Advertising Discrimination for Sex Workers

Dear advertisers,

I’ve edited my text from “lips” to “L1PS”, suggested explosions and release instead of orgasms, and implied I offer “erotic services” instead of plain ol’ sex. I have done all this, and more, to meet your needs, the needs of online websites and newspaper companies who gladly take my money to run my sex work advertisements (and who often charge me heaps more than any other category of advertisement) but who don’t respond to my needs for responsible and accurate representation of what I offer and what I don’t offer to prospective clients. Partly this is about following the law, but partly it is about you making a buck. “This is not large commercial brothels, this is individual sex workers being charged several times more than other advertisers. There seems to be no reason for this difference.” says Janelle Fawkes, CEO, Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association. It is discrimination because we are sex workers. Plain and simple.

This is about my safety, people. And that has me hopping mad today. You will hear from me again.

Love,
Lusty Day

Does any other businessperson have the difficulty in reaching appropriate clients that sex workers do? I spend a great deal of time crafting my advertisments, researching escort websites, taking accurate photos and ensuring that my business takes place in a discreet manner to protect my clients, minors, and my business (i.e. in areas of the Internet safeguarded by parental controls, and with appropriate adult content warnings, and accessible via iPhones and other mobile devices so clients can access my photos more discreetly). And yet! All forces seem against me when I attempt to reach clients responsibly.

My newest obstacle are the advertising restrictions in the state of Victoria, Australia. On most of the sites I have considered advertising, like Australian Babe and Sensual Down Under, sex workers deliberately obscure their faces to protect their identity. (There is a larger conversation there about the merits and dangers of being out and proud, politically and emotionally speaking, which I will save for another post.) Many sex workers do not want to be identified so easily by their friends, family and community, and for good reason. Whether sex work is illegal, decriminalized or legalized, sex workers still deal with whore stigma. From a business perspective, anyone who has posted images on the world wide web knows that the images can only proliferate. Many internet cruisers are “pic collectors” and simply grab photos for their own personal hard drive or mobile phone collection, and the sex worker never sees a penny for all the getting off that gets done to their photos. I’m sure many more sex workers exchange face pics once a rapport is established with a client, but I guess I’m saying that sex workers have good reason to obscure their faces if that option is open to them. (For many street workers, trans workers, porn actors, or in small communities, anonymity is a inaccessible privilege.)

So you can imagine my surprise when planning a working tour to the state of Victoria where you can only advertise sex work with pictures of your FACE. Imagine that. They use images of women in bikinis and underwear to sell cars, beach resort holidays, nightclubs, and, of course, bikinis and underwear, but nope! You can’t use an image of your whole body to sell sex in Victoria, Australia. WTF!?! Scarlet Alliance has made a submission to review this law and others here. I just can’t get over the fact that you can post alluring photos of yourself all over the www place but not for a business transaction where your clients need to see what you look like to decide if they want to buy your services. Basically it means that I have to spend extra time communicating with clients by sending them additional photos privately or describing myself on the phone. I wouldn’t care so much if the very same style of photos weren’t immediately accessible to every other businessperson trying to sell their product on billboards, or bus shelters, in newspapers… and yet I am actually SELLING SEX and I can’t get access to these advertising methods.

For a hard and painful laugh, try to place an ad in any newspaper and get their list of prohibited words. In the state of Queensland, here is a list of things you can’t say in your ad according to the Prostitution Licensing Authority:

• Be published through radio or television or by film or video recording
• Describe the services offered. Words that do not directly describe the services offered are permissible
• Describe or refer to body fluids or waste
• Describe genitals, except for whether or not a penis has been circumcised
• Refer to drugs or drug use
• Imply that sex workers are under the age of 18 years
• Imply that unsafe sex is available
• Intend or induce a person to seek employment as a prostitute
• State directly, or indirectly, that a licensed brothel or sex worker is connected with or provides massage service
• In respect of brothels, state directly or indirectly that the brothel is associated with escort services
• In respect of sole operator advertisements, imply that more than one sex worker is available
• Contain an image of the sexual organs or anus of a person or frontal nudity of the genital region and mons veneris/mons pubis region

So in Queensland I can’t say directly what I offer, I can’t mention whether or not my pussy is clean shaven (but I can talk about circumcision?), I can’t suggest that I love my work and that it is a good way to make some money and meet cool people, I can’t offer a lesbian double experience, etc etc. Again, from Scarlett Alliance: “In many cases whether a word is allowed or disallowed has very little to do with logic. From State to State the conditions vary dramatically and in many cases the same words are used blatantly in other advertisements within the same paper.”

The newly formed group Nothing About Us Without Us in New South Wales has been organizing around advertising discrimination in recent months. Their campaigns focus on the lack of consultation with sex workers by all levels of governments in Australia. I want to close with their words:

Sex workers must be consulted and be included at EVERY meeting, panel, taskforce or roundtable that is formed to discuss the sex industry. No implementation of policy, procedure, legal reform or directives should occur without detailed and in depth consultation with sex workers at all stages.

Posted: January 11th, 2010 under Selling Sex: Biz Talk.