Sex & Society

Prostitution –– it’s been coined as the world’s oldest profession, but is also one of the most stigmatized, especially in the U.S.

Sex work is, for the most part, illegal in the United States. The only exception is Nevada, where prostitution is only legal within licensed brothels located in specific rural areas (not including Las Vegas or Reno, despite popular notions).

Prostitution is not stigmatized because it is illegal; it is illegal because it is stigmatized. And this stigma rises from the widespread belief that sex is something sacred, something special that should be shared by two people in love, and therefore something that cannot be sold in good moral conscience.

That’s not to say this view is wrong –– but it is not an all-encompassing view, either. Emotional connotation aside, protected sex is no different than, say, a massage. It is simply an act in which two (or more) people engage with each other for physical pleasure. The fact that money is exchanged does not change the nature of the physical service, nor does it automatically make the private, victimless actions of two consenting adults the business of the government.

According to U.S. law enforcement agencies records, every year between 70,000 and 80,000 people are arrested for prostitution. 70 percent of those busted are female sex workers, 20 percent are male sex workers, and 10 percent are “johns,” or clients. For every customer that’s arrested, nine workers are busted for prostitution.

This skewed focus on persecuting the workers only makes it harder for prostitutes to stay safe. For one, sex workers (especially those on the streets) must avoid looking suspicious to the police, which discourages them from staying in groups or feeling out a customer before accepting an offer. The criminalization of prostitutes also dehumanizes sex workers. They are seen as “offenders,” and are much more likely to be treated with violence and disrespect by both clients and the police.

And when a sex worker is violently attacked in her or his line of work, the crime usually goes unreported. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for a prostitute to seek justice for these abuses because she or he is then at risk of exposure to the law, not to mention judgment by society.

Many sex workers, especially higher-end escorts, are not forced into prostitution because of debt or drug addictions. These men and women choose sex work as their profession (a quick Google search for “sex worker interview” demonstrates the wide range of interests and situations that lead people into this line of work). The criminalization of the services they offer is founded on the opinions of those who think their personal morality should apply to everyone in this country.

Unfortunately, others involved in prostitution are not so lucky. Many are victims of physical/emotional abuse or hard drug addictions, or are forced into prostitution against their will. This type of prostitution is not consensual, and I wholeheartedly agree that those responsible for such exploitation should be punished.

This country’s taxpayers spend $200 million every year for the arrest of sex workers. Couldn’t this money be better spent preventing and persecuting those guilty of such exploitation, like sexual coercion and the trafficking of immigrants and minors?

Laws should be based on protecting human rights and safety, not on persecuting consensual adults for victimless “crimes.” The only way we can focus on the real issues in prostitution is if we acknowledge that it is not intrinsically wrong and decriminalize those who choose sex work for themselves.

MARISA MASSARA thinks you should check out spreadmagazine.org for more info on the sex industry. She can be reached at mvmassara@ucdavis.edu.

The Anarchist

Beside the confused way of thinking and speaking that is imposed upon us by capitalist information control, there persists the general problem of self-imposed confusion. That is to say, capitalist firms are to blame for poisoning the public mind to a large degree, but the public is guilty of poisoning itself as well.

To cut straight to the heart of the issue: the left is severely weakened by mysticism. It sounds bizarre, and it is. The mystical nonsense that is so proudly proclaimed by my political allies not only disempowers us but is just plain embarrassing.

I was at the Davis Food Co-op over the weekend, doing a little bit of shopping on my mostly lazy day. I decided to look in the sale item bin, wondering if any cool little gadget might inspire some new healthy life habit. Instead something terrible happened. I saw a calendar that unwittingly sums up everything wrong with liberals in 2013.

The cover read “Underneath your physical form, you are one with Life itself, one with Being.”

This is the art of pseudo-philosophy. This is the art of meaningless baloney. This is the cancerous mysticism that nullifies the left. It creates empty terminology, which causes liberals to pursue empty mystical values. It sends them on a goose chase for a goose that couldn’t exist.

By dissecting this little nugget of vacuous crap, I think we can gain some insight into the problem and how to fix it. These spiritual affirmations use scientific terminology in a shifted context that attempts to gain the credence of scientism while adding some other magical, mysterious element. It takes “physical form,” a normal, everyday term, and uses it to suggest that there must be some other form, some other dimension of forms.

Most importantly, the capitalized “Life,” in the affirmation on the calendar, implies that life is some fabric that runs through reality, connecting all living beings. This is as anti-science as it gets — this is how people buy into this. It feels good to think that you’re seeing beyond. This is faith-based belief.

Once people buy into this faith-based concept of reality, they can’t craft their actions to confront real problems. They craft their actions to fit a world that doesn’t exist. Furthermore, if our discourse is filled with nonsense terms and mystical jargon, we push out talk of real problems and real values. We have real values, things like fairness or feeding people. When we are chasing “one-ness” around and searching for “being,” we are not going to fulfill any real values. These are false values. They only detract from our being.

People are generally lazy. They evolved to be that way. We could only get so many calories in a day, and the people who were busy bodies had a higher chance of being killed by beasts. People also want to be deep and profound, so they take these shortcuts. They latch on to these empty terms and it gives them the feeling that they are really tapping into the true nature of reality. Mysticism is the conjunction of intellectual laziness and the desire to be great. And its results are pitiful.

Here’s a good general rule: If something can’t be explained in normal terms, it probably doesn’t mean anything. “Being,” “Life” and “form” as they are used in the affirmation above just don’t do that. They just hint at the fact that there is something which is beyond observable reality. Once again, this is anti-science in the purest.

Of course, adherents to this type of rhetoric tend to reject scientism anyway, so that criticism will not persuade them. Once people have abandoned using reason and trying to think in meaningful terms, they probably can’t be fixed.

Someone else, much smarter than me, should try to figure out how to fix that millennia-old problem. If anything, I just want to encourage my compatriots to treat with hostility such mystical proclamations. Tolerance is a supreme virtue, but let’s not tolerate this hippie stupidity.

BRIAN MOEN recognizes the energy wavelength within your Being and sees that it is one with one-ness. He can be reached at bkmoen@ucdavis.edu.

How many of you knew the men’s basketball team is in contention for the Big West Conference title? They are not the same squad they were last year, the squad that won just three games in conference.

UC Davis currently stands at 9-7 in the Big West and 14-14 overall, quite a turnaround from last year’s abysmal 5-26 record that consisted of a 3-13 league ledger.

The Aggies’ game against Long Beach State today will be on national television — ever heard of ESPN2? — quite a step up from the live streaming provided by the Big West on the internet.

This is a chance for UC Davis to showcase its talent, to show it really isn’t the same group of guys that put together that less than impressive 18-game losing streak last year.

This game is being recognized as a highly competitive and crucial contest, rather than being written off as a lopsided game like it would have been last year.

The 49ers currently stand in first place in the Big West conference, are a perennial powerhouse and make regular appearances in the March Madness tournament. The last time out, UC Davis played them extremely close, dropping a 71-65 game after holding a 33-24 lead at halftime in front of a shocked Long Beach State crowd.

The Aggies have already sealed their spot in the Big West Conference tournament in Anaheim that will take place later this month. A win here would not affect their standing any more than any other conference victory would, but it could go a long way to boost the team’s confidence and send the message that UC Davis is a serious contender this year.

Go to the game. Stand in the Aggie Pack. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know every player and every statistic.

You already know that for a game of this magnitude, the Aggie Pack will be out in full force, and that means more giveaways. If not for the high intensity basketball that will be going on, then at least go for the chance to be on national television and get hit in the face by flying beads with free frozen yogurt coupons and tube socks.

Sandbox Politico

The United States Constitution begins with the phrase, “We the people.” Constitutional scholars take this beginning as an implicit argument for a living constitution — we the people. Because every time a new reader recites those words they become an included participant in the foundations of our democracy, thereby reaffirming the message of the document as a whole.

ASUCD also has a constitution. It begins by detailing the membership of ASUCD, “all regularly enrolled undergraduate students,” or we the people. You see, every time I, or anyone uses the term ASUCD to refer solely to our student government, we’ve committed a misnomer. Those letters in fact designate every student who happens to pay the fees which prop up our student government.

The question then becomes not who is a part of ASUCD, but who is an active participant in it?

Those initial words of the U.S. Constitution’s preamble are meant to serve as a check, ensuring the political sphere will never get clogged up with a revolving door of career politicians, instead constantly ushering new voices into the fold. Unfortunately that check has proven insufficient in the modern era.

We don’t have that problem in our student government; new voices crop up all the time. But there could and should always be more.

Democracy functions best when you have a competing series of interests constantly vying for control of the plurality. That’s where you get compromise from and that’s where you get better policy.

On the other end you have apathy. “Apathy is the enemy of democracy,” my State Capitol tour guide told me and my mother the other weekend. He was frustrated so few people came to watch open sessions of the California Assembly and Senate, and I had no answer for him. I myself have been working across the street from the Capitol all winter and had yet to observe one floor session.

The special thing about student government is that we, we the people, have no excuse for our apathy. Our representatives are immediately available to us, our senate meetings are held right on campus, our fees are transparently appropriated before us on a yearly basis.

Let’s get one thing straight: It gave me no pleasure to write last week’s column. I would have much preferred to issue every single departing member of ASUCD an A last week. Think how good we’d all feel in that world, think how good campus would look with a class that strong. But sadly I couldn’t do that.

Don’t you find that problematic? Don’t you think or at least hope the 12 senators and the executive representing you are the best this campus has to offer on a yearly basis? Don’t we the people deserve that much?

Yes, you do deserve the best. But where do you find those people? Try starting with yourself. You have all the tools to, at a moment’s notice, run for senate, or just drop by a senate meeting and chew out some self–important people sitting behind a table. Think how good that would feel.

This is me pulling back the curtain on my motivations for writing this column from the beginning. I did it to engage and educate all of you, and to make you want to engage your student government right back.

Look how much I’ve done with just this dinky column (pieces of legislation authored as a result of it, vetoes occurring or being overridden because of it), think how much you could do if you choose to stand up and be heard — we the people.

Because ASUCD needs you, the people, to make it better. It doesn’t get better through the actions of one individual, it gets better through a culture of dedicated persons pulling together because we care enough to better the lives of our peers — we the people.

You see that culture all across campus. It’s the feeling prospective students get when they come here for the first time and they can’t help but notice how nice everyone is. It’s the odd camaraderie we all share; when someone wipes out on their bike and no fewer than three strangers stop to at least ask if they’re OK.

That intangible culture is what we like to call Aggie Pride, and as all Aggies are in fact ASUCD, it is also ASUCD Pride.

But sometimes our student government loses track of those good sentiments. So it’s up to us, the people, to every now and then slap them in the face (rhetorically) and remind them of the basis of their jobs. Because ASUCD isn’t just for all of us, it is all of us — we the people.

JUSTIN GOSS occasionally likes to get sentimental and introspective. If you miss the more vitriolic, sardonic Goss, he can still be reached at jjgoss@ucdavis.edu.

On Thursday, Beatriz Anguiano, Bradley Bottoms, Don Gilbert, Kabir Kapur, Joyce Han and Paul Min said farewell to the Senate table as their term ended and their replacements stepped in.

Of these six senators, few accomplished their platforms.

Min helped with the Campus Safety Walk to increase lighting on campus. Bottoms worked on bike safety through Student Housing and the UC Davis Police Department. Kapur helped to “empower student advocacy” through his work with Lobby Corps and voter registration.

But overall, very few senators were able to check off the platforms on their to-do lists.

While fulfilling campaign promises should not be the only measure of success for senators, we do not think it’s unrealistic for us to expect them to accomplish at least some of the platforms that got them into office.

Being unable to accomplish platforms does not necessarily make a senator a bad student leader, but it does make you wonder what they did for a year.

Candidates often run with outlandish platforms that are either impossible or unlikely to be achieved, which are then recycled and reused in subsequent years. For example, adding Unitrans hours, lowering parking fees and creating an ASUCD newsletter have been used many times in the past. While we understand that platforms are created to garner votes, we’d also like to see some realistic platforms achieved.

We’d like to see candidates research their ideas for platforms before running with them in order to make sure they are achievable. It is misleading for candidates to tell students what they can expect if they are elected, only to disappoint them at the end of their term.

This next round of senators and the executive ticket have promised us a whole slew of changes, and we can’t wait to see late-running buses, academic credit for club leaders, an Aggie Reuse textbook program, a new pub in the MU and some other vague things about uniting the campus.

And we’re still waiting on those waffles, former Senator Yani.

“Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. In fact, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all of the challenges … But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can — to secure this nation, expand opportunity, uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.”
— President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, January 2013

As private citizens who have served as elected representatives of the Davis community, we speak with one voice, “It’s time to take action to reduce gun violence.”

The lessons of Newtown, Aurora, Tucson, Stockton, Nevada City and Columbine are stark. American policy, or lack thereof, makes it far too easy for guns to be misused or fall into the wrong hands.

The violence continues. Nearly 100,000 people are shot in the United States each year. According to recent statistics on Slate.com, 27 people die from gunshot wounds daily. That’s the equivalent of a Newtown massacre each and every day.

Americans are ready for change. In January 2013, 88.8 percent of the overall population supported background checks for all firearm transfers. Even more telling, 84.3 percent of firearm owners and 73.7 percent of National Rifle Association members expressed the same support (source: www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/vprp).

Recognizing the tide is turning, leaders in the United States Congress and the California Legislature are working on legislation to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, to require reporting of sales of large quantities of ammunition, and to limit the scope of concealed weapons laws. Mental health services must also be improved. These efforts require our active and vocal support.

The votes will be tough, but the face and the future of our country will change only through concerted, concentrated effort.

Now is the time.

Signed,

Sheila Allen, president, Davis School Board
Davis Campbell, former trustee, Yolo County Board of Education
Gina Daleiden, vice president/clerk, Davis School Board
Lucas Frerichs, member, Davis City Council
Richard Harris, former trustee, Davis School Board
Brett Lee, member, Davis City Council
Joe Krovoza, mayor, Davis City Council
Susan Lovenburg, trustee, Davis School Board
Bill Owens, trustee, Yolo County Board of Education
Jim Provenza, supervisor, Yolo County
Don Saylor, supervisor, Yolo County
Stephen Souza, former member, Davis City Council
Tim Taylor, trustee, Davis School Board
Helen Thomson, former supervisor, Yolo County
Dan Wolk, mayor pro tem, Davis City Council