annoyed radfem

i’d say:

porn and prostitution are the only two industries where women outearn men doing the same work. what does that say about our economy, that the only way for a woman to compete financially with a man is to get naked or fuck strangers?

or:

if porn and prostitution paid minimum wage, so you could choose between bagging groceries or fucking strangers, what would most women choose? alternatively, if bagging groceries paid the same as porn, how many women would still do porn?

If women want to out earn men in that industry, they have to take on extreme physical and emotional risk that men are not required to take.

Establishing typical osha safety standards that are required in all other industries (safety gear, protection from hazardous material, protection from sexual harassment and assault, health insurance, etc) would stop the industry in its tracks and would make it nonfunctional. The industry could not survive if the same standards applied to all other risky jobs were required.

What other industries rely on workers to be exposed to hazardous conditions and fluids without protection?

What other legal industries require such different expectations of risk and safety from employees based on biological sex?

And to add to the second point, if all people had a universal base income, and were able to actually make informed, free choices about their careers, how many women would still choose to put themselves at risk (risk of pregnancy, rape/assault, stds, ptsd) doing prostitution? The industry cannot survive with only consensual workers; the demand is far too high for only consensual prostitutes to fulfill.

The industry requires coercion (economic, physical, mental/emotional) and human trafficking/rape slavery to provide enough supply to meet the demand. Without rape slavery, the industry as we know it would cease to exist.

What other industries rely on coercion, rape, and slavery to continue to function?

What other industries would cease to exist if they were required to uphold ethical standards of treatment?

And I also mention that consent must be freely given without any risk of loss, suffering, or violence if withdrawn.

When sex becomes paid, withdrawn consent will result in financial loss, potential suffering by way of hunger or housing insecurity or unpaid bills, potential violence coercion or force on set.

That is not consent.

For example, consider:

Workers must be protected from exposure to blood borne pathogens and other potentially infectious materials. Essentially, unprotected exposure to bodily fluids is a no-go. So already:

Every sex act would involve contact with bodily fluids and must all be listed and regulated by the industry

Condoms would be an absolute minimum. Failure to use a condom (and we know many Johns will demand or bribe the woman to go without) would break regulations. 

Further, condoms as they are may not even meet the current standards required for risk reduction to be considered adequate. (For example, some masks are not considered adequate to protect medical workers from airborne pathogens. Condoms may not meet necessary be adequate to protect from STDs or other infections.) If this is true then there would already be no possible way to meet OSHA safety standards for most forms of sexual activity. 

And if we could consider condoms to be adequate? Then we still have to consider:

OSHA standards would effectively ban any form of oral sex even with protection since “Mouth pipetting/suctioning of blood or other potentially infectious materials is prohibited.”

Gloves would be required for any activity where “it can be reasonably anticipated that the employee may have hand contact with blood, other potentially infectious materials, mucous membranes, and non-intact skin…” (so all sexual activity) 

Masks, eye protection, or face shields would be required “whenever splashes, spray, spatter, or droplets of blood or other potentially infectious materials may be generated and eye, nose, or mouth contamination can be reasonably anticipated”. It’s common in pornography for men to ejaculate on women’s faces. Will that practice be banned or require a face shield? What about kissing? Or other activities involving the mouth? How would the risk threshold for “sprays” or “spatters” be determined?

Furthermore, direct skin-to-skin contact is not compatible with OSHA regulations governing exposure to potentially infectious materials. Will aprons or gowns be required for both parties? 

OSHA requires testing to be completed whenever there is potential exposure. How will testing of “sex buyers” be enforced? If every sex act constitutes an act of exposure will both the prostituted woman and the buyer have to be tested after every sex act? Or just between each john? Tests take time to conduct so how will the intervening without results be handled? 

It’s true that “Obviously the OSHA standards were not created with sex work in mind, however that is irrelevant to the key point being made here—namely, if these are the regulations deemed necessary to protect worker safety in every other work environment in which exposure to potentially infectious material is a risk of the job, why should they not apply in the context of “sex work”? If selling sex is work like any other form of work, then the safety of these workers is just as important to protect as the safety of workers in other contexts.”

But, wait, there’s more!

How will sexual harassment be evaluated and handled? Pimps often demand sexual activity from the women they exploit. That would obviously have to be banned under regulations between a “supervisor” and an “employee”. What about “buyers”? How does one determine when a transaction ends and harassment begins? 

More to the point: “Submitting to unwelcome sexual acts as a condition of employment—getting paid for sex—is sexual harassment; submitting to sexual harassment is the job.”

Further, how would civil rights be considered when sex is for sale? It’s illegal to deny someone a service to a member of a protected classes because they are member of the protected class. Does that mean “sex workers” cannot refuse sex in such cases as well? Would this not be a form of legal coercion into sexual activity? How would you differentiate between rape and this legislated rape?

Disgruntled and confused porn users demanded the hard research data, so I went into the basement to find my dusty copy of Zillmann and Bryant’s book. It will take me a while to screenshot, caption, and post it all.

The two photos above reference a 1982 experiment which measured the effects of prolonged pornography consumption on test subjects’ recommendations for rapist prison terms.

Male and female subjects were divided into three groups and exposed to either 6 regular films (control group), 3 regular films and 3 porn films (intermediate exposure), or 6 porn films (massive exposure).

Three weeks later, they took a variety of questionnaires and inventories. One asked them to recommend the prison sentence for a hypothetical rapist. The chart above shows the difference in what they recommended by group. 

Conclusion: both men and women exposed to porn recommended reduced sentencing for rapists compared to those in the control group.

Consider that in 1982, watching 6 porn films was considered “massive exposure.“ 

Also consider whether the judge and or jury members deciding your rapist’s fate may have watched more than 6 or more porn films.

A woman who critizes anything about the headscarf must be a racist bigot. A women who points out how prostitution harms prostitutes is a “swerf” and “whorephobic”. A woman who encourages girls and women to feel confident without make-up is met with “Uhm, actually, some women like make-up”.

The reverse never applies. If a woman brags about how much money she makes with her Only Fans account, nobody tells her to stop encouraging girls to share explicit pictures of themselves, because some of them might want to enter a prestigious career when they are older, where these pictures could became a liability.

When a women talks about how much she loves make-up nobody shuts her up with an “Uhm, actually, make-up is exepensive! Not all women can afford make-up, you capitalist bourgeois pig!” Or “Uhm, actually, some women are sick or disabled! They don’t have the energy or motor skills to apply make-up, you ableist monster! Have you ever thought about women with ALLERGIES, huh?” Or “Uhm, actually, some women have to care for babies. Do you know how hard that is? Are you aware that babies cry at night? Why do you force young mothers to waste time on covering their faces with coloured paste, when they barely get enough sleep? Do you know that sleep deprivation is torture? Why do you hate mothers so much, you horrible MEMA (= mother excluding make-up apologist)?”

At the women’s march, a girl handed me a thin booklet demanding for equal representation of women in the arts in the school curriculum. The booklet had the amount (in percentage) of women taught about currently in art class, several examples of women that could replace the overrepresented men for each epoch and quotes by (art) teachers (and more but I gave mine to a friend so I can’t consult it anymore). As far as I know the school curriculum has not been changed (yet) but these girls did something!!

Having any call to action along with the information builds momentum even if you do fail to get your specific changes. Now people are angry, know their strength, know who opposed them, and are paying close attention for a chance to try again. 

Thanks to @womanispolitical for starting the discussion. She really hit on some fundamental truths of activism. It has got to eventually get active! With concrete projects and goals. But it is not easy.

Not everyone has to do the most, just some.

You did deserve so much better without having to fight for it.

It is a burden, and we will have to carry it together. But not one of us should feel guilt for feeling unready or tired.

starting period product/sanitary cloth crafting and distribution group from scratch: https://zombiemarydaly.tumblr.com/post/629739882411180032/hiya-i-currently-live-in-one-of-the-most

This isn’t the article I recalled, but an example anyway:

Morningstar was hired but given a 90-day probationary period; for men it was 30. Then the gear theft and tampering started. Her gloves, hoods, and radio vanished (2007); her mask was sabotaged (two weeks after 9/11). She found what appeared to be semen on her bed (2012). Clothes continued to be stolen and destroyed. Word of the harassment rose all the way to Mayor Don McIlroy, and the department issued a warning against equipment tampering, but nothing substantively changed. 

Another:

Her concerns included having her firefighting gear tampered with several times

And another:

Ever since Judy Brewer became America’s first female firefighter 45 years ago, women have been hazed in the fire service, including sabotaged oxygen tanks and glass in their boots.

More:

You're living twenty-four hours a day in a firehouse and nobody will talk to you. Shit in your boots. Women at the front end of a fire hose and a fire scene and the water gets cut off from her.

Male socialization is of their own creation, it’s just men being true to themselves. Since they established patriarchy why wouldn’t they make a system that gives them freedom to be who they really are? If you look at the differences between male and female socialization, males get shown from early age that it’s okay to indulge in all of their needs and wants, it’s okay for them to do whatever their nature tells them to do, it’s okay to give into their impulses and passions, it’s okay to get violent to get what they want, it’s even okay if they enslave, rape, destroy, kill, force, wound, torture, it’s fine, they should be able to get away with it, and even get admired and praised for it! It enables them to be true to themselves, it’s a lifestyle that supports their nature and even celebrates it, if you look at male created systems and representation, they’re all celebrating the male nature, they’re celebrating the wars and destruction and rape and trauma and they claim it’s all “victory” of their kind!

Female socialization in turn is constantly being told no, nothing you are or you do is good enough, you shouldn’t even want to be anything, except if it happens to fall into small spectrum of “whatever is convenient to men”. All of your qualities that men can’t use for their benefit are worthless, all of your effort and energy has to be spent on men or it’s wasted, your nature has to be suppressed, you actually get told what your nature is and if it’s not that, you must not be a woman, we’re socialized to consistently go against our feelings, our instincts, our desires, our knowledge, our needs and wants, even worse, we’re told that we’re not allowed to have any, and accept “whatever men say are female needs and desires” as if they’re our own.

Patriarchy shows the true nature of men, while hiding the nature of women. But true nature isn’t overwritten by socialization, because if that’s true, there would be no resistance to it, by now we’d all be fembots, not even thinking we exist for anything other than men. But we are resisting, no matter how much they socialize and brainwash and enslave and torture us, our true nature is fighting thru, we’re fighting to see who we are and what we’re like, for every generation women are standing up to our socialization and our oppressors and screaming and fighting to find a way out, to be able to live up to our true nature, to stop the torture of living suppressed.

1. if you create a sacred caste of men who cannot be questioned or accused, abusers will do whatever they can to join this caste

100%

Nope males were scavengers (i.e. took left over meat from already dead prey) because they were expendable

Lose a few males to big predators while they’re out scrounging for meat? No big deal. Lose a few females? Much bigger deal, much harder for your population or group to definitively make it to the next generation

They realize they’re nothing without women reproduction-wise. And since reproduction by many ppl seen as sort of “legacy” and continuing to live through children they see it like a death sentence and a “worthless” existence

And because women are much pickier and are meant to be in control of reproduction, it means that realistically most men would never get to reproduce. And they see it as an attack

we can have these conversations on a macro level about who the media does/doesn’t pay attention to, but on an individual level? gabby’s still dead. she was killed. murdered.

and mind you, these videos have hundreds of thousands of views.

i shudder to think what isn’t on pornhub, what’s harder to get to. child pornography. actual dead women. further torture and violence and murder.

i’m sick to my stomach.

PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE.  PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE. PORN IS RAPE ON TAPE. PORN IS VIOLENCE.

http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftheviolenceofpornography.blogspot.com.au%2F2017%2F11%2Fthe-hatred-of-women.html%3Fzx%3D8e98937d5747a462&t=YjUxN2Q0ZjRmZmY2NjgwMDlkZGVmNWEzMjdkNGJkNWFiMmNmYzViNyxhNkxqVzdBYw%3D%3D&b=t%3AzW5PW8_ndE6ULYf_AE_Y2A&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwhyyoualwayssoradical.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F167548863446%2Fthe-hatred-of-women&m=1

And you something I don’t remember anyone pointing out one of the most vile cruelties of pornography, those women are forced to claim they liked it, enjoyed it, want more. There were some things in there that reminded me of a violent rape I survived. I almost suffocated on my own vomit (sorry I know that’s graphic) but at least when I’ve talked about the experience even with a man no one ever has implied that it was anything other than a horrific act of violence.

Consent can’t be bought

The majority of prostituted women want to exit

Poor women and girls of color are disproportionately funneled into the sex industry

The industry relies on there being a vulnerable and uncared for class of women and girls to sexually exploit

Racism, classism, imperialism, slavery, and colonialism are all embedded in or connected to prostitution

Prostitution is a cause and result of inequality between the sexes

The sex industry is proven to rely heavily on trafficking and exploitation

It promotes violence against women

It is violence against women

Prostitution is inherently violent

The sex industry encourages, promotes, and caters to male sexual entitlement

Under full decriminalization and legalization, prostituted women are still murdered, raped, assaulted, and stolen from by pimps and johns

Women who have escaped from prostitution have high rates of PTSD and other disorders

The industry promotes fetishization, stereotypes, and sexualized racism and racialized sexism against women of color

“Consensual sex work” and human trafficking are inescapably linked (Oof)

The liberation of women and an industry dedicated to the objectification of women cannot coexist

It reduces women to sexual objects and masturbatory aids

The sex industry preys on the most marginalized women and girls

Porn culture harms women and girls (yes, even “feminist” porn)

The normalization of sex as “work” degrades the status of women as a class

These are a few reasons for the abolitionist stance I came up with at the top of my head. The only reason to be pro-porn and pro-prostitution is if one believes that the orgasms of johns, profits of pimps, and pleasure of a few “happy hookers” is worth more than the safety, freedom, and humanity of every other woman and girl.

TL;DR

When I heard that my period occurred because I wasn’t getting pregnant, I understood that:

My body “wanted” me to be pregnant and was angry that I wasn’t (so it was “punishing” me with a period)

My body had the capacity to be (healthily) pregnant when I was 13

Eventually, I would have to “please” my body by giving my body what it “wanted” (a baby)

My body was made for pregnancy

These are very frightening thoughts for a young teenager. They made me feel like my body and I were at odds, and that we were constantly hurting each other. It made me very scared for the future in which I would have to have a child, and very angry at my body for doing this to me. I’ve talked to other women about this, and they’ve internalized similar messages, sometimes without questioning it.

Of course, we could partially solve this if teachers explicitly clarified that no, our bodies didn’t “want” to be pregnant, that periods aren’t punishments, and that it’s okay not to have any children, ever. But aren’t there other ways we can talk about menstruation, too? There are a few I’ve thought about:

In S2 Episode 16 Kate Clancy suggested that we could frame it as the “miraculous” regrowth of the uterine lining every month.

We can see it as akin to shedding dead skin (it’s just something that used to be in/on our bodies coming off). It keeps us healthy and renewed.

Personally, I find it soothing to view it as an indicator of health — and not just reproductive health! My period helps show me that my body is working well and I’m eating enough/not putting too much stress on myself. 

As this posts suggests, the period might have also evolved so that unviable embryos could be “washed out.” In many ways, periods help protect us, especially when our bodies don’t “want” to be constantly pregnant.

And these are only a few ideas just by thinking a little outside the box… I’m sure someone who was better at science than me could think up more.