"Hey Mister, Get off My Sister": Words on Survival and healing from Women Survivors of Prostitution
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Authors
Berger, Leah
Issue Date
1994
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
In my three months at the Council for Prostitution Alternatives I learned quickly. Surrounded by the
joys and pains, the anger and the chaos of women's lives, I began to see
their truths mirrored in my own life, and the lives of those surrounding
me. The women I met were as diverse as they were similar. I spoke with
young women and old women, from teenagers to women in their fifties.
They were women from a variety of backgrounds--Native women and
white women, black and Iatino women; Jews, Christians, goddess
worshippers, non-worshippers, and women who held to their own
spirituality. There were lesbian, bisexual, and straight women. They had
worked in massage parlors and strip joints, in the streets and in brothels.
I met women who had been kidnapped, abused, raped and gang raped, and
filmed in pornography. They told of being drugged, gagged and bound,
tortured, starved, and beaten until there was not one bit of skin that was
not bruised. I spoke with women who had been shot at, women who had
been stabbed, women who had been given shock treatment, women who
were assaulted by policemen, and then put in jails and mental institutions.
There were women who had survived severe forms of ritual abuse, who
had been prostituted and used in pornography as children, women who
had been buried alive, penetrated with sharp objects and dead animals,
and forced to have sex with their siblings other children, adults, or
animals. I met who women who are in drug and alcohol recovery
programs, women who suffer from mental and physical disabilities, women
who cannot work as a result of their abuses ..... and the list goes on.
I had no concept of how unprepared I was for the devastating truths
that would be revealed to me during my three months at CPA. As one
friend later commented, how can one ever be prepared for such atrocities?
I don't know if anyone, aside from those who have been through it
themselves, can ever be fully prepared to hear about the harms of
prostitution. They are harms that should never be allowed to occur. It is
natural that when we do hear about such things, there is a part in each of
us that wants to deny the truth in order to make the pain go away. This is
as true for those who have been harmed as it is for those who do the harm,
and those who just hear about the harms. It is also true that our systems
of denial are related to systems of power which allow some the privilege of
denial, while others cling to their denial as a way to survive.
It's been nearly one year since I left Kalamazoo to begin my work
with the six women whose words are echoed in these pages. During the
ten months that have passed I have been absorbed in my own ongoing
process of internal growth, spurred on in leaps and bounds by the stories
they shared with me. Allowing myself to see the truths of prostitution has
deepened my awareness of the harms of patriarchy. At the same time, it
is the strength and success of the survivors that has allowed me to find
strength in my own womanhood. Much of what I learned I attempt to
share with you in these pages. Even more remains which I cannot fully
express on paper. But after all, this is only the beginning ..... .
Description
vii, 97 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College.
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.