Prostitutes, Feminists, and Economic Associates
Wendy McElroy
A troubling situation has been haunting the issue of
prostitution, and that is the growing antagonism between the Prostitutes'
Rights Movement, as expressed through organizations such as COYOTE, and those
contemporary feminists who are anti-prostitution, which is the major of
contemporary feminists. The conflict arises because most feminists maintain
that their theories and policies help prostitutes, who are women victimized by
male culture. The major of prostitute activists, on the other hand, consider
themselves to be sexually liberated women who are being harmed by the feminist
theories and policies that claim to protect them.
The radical feminist Andrea Dworkin captures the anti
prostitute view of whoredom well: "The only analogy I can think of
concerning prostitution is that it is more like gang rape than it is like
anything else...The gang rape is punctuated by a money exchange. That's all.
That's the only difference."[1]
To prostitutes who consider themselves to be liberated, the
philosopher Laurie Shrage explains that they are being duped by the
patriarchal system, "Because of the cultural context in which
prostitution operates, it epitomizes and perpetuates pernicious patriarchal
beliefs and values and therefore is both damaging to the women who sell sex
and, as an organized social practice, to all women in our society."[2]
At a feminist conference in 1987, a representative of CORP
(Canadian Organization for the Rights of Prostitutes) related the impact that
the anti-prostitution attitude was having on whores: "They find it
necessary to interpret prostitutes experience of their lives and then feed it
back to the prostitutes to tell them what's really happening, whereas they
wouldn't dare be so condescending or patronizing with any other group of
women. Why is that?"[3]
Peggy Miller of CORP was more direct: "You're a bunch
of fucking madonnas!"[4]
The purpose of my paper is to investigate the conflict
between prostitute activists and anti-prostitution feminists in one area --
namely, the treatment of the economic associates of whores,[5] particularly of
the men. Most people might assume that this conflict, and others, is the
natural state of affairs between willing prostitutes, who sell themselves
sexually to men, and most feminists, who decry the sexual exploitation of
women by men. This assumption is wrong. Prominent spokeswomen in the '60s,
such as Ti Atkinson, referred to prostitutes as the paradigm of a liberated
woman. And a brief history of the Prostitutes' Rights Movement illustrates
that co-operation, and not conflict, characterized the early years.
The Early Prostitutes' Rights Movement and Feminism
The Prostitutes' Rights Movement first appeared through the
organization known as COYOTE, an acronym for 'Call Off Your Tired Old Ethics'.
In early 1973, COYOTE emerged in San Francisco from a preceding group which
was named WHO: Whores, Housewives, and Others. The 'Others' referred to were
'lesbians' -- a word no one even whispered aloud at that political juncture in
time. And the willingness of prostitutes to embrace the cause of lesbian
rights was one of their early and strongest links with many feminists of that
time.
The founder of COYOTE Margo St. James became convinced that
a prostitute-based group was necessary because the feminist movement would not
take the issue of prostitution seriously until whores themselves spoke out.
Earlier, the lesbian community had reached a similar conclusion about the need
to speak out for themselves.
The mid-70s were a propitious time for prostitute rights.
The '60s had created sympathy toward decriminalizing victimless crimes. The
abortion crusade had embedded the principle 'a woman's body, a woman's right'
into American society. The Gay Rights Movement in San Francisco had
highlighted police abuse of sexual minorities.
Originally COYOTE limited itself to providing services to
prostitutes in San Francisco, but a national Prostitutes' Rights Movement soon
began to coalesce around the local San Francisco model. By the end of 1974,
COYOTE boasted a membership of over ten thousand and three COYOTE affiliates
had emerged: Associated Seattle Prostitutes, Prostitutes of New York [PONY],
and Seattle Prostitutes Against Rigid Rules over Women [SPARROW].
The feminist movement reacted with applause. In 1973, for
example, NOW endorsed the decriminalization of prostitution, and this is still
the 'official' policy -- at least, on paper.[6] Ms magazine lauded both the
efforts and the personality of Margo St. James. As late as 1979, prostitutes
and mainstream feminists were actively co-operating. For example, COYOTE
aligned with NOW in what was called a Kiss and Tell campaign to further the
ERA effort. A 1979 issue of COYOTE Howls, the organization's newsletter,
declared:
"COYOTE has called on all prostitutes to join the
international "Kiss and Tell" campaign to convince legislators that
it is in their best interest to support...issues of importance to women. The
organizers of the campaign are urging that the names of legislators who have
consistently voted against those issues, yet are regular patrons of
prostitutes, be turned over to feminist organizations for their use."[7]
In the mid-80s, the Prostitutes' Rights Movement was
decisively killed by an unexpected assassin: the AIDS virus. In the
understandable social backlash that surrounded AIDS, prostitution came to be
seen as a source of contagion every bit as virulent as IV needle use. The
Prostitutes' Rights Movement could not advance out of the shadow of AIDS.
Around this time, mainstream feminism also turned against the Prostitutes'
Rights Movement and began publicly to excoriate prostitution as a form of
patriarchal abuse of women. In 1985, Margo St. James left the United States to
live in France. She cited the sexually conservative swing in the American
feminist movement as one of her motives in leaving.
A New Image of the Prostitute
In 1985, with the decline of the Prostitutes' Rights
Movement in America, the image of the liberated whore declined as well. A new
image took over almost entirely: the whore was viewed as a pathetic victim of
male oppression, a victim of patriarchy, and prostitution become inherently an
act of violence against women. To recall Dworkin's words,
"...prostitution is...more like gang rape than it is anything
else..."
Prostitution is rape, gang rape. The whore is, definition-
ally, a sexually abused and exploited woman. She is a victim whether or not
she declares herself to be a willing partner to prostitution, and whether or
not -- in the presence of other reasonable options -- she pursues paid sex.
Her belief that she has consented is merely a delusion.
A great deal of feminist research has been conducted,
seemingly with the goal of establishing this image of the whore. Some of the
research is valuable, but -- at least in terms of its value in forming any
general policy on prostitution -- the research is deeply flawed. This is
because the sampling is almost always drawn from the street walking segment of
the prostitute community, and usually from the further subcategory of street
walkers who are in prison, who seek treatment for drug problems or who
otherwise enter programs to get off the street. In other words, these samples
self-select for the women who are most likely to have been victimized by
prostitution and most likely to want out of the profession. Moreover, the
women seeking treatment or leniency in prison are likely to give authority
figures -- the researcher -- whatever answer they believe he or she wishes.
There is another reason that the studies on street walkers,
in terms of forming general policy on prostitution, are inadequate. The
National Task Force on Prostitution estimates that, of the entire female
prostitute community in America, only five to twenty percent are street
walkers. The percentage spread depends on the size of the city. Eighty to
ninety-five percent of prostitutes work either incall or outcall. But because
street walkers are the most visible of all prostitutes -- in terms of public
awareness, arrest records and social work programs -- they are incorrectly
perceived as being 'the paradigm of a prostitute'. In reality, they form the
smallest portion of the community, and they are by far the portion in which
the problems associated with prostitution are most likely to occur: drug
addiction, violence, police abuse, and disease.
The anti-prostitute feminists Melissa Farley and Norma
Hotaling have conducted an interesting study of street walkers [10] from
street areas of San Francisco, particularly the strolls frequented by
homeless, drug-using prostitutes, or particularly young whores. These are the
whores who are easy targets for violence: they are not necessary
representative even of the street walking community. Yet this study has been
used by anti prostitution groups to present a portrait not simply of the most
vulnerable of street walkers, but of 'the prostitute'.[11]
Farley and Hotaling entered into their research to test the
hypothesis that street walkers suffered from post traumatic syndrome and
compared the psychological states of whores to those of hostages and torture
victims. From a sample of 130 prostitutes, which included some male and
transgendered ones, Farley and Hotaling arrived at disturbing statistics. 82%
reported having been physically assaulted since entering prostitution. 75%
stated that they had or did have a drug problem. 88% wanted to leave
prostitution.
In 1995, I conducted an intensive study of forty-one female
members of COYOTE. Thirty-four of the respondents were, or had been,
prostitutes. 71% of the women reported having experienced no violence over the
years of sex work: 29% had experienced violence, more often from the police or
a co-worker than from a client. One prostitute responded, "If you are on
the street and you are dealing with someone who can remain anonymous, it is
more likely that people you will encounter will be violent." None of the
women stated, or evidenced, a drug problem. 17% of the women wished to leave
sex work, with 24% not being sure. [12]
Needless to say, there is discrepancy between my results
and those of such researchers as Farley and Hotaling. The difference grows
deeper as I speak of the articulate politically-aware whores with whom I deal
daily and as anti-prostitution feminists report the heart-breaking stories of
ex-prostitutes who have been damaged on the streets. These are women such as
those involved in the organization WHISPER, Women Hurt in Systems of
Prostitution Engaged in Revolt.
I don't dispute the stories of damaged ex-prostitutes. My
point is not that Farley and Hotaling are wrong, and that I am right. They
surveyed the lowest rung of prostitution (street walkers in notoriously bad
strolls), where abuse is rampant, while I dealt with the upper rung (callgirls),
where abuse is uncommon. The phenomenon of feminists researching different
segments of the prostitute community can easily devolve into a circus of
confrontation with each side claiming to have 'better whores'.
I am not saying this. What I am saying is that truth is
usually more complicated than any one perspective can capture. Prostitution is
not a monolith. Each woman experiences the profession in a different
manner.And nothing can be gained by having different groups of feminists or
prostitutes -- all of whom are probably telling the truth of their own
experiences -- attempting to discredit each other.
The day-to-day realities of a street walker cannot be
extended to say anything that is necessarily, or even probably, true of the
daily routine of a woman in a massage parlor or of an exclusive call girl or
of a stripper who hooks on the side. About the only political interest all
women in prostitution seem to share is that -- whatever their circumstances --
it is better for every woman *not* to be arrested and legally persecuted for
the choices she makes with her own body. It is better for prostitu- tion to be
decriminalized.
And this brings us more directly to the policies most
feminists now advocate against the economic associates of whores, and which
prostitute activists decry.
Decriminalization v. Legalization
Traditionally, society has legally approached 'the problem'
of prostitution in three general ways: suppression, or abolition; regulation,
or legalization; and, tolerance, or decriminalization.
The meaning of abolition is fairly clear.
Legalization refers to some form of state controlled
prostitution, for example, the creation of red light districts. It almost
always includes a government record of who is a prostitute -- information
which is commonly used for other government purposes. For example, some
countries in Europe indicate whether someone is a prostitute on her passport,
and other countries automatically refuse entry to her on that basis.
Decriminalization is the opposite of legalization. It
refers to the elimination of all laws against prostitution, including laws
against those who associate with whores: is, madams, pimps, and johns.
With startling consistency, the Prostitutes' Rights
Movement calls for the decriminalization of all aspects of prostitution. You
will sometimes hear anti-prostitution feminists describe their position as 'decriminalization
with the goal of abolition'. But, in using the term 'decriminalization', each
side means something very different. Prostitute activists mean that all
aspects of prostitution must be legally tolerated. Anti prostitution feminists
mean that the police should not arrest the prostitutes, only the men (the
pimps and johns) and the women who act as pimps (madams).
And -- with the support of such feminists -- there has been
a sea change in how many police departments in North America legally address
the nitty-gritty of street walking. Namely, they are now arresting the men. In
discussions with the vice cops who were invited speakers at the International
Congress on Prostitution, all but one them said that arrests now ran about
50/50 for prostitutes and for johns. This is opposed to something like 2% for
the men in the past. Some police departments go even further, like the
Edmonton Police Services in Canada which declared 1992 the Year of the John
and concentrated on charging clients.
When I speak of co-operation between anti-prostitution
feminists and vice cops I am referring specifically to the Schools for Johns,
a phenomenon that seems to be sweeping North America, city-by-city. It began
in San Francisco, when Norma Hotaling teamed up with the vice department to
formulate new policy on prostitution.13 Instead of ignoring johns as they
normally did, police arrested them and gave first-time johns an option: they
could erase the arrest from their records by paying a fee and by attending a
one-day seminar during which they would be lectured, usually by feminists and
damaged ex-prostitutes, on the turpitude of their ways. Some cities, like
Chicago, have added the touch of publishing the names and addresses of men so
arrested in major newspapers.
The dozens of prostitutes I've spoken with are appalled by
this development. One of their arguments is that the School for Johns is
making the streets less safe for prostitutes. The force of such laws will not,
and historically never has, determined how many women will turn to the
streets. But, prostitute activists argue, the laws will discourage a certain
class of men from seeking out street walkers. Men who are married, with
respectable careers and a reputation to protect will not risk being publicly
exposed as a john. On the other hand, men who are criminally inclined toward
prostitutes will not be discouraged by the prospect of a police fine. Thus,
police/feminist policy keeps peaceful johns off the streets, and leaves women
to compete more vigorously and screen less rigorously for the johns who still
approach them. Is it any wonder that violence against street walkers is rising
in many North American cities?
Arresting the economic associates of prostitutes represents
a farther step toward state control, rather than a step toward
decriminalization. To the women who *chose* prostitution as a profession,
arresting the men on whom they rely to make a living is a direct attack upon
them.
Prostitutes, Feminists and Economic Associates
Part Two
by Wendy McElroy
In Defense of Economic Associates
The prostitutes I've spoken with believe that the current
feminist stress on targeting 'the men' is harming 'the women'. And, because
the most reviled men in prostitution are the pimps, I want to argue against
current anti-pimping laws in the assumption that, if I call these measures
into question, doubt will be cast on all other laws against the men.
I want to begin by presenting an e-mail exchange -- a
discussion that occurred between myself and three female prostitutes -- on the
subject of pimps and madams. The first woman wrote:
"I would like the movement [Prostitutes' Rights] to be
*less* oriented toward social work and *more* about giving people the skills
(and other things they need) to be professionally successful. Key to this is
SUPPORTING MADAMS AND BUSINESS OWNERS instead of trashing them (whether subtly
or directly). Because in order to succeed and have staying power a prostitute
eventually has to become more entrepreneurial." [Emphasis in the
original.]
The second prostitute chirped in electronically:
"I think madams are a great asset to the industry --
they're women who usually have first-hand experience, and tend to be thorough
when it comes to protecting their underlings. I have a bit of a problem with
pimps, though...especially men whose only experience in the biz is from the
demand side."
The third whore voiced a dissenting opinion:
"What is the big fuss about pimps?...If you are
talking about people who (but for a penis) might be called madams, I don't see
a problem. I might prefer to work with another lady but that's a personality
thing. When I was younger, I worked for an agency that was owned by two guys
and one woman. They were all about the same -- sometimes nice, sometimes
annoying, like anyone else in the world."
It is interesting to note that the discussion of pimps does
not even touch upon the issue of violence. It dwells entirely upon economics,
and that is because the definition of pimp is an economic one. As the Canadian
ex-prostitute Alexandra Highcrest commented in her book At Home on the Stroll,
"In simple legal terms a pimp is someone who lives off the earnings of a
prostitute. Such a broad definition can include many people most of us don't
think of when we hear that word. Children live off the earnings of prostitute
mothers; husbands, lovers, siblings, perhaps even parents, can all meet the
basic requirements for being classified as pimps by the courts."[14]
Such laws do not punish people for beating, raping, or
stealing from a whore. They do not define a pimp as a man who kidnaps a woman
and coerces her onto the streets. Such laws refer to financial arrangements
and target those who receive money from or give money to whores. And, so, it
becomes illegal for a prostitute to form the economic associations that most
women take for granted.
The public widely perceives anti-pimping laws as protecting
prostitutes from abusive men. And Kathleen Barry not only agrees, but extends
the definition of pimping to include anyone who promotes the commodification
of women, including pornographers. But if mere economic arrangements with men
were damaging the women who are street walkers, you would expect the
Prostitutes' Rights Movement to support measures against them. Instead, the
community adamantly opposes anti-pimping laws.
In a COYOTE release, the veteran prostitute activist Carol
Leigh -- 'the Scarlot Harlot' -- offered insight into their reasoning when she
pleaded on behalf of her husband:
"You want to make laws against the pimps? Make sure
that you make the distinction between forced prostitution, and those who want
to be in prostitution by choice. Go after those who actually abuse us. Just as
in marriage, some husbands are abusive of women. Not all husbands are that
way. Don't take away my husband because he's really, really good to me. But if
you want to help women, go after those people who actually abuse us, but be
very, very careful how you word legislation that goes after those who you
think exploit and abuse us, because those laws ultimately get used against
us."15
How do allegedly protective laws get used against whores?
For example, in both the United States and Europe, it is common practice for
the police to use anti-pimping laws to ignore a whore's right to privacy. In
pursuit of pimps, the police may break into the home of a known whore, riffle
or confiscate her possessions, and harass anyone they find on the premises.
The fear of such laws being used in reprisal makes many prostitutes reluctant
to speak out or to become involved in community affairs. In turn, this makes
them more alienated and less likely to break out of prostitution.
Anti-pimping laws also act as a barriers to those
prostitutes who wish to marry and get out of the business in that manner. The
husband, even of an ex-whore, becomes automatically vulnerable to charges of
pimping. This is true even of husbands who do not live primarily off their
wives' whoring, but who share household expenses with her.
But what of the husbands or lovers who are fully dependent
on profits from prostitution? Are they not parasites living off the sexual
wages of their wives? Whores are quick to point out that other women have the
right to support their husbands and lovers. No one passes laws forbidding
waitresses, lawyers, feminists, or secretaries from having dependent men in
their lives. Why are whores the only women legally singled out in this manner?
Yet pimps continue to be excoriated, with no reference to
whether or not they are abusive. There are two main reasons for this. First,
pimps -- and not madams -- are associated with street walking which is the
most violence-prone and stigmatized form of prostitution. Second, pimps -- as
men -- have been systematically portrayed as exploiters and oppressors by
modern feminism. As Kathleen Barry explains in Female Sexual Slavery:
"Together, pimping and procuring are perhaps the most
ruthless displays of male power and sexual dominance...Procuring is a
strategy, a tactic for acquiring women and turning them into prostitution;
pimping keeps them there. Procuring today involves 'convincing' a woman to be
a prostitute through cunning, fraud, and/or physical force, taking her against
her will or knowledge and putting her into prostitution." [16]
How can this image of the pimp be reconciled with the
following observation by a whore who chooses to remain anonymous:
"Many of the men who get described...as 'pimps' are
boyfriends, lovers, license-plate-number takers and managers. Many girls seek
out pimps and even love their 'man'. A girl has a right...even if she is a bit
dumb and is being taken. And the venom of the law is another way to get at
prostitutes -- by busting their lovers. If a bank teller's husband beats her,
he is charged with assault, not with being a bank teller's husband."
The best explanation of the schism between these two
portraits of the pimp is that pimping, like prostitution, is not a monolithic
institution. Some pimps are husbands and friends, who offer protection and
partnership. But, especially on the street level of prostitution, other pimps
are kidnappers, batterers and rapists who deserve to be taken to a back alley
where feminism can be more graphically explained to them.
But such criminals are not generally the ones being
prosecuted by the law and the court system. Barry reports talking to a street
prostitute who had been raped and kidnapped by pimps, and another who had been
slashed by a razor the night before. Barry mentions in passing, at the women
"didn't consider reporting to the police" 17 Barry details many
horrifying cases of women being abused by pimps, but she never seems to dwell
upon why the street walkers do not seek protection from the police. It is
because regular woman are protected by laws that prosecute rapists and
kidnappers, but the law routinely ignores assaults against whores. Even worse.
Prostitutes are persecuted and physically abused by a legal system that
protects other women. The police become just another layer of abuse.
Conclusion
The foregoing has been a political analysis of the
deepening schism between prostitute activists and anti-prostitution feminists,
who should be natural allies rather than enemies. The poem which follows is
meant to provide a window onto the emotional impact of the ongoing conflict.
Written by Norma Jean Almodovar, director of COYOTE Los
Angeles, the poem has a specific history. In her capacity as one of the
organizers of the 1997 International Congress on Prostitution, Norma Jean
coordinated an exhibit of Whore Art. One of the most distressing encounters
she experienced was with a politically correct female academic who insisted
that prostitutes could not use the term 'whore' to describe themselves. The
poem was written to explain why the Prostitutes' Rights Movement prefers the
word 'whore'. It also captures the emotional distress that women are
inflicting upon each other over the issue of prostitution.
The "Whore" Word
I am a woman...and if I get out of line, you call me a
whore
And if I have a good time, you call me a whore
And if I speak my mind - you call me a whore.
You throw the word at me when I stand on my own
You use the word often to hold me down.
You ever remind me that whores are the worst -
the outcasts, pariahs, without any worth.
"You're just a whore!" you repeat like a mantra -
Like a shot of cold water to dampen my joy.
"You're just a whore - so what do you know?
and what do I care of whatever you think!"
"You're a whore," is a dagger you drive through my heart
as you pound into my psyche that name.
You equate everything that I ever thought good - with that word
which you spit out like venom - to show me how awful I am.
But I ask you, please tell me, just what is a whore?
A whore says what she think and she thinks for herself...
She's independent and feisty - so what? is there more?
Why does it frighten you so to know I've a mind of my own
and don't need you permission to live or to love or to be?
And what if I tell you
I don't care anyone if you call me a whore...
What will you call me now?
ENDNOTES
(1) "Prostitution and Male Supremacy", Dworkin
delivered this speech at a symposium entitled "Prostitution: From
Academia to Activism," sponsored by the Michigan Journal of Gender and
Law at the University of Michigan Law School, October 31, 1992.
(2). L.Shrage 1989 "Should Feminists Oppose
Prostitution" Ethics 99: 347-361.
(3) as quoted in Good Girls/Bad Girls: Sex Trade Workers
and Feminists Face to Face. ed. Laurie Bell (Toronto: The Women's Press,
1987).
(4) Peggy Miller as quoted in Good Girls/Bad Girls: Sex
Trade Workers and Feminists Face to Face ed. Laurie Bell (Toronto: The Women's
Press, 1987) p.11.
(5) 'Whore' is the term preferred by most prostitute
activists. Please see poem "The Whore Word" at the conclusion of
this paper for an explanation as to why.
(6) In reality, many of the most important offices in the
highly centralized organization are held by anti-prostitution, anti
pornography feminists, such as Tammy Bruce.
(7) COYOTE Howls 1979,p.1.
(8) Alexander, Priscilla "Prostitutes Are Being
Scapegoated for Heterosexual AIDS", pp 248-63 in Sex Work: Writings by
Women in the Sex Industry, edited by Frederique Delacosta and Priscilla
Alexander, Pittsburg: Cleis Press. p.203.
(9) In its HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, 1993; 5 (no.30),
the CDC found that -- of 202,655 males diagnosed with AIDS since 1981 -- only
123 cited sex with a female prostitute as their only risk favors.
(10) Presented at the NGO Forum, Fourth World Conference on
Women, Beijing, Sept 4, 1995. The authors' address: Box 16254, San Francisco
CA 94116, USA.
(11) I also had questions about the study's methodology.
For example, Farley and Hotaling entered with certain assumptions, including
'Prostitution is almost always a continuation of abuse which began much
earlier, usually at home.' Using this assumPtion, they often interpreted or
dismissed data from subjects, rather than simply record responses. For
example, the study comments, 'Several subjects commented that they didn't want
to think about their pasts when responding to the questions about
childhood...it was probably too painful to review childhood abuse.
Nor did they accept the subjects' own assessment of wheter
they had been abused. They called such subjects 'profoundly confused'. The
study reports on one woman: 'When asked why she answered "no" to the
question regarding childhood sexual abuse, one woman whose history was known
to one of the interviewers, said:"Because there was no force, and besides
I didn't even know what it was then - I didn't know it was sex." The
researchers concluded 'Denial may be affecting these subjects' ability or
willingness to report their trauma history.'
(12) For a more extensive report on this study, see Wendy
McElroy, XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography New York: St. Martin's, 1995,
Appendix.
(13) The Prostitutes' Rights Movement was particularly
outraged by this feminist co-operation because of the deep history of
hostility displayed by the SF Vice Police. For example, in the early days of
AIDS awareness, Cal Pep -- the California Prostitutes Education Project --
sent workers into the SF "stroll districts" where street prostitutes
worked and distributed condoms, spermicides, bleach and educational materials,
as well as talking to the prostitutes about safe sex practices. Meanwhile, San
Francisco Police Department confiscated the condoms and used them as evidence
of prostitution in court. Because of police policy, the streetwalkers would
throw the distributed condoms away.
(14) Alexander Highcrest, At Home on the Stroll: My Twenty
Years as a Prostitute in Canada Knopf Canada, 1997, pg. 121. From uncorrected
proofs.
(15) As quoted in COYOTE Press Release of October 1995, to
ANnounce VICTORY AT BEIJING WOMEN'S CONFERENCE.
(16) Kathleen Barry Female Sexual Slavery p.73.
(17) Ibid, p.90.
References
Alexander, Priscilla "Prostitutes Are Being
Scapegoated for Heterosexual AIDS", in Sex Work: Writings by Women in
the Sex Industry. Pittsburg: Cleis Press, 1991. Frederique Delacosta
Frederique and Priscilla Alexander, ed.
Barry, Kathleen. Female Sexual Slavery. New York:
Avon, 1981.
Bell, Laurie ed. Good Girls, Bad Girls: Sex Trade
Workers and Feminists Face to Face. Toronto: The Women's Press, 1987.
Coyote Howls, 1979. (Newsletter of Call Off Your
Tired Old Ethics.)
Coyote Press Release October 1995. Los Angeles.
Highcrest, Alexander. At Home on the Stroll: My Twenty
Years as a Prostitute in Canada. Toronto: Knopf, 1997.
McElroy, Wendy. XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography.
New York: St.Martin's, 1995.
L.Shrage 1989 "Should Feminists Oppose
Prostitution" Ethics 99: 347-361.
Original Links:
Part One: http://www.wendymcelroy.com/vern.htm
Part Two: http://www.wendymcelroy.com/vern2.htm