…sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love. – Butch Hancock
The concept that sex, even non-procreative sex, is somehow different from every other human activity and therefore requires special rules is deeply ingrained in the minds of mystics and the middle class alike, and nowhere is this more true than in the United States. It is an article of faith among Americans that sex is magically “special” even when divorced from reproduction or feelings; that accepting money for sex is somehow “degrading” even in a capitalist society which allows the commercialization of anything and everything else from cradle to grave; that the sexual activities of consenting adults are a matter for deep governmental concern; and that looking at “dirty pictures” in private somehow causes such grievous social ills that it constitutes a “crime” which in some cases is more serious than murder. I’ve written about this weird belief on many occasions, but I think it’s important to call attention to it whenever it rears its ugly head. Most of you are probably familiar with this recent news story:
The lure of a job and a place to live cost one man his life after answering a Craigslist ad. Two southern men traveled to [rural Ohio] to interview for a job running a cattle farm. The Florida man was shot dead and buried in a shallow grave and the South Carolina man was shot but escaped through the woods…[the ad] offered employment on a rural 688-acre cattle ranch and instructed the men chosen for the jobs to bring their belongings with them to Ohio [to] begin living and working on the ranch…The two men did not know each other and reported for work on different days.
The South Carolina man…hid in the woods for approximately seven hours…[then went] to a home almost two miles away for help…[he] had initially met his supposed employers for breakfast and started the trek to the ranch in a vehicle [but] was told a landslide had closed the country road and they would have to go the rest of the way to the ranch on foot through the woods…[where he heard the sound of a gun being cocked and was able to knock it away from his head…he was hit by multiple shots in the arm instead]…Five days [later] the Noble County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Florida man’s sister…[who] had not spoken to [him]… since…October 22…The Sheriff and his deputies returned to the wooded area from which the South Carolina man had fled…[and] discovered a vacant shallow grave they assumed was meant for [him]…Cadaver dogs [then] located human remains in another nearby shallow grave…
On November 16th 52-year-old Richard Beasley and 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty were arrested for the crimes; they were located via email communications with Scott Davis (the South Carolina man). On November 25th the bodies of two other men who answered similar ads were discovered, then on November 29th an AP story revealed that Beasley has a long criminal history and had in fact recently been arrested on unrelated charges:
An Ohio teenager charged with aggravated murder…is not a monster, but a “scared little boy,” his mother says…[police allege] that he participated in the Oct. 23 slaying of David Pauley and the Nov. 6 attempted murder of Scott Davis…Beasley’s mother says her son would take the teen to church almost weekly, go fishing, play video games and involve him in volunteer work. But the teenager’s mother paints another picture of Beasley — that of a man who threatened her son and who once said that he knew where the teen lived and that “I know where your mother lives”…Beasley has a criminal record dating to the 1980s. He was convicted in Texas of burglary and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle in 1985, sentenced to a 40-year prison term and placed on parole for 34 years in 1989. Previous charges in Ohio include aggravated menacing, tampering with evidence, possession of criminal tools and illegal cultivation of marijuana, court records show. Following Beasley’s return to Akron in 2003, he ran a halfway house, helped deliver food to the poor and vouched for fellow offenders, telling judges they had changed their ways…Police say the halfway house was a front for prostitution…and Beasley was awaiting trial on prostitution and drug charges when authorities took him into custody this month. The teen appears to be placing blame on Beasley…[whose] mother has said that her son had taken the boy to [church] since he was 7 or 8 years old…and that they did volunteer work together, such as delivering food to the needy…
The ABC News story named the exact charge on which Beasley was first arrested as “compelling prostitution”, i.e. pimping. But that’s not why I’ve called attention to this story; what interests me is what it doesn’t say. Where are all the protests, the online petitions and the expensive full-page newspaper ads demanding that Craigslist close its “help wanted” section? After all, it’s being used by pimps to lure men to their deaths! Sure, murder and robbery aren’t as bad as prostitution, but he recruited a “child” (whom his mommy says is a “scared little boy”) to help him, so surely that counts for something? And what about that church? It’s being used to seduce innocents into murder, prostitution and even {gasp} DRUGS!!!!! So why isn’t anyone demanding it be closed as well?
I think we all know the answers; in the minds of anti-sex fanatics the mere possibility that a few score teenage girls might over time post online hooker ads is of far greater concern than the murders of a few divorced, unemployed, middle-aged men. And though some religious leaders claim that it’s a “basic fact of the moral universe” that businesses should be held responsible for criminals wrongfully using their services, they certainly don’t support holding churches or church programs responsible for exactly the same thing.
One Year Ago Today
“The Slave-Whore Fantasy (Part Two)” reports on a news story (also from Ohio) which “points out the difference between a free prostitute and a sex slave in a rather dramatic fashion.”
Oh please. We’ll never really end or allow much protest over anything that makes money for our capitalist system. Look at how strongly the OWS movement has been suppressed
That’s part of the issue we have with prostitution- One can make good money, one can be self-employed and relatively free, and it operates outside the system of bosses and corporations, and doesn’t feed cash to the 1%. Now if they could find a way to arrange it like that, prostitution would be legal.
Hilarious but true!
Comix – in a socialist utopia – exactly how would prostitutes be paid? I’m just trying to figure out how it would be different than the capitalist system. I don’t think it would be unless the government paid hookers a stipend, as if they were government workers – and that would be a bit creepy.
I don’t believe in utopias. They don’t exist. However, were the world arranged to suit me, prostitutes would be paid exactly as now, by their customers, just like you pay the butcher and baker.
The biggest difference is that a large percentage of every dollar spent with any business person wouldn’t end up in the pockets of the rich and crooked. Oh, we’d still have taxes, must pat and care for the soldiers we’d need (although I suspect there would be fewer, as we wouldn’t be fighting rich men’s wars, just defending the nation, in other words, not putting fighting men in impossible, honourless situations.) and other programs. Since sex work would be legal, whores would pay taxes.
Any large business would be employee or co-op owned. You could go to a brothel that’s run by a co-op, or by the hookers.
Comix – in a socialist utopia – exactly how would prostitutes be paid? I’m just trying to figure out how it would be different than the capitalist system. I don’t think it would be unless the government paid hookers a stipend, as if they were government workers – and that would be a bit creepy.
Some local municipal councils in England (like Manchester and Norwich) have given disabled and retarded men money to visit prostitutes. That’s not quite direct state funding to the ladies, but it is very close.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
There’s non-whore women who help out disabled men sexually. I’m 1 of them. It’s not true that ONLY whores help. BOTH groups of women help. I find it very sad that these men need to see whores to begin with. The ideal to me is that no one ever need to pay for sex. I imagine the 1’s who think these men are disgusting are the 1’s who also think men without a certain amount of $ don’t deserve to have sex.
They have found a way to do it: the Nevada brothel system.
I believe that. Unfortuneately for prostitutes, this is the most likely scenario for the decriminalization and/ or legalization of prostitution anyhere else in the USA. As long as the bussinessman or bussinesswomen are making a hefty profit, the government is collecting a lot of taxes, and politicians and others are being paid off legally in political action money and illegally in bribes, then this might come to pass. However it is a long shot to convince the majority of American men who are against prostitution and who are pussy-whooped brainwashed fools on the issue of prostitution and about the true nature of women in general whatever their profession or lifestyle. Most men don’t understand the nature of women, and are mostly incompetent at figuring out the nature of women even though many if not most men want to understand women. Most women are incompetent at understanding the nature of men, but at least under the American misandry they don’t need nor do most of them care to understand the nature of men. Misandry allows American women to live in a fantasy world without regards to even trying to understand men, and even if most women did understand men it doesn’t matter because the laws, social norms and their enforcement don’t require them to even try to sympathize and empathize for men in the USA unlike what men experience in the USA. A higher percentage of women are against prostitution and they will be a tougher sell to decrimalize and/or legalize it. .Just like Nevada, the law will go after the majority of Nevada whores who don’t work for the legal brothels because the “right” people aren’t getting what they want, and the “right” people will decieve us about how it’s necessarry for the good of society whether it’s true or not.
Unfortunately for prostitutes
Why unfortunately? There’s nothing inherently evil or wrong about large corporations. The ability for a people to pool capital (in old and new senses) in pursuit of a singular goal allows for great advances in almost every sense. Now, I’m not taking the other extreme and arguing that large corporations are necessarily good, just that they definitely have enough utility to make them foolish to ignore, prohibit, or decry. Due to the nature of the service in question, you wouldn’t see McBoobie’s Golden Humps in every strip mall and pig crossing, but even if there were, it would still be easy enough to operate independently (barring government-imposed extreme barriers to market entry such as an exorbitantly expensive certification process).
But the only way prostitution will be legalized is the same way Communist Russia was brought down: realigning youth’s views and waiting for the old commies to die. In this case it’s not commies, but more prudish folk; however, the situation is the same because we’re talking about ideals. While this is the keystone issue for many of its proponents, it is not the problem, but merely a symptom of a far greater societal problem (well, more accurately a group of societal problems). For this reason, it’s a waste of effort to attempt to change the minds of those who’ve made it to middle age. Yeah, you’ll get converts, but not nearly enough to make the required effort worthwhile.
Someone brought up the Civil Rights Movement elsewhere (*sigh* limiting danger to blacks only to the South), but let’s really look at that: The linchpin moment was the 1954 Brown versus BoE ruling–not a law passed, or even a publicly popular movement. It was a case that went to the Supreme Court. I single this out because it is what actually opened the door for later rulings like Green v. BoE which actually brought to bear the Federal Government’s weight. Even with activation of things like the National Guard, you still had legal, social, and other various forms of disagreement through the mid-80s. 30 years and the same fights are still being fought–a generation and a half. Racism still hasn’t been (nor can it entirely be, but it can be functionally) eliminated some three generations after that 1954 ruling, but with each passing year the extreme hate of blacks is reduced — not because of people changing their minds, but because those born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s did not grow up in the same environment as their parents and their parents and grand parents who strongly held these hatreds are dying. Are there some that successfully pass these biases on? Of course, but without the environment helping to reinforce it, even that rate is far reduced.
But, to bring this back to prostitution, you will never see a case regarding the universal legality of prostitution in front of the Supreme Court–and if somehow one makes it there, I see almost no way for it to possibly be won because deciding the legality of any flavor of business is squarely in the wheelhouse of the States. Look at being a doctor or a lawyer. A doctor in Georgia can’t necessarily do anything in California. A lawyer in Oklahoma can’t practice in Louisiana without first passing Louisiana’s bar–the same is true for a variety of other services even to the point of them being allowed in some states and disallowed in others. I bring this up because this is the reason that there cannot be a linchpin moment like Brown v. BoE for prostitution. It has to be a popular movement. For that, society has to change.
I completely disagree, Silo. The laws against prostitution are not mere business laws; they’re laws which criminalize normal female behavior and the right of women to choose who, when and why we have sex. The battle has been won in other countries on that ground, and it can only be won on that ground here. Roe vs. Wade and Lawrence vs. Texas have already been won; next up is Doe vs. Jindal. The process is inexorable unless our entire system of government is realigned before it finally happens. The courts will eventually rule that prostitution itself cannot be criminalized, and most of the states will then scramble to enact a bunch of stupid avails laws, bawdy house laws and the like; in about 15-20 years we’ll be where Canada was in the ’90s legally speaking, and where abortion in the U.S. is now socially speaking.
Is this REALLY what a driver’s license looks like in Louisiana when you’ve been convicted of “crimes against nature”? Seriously?
Yep.
That’s outrageous.
I have nothing against capitalism, corporations and well functioning limited government. I’m for them. However, I do have something against crony capitalism, crony corporatism, crony government that overregulates, overtaxes and overenforces stupidity which is what we have now and is only getting worse. Why are the majority of whores in Nevada working illegally? It is because the corporations and especially government have made life too difficult for most whores to operate legally and still make a decent living.. I’ve also heard Nevada is an expensive place for johns to go whoring and Amsterdam and Hamburg in the Netherlands and Germany are cheaper where it is also legal and less regulated.
I’ve also heard Nevada is an expensive place for johns to go whoring and Amsterdam and Hamburg in the Netherlands and Germany are cheaper where it is also legal and less regulated.
Germany has changed much in the last decade;
i) they dropped mandatory registration of prostitutes.
ii) state enforced testing has been ended.
iii) the references to prostitution as “immoral” have been removed from the law.
And you are correct about prices being lower than in Nevada; a regular full session in German indoor prostitution tends to be about 50 euro ($67).
Gumdeo, that’s wonderful news; do you have a link to an article where it’s discussed? I’d love to include that in an upcoming column.
I was only going from memory, but you may find some of the following useful:
Before the law was passed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1325792.stm
And after it was passed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1721434.stm
Specifically talking about enforced testing, see page 41 of this PDF
“Although prostitution has never been criminalized in Germany, various
restrictions were imposed; the level of enforcement varied from state to state within Germany. These restrictions also affected women who chose to work in prostitution. For example, women were forced to undergo tests for STDs, and the police was entitled to detain them for this purpose.”
Page 42 (lower part) –
“Although the new law recognized the presence of other agents in
the sex industry, particularly brothel owners, its central focus was
concern for the women involved. The law granted these women access to
the national insurance system, to unemployment benefit, pensions, and
health insurance, and sought to eradicate criminal aspects of the
profession and to enable those women who wish to do so to leave the
world of prostitution. The law allowed women to choose whether to have
the status of salaried employees or self-employed workers. An earlier law..
Page 43 –
passed in 2001 abolished the coercive imposition of health checks on
women working in prostitution. Clinics exist in Germany that provide
counseling and anonymous testing for STDs and HIV. The tests and
initial treatment are provided free of charge for all, regardless of legal status.”
from the Legalization of Prostitution Final, English
PDF: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=GERMAN+PROSTITUTES+%22STD+TESTING%22+2001&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCcQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hotline.org.il%2Fenglish%2Fpdf%2FThe_Legalization_Of_Prostitution_English.pdf&ei=AOfbTs21JcOy8QOu0rDgDQ&usg=AFQjCNE4q5b2fnYui6Nd1iEfSrmBYqvWvA
or quick view
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=GERMAN+PROSTITUTES+%22STD+TESTING%22+2001&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CC0QxQEwAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fviewer%3Fa%3Dv%26q%3Dcache%3AJknX_avPs14J%3Awww.hotline.org.il%2Fenglish%2Fpdf%2FThe_Legalization_Of_Prostitution_English.pdf%2BGERMAN%2BPROSTITUTES%2B%2522STD%2BTESTING%2522%2B2001%26hl%3Den%26gl%3Duk%26pid%3Dbl%26srcid%3DADGEESi94E3FO5gAIjjZdcNVeC8WN-R7Ruc0M4ELJ35ePFwwOxf0rYHsx7ljmG9c3sMuSK3pxYdshgM3YY-kZ7qeC-9znvSncOaU5tkbQjMYNaC-9-L-4lVQ00PWTscmGqx59LQkv4GT%26sig%3DAHIEtbRtYXXdc8j_M2h4az-1kSyhqNZYUg&ei=AOfbTs21JcOy8QOu0rDgDQ&usg=AFQjCNGFAZbw9yLYDGaOJq-B5I87JDmqcw
Hopefully that should be sufficient.
It’s not a capitalist thing – has nothing to do with that.
It has to do with human nature.
People will condemn others who lie or steal. However, when it comes down to their own behavior – they’ll lie to get out of a tough spot or cheat on their taxes – even though that’s technically stealing.
That people are hypocrites really isn’t a newsflash.
Who uses the personal services section (sex worker portion – whatever they call it) of Craigslist that will admit it? Only a minority of the population has an interest in it and even fewer of them will admit to using it. Most people look at the more “legitimate” sections of Craigslist as just a digital “classified ad” and one they may use one day – so of course if there are any problems that develop with those sections – it’s just considered by them to be part of the expense of doing business.
So what you end up with is – is a tyranny of the majority beating up on a silent minority. It’s a strange dynamic but you can see elements of it not only in the repression of sex worker rights – but in other areas. Examples? Gun rights – gun owners are portrayed as dysfunctional sociopaths and even gun magazines are referred to as “gun porn”. This is all an attempt to demonize gun owners and make people believe there is something wrong with them – like sex workers. Problem is – gun owners aren’t afraid of coming out of the shadows and banding together to protect their rights.
Steroid users – another example. If you’ve watched “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” then you’ve seen a very balanced presentation of the whole debate on steroids. They aren’t nearly as bad as they’ve been condemned as being when the individual who’s using them knows what he’s doing. What we’ve done – is basically outlawed the most benign forms of steroids – like the injectables which are actually safer than the designer oral steroids you can still buy on Amazon.com. However, few of the steroid users will speak up for their rights and guys who’s career was based on them – like Arnold Swartzernegger and a vast number of others – simply won’t speak out about them.
By the way … I saw a pic of Arnold recently and … HE’S BACK. Oh yeah – he’s shed the fat from the governors mansion and now he makes me envious. Growth Hormone for the win! Don’t tell me he’s not on it!
Bottom line – it’s much easier to explain stupid bullshit like this through plain old human nature than it is some kind of vast conspiracy.
Krulac, were you addressing this to Comixchik?
Only about the first line or two.
The rest of it is just what I think the problem is. You can’t solve a problem unless you know what it is. You can beat up on a system – but it’s not the system but the PEOPLE who empower, nay insist – that the system persecute minority groups like sex workers.
Not a Malcolm X fan but he said something one time that I liked …
“I believe in Education NOT Legislation”.
Legislation didn’t erase prejudice against blacks in the south – it was the intelligent people coming around to the fact the prejudice is wrong that is making it slowly evaporate.
I don’t know how to get the lid off this jar and it’s really depressing. I mean, I’m not a sex worker and I really don’t even frequent them anymore – so it’s not an issue that impacts me personally aside from the fact that I have known many sex workers who were good people and I hate to walk away and leave those folks on a battlefield.
And, it gets more depressing when I realize that the money I pay to the government in the form of taxes actually goes to repressing their rights.
And … it’s f***in wasted money anyway since all it does is aggravate people and actually make them more unsafe – it doesn’t address the problem they’re trying to actually eliminate – a “problem” they never will eliminate.
So yeah – I guess my post was just Krulac standing up from a crouched position to shake his fist at the sky!!
LOL! 😛
Krulac, I second that! Good Job!!!
The lawheads say that job advertising is not illegal, and even if it is false advertising, noone will suspect it at first because it’s legal. Lawheads say prostitution is illegal, and because it’s illegal that it is wrong. Lawheads say escorting without prostitution is suspect because so much of excorting is associated with prostitution according to the politicians, judges, police, social services, (neo)feminists, religious moralistic folks, professors etc. A man who pays a woman to date him for example an escort is such a loser especially with the ladies and is suspect for engaging ,in practices which border close to prostitution or are prostitution say the lawheads. A winner man can get a date any time he wants, and why should a man pay a woman to date him say the lawheads. (It is irrellevant whether such men are winners or losers especially with the ladies according to these lawheads. The mere fact that they break the law and pay for a date or sex makes these men losers according to the lawheads. They must be destroyed because it is the law and/ or social norm whether it, prostitution in this example, hurt any of the people involved or not.) Any loser man is not a real human being with needs and desires, and he should not be treated as such is implied or overtly stated by the lawheads. The lawheads say few if any laws are stupid and unnecessary, and even if they are stupid and unnecessary, you should follow them or get the punishment you deserve according to the law. We really don’t know nor understand the true meaning of jury nullification nor do we want to say the lawheads. (I hope you hear the sarcastic mocking tone in my voice when I wrote this.)
It just goes to show you how much whores and men are regarded in our U.S. society which means that our American society regards them poorly at best and less than human at worst. This is true for all whores johns as well as single men and divorced men especially if they do not have children, and poor or low status men as well. Richer or more high status men especially if they have children or are married are treated a little better as long as the mothers and wives are happy with them. In the links and reading the stories, I noticed that the suspect men murderers named Beasley, age 52 and Brogan, age 16, are suspected in 3 murders. They didn’t respond to a woman looking for the job they singled out single or divorced men with no children because they regarded them as easier targets for murder and robbery according to the police and news reports. They believed such men to be easier marks to get away with committing their crimes according to the police and news reports.In my opinion, these alleged criminals were right that their intended victims were easier to commit crimes against because noone cares about such men and the same could be said of prostitutes.
Isn’t it great that we live in a such a misandric(misandry) society? Men don’t matter especially if they aren’t husbands and fathers pleasing every whim of the women in their lives. Prostitutes are bad because they are strikebreaker workers who go against the (trade)union of women. How dare prostitutes be better options for men in many cases, and be better at some things and more free than us regular normal(amatuer) women? Whores are a threat to our female human interests, and they must be destroyed, but we’ll pretend to be doing for the good of society and even convince ourselves of our lies. (Again, I hope you hear the sarcastic mocking tone in my voice when I wrote this paragraph.)
Kind of O/T … kind of not …
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/pole-dancing-olympic-sport/2011/12/02/gIQAaqTqKO_blog.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost
It’s kind of relevant in that this is one way we could actually start to change the opinions of folks with regards to sex workers. Yeah, there may be some great pole dancers out there who’ve never been strippers – but by far the most athletically gifted ones I’ve ever seen are strippers – women who could defy gravity.
So now this activity seems to be in the process of being stolen and divorced from the strippers – so that it can become an olympic sport. Well, if this sport does make it to the olympics I hope the first Gold medal goes to either an active or former stripper – who’s willing to admit it.
Up until the early 19th century, acting and prostitution were essentially the same profession; it wasn’t until the last part of the 19th century that they began to diverge sharply enough in the public mind that being an actress was no longer considered shameful, and the two professions still parallel each other to a high degree.
They don’t call it the “Casting Coach” for the alliteration! 🙂
Re: Craig’s List “help wanted” section.
Well, as we know, only prostitution must be approached with such a simple-minded, narrow, monolithic solutions. If they (abolitionists of every stripe) protest against the help-wanted section of CL then too many nuanced views would have to be addressed, which they deny to prostitution discussions. Furthermore, they’re smart enough to realize that even the most dimwitted member of the public would say, “Hey, maybe the issue of prostitution should be approached the same way!” Can’t have that.
Yeah – but do you note in that article how the proponents of the pole dancing olympic sport are looking for “positive role models” in order to essentially change the perception of pole dancing as stripper activity?
They can “try” all they want; perceptions die hard. The public perception of actresses still includes whorishness unless the actress works hard to establish a squeaky-clean image as Mary Pickford, Sandra Dee and Doris Day did. When Loretta Young was pregnant with Clark Gable’s baby she took an extended trip to Europe to hide it (there were no globetrotting paparazzi in 1935), then left the child with nurses for over a year, took a second European trip and pretended to “adopt” her own daughter so Americans wouldn’t realize she had borne a bastard. The girl herself (who, incidentally, died at the age of 76 on November 25th) didn’t find out until 1966 and the general public until 1994, though I heard it as an unsubstantiated rumor in certain New Orleans circles in 1981.
Loretta Young’s daughter wrote a book a while back. It’s a great read. She writes in it how she met Gable once and from what I remember this is before Loretta confirmed that he was her father.
Both Clark Gable and Cary Grant took LSD (legally) and gave it credit for assisting them in maintaining mental health.
Just to post up an inverse of your story — someone sent me this article that has a hysteria about lawyers bringing strippers to prisoners disguised as paralegals.
First off, I call bullshit on the whole story. “Everyone knows” usually means one or zero incidents. It’s this week’s vodka tampon story.
Second, look at how things change when strippers are involved. Prisoners can managed their criminal empires from jail, meet with other criminals, rape people in prison, do drugs. But OMG! a scantily clad woman brought in so she can be touched?! Heavens to betsy, I need my smelling salts!
That story is blocked for my column of the 15th, and my opinion is much the same as yours. 😉
I heard about the para-strippers Friday. I’ll be interested in knowing if it really happened or not. I do have to wonder why it’s so bad if prisoners get to look at nekkid women. Maybe there’d be less fighting in prison if they had a little feminine contact, even if it’s just looking.
There’s been what are called “prison groupies” for years. Some of these women help out prisoners sexually and some don’t have sex with them at all (they provide support and friendship only).
Forgot to mention: some of the women who are friends and/or lovers with men in prison hate the term “groupie” applied to them. I can understand this because many articles online only talk about the women who are friends and/or lovers with male prisoners for ghoulish reasons.
That’s one hell of a mugshot!
Would make an excellent author photo for a book of poems.