Prostitutes…will be forced to continue to hide…because even if they are not risking arrest, their clients are. And their survival depends on their clients. – Tim Leicester
A rabbi makes an argument familiar to students of medieval Catholicism:
Britain should…[legalize] brothels and…[implement] basic controls over safety and hygiene…without monitoring activities too closely and thereby discouraging usage of them…It may be more messianic to want to end the sex trade altogether, but perhaps it is more religious to seek to channel it safely.
…Layal has…turned to sex work in [Beirut] to support her two children…“I don’t have any products to sell…I have myself to sell, and I’d much rather earn my money [like that] than I would begging on the street”…Layal says her Iraqi husband…sends her a monthly allowance from Baghdad, but…it’s not enough to cover her $900 rent…and allow her to send money to her family back in Syria. He has no idea his wife is supplementing their income with prostitution …“A woman should never depend on anyone else for money, even her husband,” she says defiantly…
Note the assumption that there is always a “trafficker” hiding somewhere:
[Massachusetts’] new human trafficking law has been on the books since early last year, but Bristol County has not charged anyone and Plymouth County has brought charges against one man…[law sponsor] Mark C.W. Montigny…said the problem of human trafficking exists everywhere…and…the attitude that it doesn’t happen here is part of the problem…Law enforcement should use cases involving johns and prostitutes “to go up the ladder” and identify and prosecute the trafficker, he said…
Remember Chris Baughman, the Las Vegas cop claiming to be an “expert” on “pimps”? Pay especial note to the “magical pimp” trope:
[MSNBC’s]…new series, Slave Hunter: Freeing Victims of Human Trafficking…reveals…what happens behind closed doors in the sex trafficking underworld. The series highlights the…work of human rights advocate, Aaron Cohen and his partner, former Las Vegas vice detective, Chris Baughman…MSNBC’s cameras follow Cohen and Baughman as they…identify trafficked women via on-line ads and then arrange to meet them in New York City hotel rooms with Cohen posing as a potential john. When the women are open to help, Cohen and Baughman…[help] them to escape their bonds and build a new life…other times, the trafficked women sadly succumb to the powers of their “pimp”…
We can only hope this blows up in NBC’s face the way To Catch a Predator eventually did. Hey, guys, do you know the word for men like you who prey on women in order to enrich and aggrandize themselves? Oops.
…over 1,500 sex workers…[voted in Delhi on] December 4…thanks to an enrollment drive by the state election commission…over 80 per cent [of] sex workers [are now registered]…”We all will vote…for the person who will fulfill our long-pending demands,” Munni Begum…of GB Road Sex Workers Association…said…
…Ashodaya Samithi…is…a powerful collective…of 336 members…[and] a network of volunteers operating in six districts of Karnataka. It reaches out to 8,000 sex workers through its different initiatives…such as providing knowledge of legal and human rights…running drop-in-centres, operation of a crisis management unit, a restaurant…and a training academy predominantly run by members …they also offer HIV and STI testing facilities, counselling and free condoms…90 percent of sex workers in Mysore have been contacted monthly, 70 percent…visit…drop in centres regularly and 65 percent have become consistent condom users. Ashodaya Samithi has successfully reduced STI prevalence within three years…
As I’ve explained before, even cases which could credibly be called “trafficking” rarely fit the myth:
…Since Australia introduced tough laws to crack down on trafficking a decade ago…eight of 15 people…convicted…were…female…migrants, born in the same…country as their victims and typically from similar…socio-economic backgrounds. Most…involved…[debt-bonded] Thai women…[and] three…had reportedly been victims…themselves…[none] were involved in “high-end organised crime”…
Eight common migration myths debunked, including “Migration is on the increase”, “Strict border controls reduce irregular migration”, and “Migrants take jobs that would otherwise go to natives.”
The words “sex trafficking” and “pimp” do not appear in this story; however, I think we all know what was going through these cops’ sick minds:
Houston Police have refused to explain why they took a 13-year-old white girl from her two black guardians…and [gave] her [to]…Child Protective Services. Landry Thompson’s mother had signed notarized papers giving dance instructor Emmanuel Hurd full guardianship over her during a trip from Oklahoma to Houston…Thompson, Hurd and another dance instructor had stopped at a gas station…when they were surrounded by police cars…All three told the police the same story, but…“They still put handcuffs on me and it really scared me”…Thompson [said]…At first officials…demanded that the mother fly to Houston to get her daughter, but 11 hours later, the girl was released back into [Hurd’s] custody…
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #28)
The French parliament has backed part of a bill that imposes a 1,500 euro (£1,250) fine on anyone paying for sex…Protests…took place outside the National Assembly in Paris as the debate took place…
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #47)
The Danes weren’t just satisfied with rejecting the tyrannical Swedish model; they also dramatized the events in a political television show:
…in the internet age, it is simply not good enough to pretend to be speaking for a “voiceless” group, as the surprised politicians learned in Borgen…Sadly, the biggest fiction…was the bit when the politician found herself impressed and moved by the voices of sex work activists…frighteningly few people in power have been willing to listen…
First They Came for the Hookers… (TW3 #132)
For those who still pretend government is different from organized crime:
…Houston Mayor Annise Parker…cut a deal with a group of strip clubs allowing them to…operate freely in exchange for an annual tax of $1 MILLION!…According to [a Houston Chronicle] article, “The city…has reached a settlement…that would halt enforcement of the three-foot rule and allow dancers to be fully topless in exchange for an annual $1 million donation to help combat human trafficking”…for those who have not completely removed the wool from their eyes, this is what is known…as a…shakedown. But wait, only 16 clubs were included…so where does that leave the 50+ other strip clubs that have been purposely excluded from this deal?…I would venture…that…vice raids and harassment at these other clubs…will increase tremendously…the Mayor…herself…all but said that the other clubs will now be more routinely targeted…
Another, more obsequious blog reversed the roles by calling the deal “Houston’s dance with the devil” and breathlessly informed its readers that “Houston…has long been regarded as the nation’s hub of human trafficking”; I’d call that a claim for the #1 spot, wouldn’t you?
I must admit, this one shocked even me:
…a pregnant Italian mother flew to England for a two-week…training course…she had…a panic attack when she couldn’t find the passports for her two daughters, who were with her mother back in Italy. She called the police, who arrived…when she was on the phone to her mother…who explained [to cops] that her daughter was probably over-excited because she suffered from a “bipolar” condition and hadn’t been taking her medication…The police…[took] her to…a psychiatric hospital [where]…she was restrained…[and] sectioned under the Mental Health Act…five weeks later she was…strapped down and forcibly sedated, and when she woke up hours later, found she was in a different hospital and that her baby had been removed by caesarean section while she was unconscious and taken…by social workers. She was…[then deported] to Italy without her baby…[who was] placed for adoption…
Matthias Lehmann debunks more prohibitionist lies:
Re…“Germany is having second thoughts on legalized prostitution”…Alice Schwarzer’s… book and her appeal against prostitution have been widely criticized for using entirely unreliable data. The counter-appeal…has been signed by numerous experts, including counseling centers for sex workers and victims of human trafficking as well as social scientists, social workers and sex workers themselves…a majority of the German public has consistently shown not to support a move to roll back the…law…
I don’t think many sex workers are unhappy about this: “Germany’s biggest political parties have agreed to ban so-called flat-rate sex offered by some brothels…they view as exploitative the special offers…where men can have unlimited sex for 100 euros ($136)…”
In Sweden, sex workers are considered “unfit parents”; child molesters, on the other hand…
A Swedish man convicted for molesting a five-year-old girl…has been [allowed] to adopt a child of his own…the man…has been found guilty of more than 90 crimes, mostly different types of fraud…and was also suspected of raping a…teenage girl…the…social affairs committee…found that his risk of relapse was…low…but…members were not given access to…details about his…sex crime…[and] there were no supporting documents to back up the assessment…
Utrecht city council has agreed [on] a new location for…prostitutes, five months after the licences for most of the…floating brothels were withdrawn…because of concerns the boat owners were involved in human trafficking…The prostitutes, some of whom had attempted to take over the boats themselves, will be relocated to a new location with 162 workspaces…The city is also introducing a minimum age of 21…and…in order to prevent a monopoly…owners will only be given three-year licences for no more than 20% of the windows.
I take back anything nice I’ve said about Al-Jazeera and “sex trafficking” mythology; this example of the new “gang” myth-motif (complete with the magic mind-control philter and confusion about the meaning of the verb “to sell”) is as bad as anything in the American media:
Washington DC…gangs are prostituting underage girls…Prosecutors say the pimps gave their victims drugs…to keep them submissive… “[prostitutes] can be considered a ‘reusable resource’…if you’re going to deal marijuana or cocaine; you use it up, you have to find another source or supply”…
The article does admit that “relatively little is known about the overall nature or extent of juvenile prostitution in the United States,” but of course that never stops prohibitionists from making grandiose pronouncements.
…Femen staged a topless protest outside one of Germany’s biggest brothels, as part of a campaign promoting [the Swedish model]…The women chanted “Go rape yourselves” and…briefly scuffled with the club staff…before being led away by police…Femen held a similar protest in Amsterdam earlier this month…Femen leader Inna Shevchenko said…”Prostitution is not a women’s industry, it’s a business controlled by men”…
Absolute Corruption (TW3 #336)
Still more victims of the Satanic panic released from prison:
Fran and Dan Keller…[were] released after 21 years in prison…The case…was part of national hysteria over alleged sexual abuse with Satanic overtones…therapists were subsequently criticized for having implanted the bizarre allegations into the minds of children…[Defense attorney Keith] Hampton…has vowed to work to completely exonerate the Kellers…
Think this would’ve happened if legal, professional whores were available to soldiers? “Female soldiers at Fort Hood [Texas] testified…that they were recruited for a prostitution ring set up by a sergeant involved in the sexual assault and harassment program…”
Something Rotten in Sweden (TW3 #345)
This might make sense if selling sex were a bona fide criminal act, AND if nearly all clients only paid once in their lives:
…public defender Edgar Lin [had] filed motions to dismiss the two counts against Alexis L. Smith…99 percent of…arrested [clients]…never faced criminal charges, while 40 percent of the prostitutes were criminally charged…The discrepancy formed the basis of Lin’s argument that his client’s right to equal protection had been violated…But…Judge Mark McGinnis ruled that the patrons and prostitutes are not similarly situated, because the prostitutes…have ongoing criminal activity, while the johns typically only commit a single crime…
Another lurid, dysphemism-laden article on Brazilian sex work; this one conflates child, underage and adult prostitution, plays a shell game with agency, blames sex workers for the sadistic actions of police and has a faint Swedish odor in places. All in all, a truly noxious mixture.
The Italian mother story is still evolving. It seems that the request for a caesarean section was made by medics, not the council; they feared a uterine rupture because the woman had had two previous sections. The mother apparently wished to deliver vaginally. The mother did see the child after delivery, which was born a few days prematurely.
Proceedings thus far have been in the Family Court; however, the President of the Family Court has arranged for further proceedings to be heard in the High Court. There are usually marked restrictions on reporting from the Family Court.
This is what happens in “nanny states” who “take care” of every single facet of life, including healthcare – they start to believe they don’t need the permission of the individual anymore.
Regardless of what they THOUGHT would happen to her uterus – she should have been consulted. In the U.S. (for the moment at least) a woman still has the right to say “yes” and “no” to procedures. The doctor can warn her of dire circumstances – but the decision is hers. It would appear that nannyism in Italy is now bold enough not JUST to disregard the will of the patient – but indeed, to not even fucking ask what his or her will is at all.
The woman was Italian, but this happened in the UK. Italy is not at all happy about it.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that sex workers are subhuman and unworthy of the protection of the law. This woman was not a sex worker, and nobody said that she was. Where is the outrage from the mainstream media? Why am I not reading op-eds screaming about this miscarriage of justice from The Huffington Post? Why is it that the only media outlet (it seems) that is covering this story in the U.S. is Maggie’s blog? Are people like Melissa Grant and Rhoda whats-her-name so fixated on stopping women from having consensual sex for profit that they are ignoring the plight of OTHER women who aren’t sex workers?
Second, let’s assume that the doctors who decided this woman needed an emergency caesarian delivery were right and they couldn’t wait to ask her or her spouse. They put up the kid for adoption because the mother was hysterical and couldn’t speak a language they understood? It’s not like she was speaking Ethiopian or a native American dialect—it was Italian, and it shouldn’t have been that difficult for the authorities to find somebody in London to translate Italian for them.
This is wrong on so many different levels…
Melissa Grant is a sex worker rights advocate; I think you combined Rhoda Grant and Melissa Farley. 😉
*epic facepalm*
I sincerely regret mistaking Melissa Grant for either of those women who happen to share her given name and surname. If she is reading this, I hope she accepts my sincere apology.
I don’t know exact;y what happened here. It seems that the Italian Woman had some form of major psychiatric illness. I would imagine that her problems were discussed at a case conference between the medics and the social workers—as is usual here. It seems that her illness was so severe that she wasn’t capable of giving informed consent to a vaginal delivery (or perhaps of being able to cooperate during delivery). If that is the case, the hospital Trust would apply to the Family Court for permission to perform a caesarean delivery; as much to protect itself and staff from any possible future action for assault. There is the presumption of a duty of care on such health professionals. If, for instance, they had done nothing, and allowed the woman to proceed to a vaginal delivery, and if her uterus had ruptured, they would be open to a suit for negligence.
I expect that the Court had to have regard not only for the mother but also for her unborn child, hence the permission given to perform a caesarean.
The Italian Woman was “sectioned”, that is she was held in a ‘place of safety’ under the provisions of the Mental Health Act. Likewise her child will have been held in a place of safety.
She now appears to have recovered. Quite why the Court still thinks her child should be adopted is very unclear. There should be communication between the UK social care authorities and those in Italy; it’s not clear if this happened, but it seems that the Italians are very unhappy.
Certainly, this case is very unusual; I don’t think that all the facts have been made public so far.
And, krulac, you may well think that this is a nanny state; does the US really allow people who are not rational, who are mentally incompetent to do whatever they please, to endanger themselves and others?
😛
On Germany – man, I don’t what’s going on there – but I hope they don’t return to the darkside.
Now, on this story where the German political parties agree to ban unlimited flat rate sex … I would not jump for joy at that right now … because exactly WHAT IS the kind of sex they are trying to ban?
100 Euro flat rate sex? Well, 100 Euro just happens to be the flat rate (PER HOUR) of most sex in FKK’s. The picture in the headline is of Artemis “Brothel” – but Artemis is more of an “FKK” – it’s in Berlin. I’ve never been ther but I am pretty familiar with the rates.
I’m almost positive there’s no deal at Artemis where a guy can pay 100 Euro for a day of UNLIMITED sex.
FKK’s … typically you’ll pay a “house fee” just to get into the door of around 65 Euro and this covers unlimited non-alcoholic drinks and food for the day. Then, every encounter with a woman will cost around 50 euros per half hour – but – that is just for BBBJ and CFS – nothing extra. CIM = 100 Euro extra … Anal = can’t remember (never do it) … I think it’s 200 euro extra and lesbian interaction is like 100 euro for each girl (again never really do this so not sure). And the rates DO vary from city to city and FKK to FKK.
So is it THIS payment scheme they seek to ban?
I’m totally unfamiliar with any German brothel that charges 100 euro for unlimited sex for an entire day.
The only scheme like that I know of is the “gang bang” situations where their might be 3 gals and 15 guys … in that case the guys do pay a lower rate but I wouldn’t say the sex is unlimited … those only last for a max of like … maybe 2 hours? I dunno – it’s not something that interests me.
Maybe a German reader can explain this shit.
Put another way – don’t MOST hookers in the U.S. charge a “flat rate”? How else can you do it? I usually pay around $300 / hour for MSOG – that’s flat rate isn’t it?
I think that when you pay a flat rate, it’s only for a limited amount of time, but I am getting the impression that this the sex work equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet. The client pays one flat rate, and has as much sex with the girls inside until he is ready to leave the brothel. I can understand why the sex workers would be very happy to see that deal go bye-bye.
Yes, but at the end of the day, the money is split equally with all the girls. That is why many like working at flat-rate clubs. Because, unlike what the prohibitionists believe, sex workers don’t always have tons of tons of clients a day! So at least at these clubs, one can be assured of a certain amount of money.
Also, I know three people who go to the German clubs (including myself). We three are all lucky if we can do two pops a day. Three or four or five in a feew hours? No way.
And the best is if the club allows you to leave the premises and return without paying cover again. But not all allow that, and I’m not sure how it is with the flat-rate clubs.
Anyway, this ban seems totally symbolic and built on some exaggerated notion of voracious male sexuality.
“FKK’s … typically you’ll pay a “house fee” just to get into the door of around 65 Euro and this covers unlimited non-alcoholic drinks and food for the day. ”
Weird. Non-alcoholic drinks? Considering that the real money is made by getting the clients to pay for extras, I’d be handing out free booze like Las Vegas casinos do.
While we are on the topic of trafficking and pimps, really, what is a pimp? Someone who finds or provides work to the sex worker in exchange for a share of the profits.
Well, capitalists “provide work” in that they have the capital to start businesses, control the capital to grow or destroy businesses, and the workers in such businesses labor and the greater share of the fruits of their labor flow up to the capitalists, the “pimps”. We’re all pimped.
Very true. I used to be pimped, back in my engineering days. Then I retired.
In fact, I used to tell people, when I was short on work, that I had my red light on. “You got charge number? I system-test you loooong time! I make you BIG alignment!” (My belated apologies to stereotyped southeast-Asian sex workers, but my listeners got the idea.)
I’m not sure how widespread it is, but in some IT circles “Pimp” is common slang for professional recruiters.
We always called them headhunters. I was surprised that this never led to cannibal jokes.
All of us wage slaves have ‘prostituted’ ourselves, selling our labour.
And as for the capitalists, they get the capital from bankers; now, who are the pimps?
I really don’t get Femen at all. They claim they want to eradicate the patriarchy by eradicating religion, dictatorship and the sex industry yet they don’t seem to realise that those three things will exist in a matriarchy as well. Plus they seem to ignore that there have been a couple female dictators throughout history (maybe there were more then that considering we don’t know everything about our past) and they ignore that you get women who pay men for sex, I wouldn’t be surprised they ignore women raping men, women objectifying men, men being victims in domestic violence perpetrated by women and women being pedophiles since misandrist feminists tend to ignore those. If they are really about sexual equality then they should encourage women to pay men for sex. Plus if they along with many other anti-sex groups want an industry made illegal due to the few bad things about it then they should target every industry.
It’s all part of the modern “victim” mindset. Men aren’t one of the protected groups, so they can never be victims & it’s OK to oppress them.
Femen is the private harem of this particular alpha male – Victor Svyatski – who runs it. Ironic that they themselves are exemplars of the kind of abusive thralldom they claim other women are victims of.
http://www.policymic.com/articles/62167/victor-svyatski-man-behind-femen-picks-prettiest-girls-calls-them-bitches
Which sadly makes us have to arrest the sex worker for her own good and then nobody is sad anymore! *smh*
If they really believe they can “go up the ladder” as they do to find drug kingpins, and I were one of those arrested, I’d be very tempted to tell them that one of the so-called “rescue” groups “trafficked” me. After all, those groups do kidnap women against their will, so once police set out to catch them in the act, they will probably succeed.
Sexual Equalist, I think with Femen, you have to realize the scale the lies about human trafficking are done on. Look at that Slave Hunter story … it’s airing on MSNBC, but hell, I bet Fox News would love to air a series like it. Human trafficking is not politicized at present, the lies are EVERYWHERE. they are probably confused and ignorant like so many people are.
P.S.: I joined the MSNBC webpage just so I could call the producer who posted on the page a pimp, and explain why. There are a few people calling the program out on its ignorance but mostly it’s kinda mindless religious types praising it for rescuing women from those horrible awful traffickers. I agree with Maggie, this program has huge potential to blow up in MSNBC’s face, and I really hope it does.
“I don’t think many sex workers are unhappy about this: ”
A curious position for Ms Supply-and-demand to take. Why not ask “why is flat rate sex so popular among the punters?” The answer is obvious: it nixes those dreaded words “Oh, that’s extra.”
I love how flat rate sex is “exploitative”, but insisting on extra money once the John already has his pants off is not.
How is that a “position”, curious or otherwise? If I said “I don’t think many children are unhappy about not being forced to eat broccoli”, would you call that a “curious position” as well?
As for your last sentence, who the hell said that? Not I.
I stand corrected.
Are you sure you understand what “flat-rate club” means? As someone described above, it’s where you pay one price at the door and get to have as much sex with as many of the girls as you can in a certain time frame (not sure what the exact time frame is). You say they are popular, but in Germany, this is not the normal model.
Jesus – that is all kinds of wrong. You’ll have guys treating the experience like a time-limited game of golf, but without even the element of difficulty that makes golf meaningful.
More important;y: it also removes from the women some of the ability to consent. In a normal situation, the worker has the right to refuse a booking, to not accept the money. This becomes awkward when the punters have pre-paid, sight unseen.
The only person it’s good for is the business owner. It makes the accountancy easier – he just has to put a turnstile on the door.
Well, see my comments above. Also, remember that this is Germany and they are in competition with other clubs in Germany that run on different models.
For example, a few weeks ago I went to clubs in Germany where you pay €60 at the door as cover charge and a half-hour session with one girl. Like I suggested above, lots of us who go to such clubs are at the age where a second session within a few hours time is physically a lucky bet. But I was able to do it for an extra €30.
So, that was two sessions for €90, where as the flat-rate clubs charge €100 right up front. Hence, even if there were flat-rate clubs near where I was in Germany, I would not have gone to them.
As for “consent” and what is the “normal situation,” not sure what you mean. Are brothels abnormal? Are the fish tanks in Thailand normal? Is the BBBJ bar I went to in Barcelona normal?
Obviously I meant “whatever I am personally used to is normal”. A forgivable slip, I hope.
In the brothels in my town, the girls come into the intro room one by one. They usually peek through the partially silvered mirror before doing so, meaning that they can simply opt to not intro themselves to the client.
After this, the madam pokes her head in and says “which girl will you see” (never “do you want to see any of ’em” – assume the sale is basic salesmanship). If a girl should decide not to see a particular client, it’s a simple matter of “oops – some other punter has grabbed her already just now, sorry about that.”
So you can see that consent-wise, it’s quite different from there are a dozen girls, you can just pick any of ’em and have sex because hey – you already paid. Not that I’m saying the girls in the flat-fee brothels *can’t* withdraws consent, only that it’s more difficult and awkward to do so.
Where are your brothels? I’m guessing in the UK or Australia?
The brothels I have been to in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Germany, and Spain don’t work like that. So, basically, if you consent to work in those brothels, you consent to hook up with any client.
Of course, all the girls still have their own rules on what they will allow. And I guess if they don’t like a particular client, they will just give him a horribly lousy session!
Canberra, Australia. Right there is also a clue why I don’t always see eye-to-eye with Maggie about the roles of government 🙂
🙂
In the Ft Hood case, it’s almost a certainty that the female soldiers are lying to avoid penalties for engaging in sex parties, just as its almost a certainty that they joined the army in the first place to have sex with unlimited amounts of beefcake. Women in this situation will not hesitate to throw the men under a bus.
[…] to what the ‘authorities’ label ‘gangs’. And just as in the past, interracial relationships are an especial target of busybodies looking for ‘signs of sex trafficking’ or even […]
[…] to what the ‘authorities’ label ‘gangs’. And just as in the past, interracial relationships are an especial target of busybodies looking for ‘signs of sex trafficking’ or even […]