I’m am hoping Margaret your views and passion help to balance articles like this written by Sarah Ditum.

Please do feel free to contact me if I can help with anything 🙂

I’m a bit confused by this to be honest. You write, “when you write about sex work, keep your allegiance to the movement, not to your editor or publication”. Sorry, but what does this mean? It feels a bit self-congratulatory to write about your “allegiance to the movement” and your “accountability” to the movement – I’m not totally sure what this looks like in theory, and tbh I don’t feel like I’ve seen it from you in practise? For example, when *several* SW-led organisations in the UK were planning to call a strike in terms of sex worker activists participating in a particular (exploitative) media event, that collective of organisations couldn’t put that strike together because you pre-emptively decided to break it, to participate in that media event against what you knew were the wishes & advice of SW-led orgs – and the reason you cited for your participation was precisely your loyalty to your editor and publication. Which took precedence over us. I wouldn’t bring this up – its history, albeit recent history – but it is strange to see you writing here about your “loyalty” and “accountability” to ‘the movement’. It feels like *you’ve* chosen to bring it up, and yet your self-reporting of your own qualities doesn’t match up with the reality. To give another example, you talk here about how “lucky” you are that your “home publication, the New Statesman” gives you such freedom. That’s great for you, but you must be aware that the New Statesman is *notorious* for propogating a feminism that is whorephobic, racist, and transmisogynist. If you search twitter, you will find numerous examples of your editor deflecting criticism of her whorephobia and the whorephobia she consistently commissions by citing the existence of your column. Your writing at the NS is literally being used to deflect and shut down sex workers’ and allies’ concerns about NS whorephobia. Are you happy to have your writing used like that? Is that an instance of your “accountability” to sex workers? Maybe rather than writing how accountable to the movement you are (& receiving all these acollades in the comments for being such a great person), you should have … asked ‘the movement’? Isn’t that how SW activism is supposed to work – asking the people effected?

I know that this will probably inevitably feel like an attack. It’s not meant to be – it is meant to be critical of your self-representation above, obviously. I’ve fucked up too, and I get that this is hard, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only UK-based SW who read this article with a degree of disbelief. You’re a good writer, but I don’t think your thinking on accountability is as rigorous as you’ve portrayed it here.

Thanks again,
Devora

Esther

Peace and Smiles,
Ms Sassy Sherry
SWOP San Antonio