Happy Halloween, Dear Readers, and Blessed Be!
Archive for October, 2014
Halloween 2014
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays, witchcraft on October 31, 2014| 13 Comments »
Lady Castlemaine
Posted in Biography, Harlotography, History, tagged Catholicism, courtesans, marriage, politicians, United Kingdom on October 30, 2014| 17 Comments »
Lady Castlemaine…[went] away…upon some slighting words of the king, so that…the king, the next morning, under pretence of going a hunting, went to see her and make friends…After which she came back to court, and commands the king as much as ever, and hath and doth what she will. – The Diary of Samuel Pepys, July 22nd, 1663
Though the majority of whores have always been born in the working class, when disposition, circumstance and necessity converge to make harlotry the most attractive choice, women of noble birth are just as quick to make it as their humbler sisters. And when looks and personality converge to give her a higher-than-ordinary degree of sexual power over men, a noble-born courtesan is no more likely to be sparing in the use of that power than any other.
Barbara Villiers was born in Westminster on November 17th, 1640*, the only child of William Villiers, the 2nd Viscount Grandison, and his wife Mary (heiress of the 1st Viscount Bayning). She would have been a very wealthy little girl after her father’s death in battle** had it not been for the fact that he had given his entire fortune to the Cavalier war effort; Mary and her daughter were left in poverty, and she was forced by necessity to marry her husband’s cousin Charles (the 2nd Earl of Anglesey) in order to have any income at all. The Commonwealth was not a good time for the Villiers family; though like many others they had officially espoused loyalty to Cromwell, they secretly supported the claim of the exiled Charles II and lived under a cloud of suspicion due to their active participation on his father’s side during the Civil War. Barbara was raised in the country by relatives, but by 15 she had blossomed into an exceptionally beautiful young woman (tall and voluptuous, with chestnut hair and eyes of so dark a blue they looked black); her mother brought her to London with the idea of marrying her to a wealthy family despite her lack of a dowry. Within a year the intelligent, independent Barbara had become the mistress of Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield, and on April 14th, 1659 she married a young lawyer named Roger Palmer, heir to a large fortune, over his family’s vociferous objections (including, but not limited to, the fact that he was Catholic and she Anglican). Though on paper they never divorced, in reality they separated in 1662.
The reason for that separation was, as you may have already guessed, her infidelity. In the autumn after their marriage, the royalists dispatched Barbara to The Hague with letters and money for the King; since she was only 18 at the time, it was felt she would arouse less suspicion (and her person was much less likely to be searched in any case). Before she returned to England, she had already become Charles’ lover; at first they were relatively discreet about it, but by the Restoration of the monarchy in April of 1661 it was secret to virtually nobody. When her daughter Anne was born in February of 1661 the King, her husband and Chesterfield all claimed the child as theirs, and when Palmer was created Baron Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine later that year it was whispered that the titles were payment for his wife’s services; unlike the husbands of Lillie Langtry and Alice Keppel, however, Palmer was not at all sanguine about the arrangement. When Barbara’s second child, Charles, was born in June of 1662, Palmer had him baptized Catholic; Barbara later had him re-baptized Anglican in a ceremony attended by His Majesty, who publicly proclaimed the child his. It was the last straw for Palmer, who never saw his wife again; though he had a long (but stormy) political career until his death in 1705, he was deeply humiliated by his reputation as “Europe’s best-known cuckold”.
When the new Queen, Catherine of Braganza, arrived at court from her honeymoon soon after baby Charles’ birth, she discovered her new husband’s mistress already in control; the fact was hammered home when the King demanded she accept Barbara’s appointment as a Lady of the Bedchamber, an official position which would give both an income and rooms at the Palace. The Queen had already been told about Barbara by friends, so naturally she refused; Charles became furious and sent the ladies she had brought with her home to Portugal. The King’s chief advisor, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, hated Barbara with a passion, but gritted his teeth and advised the Queen to relent for her own good; Barbara repaid this reluctantly-given help by plotting with his political enemies to bring about his downfall in August of 1667.
These are only a few examples of Barbara’s extraordinary selfishness and viciousness. Though she was witty and charismatic and could be generous and even kind when it suited her, she had a terrible temper and was merciless to those she perceived as enemies; she was described by George Reresby as “the finest Woman of her age“, but by John Evelyn as the “curse of our nation“. She had a powerful hold on King Charles, partly due to her looks and partly to her legendary sexual prowess; her influence was so great that after one of their many arguments she could always get him to come crawling to her, and on more than one occasion she actually got him to apologize in front of witnesses. He showered her with gifts, and not long after his coronation gave her a payment of £30,000 (about £2.5 million today); he also granted her an annual pension of £4700 (£400,000) from the Post Office, and allowed her to take additional money out of his own purse whenever she liked. After her sudden conversion to Catholicism in December of 1663, she also made extra money by charging French and Spanish diplomats for using her persuasive powers to sway the Anglican King in their favor.
Barbara bore King Charles three more children: Henry (1663), Charlotte (1664) and George (1665); all of her children were eventually granted titles, even the youngest (also called Barbara), who was born in 1672 and was probably the daughter of John Churchill. Neither Barbara nor King Charles had ever been faithful to each other, but while the King did not care she was quite jealous because it meant her income. The concern was not an invalid one; since April of 1668 the King’s favorite had been the younger and far more even-tempered Nell Gwyn. In June of 1670 he gave Barbara one final set of generous gifts as a kind of severance package: she was given Nonsuch Palace, built by Henry VIII, and the titles Baroness Nonsuch, Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland (the latter was a true peerage, made with a condition allowing her to pass the title to her son Charles). She was still nominally the official mistress until 1673, when the Test Act banned Catholics from holding office; she thus lost her position as Lady of the Bedchamber to Louise de Kéroualle, Nell Gwyn’s chief rival. In 1676 she moved to Paris with her four younger children, but returned to England in 1680 and enjoyed a friendly relationship with the King until his death in February of 1685. By this time she had developed a terrible gambling habit, and in 1682 had Nonsuch Palace entirely dismantled so she could sell off its expensive materials to pay her debts. In her later years she became involved with a series of unscrupulous fortune-hunters; after Roger Palmer’s death in 1705 she actually married one of these, though it was later annulled when she discovered he already had a wife. In 1709 she developed what was then called dropsy, a condition which caused her to become so edematous that she died of congestive heart failure on October 9th. It is clear that Barbara, like so many other courtesans, had been totally unable to recognize that her sex appeal had deserted her, and adjust her expectations, lifestyle and expenditures so as to live out her declining years in comfort and some small measure of dignity. But then, dignity was never something that Barbara was very good at, even when she still had her youth and looks.
*Because Catholic realms (including France and Ireland) had already converted to the Gregorian calendar at this time but the United Kingdom had not, it is not unusual to see her birthday expressed in the new style as November 27th, and some sources record the year as 1641.
**There is considerable disagreement about which Civil War battle claimed Villiers’ life; Wikipedia says Newbury (September 20th, 1643); other sources say Bristol (July 26th, 1643); and Bishop Burnet’s contemporary history says Edgehill (October 23rd, 1642).
Since the Model Came Out
Posted in Q & A, tagged fantasy, imaginative fiction, psychology, yin and yang on October 29, 2014| 10 Comments »
I’m a 50-year-old, happily married man who values his marriage and would not change that for anything; however, I’ve fallen love with one of my co-workers. At first I thought it was just sexual attraction, and because she’s a lesbian I thought I was “protected” from developing any stronger feelings; that, however, was not the case, and once I really got to know her I was smitten. I’d appreciate any insight you can give.
People who believe that the human psyche and human culture are both the products of Divine ordination have either never fallen in love, or else they think God is a sadist. Alas, one of the sad by-products of human evolution is that people often develop very powerful sexual and romantic feelings for others that human culture says they absolutely shouldn’t be having those feelings for, and there is very little that can be done about it without causing a major scandal. The feelings themselves aren’t wrong; as Captain Kirk said to Charlie Evans, “There’s nothing wrong with you that hasn’t gone wrong with every other human male since the model first came out.” But though romantic literature has celebrated the pangs of unrequited love as a wonderful experience for over 600 years now, the truth is that it’s awful. And though both men and women can suffer from it, in men it’s mixed up with sexual frustration and the protective instinct and duty, honor and all that other glorious masculine craziness.
In a way, you’re very lucky that she’s a lesbian because it presents another barrier to your pursuing the tremendously bad idea of trying to make this go someplace it really can’t go (if you’re to remain happily married and gainfully employed). Dealing with the feelings, however, is another matter; the world is full of art, music, literature and other beautiful things created by men in situations not dissimilar to yours for the love of women they can never have. Even if you’re not the creative type, you can still borrow from their playbook by immersing yourself in your work whenever thoughts of your inamorata get to be too much to bear. For you, work itself presents a problem because that’s where you see her, but if you’re like most people the work you do for money isn’t the same as that you do for love; it’s the latter I’m suggesting you pursue more diligently. I made a Star Trek reference above, and that was not merely to lighten the mood: On those occasions when Captain Kirk actually did fall in love with some woman he couldn’t have, the Enterprise was always his antidote, because his love for his work was strong enough to eventually pull him away from his love for any woman. You need to find your Enterprise (or your music, or your novel, or your Sistine Chapel), the thing you care about deeply enough to pour your heart and soul into. It doesn’t make the pain of unrequited love (or any of the other slings and arrows of outrageous fortune) go away entirely, but it’s the best coping mechanism anyone has discovered yet. And in this world of pain and woe, I’m afraid it’s the best solace I can offer you.
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
Diary – Week 226
Posted in Diary, tagged activism, blogging, New Orleans on October 28, 2014| 6 Comments »
I’m not sure how the hell I did it, but I managed to forget my laptop at home when I left for New Orleans last Thursday. Remember, I’m the Princess of Paranoia; I compulsively inspect my luggage, counting each item in the car to be sure I”m not leaving anything behind. Yet that day, my head was in some kind of fog; I didn’t notice the omission until after I had pickup up my rental car in Shreveport and was well on the way down the road. This, of course, will make me much more paranoid in the future; the rare occasion of my actually doing whatever it is I’m worried about doing acts to reinforce the paranoia. You can bet I will not be forgetting it when I leave for my Northwest tour a week from today!
Other than having to make do with online maintenance, though, it was a really good weekend. On Friday morning I met my little sister for breakfast, and we had a good long talk about family stuff. Then in the afternoon I went to the library to check my emails and Twitter, and I took my cousin Alan to dinner in the evening. Saturday was a long day, but a fruitful one; the Students for Liberty conference was excellent and the lineup of speakers very interesting. Some libertarian gatherings are dominated by people who seem more concerned with economic issues than anything else, but this was not one of them and the speaker lineup reflected that; the afternoon block was especially subversive, with my talk followed by Thaddeus Russell‘s and then Angela Keaton‘s a bit later. And I can assure you that whatever trees remained unshook when Thad Russell and I were done, were entirely cleared of loose branches and leaves by the time Angela put down the mike! After dinner there was a social, and then a house party at the organizers’ home; I borrowed Angela’s computer to finish Sunday’s “Links” column, then sat on the porch swing and fielded questions until after 1 AM.
It’s a good thing I don’t need a lot of sleep any more, because I had to get up early Sunday morning for breakfast with Thad Russell; we talked about future projects and then I took him on a short tour of the city before bringing him to the airport. After that, Denise was kind enough to allow me the use of her computer for several hours, during which time I was able to mostly catch up on my bookkeeping (though I was behind on my Twitter blog-promotion until this morning) and write the very column you’re reading. Then on Monday I drove home, and for the next week I’ll be busy trying to get as far ahead as I can in preparation for the next trip! Last but not least, my sincere thanks to the readers who sent me monetary gifts over the weekend; y’all covered my entire trip to New Orleans and left some for Chicago and Seattle! If anyone else would like to donate, just see the subscription box at right. Your donations not only help me in the practical sense, but also let me know that y’all appreciate my efforts and think my work is important enough to support; that moral support is every bit as vital as the financial.
Back Issue: October 2011
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging, holidays, imaginative fiction, neofeminism, welcome to our world on October 27, 2014| 4 Comments »
Prostitution is the elephant in the American parlor; though most men and a sizable fraction of women see it standing there, they refuse to talk honestly about it lest they upset their half-blind old Auntie who either can’t see it or has mistaken it for a large and rather oddly-shaped sideboard or ottoman. – “Elephant in the Parlor“
As long-time readers know, October is my favorite month. Part of it is because of the weather and the shortening of the days, but a lot of it is because it ends in my favorite holiday, Halloween. I try to do as many horror-themed columns as possible in October, but it isn’t always easy; in 2011 I only managed five of them, and that’s including the one for Halloween itself and this month’s fictional interlude, “Pearls Before Swine” (which is, BTB, one of my personal favorites). The other three were “Moondance” (on sex, death and October weather), “Frightful Films” (a love-letter to horror movies), and “Mass Hysteria” (in which I compare “sex trafficking” hysteria to the War of the Worlds radio play scare).
Semi-coincidentally, the day before the latter column I published “The Country of the Blind“, which uses a metaphor drawn from a different H.G. Wells story; this must’ve been a good month for that sort of thing, because “With Folded Hands” was also inspired by a classic science fiction tale. And as I explained last month, the “one year ago today” feature provided plenty of inspiration, too; “A Serpent’s Tooth” and “Bad Fantasy, Good Reality” were inspired by the columns of a year before (though they dealt with new articles), and “Slap on the Wrist“, “The Crumbling Dam” and “Wine, Women and Song” were direct sequels to their precursors. This month’s harlotography, “Su Xiaoxiao“, had little resemblance to the previous year’s harlotography despite appearing on the same day, and this month’s updates and Q & A columns were likewise scheduled on the anniversaries of similar columns, but of course featured new material.
By this point, columns based on individual news stories had become the rule rather than the exception; “We Told You So“, “Marching Up Their Own Arses“, “Wholesale Hypocrisy“, “An Ounce of Prevention“, “The Punitive Mindset” and “Elephant in the Parlor” all fall into that category. So do “The Enlightenment Police“, “May I Add…” and “Scrambled Eggs“, but these all deal with “welcome to our world” topics, those in which non-sex work subjects are discussed with similar rhetoric.
As usual, a few columns don’t easily fit into any grouping for discussion. “The Pigeons Come Home” discusses a complaint asking the APA to revoke Melissa Farley’s membership for gross ethical violations; “None of Your Business” recounts Jimmy Swaggart’s difficulties with whores (on the anniversary of the second time he was caught with his hand in the crumpet tin); “Under a Rock” asks why so many people are in denial about the existence of neofeminism; “Stranger Than Fiction” tells a strange story about stranger people from my university days; and “A Visit to Soapland” recounts my husband’s visit to a Japanese bathhouse. The latter is my most-read column of all time, by a comfortable margin; as you can imagine, my husband will never let me live down the fact that the most popular essay on this blog was written by him instead of me. 
Links #225
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, asset seizure, clowns, cops, disease, East Asia, Europe, fantasy, France, Georgia, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Mississippi, neofeminism, prisons, scams, United Kingdom, video, Washington (state), weaponry on October 26, 2014| 11 Comments »
The…binary foundation of 1s and 0s is deeply problematic: 1 is inherently phallic and thus misogynistic…we have 0s and Os as our fundamental binary logic gates. They symbolise/-ize the varying, natural, and beautiful differences of the female vaginal opening. – Arielle Schlesinger
OK, you can laugh: I stupidly forgot my laptop at home. As a result, I’m finishing this up on Angela Keaton’s teeny-tiny little notebook at a house party in New Orleans. Nobody can fault my dedication! Everything down to the first video is from Jesse Walker, the second video is from Jack Shafer and the links between the videos are from Jason Kuznicki (“awkward” and “property”), Scott Greenfield (“police state”), Dave Barry (“headline”), Mike Siegel (“runner-up” and “hysteria”), Popehat (“firearms”), and Franklin Harris (“neglect”).
- Well, that was awkward.
- Just another day in a police state.
- Headline of the week. Runner-up.
- Just in case you think you actually own your property.
- Quite possibly the stupidest thing you’ll read this year.
- UK takes another step toward confiscation of all firearms.
- The same state where the “sex trafficking” hysteria is strongest.
- Crimes: various petty offenses. Penalties: death by medical neglect.
From the Archives
- Weeds, cops, dogs, sedition, super-ducks, Pseudodoxia, ERB, hamsters, condom ads, dead birds, the end of Newsweek and All Hallows Read.
- Brains, GIFs, letters, dark rides, Sasquatch, cops, necromancy, rats, schools, headlines and Halloween videos.
- I ♥ Sex Workers, And Then There Were None, Ada, Big Sister and Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance.
- The Magdalene Laundries, Sweet Georgia Brown, Minnie the Moocher and Maggie May.
- Woman remembers being “trafficked” and also being raised by monkeys.
- Writer hates some women being more interested in profit than romance.
- Clueless lawheads shocked that women need work despite harassment.
- Nature is a bitch goddess who doesn’t give a damn what anyone wants.
- Melissa Gira Grant on how “trafficking” hysteria hurts exploited workers.
- New York court rules dancing can’t be sexy; dissenting judges disagree.
- Reviews of Paying for It, Sex at the Margins, The Sex Myth & You Will Die.
- Canadian “authorities” as obsessed with “trafficking” porn as US ones.
- Even Rwanda understands sex worker rights better than the US does.
- Politicians claim nonexistent “sex trafficking” costs UK a billion pounds.
- It’s rare to see such raw misandry outside of neofeminist hate sites.
- In the US, new tools of tyranny always spread like a social disease.
- NSA says sex workers & associated parties are valid drone targets.
- Cop can’t understand why whores “don’t realize they are victims”.
- The extension of “sex trafficking” hysteria to stripping continues.
- Thai cops arrest sex workers to please their American overlords.
- Another degenerate member of the mugshot/revenge porn clan.
- The agency-denying, lie-spreading nun-SOAP cabal is at it again.
- New examples of ridiculously old-fashioned anti-whore rhetoric.
- In Ireland, even some consensual adult amateur sex is a crime.
- More ugly prohibitionist bullshit of the sort we’ve seen before.
- Atlanta is the largest “sex trafficking hub” in the entire world!
- Illegal migrants cheated of pay; notice what word isn’t used.
- Would-be pimps harass escorts by calling the cops on them.
- China moves ahead of the US in one area of human rights.
- All it takes to be arrested in a “sex sting” is to be present.
- Three UN agencies officially call for total decriminalization.
- White US feminist goes “undercover” in a Turkish brothel.
- Profiteers try to rescue “sex addiction” by redefining it.
- Head G-man absurdly claims g-men never hire whores.
- The journalistic ethics of outing Alexis Wright’s clients.
- Politician says heterosexual male desire is “sickening”.
- Man tries to rape a hooker by pretending to be a cop.
- Woman jailed for murder after having a miscarriage.
- A ridiculous “estimate” grows even more ridiculous.
- Sex rays are also dangerous to plants and wildlife!
- Fetishists claim “sex trafficking” is “unrecognized”.
- Somaly Mam has been caught in another huge lie.
- Whore-hatred carries no consequences for cops.
- Women With A Vision moves into a new office.
- Dr. Marty Klein on Australia’s weird porn laws.
- The pending release of the San Antonio Four.
- Chester Brown sends me four of his books.
- Libertarianism even happens to politicians.
- How does sexual repression affect people?
- Alexander the Great’s favorite courtesan.
- Protests against the awful Project ROSE.
- Whorearchy from a glamour model.
- A short anti-Swedish model play.
- Tizzy Wall interviews Siouxsie Q.
- Pop stars cause sex trafficking!
- Standard operating procedure.
- A short look at the big picture.
- Cuddling and diaper-flashing.
- My favorite Halloween stuff.
- The campus censorship fad.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- The Science of Fear.
- My second million.
That Was the Week That Was (#443)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged Above the Law, Africa, agency denial, Alabama, animals, bogus studies, Bottleneck, Buried Truth, California, Cambodia, Canada, Capricious Lusts, cops, Cops and Condoms, cult of the child, Damned If You Don't, Denmark, dirty, Dirty Whores, disease, drugs, Dubai, Europe, Five Women in Whitechapel, Germany, Google, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, India, Indiana, Indonesia, Ireland, Kentucky, LGBT rights, male prostitutes, Middle East, neofeminism, Nigeria, Not An Addiction, Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs, pimps, pregnancy, prohibitionist myths, Property of the State, psychology, racism, rape, red-light districts, rescue industry, Rhinoceros, Rooted in Racism, Scapegoats, Schadenfreude, sex rays, Shift in the Wind, slavery, stereotypes, stripping, Surplus Women, surveillance, sweatshops, Swedish model, teachers, Tennessee, That Old Black Magic, The Course of a Disease, The Face of Trafficking, The Missing Word, The Roof Caves In, Think of the Children!, Traffic Jam, United Kingdom, video, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), Washington DC, witchcraft on October 25, 2014| 4 Comments »
Given that large numbers of prostitutes operate independently without panderers, it would be difficult to characterize prostitution as inherently rooted in subjugation. – Gail Heriot
The half-life of sex radiation must be over 40 years:
…[73-year-old] Jaqueline Laurent-Auger was a teacher at the Montreal private school, Le Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf…but…the school [fired] her [because]…as a young actress…in France, she starred in a handful of erotic films…[including] Le Journal intime d’une nymphomane (1973) and Dany la ravageuse (1972). In a statement, school officials maintain that “We’re not talking about paintings or sculptures of naked bodies produced with artistry and aesthetics in mind. There are erotic scenes destined for an adult audience…”
The headline makes the contagion sound voluntary and evokes the “dirty whore” myth: “…a [Liberian] sex worker…suffering from Ebola…passed the deadly disease to [Floson Louise]…who unknowingly spread it to seven other soldiers…the army barracks are being decongested to ease the spread of the disease…”
I’m really pleased to see black intellectuals writing about this:
…the movement against “modern-day slavery” deploys non-racial language to…[solidify] the existing racial regime…and…is inordinately preoccupied with women’s sexual victimization…the focus on white women…working in commercial sex recalls the…late nineteenth and early twentieth century…[panic over] the “white slave trade”…the moral authority that anti-slavery mobilizes today partly stems from the memory of black liberation that it implicitly draws upon—all the while explicitly distancing itself from black historical struggle…
[Darren Vann of Gary, Indiana]…may be a serial killer who has killed…as far back as 20 years ago…Vann…was arrested…[for the murder of] Afrika Hardy…[after she] did not return from [an] appointment [with Vann, a friend]…went to track her down and found her dead from strangulation. Once in custody Vann…admitted…Hardy’s murder and led police to the bodies of six other women, all in abandoned houses…[officials were] unable to say whether the other victims were sex workers…
Since when do “scientists” treat patients?
Scientists have treated…the first patient with internet addiction disorder brought on by overuse of Google Glass. The man had been using the technology for around 18 hours a day – removing it only to sleep and wash – and complained of feeling irritable and argumentative without [it]…he had also begun experiencing his dreams as if viewed through [its] small grey window. The existence of internet addiction disorder…is hotly debated among psychiatrists. It was not included as a clinical diagnosis in the 2013 update to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders…
It is not “hotly debated”; OCD is not “addiction”, no matter how much money-hungry scammers want to rebrand it as such.
A Birmingham [Alabama] police officer arrested earlier this month on child sex abuse charges is now charged with rape of an adult woman. Joshua Herbinger…was not in any kind of…relationship with the [victim]…In the earlier case…Herbinger was charged with four counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old…
One of the members of the US government Commission on Civil Rights openly criticized “sex trafficking” hysteria in a dissent with the Commission’s predetermined rubber-stamp “findings”, and may have cited yours truly in it:
…terms like “sex trafficking”…obscure more than they enlighten, because there is little agreement on what they mean…claims that the Super Bowl is a magnet for sex traffickers appear to be more myth than fact…In the late 19thcentury, Great Britain was also swept by a wave of hysteria over “white slavery“. In time, the panic spread to the United States…the Heriot dissent decries the tendency to view the complexities of so-called “international labor trafficking” as something inherently sinister…There is plenty of opportunity for fraudulent or coercive behavior in these transactions. But there is also opportunity for gain by the most vulnerable of the world’s people, trapped in poverty…
Why 90% of whores prefer to work illegally than submit to licensing:
…Dancers and managers at a Washington state strip club are…suing to stop their county from releasing their names, photos, and other identifying information to a man who has filed a public records request…because strippers in most areas of Washington must obtain an “entertainer’s license”, their identities are a matter of public record…it’s entirely likely [David A. Van Vleet]…is a crazy stalker or an anti-sex nutjob. Maybe both…it’s hard to imagine many non-nefarious reasons for requesting personal information on a wide swath of individuals in a sensitive job…
…M.C. Nanaiah , chairman of the [Indian] expert committee to suggest measures for safety of women and children has favoured a wider discussion on legalisation of prostitution…to prevent rapes…
The “Juju sex slaves” myth just keeps on going like a zombie:
Juju “magic” may seem strange, mythical and other-worldly but it is a problem that is all too real when it comes to the sex trafficking of women from Nigeria…Trafficking expert Siddharth Kara from Harvard University said: “[Juju] exerts a kind of control that’s so much more potent than chains or locking someone up. It’s control of the spirit which is far more powerful and insidious”…
Westerners have our own Juju faith in self-declared “experts” like Kara, a charlatan whose degree of ignorance is astonishing even in a field dominated by charlatans.
One of the nation’s most respected rabbis…[is] accused of placing a camera in the women’s…area of a sacred bath…Barry Freundel is a…leader in the Modern Orthodox movement…with controversial opinions on everything from abortion to homosexuality. He…was known to take a strict position on morality, [saying]…just weeks ago: “The lack of sexual morality…pervades this society…Pornography and its accessibility is wrecking marriages”…
Daily Beast writer (no giggling, now) says Denmark doesn’t have enough reasons to lock people up yet:
…A new law on the table in Denmark proposes to make sex with animals…illegal. The Danish law currently states that humans can have sex with animals as long as the animal doesn’t suffer…[but] how would one know if an animal enjoyed human sex?…If the law passes…only Finland, Hungary and Sweden will remain lawless…[the bill’s sponsor] is…concerned that…Denmark…could become the [Mecca] of animal sex tourism…
I’m not sure what’s sillier, the writer’s conflation of “doesn’t suffer” with “enjoy” or her idea that “human sex” is fundamentally different from other mammals’ copulation.
How many moronic prohibitionist plays can the market bear?
Tony-award winning playwright…Sarah Jones…has been publicly “workshopping” her newest one woman show, entitled Sell/Buy/Date…The play is really one insult after another…Everybody was a “prostituted woman” except for a Russian male pimp who self-described as a sex worker. And the sex worker rights activists are caricatured as dimwitted and undereducated supporters of Sarah Palin…Jones seems to be under the impression that the sex worker movement is funded by big corporate interests…Jones’ monologues [are set in an imaginary future dystopia] where…prostitution could not possibly exist…emergency medical treatment will be necessary to cure male porn addicts…However, magically, there will be a “re-sensititization” of men by forcing them to watch Thelma and Louise…
…a 30-year-old female sex worker [has been sent] to prison for at least nine years under Germany’s “preventive detention” law, because she has shown a pattern of not disclosing to clients that she was living with HIV before they chose to have condomless sex with her…
The Course of a Disease (TW3 #337)
Sex workers in Northern Ireland are overwhelmingly opposed to…a law that could criminalise those who pay for prostitutes…only 2%…are in favour of the so-called “Swedish model”…61%…thought [the]…law…would make them less safe. And…only 16% of…clients…said such a law would make them stop seeking to pay for sex…
Unfortunately, facts don’t concern politicians.
Damned If You Don’t (TW3 #343)
A man arrested in a police operation to harass and jail gay men was not only abused and threatened: cops also stole his property, trashed his reputation and seriously jeopardized his career. “Charles S. Couch…is suing the city [of Manhattan Beach, California]…Chief Eve Irvine and five police detectives, seeking $5 million in damages for mental distress, aggravation and loss of work. He is being represented by civil and gay rights attorney Bruce W. Nickerson, who specializes in litigation surrounding police sting operations…”
It turns out COAST is even sleazier than I thought:
…The majority of the board members of COAST’s backing group, the Association of Club Entrepreneurs (ACE), have been sued by their own employees for violations of labor law including wage theft, intimidation, charging debt-inducing illegal fees, and even sexual harassment…one of COAST’s co-founders, Michael Ocello, got involved in anti-trafficking efforts after the Illinois club he owned was raided by federal agents…
The ridiculous claim that 42% of all UK sex workers are male derives from a bad study which makes two false assumptions: that each sex worker takes out one and only one ad at a time, and that all sex workers use all advertising platforms equally. But that’s not the interesting thing about this article; it’s the fact that when men are the subject, agency is not denied and the word “trafficking” is nowhere to be found.
Women’s advocacy and drug-policy reform organizations are calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “publicly renounce” enhanced criminal penalties for pregnant women. It’s an issue that’s been gaining more attention since the July…conviction of Lacey Weld…[who] was pregnant at the time she made (and used) meth…[and] received an extra six years of prison time…Many object to charging a pregnant meth user with “child endangerment” on the grounds that an embryo or fetus is not yet a “child”. But we also…[know] that heavy drinking and poor nutrition are much more dangerous to developing fetuses than exposure to meth…
The Somaly Mam Foundation…shuttered its entire operation…and urged its followers to support other anti-trafficking groups…The SMF website on Saturday appeared to be stripped of all its content except for the announcement on its homepage…
Of course, the same bunch have already started a new “rescue” scam.
A man who claims he can “cure” gay people…raped a teenage boy and threatened to kill him with his “warlock powers” if he told. Kentucky police have arrested…youth pastor Rex Allen Murphy…the 16-year-old [victim said Murphy]…told him…that by brushing his skin or shaking his hand…he could tell his sins…Murphy reportedly asserted he thought he would be able to help the victim with his “battle with homosexuality because he, too, had experimented with homosexuality”…
Five Women in Whitechapel (TW3 #437)
It was supposed to have been the definitive piece of scientific evidence that finally exposed the true identify of Jack the Ripper…However, the scientist who carried out the DNA analysis has apparently made a fundamental error that fatally undermines his case…it would mean his calculations were wrong and that virtually anyone could have left the DNA that he insisted came from the Ripper’s victim…
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (TW3 #440)
…following the mass eviction of over 1,449 prostitutes from…Dolly…it would appear that Papua has become a destination of choice among a small portion of the evictees…Papua is by far the richest province in Indonesia in terms of natural resources, boasting some of the largest gold, silver, copper and timber reserves on earth…nouveau riche mining capital has ensured that sex workers in Papua are among the highest paid in Indonesia…
I’m going to use this subtitle for stories refuting the myth of the evil client:
A woman who was lured to Dubai by promises of a job [in a beauty salon] but was then forced into prostitution was rescued by her first customer when she burst into tears and told him her story…the victim [said]…“He…booked me a ticket back to Morocco and even drove me to the airport”…she was not allowed to leave the country because…her employment contract had not been cancelled, so she headed to airport police and told them the whole story…
Unreal Horrors
Posted in Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged BDSM, censorship, cult of the child, dirty, fantasy, holidays, Hollywood, hysteria, imaginative fiction, law, neo-Victorianism, neofeminism, porn, prohibitionist myths, psychology, rape on October 24, 2014| 3 Comments »
This essay first appeared in Cliterati on October 12th; I have modified it slightly to fit the format of this blog.
As befits a girl who was born on Halloween night, I’m a big fan of horror films, horror stories, horror TV shows, horror comics, horror poems and just about anything macabre and creepy. I’ve written about horror fiction on my blog more than a few times, especially (though by no means exclusively) in October, which is my favorite month in part because it’s Halloween season. But this is not merely a deviation from my usual topic; in fact, as I explained in “Eros and Phobos”, fear and sex are inextricably intertwined:
…the trappings of BDSM would be equally at home in a gothic horror setting, the rape fantasy is as popular as ever and the lurid fantasies of “sex trafficking” fetishists can be found in mainstream news outlets every day, forced up from the collective unconscious by the pressure of the return to Victorian levels of prudery. Nor does one always have to look outward to find the connection; I’m sure many of my readers have realized that the things that sexually excite them most are often related to things that frighten them. For example, some of you may recall my mentioning that I have a phobia of being trapped (including in traffic jams), and I think even the veriest psychological amateur could recognize that I have a tremendous aversion to authority. Yet at the same time, I’m turned on by bondage and themes of dominance and submission…
I hardly think it’s necessary to point out that when an individual tries to suppress sexual desires, they usually pop out somewhere else; the same thing is true of society as a whole. The neo-Victorians who now dominate our culture are so afraid of sex they’re trying to completely neuter and domesticate it:
They imagine that engaging in sex for the “wrong” reasons, or without the benediction of elaborate rituals of consent, or with people separated from one another by more than a very few years of age, is terribly harmful. They believe that merely taking pictures of the taboo act creates a kind of Gorgonic icon which drives its viewers mad, and that the mere existence of such images harms women and children who are not even in close proximity to it. And they fervently assert that it is so incredibly dangerous to the sacred “innocence” of “children” (a term which refers not to true children, but to a ritual category which actually includes some adults), for strangers to even imagine sexual contact with them causes such tremendous harm that those who indulge in these Forbidden Thoughts deserve penalties greater than those for violent assault, followed by lifelong social ostracism…
But this only results in the suppressed desires popping out somewhere else. As I explained in “Eros and Phobos”, horror fiction is one of those points of eruption; it’s a “safe” way to way to deal with feelings that one is afraid to admit to, a way to separate the taboo “dirty”, “bad”, violent or otherwise forbidden aspects of sex from wedding-cake images of romantic love and Utopian talk of mutual pleasure and “enthusiastic consent”. The more rigid the social demands for 100% clear, legally-provable consent, the more rape fantasies we should expect to see. The more society insists that the only acceptable sex is between age-peers, the more Lolita imagery will appear. The more loudly “thought leaders” insist that love and mutual pleasure are the only acceptable reasons for sex, the more attention will be paid to whores. And the more fixated conformists are on marriage and monogamy, the higher the number of clients the harlots strolling down the streets of their imaginations must have.
Given the draconian sexual regime our increasingly-repressive culture has imposed by use of both violence and shame, we should expect to see a great deal of horror fiction in which very young girls are abducted, raped, enslaved as prostitutes and forced to see exorbitant numbers of men. And so we do; the lurid, sensationalized tragedy porn narratives that make up the body of “sex trafficking” mythology are nothing more than Gothic horror tales that opportunists pretend are real. But do the members of the general public actually believe these stories, or are they just outlets for psychosexual tension accepted with the same mixture of credulity and doubt with which our ancestors greeted the spooky tales told around campfires? It has been pointed out that if anyone actually believed that one in five young women on campuses were raped, nobody would ever send their daughters to coed universities; similarly, if anyone actually accepted the claim that “Young ladies are being grabbed off bus stops and forced into prostitution”, we’d be seeing a constant parade of abductees’ pictures on the news and demands for armed guards at bus stops. Perhaps one of the reasons for the popularity of such folklore is that on some level people know it isn’t real (even if they consciously deny it); just as the old tales shared certain motifs and were repeated in a ritualized fashion that branded them as fabulous, so do these modern legends. Perhaps the “sex trafficking” hysteria is at its heart nothing more than a succession of horror plays, sequels to (or remakes of) those in the very popular “Satanic Panic” series of the 1980s and ‘90s, and like them serving as “safe” outlets for anxieties caused by the onerous puritanism of modern Anglo-American culture. “Safe”, that is, for the audience; in this horror drama the actors, unlike those in Hammer films or Grand Guignol theater, are both involuntary and unpaid. And as long as this panic goes on they will be forced, like the imaginary sex slaves of the narrative, to play out the scripts drawn from their captors’ twisted psyches at the cost of their own freedom, happiness and lives.
More Trick or Treat
Posted in Holidays, Links, Miscellaneous, tagged blogging, holidays, Iceland, imaginative fiction on October 23, 2014| 3 Comments »
It’s a perfect night for mystery and horror. The air itself is filled with monsters. – Mary Shelley (Elsa Lanchester) in Bride of Frankenstein
Last year I celebrated the Halloween season with a collection of horror-themed links, both to columns on my blog and to articles off of it. If you missed that one, you definitely ought to take a look at it; this is just an update, rounding up things I’ve featured since last October 28th. First and foremost, of course, are last year’s columns for the holiday itself, “Halloween 2013” and “The Dance of Death“. Despite its name, “Buried But Not Dead” isn’t really on the subject, but “Total Perspective Vortex” and “Cleansing Fire” are (at least a bit). And I think “The Pit” definitely qualifies. Last October’s harlotography was on the serial killer Aileen Wuornos (certainly an appropriate seasonal topic), and I featured either scary or creepy-fun videos in Links #171, #172, #173, #174, #176, #183, #206 and #212. Earlier this year on May Eve I shared some less-known horror books, poems and videos; also, my own stories “The Other Side“, “Invasion” and this month’s “The Company of Strangers” are all solidly in the horror genre. Finally, here’s a list of creepy, spooky, horror or monster-related links from the past year:
- Creepypasta.
- Anti-test demons.
- Gothic cosmology.
- Which witch are you?
- They Stole JFK’s Brain.
- A history of dark rides.
- The Devil’s map of the USA.
- Poetry comics: “Annabel Lee”.
- Famous monsters of Congress.
- A field guide to doppelgängers.
- Photographs of children’s nightmares.
- Adding monsters to thrift-store paintings.
- An army of huge rats? Definitely seasonal.
- Forget the turducken; behold the CTHUKEN!
- For the well-dressed Icelandic necromancer.
- The history and psychology of the Ouija board.
- That HPL really knows the eldritch secrets of a truly sick party.
- 22 horror movies & 9 contemporary horror stories available free online.
- Man supposedly changes into python and swallows girl in a hotel room.
Desperately Seeking
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged GFE, psychology, virginity on October 22, 2014| 7 Comments »
I’m 22 and I’ve never done anything sexual with a woman in my life. No holding hands, no kissing, no making out, no cuddling; I think I’m too shy and lack confidence. I’ve been out on a few dates, but nothing ever really seems to happen. I’ve read some of your other posts about being a virgin or being a sensitive guy going to see an escort, but I’m not sure it would really help because I want more than just sex. Are escorts OK with cuddling and kissing? Besides that, I could only afford a couple hours at best. Sometimes I wish there were sex therapists who have sex with patients; that might help me. But what can I do to make myself more confident and less shy around women? And is there a certain kind of woman who would be better for an inexperienced guy?
Escorts who specialize in providing a girlfriend-like encounter are referred to as “GFE” escorts, but of course you’d have to find a reliable one because there is no quality control on that term and anyone can call herself “GFE” even if she’s not remotely girlfriendly. So even with research it might take you time and money to find an escort who’d be able to give you the kind of experience you’re looking for. But I don’t honestly think it’s what you need, though it might help you to relax a little so you wouldn’t feel the loneliness so acutely. There is a kind of sex therapist who has sex with patients; they’re called “sex surrogates”, but they see patients by referral from psychologists and IMHO you’d end up spending more than you would for an escort without (in your specific case) any real increase in benefits.
I have some good news for you, though. Twenty-two is actually quite young, though I know it doesn’t seem so to you because that’s your whole lifespan. There are a lot of people who have never had relationships by your age, but far fewer who haven’t by thirty; you’re moving into a time in your life when the likelihood of intimacy nearly always increases. I’ve written before to a gentleman whose situation was not-dissimilar to yours; he was a bit older, but the advice still applies to you. The most important thing is patience; relationships simply cannot be rushed, and if you feel a sharp need to be in one (as you clearly do) it makes the waiting seem much longer and harder than it actually is. Also, if you’re desperate you may let yourself be caught up in a bad, toxic relationship, which (believe me!) is much worse than none.
Finally, you ask if there’s a specific kind of woman who might be better in helping you get experience, and who wouldn’t judge you for being a virgin; the answer is yes. Some older women enjoy initiating young men into sexual life, and I have met many men whose first experience was with a woman 10 or 20 years his senior; such women often consider the lack of experience a plus. The only drawback to such a relationship from your point of view is that they are often short-lived; whether the woman is just looking for a younger playmate rather than a life-partner, or if she loses interest once the young man gains confidence, or she’s in denial about aging and seeking a succession of younger partners as validation of her sex appeal, or if she truly believes her young lover needs to move on to partners of his own generation, the end result is the same. So if you do get into such a relationship, keep in mind that it may only be a brief stop on your greater journey; if it turns into a long-term relationship, well and good. But if it doesn’t, you will still have gained confidence that will help you with other women, and experience that can guide your future course as long as you learn from it.
(Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)
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