Street prostitution in the lives of Canadian First Nations women is a fundamental form of sexual oppression whose exploitative roots are located within earlier colonial relations. Historical patriarchal, capitalist relations subjugated First Nations women collectively. This collective sexual oppression, based on gender, created our inferiority as a class of people to both First Nations men and non-First Nations men. The sexual domination of First Nations women has remained unabated to present-day due to patriarchy's stronghold. Thus, it has had, and continues to have profound, and prolonged injurious consequences in First Nations women's lives. This article describes some aspects of the historical rootedness of the sexual exploitation of First Nations women.
First Nations women who have been prostituted are graphic examples of how deeply patriarchy wounds. When sexual oppression is intersected by racism, and capitalism, the wounding worsens--this compounded wounding for First Nations women has occurred for over 500 hundred years.
Interested in discussing the issue of prostitution in your group, class or institution? Want to do something about it?
In this video, young women recount their experiences of prostitution. Whether they began at 13, 15 or 21, are from a large urban centre or remote region, live in Québec or British Columbia, their stories are similar. We follow two teenage girls who want to know more about prostitution and discover multiple forms of sexual exploitation. Through their stories, these women reveal the other side of the popular image and debunk a number of myths about prostitution. Others point out hidden interests and issues. We realize that rather than being the world’s oldest profession, prostitution is The Oldest Lie.
The CLES is a group dedicated to making heard the voices of women who have been prostituted and stimulating reflection and social change. We have created an awareness-raising tool you can use to discuss the issue of sexual exploitation with young people (between 14 and 19) and in your groups.
Montreal, October 06, 2009 - The Coalition for Struggles Against Sexual Exploitation - CLES - is concerned by the increased violence against women involved in prostitution that could follow from invaliding all Canadian Criminal Code restrictions on prostitution.
The conversation that pits current prostitute against former prostitute, indoor versus outdoor, and drug-addicted versus Gucci-addicted has gone on for too long. I have fallen into all those categories. With female “choice” being the only side discussed, let’s subvert that conversation and ask the root question: As a society do we think men should be able to pay to sexually access women’s bodies?
Do we really think that is a sign of an egalitarian society?
In Canada, as elsewhere, there is a debate about whether all aspects of prostitution should be decriminalized through legislation. Doing so would impact society as a whole in order to meet the demands of a minority claiming that prostitution is a choice. Many feminist researchers from different perspectives and countries challenge the idea of such legislation, given that the majority of prostituted women do not see what they do as just another type of work and would escape prostitution if they could. Élaine Audet, feminist poet, essayist and publisher, has long been engaged in the study of prostitution. She presents an overview of perspectives on prostitution, ranging from the immediate need for measures to combat poverty and violence affecting women to a longer-term questioning of the existing social, economic and sexual relationships of domination. In her foreword, Lee Lakeman, representative for B.C. and the Yukon of the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, writes : "This book presents arguments in a vivid and individual style and aesthetic. But make no mistake. This is the particular singular voice speaking a truth and a warning of a wide and growing movement of feminists toward the abolition of prostitution."
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