Matthew SheffieldNov 18

The Epstein case is a really important illustration of why erotic professionals deserve full legal rights and workplace protections.

Epstein & others were able to victimize so many ppl because the victims risked imprisonment if they told police about his crimes.

ETA: When you criminalize a normal product or service, you don't eliminate demand for it, you give criminals a monopoly.

Terrible inequality was a big part of this also. We have much work to do. https://abc7.com/post/grand-jury-docs-2006-epstein-case-palm-beach-county-florida/15018104/

Grand jury docs in 2006 Epstein case reveal alleged victims accused of prostitution

A grand jury in Palm Beach County on July 19, 2006, heard from two alleged underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein, according to newly unsealed transcripts.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistance
@mattsheffield having laws isn’t enough. We have plenty of laws & rights that could have protected those girls & women. But they didn’t. Those laws are false hope most of the time bc they are not enforced. They put victims at further risk thinking they have safety in the system, and people look away thinking nothing happened if no charges.
They weren’t afraid bc of their ‘jobs’, but bc of the system that protected abusers despite laws. Women speak up all the time & are ignored or worse.
Nov 18 at 1:30amWeb
Show threadMastodon MigrationNov 18

@JoBlakely @mattsheffield

Think this is right. Those women were not afraid of the law, the were afraid for their lives.

Show threadSu_GNov 18

@JoBlakely
This is Reality: “Those laws are false hope most of the time bc they are not enforced. They put victims at further risk thinking they have safety in the system, and people look away thinking nothing happened if no charges.”

Enforcement always the weak spot in child sexual abuse (as in so many other crimes).

@mattsheffield

#ChildSexualAbuse #protectingChildren #monitoring #enforcement #reconnectingConsequencesToCauses #Epstein

Show threadMatthew SheffieldNov 18

@Su_G @JoBlakely

Having more laws on the books to protect workers is good, even if there were other barriers to them coming forward.

If sex work were fully decriminalized, people who wanted those services wouldn't have to go underground to find vendors. They could find it where they lived as a lawful business with protections for customer and vendor.

When we criminalize normal services, it does not remove the demand for them. It only drives it into the dark where workers cannot be protected.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceNov 18

@mattsheffield @Su_G

It’s dangerous & likely pointless coming forward if there is no track record of existing laws keeping women or children safe from SA regardless of their work.
Women never get the protections you speak of. Only men do. We just get outed as being trouble for men & are punished more. It puts women at far greater risk. Some choose to do it anyway. But they have no idea what they face until they do.
I know. #metoo

Sex work should be decriminalized so they aren’t jailed.

Show threadMatthew SheffieldNov 18

@JoBlakely @Su_G
I'm sorry to hear about your victimization. You certainly deserved much better.

You're so right that laws often are not enforced like they should be. And it results in so many tragedies that no one in the media ever cares about.

People should be able to provide normal services safely and in a healthy environment.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceNov 18
@mattsheffield @Su_G
I’d like to see those men just give those women money and not demand sex for it, if we are going to address the poverty and inequality and determine whether it is ‘normal’ or financial coercion.
Show threadMatthew SheffieldNov 18

@JoBlakely @Su_G I agree. Billionaires are the ultimate existential risk to humanity.

Excessive wealth is a canker on the soul.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceNov 18

@mattsheffield While I agree with that, that isn’t what I was saying.
Anyone imo using sex workers for sex are exploiting using the financial situation women are in as an opportunity to pay for sex, instead of an opportunity to right injustice without demanding labor. It’s still coercive sex, imo. The environment is coercive.

Not just the rich. All men could instead just give that money to those women in need. But they extract from & exploit those conditions, & are inclined to perpetuate it.

Show threadMatthew SheffieldNov 18

@JoBlakely I know several current and former sex workers who have had experiences like that. Not all are so positive, but it is true that some clients do support their vendors as friends.

I do support basic income and living wage laws though so that no one feels forced to do a job they wouldn't want to.

There are many people who do these jobs because they like them though. And their experience deserves respect.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceNov 18

@mattsheffield I’m not disrespecting the sex workers. If anything, I do not respect the men for reasons already given. I’m saying unless it’s what they’d want to be doing anyway…it’s coercive sex. And until things are actually equal & women empowered & actually protected, I think men should understand it is still coercive sex with the risks and harms all on women in order to be available to you.

Anyway, I think men have more work to do.

Show threadMatthew SheffieldNov 18

@JoBlakely Inequality certainly puts many people into situations they wouldn't choose, including in marriages to violent or emotional abusers who are one's only possible source of income.

There's much to be done. But we have also come far and should always appreciate the work others have done for us.

Show threadJo - pièce de résistanceNov 18

@mattsheffield

Inequality & those ‘situations’ isn’t passively handed to women without the active participation (& inactive apathy) by the men around her in a myriad of ways. It isn’t ‘inequality’ that put her there. Inequality has names & they are men.

what work have men done for women’s equality? What distance have men travelled? When you say ‘we’ & ‘others’ it should really be ‘women’ & not give credit to men as if they helped. It’s been in spite of men that progress has been made.