Feminism still feels like someone rescuing me from the patriarchy so that I may be told what to do by “sisters” who need to get their opinions out of my knickers. – Sarah Woolley
The Fourth District Court of Appeal…deemed West Palm Beach’s “loitering with intent to commit prostitution” ordinance unconstitutional…[because it was] “overbroad and vague” It… cited a 1993 Florida Supreme Court ruling [striking down]…a similar law [in Tampa for discriminating]…against previously convicted prostitutes. [The earlier decision stated that]…“All Florida citizens enjoy the inherent right to window shop, saunter down a sidewalk, and wave to friends and passerby with no fear of arrest”…
Meanwhile, in California, “Two women suspected of loitering with the intent to commit prostitution were arrested at a Burbank hotel…after officers reportedly discovered incriminating text messages, condoms and oils in their possession…”
“…Baltimore City police officer [Lamin Manneh]…and his…wife [Marissa Braun were]…charged with human trafficking…19-year-old [Braun was caught in a sting]…and…investigators charged the pair with human trafficking because Braun looked so young…” You read that correctly; she’s been charged with “trafficking” herself.
Justice minister Francisco Dominguez’s warning…that…men…who seek [paid] sex…will be…[prosecuted] has roiled [Dominican] workers… “There are customers who’ve called us to tell us that they won’t come”…said Carla Matos…who…said she had to become a prostitute…to raise her children…”What we’ll have to do in a couple of days will be to go out and rob and kill people, because imagine, we can’t do nothing else. I will not let my children starve,” [Jennifer] Paniagua said.
From the “progressive” Huffington Post:
Not only is “prostitution” a tagged skill you can select on LinkedIn, there are actually escorts who advertise their services [there]…[but] LinkedIn…now explicitly bans escorts from using the site…The new user agreement states that you must not: “Create profiles or provide content that promotes escort services or prostitution” even if [they are] legal where you live…Not only can you list “prostitution” as a skill, you can list a whole lot of other unsavory skills like “rape,” “shoplifting,” “gangs,” “manslaughter,” and “drug trafficking”…
Yes, the writer did seriously equate consensual sex with rape and murder. Dr. Brooke Magnanti comments on the absurdity and futility of the whole thing.
…Shona Langley, a street sex worker support officer, and Charlotte Crossland, a harm reduction nurse…[work for] the Harm Reduction project…[in] Lancashire…twice a week…they load their van with…condoms, panic alarms, needles and bank note checker pens, while Charlotte offers Hepatitis B and other vaccinations…[and] treatment for minor health issues…Shona said: “We don’t judge. We are not here to criticise or bully them into stopping what they do”…
[David Beckman of Illinois]…faces a charge of misdemeanor animal cruelty after police said he sexually abused his pet peacock…police learned the bird died while they were investigating Beckman about an alleged case of indecent solicitation of a child…
Feminists at Cambridge University lead such privileged, unchallenging lives that they imagine jelly wrestling (girls grappling in gelatin in front of male spectators) has “a significant role to play in the degradation and abuse of women,” and imagine they’ve won a great victory for womankind via a petition which caused the event to be cancelled. Sarah Woolley explains why this is pure bollocks:
…”objectification” is a herd word used by women who can rarely recall the name of their last waitress…If a person sees a woman arse-deep in jelly and regards her as subhuman because of it, then that shit is on them…it takes more than nudity to cancel out a man’s regard for a woman as a human being. There will be misogynists in any crowd but –newsflash- a true woman hater will dehumanise you no matter how you behave or what you wear…Cambridge feminists …[are affiliated] with Object…a group known for lobbying against sex worker rights and for spreading irresponsible misinformation -particularly the fantasy that the Olympics would usher in an “explosion of prostitution.” Also on the list is “Smash Miss Contest” who “set off stink bombs”…at beauty pageants…
New York City’s wallowing in the “end demand” sewer produced this grotesque display of political pandering:
…mayoral candidates…argued for tougher penalties. Joseph J. Lhota…[called] for “a john list every day in the newspaper”…Adolfo Carrión Jr…went further, saying he would publish their license plate numbers…the moderator…took note of Edward I. Koch’s controversial directive…to read the names of convicted male customers on air…Christine C. Quinn…said she disagreed with publicizing the names…[but] favored an “incredibly effective” program in Brooklyn…that forces “johns” to sit through a program intended to deter bad behavior…
And no, “john schools” are not “incredibly effective”.
…police admit they do not know the scale of trafficking in Victoria’s illegal brothels and cannot say how many…there are. The cloak of anonymity and secrecy surrounding the industry makes it hard for police to investigate, Senior Sergeant Marilynn Ross told [a parliamentary] inquiry…”we suspect that in a small number of…licensed brothels human trafficking is occurring…on a…larger scale”…
Translation: “There’s no evidence whatsoever and the real experts say otherwise, but this makes a perfect excuse to ask for more power to stick our noses into people’s private business.”
Prostitutes helped clean up the streets of Murcia, Spain, in an effort to draw attention to…[a] proposed bylaw…aimed at curbing prostitution and sexual exploitation [which] would damage [their] livelihood…”We’ve spoken with neighbors and local business owners and…they’ve told us that there’s no problem as long as we follow some of the requests that they’ve made, such as sticking to a timetable and keeping the streets clean…That’s why we decided to hold a clean-up day. We wanted to show that we…want to get on well with everyone”…
As I predicted, the cancer of incredibly-broad “sex trafficking” laws based on the CASE Act is spreading, now to Pennsylvania:
…House Bill 663, which was unanimously passed 195-0…expands what the state considers “commercial sex acts” and raises the crime of buying or selling people for sex work from a third-degree to a…first-degree felony. Under the new bill, the definition of commercial sex includes being forced to perform “any sexual activity…in which anything of value is given…or received”…
The bill’s sponsor complains that the “current law is vague”, but what he actually means is that it isn’t vague enough.
Another would-be ally misses the bus by not bothering to check with sex workers first; though she makes several very good arguments against criminalization and recognizes from the title on that sex work is work, she also overestimates the role of pimps and the prevalence of street work, accepts the false “sex trafficking” dichotomy, supports regulation and licensing and ends by undermining her own argument with the typical mealy-mouthed disclaimer, “I am not endorsing the act of selling sex.”
Another rescue industry icon is exposed as a con artist:
Cecilia Flores-Oebanda has…become the face of the Philippines anti-trafficking movement…but now she is fighting a battle that could truly ruin her. Fraud allegations made by Philippine investigators threaten to destroy her reputation and the anti-trafficking organization she’s run for more than two decades…
Nonetheless, the credulous CNN reporters spends about 95% of the story lauding her and repeating her bullshit stories, apparently forgetting about that word “fraud”.
Scottish local governments seem unusually resistant to anti-sex business hype:
The owners of an over-21s nightclub in Inverness have been issued a licence to introduce lap dancing…Rhoda Grant…said…“The commodification of woman in society is damaging and I would have hoped the objections raised by the Highland Violence Against Women Strategy Group would have been listened to”…
Japanese Prostitution (TW3 #131)
A perfect demonstration of how the “sex trafficking” paradigm confuses those whose minds it pollutes:
…Osaka Mayor…Toru Hashimoto…told reporters…that Japan’s wartime sex slave system… “were necessary in order to provide relaxation for those brave soldiers who had been in the line of fire”…Hours later [he said]…he’d…told [U.S. military brass] that…there were legal facilities for releasing sexual energy, and that unless soldiers in Okinawa made more use of similar facilities, it would be difficult to control the sexual energy of the marines…
The media have conflated two totally different statements. What Hashimoto said about military personnel needing whores is true and every experienced commander knows it, no matter what political crap the Pentagon may emit. But that isn’t the same as his disgusting rationalization of the enslavement of the comfort women, who were neither professional sex workers nor volunteers.
A centre in Nuremberg is offering a course to sex industry professionals on how to cater to the sexual needs of disabled clients. Those who complete training successfully attain a certificate in “sexual accompaniment and assistance”…
It’s great to see ever-larger numbers of academics openly declaring that the “trafficking” narrative is largely an excuse for restricting migration:
“anti-trafficking”…essentialises gender and childhood, it confuses and obfuscates, and…it…acts against the interests of many that it purports to serve…the state is directly and inescapably the source of vulnerability…those formally excluded are given…the right NOT to enter, to be protected from movement. The [victim of “trafficking”]…is supposed to return home. Indeed the narrative is that she wants to return home, and part of her innocence and victimhood is that she never wanted to move in the first place…immigration controls are claimed to be a mechanism of protection for migrants, rather than a mechanism of oppression…
And here’s a UN official on bogus data and bad definitions:
…data is often taken from methodologies that are not…estimates…media…have often reported that 79% of trafficking is for sexual exploitation, based on the “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons” by UNODC…[but] the data is of victims identified by state authorities and of convicted traffickers…The internationally recognized definition of human trafficking states the purpose of human trafficking is for exploitation…yet [it] is…equated with sex work or irregular…migration…as a result…data on trafficked persons almost exclusively focused on women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation…
…If we’re honest, many of us do see condoms as robbing us of pleasure, stealing some excitement and spontaneity…and dulling the intensity of sexuality…These factors are the primary reasons that still only 60 percent of teenagers claim to use condoms…[and] usage declines as people grow older. The number one reason…is the reduction of pleasure…[but] criticism of the condom opens one to…demonization…Bill Gates’…plans to make a condom that “is felt to enhance pleasure”…came under ideological fire. Gawker called the argument that condoms reduce sensitivity one for “creeps” and “pervs,” while Popular Science reacted by concluding “men are idiots.” Salon likened any criticism of the condom’s detrimental effect on sexuality to “whining“…
The Naked Anthropologist (TW3 #314)
The feminist antiporn group Stop Porn Culture has sponsored a petition…to change the editorial board and title of Routledge’s forthcoming…publication, Porn Studies…Constance Penley…co-editor of The Feminist Porn Book…[said] “[The petition] reveals a total lack of understanding about academic freedom, academic integrity and the nature of scholarship…and…how desperate the antiporn people are to prevent any research being done that might not support their ideological position”…
St. John’s, Newfoundland has just over 200,000 people, which means fewer than 100,000 males. The escort interviewed for this article (“Iris”) says there are about 30 escorts working there full-time, and doing such good business travelling girls are stopping in as well. Now, ask yourself: is it credible that only about 14,000 of those men have ever paid, that the majority of those who did are now regulars and that those working girls are doing well on an average of 1 client per day? Or is it more likely that the claim few men ever pay for sex is completely absurd? As Iris said, “We wouldn’t be doing this well if your husbands and boyfriends and friends weren’t coming to see us. It’s that simple.”
Feminism, by constantly redefining possibly foolish behavior as “abuse” and by attempting to constrain young women’s freedom of foolish action, are the ones “objectifying” women. Jello wrestling is silly and possibly stupid. So is playing football. So are a lot of human activities that the participants take pleasure in, and non-participants find peculiar or baffling. I have the sneaking suspicion that an awful lot of Feministas include sex in that category.
LMFAO!! I just posted a comment on this here the other day about a Marine Commander who was fired for making a statement like this. Actually – I just looked it up and it was a Navy Flag Officer who made the comment. The Admiral’s name was … Macke
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Macke
The comment?
Heh, he was an aviator – only an aviator stumbles into telling the truth in today’s politically correct world!
JELLY WRESTLING!! Two fun things I gotta do this week – my first colonoscopy (Whooooo hooooo!) and NURU with my ATF! Yep, she got a big expensive tin of the stuff and we’s gonna “grapple”!! Big week for Krulac!! 😀
Condoms – I think I found the holy grail before Bill Gates did! Sagami Original 002. It really is like nothing. I can feel breath through it!
Krulac, as a former military man, how would you square comments such as the one Admiral Macke made with your thoughts made on yesterday’s column about black and white rules in the military?
I’m not trying to bait you or anything like that, just curious if your thoughts about dope would also apply to women.
Bill Gates is getting in trouble here for being practical.
1. Condoms Suck. They make sex less pleasurable.
2. Condoms Work. They make sex safer.
The purpose of condoms is not to make sex less pleasurable, but to make it safer. However, in the anti-sex crowd anything that makes sex worse, less sexy, or less fun is not a bug but a feature.
Now, in the First World, call girls can and will insist on condoms, and customers will wear them rather than going without sex. In the Third World, things are not always so easy. (Still I think the profit motive for the condom manufacturers means that with or without Gates money they’ve already been working at this problem. Durex’s vasodilator condom is an interesting approach, though they always seem to carefully use medicalized terminology when discussing that one, rather than uttering the forbidden power word, Pleasure.)
I think I solved the jelly wresting problem. Just replace the jelly with pudding, and no one could possibly object!
Agree with all. Especially the comparison between call girl sex and “free girl” sex. Condoms take the visceral “edge” away from a guy. What requires no thought condomless, suddenly requires thought. With call girls – I don’t mind – I don’t really think I can impress them much anyway. With free girls – its a different story … if they give you a choice to go without a condom (and MANY do in my experience) then I’m usually liable to take it just to have that visceral edge.
And that’s not good.
Feminine Pragmatism – Paniagua’s quote illustrates the absurdity of conservatives being against prostitution. Do they want more real crimes or more welfare claimants? Don’t they like the idea of families being self-sufficient? The logo on the wall looks like AMMAR, the Argentinian sex worker group.
The Prudish Giant – I also frequently see the comparison of sex work with selling organs… as if sex is the same as the loss of a vital organ.
So Close and Yet So Far – “she also overestimates the role of pimps and the prevalence of street work”. Interestingly enough, street work seems to be on the verge of disappearing entirely in Ghent, Belgium and Utrecht, Netherlands. Former streetwalkers can switch to social media and continue much as before, but with better pay and working conditions.
“streetwalkers can switch to social media”
Which means, as sure as eggs is eggs, that the hysterics will be attacking Social Media.
The more I read about this, here and elsewhere, the more I think that Maggie is right and the female Hysterics just flat don’t like competition.
Re: Objectification Overruled
This article got me to thinking about something that happened back in the late 1980’s. Me and a friend used to go to a local pool bar and play some pool. One time while we were there they had a wet tee shirt contest. The ladies up on stage ended up getting all wet and then finally ripped off their shirts exposing themselves. Funny thing the audience consisted of both men and women and I didn’t see any of the woman looking like they were disgusted with this. It looked like they were having a good time as well. Wet tee shirt contests used to be more common back then but we had arrived at the tail end of an era unfortunately.
OK, so I’ve read more than a few articles about men soliciting a prostitute= men hate women. But I’m bisexual, so if I solicit a male prostitute, do I hate men? Because if that’s the case, I’m hating myself which is news to me because I thought I was just channeling my inner Missy Hyatt and getting my freak on. But I’ve really thought myself at times a misanthrope more than a misogynist or misandrist so wouldn’t I be unconsciously looking for a hermaphrodite prostitute? I did marry a transwoman but she’s a woman in my eyes not a trans. Well, technically she’s “Dana” in my eyes but I don’t think we can analyze the hatred I didn’t know I have on names, or can we? “Dana” is a male or female name, which goes back to supporting my misanthopy (I’m just plain guessing now) which makes me wants to put the butter stick *ahem* into someone who has both the PB and the J, if you know what I mean. Because I sure don’t. Please tell me who I’m hating here because I’m getting aroused and don’t know who i’m supposed to be having sex with to keep their theories true.
How many years before we can get rid of condoms all together? Surely it is possible to medically exterminate STD’s, and after that is done there is only pregnancy left, which can be ‘cured’ with either hormonal treatment or sterilization. Besides, men who plan to have children should save sperm from their youth anyway. The reason is that sperm production continues the entire life, but mutations accumulate in the cells producing the sperm, which leads to more mutations being present in the sperm, which is bad since most mutations that happen in coding DNA have deleterious effects.
“Surely it is possible to medically exterminate STD’s”
No. There are emerging strains of gonorrhoea that are resistant to all available antibiotics; resistance is emerging in syphilis. HIV can be treated, but, at present, it is incurable. Herpes is incurable.
Strains of gonorrhea that are resistant to all AVAILABLE antibiotics. AT PRESENT, HIV is incurable. Herpes is incurable NOW.
Medical technology is more and more becoming information technology, which means it’s starting to hitch the occasional ride on Moore’s Law. We’re soon going to find that we can devise vaccines and cures faster than the germs can mutate.
Disease is a physical problem. Physical problems are amenable to engineering solutions.
Condoms are a wonderful and splendidly simple technology. But the problem they deal with will be engineered away.
[…] rights, turning it into a vehicle for repression; once governments realized they could use it as an excuse to restrict migration, the corruption of a noble cause into a base one was complete. It is extremely likely that when […]
[…] movement], turning it into a vehicle for repression; once governments realized they could use it as an excuse to restrict migration, the corruption of a noble cause into a base one was […]
[…] en un instrumento de represión; cuando los gobiernos se dieron cuenta de que podrían usarlo como una excusa para restringir la inmigración, se completó la corrupción de una causa noble en una […]
Good to see Florida getting something right. California, OTOH…
Trafficking herself. Well, I always hope that that would turn out to be alarmist silliness, though I was always afraid that it would happen. Guess fear beat hope this time, huh? So, when does the fourteen-year-old get busted for molesting himself?
People are seldom willing to let their children starve. We need to do a better job of helping people back up, so that they don’t have to make those decisions. Not banning their JOBS would help.
LinkedIn sounds a little strange.
Shona… pretty name, and just a touch exotic. Better still, she GETS it.
God, it’s like the guy wanted to see how long a rap sheet he could rack up. The peacock joke will never be funny again.
I guess if I really wanted to piss off neofems who say that a woman’s clothes (or lack of the same) degrades her, I could say something like, “Well isn’t that just like a woman, to judge somebody by her clothes!” But I’d never say that. That would just be wrong.
‘OK, until tomorrow. And we’ll see if it really IS tomorrow!
John schools are not incredibly effective because people are occasionally able to tell when they’re being lied to. That’s the reason Refer Madness didn’t put an end to marijuana smoking once and for all.
Yeah, that’s how it sounded to me too. Hey, who needs proof?
Well, it’s good that the streets are clean, but isn’t that the city’s job?
It seems that this law makes it “sex trafficking” to pay anybody who isn’t already rich for sex, as she is “forced” by the need to earn a living.
The mealy-mouthed disclaimer was probably required by the publisher. I think that “End Demand” and “Allie” are the same person. I’ve heard Chris Matthews say recently that we should legalize prostitution, and Melissa Petro was on a lefty talk show recently. The tide turns slowly, but it is turning.
How many of these rescuers need to be exposed as frauds before the news media wises up? We’ll know it’s happened when that same news media starts taking credit for “finally bringing the whole sick house of cards down” as if they knew all along and it just took US DUMB VIEWERS so long to realize it.
Seems to me that the Rhoda Grants of the world are going to have to get used to disappointment.
I suspect that Hashimoto’s conflation is deliberate, not to make prostitution look bad, but to make the comfort women look like prostitution: see, not so bad. Problem being of course that yeah, it is so bad.
Oh, wait. It was the media that conflated the two statements. No telling if Hashimoto thinks they’re equivalent or not.
Good for Nuremberg! Disabled men get horny too, and the more people accept this the better.
OK, I’m going to try to get to the last six Saturday morning or even later tonight (don’t count on either, especially tonight lol).
I’ll get there. Really I will.
Hi. It’s Monday.
I’m glad to see some recognition that people can be trafficked for reasons other than sex, and that people matter even when their oppression isn’t sexual.
We’re dealing with people who WANT condoms to decrease pleasure. Condoms are bad because they allow people to sin without punishment. Bad! Bad rubber!
It’s an hour long. I will be watching it, and I’ve liked Agustin’s stuff in the past, so I’ll probably like her here. But I’m not going to leave this TW3 unfinished until I watch it.
If the anti-pornsters really believed that they were right, they would encourage all the unbiased studies they could on the grounds that it will vindicate them. But, that’s not what they’re doing.
It looks suspiciously to me like maybe more men are hiring harlots than some of us would like to believe.
OK, time to read through the comments, and then head for the next post. Well, the one after that. Links, and all that. 😉
[…] as a disguise for attacking consensual sex. Furthermore, governments use it as an excuse to restrict the migration of people from the Global South while pretending not to be racist, which would be reason enough to refuse the narrative even if it weren’t being used as a […]