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ResourceFascinating report from Coalition Against Trafficking in Women on the history of prostitution in the Netherlands.
“On October 1, 2000, the Netherlands legalized prostitution and lifted the ban on brothel owning, effectively decriminalizing pimping. With this law, the government hoped to curb sex trafficking, protect children from sexual exploitation, end the rampant violence in prostitution, and provide social safety nets to prostituted individuals.
Since the passage of the law 24 years ago, the opposite has happened: adults engaged in prostitution experience high levels of abuse, annual figures of sex trafficked children remain high, investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking cases have diminished, while the pervasive violence and stigma inherent to prostitution persists.
Given these obvious failings, why is the Dutch government so attached to the system of prostitution as a form of labor and a manifestation of self-empowerment and bodily autonomy for women? To answer this question, one must not only consider a country’s cultural ethos, but also examine the historical trajectory of women’s and girls’ rights - and lack thereof - which dates long before the forging of most nation-states.
The feminist historian, Gerda Lerner, posited that in 1750 BCE in ancient Mesopotamia, the Code of Hammurabi etched in stone the inferiority of women and girls. The Code, which influenced the world’s legal systems, categorized girls and women as beings unworthy of equality, to be subjugated to their fathers, their husbands, their community, and to the state. It solidified, for millennia to come, the second-class citizenship of women and girls in law and in practice around the globe.
In sanctifying male supremacy as dogma, Hammurabi’s Code also formalized prostitution as a system designed to protect “honorable” women from rape, setting apart women by class, status, and origin. Prostitution, like female genital mutilation, polygamy, girl marriage, and myriad other harmful cultural practices sanctioned or tolerated by states, offers the bodies of women and girls to serve the goals of the patriarchy. It guarantees that men maintain their superiority in all spheres of society, including the purported right to sexual access to women’s bodies.”
I can’t believe the worst part about endometriosis for these women is being “misgendered.”
I'm sorry they're doing this. It's totally understandable how sick you feel over it. This is deeply messed up and abusive. Shocking they are even coming for diseases now, diseases men don't even care to learn about or research or treat.
I was banned from the PCOS subreddit immediately and permanently for saying males can't have PCOS. I was banned from medical subreddit that I need for continuing education on a disease that has severely affected me all for pointing out fact.
They’re actually saying “you will talk about your female issues in front of the people we tell you to” if there are people who are “men” in that group I’m not comfortable talking about my period in front of men in the detail I want to. And my eyeballs are rolling hard at their assertion that afab doesn’t cause Dysphoria but “hey ladies” does.
I’m sorry, I’ve been banned for similar things from endo subreddits. It’s completely awful to exclude people in the name of inclusivity.
The REASON the medical community at large doesn't give a shit about endometriosis is because it's a WOMEN'S DISEASE. These people are narcissists and all they are helping is the maintenance of their fragile worldview.
A word of comfort — online Reddit society is not “real” — you can build networks and small vetted communities in real life. They’re still open to male infiltration but much more controllable.
It is so awful.
Girls and women with endometriosis already have to deal with so much bullshit everyday. From health professionals dismissing us and refusing to help us, to regularly experiencing debilitating chronic pain that affects our daily lives, and now this...
We're kicked out of our online communities, the only places we can vent about how our incurable medical condition has ruined our lives. All because our language isn't "inclusive" enough of a small minority of people who believe everyone, including strangers, have to centre them when we talk about our lived experiences... and that we're bigots if we don't.
I bet if you used “guys” instead of “ladies” no one would have said anything. Infuriating. I left Reddit after the purge and don’t regret it. Misogynist hell site
From the second link: "I’m not trying to be hostile or a smart ass, but who someone else is, meaning how they identify, and that they have endo, doesn’t diminish your story or struggle." Goddamn, this line of argument grinds my gears. Yes, support groups are a place to vent about a shared condition, and health issues especially are intensely personal, but that doesn't mean women are objecting to this out of petty jealousy. Even if they were, they would be entitled to it because these demands are an example of erasing female-specific language from discussing female-specific conditions.
Also, "I prefer afab because that still includes people who have had hystos" what the FUCK is wrong with you
Fwiw personally I don't use "ladies" or "sisters" etc but that's just my personal distaste that's probably a holdover from wanting to be a cool girl.
I don't know much about that illness but i feel like hanging out in such a toxic space is just going to damage your mental health. I would leave this group, now i know this is easier said than done because there is just no resource for women, but maybe this group here could work? Maybe there's some women only radfem aligned discord servers with health forums?
Either way, i don't think this toxic, male controlled space is good for you sis. It wouldn't be for me. But it SUCKS that males and some women destroy everything they can't understand.
March is Endometriosis Awareness Month as well. Of course they'd pull this BS right at the end.
“I’m excluding myself but I’m going to throw a tantrum if you don’t change everything in order to include me!”
Signed, Every trans person ever
Edit. Reddit ran so many other forum type spaces off of the internet, it’s just sad. I’m hoping you can find a space that hasn’t drank the kool aid.
I have here <3
And why can’t there be multiple groups? Why do all the groups have to be inclusive? I demand all lgbt support groups disband immediately since they exclude the majority of people!