Not for Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography
A 1985 Canadian report on the sex industry in that country reported that women in prostitution suffer a mortality-rate forty times the national average. –Sheila Jeffreys
As an activist, I explain that I’m not against sex and nudity but that women do more than just have sex … whether it’s Vogue, or pornography or beer ads – the message is that women get power through our sexuality and this is how women excel. –Ann Simonton
Fundamentally, the baseline for human governance – now and in the future – must be whether any society takes seriously what happens when someone is harmed so that someone else can have ‘sex’. –John Stoltenberg
This international anthology brings together research, heartbreaking personal stories from survivors of the sex industry, and theory from over thirty women and men – activists, survivors, academics and journalists. Not For Sale is groundbreaking in its breadth, analysis and honesty.
2004 | ISBN 9781876756499 | Paperback | 228 x 152 mm | 480 pp
Reviews
We've needed a current reminder that feminist resistance to systems of prostitution and pornography is still happening and resonating in audible and fervent ways. Such a need has been met with [this] anthology. Not for Sale offers an eclectic range of voices and writings that challenge and contest the normalization of the sex industry. Not for Sale is a must read for all — from long-standing radical feminists to those just coming into their feminist consciousness.
–Garine Roubinian, Rain and Thunder
'The range and quality of the articles makes Not For Sale a must read for anyone seeking to understand the opposition to prostitution.'
–Maurice Hamington, NWSA Journal
'Stark and Whisnant have put together an impressive array of experiences across race and culture and economic status, which makes the essays fresh…Not For Sale can be read as an introduction to feminist politics as well as an advanced theoretical discourse because the truth is simple and breaking down one wall means that there is more to see and think about and build together.'
–Laura Newland, Off Our Backs
‘This book should find a place in every public library.’
–Union of Australian Women Newsletter
‘This three-part book is a timely and necessary addition to debates surrounding issues of prostitution and pornography. It firmly places human and civil rights at the core of the debate, and examines the connection of prostitution and pornography to racism, poverty, colonisation, globalisation and militarism. … The scope and depth of analysis is impressive, and will be a great help to those working to end sexual assault and other violence against women.’
–Lara Fergus, Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault Newsletter
Table of Contents
Permissions x
Rebecca Whisnant and Christine Stark Introduction xi
Part One
Understanding systems of prostitution
Joe Parker How prostitution works 3
Rebecca Whisnant Confronting pornography: Some conceptual basics 15
Robert Jensen Blow bangs and cluster bombs: The cruelty of men and Americans 28
Donna Hughes The use of new communication technologies for sexual exploitation of women and children 38
Taylor Lee In and out: A survivor’s memoir of stripping 56
Seiya Morita Pornography, prostitution, and women’s human rights in Japan 64
Vednita Carter Prostitution and the new slavery 85
Gail Dines King Kong and the white woman: Hustler magazine and the demonization of black masculinity 89
Chong Kim Nobody’s concubine 102
Melissa Farley and Jacqueline Lynne Prostitution in Vancouver: Pimping women and the colonization of first nations 106
Samantha Emery The journey home: An interview 131
Andrea Dworkin Pornography, prostitution, and a beautiful and tragic recent history 137
Part Two
Resisting the sexual new world order
D.A. Clarke Prostitution for everyone: Feminism, globalisation and the ‘sex’ industry 149
Joyce Wu Left Labor in bed with the sex industry 206
Lee Lakeman, Alice Lee and Suzanne Jay Resisting the promotion of prostitution in Canada: A view from the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter 210
Mary Lucille Sullivan Can prostitution be safe?: Applying occupational health and safety codes to Australia’s legalised brothel prostitution 252
Adriene Sere Sex and feminism: Who is being silenced? 269
Kirsten Anderberg No more ‘Porn Nights’ 275
Christine Stark Girls to boyz: Sex radical women promoting prostitution, pornography, and sadomasochism 278
Part Three
Surviving, conceiving, confronting
Margaret A. Baldwin Strategies of connection: prostitution and feminist politics 295
Sherry Lee Short Making hay while the sun shines: The dynamics of strip clubs in the Upper Midwest and the community response 306
Rus Ervin Funk What does pornography say about me(n)?: How I became an anti-pornography activist 331
Ann Simonton and Carol Smith Who are women in pornography?: A conversation 352
Jane Caputi Cuntspeak: Words from the heart of darkness 362
Sheila Jeffreys Prostitution as a harmful cultural practice 386
John Stoltenberg Pornography and international human rights 400
Carol Davis Against their will: Nepal’s activist theatre fights girl-trafficking 410
Leslie R. Wolfe Fighting the war against sexual trafficking of women and girls 419
List of contributors 427
Index 433