This evening while I was at the grocery store stocking up on food to feed the sex workers who will convene at my apartment on Friday night for a pre-Speak Up night of eating, socializing, and analyzing media, I was checking my email (as I do, obsessively) and read this message:
Urgent: Masseuse Advertising on Craig’s List Murdered
Yesterday a sex worker from NYC was brutally murdered here in Boston. Police are saying they think its the second attack by the same guy (first was not killed). He makes appointments with people on Craig’s List to come to Boston and meet him in nice hotels. There are surveillance photos of the guy being posted now, at this link.PLEASE spread the word to anyone you think needs to know about this. Feel free to post on list servers. I’m thinking that people outside of Boston may not know this is happening — and those are the people he’s preying on.
I actually clutched my chest and said, “Oh no,” out loud – and probably looked stricken.
I’ve been thinking about this all night and it’s cast such a pall over my thoughts. I’ve seen a few comments on Facebook and Twitter about it, and a few ruminations like, I wonder what her screening process was like, or admonitions like, Girls, do your screening! And I hate to say it, because I do believe in screening and check in calls and doing whatever you need to feel safe with a client, but what if her screening was great? What if she was conscientious and did things by the book? A woman getting killed is not her fault. This doesn’t mean women are completely powerless against bad things happening and shouldn’t take steps to protect themselves, but part of what needs to happen for sex workers -for WOMEN- to be safe with men (clients or otherwise) is that the men need to not kill women.
It used to be that, whenever I saw news of a bust or a series of arrests, I would scrutinize the stories (a little obsessively) to see where the sex workers went wrong. Did they not pay their taxes? Did they boast about their work in public? Did they piss off someone who would turn them in? Did they make it explicit that they were offering sex for money in their advertising? There’s always something.
But here’s the thing: if you are a prostitute, your job is illegal. Doing illegal work that is stigmatized (especially if you’re also young, female, queer, or already disenfranchised) makes you part of an undesirable part of society. And undesirables are vulnerable – if you’re on the wrong side of the law you’re vulnerable to arrest and other harrowing forms of abuse and exploitation by the cops and legal system; you’re also vulnerable to violence.
We can talk about safety infinitely, but the fact remains that sex workers are at risk. Taking security measures and being on the defensive are all well and good, but there are only so many ways you can defend yourself against violence and exploitation that is embedded in the patriarchy. Being on the defensive is a band aid, it is not a long term solution. The long term solution is that governments need to stop telling us what we can and cannot do with our bodies, and men need to stop being violent toward sex workers. We can and will fight those problems hard and loud, but sadly, sex workers can’t stop violence all by ourselves.
The news of this woman’s murder makes me feel small and powerless and really fucking angry. Sure, my work on media is important. But having good messaging doesn’t stop sex workers from dying. And tonight it was hard to get very pressing tasks accomplished, stuff that will make a difference to a small and amazing group of sex workers. It’s just tough to get things done while thinking about this murdered woman. Fuck.
1:34 am
“and a few ruminations like, I wonder what her screening process was like”
Yes, I wondered this because I want to know if there is possibly any background checking that’s putting out bad info. I didn’t mean for it to sound as though I’m victim-blaming.
2:20 am
“what needs to happen for sex workers -for WOMEN- to be safe with men (clients or otherwise) is that the men need to not kill women.”
Thank you, amen, and brava, for saying this. Dacia, you inspire me.
I’m glad you’re angry. I’m angry too. Let’s stay angry. I think anger is a feminist practice and a tool for empowerment.
9:56 am
This has been haunting me since last night, too. I hear that more & more women are, at the very least, moonlighting in sexwork with the economy so rough. Will they learn to screen & stay safe? Sometimes this info takes a bit of digging, & that worries me (though I understand why it is guarded info).
Wonderful blog.
9:57 am
You should publish the essay on prostitution “A She-Savior” by the well-known Russian author Mikhail Armalinsky. It was published in Moscow edition of his Selected Works http://www.mipco.com/english/introVozn.html
I will be happy to send you the text as attachment or here is the link: http://www.mipco.com/english/SheSavior.html
The main idea of the essay “A She-Savior” is that the legalization of prostitution must be based on a return of its divine, sacred character, so that prostitution will be considered the most honorable profession, the one closest to God, the holiest.
10:05 am
and as with any violent crime against sex workers, the next question lingers, caught in the anxious ether; what will law enforcement do? How will this be handled by the media? Will it be taken up as a crime against a woman, a person, the way justice necessitates or will it fall by the wayside like so many other crimes against workers? Will it be lost in the shuffle all or in part because the victim was engaged in “illegal activity”? Will she lose her humanity through the backwards focused lens of morality? And will the perpetrator be caught before he harms again?
How to be empowered to save ourselves if we are always told we are not worth defending at all?
10:13 am
@Aspasia – I didn’t think you were victim-blaming – and my first impulse too is to look for ways that sex workers can be safer and do better screening.
@Amy – thanks for your words. You’re so right that anger is a feminist practice.
@Rebecca – Economic tough times sometimes push sex workers to doing things that they wouldn’t do under better financial circumstances – unfortunately sometimes that means bargaining on health and safety.
@sokale – I personally don’t subscribe to the whole “sacred whore” thing, so Waking Vixen is probably not the best place for the article you suggest. I like the idea of respect for sex workers that I think sacred whoredom connotes, but sex workers aren’t even treated like human beings most of the time, much less goddesses.
10:18 am
This is horrifying. And I’ll bet if the cops already know he’s hurt a sex worker once before, he’s probably done it dozens of times. What a nightmare.
10:30 am
[...] sex worker who had advertised on Craigslist was murdered in Boston two days ago. Dacia captures my thoughts best: We can talk about safety infinitely, but the fact remains that sex [...]
10:58 am
It cast a pall over me, too, all day yesterday and into the evening while I was with a client. The client is a regular, and even though I spend some time with him occasionally, you still never really know what’s going on in someone’s mind. When I got home, it occurred to me that I don’t think I was able to fully relax (to the extent that I ever do) during our session.
I, too, am curious about her screening process, but not from a “blaming” or “what did she do wrong” point of view. I think we can and should use anything we can glean from it as a learning tool to further our own safety and that f other sex workers. Certainly no one else is going to help us with that.
2:47 pm
[...] (Also, hopefully the media will report sensibly on this; I’ve only read about it so far on sex-positive blogs, so I’m not sure what regular news coverage is [...]
3:22 pm
@Audacia: I’m glad I didn’t come across that way because I certainly don’t want to sound that way. I have noticed, however, a lot more supposed businesses popping up, advertising to women about screening dates. This being for sex workers and non-sex workers. I’m filled with a lot of doubt against those because it would be a great scam for those types of “financial predators”, as I call them. I just hope this woman wasn’t one of those victims as well.
4:19 pm
@Aspasia – I devoted part of the sex work chapter in my book to this very issue of screening and third-party businesses that offer screening as a service. I’m a little on the fence about it, but I don’t really love the idea of independent workers forking over more of their money to someone else, plus handing over personal and identifying information is a little scary. That said, the idea of a kind of organization doing security may be a bit more intimidating for a guy with ill intent. That’s purely speculation though.
There’s a slightly more detailed article about the murder that was published today – the woman has been ID’ed in it: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/04/police_id_woman_1.html
Here’s what the piece says about safety:
“Davis, who said it was unclear whether Tuesday’s victim was a prostitute, said department officials have been working with security guards at hotels to curtail prostitution, advising them to look for guests who have people coming and going from their rooms frequently or at odd hours.
Davis said many escorts may not report crimes against them. In February, FBI agents arrested five women, ages 19 to 33, who allegedly showed up at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf after agreeing to provide sex for up to $300 an hour to undercover officers.
The officers had responded to advertisements posted on Craigslist, according to Boston police reports. At Choices Escorts & Dancers, an area escort agency, a woman said working independently through sites like Craigslist is highly dangerous.
“Agencies are more secure – these sites are not,” she said, declining to provide her name. “The people who prey on these girls, they target independent escorts. They know that if you’re on Craigslist, you are unprotected.”"
SO frustrating – women who work for agencies can be subjected to different kinds of exploitation, and aren’t necessarily safer once they’re in a room with a client, unless there is a security guy with her or right outside the door.
2:18 am
as a young sex worker myself. I am shocked and a bit frightened. I’ve always thought the legs who worked independant were gutzy
But now I’m just outraged. Besides this girl was a massuese?
Plain awfull. The world is a dark dark place.I’m thankful for my agency! And the my security guard!
I’ll be sure to blog about it:
Via:
http://www.lecourtesan.blogspot.com
3:04 pm
The Craigslist killer was caught yesterday.
12:30 am
[...] the story of the murder of a NYC-based sex worker in Boston broke last week, I’ve been keeping up on the details of the story mostly through Twitter and the enthusiasm [...]
8:17 pm
[...] the first crop of Speak Up sex worker media trainees, my phone buzzed and I got a message that a sex worker from New York had been found dead – bound and shot in the chest – in a hotel in Boston. The message was from a fellow sex worker who [...]