I received the following comment, and a few others, about a particular article from a sex worker rights advocacy group in Toronto.
The Lie:
"Sex work" advocacy cares more about pedophilic men getting in trouble than about those under the age of consent being sexually abused and exploited by these men. Age of consent laws are meant to protect youth, it's not a violation of men's sexual rights. Youth can be helped in many ways besides criminalizing them or advocating for youth 'sex work', both of those options are morally reprehensible. In the U.S. cops are already starting to view them as victims, which is a big help to those trafficked by pimps.
Examination of reality
This person appears to be concerned about a single article written by a 29 year old sex worker, Phoenix Anne McKee. The paper is called Sex Work is Real Work. I do have a problem with some of the language in the article, but only a small fraction of it. I agree with the complainer, youth can be helped in many ways besides criminalizing them. And yet society has, as a rule, permitted their arrests and confinement, and we continue to do so, up to the present moment. But I disagree with this abolitionist, insofar as no one is advocating for the advancement of youth sex work.Before I learned about the lives of young sex workers, I couldn't imagine how they ended up with arrest records, but it happens. I don't think youth should be arrested for soliciting, nor should they ever be charged with prostitution. In my mind, a criminal record of youth prostitution should not be legally possible, given age of consent laws. If they've had sex with an adult, the adult should be charged with the crime, not the youth. If they'd not been caught having sex with an adult, then the only thing I could imagine was that perhaps they'd be fined for loitering, or maybe assault with a come hither look.
Youth can be helped, says our accuser. So then, how is it that overwhelmingly all too often they aren't helped? For those resistant to solving problems, so often, reacting emotionally and striking out at others is all you seem willing to do. The last sentence that's spit at me is particularly baffling. They might think cops suddenly started seeing things differently in the US recently due to receiving new funding streams to combat human trafficking. I want to ask, if police are now starting to see youth sex workers as victims, what did they see them as before? This person is suffering from the idea that youth having a pimp is the problem. It's disheartening because I believe that in her mind, she wonders about the problems of young kids who are selling sexual services, and anyone who helps them without having them apprehended and confined is a pimp. She believes Maggie's Toronto is reprehensible, and so is anyone who supports Maggie's.
Bottom line, no one, including the author of this article, is advocating we should promote the idea that youth sex work is something responsible adults are encouraging. Phoenix Anne McKee is simply admitting what's true. Some youth participate in the activity of selling or trading sexual services. Studies show that most do so without anyone forcing or coercing them. It appears their circumstances and other life factors may compel them to do it. McKee calls it youth sex work. I wouldn't call it that, but anthropologists and researchers do.
Maggie's Toronto has a website on which the "controversial" article is published. Maggie's Toronto has office hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-5 PM, for community, conversation, coffee, snacks, harm reduction and safer sex materials. It's a registered charity and people who've been ordered to do community service can choose to do it at Maggie's. It offers resources for sex workers including a secure "No List," of unsafe clients that is only available to sex workers.
Why wouldn't I call it youth sex work? Let's focus on Canada since the author of the paper is Canadian. In Ontario, Canada, there isn't a legal option for youth to be employed in dangerous occupations. By extension, they can't legally work as sole proprietors in dangerous occupations, which would include sex work. I don't wish to consider this a valid form of work for kids under any circumstances.
Sexworker rights activists are working to improve the working conditions and safety of sex workers. That doesn't mean we're seeking to make it safe for the purpose of having youth engage in it. Consensual adult sex work has risks under the best circumstances. The activity is conducted in private, and, no matter how many people a sex worker has looking after her safety, the fact is she must enter the confines of a private space with another adult to engage in sexual activity during the course of her work. I believe that this sort of encounter is dangerous by nature of these basic facts.
I could go through McKee's article and change the terminology to make it more comfortable to read, but let's not concern ourselves with being comfortable. Let's push through our discomfort, and read it as youth sex work. Maybe our concern will spur us on to doing something productive about the actual problem, rather than casting judgement on a young adult woman who started selling sex when she was 14. From this point forward in my post, all quotations are from Phoenix Anne McKee's article, Sex Work is Real Work.
Phoenix Anne McKee says she was 14 and already having sex with older guys, and she wanted to get paid for it. McKee lays out the basics of the law in Canada. The age of consent is 16, but if receiving payment for sex, the age of consent is 18. She explains what's likely to happen to youth who get caught engaging in illegal activities. They are apprehended and placed in Child Protective Services. Adults who get caught negotiating with or having sexual contact with youth can be arrested and charged with sexual interference or sexual assault.
The subtext here seems to be youth need to lie about their age in order to convince adults to engage their services.
"In this way the age of consent laws pose a risk to the safety of youth aged 14 and 15 who decide to engage in sex work."
How can laws intended to protect kids pose a risk to them? McKee explains that if youth tell the truth about their age, some potential "clients" will see them as vulnerable, and take advantage of them, due to their age and circumstances. I believe her. Take a look through some of the chat logs at Perverted Justice. The actors are posing as young, vulnerable youth. Watch a few episodes of To Catch a Predator. Many child predators bring alcohol along, as agreed in text chats.
McKee says when prostitution is illegal, many purchasers prefer to negotiate with a third party. They may want to initiate contact with someone they perceive to be a more trusted source, rather than risk negotiating with a cop. Because it's illegal, some people perceive sex workers to be potentially dangerous, working with dangerous people, or to be unreliable.
For young people, however, there's no one to trust; not the customers, third parties, or anyone else. McKee explains that youth can't trust doctors or social workers enough to talk about the sexual activity they're engaging in. They do talk to each other, and you can check with the researchers who study these populations if you want to know more about their lives.
"When I was young, I did not have anyone to talk to about doing sex work. Sex work is not easy work, and many sex workers, especially young workers, have to deal with isolation, stigmatization and discrimination. Laws that require social workers and doctors to report child prostitution make it hard for youth sex workers to access services while being honest about their occupation."I know that reading this is difficult. I, personally, refuse to call youth sex sex work. I can't bring myself to call it prostitution either, but I don't know what else to call the activity of a young teen, particularly one who is soliciting, operating on her own, of her own volition. I guess I would call it surviving. Maybe we can call it not begging, in some cases.
"With sex work, people in close proximity to it — workers, managers, even family — are demonized, resulting in discriminatory attitudes towards them. Decriminalizing sex work would open the door for many workers to gain rights and to work freely; however, it may be a long time before society sees sex work as a valid or appropriate form of work. This means sex work will continue to be viewed as a degrading occupation and sex workers will continue to be portrayed as victims of exploitation, which is not necessarily the case for all sex workers. Until these beliefs and perceptions of sex work no longer exist, youth involved in sex work will continue to struggle for workers’ rights, access to services and power over their own lives. Even if it is decriminalized, the negative attitudes surrounding sex work may not be dispelled for a long time."
This is all evidence-based. Everything she's stating is true for adult sex workers. Anthropologists and researchers would likely agree with her. My problem is the statement:
"...youth involved in sex work will continue to struggle for workers' rights..."
In Ontario kids can legally work as young as 14, but again, there are restrictions. Sex work isn't included in the type of legal work that's suitable for youth, obviously, and, as stated earlier in her article anyone 18 or under engaging in selling sexual services are being abused. We'd have to change age of consent laws in order for youth to seek workers' rights.
Youth are permitted to work some types of regular jobs, but it occurs to me that the youth in question are kids who are trying to support themselves as adults. They don't often have homes, or homes they want to stay in. They may not have parents providing them with most of the things they need, so they may be seeking to generate a much higher income than kids in the legal work force.
"What needs to change is the condemning, controlling and shaming of youth who do sex work, whether they do it by choice or because of poverty or necessity."
McKee informs us that in Winnipeg, the only social service agency for sex workers has a hard line on youth selling sex,. It holds a mandate calling it exploitation. In contrast, McKee describes Maggie's open door policy in Toronto, which allows young people to access condoms and participation in conversations about safety, as empowering.
I agree that, for a teen, the opposite of being alone or in unfavorable housing conditions, as in this case, is empowering. Not being seen as untouchable by social agencies and people who are trying to be helpful is empowering for a youth such as Phoenix Anne was.
In addition, do we want youth like McKee put in custody? She didn't want to be handed over to Child Protection Services. She claims that it continues a cycle of institutionalization and criminialization. Social workers, some of whom I know, describe the same thing. But don't take my word for it. Find an unbiased person who works with these kids, and ask them directly.
The purpose of this post is to respond to allegations that sex workers argue for the rights of child predators, to reject these assertions, and to discuss reality of youth who are trading or selling sex. The question of what happens to a young person who is taken into CPS in Toronto is beyond my understanding and beyond the purpose of my response, so I encourage well informed people to weigh in or add to this topic. For the sake of discussion, however, let's assume that the act of being taken into custody to CPS is an undesirable result for the youth in question, as she asserts. What would you suggest?
Start locally, and find out how youth "can be" helped. Read the laws to find out what happens to youth who break laws that apply to them. Talk with social workers in your area, and find out how to help. Social workers are doing the real work that nobody wants to do, and they do it with miserably inadequate funding.
You're concerned for underage youth like the young Phoenix Anne McKee? You're outraged that she dares write about her life in an evidence-based, forthright context, without pulling on your heartstrings to save her? Go directly to the appropriate social workers and ask questions. Tweet to them, not us. Perhaps you, as a citizen or an activist, could demand budget increases toward solving these type problems in your local community.
By speaking to people who have worked with marginalized youth, I've learned a few things. The saddest thing I've learned, is that very few people really care about kids who are in our foster care systems and state custody. Allow me to elaborate with an example from the Internet.
A Case Study
In summer 2012, Chris Kelly, then-candidate for Attorney General of California, initiated Prop 35. Prop 35, the CASE Act, stands for Californians Against Sexual Exploitation.
As part of the polarizing debate concerning this proposition, I found an unbiased blog post in which the author critically examined Prop 35. His blog post is entitled I Despise Human Trafficking, but I Oppose the Badly Drafted Prop 35. Greg Diamond, the author, is not a sex worker rights advocate, so his examination of the then-proposed law was interesting to me.
More interesting, to me, and relevant to the topic at hand, was a comment on the blog posted by Stephanie Anderson, on August 7, 2012.
Stephanie Anderson
Posted August 7, 2012 at 4:22 PM
I’ve worked in social services for homeless & at-risk youth for over 20 years.
I had a case, last year that broke my heart.
I worked for an organization that had an independent living skills program for homeless & at-risk youth.
(Keep in mind, that the youth that are ‘allowed’ in this program are the ones who ‘present’ the best, articulate, clean, w/o addictions to drugs/alcohol, enrolled in school/college,etc.)
16 y. o. female, single mother of a 1.5 y.o. baby girl.
Her mother was pimping her out to her “friends”, starting when the girl was 14.
She started to rebel against “mom”, and was kicked out of her home.
Got pregnant, dropped out of school. Had the baby. Couch-hopped til she heard about the program I was working at, applied and got accepted, as an emergency case.
Without parents to provide for her, she isn’t old enough to work FT, she isn’t old enough to get an apartment on her own, even if she could work FT.
She tried to get a job, her mom called her workplace and told them that she couldn’t work. (In some states, you have to have parental permission to work if you are underage.)
She was prostituting herself, to provide food, clothing, formula & diapers for her and her baby. She also, couldn’t get on any welfare or assistance, because her mother was already claiming her as a dependent. She had no resources, support or assistance.
Via this program, she was required to go to GED class & parenting classes. We couldn’t get her a job anywhere, she didn’t have consistent childcare, along with pretty intense ADHD.
Who is the trafficker/pimp? Who do you go after? How does that help?
How would putting this girl in jail or juvenile system help her or her kid?
This is a common story. The only reason she made it thru this particular program’s screening, was because it was deemed and emergency because of the baby.
She lasted 3 months in our care, before she was kicked out, back on the streets, for not meeting her goals.
PLEASE DO NOT MAKE LAWS HARSHER. PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUED TO RAPE THESE PEOPLE IN WAYS THAT YOUR ENTITLEMENT DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO UNDERSTAND.
RETHINK & REWRITE THIS PROPOSITION with input from the community and community-based organizations most affected by these revisions; independent consensual sex workers, homeless & at-risk youth, adult industry professionals, etc.
In a larger sense, I think that mature dialog about sex & sexuality and what constitutes violation of rights is long overdue. I agree it s/b defined w/ no uncertain terms.
What might you do to untwist the knot?
That article you like to flash around social media, while snarling at sex worker rights advocates and activists. The one you use to blame us for the problems of marginalized youth? I've a proposed solution to the actual problem. Act now to get funding diverted from anti-trafficking campaigns to safety nets for marginalized youth. They need the same things you need, and they've human rights we're forgetting, such as the right to education. They have the same needs you have as an adult but they're young and have no one to provide for them.
Find out who they are in your immediate locale. Ask the social workers to create wish lists you can circulate on social media. Amazon delivers. The list is long. See if you can come up with the beginning of a wish list for one single youth. Don't forget household items and toiletries.
