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Columnists

Sasha: On the decriminalization of sex work in Ontario

So... that happened.

Alec Baldwin uttered these unforgettable words after emerging from a car crash unscathed in David Mamet's film State And Main.

I must say I feel just about the same way. After bitching (and this would be an appropriate word, because I have been a fucking bitch about this a lot of the time) for the past 16 years about decriminalizing sex work, something wholly unexpected happened on Tuesday afternoon.

Sex work was decriminalized in Ontario.

I was picking up some groceries at Fiesta Farms when I got the news on my BlackBerry. A flurry of emails and texts from colleagues at Maggie's and other sex worker rights organizations (mostly, "WTF? Is this really happening?") proved that, yes, this was really happening.

Columnists

My open letter to the sex work movement

I wrote this emceeing for Granny Boots Sex Work cabaret tonight in Toronto -- and on the heels of a victory against the state to give more power to sex workers so police stop arresting and jailing us. I feel like it's an important time to be honest about where we are at in the movement if we really want to move ahead strongly and actualize true decriminalization across Canada. (which is a very good thing people!) And yes there are lots of expletives but I'm speaking the English language of the colonizer -- so I don't fucking care.

Dear sex work movement/activists/or people who just don't fucking get it.

I want to talk to you and I want you to try and get what I'm saying here. For real this time.

Constructing change: the activist toolkit

Constructing change: Everything you wanted to know about organizing but were afraid to ask

February 8, 2012
| How can sex workers organize? This episode looks at legal rights, community building and stopping street sweeps, plus an interview from Ottawa sex workers' union POWER.

5:27 minutes (5.05 MB)
in her own words

To the would-be sex work abolitionist, or, 'ain't I a woman'?

In her August, October, and December rabble blog posts, Meghan Murphy asks why sex workers and our allies don't want to engage in "genuine discourse" with her and other abolitionists. It might surprise her, but there is an answer to that question.

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Columnists

The mistaken logic of 'asymmetrical criminalization' -- a.k.a. the Nordic model of prostitution

An often-acrimonious divide exists between feminists who call for the abolition of sex work and feminists who favour its decriminalization. As a former exotic dancer who is strongly "pro-decrim" based on the evidence, feminist principles, and listening to sex workers, I'm disturbed by what I see as wrongheaded ideology from abolitionist feminists.

The F Word

Sex as work: Will legalizing prostitution contribute to women's equality?

November 23, 2011
| Meghan Murphy speaks with Jackie Lynne, a member of The Aboriginal Women's Action Network, and Julie Bindel, feminist journalist, about the impacts of legalizing prostitution on women.

41:04 minutes (37.6 MB)
Meghan Murphy

Why does the left want prostitution to be 'a job like any other'?

| November 7, 2011
Meghan Murphy

Why reproductive rights and prostitution are not the same thing: A response to one decriminalization argument

| August 25, 2011
The F Word

Feminism and the prostitution debates

August 10, 2011
| Hosts Nicole Deagan and Meghan Murphy explore the prostitution debates with feminists Chris Bruckert, Lee Lakeman, Erin Graham and Cherry Smiley.

52:07 minutes (47.72 MB)
Alert! Radio from Canadian Dimension

Why Canada lost UN security council bid. Why is the U.S. swinging to the right? Pitfalls of Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement

October 28, 2010
| Alert! Radio #162 - Interviews with Haroon Siddiqui, Stephen Shrybman, Saul Landau. Headlines, Around the Left in 7 Days and Music is the Weapon.

60:13 minutes (27.57 MB)
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