I escorted briefly after college…[as did] several friends…None of us felt exploited; we were self-employed men and women, working where and when we wanted. – Matthew Lawrence
Pennsylvania activists…campaign…against…Judge Teresa Carr Deni in…next week’s…election…six years ago…[Deni] reduced charges of a…gang rape of a sex worker to theft of services…
“…Justin Bieber…was caught trying to sneak out of popular Brazilian brothel Centaurus with the help of his burly minders who covered him in a white sheet…[he] then jumped into the back of a waiting car and was joined by two females from the club…” I presume it was two female humans, but the report didn’t specify.
In the Baton Rouge Advocate, an interesting article on the three Storyville buildings which are still standing. One small quibble: the statement “Mayor Martin Behrman shut down the district…under pressure from the U.S. Secretary of the Navy” is like a bully forcing a child’s hand into his face while shouting “Stop hitting yourself!” When Secretary Daniels’ pressure on Behrman failed, he got President Wilson to issue the executive order which shuttered the district over Behrman’s strenuous objections.
…[People think] if you were once…in the sex industry you…are never qualified to do any [other] work…Over and over again…a…teacher discovered to have…posed nude is not only fired, but propped up for public scorn. Cristy Nicole Deweese…in Dallas, Texas, is the most recent…after it was revealed that she had posed for Playboy in 2011… What about posing nude makes her unfit to teach children?…is [she] going to be more sexualized by her…male students, who would have never discovered her pictures if they had not been searching for pornography anyway?…
Unfortunately, the author degenerates into idiocy about sex work “exploiting and harming women”, but it’s a start.
Another life destroyed by powerful, sadistic fanatics unclear on the meaning of the word “child”:
A man whose life was ruined when he was charged with child sex offences…has accused the police and Crown Prosecution Service of a “homophobic witch-hunt”…The CPS…offered no evidence…His lawyers…gave…conclusive documentary evidence…that all models…were of legal age…his…nightmare began during a business trip in September 2011 when he viewed images on a website specialising in “twink” pornography…gay slang for young-looking men who are aged 18 or over. When a female guest who [later] stayed in the same room…saw the computer’s browsing history she complained…and staff called the police…
Of course, the ignorant busybody who went digging into a stranger’s business will suffer no consequences.
…a 17-year-old [Swedish] girl…reported [her foster father] for rape. Police found traces of the man’s sperm…in her vagina…The man explained…he had been “erection training” in the bathroom and had left a piece of paper with his sperm on it…The district court ruled that [this] was feasible and he was acquitted…the girl…claimed…that the man had offered her 20,000 kronor…if she declined to report [him]…
She should’ve reported him for offering payment for sex; that they would’ve convicted him on.
The latest episode in Everett, Washington’s freakish war on coffee stands: “Three scantily dressed baristas were arrested…at an espresso stand…after public complaints about inappropriate conduct…” For those unfamiliar with copese, “public complaints” means “cop accusations”.
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (October Updates)
Mathematical illiterates in California want young girls to fear boys:
Human trafficking is an underreported problem…in…Orange County…[District Attorney] Tony Rackauckas said…the average sex slave is 12 years old…“In the schools, create awareness,” [Rep Ed] Royce said. “So that 12-year-old, 13-year-old girls understand that…when these Romeos approach them…they have some inkling of what could be down the road”…
Fanatics want to destroy 1000 people for trying to talk dirty to a robot:
A Dutch…group said…it had identified over 1,000 paedophiles…by offering online sex with a computer-generated 10-year-old Filipina girl called Sweetie. Terre des Hommes Netherlands has now handed over to police the identities of…[those] who were willing to pay children in developing countries for online sex…The group said it wanted to raise the alarm about a largely unknown but quickly spreading new form of child exploitation that has tens of thousands of victims in the Philippines alone…webcam child sex tourism…
Ever notice that every single new hysteria is always “secret” or “unknown” despite being “on the rise” and having “tens of thousands of victims”?
This week I received The Egyptian (a favorite from my teen years), but I’m unsure of the giver’s screen name; please identify yourself so I can thank you properly!
“Dr Victor Strasburger of…the American Academy of Pediatrics claimed that all 14-year-old boys with an internet connection in their bedroom would be looking at pornography online…” Dr. Strasburger further went on to explain that water is wet, the sky is blue and the Pope is Catholic.
Have you noticed the number and frequency of these is increasing?
An Alabama jail guard raped an inmate repeatedly, and the…warden told her there was nothing she could do about it…Olivia Osborne…sued her…rapist, Vincent Cheatham, [and] warden Shirley Smith…in Federal Court…Cheatham began [by] watching her shower…[then] escalated to [sexual] assault…and…when she filed a report…prison officials changed it to say that Cheatham only tried to kiss her…Cheatham…[later] brutally [raped her vaginally and anally]…Smith ordered [Osborne] placed on birth control…to prevent…pregnancy…
And in Arkansas: “A…cop…chased a woman through her workplace, shooting a Taser at her, because she refused to show him her breasts…Ashlea Bennett sued the City of Haskell…and…Officer Brandon Carter, in Federal Court…before this Dec. 13, 2011 incident, Carter had made ‘inappropriate sexual comments’ to her on multiple occasions…”
Citing increasing instances of violence and harassment, a sex workers’ collective has…[asked] the state government to designate an area for them in…Chennai…the only city…besides Bangalore…that doesn’t have a…red-light area…sex workers said having [this] would ensure more effective policing and minimise abuse. “We will be able to prevent children from entering the trade…[and] protect [workers] from clients who misbehave”…it could also help in improving [STI] awareness programmes…
Welcome To Our World (TW3 #28)
A Kansas…court heard arguments…in the case of a man who is being sued for…child support by the state after donating his sperm…through a Craigslist ad. William Marotta…drew up a contract with the two female partners without a physician’s supervision. The agreement…said that Marotta would not assume parental obligations…attorney Benoit Swinnen said…the state was persecuting Marotta to send a message about…family values…
This case was previously noted in “Links #130”.
Johanna Weber has founded Germany’s first professional association for sex workers…Weber [said]…“Anyone working in the sex industry can [join, including]…brothel owners…[if] they themselves…have worked as a prostitute…There is currently the public perception that thousands of women…are being forced into prostitution…it’s simply not true…most of the women do these jobs independently and voluntarily…[feminist] human trafficking [campaigns have]…nothing to do with reality…we want to make politicians aware of our interests”…
“Sex trafficking home” is my new favorite “trafficking” idiocy:
Florida has more people forced into human trafficking than just about any state in the country…Detectives…received a tip about a sex trafficking home…“Within an hour you would see…ten to 15 different men walking in and out”…Deputies put everyone in handcuffs…
10 to 15 men an hour! Good thing the number of clients is decreasing.
Something Rotten in Sweden (TW3 #44)
Compare and contrast with Swedish rhetoric:
Ninety-nine percent of the men arrested in [Wisconsin] for patronizing a prostitute will never face criminal charges, but…nearly 40 percent of [prostitutes] are charged…Edgar Lin…argues that since a john and a prostitute must agree to exchange money for sexual contact, both are equally responsible…Prosecutors justify the discrepancy…by saying patronizing a prostitute and providing the service are on different levels of criminality…Assistant District Attorney Andrew Maier…likened the situation to a drug deal, where prosecutors…go after the dealer…as opposed to a consumer…
The More the Better (TW3 #135)
A review (of sorts) of Sheri’s Ranch, in Business Insider. The writer makes a few errors and missteps, but all in all it’s positive; now we just need to start getting write-ups like this for escorts.
What could be worse than one of those awful “checklists” which pretend to diagnose all sex workers (and many other women) as “sex trafficking victims”? How about an “app” which allows busybodies to report their “suspicions” to the cops?
After [two Seattle cops]…gave a 20-minute presentation on sex trafficking to a…Kiwanis Club luncheon…Amin Haq…decided to…[start] a…project…called Redlight Traffic…[which is] launching a [phone] app…that will funnel citizens’ anonymous tips on suspected prostitution activities to law enforcement…The idea…is to…teach citizens how to identify signs of sex-trafficking and give them an easy way to do something about it…citizens will be able to report their suspicions, upload photos and GPS locations, and provide information on…a suspected prostitute, pimp or buyer…
Short version: after a 20-minute propaganda session, self-appointed savior creates a way for prudes to subject anyone they dislike to cop harassment.
Sex slaves! 40 clients a day! Ice cream!
There is a multi-million-dollar sex slave trade taking place [in Trinidad and Tobago]…there were [also] cases of Trinidadians being forced to work in ice cream companies for low wages…Venezuelans [are] brought to this country under false pretences and…forced into prostitution…“These girls are locked in basements…and transported at gunpoint to brothels where they are forced to have sex with 30 to 40 men a day”…
For 29 years, indoor prostitution was legal in Rhode Island. Streetwalking, pimping and underage prostitution were illegal, but that was the extent of the legislation on the matter. Unfortunately, Coyote vs. Rhode Island was resolved by a deal rather than a judicial decision, so there was nothing to stop an unholy cabal of cops, neofeminists and “trafficking” fetishists from getting it re-criminalized on November 3rd, 2009. This article by a former Rhode Island male escort talks about how it happened, and how the only real effect of re-criminalization was – as any sane person could have predicted – to make sex work more dangerous.
You know that study that claims fewer men are paying for sex? Read the truth about it in this essay I wrote for Slixa.
In May 2013…transgender rights activist Monica Jones was falsely arrested for “manifestation of prostitution”…The police claim that they don’t arrest anyone during Project ROSE, that all they are doing is offering people a ride in a police car in handcuffs. So, people transported to a participating church are prevented from accessing legal counsel…Monica…is pleading NOT GUILTY and taking this to trial…If [she] wins…this will be a significant victory for all people targeted by anti-prostitution and related laws in Arizona…
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (TW3 #329)
If something’s in a movie, it must be true! So let’s summon Gamera, friend of all children, to rescue all of the “child sex slaves”!
Edmonton’s dirty little secret is that sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are…worse…than in other Canadian cities…[and have] permeated into all fabrics of Edmonton society, with children…between the ages of 12 and 14, states the film entitled “Dirty Little Secret”…most sex workers were forced into the trade and that 75 per cent of them were forced into it as children…
More “sex trafficking” hentai! A Virginia cop absurdly styled a “colonel” calls women “commodities” and says traffickers have “large tentacles”.
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #342)
A group of French clients wrote a manifesto opposing the criminalization of clients, patterned on a 1971 abortion rights manifesto. Predictably, neofeminists refused to see the parallel between sex worker rights and abortion, while some sex worker activists objected to people speaking out on a law which will criminalize them on the grounds that activists hadn’t given them permission, and others quibbled over the possessive pronoun “my” in the phrase “my whore”…you know, that same one widely used in such popular phrases as “my doctor”, “my representative” and even “my client”. One would think sex workers would understand the idea of “strange bedfellows”.
The CPS can be quite remarkably obtuse at times. Myles Jackman is a solicitor who represents many defendants in cases such as this. His view of the CPS:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/the-evidence-is-mounting-is-the-cps-institutionally-homophobic-8918512.html?origin=internalSearch
More and more crossover between some activists and neofeminists. Maybe those clients should have remained silent and just watched as the sex workers they like are arrested. Can’t complain about clients not sticking up for us when this is the response. And as far as “tone” (which is what some activists will point out), yeah, it’s a bit rough. However, just as we don’t like allies telling us, “I’d support you if you sounded nicer and didn’t say things I don’t personally like in a way I don’t personally approve of”, we shouldn’t do that to clients either. As long as the overall gist is respectful and supportive, go ahead!
The main issue with this manifesto was that, while most signatories were anonymous, those who were public included some very unsavoury characters such as Eric Zemmour (a polemicist close to the far right well known for his racist / demeaning rhetoric). Of course the French minister in charge of the prohibition law used that opportunity to say “Here is the true face of the anti-prohibitionists”, hence the reaction of the activists who tried to distance themselves from the manifesto.
Luckily the tide is slowly turning. See for example: the well-respected philosopher Elizabeth Badinter took the side of the anti-prohibitionists by saying that “the state should NOT be able to legislate on people’s sex life”. See the article in French on http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/11/19/prostitution-l-etat-n-a-pas-a-legiferer-sur-l-activite-sexuelle-des-individus_3516107_3224.html – also check the comments under the article: most people are very supportive towards her (“a breath of common sense, finally!”), and some are openly challenging the “95% of prostitutes are coerced” statement spouted by the prohibitionists, which is all good news.
On the same topic, a second petition was issued, this time by less controversial people. It says:
“Without endorsing or promoting prostitution, we do not support penalising either prostitutes or their customers, and we want a healthy debate to be open on this matter, without the usual preconceptions”.
http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/11/16/petition-de-celebrites-contre-le-projet-de-penaliser-les-clients-de-prostituees_3515085_3224.html
They also call for prostitutes to get the “same rights as any other worker” – a breath of fresh air in the debate, indeed!
On the minus side, the lower chamber has just accepted most of the points that were in the draft law, modifying only minor points; its content still has the same focus as originally, all about “helping” the “victims” to “exit prostitution”, the usual blah blah. All the MPs in the special commission that was reviewing the law approved it, except a Green MP (the Greens have been the only ones openly denouncing this law).
Prohibitionist propaganda has been heavy-handed as you can easily imagine… If you can read French and don’t mind swimming in an ocean of bullshit, have a look at the following link to get an idea – http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2013/11/12/ce-sont-les-acheteurs-de-sexe-qu-il-faut-penalise_3512622_3232.html
Yes, I saw that one; it’s going to be in my TW3 column for this coming Saturday, which I was compiling today. 🙂
If I had the slightest idea what kaiju might be, I’d work it into a comment. Maybe I should get out more 🙁
A kaiju is a giant monster of the type popular in Japanese movies.
Like Gamera up there. 🙂
Pacific Rim refined the definition …
http://pacificrim.wikia.com/wiki/Kaiju
Well, that’s nice for Pacific Rim, but I hardly see that definition extending outside of its canon.
Ah, I see (maybe). My Sci-Fi doesn’t extend much beyond the Eloi and the Morlocks; but that was a very political book, and as relevant today as when it was written.
“Above the Law”:
As the US is slowly turning in to a police state, these scum feel it and are trying to profit from this horrible change. I learned a lot of German history in school (the critical parts…) and my impression is that if this trend is not stopped in the next 5-10 years, it will be too late.
Gamera, friend of all children, with his abilities to fly and regenerate, is the perfect mythical creature to rescue mythical children. Each requires only suspension of disbelief and disregard for principles of mathematics and physics to become as real as one wishes.
There, now I hope you shan’t be put out for lack of attention to your clever choice of flying metaphor
🙂
Everytime I see Gamera, I think of MST3k.
“Gamera isn’t the enemy. Gaos is capable of destroying mankind.”
“So, what do you expect me to do about that?”
— Exchange between female and male scientists in “Gamera: Guardian of the Universe”
Kind of says it all on the different ways women and men see things, doesn’t it?
So they can’t contact an attorney because it’s not an actual arrest, just an involuntary trip in a police car, while handcuffed. That sounds ridiculous even by Arizona police-standards. I really hope this doesn’t stand up in court, or we’re all doomed.