The #MeToo Movement Is Only Interested

In Certain Types of Women

Hello Gentlemen;

In the wake of the #MeToo Movement I wanted to highlight an aspect that many didn’t realize was happening… myself included.

Apparently, the #MeToo movement is not interested in the women who work as sex workers.

I guess I just assumed women in the sex work industry were automatically included in #MeToo.

After all, they are women and they are subject to sexual harassment. So, I thought that was the point.

Here Comes The Judge

The trouble is the judgement surrounding what they do.

Those connected to the #MeToo organization think sex workers are just asking for it. Yeah, sure.

I found the following article on Time.com. It features a 36 year-old woman who has been in the sex work industry for 20 years.

She posted on her Facebook page, some of her experiences with harassment working as a webcam model and escort and received wicked comments in return.

I know some of you guys are very respectful and are concerned for women in the industry.

So, let’s remember the #MeToo Movement is mostly about women (and some men) who support other women (and some men too) who have been sexually harassed or assaulted.

The Red Line

In my mind, there is a distinct and sharp difference between consensual sex workers and those forced into sex trafficking. They are in two very different camps.

Not everyone feels the same way… and that is why I continue to write these blogs.

Women are women. Both men and women need to stop “chopping us up” into categories which are considered good or bad.

It starts early and gets in deep.

Little girls grown up into women who cut themselves up (internally) by judging themselves and completely losing touch with who they are.

Often times, I think men start this tendency in young girls (think fathers, teachers, uncle etc), but women definitely perpetuate it.

And that is a woman’s greatest downfall.

The internal butchering of her own spirit. The cutting to shreds of her own instincts. The bastardizing of her inner voice.

The New Collective

I know men can help women move past this. We need your help.

Collectively, as women, I’m not sure we can do it alone.

This 36 year old female sex worker, is so off the main stream.

Yet men who frequent sex workers are extremely mainstream.

You guys are everywhere and from every profession. You still get to keep the good job and the wife and kids… It’s not as simple for sex workers.

Here’s an excerpt from the Time.com article that speaks to this point:

Sex workers are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence on the job, but have few good options to report it.

Sex workers of color and transgender sex workers are thought to be at even greater risk for experiencing violence, according to the Sex Workers Outreach Project.

Several consensual sex workers spoke to TIME about how they feel they have been excluded from the public conversation around #MeToo and the nationwide reckoning on workplace harassment.

Some people who sell sexual services told TIME that they have posted their #MeToo stories anonymously to avoid potential legal repercussions.

Others said that they don’t want to speak out publicly because they anticipate they’ll be shamed, or not believed because they aren’t “perfect victims,” as professional dominatrix J. Leigh Brantly puts it. As Hill pointed out, there’s also the damaging notion that sex workers can’t be sexually assaulted.