Thursday 8 October 2009

A Little Knowledge ... Is The Honeyball Buzz


Picture the scene.

There you are, an 80s throwback lefty feminoid wimmins rights-spouting MEP, merrily posting your usual ill-informed, ideological poppycock about whichever subject you fancy exhibiting your lack of knowledge at the time (in this case, prostitution), before the quick jaunt down to the Empress of Brussels curry house for a Mung Bean Jalfrezi.

Having patted yourself on the back of your dungarees for a good job well done, up pops Belinda Brooks-Gordon, whom I met last month, a psychologist, leading expert on the sex trade and a published author to boot, to explain exactly how you are talking out of your ample, state-sponsored arse.

Yeah, it made me laugh too. She must have eagle eyes that Belinda, I can't {cough} think for the life of me how she found the article so quickly.

It's not the first time Hairy Moneyballs has been found wanting on expertise in her personal crusade against the selling of sex, which she finds distasteful, either.

You see, Hairy is very worried about all those trafficked girls. It's a disgrace, says she, that the Met Police have scrapped their trafficking division.

Perhaps, says Belinda B-G, it could be because the problem is simply not large enough to justify the £3.7m allocated to it. And maybe the reason such a huge sum was directed towards it in the first place is that fake charities and politicians had been hugely exaggerating the actual numbers of trafficked prostitutes. Now, who do you think would do such a thing, Hairy? Eh? Hairy, what say you?

The simple fact is that the problem is almost non-existent. Hairy likes to take this line because, as is customary with Labour bansturbators, if you are angling for bans or restrictions on personal choices, you can't just tell people they mustn't do it. This is a no-no as it's none of your business, a fact of which you are well aware.

Therefore, a scare story must be fabricated to push through your own personal prejudice with the full weight of the law. It's the same with any personal liberties legislation; we have seen it before and we will see it again, and again, and again. It is the political straw man but with more draconian consequences than just winning a theoretical argument with a false premise.

I have written before about how using these tactics is far from beneficial. In fact, it is clearly and logically damaging to those in the sex trade, not to mention being doomed by history to comprehensive failure.

Belinda B-G knows the industry. She spent a year of research living with the girls themselves. Honeyballs, on the other hand, no doubt spent quite a time discussing the issue over a sliver of soap and a communal flannel at Greenham Common.

Fortunately (or unfortunately considering we pay for the dozy cow) Hairy isn't clever enough to hide her true reasoning, even though she attempts a feeble plan B whilst attempting to justify her bigotry.

Prostitution is exploitation of women for fianacial (sic) gain. Few women either enter or stay as prostitutes willingly and most have a drug habit. I want every single woman to have the opportunity for a fulfilling life; prostitution most definitely does not provide this.

See what she did there, with vague and unproven rhetoric, natch? Having had the trafficking rug pulled from under her on two separate occasions, she throws in a completely different concern (that of drug abuse) before, finally, getting to the point.

That being that she doesn't believe prostitution is a life that should be led.

It's that simple.

It's not about what the girls themselves want, it's what Hairy wants. It's not a consensual contract whereby both parties derive consideration after offer and acceptance, it's exploitation.

Just as Gordon Brown is going to single-handedly eradicate cancer in his fourth (pffft) term, Hairy is convinced she will wipe out the sex trade, because she doesn't like it, on the back of fuzzy, decades old, lefty uni feminist ideology.

It really does make me laugh that those who call themselves 'progressive' continually point to discredited approaches such as restrictions, bans and prohibition as the only answer when it's quite clear that a truly progressive approach would be to try something else. Something like inclusivity, understanding, and compromise, for example.

The problem is that self-serving, conceited, holier-than-thou, judgemental bigots, like Hairy, will never so much as begin to see that, when they are so focussed on moulding the world to their own pristine, personal, liking.




6 comments:

The witch from Essex said...

All 'my girls' were more than happy to earn a couple of hundred pound a day and none of them did anything that they didn't want to do.
All went into the trade to make quick and easy money that the taxman couldn't get his hands on and they succeeded admirably.
This Moneyball pratt would be too fucking ugly to get a job that relied on looks and charm to earn a good living.

banned said...

The Witch From Essex , agreed. I once had a lengthy ( non-commercial ) chat with a youngish ( 18+ ) male prostitute and his main worry was not that he was being 'traffiked' or ' exploited ' but what was he to do when his good looks faded. Getting a proper, equally well-paid, 9-5 job was what really worried him.

DaveA said...

Has Honeyball not moved on. Surely what we need is decriminalisation or legalisation. As an employer Dick you have to check people's right to work in the UK, so the trafficing issue disappears.

Prostitution is legal in Las Vegas and Australia and appears not to be a problem. In Australia most of the brothels are situated in business as opposed to residential areas and must a win-in situation.

timbone said...

Let me have a rant. Skip it if you like. It will make me feel better whether you read it or not.

Bigots, when knowledgable people attempt to tell them they are wrong, make the person who knows a criminal as well.

The prostitution industry, sorry, the business of offering a sexual service for payment (a job) is in the majority of cases the cleanest and safest way for a man or woman to obtain relief from the stresses and strains of everyday life from a person who in most cases is self employed.

In most cases, the working woman (or man) is not a drug addict and does not have a pimp. As far as women are concerned, about 5% are drug addicts, and they are the ones who work the streets. Those traficked from Eastern Europe and the far and middle east make up about 2%.

Well over 90% of working sexual providers are self employed, either working from their own private rented premises (the expensive ones), or in Health Clubs (Massage Parlour) or Escort Agencies. Again, many escorts advertise and work independently.

The worst thing of all is this, just like many jobs, there are a fair number who enjoy their work as well.

PS Another fake claim is that this is where most of the STIs are - wrong - the vast majority (over 90%) are regularly checked and use condoms. Also, 80% of their customers are married men and 20% single men who are not otherwise sexually active.

I fucking hate bigots.

Angry Exile said...

DaveA, prostitution is not fully legal in Oz. As in the US it's one of those parts of law that is largely left up to the individual state governments - not all states have chosen to legalise it (basically just the eastern states less Tasmania - geographically about 1/3 of the country, though the third where 3/4 of the people live) and in those that have street prostitution is still illegal. Well, here in Victoria it certainly is, though brothels are legal if licensed and can run pretty much like any other business. I've even seen ads on billboards (see this about 3/4 of the way down). If I was the type to use prostitutes I can't think why I'd steer clear of in the licensed, regulated and, above all, legal brothels where clients can expect the girls to be clean (and incidentally probably in it for the sex and the money and of their own volition) than someone on the street who might be a methed up skank who gets spit roasted twice a day by a pair of walking genital warts for all anyone knows. The street walker girls are probably the reason why legal brothels are sometimes viewed as only a mixed success here, but I imagine they're cheaper and offer the sex equivalent of a Tesco's Value Shag, and if there's a market for that then going the extra mile and legalising that too would make sense. Don't hold your breath though. Despite the sky completely failing to fall in when brothels became legal the prudes and NIMBYs will fight further liberalisation, and since street hookers would be harder to tax the state government doesn't have much incentive. Sure, the same could be said of anyone who's self employed and can work cash in hand, but still... Only New South Wales has gone that far and as far as I know there are no plans for any other state to follow suit.

BTS said...

As she's still discussing it I decided to join in on her blog. Just waiting to see if I get a reply..

Or just moderated as usual.