Sex Workers and Congress Members: Nor Saints nor Whores

Angela Villon Bustamante is a self-proclaimed proud, respectable ‘super-whore’. Before running for congress in early 2016, Villon became a sex worker in order to pay for her first child’s medicine after previously working as a domestic worker, street vendor, and nanny. She reports that she initially began working in sex work during a moment of crisis, but continued to work because it is a job like any other.

During her campaign, Villon faced severe backlash for her work. Rather than taking the criticism lying down, Villon flipped the script with one simple question:

If sex workers are deemed sinners for the requirements of their job, aren’t congress members sinners too?

Villon states that she wants make the Big Brothel more respectable indicating that there is corruption in the Big Brothel which is evident in the recent voting for the Fujimori’s Popular Force, winning 73 of 130 seats. The Peruvian people have grown tired of Alberto Fujimori, and the Fujimori family including Keiko, recent presidential candidate and Kenji, a parliamentarian. Alberto Fujimori abused of his power by inflicting violence via the massacre of indigenous’ women’s fertility and the Barrio Altos attack in a poor neighborhood in Lima. Additionally, his crimes of embezzlement and bribery cost the country $1.5 billion to $4 billion.

Sex work is viewed with suspicion, as stated by Gayle Rubin, despite two consenting parties. Or that the genitalia is the least holiest part of the body — but what about the mind? A poisonous thought can be acted on impulsively and can cause danger to others. A mind can also think ‘sinful’ and ‘unholy’ thoughts. The genitalia can only penetrate or be penetrated.

I believe that a sex worker has more power than a congress member. A sex worker can choose who to work for and when to work as easily as they can decide when they don’t want to work and who they don’t want to work for. A congress member is restrained to their party and are manipulated, pressured, or bribed to vote a certain way. I would trust a sex worker such as Angela Villon Bustamante to be in the Big Brothel due to her expertise in exercising her autonomy as certified by her masters on the streets and doctorate of experience.

Villon is a survivor of a police beating when she refused to pay protection money who continues to fight for the rights of sex workers to be recognized. Following her successful case, Villon went out to advocate for the rights of people who are HIV positive and legal recognition of her co-workers. She states that she is tired of being deemed ignorant for her profession and set forward to run for Congress. Villon powerfully states that, “[she] knows how to express herself, has clear ideas, and [is] going to put order in that big brother which is congress.” She vows to improve “women’s rights, decriminalize abortion in the case of rape, back civil unions and gay marriage, and fight human trafficking [,] the sexual exploitation of underage girls [and] continue her fight for the recognition and protection of sex workers.” These are all needs that members of many societies have been continuously been protesting for. Villon vows to implement these needs as laws to 1. Improve the work conditions of sex workers, 2. Solidify women’s reproductive rights, 3. Allow individuals to proclaim their love loudly, and 4. Prevent women of all ages from being survivors of sexual violence. Her goals reflect the needs that she or her co-workers have experienced or seen. It is what Villon aims to bring back to the Big Brothel and return to the community successfully. Such an example can be that of the Déjala Decidir campaign, to decriminalize abortion in the case of rape, that was denied. Villon not only aims redirect the attention of the Big Brothel to needs, but to also ensure the success of similar campaigns.

Vanessa Carlisle, MFA and radio show host of Sex, Please!, states that a whore was and is defined as woman who “won all freedoms denied to general women” such as sexual economy and sexual labor — a capitalist. A sex worker is her own manager who handles their means of production. An individual that is essentially free in a male-driven world that cannot be claimed as private property. Whereas Karl Marx implied that a sex worker is easily aroused by the very stimulus that controls them. Karl Marx described sex work as being “only a specific expression of the general [sex work] of the laborer” and that they were easily engaged in childish behavior. Polymorphous Perversion is defined as the body becoming stimulated in a sexual manner all over the general body besides the genitalia. A common, exciting entity between a sex worker and a congressman is money — it is the visible divinity. Money is the transformation of all human and natural properties. Any form of money is enough to excite any individual such as a congress member and a sex worker to the point where they would be prepared to perform any task to obtain the payment. Marx states that increased wages, made by the sacrifice of the worker’s mind and body, increases the capitalist’s mania to become wealthy. However, Villon pushed her mind and body to work tirelessly to meet the demands of their needs whereas congress members work tirelessly to meet the demands of their wants. Villon states that “[she is] proud of be a [sex worker] because it’s synonymous with freedom.” She is not captive of the stimulus that arouses her — she is and always has been able to make the decision to remain autonomous.

Angela Villon Bustamante es ni santa ni puta — her value as an individual is not determined by her purity nor by number of people who pay her compensation for her work to pay her rent. She is a working, contributing member to society. A member of society who needs to be in the Big Brothel.