If they would just remove the police from skulking around and arresting those of us who just want to earn a living from a mutually consenting activity, they could actually focus on these terrible things. – Rachel Wotton
Old Folks At Home
Damned amateurs are always screwing everything up:
A man, 75, and a woman, 66, suspected of using cocaine and running a prostitution ring out of their apartments…have been arrested after residents complained about vagrants, drunks and addicts…James Parham and his neighbor Cheryl Chaney…admitted providing prostitutes — mostly young women with crack cocaine addictions — to…younger neighbors…
The Commission for Gender Equality…called for…decriminalisation of sex work [in South Africa]…[CGE commissioner Janine] Hicks said decriminalisation would…allow sex workers to report brothel owners who were involved in trafficking or hiring children…
…Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA)…in association with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre, recently conducted…research that shows…a vast majority of sex workers are regularly abused [robbed and raped] by the Police…[executive director Victor] Mhango said…sex workers…are at liberty to call the toll free number 8000333 where they can be assisted… “Sex workers deserve to be protected by the law just like any other Malawian as enshrined in the Constitution,” he said…
Here’s the way rescue industry group International Justice Mission tells it:
…General Sun Ro…led his team of police and IJM support staff to rescue these young women from a brothel where they had been sold and exploited for sex. “You are now no longer oppressed,” General Sun Ro began, urging the young women to take advantage of the opportunities, vocational training programs and aftercare services available to them as sex trafficking survivors…
And here’s the reality. Obviously, the general doesn’t consider beatings and gang rape by the police to be forms of oppression.
…a federal district court in Georgia ruled that a series of stories written or edited by Frank McCoy were obscene, and thus he violated 18 USC 1462 in “transporting” obscene works…the subject matter is…definitely…extreme [“the sexual abuse, rape, torture and murder of children”]…but…McCoy…had a distinguished English professor testify on his behalf that the works had “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value”…the judge disagreed…
Another example of how neofeminists play fast and loose with the facts:
A few months ago, a post…[stated] that [when]…junior high…students were asked what they would do if they woke up “transformed into the opposite sex,” the girls showed mixed emotions but the boys [said]…”Kill myself”…the source [was]…The Gendered Society by Michael Kimmel…[whose] reference [was] a 1984 book called The Longest War: Sex Differences in Perspective…the claim…seemed to have no basis at all, other than one comment…The Gendered Society…briefly acknowledges that women’s earnings are driven down by family-related work interruptions–but still treats gender gaps in pay and advancement almost entirely as…discrimination…[it] uncritically repeats tales…that girls’ self-esteem “plummets” in junior high school–without mentioning that they have been strongly disputed…by mainstream psychologists…The Gendered Society also [claims that] the United States…”has the highest rate of reported rape in the industrial world–about eighteen times higher than England”…[but] according to United Nations statistics, in 2010 the reported rape rate in the U.S.–27.3 per 100,000 people–was slightly lower than in England and Wales, at 28.8 per 100,000…if it is indeed the most balanced gender studies textbook available–which may well be true–that says a lot about the rest.
The Immunity Syndrome (TW3 #19)
…the “sex superbug” that “could be worse than AIDS” which was supposedly “found in Hawaii [and] California” turns out to be just another media-promoted terror story. “The [gonorrhea] super-strain…[which] infected a female Japanese sex worker in 2011…has been found nowhere else,” [reported Jonathan Weiss of MedicalDaily.com] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have affirmed that the bacterium has failed to appear anywhere else in the world beyond the single case in Japan…
This includes far too much “whore as victim” rhetoric, but it’s a step:
[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario] Police Chief, Bob Davies…[announced] it will be new police policy to not release the names and addresses of individuals involved in prostitution type charges. Moreover, the police department will make a major shift away from enforcement against women (or men) involved in the sex trade. Instead officers will be trained to engage and identify the underlying factors that drive women into a lifestyle of selling sex and then connect them to agencies…which can assist individuals out of the sex industry…
…Project ROSE—a collaboration between the Phoenix Police Department…and a number of local service organizations–[conducted] a three day raid targeting sex workers…Advocates have distributed “know your rights” information amongst communities who may be affected…[and] a…protest…[was held] Thursday May 16…in front of the “command post” at Bethany Bible Church…Arrestees…with no prior arrests for sex work, no outstanding warrants, and no…drugs at the time of arrest…have the option of “diversion” to Project ROSE or incarceration on a prostitution charge…[which] in Arizona can be a death sentence…
Few arrestees qualify for the “diversion” program, and of those who do only a third complete it.
Think of the Children! (TW3 #23)
“A weekend festival in [Baltimore] that promised classes on bondage, role play and other sexual techniques has been canceled after the new operators of the Clarence H. Du Burns Arena decided the erotic exposition was not appropriate at a facility also used for children’s sports practices…” Obviously, the sex rays emitted from all these dirty people would contaminate the structure, inducing the dreaded Premature Sexualization in the innocent little moppets who entered the building later.
Rebecca Davies…and…other sex workers and supporters…will protest against the 2011 Prostitution Bill which is expected to be re-introduced and to demand full decriminalisation…Ms Davies said…the Bill would make WA the most dangerous place in Australia to be a sex worker…licensing, where employee’s full names were available for clients to see, could risk their safety and privacy…only about 10 per cent of sex workers would comply…Sex workers had to advertise a landline phone number, not a mobile, as one of the conditions – a restriction not placed on any other industry…
They are likely Hamilton [New Zealand]’s biggest brothel keepers, with 500 girls on their books in the seven years since they began their foray into the sex industry. Tattooed, shady characters with underworld connections? Far from it. She’s the secretary of the PTA and…he’s a well-spoken former musician…the pair own a small…software development business…Hamilton’s two best-known brothels, and soon, a private swingers club…
This article about Zimbabwe’s repeated “crackdowns” on whores (and the way they keep netting amateurs) is mostly familiar ground and silly stereotypes, but does include two points of interest: one, that “legislator Tabitha Khumalo has…threatened to expose fellow legislators who have gallivanted with those she calls ‘pleasure managers’ if they refuse to back [decriminalization]”; and two, that the Open Society Foundation’s 2012 study of the six nations with similar policies of “harassing and [physically] abusing…sex workers” included Zimbabwe along with
Kenya, Namibia, Russia, South Africa, and [wait for it] the United States.
Hey, kids, be the first in your neighborhood to be “trafficked”! Have fun! Win prizes!
Students at Colonial Middle school [in Memphis, Tennessee] have spent the last few weeks learning about the growing problem…of sex trafficking including prostitution…“I think its [sic] appropriate for middle school because if you look at the statistics of human trafficking the majority of people that get pulled in are between the ages of 12 to 14”…[said teacher Jennifer Shiberou]…
What If They Threw a Party and Nobody Came? (TW3 #42)
…In Australia, which began use of the HPV vaccine in 2007, cases of genital warts in young women aged 12 – 26 dropped 59 percent, and 39 percent for men…The…vaccine caused quite the uproar here in the States. The usual antivaxxers hated it because, well, it’s a vaccine, but there was also mainstream fear-mongering, as well as being demonized by the conservatives, who said it would lead to promiscuity. That last is pure nonsense; in fact, a new study shows no significant increase in sexual activity in young women who have had the vaccine over those who have not…
Here’s another good interview with the amazing Australian sex worker Rachel Wotton, who specializes in disabled clients and founded the charity Touching Base. Its only sour note is at the end, where interviewer Wendy Syfret seems determined to drag “trafficking and degradation” mythology into what is otherwise a very positive piece.
…Steph Key…[introduced] another attempt to decriminalise sex work after her previous bill failed by one vote in November. The new legislation would give sex workers and their employers the same access to the WorkCover scheme as other…businesses…retains laws that make sex work by a person aged under 18, or with a client under that age, illegal…wipes clean past sex work convictions …makes it illegal to discriminate against a person who is or has been a sex worker…[and] removes laws against living off the earnings of a prostitute…
According to Because I’m a Whore, this bill is much better than the last one and has the support of sex workers; if passed, South Australia would be the third place in the world to have true decriminalization.
The “Trafficking in America Task Force” looks at first like any other silly rescue industry NGO, but a little digging reveals some really bizarre stuff, including the assertion that the true cause of “sex trafficking” is PORN!
Statistics show that many times it starts with pornography…One look as a child, continued looks as a teenagers, perhaps buying sex for the first time as a young adult, expecting your female partner, girl friend, or wife to act as the prostituted women act. When they don’t your relationship turns to self gratification rather than intimacy. You ay [sic] turn to violent sex with those you buy…Then…you want to pay for younger victims — and — you — are — stuck — in a — cycle…when you look at pictures of women you are branding us as objects for your own pleasure, objects of no value. We are human beings…Jesus said, “I did not give you a spirit of fear — but a spirit of power, and of love, and of SOUND MIND.” Ask him to help you…Addiction to pornography is a type of emotional and mental trafficking…
I’m beginning to think her mother is right:
…Amina Tyler…passed through heavy security and checkpoints to enter the city of Kairouan, where police were preventing hardline conservative Islamists from holding an annual conference. There she unveiled her bleach [sic] blonde hair and cutoff jeans, scrawled “FEMEN” on the wall of a cemetery near the city’s main mosque, and attempted to take off her clothes…The protest enraged local residents who converged on her, and police took her into custody…Her mother, Wafa, [said] her daughter needed help and was being treated by a psychiatrist…
One Born Every Minute (TW3 #319)
…Shatabdi Saha, a banker…with the Usha Multipurpose Cooperative Society…conducts…sessions…[in spotting counterfeit] because…many customers had started palming off fake notes…for their services…”If customers give them counterfeit notes, it’s a great loss for them,” [said] DMSC secretary Bharati Dey…unlike others, sex workers cannot go to the police to report such fake notes. “The police will start harassing them instead of helping them”…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (TW3 #319)
…the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) announced it will no longer fund research based on DSM…for the simple reason that [it] is irrelevant to determining the cause and treatment of psychological problems…it…doesn’t point to the actual causes…that drive and maintain disorders…[its] categories are not discrete…and…it…fails to account for comorbidity…this fifth edition is just moving a few deck chairs on a sinking ship…Soon we’ll need to…lower the lid, hammer it down, and bury the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
Regarding the HPV vaccine; I recall being troubled by efforts to make the vaccine mandatory. I thought most if not all of the anti-vaccine propaganda was hogwash, but the power to mandate vaccines that have little to do with controlling epidemic diseases through herd immunity is one that the State should not have.
Of course, I also think that outlawing Prostitution and the use of Heroin are powers that the State should not have. I’m a Crank.
“expecting your female partner, girl friend, or wife to act as the prostituted women act. ”
I always wonder what these prudes think that “prostituted women” do that is so different than what husbands and wives do with each other? Of course, even the language is awkward and painful to use, all prostitutes are verbed into it by some sinister, evil pimp. No doubt with a long waxed mustache and a long black cape. Or platform shoes, a fur coat and a wide brimmed hat….
The truth is, if they would just read the ads they’d see GFE, or girlfriend experience is very popular. You know, the experience of having a girlfriend?
The longer I live, the more I suspect that these Prudes are fundamentally disgusted by the sex act. And I’m not totally sure that I blame them; I think that if you aren’t aroused, most sex acts are uncomely at best. Homo-erotica ranges (for me, I hasten to add) from “This message is not being delivered to my address” to “Eeuww, Iiiikkk!”. And one of the effects I see as fallout of the “Sexual Revolution” is that there seems to be a basic assumption that anyone uninterested in SOME form of sex is weird and twisted. So I think we are seeing several categories of women (and maybe some men) who just aren’t interested, don’t see why anyone else is, and have been so hammered by “let it all hang out” that they are now attacking.
Me, I think that Golf is degrading. But I don’t feel the need to push this on other people. On the other hand, I didn’t grow up in a society that just assumes that I would be interested in Golf, and wants to know what’s wrong with me that I’m not.
Agreed – I can’t come unless I’m aroused.
😀
“transformed into the opposite sex,”
Hmm, in 7 seasons of one of the most popular cartoons in Japan, which spawned movies (including at least one live action one) and OVAs (direct to video movies), Ranma Saotome never once thought of killing himself. Not even when Cologne used her nerve point technique to keep him from bathing in hot water so he could turn back into a male. (Cold water turned him into a female due to a curse, hot water changed him back.) I should point out that this was published originally as a comic book in Shonen Sunday, a magazine for teenage boys.
But then in Japan, where a woman like Rumiko Takahashi can become a multi-millionaire by creating manga on such subjects, perhaps they don’t consider being female to be quite the curse the neofeminists think it is? Of course, in Japan God Herself is a woman, so that might have something to do with it. (It took decades for me to realize all these godlike female characters in Japanese pop culture, which I took as so subversive, just go along with their idea of God. Seriously, my thick American skull just couldn’t conceive a culture that made its main god a woman. I think I finally started to get it after watching the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumaya… Which was only in the last couple of years, “yes, they are really serious about this.”)
I am, and remain, deeply suspicious of all “Western” insight into Japanese culture. I read treatises on how women are perceived in Japan, and I know they are making valid points about the memes they are citing…. and that they are ignoring other that I have run into (but, being Western, don’t necessarily understand).
I acknowledge that Amaterasu-ōmikami is female, and that she is the best known of the Gods at that high level. I’m not convinced she is the most important, or that her position is analogous to that of the Judeo-Christian God.
I think that Western understanding of Buddhism and/or Shinto is likely to be as off (and probably hilarious) as the Japanese depictions of Christianity seen in Anime.
Which doesn’t keep me from watching Anime, and enjoying it. Or from wishing that I could see, for example, a Japanese take on Les Mes; they’d LOVE Javert!
I note, BTW, that gender-changing comedy is not limited to Japan. Check out Thorne Smith’s TURNABOUT, for one. I do think that Ranma’s reaction to being turned into a girl are likely to be more typical than the boys quoted in the ‘study’ (propaganda piece); as I recall, he vamps shopkeepers for treats, and gives the impression that if the manga in question weren’t basically G rated, he would spend a good deal of time masturbating and playing with his own boobs.
At the risk of sounding low-brow, I can’t help but remember Joey Tribbiani’observation on the topic;
All right, you know what blows my mind? Women can see breasts any time they want. You just look down and there they are. How you get any work done is beyond me. If I had a pair of those, I’d never leave the house!
I think that would be a fairly standard response.
Didn’t National Lampoon Magazine have a gender-bender satirical piece back late 70’s, early 80’s?
Yes, it was called “My Vagina”. A teenage boy wakes up with his genitals mysteriously transformed (but his appearance otherwise unaltered); hijinks ensue.
Indeed that was one of the ways he would get clobbered by Amanda, “I have a better body than you anyway!”. Wham!
Akane not Amanda, autocorrect.
Yeah, and he was doing so well up to that point.
“I noticed you took a good look at me too.”
When she walked in on him in the bathtub. Indeed she did.
“It’s no big deal if I see a girl naked. I’ve seen myself lots of times.”
Good point.
“I have a better body than you anyway!”
Oh hell, dude. You just blew it.
BTW… Live action Ranma movie? Please do tell me more.
Oh I don’t claim any particular insight into any of this stuff, it’s just after running into so many all powerful goddesses in Anime and Manga I got an impression, which may be incorrect.
The super-gonnorhoea bug may only have infected one person so far (and where did it come from?)…but the history of bugs’ resistance to antibiotics suggests that it will spread, or others will mutate to take its place. And we are running out of alternative antibiotics.
Oscillation (Gender) – I wouldn’t kill myself if I woke up tomorrow as a woman – but I would, I think, experience some pretty deep initial regret for no longer being a man. At least at first. This isn’t because I think men have it easier or better – I just like our role in life as pursuers. It’s kind of cool to be the sex that can’t control your sexuality and has to struggle to think about things other than sex.
But then – after I got over that initial lamentation – I would take my new female body out for a spin. With all the knowledge I have about how men “work” on the inside – taking that knowledge and putting it to use in the body of a woman would make me one helluva awesome (and rich) woman!!
My link of the week is this one … “Don’t Fuck With Our Olive Oil!” or … also known as … “Olive Oil as a Symbol of Liberty”.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10076201/EU-drops-olive-oil-jug-ban-after-public-outcry.html
What dumbasses are these that they thought they could get away with this?
In a humiliating U-turn, Dacian Ciolos, the European commissioner for agriculture, admitted that the proposed ban on traditional olive oil jugs, had provoked popular loathing, or “misunderstanding”, from the people that he said wanted to protect for their own good.
Gawd, but the mealy-mouthed a–holes just don’t quit, do they? They should douse this louse with his own banned olive oil and light him on fire “for his own good.”
he said [HE] wanted to protect…
The he was also missing from the source article
It was big-government cronyism masked as do-gooderism. The effect of the ban would have created a very favorable business environment for the established “Big Olive Oil” companies who produce factory packaged oils that were (strangely) completely in compliance with the EU ban!
The people who would have been hurt – would have been small producers and restaurants that produce their own “niche” oils for their customer base. Small batches – totally not in compliance with the EU guidelines.
We do something similar by banning the sale of raw milk in the U.S. The ban has the effect of eliminating small competitors in favor of the big milk companies and corporations. My grandfather produced his own milk – and my grandmother had her own method of pasteurizing it – though I’m sure that method wasn’t in compliance with federal guidelines. The point is – people should be allowed to buy what the hell they please. If I want raw milk – I should be able to get it.
LOL – learn something everyday. I just googled the milk thing and found that MANY states allow the sale of raw goat milk!
Hmmm … would raw goat milk be any more safe than raw cow’s milk? Nope – I’m thinking it would not be.
However, I can’t think of any MAJOR corporations that produce pasteurized Goat’s milk in the U.S. So since there is no commercial interest in the product … voila! It’s legal in many states!!
Yeah, it’s particularly obvious that it’s sheer intimidation when state milk authorities send a SWAT team after an Amish dairy farmer for selling raw milk. Such people should be buried neck deep and head first in the nearest manure pit.
And ruin all that fertilizer?
This whole situation is dreadful. I know many Amish farmers who are being ruined by these types of regulations. Give ’em a break already.
BREAKING: He was acquitted on three of the four charges.
http://www.jsonline.com/business/raw-milk-trial-in-hands-of-jury-b9918480z1-208900911.html
FEMEN is funded by George Soros, a man responsible for ruining whole societies with his money. And yet, this non-state actor is still livin’ it up scot-free in Western Europe with his latest trophy wife.
Putin has the right idea: any entity funded by Soros in Russia has to register as a foreign organization. It should be that way in every other country as well.
First time visiting, and really, I’m not sure if I’ve ever read more pages of a blog the first time through. Fascinating, informative, and, yes, delightfully honest. I’m SO bookmarking this.
“I’ve never been a sex worker, I’ve just played one on TV.” Obviously, I’m joking. I don’t take money,.. Maybe if I was younger… Clearly, I was doing it wrong! I see the rates these darlings are charging and I’m thinking, “Why was I a secretary?” What I have been is several fine gentlemen’s mistress for years and years, and that’s an entirely different kettle of fish. Entirely… (If kettles of fish can be juggled! Because there’s a lot of that.) It’s like GFE, but for years at a time (repeat clientele, perhaps). I guess most wives are also “doing it wrong.”
In any event, lots of great information here. Not only will I be back, I’ll be referring!
If you’re going to run a prostitution ring, do it right! With purple zoot suits and middle-school girls!
Looks like the African Continent is swinging the right way. It’s good to learn.
“You are now no longer oppressed,”
As if it’s that easy. And as if there aren’t plenty of new oppressors to replace old ones. And then when you consider that the old oppressors maybe weren’t oppressors…
I note that the infamous SLAPS test (Serious Literary, Artistic, Political, or Scientific value) is only ever applied to sexual literature. Leave the sex out, and suddenly nobody cares if the work has any literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, let alone serous value.
The last time I was asked what I would do if I woke up a woman, my answer was “Go broke buying pretty clothes.” There isn’t much point in me buying them now.
Good. The last thing we need is another “plague from God” to whip up the prudes. The anti-sex folks LOVE STIs; it seems like poetic justice to them.
Yeah, it’s a step in the right direction. Fewer people getting arrested, so that’s got to be worth something.
.
OK, tomorrow I’ll do more. Really. Probably.
First off: serous value? Supposed to be serious value, obviously.
Why am I not surprised that the headquarters is at a church? Diversion programs… well isn’t that what a lot of these social issues are? Diversions?
Yeah, that was pretty stupid. You know, parents shouldn’t be able to make love in their own bedrooms, because sometimes children walk through their parent’s bedrooms the next day to get to the extra bathroom. They could become contaminated. Oh no, I just thought of something… those same innocent little children were conceived through sexual intercourse. They’re ALREADY CONTAMINATED!!
It’s like some of the trap laws in the US: if you can’t ban it, make it so onerous that people are either discouraged from doing the can’t-be-banned thing altogether, or they skirt the law to do the thing and can then be arrested. It’s a crooked way to deal with things.
Well of course the brothel-holders aren’t stereotypical criminal types. They don’t HAVE TO BE. Yeah, this is good news.
Fine company we’re keeping, eh, USA? And, I guess only some of the African Continent is swinging the right way. And then there’s Russia. Well, we’ll see which trend spreads.
So now the age is down to “between the ages of 12 to 14.” I think when we start hearing that the average prostitute begins at ten years old is when the public will sit up and say, “Wait a minute.”
But, but Maggie! The vaccine means these girls can sin without dying! I mean, that just ain’t right!
OK, let’s see if I can do more tonight, tomorrow at the latest. I hope. I’m doing well this week so far. Two days in.
I wrote several new paragraphs, and the Internet ate them. Damn.
I think what Rachel Wotton is doing is beautiful.
New Zealand, New South Wales, and now (maybe) South Australia. Well, it proves that speaking English doesn’t make a country immune to reason. Well, not totally immune.
Reading this, I was tempted to say, “Oh Jesus! Now they’re blaming it on porn?” But then I saw that they’re trying to draft Him. Yick.
Is she really anything more than a streaker who’s clever enough to claim a political motive? She’s like a Program girl gone wrong.
Great. With everything else harlots have to deal with, now counterfeit money. In New Zealand, Amsterdam, even parts of Nevada (for girls willing to jump through a lot of goofy hoops), this wouldn’t be a problem.
I’m not quite sure where I am in the new DSM. I should find out.
OK, now to read comments. I’ll get there, really I will.
[…] and thinks of England produces such a low concentration that ordinary walls can stop them, but BDSM and swinging produce concentrations that can contaminate surrounding objects, and sex work […]
“A few months ago, a post…[stated] that [when]…junior high…students were asked what they would do if they woke up “transformed into the opposite sex,” the girls showed mixed emotions but the boys [said]…”Kill myself”
LOL! In reality more boys/men than girls/women seek to change their sex (or is it gender?)
[…] dirtier and more “illicit” the sex, the more intense the sex rays…BDSM and swinging produce concentrations that can contaminate surrounding objects, and sex work […]