Submitted by orange in Sex_Work (edited )

I came across this post by sexworkinfo on Tumblr and wanted to share it with yall.

Self proclaimed leftists will talk about sex tourism in Asia in the context of neo colonialism while completing leaving out how the rescue industry, run by white American right wing evangelical Christians, pushes sex slavery narratives to facilitate the criminalization of sex workers that forces them into low paid garment manufacturing, which is to say nothing of how Christian propaganda is forced on them by these rescue industry NGOs.
People really, really need to understand that the rescue industry is real, it is run by American right wing evangelical Christians, and they’re doing this for three major reasons.
Firstly, they believe sex work is immoral because they believe any sex outside of a heterosexual, monogamous, Christian marriage is immoral.
Secondly, they get material benefits from it, this is a business model; they capture sex workers in exploited nations with the criminalization model and push them into “diversion” programs where they are forced to work in sweatshop conditions, usually in garment manufacturing. Since these NGOs are registered as “charities” they also function as a tax dodge. Finally, they use these diversion programs to try to convert sex workers into their sick brand of right wing Christianity.
Since these are powerful US companies they are able to influence global politics including how sex work is treated in other countries. As of now they are running show throughout much of Asia and Africa specifically so they can make money off criminalizing sex workers into manufacturing cheap clothing that then goes on to be sold as “providing new opportunities for rescued sex slaves”.
The sex slavery narratives is being pushed by the evangelical Christian right to dupe people who are trying to do the right thing. They even collect donations to fund their “raid and rescue” missions where they arrest and imprison sex workers.

Consider companies like Punjammies and Outland Denim who do exactly this
https://sexworkinfo.tumblr.com/post/186630380090/as-soon-as-this-appeared-in-my-ads-i-had-a-bad
https://jezebel.com/buy-these-pajamas-rescue-a-prostitute-or-why-rescue-1688197906
https://youtu.be/EnXhB1XtL2o
https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/22/the-new-abolitionists-mexico-dominican-republic-human-trafficking-mormon-our/
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/nov/28/global-slavery-index-walk-free-human-trafficking-anne-gallagher

Consider how evangelical Christians are shaping the global discourse on sex work
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/evangelical-women-are-shaping-public-attitudes-about-sex-work/\

Here’s a lot of information about sex worker activism across Asia
http://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2019/08/10/opinion-the-double-denial-of-sex-work-in-thailand/
https://www.refworld.org/docid/5229b72f4.html
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/17/asia-pacific/social-issues-asia-pacific/health-insurance-time-off-empowered-sex-workers-thailand-battle-stigma/
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_58a74d70e4b045cd34c170aa?test_ad=readmo_test
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1026053/prostitution-laws-in-need-of-overhaul
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8gen84/blow-jobs-are-real-jobs-v23n1
https://rewire.news/article/2012/09/23/why-sex-workers-must-be-part-global-human-rights-agenda/
http://theladiesfinger.com/meena-seshu-get-right-sex-work/
https://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/lives-sex-workers-modern-china
https://www.nationthailand.com/national/30343500
https://www.nationthailand.com/national/48-Thai-sex-workers-arrested-in-South-Korea-30279748.html\

There is clearly a critique to be made about sex tourism but failing to dig deeper and consider how this discourse is being used by the US and it’s capitalist neoliberal evangelical Christian churches to force Asian sex workers into garment manufacturing is missing an enormous part of the story and facilitating the very thing it claims to be critiquing.

4

Comments

You must log in or register to comment.

An_Old_Big_Tree wrote

There's loads of this in Southern Africa. Christian organisations are the main thing working on criminalising sex work and getting in the way of often good work on decrim. They'll "save" sex workers by hiring them for a pittance and soon the sex workers will realise that it's shit and go back to sex work secretly while still working for those NGOs. It's an all-round shitty situation.

5

orange OP wrote

It's so ugly! I really never connected the dots. It's just so vile that they will convince themselves that they're "saving" people regardless of the reality, because obviously sex work = slavery + depraved work and factory work = honest + morally superior work.

4