watched that keep getting better. And WTF with the Michelle Tea quote? Michelle Tea is not an anti by any stretch? Is that what nada was talking about? Michelle Tea is famous for “Rent Girl” and “Valencia.”

By: nada

nada — Thu, 01 May 2014 10:04:45 +0000

Was that deliberate to use Michelle Tea’s paragraph picture ? It’s like a knife on the side of my stomach everytime I think about this.

By: Estelle Lucas

Estelle Lucas — Thu, 01 May 2014 10:01:47 +0000

In reply to Scarlet Heart.

Those sex worker who rely or even bother to look at review websites I’m going to assume (and yes this is a completely unfounded assumption) are those sex workers who have the freedom to really choose the circumstances and context in which they engage in sex work.

With that in mind, organisations such as Scarlett Alliance (the leading body here in Australia, which is not government founded and has limited recourses) focus on the dire needs of sex workers. The needs of migrant workers, things like education, community support, contacts, sexual health awareness, avenues for sex workers who suffer abuse, harassment or even coercion within their workplace. I wouldn’t want them to bother with the needs of a worker like myself who is merely irritated by review culture and who has the means to set up shop if it all goes bad online. Other workers like me suffer a cyber bulliness through the review culture – but given the circumstances and the needs of others, I’m happy for them to do what they’re doing because they are doing a pretty good job for those who need it more.

With that all considered, yes I agree and fair point, male driven review culture needs some filters. But that’s a battle that we can do engage in by writing and raising awareness . This is a battle that we pick as sex workers, as individual sex workers, it’s not a battle I would insist we persist as a whole.

I wouldn’t expect the leading organisations to bother with something like this, not when we have the means to discuss it ourselves. And we especially don’t need outsiders to assume our position as a whole or to vilify us in the same manner as our clients. Being degraded once doesn’t mean it’s fair game for others especially when it’s to their own agenda.

By: Caty Simon

Caty Simon — Thu, 01 May 2014 02:46:23 +0000

In reply to Scarlet Heart. Yeah, I agree that perhaps saying that misogynist reviewers are a "trivial" problem may have been a dangerous understatement.