Control Tower

Three weeks ago, Craigslist announced that, under heavy legal
pressure to curb prostitution ads, it would close its Erotic
Services advertising section and open a new Adult Services section with
a $10 posting fee and close supervision of the language and images in
the ads. It’s just another move in the lawsuit-waving war between
Craigslist and various states’ attorneys, and I was neither surprised
nor particularly outraged about it. Yes, in a perfect world, sex
workers could post ads wherever they wanted. But private organizations
get to choose their policies, and if you don’t like them, you take your
business elsewhere.

However, some women are taking more umbrage, as reflected in a press
release from a group of New York sex-work activists. It reads, in part:
“Thousands of erotic service providers will become more vulnerable
to dangerous predators… Preventing the use of Craigslist
advertisements eliminates the advantage of screening clients online,
which makes for a safer work experience by filtering out potentially
dangerous individuals.”

Reading this—and other statements like it—one would
think Craigslist was a sex worker’s paradise, the one place online to
find clients guaranteed to be safe. In my opinion, quite the opposite
is true. Utter anonymity and the expectation of a very brief interval
between contact and meeting were the site’s chief attractions;
prospective clients like those things, but that setup is filled with
land mines for a woman trying work safely. I’m not saying you
couldn’t find any good people on Craigslist. But using Craigslist
didn’t keep anyone safe—not from violence, and not from
arrest, either. Adult consensual sex work should be decriminalized, and
sex workers are as entitled to safety as anyone else, but it is not
Craigslist’s job to provide us with that safety. No website has that
responsibility or that power. Only you can make choices to keep
yourself safe. We do a disservice to sex workers if we imply
otherwise.

To the people who wrote this press release—Sex Workers Action
New York, $pread magazine, Sex Work Awareness, Prostitutes of
New York, and Sex Workers Outreach Project—I say this:
Politicians have made Craigslist a tempting distraction for
sex-work activists. People like South Carolina attorney general Henry
McMaster would love to keep our dialogue skewed toward Craigslist being
the villain. That way, they garner praise from people who are
anti–sex work and none of the blame from us. But this particular
battle is unwinnable right now. We should stay focused on meaningful
activism that can change public opinion about sex work and,
ultimately, the law.

If you mourn the loss of the old Erotic Services section, listen to
an experienced sex worker: You don’t need Craigslist. There are
other, better ways to find clients online. Proceed very carefully. Use
your head, but listen to your gut, too. And never rely on a
website to keep you safe.