Yammering On, Part 2

Here we are, part two of that interview I started with Aviv Snir a couple weeks ago! Plus more of my Inktober pen drawings of octopuseseseses.

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7.      There is no effective sex-ed in the educational systems and in families, therefore pornography has gained the central role of sex-ed for adolescents (as well as adults). What is your view on the porn industry? What is your vision for this industry?

The porn industry is like the book industry or the movie industry or the healthcare industry, they’re massive fields that contain the full spectrum from excellent and fair and ethical to terrible and exploitative and corrupt (and everything in between, too!),  both in terms of the product they produce and how they treat their laborers. There are many people and companies in porn who are working so hard to produce films that showcase a diverse range of bodies and identities and sexualities to make the viewer feel represented and to compensate all the laborers fairly for their work and treat them respectfully. In some cases some porns could probably be used as a type of sex education in very specific instances, but overall looking to pornography to learn about sex is like looking to a sci-fi movie to learn about science. Pornography is fantasy, not real life, and it’s unfair to both the films and the viewers to expect them to be an accurate, comprehensive, realistic, educational resource. That said, there ARE porn producers making actual sex education and they label it as such. The Crashpad is a huge proponent of sharing queer sex education and promoting safer sex practices (https://crashpadseries.com/queer-porn/adult-performers-talk-safer-sex/). Kink.com has also created a series of educational movies on kinky practices, https://www.kink.com/channel/kinkuniversity. When it comes to responsibly forming an opinion on the porn industry and the world of sex work, it is mandatory to seek out and listen to the voices of actual sex workers. They are the ones who understand how their industries work, what needs to be improved, what they need in order to be safe, and what legislative changes would actually be effective or disastrous for reform. I encourage folks to follow Jiz Lee @jizlee, Vex Ashley @vextape, Blath @blathh, Chris Lowrance @chrislowrance, Melissa Gira Grant @melissagira and read through the sex worker run news site http://titsandsass.com as well as checking out Crashpad’s blog too. In between the promotional posts about their most recently released films, they also regularly features thoughtful articles about the state of the sex industry and advocation for change that they’re participating in https://crashpadseries.com/queer-porn/blog/

8.      There is a place of respect in your work to a variety of sex work forms: porn, cam girls, stripping etc. In Israel, there has been a public debate lately regarding a new bill that is gathering wide governmental support to criminalize clients of sex work and invest in the rehabilitation of ex-sex-workers. Most of the debate is between clients who wish not to be disturbed in their habits and feminist organizations who generally prefer to outlaw all forms of sex work and not a lot of opinions from sex workers themselves. What is your take on this kind of law and the debate in general? (you can read about the law here)

Most people conflate “sex work” with “sex trafficking”, so it is very important for people to understand that they are completely unrelated since one is done by choice of the worker and the work is done consensually, like all other jobs under capitalism, while the latter is about a victim being forced against their will for somebody else’s profit, it’s slavery. Every single sex worker I’ve encountered has been against this kind of legislation, the “Nordic Model”, that criminalizes the clients of sex work and forcibly “rehabilitates” sex workers themselves, saying that this kind of reform only hurts them, further exploits them, and doesn’t actually reduce any sex work at the end of the day, it just makes it more dangerous for people who are already marginalized by society and the legal systems. Even Amnesty International is against this model, https://www.thenation.com/article/amnesty-international-calls-for-an-end-to-the-nordic-model-of-criminalizing-sex-workers/ Which is not to say that they want the current system to remain in place, either, but law enforcers and legislators need to listen to and work WITH sex workers in order to make positive changes that protect all parties. Mistress Matisse writes regularly on this subject, I encourage people to give her Twitter a read at @mistressmatisse and check out some of these articles:

https://sometimesitsjustacigar.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/a-guide-to-legal-models-so-simple-even-swerfs-can-understand-it/

http://www.thestranger.com/news/2017/09/26/25434273/city-attorneys-crackdown-on-johns-has-dire-consequences-for-immigrants-defense-attorneys-say

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cas-mudde/the-paternalistic-fallacy_b_9644972.html?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

8b.   Would you like to add a bit about what positive reforms can look like?

Ideally, I imagine decriminalizing sex work looking like most other jobs that involve intimate contact in exchange for money, like masseuses or physical therapists. I'd like to see sex workers feeling safe, having the power to set boundaries with customers and the protection of the judicial and legal systems if anything goes pear shaped during an encounter with a client. When a laborer, ANY laborer, must work under the radar, that puts them at the mercy of their employers who have the power to exploit them, knowing that their worker cannot expose them for fear of being penalized as well by the legal system. This is true of undocumented laborers of any field, from construction to textiles. But when a person is not at fear of being criminalized for their work, they can push back against unfair or dangerous treatment and create safer, fairer work environments.

9.      What has changed in the sex-positive and sex-ed community since the election of president Trump?

People in these communities are scared, upset, and depressed, but still continue to be dedicated to promoting their messages, especially sex education in areas where it is harder to access. People are eager to reduce the harm that he has already caused and will cause in the future, folks are motivated to work harder and pitch in to bigger causes in the fight to diminish Trump’s harm.

10.  Would you like to tell about a reaction to one of your works that was meaningful to you?

I’ve had so many heartfelt reactions from readers that have surprised me and touched me deeply. One that really took me by surprise came very early on, in the first few months since we launched the comic. A husband wrote to tell me how much it had meant to his wife that I had drawn a Masturbateer (one of the fictional characters we use in the comic to illustrate how sex toys get used and various sex positions) with a double mastectomy. His wife had undergone a prophylactic mastectomy and her self-image had really suffered, and it meant so much to the both of them to see a positive image of a person being sexual and happy and normal. I believe the letter was prompted by this comic? https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/njoy/ We get mocked and criticized from both sides of the political spectrum for drawing such a wide variety of bodies in our comics, but Matthew and I both genuinely believe it is important and even necessary to show as many different kinds of people as we can in our work so that our readers can see someone who looks kinda like them in some way and feel like their body type is worth being looked at, worth embracing, worth loving and respecting. 

It ALWAYS blows me away when readers tell me they’ve gotten an IUD or an Implant as birth control because of the comics they read on our site. Like, oh my god, you had a DOCTOR semi-permanently insert an OBJECT into your BODY that’s gunna be there for YEARS just because you learned about it through our comics? Holy cow. 

11.  Is there a comic that you feel very proud of one of that maybe didn't gain much exposure or interest? Which comic is that and why do you think that’s the case?

I was surprised my comic on medical abortion didn’t kick up more of a fuss! https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/medical-abortion/ I figured that’s such a hot button topic, I was really braced for a lot of conservative and religious backlash— but nope! Which is fine!!! I don’t handle people being angry at me very well. But still, I was surprised. 

The End!