My final project is zine that can be used as a tool to educate people on the fine line between empowerment and exploitation in the field of sex work. I am interested in giving this marginalized group of people a voice in the media. Also I am to uncover how certain forces of the law effect these people in their field, such as the FOSTA and SESTA.
For those who are unfamiliar SESTA stands for Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act and FOSTA stands for Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, both of which were passed in 2018. Although these acts are completely valid to try and put an end to sex trafficking, they also impede certain rights that consenting sex workers should have. For instance, FOSTA makes it a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to operate “an interactive computer service” with “the intent to promote or facilitate the prostitution of another person.” This is a good thing for victims of sex trafficking, but harmful to the sex worker. Instead of being able to screen clients through the internet before meeting with them for a session, they are now forced back out on the streets to look for their clients. This could put these people into very dangerous situations that could potentially lead to rape and other physical abuse.
Another point that I want to make is to address the stigma of the line of work in general, and advocate that sex workers have rights as well. In our society this line of work is is frowned upon and slid under the rug, but in reality it is still a job. A lot of sex workers do not feel safe being publicly out about their career choice, and this is due to the stigma attached to it. These people deserve to have their stories heard and to be taken seriously. Over the summer activists gathered in Washington Square Park to celebrate National Whoresday, a movement to give a voice to the struggles that these people have to deal with in their line of work. FOSTA/SESTA not only impede the rights of sex workers but is also a direct violation of our freedom of speech. These laws threaten many online platforms to place strong restrictions on their user generated content. In doing so they have silenced a lot of marginalized voices in the process. Without the use of these internet communities, sex workers do not have a space to communicate safely. These acts are intended to give prosecutors the tools they need to find justice for victims of online sex trafficking, but in turn they have become harmful to the consenting sex worker, forcing them back on to the streets and into dangerous situations.
The intent of this zine is to shine a light on the issues of the FOSTA/SESTA acts and to give a voice to this marginalized group. Here is a link to the documents in a google slide presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YNRTS0_IhAbbBq6i4IQ54cORPCenkyNZPU-yRHVNwJY/edit?usp=sharing
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