Julia Gomez/ Contributing Writer
There exists a whole campaign based purely on the harassment of women.
The “Thot Audit” campaign is organizing groups of people in order to report sex workers to the IRS. They claim cam girls or other women who sell virtual sexual services are committing tax fraud. They further claim that women aren’t paying taxes; but don’t have any proof to back it up.
The campaign, named after a derogatory term synonymous with calling a woman promiscuous, is contributed to a Facebook page belonging to a man who goes by David Wu.
The post that garnered the most attention said, “[We] need to get rid of [sex workers], or they need to pay taxes if it’s real work.” Attached to the post is a link that leads people to a page on the IRS’s website detailing how to report people committing tax fraud.
Wu’s profile is filled with posts regarding sex workers. He refers to them as “deviants” and even edited a photo of his head on to a muscular video game character beating a female character wearing lingerie, with the text “sex worker” following her flailing body.
He even wrote to them: “time to get a real job sweaty,” and shared a photo of a woman’s tweet describing the harassment she has received as a sex worker and stating sex workers have nothing more to lose. And yes he wrote “sweaty,” that isn’t a typo.
Some men, like twitter user Roosh are encouraging others to report people by claiming the IRS rewards whistleblowers. Roosh tweeted, “if you report a thot and they collect taxes from her, you can receive up to 30% of that amount” Which is kind of true.“Amounts in dispute exceed $2 million, and a few other qualifications are met, the IRS will pay 15 percent to 30 percent of the amount collected, According to the IRS’s website. If the case deals with an individual, his or her annual gross income must be more than $200,000.”
However, the women being targeted by the campaign aren’t concerned. Enter Rachel, a financial dominatrix. She’s paid by men who fetishize giving a lot of money to women. She told the Rolling Stones she isn’t worried. “The IRS is not only heavily overburdened, I’d be shocked to find someone had even one-sixteenth of the necessary information [needed to report.]”
It is clear that this campaign disproportionately targets women.
I haven’t seen anyone targeting male sex workers. All the posts I’ve seen have referred solely to women. Not to mention that this line of work isn’t any different from any other. If all parties involved are consenting adults that follow the laws, why should it be criminal?
These women are being harassed and it is wrong. They are just living life and minding their own business. The men using the IRS to threaten these women are the ones who should be considered criminals.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of Panther Press Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
Photo by João Silas on Unsplash