Feminists In Protest of Pornography's Journal (original) (raw)

A popular local dance club is hosting a Pimp n’ ‘Ho party.
Please call
Rumors Cabaret in Bellingham WA
360-671-1849

Tell them their April 15 Pimp N’ ‘Ho party trivializes prostitution and perpetuates the idea it is okay to exploit women.
Pimp ‘n ‘Ho parties set up a model for how men can hurt women and make a joke of it. Pimp ‘n ‘ho parties teach men that pimping women is fun rather violence and control. These parties perpetuate sexual exploitation and notion that women’s bodies are owned and for sale.

Prostitution is not fun. Prostitution is sexual harassment, rape, battering, verbal abuse, and domestic violence. It is a racist practice and a violation of human rights. Prostitution is a result of male domination of women and a means of maintaining male domination of women.

Pimps are not cool characters in snazzy clothes. Pimps target girls or women who seem poor, naive, lonely, homeless, and rebellious. In one study, 79% of sex workers had been beaten by their pimps. 85% of prostitutes are raped by pimps (Council on Prostitution Alternatives, 1994).

Prostitution is violent and causes harm to women. 70% of prostitutes report multiple rapes by their customers, pimps, and strangers. Most prostitutes have been victims of childhood sexual abuse, incest, rape, or battery prior to their entry into prostitution, making them more vulnerable to being targeted by pimps. Whether it is being sold to a brothel, or whether it is being sexually abused in your family, running away from home, being pimped by one’s boyfriend, or whether you work at a lap dancing club - all these forms of prostitution hurt the women in it.

Most prostitutes do not choose their profession. Women enter prostitution as young teenagers, not as worldly women who are playing ‘ho to have a good time. The average age of entry into prostitution is getting younger, now about 14 years old. Street prostitution is largely representative of the poor, single, and less educated. With very few skills, a limited education, and minimal, if any, work experience, these women often saw prostitution as a way to succeed in otherwise blocked entrances to conventional opportunities.

Prostitutes wouldn’t ‘ho if they really didn’t want to. Pimps keep prostituted women in virtual captivity by verbal abuse and by physical coercion - beatings and the threat of torture. The answer to the question "why do prostitutes stay with their pimps?" is the same as the answer to the question "why do battered women stay with their batterers?" Humans bond emotionally to their abusers as a psychological strategy to survive under conditions of captivity.

Prostitution causes lasting harm. Like combat veterans, women in prostitution suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychological reaction to extreme physical and emotional trauma. Symptoms are acute anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, flashbacks, and emotional numbing.

Some information was excerpted from http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/pnh/index.html