{"id":2645,"date":"2008-09-16T01:04:46","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T06:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2010-11-24T00:46:55","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T05:46:55","slug":"questioning-the-benefits-of-rescue-from-prostitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2008\/09\/16\/questioning-the-benefits-of-rescue-from-prostitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Questioning the Benefits of \u201cRescue” from Prostitution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many believe that all women involved in prostitution are desperate for rescue and that being rescued always and inevitably leads to a better life for women and their families.\u00a0 Myra M. F. sent us a link to this poster, made by brothel workers in Thailand, begs for an end to attempts to rescue them. Laura Agustin, who took this picture (and blogged about it here<\/a>), writes:<\/p>\n

This poster comes from the EMPOWER<\/a> centre in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where brothel workers gathered to discuss recent raids and rescue operations. On the left they have written a list of reasons why they do not wish to be rescued by police, ngo or charity workers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The text (as transcribed by Agustin):<\/p>\n

\u2022 We lose our savings and our belongings.
\n\u2022 We are locked up.
\n\u2022 We are interrogated by many people.
\n\u2022 They force us to be witnesses.
\n\u2022 We are held until the court case.
\n\u2022 We are held till deportation.
\n\u2022 We are forced re-training.
\n\u2022 We are not given compensation by anybody.
\n\u2022 Our family must borrow money to survive while we wait.
\n\u2022 Our family is in a panic.
\n\u2022 We are anxious for our family.
\n\u2022 Strangers visit our village telling people about us.
\n\u2022 The village and the soldiers cause our family problems.
\n\u2022 Our family has to pay \u2018fines\u2019 or bribes to the soldiers.
\n\u2022 We are sent home.
\n\u2022 Military abuses and no work continues at home.
\n\u2022 My family has a debt.
\n\u2022 We must find a way back to Thailand to start again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many activists in the U.S. similarly argue that the policing of prostitution, ostensibly to “protect” women,” serves to criminalize them (and not so much their johns) and ultimately makes their lives more difficult and dangerous than they would be otherwise. (See, for example, Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics or COYOTE<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

See also posters against the criminalization of prostitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many believe that all women involved in prostitution are desperate for rescue and that being rescued always and inevitably leads to a better life for women and their families.\u00a0 Myra M. F. sent us a link to this poster, made by brothel workers in Thailand, begs for an end to attempts to rescue them. Laura […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[232,2095,1812,291],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cultural-imperialismneocolonialism","tag-gender-feminismactivism","tag-nation-thailand","tag-sex-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29723,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/29723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}