Chris Hall, Author at Literate Perversions

New Goal: Write Shorter Stuff

By Chris Hall
May 30, 2014
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My latest goal: I’m going to try to force myself to write shorter posts, and to be happy with them. One of my big problems with writing, and writing consistently, is that I feel like everything has to be at least 1,000 words long in order for me to have done my job. And not only does that writing take a long time; it’s intimidating, which means that I don’t actually get started, because all I can imagine is struggling to get the word count done, and all the things that I should be doing, instead of writing. So, instead of aiming for a high word count, I’m going to be trying to do more posts under 300 words. Yes, the SEO plugin won’t like it (very much) but, fuckit. Who’s the boss here, anyway? Maybe we’ll get some more content in here.

More later.

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Can a Good Scientist Be a Good Whore? (And Other Thoughts About Whorephobia)

By Chris Hall
October 20, 2013
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Now that the whole situation with Danielle Lee and Biology Online has mostly been settled, I’m getting ready to write up some of the things that bothered me about how the science/skeptic/atheist communities supported Lee. On the one hand, I think that it was great to see the outpouring of support against a wanker who deliberately insulted a professional scientist because she wouldn’t write for free. On the other, the overwhelming majority of support for Lee implied — if it didn’t come out and say it outright — that there was something foul and distasteful about being a whore. It seems like we need to talk about ways to we can support women against misogynist jackasses without kicking sex workers under the bus. Because that’s exactly what happened: when everyone rushed to stand by Danielle Lee’s side, they made damn sure that they ran away from the sex workers.

I’m not sure if I’m going to write this for this blog, Godless Perverts (which really, really needs to get some new content up), or Slixa. Either way, I’d like to ask for some help. I definitely have my own thoughts, but in the end, it’s the thoughts and feelings of sex workers themselves that are important. If you’d like to contribute your viewpoint on either the DNLee situation specifically, or the use of the word “whore” by civilians more generally, either fill out the contact form below, or use the regular comments. I’d also be happy to do interviews by phone/Skype/IM.

I’m especially interested in hearing from sex workers who identify as atheists or agnostics, but any viewpoints are welcome, godless or not.

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What Kind of Person Goes to a Sex Worker?

By Chris Hall
October 10, 2013
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Kitty Stryker

Kitty Stryker answers this question today in a very lovely and touching article at Slixa, based on her experiences taking clients in London. It doesn’t actually tie in with the common stereotype:

Working with TLC Trust in London, I found myself encountering a very different sort of client than the media-projected stereotype. I was a companion for an autistic man whose sister wanted to help him learn how to navigate flirting and dating with hands on experience. Just coming to my space was difficult for another person who had social anxiety. I had more than one female lover who sought me out for erotic massage so they could relearn how to be touched intimately and communicate triggers after sexual assault experiences. Sometimes the people I met wanted to snuggle and cry in my arms about the restrictions they felt about their faith, or their struggle with expectations of gender roles, or relationships they had lost. I hadn’t fully realized how being a switchboard operator with psychology experience gave me training on how to be a better provider!

[Read more…]

New Post at Slixa: Decriminalization Isn’t Enough

By Chris Hall
September 17, 2013
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Although I shamefully neglected to mention it in the actual piece, my most recent post at Slixa was done as part of Maggie McNeill’s Friday the 13th event, in which she encourage non-sex workers who are allies to write about the decriminalization of sex work. Mine talks not only about decriminalization, but about how we have to destigmatize it as well. Tolerating sex work with a distasteful grimace is little better than calling for its prohibition:

But ironically, decriminalization is as inadequate as it is radical. The stigma around sex work is at least as damaging as the laws. Stigma adheres to all branches of sex work, whether legally or not. It might be perfectly legal to make, market, and sell Lesbian Spank Inferno, Vol. 17, but having it on your résumé will guarantee you don’t get a job teaching grade school. The idea of sex workers as “fallen,” broken, or amoral is the soil in which the laws grow. The State of California was able to enact a regulation denying aid to victims of rape because stigma allows people like Ms. R to be considered disposable.

In the end, decriminalization isn’t enough: we have to say that sex workers — like any other legitimate work — can be a positive thing, not an inevitable blight that has to be tolerated. That’s not just radical in the current climate, but unspeakable. Right now, it’s hard enough to get people to use the phrase sex work without a lewd, patronizing grin.

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Quote of the Day: Sex Workers and Feminist Allies

By Chris Hall
September 17, 2013
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In yesterday’s post, I made a deliberate point of saying that I wasn’t going to go into detail about specific steps for Feministe and other sites to improve their relationships with sex work communities. As I said, there’s already enough non-sex workers talking about what sex workers need. But I think that reading Olive Seraphim’s “How to Be a Feminist Ally to Sex Workers” would be a good first step for the Feministe staff. The excerpt below seems particularly germane. And like most good things, it doesn’t apply only to sex workers, or feminists.

Acknowledge how feminism actively pushes sex workers out of feminist spaces

A non-sex worker said to me the other day something feminists have been saying to women they’re trying to silence for years; but your analysis isn’t nuanced! (Insert whatever excuse to ignore our perspective you like, as there are many feminists like to use against us and this is but one example). Of course, this is actually code for; I don’t like what you’re saying so I’d rather shut you out of the conversation completely by getting an academic who has no experience with what you’re saying to word things in such a way that you can’t understand them while complicating the issue into a philosophical argument so we don’t need to address the real life shit you have to deal with on a daily basis. Feminism needs to stop being academic to the exclusion of everyone else, especially if you take privilege theory seriously and realize that those with intersecting identities may well have had less access to education than your privileged ass.

Feministe Needs to Face Up to Their Hypocrisy About Sex Work

By Chris Hall
September 16, 2013
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Feministe‘s coverage of sex work is pretty seriously fucked up, and it is far past time that they face up to that and do something about it. I feel like that’s so painfully obvious that it’s embarrassing even saying it, but apparently it does need to be said.

Photo by Steve Rhodes. Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/5269901585/

In February, Feministe editor Jill Filipovic published a troubling post about how she supports sex workers, but hates sex work. When is the last time that you saw any marginalized person respond positively to the “hate the sin, love the sinner” line?

Filipovic’s post got a lot of criticism,¹ but not as much as the guest post by social worker Sarah Elizabeth Pahman² that went up last week. [Read more…]

For a really good example, check out Jadehawk’s rebuttal. ↩
Sometime after the Feministe post went up, Pahman’s blog was marked “private” and blocked off. You can still find a 2012 interview with her here, in which she cites Melissa Farley as one of her inspirations. If you’re not familiar, Farley is an anti-sex work activist whose research has been so thoroughly debunked that it can comfortably be described as either fraudulent or grossly incompetent. ↩

Would You Ask Me to Guard Your Computer?

By Chris Hall
August 30, 2013
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Do you want this person guarding your laptop?

I keep wondering why the hell people in coffee shops look at me and decide that I’m just the kind of guy that they should ask to guard their expensive computer hardware while they go take a poop. I have that kind of sullen, brooding look that should rightly be associated more with the leader of the Satanic cult that moved in down the street just before all the dogs and cats started disappearing from the neighborhood. Not the all-American boy who would never think of walking your precious laptop down to the pawn store and hocking it. [Read more…]

Fear of Writing

By Chris Hall
August 29, 2013
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I get a lot out of writing, but it can be agonizing. It’s one of the scariest things that I do in my life, even if it keeps me sane.

Just yesterday, I finished an article about the closing of the Lusty Lady peepshow here in San Francisco. It took days of misery and stress, but it was satisfying as hell when I finally did it. The worst part, as always, was having the job hanging over me. Knowing that I needed to finish up the article has haunted the entire last week, and if I could have just sat down and written it, it would have been finished last weekend or Monday at the latest. (Monday was actually my self-imposed deadline; I missed it by two days.) [Read more…]

Listening to Anger: Two Good Responses to JT Eberhard and Atheist Racism

By Chris Hall
August 26, 2013
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I can’t even say how deeply disappointed I am in JT Eberhard’s recent behavior on the subject of racism. But even more, I’m disappointed in the failure of the atheist community to address it better.

Bria Crutchfield

Actually, some prominent atheists have addressed it very well: Jen McCreight and Greta Christina articulated the problems with JT’s comments about Bria Crutchfield and his defense of those comments beautifully. The fact that Jen, a white feminist, was one of the first people to speak up gave me some initial optimism; when white people create a mess, white people should be first on the scene to clean it up. It should not constantly be up to people of color to explain what’s so fucked up about racism. [Read more…]