It is our pleasure to publicize this announcement:
Our Voices Matter (OVM) is a grassroots, online project that has recently been launched to bring to the forefront the voices of individuals who have been harmed by prostitution, pornography, and trafficking. OVM seeks to provide a safe space for survivors to give voice to how prostitution, pornography, and trafficking have impacted their lives.
OVM aims to shatter silences, create healing, raise awareness and incite action. OVM is an assertion that women and children matter; that a day when women and children are not bought and sold is worth fighting for; and that real social change is imperative to actualizing this goal.
Our Voices Matter seeks your involvement:
- Share your testimony. We welcome written, audio, and video testimony as well as art, poetry, and other creative mediums. Testimony can be shared anonymously or with a pseudonym. All communications are confidential.
- Spread the word. Please circulate this information to individuals and groups that may be interested in taking part.
- Help with outreach. Include a link at your website; include information about OVM on your blog; distribute and post flyers in your community (at a local rape crisis center, battered women’s shelter or other community space for women). Contact OVM for materials.
Learn more at http://www.voicesmatter.org
Our Voices Matter
P.O. Box 674
Northampton, MA 01061
USA
voicesmatter@gmail.com
See also:
“Facing the Wall”, a Poem by Janet Aalfs
1. Someone found a heart
on market street not human
there’s really no cause
for alarm though a naked heart
warm on the sidewalk on halloween
is upsetting but not as bad as if
it were the organ of a valuable life
we don’t mean
one of the seventeen women found
strewn along desert highways
you can’t question whores their stories
aren’t reliable their lives aren’t stable
the reason we haven’t found a suspect
yet is that we can’t
get a straight answer out of anyone
and no one really knows
a slut she’ll go with whatever man
will take her you can’t trust women
like that to die when they’re supposed to
with their clothes on at a legal address
we think we’ve discovered the eighteenth…
Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations
As recently as 1991, police in a southern California
community closed all rape reports made by prostitutes and addicts,
placing them in a file stamped “NHI.” The letters stand for the words
“No Human Involved.” (Linda Fairstein, Sexual Violence: Our War Against
Rape, 1993, New York, William Morrow.)
US Department of State: “Prostitution: To Legalize Or Not”
“Since I came to the OSCE two years ago, I have been shocked at how big
this is, the exploitation of vulnerable migrant women and girls in
prostitution, and how no one cares.”
Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate
Pornoland’s unwritten law: “if we tell the truth about what’s really going on here, the fan will get turned off”
At conventions and other public events, the adult industry tends to
portray itself as a happy family promoting shame-free sexual enjoyment.
But privately, many performers say the reality is very different.
“There’s some unwritten law or agenda out here in Pornoland that…if
we tell the truth about what’s really going on here, the fan will get
turned off,” said Ona Zee, a former performer who is now an advocate
for reform.
AntiPornActivist.com Launches
AntiPornActivist.com is designed to be a one-stop resource for any
newly minted activist seeking to answer that depressing question, “What
can one lonely person do about the vast and powerful porn industry?”
Lucky
visitors who find AntiPornActivist.com will get simple ideas for
everyday activism, inspiration from previous actions, and best of all,
learn how to connect with like-minded antiporn individuals and groups
around the world.