Feminist Summer Camp, Part 1

Feminist Summer Camp is something to write home about!  We'll be posting updates from the past week here at Soapbox Blog. Big thanks to Feminist Summer Camper, Steph, for these posts!

Monday

 Feminist Summer Camp started out with a bang! Or really, a click -- we started the morning by having brunch in Central Park and talking about our feminist "click" moments. The group split into two groups to learn about sex trafficking; one group went to the Sex Worker's Project and the other went to the NoVo Foundation. 

At the Novo Foundation, we talked with Pam Shiffman. Here's a re-cap of our discussion: 

- NoVo works to end violence against women and girls, particularly in countries in conflict or post-conflict situations and also works to end sex trafficking

- There are two main models of feminist and human rights frames for thinking about sex trafficking. One is the Dutch model, or the regulatory model, and the other is the Swedish model 

- NoVo focuses on the Swedish model, which operates under the assumptions that prostitution is akin to violence against women, women end up in sex work because of a lack of other choices, state policy should be criminalizing those who exploit women as well as their customers, and that sex workers should be entitled to state benefits such as welfare

- NoVo thinks about this work in terms gender equality, and that most women want other options besides sex work

We discussed the positive and negative sides of this approach as well as the importance of demanding more of our governments and of not resigning ourselves to compromise when it comes to our rights. We also discussed how to reconcile the differences between people working on all aspects of sex work and sex trafficking advocacy. 

We then went to Babeland, a sex-positive, feminist sex shop to learn about what it means to be sex positive and, of course, browsed Babeland's huge selection of sex toys. After a lunch break, we headed to the International Women's Health Coalition. We met with Audacia Ray and Lori Adelman to talk about IWHC's work surrounding sex work and sex trafficking. 

Here is a summary of our discussion: 

- IWHC  works to empower local leaders and organizations, advocate in the UN and national capitals, mobilize women and young people to act, and inform power brokers, influentials, and health professionals-  

- Sex worker rights are human rights: bodily autonomy, right to work and support your family, freedom from violence and coercion 

- What is the difference between sex work and sex trafficking? Sex work can be a choice, whereas trafficking implies moving people across borders without consent, or having people perform actions without their consent 

- There are economic realities and inequities that put women into sex work, and the sex industry will not disappear with the economic inequities still in place 

We also watched a video documenting IWHC's work in India helping sex workers gain access to HIV testing and basic health services. 

Back at the Hostel, we had dinner with Shelby Knox, who talked to us about her experience growing up in Lubbock, TX, learning how to be a feminist organizer, and her vision for the future of feminism. Shelby inspired us to think about ways we can change and engage our communities at home, and the power of the voices of youth. 

Tuesday

Today our focus is reproductive justice. We split into different groups in the morning to go to different organizations within that movement. 

My group met with Lynn Paltrow, the Executive Director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women. We talked about the importance of expanding the pro-choice community to include people who fight for birthing rights. 

We also talked about:

- The importance of talking to people who don't necessarily consider themselves pro-choice but, through life experience, have come to understand the importance of women's health advocacy

- The similarities between between the birthing rights community and pro-choice community

- How a lot of current legislation makes it possible for states to overrule a woman's right to her body, control the kind of birth she wants, and what happens while she's in labor

After that stimulating conversation, everyone met up at the Third Wave Foundation to debrief about all of our experiences. We reflected on our different morning meetings with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Choices in Childbirth, the Guttmacher Institute, and Choices Medical Center. We unpacked the difference between "pro-choice" and "reproductive justice" and how this benefits our movement. 

We watched a video produced by the Third Wave Foundation about all the dynamic, engaging work that their funded organizations do. We learned about Third Wave's emergency abortion fund and participated in an exercise that helped us think about the difficulties of abortion funding. When our time was over there, we split up to go to different meetings again. People went to either the Doula Project, Sistas on the Rise, or Spence Chapin Adoption Agency. 

At the Doula Project, we learned the difference between a doula and a midwife, and the different types of doula (birth, adoption, and abortion) that the Doula Project provides. We also talked about how doulas are trained, why doulas are needed, and how doulas help women across the spectrum of pregnancy.