Indigenous Women Against the Sex Industry Continue to Fight for the Abolition of Prostitution

[ismnotwasm]

As Indigenous women and girls who have experienced centuries of colonial male violence, the decision by The Supreme Court of Canada to strike down the existing prostitution laws comes as no surprise. Our histories, our laws and traditions, and our worldviews have been purposefully omitted from the Supreme Court decision. Once again, not only our voices, but our bodies and our lives have been dismissed as inconsequential. As women and girls indigenous to this land, who have resisted centuries of colonial oppression, we assert our right to our lands, cultures, laws, and body sovereignty. We reject any ruling that interferes with these unalienable rights. We pledge to continue in the proud tradition of our Mothers and Grandmothers and to continue to fight for our children and grandchildren.We are in a pivotal moment. We have the ability – and the responsibility – to change the course of history. We urge all those who seek justice, freedom, and equality to look beyond the decision rendered by the Supreme Court and to listen to the voices, experiences, and wisdom of Indigenous women and girls. Prostitution was not and is not a traditional practice among Indigenous peoples. We ask all those who seek justice, freedom, and equality to view prostitution as a colonial system and as a form of violence against women and girls that must be abolished.
We see an opportunity for all of us to work toward a better future – a future in which our daughters are not handed over to pimps and johns to be violated, abused, and thrown away. We see hope in the supreme court’s decision to decriminalize prostituted women and girls. The next step is to stand up for the rights of Indigenous women and girls by criminalizing the source of the harm in prostitution – the pimps and the johns. This would be a truly progressive act in the interest of women’s equality.

In addition to laws that criminalize the pimps and the johns, we also demand funding for social policies and programs that prevent women and girls from entering prostitution in the first place, and that help us as we exit and heal. This includes, but is not limited to, safe and affordable housing, guaranteed livable income, counseling, job training, and women-only detox and recovery services. We also demand the government educate itself and the public about prostitution as a form of colonial male sexual violence against women and girls.

We ask the public and policy makers to stand in solidarity with us and to adopt the Nordic Model of prostitution policy. Do not be “tricked” into supporting the decriminalization of pimps and johns as progressive legal and social policy. We are Indigenous women and girls who have survived hundreds of years of colonialism, male violence, and capitalism, and we are not going away. We are proud to be part of a global feminist abolitionist movement, and we ask you to join us in our fight for freedom.

http://feministcurrent.com/8436/press-release-indigenous-women-against-the-sex-industry-continue-to-fight-for-the-abolition-of-prostitution/

[zazen]

1. funny how framing it as anti-native colonialism will reach a few more men

given that orgasming to escalating sexual transgression, usually against whoever occupies the role of gender female, is argued to be "natural" (as much as it's been catalyzed by the capitalist pornography industry).

I often think that if women organized around "racism" in pornography they'd get more of a hearing, at least from liberal men. Few liberal men are going to openly defend using N words and other blatant racist stereotypes, since at least in the 21st century the "blacks are naturally inferior" argument isn't publicly acceptable, at least among 70% of white society.

We shouldn't have to do that--pictures of torture from Amnesty International aren't seen as sexy when they're men and they should be defensible as natural when they're women--but somehow if the women achieve a status as member of another oppressed group of which men are members, the harm is a little more valid to the liberal pro-porn crowd.

[ismnotwasm]

2. White entitlement again

Creating an other, to separate themselves from those poor brown people.

No, we shouldn't have to do that-- at all.

[seabeyond]

3. you go women. good for them. make those demands. glad to hear this. thanks. canada is very high

in trafficking and getting the sex slaves into the u.s. i was concerned with what canada did.

[redqueen]

4. The nerve of that woman, to say the Nordic model is "failed and extremely dangerous"

as indigenous women are exploited, abused, murdered, trafficked and sold abroad... including here in the US.


Anyway, I'm reminded of a quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:

Culture does not make people; people make culture. So if it is in fact true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we must make it our culture.

This is why I hope Canada will follow the same path that Sweden, Iceland, Norway and France have started. The full humanity of women cannot be recognized while the commodification of women's bodies is legitimized by the state.