“It is a book that speaks without mediation in prostitution, that is, it is a book written by sex workers, we hear their voices, experiences and political debates.” The words are by Nerea Fillatena. Together with Hedoi Etxarte presented the book Puta zikinak, last Wednesday in the Karrikiri association of Pamplona.

The book, written by Mac Juno and Molly Smith, has been translated into Basque by the translator Amaia Astobiza. “When we arrived at the feminist group of readers, we saw that it is very useful to help locate one of the most important conflicts of feminism,” explains Fillat. In addition, he stressed that there are “many” books dedicated to prostitution at a symbolic level within ideology, but that are “far away” from materiality.

He adds that the book raises “many” new questions about sex workers, such as the consequences of being a woman in patriarchy from a “broad” perspective. In addition, it is not a memory about sex work or a book that gathers the experiences of sex workers: “It works with a concrete, concrete and critical political view on the material conditions of sex workers, their occurrences, organization and problems”.

He emphasizes that they criticize the sex industry “very hard” and that it is a “sexist” and “misogynist” field: “They say that the book explains the attacks, arrests, imprisonment, evictions and deportations.”

Writers emphasize in the book that they are sex workers, but that they are not spokespersons for all sex workers and that they write from their experiences. However, Fillat stressed that the book is composed of “abundant” voices: “The book collects voices from all places and also voices that do not think like them.”

According to the book, prostitution is conditioned by three axes: sex, work and borders. Everyone is offered a chapter in the book.

Fillate said that in the sex section, sex workers stress that hatred against them is based on “old misogynist ideas”: “Consequently, they say that a part of feminism still has misogynistic ideas, and that is why they oppose it, and that it does not give autonomy or agency to sex workers.”

As for work, in the book they claim that sex work is a job, and therefore they need labor rights: “They say that being a job you have to talk about material conditions, and that means they should be able to negotiate.” However, it is clear that all works are “exploiters”.

“For the authors, many who are in prostitution tend to do so because of poverty or the conditions that generate the borders,” explains Fillat. He adds that, according to the writers, judging the decision is to “move away” from feminist utopia: “It makes us judges of other people because we don’t think about borders.”

In addition, the book analyzes the organization of the world by sex workers. On one side is the prison nation, that is, the United States of America, South Africa and Kenya, and on the other there is no easy solution, the New Zealand model. Halfway through other models.

Regarding the former, they denounce that it is the “most prohibitive” model: “They get in and out of prison constantly, have no rights and are vulnerable”.

They say that New Zealand is the most “liberating”: “Always among many hooks.” In their model, sex workers are workers, they quote, they have the right to be in unions, they can go to the doctor: “According to writers, that is the model sex workers ask for.”