Sex workers have a special place in society that is never rewarded or recognised. – Derek Freedman
No Other Option
My Cliterati article for last Sunday was “Skin To Skin”, a strong criticism of the cruelty of denying commercial sex to men who can’t experience physical intimacy in any other way; the very next day an English council provided a perfect example of that cruelty by announcing an “investigation” of a nursing home which allowed residents to hire sex workers, and I explained what was wrong with that in this week’s essay, “Caring Professionals”. Then there was this item from Bosnia:
Members of a…wheelchair basketball club are launching a campaign to legalize prostitution…to help disabled people “achieve their right to love.” Marinko Umicevic, president of the club Vrbas, said Wednesday that Bosnia had to catch up with 21st century Europe, where…some people with disabilities “even get state subsidies to pay for sex.” Umicevic said some of his players had never had sex and legalizing the sex trade would help people like them achieve their basic rights…
Something Rotten in Sweden
Prostitution stings are disgusting no matter how they’re justified, but there’s something particularly vile about using “sex trafficking” as an excuse and then arresting hookers as well:
A multi-agency prostitution sting conducted earlier this month on behalf of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month has netted the arrests of…46 [people]…most for misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution…[but] five [for] women alleged to have posted sex ads…Sen. Leticia Van de Putte…[says] she intends to propose…a bill that would pave the way for victims of human trafficking to sue websites that make money off prostitution ads…
Senator Van de Putte could save the state of Texas a lot of money by simply researching the fate of similar ideas.
Decentralization
Bitcoin has become so popular, and its value has risen so much against that of national currencies, that Bloomberg is concerned that “virtual money could undermine the role of central banks”, which as Reason explains is exactly the point. The end of governments’ ability to directly meddle with the world economy can’t possibly come soon enough to suit me.
Dirty Whores
Dr Derek Freedman told the Irish Sun: “People from all strands of society use prostitutes from time to time. It ranges from [politicians], the clergy, the judiciary to people who are socially deprived, physically disabled and people who may be regarded as unattractive and may not be able to meet people”…while people often feel anxious about contracting infections after visiting a prostitute, he believes that “you’re probably safer with a professional than with a gifted amateur”…he added: “What we forget is that often sex workers give great comfort to people who are lonely”…
Déjà Vu
When even Christians are starting to see this, “trafficking” hysteria’s days are numbered:
…In her new book Other Dreams of Freedom, Yvonne Zimmerman, a professor of Christian Ethics, argues that the theoretical basis of US government anti-trafficking efforts derives directly from Protestant theology and traditional ideas of what she calls “sexually pure and pious womanhood”. Zimmerman challenges this basis for anti-trafficking efforts, saying that it ends up limiting the freedom of trafficked people, especially women, by conceiving of their “rescue” as them ending up in traditional, heterosexual marriages – or at least refraining from sexual relations outside of marriage…
What the Hell Were You Thinking? (We’re Not Done Yet)
A big improvement on the phone “app” described previously:
…a team [of students]…has invented a mobile panic button for street…sex…workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A voice or text message is first recorded onto a SIM card, which is inserted into a GPS-enabled device such as a pager…Pressing a button…activates the GPS and sends an emergency message and GPS location to a contact who can get help. Because the GPS is not activated until the device is activated, the anonymity of the user is preserved…Once prototype devices are ordered, the three students will hold focus groups to determine which type of device is more useful…[then] will launch a six-month pilot project by giving devices to 100 women…The group is currently holding a fundraising initiative online…$8,140 [will] cover…the entire pilot project…
Change a Few Words
Arch-prohibitionist Paul Chabot helpfully explains not only that prohibitionism really works, but that all prohibitions are equally valid: “When asked…why we keep marijuana illegal, Chabot responded: “Why do we keep heroin, LSD, prostitution, child pornography illegal?’” As Matthew Feeney points out, “Comparing marijuana to child pornography is a great way to insult millions of people by comparing them to pedophiles. Chabot is a free gift to those of us who would like to see drugs legalized.” And of course, the same goes for prostitution.
The More the Better (TW3 #4)
On Monday I received a press release from Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump, Nevada, a brothel resort on 20 acres (8 hectares) with a swimming pool, spa and tennis court which actively markets itself to couples as well as single men. It’s now added “Sheri’s Playland”, a group of bungalows fitted out like movie sets so clients can enact any of six different sexual fantasies with working girls. As I’ve said before, this is a very positive trend; “it was after Vegas casinos started ‘gentrifying’ in the ‘80s that people from other states dropped their prejudices against gambling, and now casinos are everywhere in the US.”
The Course of a Disease
Sex workers fight an attempt to impose the Swedish model on Indonesia:
Prostitutes and activists…are calling on the government not to prosecute men who pay for sex…The chairwoman of Yogyakarta Women’s Sex Workers Association (P3SY)…said…that [client] criminalization…would decrease the bargaining power and income of sex workers…[and] drive prostitution further underground…[hindering] HIV/AIDS education and mitigation programs…arresting customers would lead to the closure of brothels…and force sex workers to seek customers on the streets…Ignatius Praptoharjono of the Atma Jaya Catholic University’s HIV/AIDS Research Center in Jakarta…cited the cases of Sweden, Canada and other Asia-Pacific nations, where a crackdown on [clients] led to the decline of red-light districts and reduced fees…forcing sex workers to charge less and work more. “Such a regulation will not protect women, but instead expose them to even higher risk,” [he] said…
Bullies With Badges
Heroic cops display their courage and fortitude by saving the helpless citizens of Connecticut from the menace of a 71-year-old whore: “an undercover cop…met her inside a room…[after] Sygun Liebhart placed a backpage.com ad…”
Little Boxes (TW3 #25)
Forcing massage parlors to close at 10 PM is the latest anti-whore fad:
…a new [Florida] bill…would ban massage establishments from operating between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m…to crack down on human trafficking and sexual exploitation…[it] also would make it illegal for massage establishments to allow anybody to live on the premises…the Florida State Massage Therapy Association questioned the hours restriction…[because] there are legitimate late-night clients including airline pilots and theatrical performers…[bill sponsor Dave] Kerner, a former…police officer, said…late-night massage establishments are a “hotbed” of illicit sexual activity…
Anyone who actually uses the phrase “illicit sexual activity” with a straight face should be barred from public office as a delusional busybody.
I Swear To God
Here’s another article on the PEPFAR “anti-prostitution pledge”, the efforts to overturn it and the importance of doing so from a health perspective, a human rights perspective and a free speech perspective. It really is beginning to seem like now that the gay rights culture war has essentially been won, many activists are starting to at last turn their attention toward the persecution of sex workers.
Shift in the Wind
Here’s a cute little promo video made at the Sex Worker Freedom Festival, the parallel AIDS conference held in Kolkata last summer by sex workers who were excluded from the US:
False Target
My fellow hot smart chick Amy Alkon wrote this week about that Jezebel favorite, social constructionist and penis apologist Hugo Schwyzer; his latest absurd claim (one which I called him to task about on Twitter a few months ago) is that older men are only attracted to young women because of “social construction”, and that before the advent of television guys were lining up to date old hags (presumably when they weren’t burning them as witches). In the process Amy discusses the evolutionary basis of lust, debunks the “rape is asexual” myth and quotes good sense from Dr. Gad Saad.
Bottleneck
The story of New York City’s “cabaret card”, an artificial bottleneck imposed on nightclub performers from 1926-1966, is an excellent example of why prostitution licensing doesn’t work; the corruption such a system engenders and the destructive consequences to individuals are virtually the same.
Dirty Laundry
“A divorced couple involved in running a brothel in north Dublin have avoided jail with fines and suspended sentences…Judge Mary Ellen Ring…ordered [Istvan Zeffer] to pay €1,000 to prostitute-support group Ruhama…Bernadette Kiss…is to pay €3,000…” Ruhama is the new front
for the orders of nuns who ran the Magdalene laundries which enslaved whores and many other women; calling them a “prostitute support group” is equivalent to referring to the Nazis as a “Jewish support group”.
King of the Hill
Most of this story is the typical credulous stenography of an evangelical “rescue” organization’s claims, but this passage stood out: “The United States is the No. 1 destination for human sexual trafficking, with Oklahoma near the top of the most-active state list, the State Department reports…” As you probably know, the State Department “reports” nothing of the kind.
Change of Heart (TW3 #41)
Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills…threw out 46 of the 59 counts against the alleged co-conspirator in the high-profile Kennebunk prostitution case, setting the stage for another appeal to the state’s highest court. Mills’ decision…dealt prosecutors a…blow hours before opening arguments…were expected to begin…jury selection…[has already taken four days though] Mills said…it has never taken her longer than one day to seat a jury in her 19 years on the Superior Court…[charges were dropped after defense attorney Daniel] Lilley [argued]…that the notion that Maine privacy laws protect individuals engaged in criminal activity is “ludicrous.” The invasion of privacy charges are tied to the fact that the alleged sexual interactions…were videotaped without the [clients] knowing…the defense…is [also] free to pursue its…argument that Strong was the subject of police retaliation…
We Told You So (TW3 #131)
Slowly but surely, the press is waking up:
The sad tale of a prostitute being held captive in Chattanooga highlights a problem that appears overstated…it is the only one ever reported, according to area police. Meanwhile, a 2011 report co-produced by Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation estimated there were more than 100 cases of human sex trafficking in Hamilton County. The study is, apparently, based on erroneous surveys and severely lacking in verifiable facts…
First They Came for the Hookers… (TW3 #132)
More “stripper licensing” idiocy, complete with “sex trafficking” nonsense:
…officials in Moorhead, Minn., are expected to pass an anti-prostitution measure requiring erotic dancers, nude models and adult escorts to obtain licenses and submit to background checks…North Dakota counterparts across the Red River in Fargo and West Fargo are pushing similar ordinances and the regional approach will attempt to stem “a fairly prominent problem here” with prostitution trafficking between their cities and the oil fields…[police hope] the regulations will reduce “a huge problem of runaways and minors trafficked into the sex trade”…adult entertainers would likely have to pay $150 to $250, carry a photo ID and divulge their real names, aliases and criminal histories. Background checks revealing prostitution or drug convictions would disqualify applicants from receiving permits…
Pompous “authorities” just love creating bottlenecks that turn businesswomen into criminals, don’t they?
Due Consideration
It never takes control freaks very long to prove my points:
A…lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill…that would…require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term…as evidence for a sexual assault trial. House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown…would charge…[violators]…with a third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence”…
The bill is unlikely to pass, but only due to partisanism rather than because it’s a total abomination.
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Tyrants are well-aware of this, which is why campaigns to increase authoritarian control always start with some group who are hated or feared by many in that society (such as ethnic, religious, political or sexual minorities). “Criminals” are a popular target, and an especially effective one because it’s so very easy to create them by simply passing a law against some consensual behavior and then inventing myths about why those who break those laws are subhuman and therefore deserving of maltreatment. American “authorities” have become very good at this in the past few decades, and nearly every demonized group now falls into at least two categories at once: “sex offenders” are both criminals and sex minorities; “terrorists” are both criminals and religious minorities, etc. Whores are the most perfect victims of all: the “sex trafficking” narrative wraps criminals, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and foreigners into one tidy package and tops it off with “children” to “rescue”.
But now that the precedents are well-established, the machine that hate built is grinding up white people, middle-class people, women and sacred cows alike. The cops are smashing down their doors, murdering their pets, beating and caging their sons and sexually assaulting their daughters. Imperial prosecutors with absolute immunity to the consequences of their actions are hounding ordinary people into bankruptcy or death for heinous “crimes” such as building houses or downloading computer files. Women are increasingly prosecuted and imprisoned using the legal tools created by “feminists”, and nobody is safe from the burgeoning surveillance state. And all because instead of strangling these abominations in their cribs, unprincipled cowards cried, “They’re just babies!” and proceeded to feed and nurture them until they grew completely out of control.
