The Cultural And Political Crisis Of The 1980's

COYOTE has had relative successful public policy achievement however, the cultural and political crisis of the 1980’s deeply impact the movement broader social change. The 1980’s presented a tension between realpolitik and cultural politics that impaired the movement progress as second wave and anti-pornography feminists split over issues of sexuality, gender, and sexual self-governance with the movement. Most damaging was the fact that the women’s movement excluded COYOTE, as they did not see deemed them as legitimate actors of their efforts. This split was further amplified by the AIDS crisis as it gave more credibility to second wave and anti-pornography feminist who vehemently opposed sex workers. In addition to this political and cultural tension, the AIDS crisis led to many allies abandoning the movement, specifically women, because the HIV/AIDS issues are sometimes attributed to the image of the disease as gay, white and male (110). These political and cultural forces led to the political disenfranchisement of the movement.
For instance, the government’s quick to blame demeanor exasperated the movement’s urgency to confront this issue as sex workers, in addition to the gays, were used as the scapegoats to this disease due to their promiscuous lifestyle. Sex workers’ lifestyle was more than ever in the spotlight as this epidemic created a hostile political arena. Thus, the movement changed its tactic and focused on tackling legislations that singled sex workers out for punishment as the main source of