Most of you probably already follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, you should). But while Twitter is a very powerful tool for publicity and activism, tweets are intrinsically ephemeral; though they do actually continue to exist indefinitely, they’re very difficult to find after a few days. Therefore, I hope you’ll forgive me if, when I write a string of tweets that I think are particularly important, I republish them here for more attention ad greater permanence. On January 14th, in response to the widespread fear in our community due to the Backpage takedown, I tweeted out the following message; it isn’t long, but it expresses a truth I think it’s very important that whores remember in these trying times.
Our profession truly is the oldest one on Earth. Older than the pyramids, older than cities. Older even than Homo Sapiens. The US as an institution is just a toddler, albeit one of those toddlers we read about that gets ahold of a gun and kills their parents. We have survived the fall of empires and the disappearance of whole peoples. We have survived fire, flood, famine, pestilence, war and every other disaster. We have survived persecution, pogroms, confinement in brothels, literal slavery, mutilation & even burnings. We will survive this too. Read what the ancients wrote about us. We are the mothers of human civilization; it couldn’t exist without us. And these so-called “leaders” know it. They’re petulant children who resent their debt to us and are acting out violently. But like all children they have a short attention span, and when some new shiny toy or victim to torture catches their attention they’ll leave us alone. What we need to do is to survive until then, and to keep fighting to be heard and recognized by good people who will stand with us. But no matter what, we WILL survive. And our tribe will exist when The USA is nothing but a thing kids learn about in history, then forget.
We are as eternal as the sea; our enemies are mere insects, who annoy for a season and are then gone. In order for them to win, they would have to completely destroy human sexuality; in order for us to win, all we need do is practice the patience and courage which we have in abundance. And though it’s difficult to remember that in trying times, it doesn’t even matter if we do or not because even if we as individuals forget, we as a group will survive and triumph nonetheless.
