Feminism and the Advancement of Women
Discrimination against sex workers is holding women* back. People of all sexes and genders, but particularly women, participate in the sex trade for a variety of reasons across a spectrum of circumstances, including choice, economic need, temporary circumstance, and force/fraud/coercion (trafficking). Regardless of circumstance, women with experience in the sex trade are facing discrimination in housing, child custody battles, mainstream employment, higher education, migration, and society at large.
Definitions that expand our understanding of women and feminized bodies in relation to the feminism and sex trade:
Feminism (broad) - belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.
Intersectional Feminism - A framework that centers the voices of those experiencing overlapping, concurrent forms of oppression in order to understand the depths of the inequalities and the relationships among them in any given context. We at New Moon strive to practice our work through a lens of intersectional feminism, recognizing that people in the sex trade have varying circumstances informed and affected by factors such as their geographic location, race, gender, class, education level, and access to employment and healthcare,
Sex Work Exclusionary Radical Feminism - A framework that critiques the sex trade as a manifestation of patriarchy that is inherently violent and degrading to women. This value within feminism views all providers of commercial sex as victims, all clients of commercial sex as predators, and all third parties associated with the coordination of commercial sex as exploiters.
Sex trade
A global economy, ranging in formality and legality, encompassing a variety of sexual and erotic commercial transactions.
Sex work
The exchange of sexual and erotic services (escorting, stripping, pornography, etc.) for money or something of value. Certain types of sex work are currently legal in the USA, including porn performance, stripping, and Nevada brothel work.
Sex trafficking
Under U.S. federal law, sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age (DOJ).
New Moon defines “woman” expansively as anyone identifying or living as a woman, with recognition that people assigned female at birth are also effected by cultural norms and the status of women in society.
“Getting paid enough to meet our needs—and more—feels good. I’m not romanticizing the sex industry, I know it has risks; I’m just not going to romanticize economic deprivation in the name of being a “good girl,” either. So do sex workers feel pleasure at work? Yeah. Because you know what feels amazing? Surviving capitalism.”
“How can we stand for bodily autonomy and agency while denying the voices of women who choose sex work as a means of moving their lives forward?”
In the US, we are experiencing a determined, well-funded pattern of rollbacks to women’s freedom and self-determination in the form of abortion bans and restrictions on contraception. Simultaneously, women are demanding accountability for sexual misconduct and assault at every level of society. Caught in the middle of Slut Walk, #MeToo and “My Body, My Choice” are women* and LGBTQ+ people engaged in sex work, who’s choices have been surveilled and criminalized for decades.
While we work as feminists to promote equality for women and bodily autonomy, we must remain accountable to sex workers. When we allow for one group of women to have their bodies and choices criminalized, we leave the door open for creeping restrictions on the rights of all women.
What Philanthropy Can Do
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Feminist funders must acknowledge the role sex workers play in advancing the agency and equality of all women. We cannot advance the rights and welfare of all women if sex workers are excluded or silenced.
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New Moon estimates that the movement for sex workers rights in the US has grown by 1000% since 2015. This growth is a direct response to increased policing, surveillance and censorship of sex workers and their communities. Sex workers rights rights are frequently networked with movements for racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, housing justice, and ending police brutality. Many sex worker led groups also provide direct services to their communities in the form of peer support, harm reduction, skill sharing, and mutual aid.
It’s important to recognize that criminalized populations such as sex workers are frequently locked out of institutions and tools that nonprofits frequently depend on. Using alternative vehicles to the 501c3 model and providing flexible, multi-year funding is a good way to ensure that sex worker led groups can access resources and achieve stability.
By investing in groups led by sex workers, we fortify grassroots efforts aimed at protecting the interests of society’s most marginalized groups.
Ready to find a sex worker led group to support? Contact us and we’ll get you started. -
While there is disagreement within feminism on how the sex trade should be regulated, we at New Moon believe there is more that unites us than divides us.
Examples of policies and values that everyone agrees on include…
Record expungement for people with prostitution records.
Discrimination protection in housing and employment for people with sex work histories.
Expanding meaningful exomplyment options for women and LGBTQ+ people.
Increasing the stability and resilience of people who may encounter exploitative circumstances in the sex trade.
New Moon is enthusiastic about identifying and working towards common cause. Contact us if you’d like to discuss this work.
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If working with and funding sex worker led groups is not something you’re ready to do, follow these guidelines to ensure that your anti-trafficking funding isn’t doing harm:
1. Do not fund organizations that deny the existence of sex workers2. Do not fund organizations that actively strive to criminalize aspects of sex work
3. Do not fund organizations that conflate all sex work with exploitation and trafficking
Learn More:
Red Umbrella Fund: My Feminism Supports Sex Workers’ Rights
The Deep Roots of Sexual Policing in America - Sarah A. Seo, The Atlantic
Sex Work is Integral to the Feminist Movement - Tilly Lawless, TEDxYouth@Sydney
Black Sex Worker Roundtable - Lakisha Harris, Old Pro News
Tryst: But What About the Children? Jessie Sage on Sex Work and Motherhood