The Feminist & the Fundamentalist

By all accounts Ivana Bacik is a bright person. She is a member of the Seanad for a university after all; so you would expect her to be bright. Recently I tweeted her re-the hash tag #End Demand…..I noticed photos of her with a group of women outside Dail Eireann; they carried placards with this ‘End Demand,’ indelibly stamped across them; I was perplexed what was it that Ivana wanted to end the demand for? She didn’t answer my tweet; people like Ivana rarely do. She is after all the champion of middleclass liberal values; one only attains that position by sounding off to their peers; not by engaging in some debate with a fellow twitterite who is by definition a suspected troll.

Last night Rte broadcast a ‘Prime Time Investigations Unit Documentary on ‘Sex Work;’ here in Ireland. It was fairly predictable stuff; more than enough in it to paint the whole sleazy world of sex workers and the sex industry as nothing but cruel; controlled by ruthless thugs who prey on innocent young migrant women. This is all well and good and who could argue; as when you leave something to criminals [like drugs] they will make a great fist of it; criminality is far more efficient than the passionless rigor mortis offered by mainstream society.
So full marks to the investigations unit; they correctly called it; Ireland’s sex industry is run by criminals. Tell us something new? Of course the sex industry here is run by criminals; it is illegal and backstreet sleazy and unregulated. Criminals love these conditions.

In the course of the documentary they interviewed a top brass Garda spokesperson. They went back to her on numerous occasions. The woman was calmness personified in light of this governments attempts at [remember the government has rendered the force sterile by trying to yellow pack it;] dismantling the forces moral and access to resources; I expected her to turn around any second and say ‘so you think we give a fuck about this?’

The documentary then went on to give us some startling information. Since the fundamentalist DUP; got silly Sinn Fein support to introduce the Swedish model to Northern Ireland; there has been no change in the status quo; the sex industry in Northern Ireland is as it was. The PSNI haven’t got the resources to implement the law as laid down. Will the advocates of this legislation in Republic of Ireland accept that the Garda won’t implement this daft legislation either?

Why is it daft I hear you say? It is daft my friends because it doesn’t work. But the Swedish model is hailed around the world? The Swedish model is failing because it is unrealistic. Sex workers in Sweden are been pushed underground; many have to make compromises on their personal safety to satisfy clients. The criminalising of clients has had no effect; despite the hysterical cries of people like Ivana Bacik and her dubious fundamentalist allies; the Swedish model is a disaster.

Criminality is just one reason why prohibition doesn’t work; the other of course is in our humanity itself. In the debate with ‘Clare Byrne’ that followed our documentary; the knives were drawn. At one stage Clare wanted to know, ‘just who are these men?’ [The monsters that rape women then go home to their wives or girlfriends;] this is how this nonsense is portrayed. If a woman accepts a man as a client for consensual sex and receives a fee; is this rape? The lobbyists want us to believe that all sex workers are trafficked and so are offering sex against their will; but that is untrue as the vast majority of sex workers will testify; in fact the numbers of women trafficked against their will is minuscule; this doesn’t sit well with Bacik and the gang.

It was said that the average sex worker client was a middleclass professional; the type of man that fifty euro for a half an hour wouldn’t put too much of a dent in his finances. The idea now been touted was that criminalising him; would make him think twice about spending his spare cash in this way. It was suggested that he might be afraid of being caught; obviously if he was arrested his wife or girlfriend might find out; wouldn’t that be sheer hell for the toe rag; logic is that he will quit chasing these poor innocent women and stay at home?

The current proposed law is on Francis Fitzgerald’s desk; it will be passed; possibly by a popular vote in favour. No politician is going to defend the right of a woman to choose sex work as her life choice. No politician is going to stand up and tell Ivana Bacik that talking about end demand;[men will stop using prostitutes] is never going to happen;[like banning Whiskey in the States in the 30’s] it will just give the criminals a greater mandate to make their dough.

The usual tired old hacks were wheeled out in the debate on Clare; the washed up reformed sex worker; the Catholic zealot from ‘Ruhama.’ And the misinformed representative from ‘Turn off the Red Light,’ who’s premise is that someday women will refuse to act as sex workers; the industry will vanish.

There was only one mention of the ‘W.H.O.’ who want to decriminalise the sex industry; to address an urgent matter of public health; Amnesty International who’s recent vote to decriminalise sex work has also fallen on deaf ears. Ivan Bacik the middleclass liberal hasn’t heard of Amnesty; as it doesn’t suit her fantastic agenda. The oddity is of course that this daft legislation might not have got a hearing; if that old right wing icon Alan Shatter still held the ministry. Shatter might be a cold calculating right wing henchman; but he is pragmatic and not stupid or influenced by Isis like feminism; he knows what is daft.

Maybe Ivan Bacik and her cohorts might ask the real question; why these professional middleclass men feel the need to visit sex workers in the first place. This is the question? Is it some unnatural urge? An imperfection in the moral fiber of men…..is it because they can afford it? What happens to the non-stereo typical clients of sex workers; the lonely the old the mentally ill. People who are isolated or disabled; in society as proposed by Bacik these people have no rights; only those who are engaged in full time relationships can have sex; all other outlets are illegal in the hope they might time out.

‘End Demand,’ not likely; ‘To dream the impossible dream,’

The law will pass but the Garda won’t enforce it properly; sex work will continue to be unsafe and run by criminals.