But first I wanted to talk about stigma. Stigma and criminalization/ carceral systems are the two main drivers of violence against sex workers and also, I would argue, disabled people, even if they are not criminalized specifically for disability.
Stigma made up probably the majority of my thesis, " 'Blemishes' and 'Abominations': the Dually Stigmatized Identities of Sex Workers with Disabilities" and I'm going to try to boil it down here.
As I mentioned before, the title is a reference to a quote by Erving Goffman, who wrote the foundational sociological text on stigma back in 1963: books.google.com/books/about/St…
He developed a typology of stigma: "abominations of the body", "blemishes of individual character" and finally "tribal stigma" like race, nationality, and religion. He provides numerous examples of each but he doesn't explore how they might interact.
He does draw some very interesting parallels, however, including between sex work and disability. When looking at the relationship between stigma and place, he explicitly juxtaposes a mental institution with a prostitute's stroll.
The other time he compares disability stigma (and specifically mental illness) with sex work stigma, he is talking about "stigma symbols": “the wrist markings which disclose that an individual has attempted suicide; the arm pock marks of drug addicts...
...the handcuffed wrists of convicts in transit; or black eyes when worn in public by females, as a writer on prostitution suggests." In this example both the sex worker and the person who presumably deals with mental illness are both physically marked by violence.
The black eye comment needs a footnote: this was written before domestic violence became a major feminist cause, and so back in the late 50s, early 60s if a woman was being beaten? The assumption here was that it was a pimp. Pretty incredible to modern readers.
'Sex worker' and 'disabled' are two of the most violently stigmatized identities. @RGarlandThomson writes that the disabled "are a synecdoche for all forms that culture deems non-normative." Think Street Legs again.
Sex workers-- or, really, 'prostitutes' and 'whores'-- function in rhetorically similar ways to denote moral bankruptcy and attendant physical brokenness.
And of course we know that this isn't just violent rhetoric. This translates into extremely high rates of violence against sex workers and people with disabilities-- and even higher rates of violence for those with additional stigmatized identities, like trans women
Here are some stats (from W.H.O. in 2012-- one of the things I'd like to update when I publish this theses):
PWD experience nonfatal violence at 1.5 times greater rates. For people with mental illness, this risk is quadrupled and for children it's 3.7x higher.
PWD experience nonfatal violence at 1.5 times greater rates. For people with mental illness, this risk is quadrupled and for children it's 3.7x higher.
Sex workers face even more extreme violence. As of 2013, we are FOUR HUNDRED TIMES more likely than the average worker to be murdered on the job. Compare this to police officers, whose risk is 50x higher. And yet sex workers don't get qualified immunity!
Over the last 40 years, over 3,000 sex workers or people perceived to be sex workers were murdered. Street-based workers in particular face especially high levels of violence and are often targeted by serial killers and other serial predators.
Because they know our deaths will not be investigated. Police mark them as "No Human Involved": en.wiktionary.org/wiki/no_human_…
And police are often committing violence against us themselves.
And police are often committing violence against us themselves.
That study of NYC sex workers I linked you to the other night? One third of all participants reported being threatened with violence by the police: courtinnovation.org/publications/N…
And yet again the rates are much higher depending on what other stigmatized and oppressed identities you inhabit. Trans women in this study? ONE THIRD were told by police that they could have sex with them in order to avoid arrest-- a form of rape.
I'm sorry, let me clarif:y ONE THIRD of trans women sex workers weren't just threatened in this way-- they have actually been raped in this way. One third of trans women sex workers have been raped by police.
This is happening right here, in my city. In 2013 more sex workers were killed here in the US than in any other country. Journalists like @melissagira + scholars like @whorestorian argue it's not a coincidence that the US has the most restrictive laws on SW in the Western world
Rates of nonfatal violence against sex workers are incredibly hard to measure because we're so likely to avoid reporting to police or doctors but anecdotally the rates are extraordinarily high.
I have never met an in-person sex worker who hasn't experienced some form of violence at work, and even though these rates are much higher for street-based workers and trans women and WoC, this applies across the industry.
Stigma is a driver of so much violence and FOR THIS REASON stigma is very hard to combat. The way I put it in my thesis is: "the risks of ‘disability pride’ and ‘whore pride’ are increased visibility, which in turn leads to increased stigma, which then leads back to violence"
Scholar @TommyShakes writes of the difficulties in claiming pride: " ‘Disability pride’ is problematic, because disability is difficult to recuperate as a concept, as it relates either to limitation and incapacity, or else to oppression and exclusion, or else to both dimensions."
It is similarly hard to rally behind 'whore pride' if you do not enjoy your job as a sex worker and this is more likely the further down the income latter you go, as less money means less opportunities means less alternatives to sex work.
And what's the alternative to pride? Shame. @MHarrisPerry's writing on Black women's racial shame in Sister Citizen and elucidates the three elements of shame:
1. it's a social emotion, because unlike guilt its origins are external
2. it's global, which means it's not levied on a specific act but on a person
3. it results in the urge to withdraw, submit, or appease
2. it's global, which means it's not levied on a specific act but on a person
3. it results in the urge to withdraw, submit, or appease
And where does this shame come from for sex workers and people with disabilities? Wellllll...
As I brought up before, a lot of it is related to capitalism and the (perceived) failure of these two groups to produce in a way that capitalism deems valuable and legitimate. And some of it is related to gender roles and the failure to perform femininity/masculinity correctly.
I wrote that "Being a disabled sex worker is to paradoxically fail at ideals of gendered sexual performance in opposite ways: through deficiency and excess."
I went on to quote from a lot of first person narratives of disabled sex workers that discuss these phenomenon but I think I'm going to save that for the thesis publication.
