STORY posted on November 18, 2011 by Hilla Kerner
STOP BACKPAGE.COM: Taking a stand against prostitution and trafficking of women.
STOP BACKPAGE.COM protest, Vancouver, November 16, 2011
STOP BACKPAGE.COM protest, Vancouver, November 16, 2011
STOP BACKPAGE.COM protest, Vancouver, November 16, 2011
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Dozens of local women stood in the pouring rain, wrapping the corner of Granville and Georgia to protest Backpage.com advertisements for prostitution services, and the facilitation of trafficking women and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The protesters carried signs “Stop Backpage.com” and “I’m not for sale” and handed out leaflets with statistics about prostitution and trafficking.
Summer Rain, an organizer of the protest: “We chose the corner of Georgia St. and Granville St. because it’s where the Missing Women Inquiry is held and all the men there are talking about the lives and deaths of prostituted women. It is also an area of many corporate businesses and middle-class and upper-class men. Businessmen make up a large percentage of the men who are buying women and girls for prostitution, including through Backpage.com.”
The facts are grim: The average age of entry into prostitution in Canada is 12-14 years old; while in prostitution, over 80% of women suffer physical violence from pimps and buyers; and 92% of women in prostitution say they would leave prostitution immediately if they could.
In spite of the gloomy weather many of the passers-by were clearly interested and stopped to ask questions or to applaud the protesters for taking a stand against prostitution and trafficking of women. Significant number of young men expressed disapproval of buying women and girls in prostitution. Summer Rain: “It is very encouraging to speak to men who believe that sexual exploitation of women is wrong”.
The local protest was one of several similar actions in the US and Canada, organized in conjunction with The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) . As women in Vancouver were also protesting this form of sexual exploitation, CATW took to the streets in New York in front of Village Voice Media, the owner of Backpack.com. According to CATW, Backpage.com encourages and fuels the male demand for the sexual services of prostituted women, with no consequences for the men who are buying selling and trafficking women and girls. This website operates in over 400 cities around the world. Backpage.com creates a virtual red light district for pimps traffickers and johns, and Backpage.com directly profits of the buying and selling of women’s bodies for the purpose of sex.
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
Comments
I use backpage
As a part-time sex-worker I find both this protest and the language around it insulting.
I use backpage.com and offer erotic services. I feel more exploited working at a cafe for $9 an hour than spanking business men for 200.00/hr and selling used underwear at 40.00 a piece.
You say, "over 80% of women suffer physical violence from pimps and buyers,"'
According to a 2011 report, "The two factors that most affect the levels of violence (in sex work) are: i) location or work venue; and individual working conditions...in-call work involving a person operating from a fixed location appears to be the safest way for a prostitue to work in Canada." (2011, Lowman Report, pg 25).
Spaces like Backpage (and previously craigslist) give power to the worker by allowing us to screen clients and operate from an in-call location. These websites are not perfect but they are some of the best resources out there, unfortunately.
"92% of women in prostitution say they would leave prostitution immediately if they could," Perhaps a more accurate stat would involve canvassing for the perspective of sex trade workers from the different avenues of sex work, from in-call agency screening to street-level survival sex trade.
The anti-backpage crusade, rather than an issue of safety and care, is a crusade of moralism. You might not be for sale, that's great. "I" am not for sale either, but I do recognize that our bodies hold accumulated value (not only sexualized). Under a capitalist system we trade our bodies and our time for money to survive. And other people, be it pimps or bosses, make money off our backs.
All labour within the capitalist system is a form of slavery. I prefer to sacrifice less of my time, and maybe from some people's point of view, more of my body, until this capitalist system is utterly destroyed and we can rely instead on mutual aid.
Keep your morals off my body.
Thank you Annie E.! I
Thank you Annie E.! I totally agree!