Sister Sage's Musings

Posts Tagged ‘Antonia Zerbisias’

Antonia Zerbisias has a thought-provoking article today in the Star regarding the easing of prostitution laws in Canada. She points out the disparity of views among feminists. Not surprisingly, many feminists are appalled at the decision. And it’s not just because historically some feminists are actually more puritans than feminists. Montrealer Diane Matte of the Coalition Against Sexual Exploitation is furious. She claims that feminists who support the ruling “want to prostitute other women”.

“I’m sorry, but why should I, as a feminist, support that a woman wants to sell another woman? And that doesn’t even look at the question of why men should have the right to buy women — and children — whenever and wherever they want. That’s why it’s impossible to reconcile these two visions.”

What abolitionists such as Matte want is to follow the so-called Nordic Model, one in operation in Iceland and Sweden, which has decriminalized sex workers while criminalizing their clients.

Others don’t buy that solution.

“As a criminologist I can guarantee you that that doesn’t work because it doesn’t remove the criminal element from prostitution,” says O’Doherty, who teaches at the University of the Fraser Valley.

Making demand illegal, she says, onlivly serves to drive sex workers underground.

It’s not just Matte. Other feminists are against the freeing of women to choose for themselves what they want to do with their own bodies. Zerbisias quotes other opponents. But it’s Matte who takes the cake.

“Fighting the sex industry is complicated,” she concedes. “But if you don’t start somewhere, it’s sure that you won’t end prostitution. For me, as a long-time feminist, if we had once decided that we couldn’t win against patriarchy or against violence, we wouldn’t be very far today.

The modern woman engaged in prostitution knows that claims of patriarchy are largely no longer applicable. In Canada – or in BC at least – the industry is largely run by independent women who use relatively safe outlets such as Craigslist to run their businesses. The Internet has turned the industry from a history of ‘patriarchy’ into one that actually empowers many women. The lax view of Canadians, as opposed to the United States for example, empowers women to engage in prostitution relatively safely without the cultural stigma that so endangers American prostitutes.

That the industry is changing is best indicated by a friend of mine. In her fifties, she is late to the game but an enthusiastic participant. Using Craigslist, she does a brisk business with the approval and protection of her neighbours. She is bright, politically astute and very independent. Nobody is making money off her but her. Punishing her clients would only punish her.

I’m not saying she is doing it because it is her first choice. I don’t know that. She is divorced with two children now married. And I’m not saying she is indicative of the situation of every prostitute. But she is part of a loose coalition of sex workers with which she communicates and has formed a kind of union. That’s the reality of the new Internet age sex worker in Canada. Diane Matte should pay attention and do a little catching up.

Cross posted at Let Freedom Rain

That is, congratulations to Antonia Zerbisias for her promotion to Features  at the Toronto Star from Sister Sage’s Musings. 

I love it when the right has their sails blown out of them.  If I  believed in angels, I would like to believe that everytime one of those right wingnut pundits is humiliated, an angel would get their wings.

More about the sad state of affairs of today’s right winged media here. 

Johnny Kay, who originally started the ugly rumour about Antonia losing her page, must be skulking under a rock  or hiding under mommy Babs ‘  skirt about now.

Whatever comments anyone made on Kay’s little effort at yellow journalism have mysteriously been sucked into some internet black hole.

Oh what a culture of paranoia these Connies are! No, John & BC Blue, sock puppetry is what your friends and their ilk tend to specialize in.  If Antonia wanted to comment at your little blue friend’s page,  I am sure she is more than capable of wiping the floor with the likes of you, using her own identity!! At least she’s not writing for a rag that is pretty much in bankruptcy.  

Again, Antonia, congratz!