A professional dominatrix made a little bit of history in Canada yesterday. Terri-Jean Bedford actually a retired pro-domme , along with Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, won their case in front of the Canadian Supreme Court to strike down the countries anti-prostitution laws. This Tits and Sass post has a round-up of various links on the news. You can see some of the positive reaction from pro-dommes and other sex workers in twitter comments like this , this and this.
Some of you might be wondering why a pro-domme is involved in anti-prostitution laws. The reality is that when it comes to sexual matters the law is frequently an ass.
In this case Terri-Jean Bedford was legally working in her own space as a pro-domme in when the Toronto police raided and arrested her. The confiscated all her equipment, splashed her name across the papers and ultimately in convicted her of keeping a bawdy house. And, as it turns out, winning. The confluence of sex, commerce, morality and law is always going to be a complex one.
And in this case the opinions of sex workers are both far more important and as far as I can tell unequivocally in favor of this ruling. So a big congratulations to Ms Bedford, someone who can certainly rock a leather jacket and riding crop look. Their twisting of facts and obvious bias disqualifies them instantly from any sensible debate.
See the 'about' page if you really want to know about me. View all posts by paltego. This very issue was recently had a very intelligent and sensitive airing in the a Danish TV series called Borgen. If you have not seen it, its about the adventures of a female danish politician called Brigitte Nyborg. Thanks for the pointer.
