Surely Amber Lyon is aware that there have always been women exploited in the prostitution business as long as it has been a trade. This sure didn't start or end with Craigslist. As long as women need money and men want sex, prostitution will exist. The great majority of women involved in the prostitution business today are in control of their own destinies – some work with agencies and some work on their own doing their own marketing and booking, but it is a rare occasion that one is coerced or trafficked in any way whatsoever.
Actually, Craigslist enabled true independence. It served to allow a single woman to place her own ad for little money. She no longer had to work with an agency or come-up with a large sum of money just to send herself to a call. It also took many hookers off the streets and highways across the U.S. – I wouldn't imagine that Jim Buckmaster or Craig Newmark would appreciate that reasoning though, but it is the truth. The usual advertiser in the Craigslist adult services category was truly independent.
So two women spoke to CNN's Amber Lyon about their own plight in the world of prostitution and suddenly Craigslist is the target du jour once again. There really are no winners in the demand to censor by removing an entire category and there are plenty of losers – the women that posted their own ads and worked for themselves. Sure there are other places to post ads – no doubt – so will those other publications (print and online) be the next targets of CNN or was this selective and malicious targeting of a company that offered low cost advertising? This targeting was described in Revenge of the Publishers and is not new to me.
It is un-American to ridicule a company into censorship and Amber Lyon wins my censor of the year award.
No comments:
Post a Comment