Prostitution is never safe, let alone now

In Brisbane, Australia, where prostitution is legal, police have been arresting and fining women working in unlicensed brothels, when what they should be doing is arresting the pimps and punters involved.

Vulnerable women need to be given the opportunity to escape the sex trade, and not be fobbed off with pointless health advice and hand sanitisers. These women are already exposed to horrific violence, as well as a number of serious and long-term mental and physical health conditions. The last thing any government should be doing is finding ways to keep the sex trade thriving.

Prostituted women should be financially supported and classed as long-term unemployed. We need to acknowledge the hell they have been living under and make available everything from counselling and health services, childcare, and re-education packages.

The government should clamp down on the men that are putting their own selfish desires before the lives of others. Prostitution can never be made safe. Covid 19 is but one threat to women in prostitution, and pimps and punters need to be the ones that pay the price.

Source: Prostitution is never safe, let alone now | Julie Bindel | The Critic Magazine

Invisible Mothers in the age of Coronavirus

An unexpected side effect of COVID-19 appears to be that biological sex is both real and mentionable again!

[W]hile men are becoming sicker and dying at a higher rate, women are emerging as more vulnerable to the social and economic sequelae of the virus. Professionally, women are more likely to be teachers, paid carers, nurses, supermarket check out workers, cleaners etc in ‘essential professions’ which are at high risk for exposure to COVID-19. They are also more likely to be engaged in casual or insecure work, and in sectors which are being most heavily affected by escalating closures and lockdowns. The contempt for the wellbeing of women in the sex industry was demonstrated perfectly in Sydney, where the first ’employees’ to be fined for breaching new pandemic regulations were three prostituted women working in a brothel massage parlour which was clearly not about to let the risk of communicable disease get in the way of profiting from women’s bodies.

Let’s be perfectly clear – it is not ‘people’ who are being forced into early induction of labour or surgical births as health systems divert resources from maternity wards to pandemic preparedness. It is not ‘individuals’ who are finding themselves wondering if their only choices are to birth their baby in an overrun disease ridden hospital or at home unattended. It is not ‘parents’ crying in the hoarding-emptied formula aisle wondering if it’s too late to rebuild the breastmilk supply they were told was optional. None of this is or has ever been done to any person on the basis of their pronouns – this is all a result of the status of women in patriarchy as less than people on the basis of belonging to the female sex class.

Source: Invisible Mothers in the age of Coronavirus – Full Cream

France Is Putting Domestic Abuse Victims in Hotels During Coronavirus Lockdown

France is relocating women beaten by their partners into hotels, and has created a secret code word for them to discreetly seek help in pharmacies, in response to a huge increase in domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown.

n France and many other affected countries, restrictions on movement during the pandemic have trapped women inside their homes with abusive partners, resulting in a sharp rise in reports of domestic violence. French officials say that reports of abuse have leaped by about one third around the country since the restrictions came into effect on March 17.

Source: France Is Putting Domestic Abuse Victims in Hotels During Coronavirus Lockdown – VICE

SA reproductive rights experts worried coronavirus is creating more barriers to abortion

Reproductive rights groups are asking for urgent legal changes to allow access to abortion drugs through telehealth, saying coronavirus restrictions will likely to lead to an increase in unplanned pregnancies.

Source: SA reproductive rights experts worried coronavirus is creating more barriers to abortion – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Malaysia issues apology after telling women to “stop nagging”

In the past week, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in Malaysia posted tips for women on how to behave in the home.

They included:

– Don’t nag your husband.
– Don’t speak in an infantile voice.
-If you must request your husband to do something, adopt the voice of Doraemon (a Japanese cartoon robot cat)
– If you’re working at home, wear makeup and dress neatly, rather than in casual clothes.

The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry have since issued an apology.

“We apologise if some of the tips we shared were inappropriate and touched on the sensitivities of some parties.”

The posters have now been removed.

Source: Malaysia issues apology after telling women to “stop nagging”