Support for Feminist Current and Meghan Murphy
Greetings, This letter is regarding Meghan Murphy and our input on the controversy surrounding her work, her choice of vernacular, and her analysis, particularly on how it relates to prostitution. We, at EVE (see the summary of who we are below), have worked closely with Ms. Murphy on many prostitution, trafficking, and Bill C-36-related stories and we have so appreciated working with someone who is willing to take a nuanced stand against one of the oldest forms of oppression against women and girls. As women with a history in the sex industry, we find it validating that Ms. Murphy would choose to use language that honestly reflects our lived experiences. We appreciate that she includes our perspectives in her analysis of many topics relating to women and girls such as prostitution and boldly shares it both on her website, Feminist Current, and on other media platforms. We value Ms. Murphy’s ability to look at the forces that drive women, girls, and others into prostitution. She challenges the notion of “choice” while delving deeply into the back-story of those who have been involved in prostitution. She calls out and challenges the patriarchal notion that women and girls can somehow find freedom in the sex industry as long as they do not challenge anything that will happen to them in the sex industry. We find Ms. Murphy’s writing to be brilliantly nuanced. It bites deeply with its honesty and desire to see more for women and girls. Her writing says so much of what isn’t being said in mainstream media. Her opinion is clear and, yet, she still encourages readers to go through their own critical thinking process. No one has to agree with what Ms. Murphy is saying, but she should have a right to say it. In fact, we need her to say it so that our perspectives and lived experiences can be acknowledged and brought into the public discussion around prostitution. While we do not wish to engage in arguing about life experiences with other prostituted women – for that argument just goes round and round – we do want to ask the same questions Ms. Murphy does; how does prostitution help foster equality? How does prostitution further feminism? Why should men be able to pay for sex? Just to name a few. We need to ask questions that turn the focus off the prostituted person and onto the people who have hidden in the shadows for far too long – the men who buy sex. We look forward to all of Ms. Murphy’s articles as well as those of her guest writers and we hope to see her work on Rabble.ca for a long time to come. Without Murphy’s articles, the readership at Rabble.ca will not be equipped with well-rounded and diverse coverage on the topic of prostitution. About EVE EVE (formerly Exploited Voices now Educating) is a volunteer, non-governmental, non-profit organization composed of former sex-industry women. We are dedicated to naming prostitution violence against women and seeing its abolition through political action, advocacy, and awareness raising. Our activism and advocacy focuses on ending the demand for paid sexual access to women and children's bodies. EVE operates under a feminist model, acknowledging that prostitution is born out of sexism, classism, racism, poverty, and other forms of systemic oppression. Sent from my iPhone