There are very few things that give me hope these days, but one of them is that Renegade Evolution has landed herself a guestblogging gig at Feministe this week, writing about sex work activism.  She's already written three incisive, orderly posts, one giving an overview of the issues pertaining to sex work activism and her own personal beliefs about it; the second is a basic guide to the philosophy of harm prevention, especially as applied to sex work, and the third speaks out about decriminalization. They're both very orderly, intelligent pieces, but the thing that makes me most optimistic is that so far, neither seems to have triggered the weird, hysterical blend of erotophobia and misogyny that masquerades as "radical" feminism. There's disagreement and discussion, but so far it's been intelligent and courteous, without accusing Ren of being directly culpable for other women being beaten and raped. The only point where the conversation has gotten out of hand so far is the comments thread that sprang out of Ren's initial post, in which she really says little more than, "Hi, there! I'm gonna blog this week!" and then gets dragged into an internecine battle about whether it's proper to have a woman guesting on a feminist blog when she rejects the label of feminist, even if she works her well-toned ass off for feminist goals. That little deviation says volumes about the state of feminism, and why so many women, like Ren, feel uncomfortable with the label. But since that one outburst, it's been well-moderated and intelligent, and great things may grow from it. I'm going to try to comment at least once a day while Ren's posting.

Tags: Feministe, sex work, blogging

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Blog: Literate Perversions

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then finally y

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Blog: Literate Perversions

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then finally y