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I will not be voting in the upcoming election.  As far as I am concerned, it is not possible for a society to be fair, or democratic, or to have any plausible foundation of justice at all, if not all humans are treated as people, with the right to dignity, equality and self-determination under the law.

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Every major political party, except for the conservatives, are eager to entrench into policy, the “right” to purchase the bodies of others for sex. What this does is to normalize the status of women as a sex class.  It is overwhelmingly women of colour, poor women, addicted women, abused women, and traumatized women, who are trafficked and sexually exploited, and yet *all* women suffer, when the objectification of female people as chattel is legitimized by the government and by society. Contrary to the claims of that small, privileged, platformed and vocal minority of individuals who actually do choose to exchange access to their bodily orifices for money, (many of whom are in fact in the business of pimping, which conveniently falls under the rubric of “sex work”, that odious term that sanitizes and scrambles the horrific reality of prostitution), decriminalizing buyers will not de-stigmatize the societal perceptions around being bought and sold, except according to the sickeningly disingenuous neoliberal party line, which blithely engages in Orwellian doublespeak suggesting that women’s objectification is empowerment, submission is agency, and advocacy is arrogance, distain, colonialism, or “sex-negativity”.

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In countries and jurisdictions (like Germany, and parts of New Zealand) where the purchase of prostituted people has been decriminalized, the industry has expanded and proliferated, including indeed, outside of the supposed boundaries of the law (few prostituted women, surprise surprise, are actually interested in registering with the government), and the stigma remains the burden of the (primarily) women who continue to be used and abused–because that stigma is part and parcel of the reality of being a dehumanized thing, a concept which prostitution de facto reinforces.

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I have heard the argument that my beliefs about prostitution are akin to asking that women’s independence be curtailed or revoked, or that this stance is somehow a product of my “white feminism” or that mine is a racist position, because, (haha) I’m clearly trying to hamper the “agency” of the women of colour who are vastly over-reprepresented in prostitution, (ostensibly they are out there to exercising their “choices”, and the marginalization of women of colour in other areas of life, is purely coincidental when it comes to prostitution).  Please, feel free to take a moment to digest the stupidity of these claims, which essentially make up the cornerstone of the arguments against the radical feminist position in opposition to “sex work”.

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In fact, I support the Nordic Model, which acknowledges that women do absolutely have a right to do whatever they want or need to do with their bodies, and that they should never be criminalized, or discriminated against, for selling sex.  My objection to the institutional endorsement and support of men who feel entitled to rent the use of women’s vaginas, mouths and anuses does not constitute a moral judgement against the women and men and children who are forced into this so-called “work”, nor  against those who feel empowered by it. My criticism and disapproval of the sanctioning of temporary sexual slavery is motivated by the reality that society is a systemic force that shapes the lives of individuals whether we like that or not, and the fact that laws shape social conventions, perspectives and attitudes towards classes of people.

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I have heard many times from others, that I should vote anyway, because apparently there are more important issues at stake, than whether or not women are human in the eyes of government and society.  In other words, choose the “lesser evil”.  In my view however, the government accreditation of the commodification of people’s bodies is not in fact, a “lesser evil” at all;  condoning the purchase of sex directly harms half the population (and certainly negatively effects all of us), and legalizing the exploitation of women corrupts the very notion and process of democracy and justice. I will not vote for a party that doesn’t acknowledge my inherent dignity and humanity and inalienable rights, as well as the rights of my my sisters-in-arms and my daughter. That leaves me with the conservatives, with whom I disagree on almost every area of policy, *except* for bill c-36. 

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I could never, in good faith support, or even tolerate any government taking power, unless their fundamental position is one in which the inherent dignity of all people is acknowledged and ratified by law.  The desperate need our country has for solutions to our economic predicaments, solutions to the problems in education, the terrible state of the environment, the tragedy of our healthcare system, the racism and discrimination towards first nations people that continues to underpin Canadian culture, and all the myriad other social problems that we face as a country *cannot* be properly addressed, or equitably solved, or even fully acknowledged, unless *women are also seen as human*.  I hear too frequently the old chestnut that prostitution is the “oldest profession” and that it isn’t going anywhere.  Well slavery and murder aren’t going anywhere either, but I don’t see many people calling for the legitimization, regulation or the legalization of these universal human ills.

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I have tried so hard to shut up about this, (because despite all evidence to the contrary, I do not enjoy being labeled, targeted, vilified, blacklisted or abused, by friends, acquaintances, or strangers,) but thanks to all the many irritating exhortations (some of them vaguely bullying) in my newsfeed urging everyone to vote,  I really just can’t stay quiet.  I will not be voting.  And I’m also not interested in being told that by not voting, I somehow (magically) rescind my right to criticize the government.  I can, in reality, knock myself out criticizing all and sundry, including the government, whether I jolly well vote or not, and there is nothing anyone’s pedantic passive-aggression can do about it.  And frankly, given the horrifying choices, No.  My vote does not count.

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Let me know when a political party shows up that wants to support women’s rights by putting lots of cold hard cash directly into the hands of mothers, and in particular single mothers, so that women can decide for themselves whether or not they want to work inside or outside their homes (thus acknowledging the enormous contribution to the GDP that women make when they put their time and money and energy into directly caring for their children at home, *as well* as the equally important but different contribution that women make, who work outside their homes and require outside childcare); that wants to mostly get the hell out of meddling in other countries’  wars, and to drastically cut military spending in order raise social assistance, and to provide a guaranteed income to every single person; that wants to cut dramatically, or eliminate, post-secondary tuition rates, or at least completely eliminate the interest charged to post-secondary student loans; that wants to immediately acknowledge, listen to, work with, and rectify (including financially) the issue of poverty in First Nations communities; that wants to completely restructure the entire healthcare system, removing the inherent double-bind that exists in the current system, which effectively incentivizes illness, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, rather than wellness; that wants to grant women REAL reproductive freedom by offering free, open and easy abortion access to all women, including removing any restrictions or stigma associated with choosing abortion outside of the medical system, *as well as* providing ALL pregnant women with the kind of financial and social support that would give the poorest among us, a real choice when it comes to whether or not we want to bear their children, and by re-writing the Midwifery Act in every single province and *decriminalizing* the provision of pregnancy and birth support outside of the medical system, because women aren’t stupid, and pregnancy, for most women, is not a medical event, and because women have been supporting women in childbirth since the beginning of time, and it is enormously brutal, sexist, paternalistic, and just basically sick, to send women to jail for offering compassionate support during the birth process, and because reproductive freedom should, actually mean *reproductive freedom*, and finally, a party that insists that it cannot be made legal to buy other people’s physical bodies for the purpose of masturbating into.

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Apparently, I’m not the only freak who feels this way: the always-brilliant Meghan Murphy of Feminist Current, writes here about the open letter (to which I am a signatory) to the NDP, discussing the discrepancy between that party’s claim that they support the rights and freedoms of women.  Mulcair’s condescending, dismissive response was typical, predictable and depressing.  

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Anyway. I’m going back to my pottery studio now. Call me when it’s over.