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catgirl-catboy · 2 years ago

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Never read One Peice so I am VERY curious as to how and why Thriller Bark is the "most one peice One Peice gets". Cuz it already seems pretty wacky from what crossed my dash.

Okay, first of all: Don't read One Piece. I wouldn't say because its bad, but because its time consuming.

It is a very long manga about Some Guy in a hat making friends beating up assholes and the government. Doesn't everyone fantasize about having a rando show up out of nowhere and beat up your shitty boss, leaving your life permanently altered?

That being said, most One Piece characters look fucking weird. They all look like the artist might have seen a real person at one point in his life, and then made a caricature of that. I say this with affection. The wide variety of character designs such as long horse and Octopus with 6 swords make the world feel cartoony and silly.

All of them, but the women. (and our one trans dude character, it feels wrong not to mention him.) For one piece is... very catered to the male gaze. According to One Piece, a woman's internal organs are stored in her tits. And the second most prominent female character in the series, who has been in the series for a decade, just got her second solo fight! (Partly because the author gave her a good ranged superpower so logistically she could just snap her opponents neck before the fight begins... but still!)

Thriller bark begins by an antagonist spying on and groping one of our beloved female characters in the slower. Our traditional ladies man and wet cat (who happens to be my favorite turned problematic fave) is rightfully pissed off about this, since his friend and crewmate was assaulted under his nose.

Later, the antagonist kidnaps out leading lady, causing the ladies man to go after her. Decent plotline, right? Makes sense. SIKE! The reason he was mad is because he wanted the superpower the criminal used to assault his friend but didn't get it. Presumably to also perv on people, but a slightly more charitable explanation is given years down the line.

This seemed remarkably OOC at the time, but more jokes in this style would soon follow. To the point where I dare say my dude was flanderized.

Another main problem with Thriller Bark is that the pacing was incredibly wonky. This is slightly subjective, but most One Piece fights are slightly long because the villains are tough, and Luffy has to take a certain amount of damage before he can kick ass.

This fight, it felt like the Straw Hats were winning, and the villain was pulling tricks that weren't foreshadowed and didn't make sense out of his ass. He also wasn't making the best strategic decisions during the fight, which is in character I guess, but still disappointing. The heroes are on a time limit and would have died in a few hours if the villain of the week had just chosen NOT to fight. I wish that this was like, called out?

This is a nitpick compared to the two above problems, but the arc before this, we got two new crewmates! Going in, I was hoping the arc was about them, but instead it was about our first mate, captain, a third new crewmate, and total character derailment for my favorite boy.

That being said, the Zoro moment in this arc is fantastic, to the point where I'd feel bad spoiling it. Like, if you were to ask people about their top ten one piece moments, this would get mentioned a LOT. the badassery.

We also get this ICONIC moment from Luffy and tons more like it. You wouldn't think an arc based of halloween would be so funny, but here we are.

I'd give the arc a solid C, but every individual aspect is either an 100 or a 0.

youtube

#ask tag #one piece

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nightmare-grass · 5 years ago

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So I’m officially Spidersona trash

Here I have compiled the main characters, their abilities and personalities, and their relationships within the story I am currently working on and have been working on ever since the Spidersona movement of 2018.

1. My personal OC

- Name: Nora Weaver

- Age: 19

- Alias: Jumper

- Based on the Bold Jumping Spider

- Quirky, inventive, sneaky, caring, impatient, smart, and kinda egotistical

- Saw the Prowler fighting Prism on tv one time and thought, ‘hey, those rocket-boot things are pretty cool’

- Later on she made her own rocket boots for a college science fair (it’s a high school science fair, tbh, but colleges scout for talented students to give scholarships to), she promotes them as footwear for rescue efforts and stuff like that

- At this science fair another kid was doing experiments on spiders and one escaped and bit Nora, giving her spider powers

- Since Nora’s thing is mechanics, she got her more chemistry-inclined older sister to help make her web fluid

- Sister’s name is Amelia

- She eventually designed her own suit and was from then on known as Jumper

- Only her sister knows her true identity

- She has arachnophobia (coincidentally)

- She’s adopted and it turns out her biological father is Dr. Octopus

- Her birth mother is a woman named Mary Alice Anders (Otto and Mary split up in Otto’s tragic villain backstory)

- She gets scrap and parts from an auto body shop and the son of the guy who owns the shop is really cute and Nora has a crush on him. His name is Dominic Mazzetti.

- One humid summer day Nora drops down in an alley in her spider suit and peels the spandex off to sit at her waist, having been wearing a tank top underneath, in order to cool off. She realizes too late that she’s right next to the auto body shop when Dominic comes around the corner, looking to take a shortcut, and sees her. She webs him up, jumps onto the rooftop with him, and starts freaking out, but she makes him promise not to tell anyone her secret. From then on they work together more closely.

- Gwen Stacy is kind of the designated bully, seeing her as a rival for good grades, so she mockingly call her “Snora” since Nora falls asleep in class quite a bit due to her hero work

- Eventually Gwen and Nora become friends

- Nemesis: Doctor Octopus

- Recurring Villain: Screwball

“Alright, lets start at the beginning one last time. My name is Nora Weaver. I built some rocket boots, was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last year and a half I’ve been one of a few spider-themed heroes in my city. I call myself Jumper. I’m pretty sure you can figure out the rest. I saved some people, joined a spider hero team, graduated, started college, nearly dropped out, and now I’m in the process of saving the city again. By the way, I was in the middle of that. Catch ya later!”

2. Peter Parker Gender-bend

- Name: Penelope Parker

- Age: 18

- Alias: Ladybird

- Based on the Ladybug Mimic Spider

- She was the one with the spider science project

- when one of her spiders bit her, it momentarily distracted her and she let two more escape, one biting Nora, another biting Skylar

- Wears glasses

- When they get to community college Penelope meets Harry Osborn and after a while of being friends they start dating. This will not end well.

- Nemesis: Green Goblin

- Recurring Villain: Black Cat

“Alrighty then! I guess we can start at the beginning one more time. My name is Penelope Parker, and for the past year and a half I’ve been the hero known as Ladybird. I was experimenting with some spiders and radioactive elements when three of them got out and bit me and two of my now best friends, and so we decided to form a superhero team. I figure you know the rest; we saved the city, started college, I got an internship that ended up being a trap, my aunt May died, and now we’re trying to save the city again. Yeah, it hasn’t been great.”

“AGH, Harry is such a dreamboat!” Penelope twirled around gaily and flopped onto her bed with a sigh. “I don’t deserve him,” she murmured with a smile.

Nora rolled her eyes. “Of course you deserve him, Pen! In my eyes, you deserve the world,” Nora said matter-of-factly.

3. OC

- Name: Skylar Tran

- Age: 19

- Alias: Spider-Shine

- Based on the Mirror Spider

- Non-binary, they/them pronouns

- Black hair dyed blue

- Filipino

- Reflective/shiny skin (yes, like the Twilight vamps, get over it)

- Cocky, flamboyant, funny, millennial humor, depressed but doesn’t wanna show it, being a superhero gives them something to live for

- Has scars from depression on their arms

- Very much an anime fan

- Starts out as a “Hero for Hire” where they got paid for rescuing people but quit that as soon as they found out about Tombstone and how he scares the people of NYC into paying him so he doesn’t let worse things happen to them

- Nemesis: Tombstone

- Recurring Villain: The Tinkerer

4. Symbiotesona

- Name: Amber Herald

- Age: 31

- Alias: Prism

- Symbiote

- Bonded with Prism when she was 23 and working for the Life Foundation

- They’re lesbians, Harold.

- Prism’s thing is light refraction, so she can turn invisible

- She’s an established hero when the three newbies get bit

- Their origin story is kinda like the Venom movie except they don’t take down a big bad corporation or stop an alien invasion

- Prism is a forced spawn of Venom

- Life Foundation captured Venom to make more Symbiotes but Prism was one of the few Symbiotes that escaped with a host

- Dreamcasting Idina Menzel as Amber

- Nemesis: Any evil Symbiotes that happen to pop up.

- Recurring Villains: Prowler and Kraven the Hunter

Side Characters

1. Harry Osborn

- Son of Norman Osborn

- Has a degenerative disease that Norman tries to fix with experimental science

- Goes mad, becomes Green Goblin

- Before he’s the Goblin, he and Penelope start dating

2. Gwen Stacy

- daughter of Police Captain, George Stacy

- Gifted in biochemistry

- Wants to become a forensic scientist for the NYPD, following in the footsteps of her father but in her own way

- On weekends she is the drummer for MJ’s band

- Sees Nora and Penelope as her academic rivals and sometimes bullies them

- Loves music

- Is a lesbian and has a crush on MJ but she’s still in the closet

- If I ever want to make her into Spider-Gwen, I could kill off Amber and have Prism bond with Gwen

3. Mary Jane “MJ” Watson

- Intern/reporter for the Daily Bugle

- Sometimes self-absorbed, mostly self-assured and witty

- Has a band called The Mary Janes where she’s the lead singer and lead guitarist

- Keyboard player is Glory Grant

- Drummer is Gwen Stacy

- She’s bisexual and she has a crush on Gwen

- With her hot temper and Gwen’s bull headed stubbornness, they have quite a few disagreements

4. Felicia Hardy

- becomes Black Cat, an antihero

- Her dad used to develop tech for Oscorp when he was found “stealing” some of the tech he worked on and was laid off

- Her dad used the tech he’d developed to aid him in cat burglary because he couldn’t find a job and had to support he and his daughter but he was caught stealing from one of Kingpin’s businesses

- Felicia used her dad’s tech to steal enough money to pay for his bail but kept stealing afterward

- Takes up a Robin Hood-like role where she steals from rich assholes like Kingpin and Norman Osborn and gives back to the homeless of NYC

- She’s really quiet as a civilian, almost unnerving, but that’s because she spends all day coming up with cat-related quips and catchphrases to use when she goes out as Black Cat

5. Screwball

- I want to add more to her character, really dig deep and find the person behind the vlogger/criminal nut job

- Her crimes are just stunts and dangerous pranks on important figures

- She live-streams every crime

- Started off with a prank channel on YouTube but when she started drawing the attention of Jumper and the bunch for her dangerous stunts, her videos started to get more views, so she just scaled up her pranks to draw the attention of the heroes even more

- Expert Gymnast and Media Influencer

- Some of her fans are so rabid for her that they’ll commit murder at her slightest suggestion

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notebookundermydesk · 7 years ago

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(Not responding on the post because not sure asker wants to see this and I’m not very up to rephrasing, and also I haven’t read all of it at the moment).

(cn for post; cis person talking about trans-relevant things. cn for link; radfem stuff is brought up.

Pretty like ‘I am saying things out of my head’ type.)

https://theunitofcaring.tumblr.com/post/168087435016/hi-for-a-long-time-i-basically-sided-with-trans (um, @theunitofcaring ?)

So I don’t know if this is going to be mentioned in the post because as noted, so very sorry if it already was said, but,

So a huge thing for me with this is -

So, ok, let’s say person from 2300-with-no-sexism (very yay) and-no-gender-availability (eep) shows up, and she looks at gender things here, and specifically the woman part for her, (not sexism, not gender roles, those are bad, but like, the ‘what you can know yourself to be’ and potentially ‘things you can want relevantly to that’ (like social acknowledgement, or representation, or (which to be clear, often we *don’t* have available well, because we also have sexism etc which sucks. but))). And she’s like - oh, wow, yes, I want this, this is me, this is a thing I never knew I was missing but I was, and I want it, I need it’. (Or, like, various other forms of this, those aren’t less valid I’m just worse at having words etc for them).

Then - I want to give that to her! It sucks that she couldn’t have it before and to whatever extent is possible I want her to be able to have it now, and I think she very gets to!

And like - if she came from 2300 with a vagina and estrogen-type stuff and etc, then I want to give her that and think she gets to have it. And if she came from 2300 as a landwalking octopus-like being, I want to give her that and think she gets to have it, just as much. And if she came from 2300 with a penis and testosterone-type stuff and etc - I want to give her that and think she gets to have it, just as much! Because like, that’s not what determines it for me at all, I want her to be able to have it because she couldn’t before and that sucks and now maybe she can and in as much as it might be possible she should *be able to have that*. And like, obviously there might be problems or obstacles or tradeoff stuff to deal with, but I want to deal with them very much with this ‘she should be able to have that, she gets to have that’ there.

And, well, likewise of course I want people from our time and etc to have that too, and very much think they absolutely get to etc.

(And like, don’t tend to have great feeling about people who not only like, don’t care about that/are actively in the way of it, but like, additionally kind of do that at me too, in some sense (er, not the same thing or anywhere near, but) and, also like, just erase and get gaslightly over *that being an experience that exists or can exist to begin with*. So, well.)

#gender things #analogies #theunitofcaring #gender feelings #strongly cisgender #terfs #I post

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roadkings · 8 years ago

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Paris (Days 1-3)

We left Atlanta feeling super prepared, thank in large part to the great team at Metaleap and the fabulous MC who booked most (all?) of the France portion of our trip and drove us to the airport. We grabbed tacos in the Atlanta airport, presumably the last of that staple meal for several weeks. We flew through Raliegh, an odd stop for a trans-Atlantic trip, but after a slight delay on the tarmac we were off to Paris. For the kids it is all about the dedicated movie screens, so they each watched a movie, ate dinner, and then tried to sleep. Remarkably, we all got several hours of rest. Ella even slept a couple of hours, which is two hours more sleep than she got when we flew to London a few years ago. We landed at CDG to the longest immigration line I have ever seen. Our family was fine waiting, but I was a bit embarrassed by all the other complaining tourists. Come on, people, relax, you are on vacation! Each kid went through immigration on his/her own, which was fairly adorable. The train to Gare du Nord was uneventful, but just try to find luggage storage there. Seriously, I issue this challenge—I will buy a coffee for anyone that can find luggage storage in under 30 minutes, but no credit for anyone who speaks French! We planned to go to Sacre Coeur before checking into our AirBnB, but by the time we finally did find luggage storage, there was no time (but we did find it, which was a huge victory). Instead of starting our trip visiting an historic church, we started eating, a multi-course Sunday lunch at Chez Cashmir near the train station. We had carrot salad, potato salad, seafood soup, intentionally cold scrambled eggs, langostines and pigeon. It wasn't a typical French breakfast, which is what we were after, but it was quite good and was made even better by our enthusiastic server, Nicholas. When an older man sat at a table without checking with the host, he got no attention for several minutes. When Nicholas came over and explained that table was reserved, the man got a little huffy, to which Nicholas replied, "Merci! Au Revior!" with a happy tone to match the level of disgruntlement of the man. Score one for Nicholas! A taxi took us to our AirBnB in the Marais, multi-level (which kids love) with big windows open to the street below and a fresh breeze helping take some of the heat out of the space. We settled in, and I may have fallen asleep for a quick nap, actually we all did, all except Ella who was, as usual, already writing and documenting our travels. First stop from MC's "must-do" list, ice cream at Berthillon on Île St. Louis. On the way there, we stopped for a procession by the Catholic Church complete with singing, kids dressed up with white gloves—really lovely. Ok, back to the ice cream, wow! MC was so right. For all the food critics who cite their Berthillon's great flavors, none of the six (yes, six, don't judge) flavors we tried measured up to the vanilla. Without a doubt, the best vanilla ice cream any of us have ever had. We finished the day with a walk around Notre Dam, the Louve where Wonder Woman now works, and back to the Marias for crepes at Breizh Cafe (recommended by MC and Bon Appetit, evidence of her good taste). Remarkably, the sun doesn't set until just before 10pm so after walking 7.76 miles, we didn't get to bed until midnight on our first day in Paris. Monday we woke up and went to a neighborhood patisserie for breakfast, the kids got their first chocolate croissant and I finally got a palmier. I had been waiting years, since my last trip to Paris, for a crispy, sugary palmier. It didn't disappoint. To combat the heat, and because of its expansive collection to explore, we spent all afternoon at the Pompidou. An exhibition on photography of Walker Evans and the Centre's collection of the early 20th century gave us lots to talk about, including Duchamp and his urinal. Regrettably, after milkshakes at the rooftop restaurant, our exploration of the late 20th century work left much to be desired. I hope this changes as more artists' work from that time period stand the test of time; otherwise, I fear this age will be known for its base and shallow approach to art lacking thoughtful exploration of the most world changing events of our time from the emergence of technology to racial tensions, genocide and the like. Of course, I am no art historian or critic, so just ignore everyone I just wrote. As we leaving, we heard the unmistakable stylings of Michael Bublé. We misunderstood Ella when she said it was "narrative dance" and José immediately imagined native dance to Haven't Met You Yet. Close your eyes and imagine that for a minute and you may get a glimpse of how much we laughed about that idea. It is quite a walk from the Pompidou to La Vant Comptoir (suggested by BA), but worth every step. We were able to snag one of two small tables in the back, and while José and I sampled wines the kids were served bread and peach nectar. Yep, that's how they roll at La Vant Comptoir. We sat at the seafood counter, there is also a meat counter. This was an exceptional meal. Tuna tartar, ceviche, potato and octopus, all amazing. We grabbed crepes from the window at the meat counter and concluded our evening with a walk through Luxembourg Gardens and back home. Finally, Tuesday we started with pastries from another of MC's suggestions, Du Pain et des Idées, stopped into a board game store with tables for people to play fantasy board games (interest in D&D is not limited to fans of Stranger Things), climbed all 300 steps to the top of Sacre Coeur, then descended just as deeply into the metro station to go to the Catacombs (but no were tickets available, which Alex took like a champ though he was really looking forward to it) stopped for a quick walk through La Comptoir Général and would have stayed much longer if we didn't have kidlets in tow, dinner at Le Verre Vole (again thanks to MC). Alex and José agreed they had the best duck in their lives to date. We left dinner at 10pm and the bohemian Canal was still lined with people talking, enjoying wine and Parisian life. We passed though a large public square where people were dancing to a live jazz trio playing Tequila (yep!) and another couple was practicing juggling. It was tempting to linger, but we opted to go the tourist route and went to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 11pm. All in all an excellent three days in Paris, with a couple more to come at the end of our trip.

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rolandfontana · 5 years ago

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Can Decriminalizing Sex Work Curb Police Harassment of Transgender People?

During her two years as a sex worker in New York, Bianey Garcia, a transgender woman of color from Mexico, was arrested three times. The arrests were the most visible examples of what she regarded as systematic harassment tied to her ethnic and gender identity.

Bianey Garcia. Photo courtesy Digital Transgender Archive.

“I am afraid of going out,” she said in an interview with The Crime Report. “I’m afraid of being arrested, because I’m not passing. [But] if you are a trans woman and you pass as a cis woman, the police don’t bother you.

“If you don’t pass, the police are constantly bothering you, harassing you, profiling you.”

The criminalization of sex work contributes to the harassment of transgender people, Garcia said.

Some figures suggest she is right. According to a 2015 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 64.1 percent of transgender sex workers report being harassed by police.

Moreover, as a woman of color, Garcia was already susceptible to police harassment. According to data cited by the New York Times Magazine, 85 percent of the individuals arrested for sex work in New York are women of color.

A set of bills introduced in the New York State legislature earlier this summer signal that things may be changing.

The bills, introduced June 10, would have decriminalized the purchase of sex between consenting adults, and also would have allowed sex workers to apply to expunge their criminal records related to sex work. Although Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not endorse the package of bills, and the legislative session ended without the bills being voted on, advocates believe that it has paved the way for serious public debate.

Nina Luo

“We wanted to introduce [the bill] as a means to start a public conversation,” said Nina Luo, a member of Decrim NY, a coalition to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work.

If the bills had passed, New York would have been the first state to decriminalize sex work.

While decriminalization of prostitution might not completely protect transgender people from all forms of bias and police harassment, Garcia believes it would still make a huge difference.

Audacia Ray, a steering committee member at Decrim NY and director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, agrees, As a white cisgender sex worker in the 2000s, Ray was usually able to avoid police attention.

“I worked using the internet before there was a ton of attention to sex work on the internet, [and] I worked independently,” Ray told The Crime Report.

“So, I personally wasn’t targeted with criminalization. I didn’t get arrested. That experience of the sex industry is entirely because of the identities that I hold.”

Once Ray became involved in activism, however, and connected with other sex workers with different identities, she realized how much sex workers of color and trans sex workers were affected by criminalization.

“People who are more marginalized, particularly black trans women, were having a very different experience of sex work and criminalization than I had,” she said. “That was a real reckoning for me to get my head around the vastly different experiences people have of the sex trade and criminalization.

“It’s important to note that criminalization targets black and brown folks and LGBTQ people in very particular ways, and just talking about criminalization and women is not really the whole picture.”

The National Debate

The debate about whether sex work should be legal has picked up traction in many other parts of the country as well, with supporters arguing that it can open the door to regulation that ensures the safety of sex workers. And the issue has received support from some Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election campaign.

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris have all said that they would consider some form of decriminalization.

Harris, a former California Attorney General, said that while she believes those participating in the “ecosystem” that profits from exploitation should be punished, “we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed.”

Data in this area remains unclear. According to federal statistics cited by ProCon.org, a nonpartisan public policy group, 38,000 individuals were arrested for prostitution nationwide in 2016. That represents a sharp drop in the numbers reported earlier in the decade (In 2006, arrests totaled more than 79,000.)

Other estimates, cited in The New York Times article, say that the average annual figure is as high as 55,000.

Advocates like Luo say there is increasing recognition that sex workers are entitled to the same protections as other workers.

“It’s just literally not possible as long as the activity is still considered criminal,” said Luo. “This [bill was] a first step.”

Fired From Her Job

Garcia was driven to sex work by economic necessity. She was fired from a restaurant job shortly after she started taking hormones to begin her transition, and couldn’t find a new job anywhere else.

“I went to many places and restaurants, knocking on doors to get a new job, and it was difficult to get employment because my face was changing, everything was changing,” said Garcia, who was also an undocumented immigrant at the time.

Garcia’s experience is not uncommon.

According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, transgender people frequently face employment discrimination, and those who lose their jobs due to bias are more than three times as likely to begin trading sex.

Other figures underline the special challenges faced by transgender sex workers of color. In Washington, D.C., according to a 2015 report by the DC Trans Coalition, 23 percent of African-American transgender sex workers reported being physically or sexually assaulted by police.

Garcia’s first arrest occurred when she was 18. She was walking with her boyfriend when undercover police officers approached her.

“They assumed that I was involved in sex work because I was walking with a boyfriend,” Garcia, who is now 29, said.

“When I went to jail for the first time, I was so scared.”

Her lawyer told her to plead guilty so that she could go home. She did not understand that she could have entered a different plea.

Garcia was arrested again after a man harassed and assaulted her along with a friend, who is also a transgender woman. They fought back to defend themselves, and the man called the police.

Garcia and her friend were unable to speak English well enough to communicate what happened, so the police only listened to the man’s side of the story, she said.

As a result, Garcia spent 18 months on Riker’s Island in a men’s jail facing assault charges. She said she was sexually harassed throughout her time there.

Like many of those affected by sex work criminalization, Garcia, who now has a green card and is applying for U.S. citizenship, is a former victim of sex trafficking.

In an Urban Institute study that followed 1,413 defendants arrested from 2015 to 2016 in relation to sex work charges in Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens, 35 percent had been trafficked into sex work at least once, and 20 percent were currently being trafficked.

Additionally, 57 percent reported prior physical assault and 47 percent reported prior sexual assault.

More than one fifth of transgender people who interacted with the police reported being victims of some form of harassment, and xix percent reported bias-motivated assault from the police, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Long-term Effects of Criminalization

There is an “octopus of ways” that criminalization hurts sex workers, according to Audacia Ray.

“Criminalization is not just about arrest; it’s about harassment, terrorizing people, exploiting folks,” she said.

Audacia Ray

Ray explained that having a prostitution charge on one’s record can make it difficult to find employment or housing or can lead to harassment from employers or landlords. It can also exclude people from gaining subsidized housing or snap benefits and other benefits that would allow people to escape poverty.

“The whole system pretends to be telling sex workers that punishment means you shouldn’t do this anymore, but what punishment actually looks like is making it much more difficult to leave the sex trade and do other work if they want,” Ray said.

Criminalization hurts those who are already in dire economic straits, according to Luo.

“When you criminalize the industry, you not only push the industry underground, making it less safe for people, but you also expose people to [the] consequences of criminalization such as violent policing, incarceration, and criminal records that prevent you from accessing housing, employment, immigration services,” Luo said.

“[Criminalization] traps people in a cycle of needing to trade sex to survive instead of giving them options to exit if they want to.”

The movement to decriminalize sex work has divided many advocates for women’s rights.

After Decrim NY held a rally last spring in Albany, N.Y, the state capital, with activists, politicians and other stakeholders arguing for decriminalization, a second rally was organized by opponents, which included feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women.

The opponents argued in favor of the Nordic Model, based on legislation introduced in Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland which makes those who purchase sexual services liable for criminal prosecution, but not sex workers themselves.

Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), known for her advocacy of the Equal Rights Amendment, was one of many who criticized the bill.

“This idea does not help or lift up or empower or protect women in any way, shape, or form,” Maloney said, Vice News reported. “I support efforts to decriminalize prostitution, but I do not support any idea, bill, or proposal that would let pimps, johns, and the exploiters off the hook.”

Under approaches like the Nordic Model, however, people who support sex workers, even those who put on sex workers’ make up or drive them to appointments could be charged with promoting prostitution, both Ray and Luo argued.

Luo said a lot of the controversy surrounding decriminalization is due to “fear-mongering.”

“It is the same fear-mongering that has pushed mass incarceration for decades, which is saying that this is going to expand the sex industry,” said Luo.

“The reality is we have one of the most criminalized systems of sex trade in the world and we also have a thriving underground sex trade.”

The decriminalization issue also entered into the tightly fought race for Queens (NY) District Attorney this year. Tiffany Cabán, a progressive, had promised not to prosecute sex workers or their customers, and pledged that, if elected, she would issue a memo on her first day instructing assistant district attorneys not to prosecute these offenses.

Cabán was originally thought to have won the democratic primary, with a tally putting her 1,100 votes ahead of her opponent Melinda Katz, who supports criminalizing those who promote sex work, but not sex workers themselves, according to the New York Daily News.

(Following a recount earlier this month, Cabán conceded to Katz, losing by a mere 55 votes.)

Luo argued that the best way to reduce the sex trade is not to criminalize it but to provide solutions to the poverty that drives it by providing living wage jobs and affordable housing.

“People don’t decide whether to trade sex based on whether it’s criminalized; they decide to trade sex based on whether they can feed themselves or feed their kids,” Luo said.

“I would really challenge our neighbors to think critically and with compassion, and beyond the fear mongering, to listen to people actually in the sex trade, and hear what kind of resources they need to either be safe in their work or exit if they want.”

Maria Trovato is a TCR news intern.

Can Decriminalizing Sex Work Curb Police Harassment of Transgender People? syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

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rolandfontana · 5 years ago

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Can Decriminalizing Sex Work Curb Police Harassment of Transgender People?

“I (was) afraid of going out,” she said in an interview with The Crime Report. “I’m afraid of being arrested, because I’m not passing. (But) if you are a trans woman and you pass as a cis woman, the police don’t bother you.

“If you don’t pass, the police are constantly bothering you, harassing you, profiling you.”

The criminalization of sex work contributes to the harassment of transgender people, Garcia said.

Some figures suggest she is right. According to a 2015 National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 64.1 percent of transgender sex workers report being harassed by police.

A set of bills introduced in the New York State legislature earlier this summer signal that things may be changing.

Nina Luo

“We wanted to introduce (the bill) as a means to start a public conversation,” said Nina Luo, a member of Decrim NY, a coalition to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work.

If the bills had passed, New York would have been the first state to decriminalize sex work.

While decriminalization of prostitution might not completely protect transgender people from all forms of bias and police harassment, Garcia believes it would still make a huge difference.

“I worked using the internet before there was a ton of attention to sex work on the internet, (and) I worked independently,” Ray told The Crime Report.

“So, I personally wasn’t targeted with criminalization. I didn’t get arrested. That experience of the sex industry is entirely because of the identities that I hold.”

The National Debate

The debate about whether prostitution should be legal has picked up traction in many other parts of the country as well, with supporters arguing that it can open the door to regulation that ensures the safety of sex workers. And the issue has received support from some Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election campaign.

Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris have all said that they would consider some form of decriminalization.

Other estimates, cited in The New York Times article, say that the average annual figure is as high as 55,000.

Advocates like Luo say there is increasing recognition that sex workers are entitled to the same protections as other workers.

“It’s just literally not possible as long as the activity is still considered criminal,” said Luo. “This (bill was) a first step.”

Fired From Her Job

Garcia’s experience is not uncommon.

Garcia’s first arrest occurred when she was 18. She was walking with her boyfriend when undercover police officers approached her.

“They assumed that I was involved in sex work because I was walking with a boyfriend,” Garcia, who is now 27, said.

“When I went to jail for the first time, I was so scared.”

Her lawyer told her to plead guilty so that she could go home. She did not understand that she could have entered a different plea.

Garcia was arrested again after a man harassed and assaulted her along with a friend, who is also a transgender woman. They fought back to defend themselves, and the man called the police.

Garcia and her friend were unable to speak English well enough to communicate what happened, so the police only listened to the man’s side of the story, she said.

As a result, Garcia spent 18 months on Riker’s Island in a men’s jail facing assault charges. She said she was sexually harassed throughout her time there.

Like many of those affected by sex work criminalization, Garcia, who now has a green card and is applying for U.S. citizenship, is a former victim of sex trafficking.

Additionally, 57 percent reported prior physical assault and 47 percent reported prior sexual assault.

Long-term Effects of Criminalization

There is an “octopus of ways” that criminalization hurts sex workers, according to Audacia Ray.

“Criminalization is not just about arrest; it’s about harassment, terrorizing people, exploiting folks,” she said.

Audacia Ray

Criminalization hurts those who are already in dire economic straits, according to Luo.

“(Criminalization) traps people in a cycle of needing to trade sex to survive instead of giving them options to exit if they want to.”