I forwarded the press release about the child prostitution conference posted here to Tracy Quan, a prostitute and writer who is among the luminaries of Prostitutes of New York (PONY). Though she has a curiously Marxist-feminist past, Tracy is now a libertarian. Doug Henwood ------------ Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 00:22:45 -0400 From: Tracy Quan Subject: [PEN-L:4235] Forced Labor: The Prostitution of Children (fwd) When commenting on the following press release, please don't use the "Tracy Quan said" format! I am very disgusted with the following information but I think you should all know about it. The idea of a special event to address child labor in the sex industry is utterly stupid. Child labor in the sex industry should be discussed and seen in its proper context. These people are cynically exploiting curiosity about a sexual subject so they can go to a conference. It's pretty obvious. If they want to end child labor, they should be discussing contraception, education and family size. Education for girls in developing countries isn't as erotic to these ne-er do wells, but it would actually do a lot more for the cause of eliminating child labor than a child sex *boondoggle* in Sweden.... I say "education for girls" because the (male and female) children of these future women are going to be in much better shape than are those whose mothers can't read. It is less likely that they will be deprived of an education. This press release refers to a "profitable" sex industry which exploits children. Ironic, isn't it. I'm sure the non-sexual industries which employ children are actually making a lot more money! Mining, manufacturing and agriculture? I think there's more money in these industries than there is in sex -- partly because you can export the products pretty easily.
