https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=VJRBx0JjM_M

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Powerful, well delivered message.

You may have accidentally included the "..." in your copy/paste. I deleted them. The link works.

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Glad to have come across her- quite powerful talk! Thanks Cspatz xo

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That was one of the most articulate, well thought out, talks on the subject that I have heard. she showed quality thinking, and what I mean by that is, we don't want people to simply to assert things; we want them to try to reason things out on the basis of factual evidence and good reasoning. At least, most of us do. Even if we don't know it.

Often, we are unclear about this basic difference. Many people take writing or speech that is fluent and witty or amusing as good thinking. It's not. They are often unclear about the most important part - good reasoning. Even though a person  may just be asserting things and not reasoning things out at all, sometimes we just believe them without the "why" ever getting answered.

For example,. If she did this talk with charm, humor and flamboyance, most people would take this to be equivalent to good reasoning. However, she didn't do that and she certainly could have. She made her statements and supported each of those with evidence. It's nice to see that, And it was great to see it come from a sex worker. I know, but before you send your "she's a former sex worker!!" comment. ASK yourself, Is there really any such thing?

...how she answered the tired cliche of "Would you want your daughter to do this " with..."that is the the wrong question. Imagine she is doing it. How safe is she at work tonight. Why isnt she safer".

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I really need to teach you how to copy/paste...

... a pretty face can sell anything!

into my ads and on the Photo Board, lol.

Steph xoxo

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http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=VJRBx0JjM_M

A client of mine sent this to me several days ago and commented how he learned so much about the  
legal aspects of the industry from a social and geo-political context.  He said it gave him a new
appreciation from a sex worker's point of view although joking that if this lecturer had been an unattractive person who hadn’t been in the industry, he wouldn’t have made it thru the first 30 seconds. I think that is hilarious and probably true.    I applaud her informative compelling lecture and the fact that she is incredibly beautiful, intelligent, and articulate helps but being a former sex worker gives a ring of authenticity to her presence.

Personally, I find there is an overall misconception with the general population (not necessarily people on this board who are probably a bit more enlightened) that sex workers are drug addicts, traffic victims, women from abusive families, or uneducated.   That element does exist (which is abhorrent) and should be eradicated.  When traffic victims are rescued they certainly should not be persecuted or prosecuted (which is a problem in some areas of the US and internationally). But what is frustrating to me is the general unawareness of many sex workers who have normal jobs and are students, therapists, lawyers, medical professionals, teachers, dentists, and persons in everyday corporate america, or blue collar jobs.   An overwhelming number of sex workers not only do it for their own sake but are providing for families.  These aren’t women who are shirking responsibilities but are in fact often times making a difference in their families or children’s lives and are doing the best they can.  It is sometimes shocking to me to hear people discuss that sex workers are either traffic victims, or conversely sitting around having their nails done all day spending thousands of dollars buying shoes and purses in between their rampant drug use or drinking binges barely able to balance a checkbook.  I’ve had a couple new clients over the years say to me that I am such an anomaly in this business and “what is a nice normal woman like you doing here”.  I tell them I am probably much more representative of who is in this industry than they think.  

So many people I know in this industry are taking care of children, parents, saving their money, investing their money and overall being responsible citizens contributing to the economy.  I also have found an inordinate amount of women who are single parents and are having to make up for income that is not coming from their ex-husband or the father of their children and this is applying to all income brackets and demographics.  More often than not, these women are helping family members and putting their children in the best schools they can afford, helping parents and brothers/sisters and are paying taxes.   I think most women in the industry would agree that full decriminalization is highly desirable and I love that she made that a key point and distinction against the framework of other models in her lecture!

I think the best part was where she pointed out that human trafficking is not limited to sex work, but applies to agriculture, housekeeping, and other work, too.  In other words, sex work and human trafficking are two completely separate issues.

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