Sex workers in…[current] media accounts are not people, but fever dreams, to be pitied, laughed at, hyperbolically loathed, and surreptitiously lusted after. – Noah Berlatsky
Jon Cryer, Charlie Sheen’s co-star on Two and a Half Men, says in his new memoir So That Happened:
I was in a bad state right after my divorce, and I certainly didn’t feel dateable…I decided I might as well pay someone for company and certain intimate pleasures so that I could at least get my equilibrium back with the opposite sex. Charlie suggested a few online purveyors he used…
Would this excuse have worked for a victim with any other job?
A jury found Bradley Barton not guilty…in the death of sex worker Cindy Gladue…Barton, a long-distance trucker from Ontario, rented [a] room at the Yellowhead Inn…in Edmonton…On the second night, [he] called 911 and reported the discovery of the body of an unknown woman in his bathtub…But closed circuit video…shows Barton and Gladue…walking together holding hands the first night and meeting up again the next evening…Barton [claimed he] didn’t mean to [stab] Gladue, and that the wound was caused accidentally by rough sex…
Since 2006, the venerable libertarian anti-interventionist website AntiWar.com has hosted uncensored photos of abuses committed by United States troops at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq…On Wednesday morning, AntiWar.com received an automated email from Google explaining that the site was being suspended from Google’s AdSense ad network, because that page violates AdSense policy. Either Google is incorrectly enforcing its own policies, or their policies do not allow for controversial — but clearly and objectively newsworthy — content…
Outing a famous non-prohibitionist client just to make money? Instant ticket to my Hall of Shame:
Kim Petro, a plus-size dominatrix…apparently passed a lie detector test before selling her story to the National Enquirer…Petro claims [Olympic athlete Michael] Phelps contacted her off her “busty festish” Craigslist ad in February 2013. They allegedly negotiated a $900 “donation” before Phelps…”removed his shirt and…shorts to reveal that he was wearing…women’s underwear…’I got above him [on the bed] to [urinate on him],’ said Petro“…She says she recognized him right away and apparently provided “a cellphone number that The Enquirer independently verified as belonging to the Olympic legend”…
On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake
An exotic dancer who was shot at a Columbia nightclub is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for her injury, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled…The court ruled that dancer LeAndra Lewis was an employee of the Boom Boom Room Studio 54 – not an independent contractor…the…decision could bolster efforts in South Carolina to classify other topless dancers as employees of clubs that hire them…
Another absurd story about “sex trafficking” informs us, without any evidence at all, that “87% of…victms have had contact with a healthcare provider while being trafficked” and “10% of doctors recognize trafficking victims”. It also informs us that “sex trafficking” is “about the pimping of modern American culture” And advises doctors to “speak love into [victims]”. I couldn’t make up anything this wack-a-doodle if I tried.
It’s a popular cultural trope these days that…porn is making men, especially young men, sexually dysfunctional…This basic narrative, with its mixed techno/sex panic and vaguely scientific undertones, can be seen everywhere from New York magazine to consumer health sites, Esquire to The American Conservative to The Daily Mail, Christian websites to Thought Catalog…The genre subtly shames both women and men—the former for not being enough like porn stars to keep their men interested, the latter for letting their libido rule them—and often veers into discussions of whether more government intervention is warranted. But the narrative at the core of this genre is a crock, according to a new study published in the journal Sexual Medicine…The researchers found no relationship between pornography habits and experiencing erectile dysfunction among sexually active participants…
Peter…Qualliotine, co-founder of a Seattle group called Organization for Prostitution Survivors, has for several years been teaching a local “john school”…little evidence exists to show that the class is changing anyone’s behavior…with…a grant from Demand Abolition…he recently began a new…john school that runs for 10 weeks—longer than almost any other comparable program in the county…“Many of these men really are dangerous sexual predators,” Qualliotine says. Many, of course, are not. But even the nonviolent men, Qualliotine argues, cause harm—by perpetuating an industry that traps prostitutes…into what he deems degrading work while sexually objectifying women at large…He says that of all the johns he’s met, almost none have said they “feel great” about buying sex or that prostitution is meeting their needs…because they’re coming…from a place of “brokenness” and “desperation”…SWOP, however, found a number of men who agreed to speak, albeit anonymously. “It’s been something that’s been really positive for me, to be honest with you,” says one man…another sex buyer, whom we’ll call Charlie, doesn’t feel like he’s violated anybody’s rights by paying for sex…“It was very civilized,” he says …One woman he’s seen repeatedly…earns more than he does…
Chris Hedges’ piece “The Whoredom of the Left”…is about the evils of prostitution, but the photograph that opens the piece speaks a different language, and points to different interests…it…is exploitive, in the most deliberate sense—the site, Truthdig, is using the women in the photo as a way to provoke titillation and/or moral outrage and/or (more likely) both…The main difference between Truthdig and the owner of…a…brothel is that the brothel owner presumably provided the women in the picture with a cut. Truthdig shows its higher morals by keeping all the money for itself. Hedges probably didn’t choose the art himself, and most likely didn’t even get to approve it. Still, it’s not out of line with his essay, which wallows in feverish, sweaty prose and lurid excitation…Hedges concern is not…for sex workers, or for women being trafficked, but for himself. Looking at sex workers, or thinking about sex workers, leads him to a hideous, exciting dream of his own violation…
“Might be“? Try again, Emily:
Senate Democrats and Republicans have been bickering since last week over whose fault it is that they’re now fighting over abortion in what had been a popular, bipartisan human trafficking bill…Democrats say Republicans slipped anti-choice language into the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA) that would expand the already onerous Hyde Amendment…Republicans say Democrats should have known that the language was in this version of the bill from the start…advocates don’t think the JVTA is worth trying to save in the first place…although the Hyde language is obviously a bad idea, that’s not the only problem with the bill…
Re: the anti-trafficking legislation gone awry… I’m getting kind of sick of the excuses coming from legislators on how they “didn’t know” something was in legislation they supported and/or passed. I heard one interviewed the other day who said, essentially, “I don’t have time to read the legislation I vote on. I have a lot of other things going on.” Shamelessly. As if that’s in some way an adequate excuse. What other things do you have going on in your job, and why do they take precedence over the actual legislating?
How many other jobs would not understanding what you are supposed to have read (or worse—written!) be grounds for firing?
“Kim Petro, a plus-size dominatrix…apparently passed a lie detector test before selling her story to the National Enquirer . . .”
BITCH!
If Chris Hedges is going to cruise around Vancouver street workers, and then use them as a metaphor for neoliberalism, the least he can do is buy each of them a hot cup of coffee while they are out in the cold.
“The only way to fight capitalism, racism and protect women is to stop men from buying prostitutes.”
Except that prostitution pre-dates both capitalism and racism. But, hey, it makes you sound so “edgy” and “leftist” when you put it that way.
”Except that prostitution pre-dates both capitalism and racism.”
There you have it. Absolute proof that prostitution is the root cause of capitalism and racism. Look at any country where sex work is going on and you will see they have all kinds of social problems. The causality is obvious.
Seriously one thing these abolitionists fail to do is give an actual definition of what they mean by ”prostitution”. There are so many ways in which a woman can use sex to get a profit. It is ludicrous to think you will be able to convince men to stop buying it in certain ways when they see other men with mistresses or women who marry for money. It’s like trying to stop men from buying books by criminalizing only second-hand book stores or people who sell their books in yard sales.
Gals love to get stuff (money) from guys and guys love to get sex from gals, sounds like a match made in heaven to me.
Sex work sounds like a perfect example of capitalism to me. Of course you said “buying” prostitutes, so maybe you intended to refer to slavery instead of sex work?
LMAO! They’re really shooting for the stars aren’t they?!
The problem with shooting for the stars is that there are so very many of them.
They’re trying to repeal the natural law of the Invisible Hand. Fat chance!
I would have left the Olympian’s name out of the story here.
(FWIW, I saw right away when somebody “outed” Belle Knox’ real name, and said nothing about it lest more people see it. But apparently she’s now OK with it being public.)
the death of Cindy Gladue is a tragedy and the acquittal is a reflection of the stigma around sex work. Everyone with a working brain should see that the testimony of the accused is so full of shit that the deliberations of the jury should have been concluded with a guilty verdict in less than an hour. But, instead we have a jury consisting of twelve white men determining that she had it coming due to her being a sex worker, reflecting the argument the gov’t of Canada used to defend the laws that were struck down in the Bedford case.
I hope Kim Petro never gets a job outside of sex work and dies old, lonely and broke. BITCH!!!
In fact I don’t see the sex industry as even an example of capitalism. Sex work is just an example of trade. Capitalism implies investment of capital with the goal of generating an increase of that capital. Prostitutes sell their consent to sex, which does not cost them anything to produce. Their business can involve some investment of capital depending on the type and scale of sex work, but selling sex is not capitalism by definition. Like being an actor is not an example of capitalism just because they are being paid.
There is capital investment, at least above the streetwalker level. For call girls, there are nice dresses, advertising (although less cost now with the internet), Maggie’s breast enlargement, etc. For a brothel, there’s all that plus a building.
“John School?!”
Why do I get the feeling John School will end up being the real-life version of the USA Sex Guide as soon as class lets out?
“Hey, so do you know where I can meet a Russian provider?”
“Yeah, I know the best! Just let me get…”
“Wait..shhhh! Teacher is passing going to his car…”
“OK, he’s gone..so about that Russian…”