welcome to life support

life support blog is a forum for and about people who have survived systems of prostitution as children or youth. "systems of prostitution" includes street, brothel, military/camptown, massage parlor, internet-based, escort service prostitution, pornography, stripping, peep shows, live sex shows, phone sex, trafficking, mail order bride rings, or any other form of commercial or systemic sexual exploitation.

i'm creating this blog for a number of reasons:

i'm a child survivor, and have an understanding and analysis of my own experiences, and of the institutions and causes of sexual exploitation.

although child prostitution, pornography and trafficking are sensationalized issues, actual people who've survived systems of prostitution, or the sex industries, in childhood or as teens are mostly unrepresented or 'silent' in public discussion and debate, activism, policy-making, research and scholarship, and various cultural and community discussions about systems of prostitution. the fact that we're mostly a silent/silenced population means that we can be alternately used as convenient symbols by the political and religious right, or virtually ignored by liberal or left proponents of 'sex work' or legalization of the sex industries. there's a real vacuum where survivor leadership, insight, and political criticism ought to be, which this blog attempts to partially, slightly, begin to fill.

i want to acknowledge and particularly express gratitude to the handful of survivor writers (such as Andrea Dworkin and Maya Angelou) who have written publicly about experiences in systems of prostitution. i also want to acknowledge and express qualified appreciation to some of the feminist activists and writers who have challenged victim-blaming stereotypes and taken up the issue of prostitution as gender-based violence. however, there's an absence of writing, visible political activism, or analysis which focuses on children and youth in systems of prostitution, and also engages with all the interlocking oppressions which create sexual exploitation. gender is very important to me, and to this discussion. but i believe that considering gender by itself or in isolation --- without discussion of class and economic oppression, the oppression of children (adultism), ageism, racism, imperialism, disability oppression (ableism), heterosexism, transphobia, the destruction of the environment and of the species of the planet, and anti-semitism --- is also totally inadequate. the idea that oppressions are interconnected is not at all new or my invention. i particularly appreciate Audre Lorde's classic essay, "there is no hierarchy of oppressions". i'm also a big fan of Joanna Kadi's book, Thinking Class, which theorizes how child abuse is a result of oppressions, and of Aurora Levins Morales' essay, "The Politics of Childhood", which analyzes the oppression of children as a basis for learning how to participate in other oppressions. however, there's not a real activist, cultural or literary language or analysis out there which thoroughly applies these ideas to the issue of children and youth in the sex industries. without 'voice', or a way to name, describe, make sense of, or confront systems of prostitution as a product of oppressions, i don't think we have an icecube's chance in hell of making deep, sustainable, healing social change.

i need to acknowledge that this is an enormous challenge, and without devaluing my own insights, emotional intelligence, and knowledge as an individual survivor --- i'm very clear on the fact that i can't do it or even comprehend it all, by myself, or with one blog, or a multitude of blog posts. however, i think this space can be a starting point, and a forum for guest writers/bloggers, mostly survivors who do not have another public space to 'speak' or write as self-identified survivors.

i'm also creating this blog because i'm physically and chronically ill. sexual violence and torture have left me with about a half dozen disabilities and illnesses. i'm pretty sure that the sex industries have shortened my calendar --- and i feel a deep need to write and advocate and organize as much as my health allows, in the time i have. when i write, sometimes it helps my body heal or get stronger, because it releases trauma, and that tends to boost my immunity and energy. so i hope this little blog will help me stay alive longer. although i'm in compromised health --- i'm still alive as an adult, which hasn't been true for too many children and youth in the sex industries. i'm not in the sex industries now, and i'm not substance abusing, and i'm not in an abusive or violent relationship, and i have a home, and a political/activist education as well as a formal education, and there are people in my life who know me, and offer me respect, love and support. and i can write. so i figure for every survivor who's like me, there are about 999 victims or survivors who died young, or who never got out, or who never found a way to speak, or who are actively self-destructing, or who are still regularly getting abused or raped by somebody, or who are incredibly isolated, or who don't have the resources or privilege or time to do anything besides try not to die or to bear up under the weight of depression, complex post-traumatic stress, nightmares and flashbacks, and all the accompanying damage to our bodies and spirits. so... being really in touch with the fact that i'm mortal and fragile... and also being really aware of my own strength, luck, privilege/access, and indebtedness to the people who've helped me survive, i'm starting this blog because i can't afford to wait any longer for it to exist. and because, when i use the word survivor, i'm not just meaning "victim who didn't die". that word connects me to a much broader experience. i am a survivor of a particularly brutal, devastating, life-destroying, vicious process of mass sexual violence, which eventually kills most of the people (and other animals --- in bestiality prostitution) it abuses. without thinking, remotely, that i can speak for everyone, i'm connected to, aware of, many other victims and survivors who can't do what i'm doing here. the word survivor, in this moment at least, means that i'm someone who has organic and intimate knowledge of systems of prostitution, and hasn't (yet) been destroyed, though i've come close. it also means that i've done some healing, that i'm claiming a relationship to life, and that in doing so i've learned some things which can help solve or point to solutions to bigger problems. so i'm writing, and seeking writing from others, because i'm one of the relatively few of us who can.

the blog is named "life support" for a few reasons, which are probably now evident. for me personally, it is, literally. i hope that reading or connecting with what's written here may do something similar for other survivors. i also believe that writing and thinking and conversing about extreme forms of torture and violence is potentially a catalyst for activism, and therefore a necessary part of moving from domination-based social organization or structures which destroy lives and quality of life, to those which support healthy, integral living.

so... here we go. my gratitude to you--- whoever you are, for reading. more posts coming soon: "safety is not a whistle", "violence-based disability", "a list of things which we need so that more victims can heal", "not a sex worker", "the U.S. is a pimp", "thankyou alice walker (read her already!): feminism, race, and the anti-pornography movement", "i really wish sheila jeffreys would stop talking about me: a carefully thought out rant on solidarity with transgender survivors", "everytime george w. bush says he cares about children we should scream out loud"

in struggle,
shrayberin