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Scarlet Alliance fails in bid to gag playwright Peta Brady

By Matthew Holloway - posted Thursday, 21 August 2014


Whether we choose to admit it or not, violence against women is an endemic part of Australian culture. In Peta Brady's play, 'Ugly Mugs', she has portrayed the violence to women in the sex industry much to the annoyance of sex industry proponents who do not want this dark side of the industry so openly exposed on stage.

Scarlet Alliance treasurer, Jane Green, has attacked Ms Brady for:

...speaking on sex workers' behalf in a form of 'entertainment' that preys on sex workers' stories...We have a long history of people and organisations seeking to save and rescue sex workers from their work. I, personally, don't need to be rescued from my job. Peta Brady doesn't speak for me or my community. The play presents us as singular, one-dimensional characters, as victims without agency. That's not who we are.

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But it seems Ms Green is doing the very thing she accuses Brady of - speaking on behalf of the sex worker community. She criticises Peta Brady for showing sex workers as vulnerable, and at the same time refuses to recognise the violence faced by women involved in the street sex trade.

And Ms Green is not the only one attacking Brady - there seems to be a co-ordinated response from others closely associated with the Scarlet Alliance. Mistress Lux, an Australian dominatrix and follower of Jane Green, has stated, 'Peta Brady I would think is certainly breaching confidentiality clause in her work contract so should be grounds 4 instant dismal'. Unsurprisingly, this comment has been favourited and retweeted in social media by Scarlet Alliance vice-president Elena Jeffreys.

Freedom of speech is surfacing as the most common casualty in the ongoing debate over human rights for prostituted people in Australia. As well as seeking to silence the experience of street sex workers in St Kilda, and gloss over the violence they suffer, it seems the Scarlet Alliance is also willing to ensure that those working with and supporting people involved in street prostitution are also silenced through loss of employment.

In discussing 'Ugly Mugs', Brady asserts that her play is not just about sex workers. Rather, it's about the pervasive culture of abuse of women in Australia:

It's about violence against women generally...men are the perpetrators in the overwhelming majority of cases... So I think men really need to have the discussion. Women are talking about it all the time – but I don't see men discussing it, beyond the token publicity shot and empty declarations from some politician every now and then. If we're going to see any change, it must start with men.

Claims that Ms Brady is a rescuer addicted to 'pity porn' or that she is profiting from the confidential stories of sex workers is disingenuous. Like many outreach workers in St Kilda, Brady is there to offer comfort and help pick up the pieces when those involved in the sex trade face violence from punters. She has every right to name this violence as observed at the coal face of her job.

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The targeting of people speaking out against punter violence appears to be both systemic and ideologically driven within the culture of the Scarlet Alliance. The organisation struggles to balance the often opposing interests of sex workers and 'sex work', and, unfortunately, it has consistently opted to defend the concept of 'sex work as just work'. Persons such as Ms Brady are portrayed as enemies of the cause for daring to highlight punter violence towards women in prostitution.

This failure to acknowledge punter violence can be seen in the Scarlet Alliance response to the death of St Kilda street prostitute Tracy Connelly in July 2013. They said:

Tracy did not deserve to die, no sex worker should be put in danger at work due to laws that do not recognise our profession. Sex workers and supporters will continue to remember her life and strive for a time when violence against sex workers is a thing of the past.

The group's perverse attack on 'laws that do not recognise our profession' ignores the fact that Tracy was not killed by Victoria's sex work legislation - she was killed by a punter, and it is punters who perpetrate violence against people in the sex trade.

In an article published in 2012, vice-president of the Scarlet Alliance, Elena Jeffreys, stated that:

Sex workers (most commonly women) make money from sex work. The clients (usually men) pay for sex work. This is a relationship, this is negotiation and this is a system in our culture''Why should it be reasonable to criminalise the negotiation of financial arrangements for sex?', she asks. 'Rape is criminal. Violent assault is criminal. But consensual sex with a dollar figure attached to it is not. In NSW sex work is decriminalised and workers, clients and health advocates believe it should stay that way.

But Ms Jeffreys' rose-tinted view of the decriminalisation of prostitution in NSW is frankly misguided. Decriminalisation has not resolved the violence faced by people working in the sex trade. Prostitution in NSW is an unregulated minefield with many instances of exploitation having been exposed in the media, including former brothel owners from Victoria who were convicted of managing under-age prostitutes being allowed to run brothels in the state.

The Law and Sexworker Health (LASH) report from 2012 documented the experiences of prostitutes with 17 years of a fully decriminalised regime in NSW - 45% of sex workers still did not feel safe to report violence perpetrated against them.

Instead of being attacked, Peta Brady needs to be congratulated for highlighting the fact that St Kilda sex workers, like their comrades in NSW, do not feel safe to report the violence they face. Brady was interviewed on ABC radio in April 2014 along with Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project blog. This interview highlighted our male apologist culture, which places the blame for violence back on women, and the attitude of the general population towards the violence suffered by prostitutes - 'what else would you expect from being involved in that type of work.'

The experience of St Kilda street prostitutes was also documented by journalist Jane Gilmore, who visited the Gatehouse, a drop in centre for people involved in street prostitution. A service user told Ms Gilmore:

It would be better if Gatehouse was open more. At least you'd have somewhere to go when the carloads of mugs drive past. It's the ones with 3 or 4 in it that are a problem and they come driving around and around, but there's nowhere to go to wait until they're gone. They know that too.

Sally Tonkin, CEO of the Gatehouse said:

The women come in sometimes and they're a bit grumpy or teary because they've been raped again and they just need somewhere to go to feel taken care of.

Jane Gilmore's report highlights the nature of street prostitution in St Kilda – it is a world where rape is common, and where the Gatehouse staff are the people offering their clients help with filing a police report. Unfortunately, however, Gilmore notes that:

…it's rare that the women will follow through. They don't expect to be taken seriously, don't think that anyone will see rape of a street sex worker as a crime, don't expect that the justice system will give them any justice and don't really believe that they deserve justice even if they could get it.


The St Kilda experience shows that the decriminalisation of sex work – and the decriminalisation of buyers - does not work to make prostitution safer. It also highlights the problems associated with the Scarlet Alliance's defence of 'sex work' over 'sex workers'.

We need to provide empowerment to those involved in the sex industry and we need legislation that ensures they can go to the police whenever they experience assault or harassment. This can only happen under the Nordic model of prostitution policy – a policy that criminalises the purchasers of sexual services but decriminalises the sellers, and offers them opportunities to exit the sex industry.

This year, Norway has proven the success of their legislation and data from a 2012 report showed that physical assaults had declined, whilst sex industry workers were able to report more incidences of verbal, and other types of harassment.

The Nordic model legislation in Norway has given prostitutes greater protections against physical assault, and empowered them to report instances of harassment by buyers. The laws have made punters accountable for their actions. The only way forward is to give those involved in prostitution the power to report the violence and harassment they suffer at the hands of punters. The Nordic model of prostitution policy focuses the attention of legislators and law enforcement exactly where it should be - on the punters.

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About the Author

Matthew Holloway is a freelance writer and social justice advocate from Tasmania, where he stood for state and federal parliament and co-founded Tasmanians for Transparency. He has previously written for Tasmanian Times and Eureka Street, Matthew currently lives in Melbourne where he works as a Counsellor in Aboriginal Health and a Social Worker in Catholic social services.

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