LaBelleThatcher
17-06-12, 16:06
I was going to post this in the general board because it is so important, but it seems a bit too heavy to impose that way.
Somebody sent me a link to this video today:
http://www.upworthy.com/this-is-the-most-unpopular-opinion-on-child-porn-youll-ever-see-but-im-asking-y
A couple of minutes into the speech, a lot of pieces fell into place in my head, let me explain why.
I haven't been very cagey about my past, I was a 13 year old runaway who somehow managed to survive without selling sex until my family used the system to hammer me with a whole new wave of abuse in my 20s.
Of course I had to give a lot of sex away free as barter for a place to stay and food to eat, but, hey, at least it wasn't purrostitution, which should thrill "Turn Off the Red Light" - (no doubt especially the part where I hid in a derelict basement, aged 14, with no food at all for two weeks, which seems to be pretty much what they want for all of us to starve us into submission.).
The part that will not thrill them quite so much is that the only reason I avoided selling sex was that I looked well over 18 so the niche underworld that drew all the other teen runaways like a magnet, to a club at a select address with so much high level protection it could never be touched despite being incredibly illegal at the time, had no use for me, and, despite the way I looked, the ordinary, everyday punters (like the guys around here) were not blind, deaf and stupid, and were way too likely to work out my age and hand me to the cops (which was the last thing I needed, sadly, for real. Even to this day the authorities have feck all real care or protection to offer an abused teen. So instead they "contain" them and make sure they are fecked up "but good").
Anyway, in my real life, because of all the above, I was on standby a few years ago on account of a young relative in state care who kept going missing (with cause) and was likely to stay missing any day.
The irony of the situation was that, as extended family, the authorities would not allow anyone near to even try and offer help (despite considerable efforts), the only chance anyone might get was if she ran and stayed lost, and that much information was withheld. I had visions of negotiating the red light districts on foot, asking a lot of women where I could find a needle in a haystack. It was a couple of years of being on standby for the first hint that it was time to go looking. (I really laugh harshly when idiots who haven't got the first clue what life is like on the margins ask: "But how would you feel if someone close to you was a purrostitute?" - cos, oh MAN that answer can get SO complicated in real life!)
Watching this powerful presentation, I realised something left of field to all my politics...
If only someone had told me that search might be as simple as a quick call or text to the team here, who would actually get pretty upset along with me and really watch out.
You have no idea...even knowing there was a fairly expert watch being kept 365 days a year on all related sites, would have been such a relief. Some nights it would have been the difference between sleeping, and lying awake wondering if there was something I should be doing instead, even though there did not seem to be anything I could do.
But E-I had been demonised so successfully that it did not even cross my mind to try asking. I assumed I would be told to eff off if I got a reply at all.
Sufface to say I would genuinely never have seen any more sense in asking Ruhama or an equivalent org than in having a chat with the parish priest or the service desk at tesco - because they have less real access and know far less about the sex industry than I do myself. A closed mind is an insurmountable barrier to learning, and besides, they have been alienating the whole sex industry for 20 years.
Once again, I am the evidence. Given their way the abolitionists would shut down the one place most likely to be able to really help me find a missing teen...and any other similar place.
But that will never stop a teen going missing, the only way you stop that is to acknowledge and shut down the abuse and distress they are running *from*. It will not even stop an abused teen from having sex to survive, it will just ensure they get a far worse deal in return (as I once did)...a bed for the night and a meal, rather than money for many beds for the night, and many meals.
...and if all the above were not enough...why can't ordinary, everyday people in the same position I was in, even be allowed the comfort of knowing the truth...that there are decent people who really want to help in any way they can, just a phonecall or email away?
Who ON EARTH gains anything at all from the cruel, selfish, interfering, abolitionist propaganda?
Somebody sent me a link to this video today:
http://www.upworthy.com/this-is-the-most-unpopular-opinion-on-child-porn-youll-ever-see-but-im-asking-y
A couple of minutes into the speech, a lot of pieces fell into place in my head, let me explain why.
I haven't been very cagey about my past, I was a 13 year old runaway who somehow managed to survive without selling sex until my family used the system to hammer me with a whole new wave of abuse in my 20s.
Of course I had to give a lot of sex away free as barter for a place to stay and food to eat, but, hey, at least it wasn't purrostitution, which should thrill "Turn Off the Red Light" - (no doubt especially the part where I hid in a derelict basement, aged 14, with no food at all for two weeks, which seems to be pretty much what they want for all of us to starve us into submission.).
The part that will not thrill them quite so much is that the only reason I avoided selling sex was that I looked well over 18 so the niche underworld that drew all the other teen runaways like a magnet, to a club at a select address with so much high level protection it could never be touched despite being incredibly illegal at the time, had no use for me, and, despite the way I looked, the ordinary, everyday punters (like the guys around here) were not blind, deaf and stupid, and were way too likely to work out my age and hand me to the cops (which was the last thing I needed, sadly, for real. Even to this day the authorities have feck all real care or protection to offer an abused teen. So instead they "contain" them and make sure they are fecked up "but good").
Anyway, in my real life, because of all the above, I was on standby a few years ago on account of a young relative in state care who kept going missing (with cause) and was likely to stay missing any day.
The irony of the situation was that, as extended family, the authorities would not allow anyone near to even try and offer help (despite considerable efforts), the only chance anyone might get was if she ran and stayed lost, and that much information was withheld. I had visions of negotiating the red light districts on foot, asking a lot of women where I could find a needle in a haystack. It was a couple of years of being on standby for the first hint that it was time to go looking. (I really laugh harshly when idiots who haven't got the first clue what life is like on the margins ask: "But how would you feel if someone close to you was a purrostitute?" - cos, oh MAN that answer can get SO complicated in real life!)
Watching this powerful presentation, I realised something left of field to all my politics...
If only someone had told me that search might be as simple as a quick call or text to the team here, who would actually get pretty upset along with me and really watch out.
You have no idea...even knowing there was a fairly expert watch being kept 365 days a year on all related sites, would have been such a relief. Some nights it would have been the difference between sleeping, and lying awake wondering if there was something I should be doing instead, even though there did not seem to be anything I could do.
But E-I had been demonised so successfully that it did not even cross my mind to try asking. I assumed I would be told to eff off if I got a reply at all.
Sufface to say I would genuinely never have seen any more sense in asking Ruhama or an equivalent org than in having a chat with the parish priest or the service desk at tesco - because they have less real access and know far less about the sex industry than I do myself. A closed mind is an insurmountable barrier to learning, and besides, they have been alienating the whole sex industry for 20 years.
Once again, I am the evidence. Given their way the abolitionists would shut down the one place most likely to be able to really help me find a missing teen...and any other similar place.
But that will never stop a teen going missing, the only way you stop that is to acknowledge and shut down the abuse and distress they are running *from*. It will not even stop an abused teen from having sex to survive, it will just ensure they get a far worse deal in return (as I once did)...a bed for the night and a meal, rather than money for many beds for the night, and many meals.
...and if all the above were not enough...why can't ordinary, everyday people in the same position I was in, even be allowed the comfort of knowing the truth...that there are decent people who really want to help in any way they can, just a phonecall or email away?
Who ON EARTH gains anything at all from the cruel, selfish, interfering, abolitionist propaganda?