I just have to give it up for Maggie Hays; she’s as consistent as she is strident and over-the-top.

Too bad that she’s also consistently WRONG.

Her latest contribution to the War Against “Pr0nstitution” at her blog is basically a new mountain of the same old pigwaste, piled higher and higher until the stench merely overcomes the reader into submission (or so, I figure, she hopes).

Since I have no need anymore to give her or her allies any excuse to bomb my site, I will not offer the link; especially since Renegade Evolution has already, in a complete and devastating fisking at her blog, totally reset and rebutted and obiterated in typical Henchwoman fashion, every word, letter, and punctuation of Maggie’s comments….and besides, Ren did offer the link there.

All I will say is that the only other group that I’ve seen with such a pompous, self-centered, totally vain view of their movement and such a punative, rejectionist, and totally reactionary view of sexuality in general and sexual expression and sexual autonomy in particular, is the “ex-gay” movement among right-wing Christian men.  Indeed, Maggie’s basic belief system and her intensity of activism is so much a mirror image of fundie “ex-gays” that it deserves a similar title.

Shall we call them the “‘ex-slut’ feminist” movement, y’all??

Especially with screeds like this:

Therefore, this “the sex industry isn’t a monolith or something being merely uniform and massive, blah, blah, blah” view promulgated by pro-pornstitution people is a male-centered and misogynistic myth because, in the end, it all boils down to this: the exploitation and abuse of prostituted women and girls will have various forms (in order to cater to different kinds of male needs to use female human beings as merely objects to degrade) but it still will be the exploitation and abuse of prostituted women and girls, and an ongoing suffering to them.

[...]

Those on screen probably also have to protect themselves — if they say defamatory things about the pimps that prostitute them out for mass consumption, they’re likely to lose their position to someone who is a lot more compliant. Glamorized pornified documentaries such as these should normally be deserving of our contempt and little else. As a friend of mine once told me, “why does anyone believe mega corporations with billions of dollars invested into pornified media will provide a fair analysis of pornified media?” Unfortunately, too many people fall for the lies perpetuated by pornified media.

[...]

What kind of a world is this, in which many women have to go through the pain of being penetrated vaginally, orally and anally by five to ten men a day in exchange for money (which for the most part goes to their pimps) and then all of this gets defended as “sex work”? What kind of a world is this, in which the very same acts which are done to these women, whose bodies are being sold, are filmed or photographed and then all of this gets defended as “sexual freedom” or “free speech”?

[...]

The problem is that, for most people, it is very hard to understand why women who are in prostitution or pornography would not enjoy their ‘job’, because people only see a few of them on TV pseudo-documentaries which glamorize the sex industry and the women they see typically say they do it because “they love the sex and they feel good about their bodies”. People usually fall for mainstream media propaganda and conclude that prostituting women are “having a great time” because “they say that they are having a great time”. 

Unfortunately, most people do not understand Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the mental process of dissociation. Of the 854 prostituted respondents interviewed by researchers, 68% met the criteria for PTSD. Women in prostitution whose tricks or pimps had made pornography of them had significantly more severe symptoms of PTSD than did prostituted women who did not have pornography made of them. While it is hard to tell how another person feels, we do know that prostituted and pornographized women often have their mind splitting into different parts of the self in order to be able to cope with what they do.  Dissociative disorders are common in prostituted women. Seeing a prostituting woman on a screen smiling and saying that “she loves her job” does not necessarily mean that she is happy . She might believe that she is happy while being shielded in a form of protective denial with the purpose to protect herself from the painful reality she lives in: the ongoing abuse which occurs in the sex trade.

Or…she may believe that because she really, really isn’t harmed by her profession and because she actually doesn’t feel defiled or soiled by the particular sex acts she performs as part of her job…..but who asked her for her opinion???  She can speak only when radfems like Maggie allows her to speak…if Maggie hasn’t already appropriated her brain and implanted her (Maggie) with her ideology already. But of course…if the sex worker manages to disagree with Maggie’s imposition of antiporn sexual ideology, well, it’s just the PTSD and the “disassociation” kicking in.

Of course, “‘ex-slut’ antipornfeminists” don’t need to disassociate or suffer from PTSD; just plain recasting of The Big Damn Lie over and over again will do for them.  Case in point, this interesting interpretation of a recent fracus in Berkeley, California during an APRF “presentation”:

A few months ago, some “sex work” advocates violently attempted to disrupt a play entitled My Real Name, which used the real life stories of survivors of prostitution. My Real Name was about, by, and for survivors of prostitution and sex trafficking, and was a racially and ethnically diverse production. Maxine Doogan, a “sex work” advocate who wrote a propaganda piece called “Anti-prostitution group commits violence on sex worker”, is a convicted madam from Washington state. She encourages prostituting women to oppose anti-prostitution feminists and sex industry survivors. Maxine Doogan was one of the women who orchestrated the racist and classist ruckus that occurred when the play My Real Name was being performed in Berkeley. 

Of course, those who actually attended the “play” had a slightly different interpretation of the events that transpired (From Bound, Not Gagged):

The producer had stated that this performance was meant to be interactive and invited audience members to interact with the people depicting the violence during the performance. It was unclear if the people relating the violence were actors or the actual people who had experienced the violence originally. The producer also said a discussion about trafficking in the sex industry would follow the performance.

Many people walked out before the end as did Doogan, who returned at the conclusion expecting to find a discussion under way but instead found her comrade, Lisa Roellig, a former streetbased worker surrounded by anti prostitution activist[s], like researcher Melissa Farley, who recently called for the closing of the legal brothels in Nevada.

Roellig, an ex-streetbased worker, and Doogan attempted to converse with the producer about her relationship to the issues raised in the performance. The producer responded by yelled and waved her arms saying she didn’t believe in the comodification of women and that no discussion was going to take place. However a loud discussion ensued between all parties with the producer stating that Doogan ‘sucked the dicks of corporate America’ and was ‘a white and privileged’. Another anti prostitutionist, also a former streetbased worker, stated that all prostitutes are dogs, and used physical intimidation to push Doogan out the door while evoking the name of blood of Jesus Christ. Doogan responded by leaving the building and calling the anti prostitution group “poverty pimps”. Annie Fukushima, U C Berkeley Doctorial Candidate, threatened to call the cops and Doogan encouraged her to do so.

Doogan, Roellig and the third person made statements to the police that Doogan had been physically assaulted. UC Berkeley Campus Officer Sanchez only wanted to know if the women who called the police were women of color. All three women were issued 7 day stay away orders.

And how nice of Maggie to break out the smear of Maxine Doogan as “a convicted madam”….is she sure that she didn’t mean Robin Fey??

But I guess that physical violence and threatening critics with outing their personal names to the public and gloating loudly about them losing their volunteer work due to their profession isn’t the fault of PTSD madness or patriarchy, right??? And I thought that Jesus was a man and the leader of patriarchy, too….ehhh???

Now…can you imagine if Maggie Hays had channeled even a small amount of that rage she has towards sex workers and sex positive activists who rain on her crusade toward women who are legitimately abused and used in non-sexual ways, as much and even more than those whom she assumes to campaign for?  But then again, that would move the focus away from what is REALLY behind this “movement” to save sex workers and “prostituted” and “pornified” women from their own choices and decisions: fear and loathing of SEX.  It’s not the abuse or the poverty or the loss of choice that fuels her myopic rant and rage…it’s the SEX that she and her allies wish that women just would not engage in for the sake of their own personal pleasure…after all, pleasure is the tool of the DEVIL…errrrr, I mean, THE PATRIARCHY.

And they call this a “progressive” movement, too???  Progressive, My.  ASS.

Tags: antiporn feminism gone wild, asshattery, more total BS