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Review of the documentary 'Buying Sex'
‘Buying Sex’ isn't the worst prohibitionist doc we've ever seen. At least ‘B.S.’ pays lip service to the idea of decriminalization, for the first few minutes. Then the ominous music begins, as the camera pans Toronto's skyline, where innocents are bought and sold. The only hope is a few 'saved' sex workers. This saving is done by court mandated diversion programs. Most rescue organizations are run by evangelicals, and "re-education" is a mixture of religion, and modern day psychobabble. The idea that we need to be forcibly saved is as galling to us as it was to lesbian and gay people.
The very few clients interviewed are not representative of the broad spectrum of men that we see. All but one were backlit and speak anonymously. The camera lingers on his stomach and crotch, to visually reinforce his baseness.
Anti-choice feminists and evangelicals have joined forces to “eradicate” sex work. When we protest, they tell us that sex work has so damaged us that we can’t even understand what we are saying or what are experiences mean. This is a way to deny us our voice, our humanity. Much to their annoyance, they have been unable to shut down the global voice of sex workers who are demanding an end to prohibition.
‘Buying Sex’ visits Sweden, where buying sex is heavily criminalized. Most sex work in Sweden takes place indoors. The police cyber-stalk our indoor colleagues to discover the address, and with social workers in tow, arrest the clients arriving. Our colleagues are then harassed into “re-education”. The police physically stalk our outdoor colleagues to arrest their clients. Anti-choice feminists and their religious bedfellows video the near empty strolls and marvel at the 'success' of their new policy. All of this because Sweden has legislated the infantilization of sex workers by mandating that all sex work is violence against women.
‘B.S.’ went to New Zealand where sex work has been decriminalized since 2003. While Sweden was bright and sunny, New Zealand was portrayed as dark and dreary. Every rights movement has its publicity seekers, and our N.Z colleagues weren't wrong when they informed us that that is whom 'B.S'. would be interviewing. 'Buying Sex' gives so much time to an alarmingly bad brothel manager and whiny adult buisness owner that you barely notice the couple of minutes with Catherine Healy, one of the leading forces behind decriminalization in N.Z. No interviews with the many good people who operate brothels or the sex workers working in N.Z. No mention of the Occupational Health and Safety standards, workers compensation, pension plans, fair tax rates etc.
Lastly, ‘Buying Sex’ ignores how our very lives depend on the communicating law being struck down. All three of the litigants in this case, Amy Lebovitch, Valerie Scott and Terri-Jean Bedford have worked on the street as have many of the case’s witnesses. The communicating law affects our street colleagues as a defacto death penalty. In fact, any mention of the communicating law in this documentary is used to further the divide of this debate.
The upshot of this doc is that sex work is bad, but titillating, at least for the makers of ‘B.S.’
Amy Lebovitch, Executive Director
Valerie Scott, Legal Coordinator
Review of the documentary 'Buying Sex'
‘Buying Sex’ isn't the worst prohibitionist doc we've ever seen. At least ‘B.S.’ pays lip service to the idea of decriminalization, for the first few minutes. Then the ominous music begins, as the camera pans Toronto's skyline, where innocents are bought and sold. The only hope is a few 'saved' sex workers. This saving is done by court mandated diversion programs. Most rescue organizations are run by evangelicals, and "re-education" is a mixture of religion, and modern day psychobabble. The idea that we need to be forcibly saved is as galling to us as it was to lesbian and gay people.
The very few clients interviewed are not representative of the broad spectrum of men that we see. All but one were backlit and speak anonymously. The camera lingers on his stomach and crotch, to visually reinforce his baseness.
Anti-choice feminists and evangelicals have joined forces to “eradicate” sex work. When we protest, they tell us that sex work has so damaged us that we can’t even understand what we are saying or what are experiences mean. This is a way to deny us our voice, our humanity. Much to their annoyance, they have been unable to shut down the global voice of sex workers who are demanding an end to prohibition.
‘Buying Sex’ visits Sweden, where buying sex is heavily criminalized. Most sex work in Sweden takes place indoors. The police cyber-stalk our indoor colleagues to discover the address, and with social workers in tow, arrest the clients arriving. Our colleagues are then harassed into “re-education”. The police physically stalk our outdoor colleagues to arrest their clients. Anti-choice feminists and their religious bedfellows video the near empty strolls and marvel at the 'success' of their new policy. All of this because Sweden has legislated the infantilization of sex workers by mandating that all sex work is violence against women.
‘B.S.’ went to New Zealand where sex work has been decriminalized since 2003. While Sweden was bright and sunny, New Zealand was portrayed as dark and dreary. Every rights movement has its publicity seekers, and our N.Z colleagues weren't wrong when they informed us that that is whom 'B.S'. would be interviewing. 'Buying Sex' gives so much time to an alarmingly bad brothel manager and whiny adult buisness owner that you barely notice the couple of minutes with Catherine Healy, one of the leading forces behind decriminalization in N.Z. No interviews with the many good people who operate brothels or the sex workers working in N.Z. No mention of the Occupational Health and Safety standards, workers compensation, pension plans, fair tax rates etc.
Lastly, ‘Buying Sex’ ignores how our very lives depend on the communicating law being struck down. All three of the litigants in this case, Amy Lebovitch, Valerie Scott and Terri-Jean Bedford have worked on the street as have many of the case’s witnesses. The communicating law affects our street colleagues as a defacto death penalty. In fact, any mention of the communicating law in this documentary is used to further the divide of this debate.
The upshot of this doc is that sex work is bad, but titillating, at least for the makers of ‘B.S.’
Amy Lebovitch, Executive Director
Valerie Scott, Legal Coordinator
