Here is something awesome: sex workers in Vancouver are planning to open a cooperatively-owned brothel. Being planned by British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women, the idea is to create a safe place to work and enable sex workers to have control over their work.
Thousands of women have been killed in Vancouver, many of them sex workers, and a worker-owned co-op, where women could work inside, is a step toward preventing this kind of violence.
According to Women’s E-News, any sex worker can join the co-op and rent rooms. Workers set their own rates and keep all of their profits, and the co-op will adhere to labour standards. Plans include an art gallery, a museum on the history of sex work and a dinner club featuring burlesque shows.
Even the police and politicians are backing the idea, as the city tries to “clean up” its image (read: hide from view its many and persistent economic and social problems) for the 2010 Olympics. In fact, the only people opposed are escort agencies that are afraid of a little competition.
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one comment
A real step towards ending violence against women would be if men could stop believing they have some sort of entitlement to treat women as things to be used for their "sexual" gratification. I equate men who use prostitutes with rapists; the welfare and well-being of the women involved mean absolutely nothing to them. A co-op may improve prostitute's safety, but it does NOTHING to change the attitudes of the rapists.
Posted by John
October 16, 2007, 11:19 AM
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