We need to listen to [sex workers]…rather than feeling sorry for them…and then actually take what they say seriously. – Jeanett Bjønness
Japanese cops’ increasing adoption of American whore-harassing tactics is extremely troubling: “Tokyo Metropolitan Police…cracked down on a prostitution club…specializing in senior citizens…Officers arrested the 63-year-old manager of club Silk…and one other employee for dispatching a woman, 64, to…an 82-year-old man…” That’s right, Japanese cops now think persecuting old people for consensual sex is an appropriate use of resources.
Pearl-clutching, bigoted prudery is especially revolting in young men:
There’s a brand new, ultra-creepy fad in China…”Increasing numbers of adults have been hiring wet nurses so they can consume breast milk for its nutritional value”…it’s revolting. Everything about this scenario should appall the reader, from the very idea of an adult suckling from another adult to the possibility that someone should be so desperate for money that they have to sell their services in this manner. It’s every bit as wrong as prostitution…
Actually, I agree with his last sentence 100%; it’s exactly as wrong as prostitution, which is to say not at all.
There was a somewhat uneven piece in the New York Times last week; on the one hand, it portrays the victims of the Long Island Killer as individual women, correctly names many of the reasons women do sex work and (best of all) recognizes that “Escorts face danger not because of the Internet but because they’re still forced to work underground.” But on the other hand, it does not quote even a single sex worker activist, yet does refer to the questionable ideas of Scott “Women Never Lie About their Weight or Take Out Multiple Ads” Cunningham (including his stunningly stupid belief that before the internet most whores were streetwalkers, and his unsupported and false belief that there are more of us now than in the 1990s). After I mentioned my problems with the piece on Twitter, author Robert Kolker contacted me and I expressed my concerns; it turns out he did interview several activists, but didn’t realize that not specifically quoting them would be perceived as a slight. His publisher is also sending me an advance copy of his book about the murders, Lost Girls; I’ll let y’all know what I think about it.
…Jeanett Bjønness of Aarhus University…interviewed 40 Danish women who sell sex on the streets, and it turns out that the women do not regard their sex trading as the biggest problem in their lives…”Sex trading…is perceived as a solution to some problems,” says Bjønness…the people whose job it is to help sex workers…[regard] the women as victims. This rigid view…has the consequence that the women feel walked over, because they do not see themselves as victims…[but rather] as independent women who make rational choices based on the options available to them…
See how easy it is when you actually bother to TALK to us?
Something Rotten in Sweden (July Updates, Part One)
Wendy McElroy on the government’s attempts to exert total control by regulating even the smallest economic activity:
…[In his act] a magician named Marty Hahne…pulls a three-pound rabbit out of a top hat…“I just received an 8-page letter from the USDA, telling me that by July 29 I need to have in place a written disaster plan, detailing all the steps I would take to help get my rabbit through a disaster, such as a tornado, fire, flood, etc.” Hahne and his wife must be specially trained to implement the rabbit plan, which USDA inspectors will review…new [EPA] regulations define ditches, gullies and other property features that catch water as part of America’s navigable waterways under the Clean Water Act…the EPA…would become the de facto owner of people’s ditches and gullies…The Lemonade Freedom group knows that the ridiculous regulations need to be taken seriously…the group…[protests] police actions…to close down children’s lemonade stands…
Yes, this is in the United States, a country which supposedly guarantees freedom of religion:
Pahokee [Florida] residents, church members, and pastors are outraged over…the…first Lake Okeechobee Summer Solstice Festival…The crowd cheered in agreement as…pastors from around the area admonished city officials for allowing festivals containing witchcraft and occult practices into the city…“We are opening ourselves up to things we should not, like belly dancing and magic spells,” said Daniel Mondragon…“God cannot heal our land if we have witches and warlocks violating our community,” said Evangelist Lillian Brown…
White saviors go on a fun trip to Asia, where they “rescue” brown urchins by teaching them to sew, wait table and draw with crayons:
Destiny Rescue, an organization whose mission is to rescue sexually exploited children…hunts through Cambodia and Thailand to find these girls…Indiana State University graduate students played with the rescued girls, visited the sex tourism capital of the world and wondered at the hope with which victims create new lives…More than 2 million children are forced into the sex trade every year, according to the 2012 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report…Destiny Rescue is…[addressing] the problem….by…training in jewelry making, sewing, working in a café, hair dressing or pursuing an education…Vanessa Granger-Belcher…led the girls through an art activity…in which they drew pictures of their dreams for their lives…
It may amuse you to know that most UN agencies estimate the “annual flow of trafficked people” of all ages into all industries at 0.5 – 1.9 million people, of which 2 million are supposedly “sex trafficked children”. Perhaps the UN should start hiring people with at least 3rd-grade math skills.
This week I received The Sexual History of London from Sasha and Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Cop from Kevin Wilson. Thank you both very much!
As I’ve mentioned before, teens who make “virginity pledges” are much more likely than others to engage in anal sex in order to remain what we used to call “technical virgins”. The hilarious Garfunkel and Oates have written a song about it; if you enjoy it, you may also like their earlier lampoon of Christian anti-sex weirdness, “Sex With Ducks”.
In Michelle Visage’s Hooker Makeover, a judge from RuPaul’s Drag Race and her drag queen sidekick turn ordinary women into cartoonish streetwalker stereotypes. Visage was at first defensive when confronted with this on Twitter last Sunday, but within hours she issued a public apology and announced that the show would be cancelled. It’s good to know that at least some people really are listening.
Regular reader Isolde Holland discovered this poem and shared it with me:
“An Old Whorehouse” by Mary Oliver (born 1935)
We climbed through a broken window,
walked through every room.
Out of business for years,
the mattresses held only
rainwater, and one
woman’s black shoe. Downstairs
spiders had wrapped up
the crystal chandelier.
A cracked cup lay in the sink.
But we were fourteen,
and no way dust could hide
the expected glamour from us,
or teach us anything.
We whispered, we imagined.
It would be years before
we’d learn how effortlessly
sin blooms, then softens,
like any bed of flowers.
A Chinese court has declared that “happy endings” aren’t prostitution:
…in July 2011…a massage parlour owner and two associates were arrested…for “organising prostitution”…and…handed a five-year sentence…But [in] appeal…the defendants were found “not criminally responsible” and…acquitted due to “unclear facts and improper application of the law”. The court said manual stimulation did not belong in the realm of prostitution…
Unsurprisingly, the cops insist that they know the law better than judges.
First They Came for the Hookers
Dr. Marty Klein’s review of Dr. Judith Hanna’s book Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy, And A Christian Right discusses the war against strip clubs we’ve mentioned so many times before, and the book itself debunks the usual mythology about “negative secondary effects”, “sex trafficking”, etc. I do have to wonder if Hanna ignores the neofeminist contribution as Klein does in his book, though.
Ohio wants to criminalize obtaining clear consent:
…the Ohio House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill ostensibly aimed at fighting “human trafficking” that makes it a crime to “solicit” a legal act: sex with someone who is 16 or 17 years old. The age of consent in Ohio is 16. Yet under H.B. 130, a 20-year-old who asks a 16-year-old to have sex with him, or a 21-year-old who does the same with a 17-year-old, thereby commits a…felony…and…has to register as a sex offender. But if the teenager broaches the subject, or if the sex proceeds without any explicit verbal reference to it, no crime has been committed…Having sex is fine, as long as you don’t talk about it beforehand… Legislators already define “human trafficking” broadly enough to include consensual sex…Now Ohio is poised to [add] merely talking about consensual sex…
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (TW3 #27)
Another small country stands up to American bullying: “Cambodia…lashed out at the U.S. State Department for downgrading the country’s ranking in its annual report on human trafficking, saying cultural barriers were hampering government efforts to combat the problem…”
The fact that the FBI thought a dude paying for sex was somehow noteworthy says a lot about the FBI. The fact that CNN misunderstands what the newsworthy aspect of this is says even more about CNN.
In the months after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, FBI agents conducted surveillance of…Anwar al-Awlaki and uncovered detailed information about his…use of prostitutes…Al-Awlaki lived in a Washington suburb at the time…he visited prostitutes at least seven times and paid up to $400 for sex…[for] a total of $2,320 …agents interviewed the escorts, obtained detailed information about the encounters, and…even reviewed the possible legal charges that might be brought against him…
If you think the wait to find out if your kids got the…results needed to get into uni is stressful, dream on…It’s what happens next that you REALLY should be worrying about…Darling Daughter could easily end up hawking her body to keep her university finances afloat…poverty is pushing students to sell their souls and get jobs in the sex trade. Six per cent could be working as lap-dancers, strippers, escorts or prostitutes to pay their way through studies. Yet more could be manning sex chat-lines…the sex industry is a dark, grubby scene that irrevocably changes people on the inside…No degree is worth it…
So either Jo Davison is speaking from personal experience, or she’s a bigoted ignoramus. Which is it, Jo? Do tell.
Another mainstream pro-polygamy article, in The Economist no less:
…DOMA was struck down in no small part because it picks out a certain class of people and, by denying them recognition of their marriages, denies their families equal freedom and dignity. Can it be denied that polygamous families, whose marital arrangements are illegal, much less unrecognized, are denied equal liberty and are made to suffer the indignity [of] active discrimination?…If the state lacks a legitimate rationale for imposing on Americans a heterosexual definition of marriage, it seems pretty likely that it likewise lacks a legitimate rationale for imposing on Americans a monogamous definition of marriage…
Activist Ye Haiyan…was released from 13 days of detention on June 12 after she scared off three trespassers to her home…Ye first became famous in 2005, when she posted a nude photo of herself online. Under the pen name Hooligan Swallow, Ye raised eyebrows with her bold articles on sex. But she really caught the public’s attention in 2010 when the…NGO she set up…[called] for the legalisation of prostitution…”Pushing for [this]…contradicts the government’s ideology,” she said. “The government does not wish to see this topic being promoted and the mainland media are banned from discussing it”…
You are most welcome. Let us know how it is!
Personally, I think a festival of belly dancing and magic spells sounds AWESOME. Anyone want to meet me in Pahokee? 😉
The adult breastfeeding… I find that a little weird, honestly. But if both parties agree to it and get what they want out of the deal, why should they stop because it makes a third party feel icky?
I don’t understand that breastfeeding thing either. For health reasons? Is it necessary to consume it from a nipple to get the healthy benefits? Why not just BUY it in a bottle? I think, beyond the health benefit, there’s an erotic element in this desire.
Men are so silly – and that includes me. When I was in my 20’s me and my shipmates liked to visit a strip bar on the industrial road out to Sand Island in Hawaii. There was a lactating stripper there – she used to “spray” you as part of her dance act.
We used to fight over front row seats. 😛
Couldn’t go anywhere else the rest of the night we’d be so sticky. LOL!
Well, it’s obviously a kinky fetish for some people. Personally, it repulses me – no, I’m NOT a so-called “prude” – but, hey, it’s a free country; as long as a fetish act is between consenting adults, then who cares? The rule in the fetish, BDSM community is “safe, sane, and consensual”.
Dude, that is so very, very wrong 🙂
That’s the male mind for you! 😀
Belly dancing is always awesome!
I don’t understand the adult breastfeeding fetish at all, and the thought of it is repulsive to me. Oh, well, it’s a free country, I guess. In my opinion, running around labeling people as so-called “prudes” just because people disagree with something is a form of bullying and intimidation. A lot of male chauvinist, misogynist types like to label women as so-called “prudes” in order to bully women into having sex. And no, I’m not a so-called “prude”.
Comfort levels with sexual acts are naturally variable. You are quite right, labeling someone a prude because they don’t share your particular kinks is terribly judgmental. After all, I don’t judge other people for not fantasizing about threesomes with Daniel Craig and Jason Momoa.
Wow, did I just type that…?
I’ve never heard of Jason Momoa, but Daniel Craig is rather hot, although I prefer Matthew McConaughey, myself! LOL!
He played Khal Drogo on “Game of Thrones”, also the title character in the “Conan the Barbarian” reboot. The long hair and guyliner is not normally a look that appeals to me, but Jason 100% pulls it off and owns it. /pant
It’s not finding a sex act disgusting that makes one a prude; it’s expressing it like he did and clearly wishing it were criminal that qualifies.
Understood – I see what you mean, and I agree.
Sasha wrote;
why should they stop because it makes a third party feel icky?
Paging Robert Bork, Paging Robert Bork, will Mr. Bork please pickup the white courtesy telephone?
Oh, wait, he can’t. He’s dead.
And yes, I am mocking the dead. Anyone who thinks that disgust with the consensual acts of other adults is a reasonable basis for tort should be mocked into eternity. And Bork actually wrote a legal brief supporting that viewpoint. I am soooo glad he didn’t make it onto the SCrOTUS.
Yay for Garfunkel and Oates… they are so brilliantly hilarious. I was having a conversation with a woman a few weeks back and she was telling me about some other grown woman in her 20’s with this ‘born again virgin’ theory… but this woman was giving up the anal & oral sex. It’s still sodomy and fornication folks!I mean, if yer gonna Sin, Sin well I say.
Regarding polygamy; When the anti-gay marriage forces asserted that if Gay marriage were allowed the next thing would be polygamy, my reaction was “And this is a problem, why?”, but I would like to note that they seem to have been right.
I’m in favor of gay marriage. I’m also in favor of government and law recognizing polyamorous unions.
However, there actually are some legal problems inherent in polygamy and polyandry. They can be handled with appropriate statutes, but as law stands now, the problems exist. How to amend statutes to make them sensible, all politics aside, is not obvious.
Just for one example, consider inheritance law. Current statutes, whether originating in systems of English common law (most states), Spanish civil law (CA, NM, and I think AZ), or French civil code (LA), all provide for a specific spousal share of an intestate decedent’s estate, and provide specific definitions for community property and separate property. Over a couple centuries the various state laws have become somewhat coherent despite their separate historical legal origins.
In a polyamorous marriage context, even these simple definitions become complicated enough that some statute(s) would be required to redefine them.
Such problems are not inherently insoluble, but they do require legislation beyond simply recognizing the marriage. Given the inanity that passes for legislatures and legislation these days, I don’t think legislative solutions to those problems will be easy.
Totally agree with your comments on the NY Times piece. Too bad he didn’t discuss with you prior to publication. I thought the comments section was interesting, because many commenters were supporting rationality — i.e. decriminilize!
“…he visited prostitutes at least seven times and paid up to $400 for sex…[for] a total of $2,320 .”
“at least”, “up to”. Were seven time witnessed? Did the watchers take breaks and so couldn’t see all of the visits? Who was counting the money? I am so confused.
To get this information – the FBI threatened the prostitutes.
$400? I think the guy was a cheapskate – maybe he deserved the “droning”!
/sarcasm
Hey, at least he paid; you think the FBI did?
And I’d love to see the FBI set the precedent that they can nail celebrities/VIPs for patronizing prostitutes; D.C. would be devoid of legislators overnight!
When the end comes – the backlash against these petty bully bureaucrats will be worth watching. 😀
AND applauding.
Americans have no fucking clue what poverty is. It is virtually NON-existent in the United States. Want to see poverty? Go to the Philippines or East Timor. Americans are such pussies to even DREAM that they share hardships on that kind of level.
And it’s a rank insult to those humans on this planet that actually DO live in those conditions for any American to even pretend that we have something in common with them.
There are plenty of jobs in agriculture or the food service industry if a girl doesn’t want to hook. The ones who choose hooking do it to make a lot of money for what they initially perceive is minimal effort.
Few jobs in agriculture or the food service industry are going to pay enough to pay for her education, nor are they likely to leave enough time for classes, sleep, and study. Remember that one of the things Maggie liked about harlotry was the flexible hours.
Also, I think this was in the UK, not the US. There are references to “£9,000 annual tuition fees” and such.
I wonder if Jo Davidson has indentations in her neck from all of the pearl-clutching she did in that article?
Pearl clutching in young men? Not sure that this works that well, though it’s perfect for women. What’s needed is a syncretism of “big girl’s blouse” with the attitudes of a crusted, retired colonel — one who writes letters to the Daily Torygraph as “Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells”.
Any suggestions?
Colonel Blimp?
Colonel Blimp might be too old fashioned, and probably most people today don’t know of him. Likewise a “young fogey” means that you’ve got to know what an old fogey is.
The whole Wiccan scaremongering was hilarious but sadly common for Florida, where people lost their sh- when we named the baseball team the DEVIL (aaaiiieee!!!) Rays…the breastfeeding bit I don’t understand, but being a pedophobe anything that infantilizes me creeps me out. I will take a gun to my head and blow my brains out before I wear a diaper again; I put it past the “death is better than…” line. Finally, Anwar al-Awlaki is important, but not for the reason CNN and the FBI think. Ultimately, sex is an urge just like eating and sleeping, and needs to vent are all the same. I can build a hotel and relieve you of your tiredness. I can build a restaurant and solve your hunger; entire industries are built around both. But relieve you of your sexual urges? That is horrible, despicable, and you are nothing but scum for thinking it (somehow). But here we are, with the most radical of people who publicly would kill you for prostitution and me for my sexuality and when morality matters most (when people are watching the least), he admits by his actions the need to satisfy sex. It is complete hypocrisy that he does so and the ultimate testament to why prostitution should be legalized.
I noticed when they changed it to just “The Rays” the pure white rays of light iconography was decidedly Christian… http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_eWTSocFFqVk/TT9slu76EMI/AAAAAAAAAGw/LOu6g6XMeKw/s200/tampa+bay+rays+2011.jpg
Penance for the “horrible” previous name? Meh, I’m originally from New Jersey, we worship the Devils. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9f/New_Jersey_Devils_logo.svg/200px-New_Jersey_Devils_logo.svg.png
I always thought it was a crying shame that Miroslav Šatan never played for the Devils.
That is a crying shame!
““We are opening ourselves up to things we should not, like belly dancing and magic spells,” said Daniel Mondragon…“God cannot heal our land if we have witches and warlocks violating our community,” said Evangelist Lillian Brown…”
I know your state happens to look like Xanth, but that doesn’t mean you actually live in Xanth.
Had to look up Google to get the Xanth reference. It’s been a while since I’ve read Piers Anthony and back in the day it was mostly his “Incarnations of Immortality” series.
Anthony’s Pornucopia is matchless. (And impossible to find.)
Please, the guys name is Daniel Mondragon, he’s probably from Xanth.
A couple of days ago, I watched this documentary about prostitution, and it’s very powerful. From my own personal experience as a hooker (now retired), I could relate to a lot of what these other ladies experienced (minus drug addiction, fortunately).
This is an hour and a half long. Plus three minutes and forty-seven seconds after that. I don’t know if I’ll watch it or not. I’m not making it a definite “to do” like catching up on Maggie’s blog is.
So I may or may not ever offer any feedback on it. But I have bookmarked it.
Japanese Prostitution
Japan has an aging population, and they need to figure out how they’re going to deal with that. Tossing old folks in the slammer probably isn’t it.
Welcome to Our World
{takes an enzyme tablet}
Bring that milky tit over here, beautiful!
Something Rotten in Sweden (July Updates, Part One)
I’ve never heard of anybody getting such a demand about their dog, their cat, their horses, etc. Something isn’t straight here. They must already be mad at this guy. Which doesn’t make it all OK of course, but there’s something not adding up here.
Size Matters
Daniel Mondragon and Evangelist Lillian Brown worship an asshole god. That a being with the power to heal a community would refuse to do so because of somebody else (casters of magic spells or even {gasp!} belly dancers!) is either a hideous blasphemy or an argument in favor of atheism. Maybe both.
Presents, Presents, Presents!
Rise of the Warrior Cop is one I’ve become interested in. Radley Balko has been interviewed on a few lefty TV talk shows.
I’ll do more of this, but first I have a spreadsheet to mail.
First of all, I have great news! My Nestea unsweetened instant decaf tea came in! All the stores in my area quit carrying it and I had to order online. Wha…?
The Immunity Syndrome
Garfunkel & Oats are some talented satirists. Almost as good as Hall & Simon. 😉
Subtle Pimping
Think of all the things there are reality shows built around. But the one built around a family-owned business which builds environmentally conscious technologically advanced tree houses? Canceled in a month or some such nonsense. Finally, one I’d actually watch, and POOF! it’s gone.
Ruined Maids
While you couldn’t pay me to be fourteen again (and I could use the money), there is a certain sense of adventure one tends to have at that age, which can be hard to hold on to as we get older.
Check Your Premises (TW3 #26)
So… if I don’t get her explicit consent, it’s rape, but if I do get her explicit consent, it’s human trafficking.
Which crime carries the harsher sentence?
Gorged With Meaning (TW3 #49)
The situation with higher education really is a mess. As more and more of the jobs which don’t require a degree are automated and/or outsourced, the cost of getting that degree rises like a banned bottle rocket. That some students are turning to sex work is good news: it means she’s found a way in an increasingly tough situation. If anything, male students should be complaining that there’s nothing comparable for them.
Uncharted Seas (TW3 #316)
Since long before I even considered the possibility of same-sex marriage, I’ve thought that the legal ban on polygamous marriage was an unconstitutional bit of religious law. I’m happy to see those who have more power and influence than myself taking up my argument, even if none of them know or care that it is my argument. 😉
Onward!