Against homo-nationalism
Judith Butler turns down civil courage award from Berlin pride: ‘I must distance myself from this racist complicity’
x:talk fully endorses the struggle of queers of colour against homo-nationalism, racist and Islamophobic campaigns against homophobia. In our work and our activism for the rights of migrant sex workers we strongly argue against the use of emancipatory discourses [...]
Experience: I ran a brothel in a country village
This article originally appeared in the Guardian on 5 June 2010
Claire Finch: read other related posts here
Most people would think where I live is the last place you’d expect to find a brothel or massage parlour: a pretty bungalow in a quiet cul-de-sac of a sleepy Bedfordshire village. But I’ve run one from my home for the [...]
three excellent articles: on trafficking and prostitution
sometimes it is just good remember the texts and arguments that were formative in creating the political space of x:talk…
here are three such text written by Ms Jo Doezema - a sex worker rights activists / academic
1) Loose Women or Lost Women? The re-emergence of the myth of ‘white slavery’ in contemporary discourses of ‘trafficking [...]
Prostitute wins court case
In a amazing victory, on 29 April 2010 in Luton Crown Court, Claire Finch was found not guilty of a criminal charge of keeping a brothel. The jury, in line with public opinion, refused to criminalise Ms Finch for working together with friends from her own home for safety. The jury of 8 men and [...]
As the dust settles
:: this post was originally posted here
It has been instructive watching the way the media in the UK, and those who were actually caught up in the ‘chaos’, have reacted to the consequences of the suspension of air travel in Western Europe courtesy of Eyjafjallajokull, have reacted to the inability to travel as of where [...]
First they killed Susy, now Fernanda is dead.
Another sexual worker killed in Tlalpan
No authority to protect the lives of sex workers
The human rights system shows its opacity
Jaime Montejo’s Independent News Agency note-Calle, Mexico City, April 8, 2010
Some sex workers who have omitted their names for fear of reprisals, relate to the disappearance and subsequent murder of Fernanda, who worked at the intersection [...]
Liberal in the middle
A response to Laurie Penny on sex work.
By Sofie Buckland, part-time activist, full-time English undergrad, part-time button monkey/code geek. Read her blog here.
There is a phenomenon, observable across feminist debate, that I like to call playing liberal in the middle. Where two ideologies clash there’s always someone who claims the middle ground for their [...]
Would legalising sex work help fight Aids?
Giving sex workers condoms and advice will not bring down HIV rates, says Elena Reynaga, general secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean Sex Workers Network. But giving them their rights will.
Elena Reynaga was 15 when she married, 17 when her husband left her with two children and she began selling her body for sex [...]
Enough middle-class feminism
Metropolitan feminists, obsessed with the politics of strip clubs and lads’ mags, are failing to see the wider picture
By Carrie Hamilton [this article originally appeared here]
BBC Four’s recent three-part documentary Women was enough to make any seasoned feminist weep with despair. After sitting through the obligatory first instalment on celebrity second-wavers, and cringing through the [...]
The Tory-like silence over refugees
[this article was originally posted here]
Away from the calamity and misery Blair’s government visited upon brown people, have you seen the misery and calamity his successor’s is visiting upon brown people?
How about…
A group of women being held at Yarl’s Wood immigration centre are refusing food for a fifth day in protest over the length of [...]