If you believe in sex workers' issues as human rights and labor issues but do not feel your perspective is represented here, please contact SWIMW to let us know how we can improve or expand the site.

SWIMW is currently inactive due to personal concerns.
To contact someone about sex workers' rights issues, visit The Prostitutes' Education Network.

Media Survival Guide (For Sex Workers)
From Australia
"If you've been approached by any media organisation or representative to do a documentary or interview, here are a few tips that may help you decide whether you will participate or not..."

Whose Story? Whose Voice?
From India
"THE PRINT MEDIA plays a critical role in shaping public perceptions towards prostitution and sex work. In 2003, Prerna Srivastava studied 60 articles in leading Indian newspapers andmagazines2 from April 2002-July 2003. The aim of this exercise was to analyze, challenge and further nuance dominant notions of prostitution as presented by the print media. The analysis revealed certain recurring and dominant themes..."

Commentary on Sex Work and Migration
From Europe
"Migrant workers in the European sex industry come from every conceivable background, in terms of class, ethnicity, nationality and age, and they aren't just women but men and transgenders as well. They arrive in Europe via countless routes, alone, with friends, in couples or in accompanied groups. Some of them arrive with money to spend while others arrive indebted. They may be using their own real documents and a tourist visa, or falsified papers and a real work permit or any combination of true and false 'papers'... "

Critiques of Swedish Prostitution Law
From Various
"In 1999 the Swedish Government criminalized the purchase of sexual services. This law has received much attention internationally, and the effects of this law have been debated in numerous contexts. While the Swedish government touts the success of this law, critics point to hypocrisies in these claims and to the conditions for prostitutes in Sweden. This site provides links to these critiques, and includes the actual text of most prostitution laws that affect prostitutes in Sweden as well as reports by the Swedish government...."

Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
SPJ advises standards for students of ethical and credible journalism. Stephen Brill knows this code. Members of SPJ are advised to: "Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status; Support the open exchange of views, even views [you] find repugnant; Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid..." You have a right to object if a media representative violates this code, even if you're a whore.

International Sex Workers' Rights Organizations
Sex workers' rights is an international movement with a history of assistance and support for sex workers everywhere. It exists on every continent. It defines prostitution as labor, the workers having the same essential rights as other laborers to negotiate with management and have access to community resources. Sex workers themselves describe their conditions, concerns and needs, rather than organizations conducting surveys for the purpose of acquiring funding.

St. James Infirmary
MISSION:
The mission of The St. James Infirmary is to provide health and social services for all sex workers while preventing occupational illnesses and injuries through a comprehensive continuum of services.
PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY:
There are many factors which affect the working conditions and experiences for sex workers including the political and economic climate, poverty and homelessness, stigmatization, violence, as well as the overwhelming intricacies of the legal, public and social systems. It is the philosophy of The St. James Infirmary to build upon existing skills and strengths in order to allow individuals to determine their own goals while providing culturally competent and non-judgmental services.

It Ain't Easy Being an Ethical Journalist--For Media Representatives
As advocates of the position that sex workers are laborers whose lives must be improved while the struggles to fight the conditions which perpetuate gender inequality continue, we often find ourselves and our associates implied to be corporate sex industry lackeys. I have been refused participation on a panel at a symposium on trafficking because I identify myself as a "sex worker" rather than as a "survivor of prostitution." Media representatives who attend such events are receiving manipulated information.

Addressing Sex Work as Labor
"Addressing the sex industry as labor is a prerequisite for including sex work in discussions of women's and worker's rights. Otherwise, we risk losing sight of the violations of labor norms (see Bindman) in the sex industry in the name of moralizing. Sex work itself is not inherently problematic, but that sex work remains unrecognized and therefore outside the scope of labor standards is problematic. Violations of labor standards within the sex industry are not specific to the sex industry but more specific to informal labor. Rather than declaring sex work in itself an abuse, it is more productive to apply the same standards to the sex industry that are applied to other industries, including standards of human rights and occupational safety and health codes...."

Scottish Prostitutes Education Project
"The first European Conference on Sex Work, Human Rights, Labour and Migration was held in Brussels 15-17 October 2005. At the conference 120 sex workers from 28 countries endorsed a Sex Workers Rights Manifesto and together with 80 allies from 30 countries endorsed The Declaration of the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe. The final day of the conference was held in the European Parliament, hosted by the MEP Monica Frassoni of the Italian Green Party; during the morning session MEP Vittorio Agnoletto of the Confederal Group of the European United Left became the first signatory to the Declaration.
Download the Declaration of the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe."

Anti-Slavery
Links to organizations which specialize in combating torture, sweatshop operations, forced prostitution, child pornography, and other human rights violations.

Spectacular collection of sex-work-related links.

Jo Weldon's Reading List

SWIMW was created by Dolores French, author of Working: My Life as a Prostitute, with other participants at the International Conference on Prositution.

UPCOMING ON SWIMW:
List of Documents on This Site
List of Recommended Online Documents (outside links)
Legal, Health, Insurance, and Tax Info for Sex Workers