I’m not really very good at self-care; unless it’s something I need to do to maintain my looks for work, or something a loved one agitates me into, I have a tendency to ignore or downplay my own needs. So it was really lovely to have several days last week in which I was able to relax and take care of Maggie a bit. It’s absolutely true that all of them were work-related, but if that’s what I need to justify them to my inner nun, I’m not going to complain. On Tuesday I had a little rejuvenation procedure I’ve been looking forward to for months (and theoretically, for over a year), and I was quite pleased with the results; I’ve got a follow-up the day after Lammas and I’m even more excited about that one. Then on Wednesday, one of my favorite gentlemen took me to Victoria, BC for a couple of days; even though I had to be ready for pickup at the unholy hour of 6 AM, he didn’t care that I wore no makeup and we had breakfast on the boat. I eventually woke up completely and stopped griping, and we went whale-watching in the afternoon; it was a lot of fun and we got to see four humpback whales cavorting around at the surface. They were waving their pectoral fins, diving so we could see their tails and blowing frequently; one of them even breached so far out of the water he looked as though he was standing on his tail for a moment. Our naturalist said she had never seen them so active; she seemed confused when I said that obviously the mermaids had told them I would be on the boat. Anyhow, we had dinner at a lovely French restaurant, took it easy Thursday morning and then walked around Butchart Gardens for several hours in the afternoon, before dinner at a pub and the return boat to Seattle at 7. All in all, it was quite a relaxing couple of days, though as a New Orleanian who lived in Oklahoma for almost a decade, it’s still very strange to me to be wearing a jacket in mid-June.
Archive for June, 2016
Diary #312
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, blogging, Canada, restaurants on June 20, 2016| 3 Comments »
Links #311
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, Alaska, animals, California, cell phones, cops, drugs, Florida, Louisiana, prisons, psychology, racism, scams, statistics, vaccines, video on June 19, 2016| 2 Comments »
I am willing to wear a wire and set Jesus up. – Tito Watts
When animation first became popular in the 1930s, it was not viewed as entertainment for children, but rather for adults. Walter Olson contributed this 1935 short by German animator Lotte Reiniger; it’s basically a music video for “Papageno” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and I think you’ll be pretty impressed. The links above it were provided by Brooke Magnanti, Tim Cushing, Scott Greenfield, Tushy Galore, Dave Krueger, Popehat, and Radley Balko, in that order.
- Most Florida news story ever.
- This week in your police state.
- Just how many dogs do cops murder every year?
- I’m surprised nobody ever thought of this before.
- Cop murders teen for owning a phone while black.
- The real story is that so few people recognized this from the start.
- “Sending messages” is the most important function of government.
From the Archives
- I don’t know what’s more pathetic, Rachel’s idea of “big events” or her mathematical illiteracy.
- Cops, games, Florida, robots. language, kink, schools, science fiction & Soviet Funk.
- Glenn Kessler isn’t the only journalist attacking “sex trafficking” mythology.
- Look more closely at what the brothel owner wants from the “authorities”.
- A teacher describes note-passing as “scary”; the jokes write themselves.
- Headlines, transit, prohibition, cops, Bohemian Rhapsody & much more.
- I suspect Georgia politicians will close this loophole almost immediately.
- Mark Draughn on the claim sex work “costs” France €1.6 billion a year.
- It seems to me that these women knew exactly what they were doing.
- In which I discover that I really do like green eggs and ham, after all.
- Amherst says even unconscious men are morally superior to women.
- How much of this is due to the end of Somaly Mam’s disinformation?
- If Patricia Spencer doesn’t pace herself, she’ll burn out her Hitachi.
- “Sex trafficking” used as an excuse to destroy and loot businesses.
- Why you shouldn’t ask me to argue with individual prohibitionists.
- Miranda Kane uses her good reviews to catch reporters’ attention.
- The Daily Fail reverses the “sugar babies are exploited” narrative.
- Cop says people’s lives should be destroyed for their own good.
- Sex workers often drive the development of new technologies.
- An article about women who sell panties on Reddit ends thus.
- I wonder if these reporters realize how ridiculous they sound.
- Tennessee moves to criminalize smoking during pregnancy.
- The “trafficking tattoo” trope has taken on a life of its own.
- The TLC Trust connects disabled clients with sex workers.
- Who really gets targeted under U.S. sex trafficking laws?
- “Vice unit is a club…detectives…go drinking every night.”
- One can always tell a story influenced by the CAMTC.
- Authority figures use their influence to coerce sex.
- AHF unveils whore-shaming propaganda graphic.
- The campaign against Operation Choke Point.
- More evil clownishness from Rhode Island.
- Researcher says there’s no “typical” client.
- Another excellent essay from Felicia Anna.
- The aftermath of Somaly Mam’s downfall.
- A re-education camp by any other name…
- How can I become a high-end courtesan?
- Noah Berlatsky on Chong Kim and Eden.
- The science of sexual assault via fraud.
- The Red Umbrella March in Vancouver.
- Nevada is looking for new vices to tax.
- A feminist case for decriminalization.
- Libertarianism happens to people.
- This is absurd on so many levels.
- My visits to Tucson & Las Vegas.
- Was this outcome ever in doubt?
- Another warped view of touring.
- On the son of Aella the Amazon.
- From the “no shit” department.
- The Naked Football Club.
- The danger of fast food.
- R.I.P. Blaze Starr.
- Anti-C36 rallies.
- Bacchus ladies.
In the News (#647)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, bogus studies, Bottleneck, Bread and Circuses, California, Canada, cops, Do As I Say, end demand, escort review sites, False Witness, Hollywood, hysteria, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, imaginative fiction, Indiana, King of the Hill, law, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, My Readers Write, Nebraska, Original Sin, politicians, porn, prisons, prohibitionist myths, robots, sexting, statistics, stripping, The Notorious Badge, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Pygmalion Fallacy, They Still Don't Get It, Traffic Circle, United Kingdom, Washington DC on June 18, 2016| 3 Comments »
When we see people jumping from a…window to escape a fire, our response should not be to stop them by boarding up the window!
– Mark Draughn
A police sex-sting operation in Northern Virginia…has nabbed a [cop from] Maryland…Christopher Dunkes…[of] the Montgomery County Police Department, answered a Craigslist advertisement posted by an undercover officer who was posing as a 15-year-old girl…Dunkes twice proposed a specific act and suggested that they meet in his car…
Study shows kids believe stupid shit. Researchers next plan to study the religious beliefs of popes:
The majority of boys who view online pornography believe it provides a realistic depiction of sex, according to the most extensive survey of British secondary school pupils undertaken…most [students] – 94% – who have seen online pornography have been exposed to it by the age of 14. But the study also found that almost half of the 1,000 11- to 16-year-olds questioned had never seen internet pornography – findings that are in contrast to many other studies. It also revealed that [young people] have a [proper] understanding of sexting [unlike] policymakers…sexting [is] the sending of intimate messages, [not necessarily accompanied by] images, and the vast majority…questioned did not report having taken naked images of themselves…53%…said they had viewed online pornography, and while some chose to seek it out, they were as likely to have come across it by accident, often via pop-up ads…Of those who had viewed the material, 53% of boys said they believed it presented a realistic depiction of sex, while 39% of girls thought the images were realistic. Approximately 41%…felt “curious” the first time they viewed it, which was the most common response. However, more negative feelings such as being shocked (27%), confused (24%) or disgusted (23%) were also experienced…
It’s especially pleasing for me when my friends write about each other:
…I’ll leave the validity of the 90% statistic (and the prevalence and causes of PTSD among sex workers) to someone more qualified. Worrying too much about the details could make us miss a more important point: Why should Lorelei Rivers give a shit what other sex worker want? There is certainly nothing wrong if Lorelei Rivers wants to know the needs and desires of other sex workers. Maybe she’s just a good person who has empathy for others. But…her right to go about her business should not depend on how other people feel about it, and that includes other sex workers. If 99.9999% of sex workers want to quit and find a different line of work, but Lorelei Rivers prefers to keep doing what she’s doing, what possible justification can there be to stop her?…the desires of the majority are a distraction from the real issue, which is personal choice…we have to make collective decisions…when making different individual choices would cause irreconcilable conflicts — so we depend on majority rule to tell us that…we should drive on the right side of the road. But…choice of employment, including employment as a sex worker, is a Pepsi or Coke kind of thing. In a free society, if some women want to be sex workers and others don’t, there’s no reason they can’t both get what they want…
…a 73-year-old man in [Nova Scotia] charged with soliciting…a [cop] pretending to be a prostitute, went before a judge to argue that he had been entrapped. There’s a lot to be outraged about when it comes to this type of lurid deception but let’s start with the underhanded funding of coercive repressive state interests. At a starting salary of $75,000 a year (and more than six figures for many more when you factor in overtime), it is unquestionable that female police officers posing as street-based sex workers make more money than many street based sex workers do…they are allowed to approach potential clients. Our street-based sisters have no such legal right; real street-based sex workers are constrained from making bold sales pitches. But [cops]…suffer no legal risk…given the allegation inscribed in our current prostitution laws that witnessing sex transactions in public is damaging to communities…how [do cops] posing as sex workers in public rationalize their presence…If they are dressed exactly like sex workers and acting even more obviously “for sale,” wouldn’t their presence engender the same unwholesome effect?…
At least this is one actress who won’t be vomiting out anti-whore propaganda:
An actress who played a prostitute in Game of Thrones is actually a real-life hooker…Saeeda Vorajee…starred…as a prostitute called Armeca…However she…also…offers her services…under the name of Sahara Knite…Saeeda…admitted she has picked up a lot of fans from Game of Thrones but said she never gets recognised in the street…she…advertises herself as a “porn star, masseuse, mistress and session wrestler”…
If this dude clutched his pearls any more tightly, he’d strangle himself:
Sections of Springfield [Massachusetts’] decades-old strip club regulations appear to routinely go unenforced, even as Mayor Domenic Sarno has promised a crackdown on clubs he [fantasizes] as a haven for violence and gang activity. The city’s strip clubs again came under scrutiny last week when police alleged that Showbar…had hired a 17-year-old dancer…[who] left the club after her mother intervened…the girl had used a false ID when applying for work…according to the city’s strip club regulations, last amended in 1992, clubs are required to register the names, ages and addresses of their dancers with City Hall…while the clubs would comply with that regulation if asked to do so, [club lawyer Daniel] Kelly said, the rules as written could endanger the privacy of workers by having their addresses listed for public review…The regulations also describe detailed restrictions on the attire and conduct of strippers, including bans on the simulation of sex acts, the touching of “breasts, buttocks, or genitals” and having employees “mingle” with customers while unclothed. And another requirement appears to be unenforced: A prohibition on the use of “back rooms”…
The online selling of children and teenagers for sex is skyrocketing in communities throughout…Minnesota. The FBI says Minnesota is one of the top 15 states in which sex trafficking is a major problem…Washington County Attorney Pete Orput [fantasized]…“I could do them all day for the rest of my life and not put a dent in it”…former U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose [argued for internet censorship while describing a masturbatory fantasy involving “Younger and younger victims, which is not surprising given the role of social media and its role in human trafficking”…
Methinks those behind this train wreck need to consult theologian Benjamin Corey:
…The U.S. State Department…reveals 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year…there are 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today…The University of Pennsylvania’s Richard Estes and Neil Weiner conducted a case study revealing the most common age of entry into prostitution…Exodus Cry…created the documentary Nefarious: Merchant of Souls to educate viewers about the evils of the commercial sex industry…Today’s slave trade shares many parallels with the African slave trade in centuries past…Exodus Cry’s intervention team has hit the streets and strip clubs with gift bags or roses and a message of love and hope…pornography feeds the sex trafficking industry—and many Christians are feeding the slavery beast…
Investigators have dismantled what they described as the first members-only Internet prostitution ring of its kind in San Diego…San Diego police Capt. Brian Ahearn…called the [internet message board a] “sex ring”…the website operator personally vetted every man and woman seeking to become a member in an effort to “wall off” the site from [pigs]…But…[one] member…[was threatened into ratting] to police about a year ago…The case wrapped up with the arrests of Dale Vinzant…and Christian Koalani…[they were] charged with pimping, pandering, soliciting for prostitution and money laundering…Both have pleaded not guilty…
No, this decision doesn’t “correct” shit. An innocent young man sat in a cage for nine years because cops lied and tortured him into a false confession:
A young Detroit man who wrongfully pleaded guilty to killing four people when he was 14 will soon be released from prison…Judge Brian Sullivan…vacated the 2008 conviction of Davontae Sanford who had been serving a 37- to 90-year sentence…Sanford, who is now 23, [was coerced to] confess…[and] plead guilty to four counts of second degree homicide on the advice of an attorney, who is now suspended from the practice of law…[just] two weeks after Sanford’s sentencing, a professional hit man, Vincent Smothers, confessed to the…homicide…and made clear that Sanford was not involved. But the case languished for years as the boy grew from a teenager to a man while incarcerated…“The court’s decision today corrects a grave injustice,” said Heidi Naasko, Sanford’s attorney…
As if the lies and coercion weren’t bad enough, everybody involved sat on their hands for eight years after they all knew he was innocent. This is what we call the “justice system”.
They Still Don’t Get It (#616)
…The new approach championed by [Nebraska] Attorney General Doug Peterson focuses on helping survivors, stopping traffickers and shrinking the market by going after customers instead of victims who are coerced into working as prostitutes…”We have to let this industry know that to operate in Nebraska, you’re going to place yourself at great risk”…Survivors frequently suffer from mental health and substance abuse problems, as well as developmental disabilities that impair their judgment…”A 16-year-old girl typically doesn’t get into prostitution by herself. Someone is most likely profiting significantly off of her”…Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks…is working with the attorney general’s office on legislation to increase criminal penalties for human traffickers and customers…Pansing Brooks said most prostitutes have been trafficking victims at some point, and the state is only now starting to treat them differently. “It’s a huge sea change,” she said.
So now we’re not only mentally ill and delusional, but also mentally retarded.
Have you seen the anti-sex trafficking billboards saying 13 is the average age kids are first used in the sex trade?…one of the most influential anti-trafficking organizations says the statistic is not supported by the data, The Washington Post Fact Checker recently reported…The statistic…makes little sense, Kessler wrote. If 13 is the average age for entering the sex trade, then there have to be children under age 11 offsetting those becoming sex workers at age 16 or 17…A 2008 study of sexually exploited kids in New York City found the average entry age [for underage workers] is about 15, but the researchers warned that the data is fuzzy…Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller…[pretended] he wants to be as accurate as possible. Even if the average entry age is 15, Zoeller wrote, it underscores the fact that children and teens are targeted…
Of course, the politicians still try to distort the facts to their advantage, pretending that the average age of entry for underage workers is the average for all of us.
…Sharkey points out that porn has changed…male expectations, of real-life sexual partners…Is it possible that young women of the near future will feel pressure not just to look like porn stars but also to perform like robots, ever available and always eager to please?…sexual objectification is…an act that reduces a woman to nothing more than a sexual vessel…The problem is not that sex robots are available: it’s that they are wanted…of the sale of sex robots is to be allowed at all, it must be highly regulated…people who want to buy sex robots need to present the agreement of a couple of doctors, before they are judged emotionally restricted enough to need to retreat to such an inhuman fantasy. Or maybe, out of respect for women, this technology should just be rejected.
Fictional Interlude: None of Woman Born
Posted in Fiction, Philosophy, tagged archeofeminism, imaginative fiction, psychology on June 17, 2016| 1 Comment »
None of woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny. – Homer, Iliad (III, 120-121)
If you’re unfamiliar with Aella, I strongly suggest you read the previous chapters in her story before proceeding with this one; they’re listed & linked in the introduction to last year’s episode.
Since I live alone, it was both startling and disorienting to be roused roughly from sleep by someone shaking me. But when in response to my groggy queries, I heard a less-than-familiar voice say, “Wake up girl, for I have need of thee,” I sat bolt upright and strained my eyes to make out the figure looming over my bed in the dark. The meager light filtering in from the front windows glinted upon metal, and I soon realized my nocturnal visitor was clad in ornate armor; she carried a helm under her arm and a sword with jeweled hilt hung at her side.
“Aella?” I asked.
“Show some respect, child,” she said gently. “Though I am not wont to stand on ceremony, it would behoove thee to address an honored ancestor with something more than her common name.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled; “you did wake me up from a rather sound sleep. Would ‘grandmother’ do? We’ll be here all night if I have to list all the ‘greats’ which should precede it.”
She laughed, a strong but weary laugh that seemed to come from someplace deep inside her. “Aye, it will do. Dost thou always awaken so sluggishly? What if enemies attacked in the night?”
“It would make little difference; my enemies are cowards who always attack with overwhelming force. They fear a fair fight.”
She was not impressed. “Any descendant of mine should be ready to at least give a good account of herself in battle. Her enemies should long remember how dear a price they paid for their victory over her.”
“I’m sorry, honored grandmother. Though I am a warrior in my own right, I’m afraid you would not recognize my battlefield as such.”
“So I am told. Yet thou hast shown tremendous courage.”
“Well, that’s what some people call it. It’s really just tremendous stubbornness.”
She laughed again. “Then it is certain thou art of my blood, for my excess of pigheadedness was also lauded as courage both in my day and after it.”
“I’ve wanted to ask you about that for some time, but you’re not exactly easy to reach. I’m guessing the legends about Amazons and Scythians settling in Galicia have a basis in fact?”
“Aye. My son and his wife were unable to adapt to Amazon culture, and I was unwilling to let them return to Crete knowing full well I might never see them again. So I recruited a group of colonists, Amazons and Scythians both, and we sailed toward the setting sun and settled north of Tartessos.”
“I seem to remember that you hated sailing.”
She shrugged. “One does what one must.”
“Yes. We all need to do things we hate and fear to accomplish the goals that are important to us.”
“Aye, child, that we do. But make not the foolish error I did, of thinking that thy destiny is thine to command. Thou hast a task to perform, and thy course was charted for thee by the blessed goddesses long before thy birth, even as mine was. We are but the tools by which they accomplish their goals, which are not for the likes of us to divine.”
I replied quietly, “I like to think I have free will.”
She laughed once more, a soft chuckle tinged with pain. “I, too, enjoyed that belief.”
“And what of Phaedra?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “Did you ever see her again?”
“Nothing could have stopped me save the goddesses themselves; had I been told she was dead I would have battled my way down to the Styx to find her. Her ships carried our colonists forth, and kept us supplied until my death.”
“I reckon loyalty runs in our bloodline, too.” She nodded. “Honored Grandmother, you said you were here tonight because you had need of me.”
“Ah, that. Well, truth be told, child, I’m here because thou hast need of me.”
“Oh. Will the coming years be that difficult?”
“I am no soothsayer, granddaughter; I know not what lies in store for thee. I know only that I was sent to remind thee of who and what thou art, to admonish thee not to forget the warrior blood that runs strong in thy veins, and to tell thee that though I lack the wisdom and learning to understand thy struggle, I am filled with pride for thy steadfastness and refusal to surrender. Thou hast done well, and I am certain thou wilt continue to do so. Because if thou should dishonor my legacy by cowardice, I swear by our common ancestresses that I will return and beat thee to within a hairsbreadth of thy life.”
“Thank you, grandmother. I think.” She smiled, and laid her hand upon my shoulder, and then she was gone, leaving behind nothing but the weight of her millennia-long shadow upon me.
Less To Be Understood
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged BDSM, bisexuality, dating, dirty, ethics, psychology, yin and yang on June 16, 2016| 5 Comments »
What do you think makes for a healthy sexuality? I’m a 26 year old professional and have a much higher libido than most other people I know. I’ve had many partners who have been satisfying to me in many different ways, but I have often felt baffled by my intense level of sexual pleasure and excitement. I’m not afraid of my sexuality, but how does one go about understanding something so powerful? Does it require study? A good partner? Much of the time I feel that my sexuality is offensive to some people, particularly other women. How do you deal with jealousy from other women? Do you feel that it is important for a young woman to control her sexuality in some way?
First of all, I want you to understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with you; in fact, many women are troubled by having the opposite issue from you, a low sex drive (and pharmaceutical companies are trying to capitalize on that). I hope you never feel that you need to suppress your sexuality, especially not to make other people comfortable; it’s a large part of who you are, and if other people are bothered by it that’s their problem, not yours. Now, obviously I’m not telling you to run wild and do whatever you feel like regardless of consequences; as ethical people we need to be aware of how our actions might harm others, and we need to respect others’ boundaries and to be up-front about our motives and intentions so they have the information they need to make valid decisions about consent. But as long as you are honest and open with potential partners about your intentions, desires and needs, and refrain from pushing clearly-expressed boundaries, you have absolutely no cause to feel ashamed.
Now, it’s true that some other women may react to you with jealousy or competitiveness, but in my experience that usually happens when an attractive woman only pays attention to the men in the room. I’ve found such reactions can usually be minimized by friendliness, openness and paying just as much attention to the women around you as to the men, thus counteracting the perception that one is trying to be a “queen bee” and monopolize all of the male attention. Now, I have the advantage of being bisexual, and therefore at least as interested in female sexual attention as male (and maybe just a little bit more). You didn’t mention whether your sexual interest is confined to men, but even if it is being friendly and platonically affectionate with the women in your social environment will go a long way toward defusing jealousy. Some people are going to be judgmental of you no matter what you do, but I’m afraid there isn’t much you can do about that, and it would be the same even if you were as prim as a nun; as the expression goes, “Haters gonna hate”.
I wish I could tell you how to go about understanding your sexuality; I’ve been wrestling with trying to understand mine since more than a decade before you were born, and I still haven’t made a lot of headway. I think sexuality is less something to be understood, and more something to be experienced, explored and accepted. We still don’t really understand why people’s sexualities manifest in the myriad ways they do; for example, I’ve been attracted to both sexes and fascinated by bondage, dominance and submission since I was a wee lass, long before I had any actual idea of what “sex” meant. Why? I never experienced any kind of childhood trauma that might have “perverted” my development, and I can’t recall a time I was any other way. In high school, I knew a pair of identical twin brothers: one was straight and the other gay. How in the world could that happen, when they were genetically identical and raised in the same home? Yet it did. My advice to you is to accept your sexuality as an intrinsic part of yourself, just as you accept your preferences in food, clothes, entertainment and everything else. Don’t let anyone tell you that a high libido, a large number of partners and/or enjoyment of kinky activities are signs that something is wrong with you, and whatever you do don’t succumb to pressure to conform. The intense level of pleasure you can experience is a precious gift, and when one is given such a gift the only gracious and proper reaction is to accept and enjoy 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.)
In the News (#646)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Tale That Grew in the Telling, agency denial, animals, Australia, brothels, California, Canada, cell phones, censorship, cops, dirty, drugs, Eternal Vigilance, Hollywood, Hooters Japanese Style, I Spy, Japan, law, Louisiana, Montana, Moving Pictures, New York, No Moss, Ohio, politicians, porn, prohibitionist myths, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, restaurants, robots, Rough Trade, Scapegoats, Still a Child, stripping, surveillance, The Face of Trafficking, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Pygmalion Fallacy, To Molest and Rape, Traffic Circle, underage, virginity on June 15, 2016| 10 Comments »
Nothing has appeared in the last couple of years to make [sex trafficking] estimates…more scientific than they were 10 years ago. – David Finkelhor
The reporter seems to be trying to hide what happened here:
…a Butte man was found not guilty of raping a woman in Missoula [Montana] in June 2015…Nicholas James Dolson…[met a sex worker via] Craigslist seeking sex. After the pair engaged in consensual vaginal intercourse, Dolson [anally raped her]…she…told him to stop but…he didn’t. Dolson [then] left [without paying her]…The day after their encounter, Dolson sent the woman a text message that [admitted he] had planned to have sex with her twice…and…leave [without paying]. Dolson…[pretended] what had happened between him and the woman had been consensual…[even though] he hadn’t…paid for their encounter as the two of them had discussed…
…The Amrita restaurant, which is set to open in Tokyo, has said that anyone 15kg above the average weight for their height will not be allowed to dine. The restaurant…will ask guests to check in their clothes and put on paper underwear when they arrive. Anyone who is thought to be above the average weight for their height will be weighed and ejected if deemed to be overweight…[spokeswoman] Miki Komatsu…[said] “If fat people are allowed in it could be miserable for some guests…We are aiming for a sort of Roman aesthetic, like the beautiful paintings you see in museums.” People with tattoos are also banned from the restaurant and diners are asked not to “cause a nuisance” by touching or talking to other guests.
In a surprising decision from Canada’s Supreme Court, the country’s top judges ruled that forcing a dog to perform oral sex is not, in fact, bestiality and therefore not necessarily illegal…The case…involves an unnamed man, accused of forcing the family dog to perform oral sex on his underage daughter. The man was convicted of a litany of sexual offences in relation to the abuse, and sentenced to 14 years in jail. On one charge of bestiality, however, he was acquitted on appeal…His lawyers contended that…the charge, which carries no formal definition in the Criminal Code, was linked to “buggery”…and therefore required penetration. The [prosecution]…argued that…any sexual contact with animals [is] wrong, abusive, and illegal…Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, a backbench MP…[predictably reacted by introducing] C-246, which would explicitly ban all sexual activity between man and animal…
Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi:
Motherboard used public records requests to extract 3,000+ pages of court docs…which revealed the full extent of the Mounties’ secret use of Stingrays…the fake cellular towers that let cops covertly track whole populations by tricking their phones into revealing information about them…in the USA, their manufacturers collaborated with federal law enforcement to swear local cops to secrecy, going so far as to drop cases rather than reveal the use of Stingrays, and, in a few known cases, lying to judges. Feds even raided local cops and stole all documents related to Stingrays before they could be entered into evidence. But even by those standards, the RCMP’s use of Stingrays is breathtakingly broad and out-of-control…They not only routinely use Stingrays to surveil regions in a radius of up to 2km…but…also retained this data indefinitely, creating permanent surveillance databases that recorded the locations and activities (including the calls) of literally millions of Canadians who had never come under any suspicion for any crime…
A huge victory for the adult video industry:
In a big victory for the Free Speech Coalition, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals…vacated and remanded a lower court’s July 2013 ruling that held that performer record-keeping for adult entertainment producers are constitutional…The 3rd Circuit…held that the inspection provisions of the statutes are facially unconstitutional under the 4th Amendment…
Even where sex work is legal, whore stigma is an ever-present danger:
A [political] candidate has quit after it emerged he owns a [suburban Melbourne] brothel called Paradise Playmates. Taiwan-born massage therapist John Min-Chiang Hsu resigned as the Liberal Party candidate for the Victorian seat of Calwell after his ties to the brothel were revealed…Hsu also owns a company called Beautiful Life Natural Therapies, which runs three Melbourne massage establishments: CBD Massage, Five Star Massage and Sabaydee Thai Massage Day Spa. It’s believed at least Sabaydee offers sexual services because it appears on a review website for sex work…Hsu…has denied owning the brothel but was unable to explain why
company records show it is registered to a man with the same name, address and date of birth as him…
…April Corcoran…handed over her 11-year-old daughter to a drug dealer for sex in exchange for…heroin…The alleged dealer is Shandell Willingham, who recorded
some of the sex acts on video…[and] faces charges of rape, gross sexual imposition…[child porn] and human trafficking. He’s already been convicted of drug crimes…The charges…to which [Corcoran] pleaded are enough to put her in prison for the rest of her life…
Danielle Rose, 25, took it upon herself to expose the ugly truth that it happens in her native Brooklyn. Her first documentary, In Our Backyard, depicts the unspoken world of sex trafficking through the emotional stories of recent survivors and the work of advocates fighting to end this form of modern-day slavery. A senior at Sarah Lawrence College, having never used a camera before, Rose set out to make a documentary film about it. She invested all her savings into the film and enlisted her friends and family to help her…Rose [said]…”my mom, who was a caterer, was friends with someone at the Brooklyn DA’s office and they got in touch with her to donate food for an anti-trafficking event…I knew nothing about using a camera but I started going out and filming…The subjects it touches upon are sex buyers, pimp culture, the music we listen to, and Backpage.com”…
This just keeps getting stupider with every iteration:
…Professor Noel Sharkey said he believes teenagers could lose their virginity to android sex dolls…and…warned that the robots may have damaging consequences for society…he insisted that robotic dolls could have as big an impact as online porn in the sex industry…”Sex robots are accessible now and certainly [will be common] within the next 10 years. I think there will be an age limit. Certainly there should be, but if your dad or mum had one, you could sneak in and use it…It’s not a problem having sex with a machine. But what if it’s your first time, your first relationship? What do you think of the opposite sex then…It will…stop…people forming relationships with normal people”…
Naturally, Baton Rouge couldn’t let itself be out-pruded by New Orleans:
Louisiana strip clubs will be barred from hiring dancers under the age of 21, under a new law…Bill sponsor…Ronnie Johns…[pretends] the provision will help to fight human trafficking…Debate was briefly derailed by a proposal from…Rep. Kenny Havard…suggesting strippers should be between 21 and 28 years old and less than 160 pounds. The amendment drew strong criticism. Havard called it a joke about overregulation…
At [the] press conference announcing the departure of Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, Mayor Libby Schaaf…told a room full of reporters that Whent was resigning for “personal reasons”. The mayor said it had nothing to do with a scandal involving rookie police officers who sexually exploited a minor, or the suspicious death of a police officer’s wife and his subsequent suicide…But the mayor and other city officials are either not being forthright about the extent of OPD officer misconduct…at least fourteen Oakland Police officers, three Richmond Police officers, and four Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies had sex with the girl who goes by the [stage] name Celeste Guap…who…said she slept with cops as a form of protection [from arrest]…
*Credit Mistress Matisse
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (#641)
It’s so good to see “sex trafficking” lies now being attacked from multiple directions:
…The 1,000-victim figure comes from a questionable study commissioned by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and published in 2010…The…FBI…[labeled] an average of 15 [minors as] victims of sex trafficking in Toledo each year, between 2005 and 2009. The study’s authors took that 15-per-year figure and applied it to all girls ages 12 through 17 in the state of Ohio…[yielding] an estimate of 202 girls per year. Then, the commission multiplied 202 by five, because a University of Toledo study claimed that each sex trafficking victim they interviewed knew an average of five more underaged minors “not known to law enforcement, but who were engaging in the sex trade”…
Rolling Stone is trying to cover its collective arse (or rather, that of whatever drunk editor approved the publication of a piece of anti-sex propaganda from a government stooge) by publishing a rebuttal from Amnesty International featuring those stupid things called “facts”. It’s too late, Rolling Stone; you’ve flushed whatever credibility you had down the anti-sex toilet. But maybe you can reinvent yourself as a magazine for fascist bootlickers and authoritarian apologists.
Diary #311
Posted in Diary, Perception, Q & A, tagged activism, Maggie in the Media, video on June 14, 2016| 3 Comments »
It looks like things are getting busy again for me, and probably will be for the next month or so. I’m going to the Desiree Alliance conference in New Orleans from July 10th to 15th, so if you live in the Big Easy and want to see me professionally you need to speak up pretty soon. I have a two-day gig this week and a three-day gig the weekend after next, and a bunch of other stuff mixed in between now and early July (including a much-anticipated beauty procedure today). The interviews also seem to be ramping up again; a couple of weeks ago I talked to a reporter from Michigan for this story, then last week local reporter Sydney Brownstone for this one. On June 2nd, I appeared on Jeff Richardson’s podcast:
Then on Saturday, I spoke to an ally (who used to be a politician, of all things!) about client criminalization for an article he’s working on for a mainstream publication. Finally, I’m going to be doing some more filming on the documentary project, and I hope to be doing at least a couple of more photo shoots for the nudes project before the summer is out. And that’s just the stuff I know about now; if you’ve been reading for a while, you know things can change awfully fast, and for all I know I could be running hot all the way down until autumn.
Guest Columnist: Mike Crawford
Posted in Guest Columns, Perception, tagged male prostitutes on June 13, 2016| 4 Comments »
Mike Crawford is a sex worker, sex workers’ rights activist, and occasional writer. He tweets about sex work and social issues, and occasionally posts pictures of whatever record he happens to be listening to at the moment.
It’s All Greek to Me
Sex work is a female-dominated field, so much so that the existence of male sex workers is often omitted entirely in any discussion of the topic. I hope that offering some perspective on being a male sex worker will not only be informative, but will also highlight the very troubling, highly-gendered way common arguments and tactics are used to advance the prohibitionist agenda.
There is less stigma associated with being a male provider
This should hardly be shocking as there simply is no “fallen man” trope to link to male prostitution. Sure, sex addiction has become the new go-to for men to hide behind when they’re [often literally] caught with their pants down, but the thought that sex could truly “ruin” a man is laughable in all but the most fundamentalist of circles. No matter how much organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD attempt to whitewash the LGBT image, sex workers have a long and rich history in our culture. Sex workers were instrumental in the Stonewall Riots; we marched in the first Pride parades; Go-Go boys have long been a fixture in our bars; we even have a unique vocabulary dedicated to the various types of sex workers and clients. As a percentage of our total population, more of us have also participated in sex work – even if informally – often as a means of survival when abandoned by parents after we’ve come out. In general, sex work in LGBT culture isn’t a shameful secret; it’s a fact of life. That having been said, because sex work continues to be viewed in a very heteronormative way, the unique needs of LGBT providers are often left unconsidered. Whether it’s outreach services or policy discussions, LGBT sex workers continue to be underserved and often unrepresented.
The money is in catering to male clients
From porn to prostitution, the best way to make a living as a man in sex work is almost invariably by catering to a male client base; there’s a reason straight hustlers have been around forever, and there’s a reason straight guys perform in gay-for-pay porn. Whether it’s the result of socialization, arousal and desire patterns, concerns for physical safety, or – my guess – a combination of all three, most women don’t purchase sex. More and more women are viewing porn, however, so I’m interested to see how this dynamic might shift in the future.
The logistics are a bit … different
The proverbial money shot is pretty aptly named when it comes to male sex work. Whether you’re in the penetrative or receptive role (or both, or neither) on a call, your clients most likely want the full show. When coupled with the need to maintain a steady erection, let’s just say the performance pressure can be fairly intense. A certain, now ubiquitous, little blue pill can often provide the assistance needed to get the job done, but one can build an immunity to these meds over time so that’s an ongoing consideration. Our clients’ desire for us to climax is also a natural limitation on the number of bookings most of us can do in a day. True, occasionally you can fake it, but more often than not, you can’t – no 76 clients per week for me.
Male sex workers are not immune to abuse
I’m a small guy: 28” waist and weighing in at a whopping 140 pounds fully clothed. When people contemplate sex worker safety, they understandably tend to view it in a gendered way. The reality for me – and really all male sex workers – is that we’re vulnerable too. This isn’t because sex work is inherently dangerous (it’s not); rather it’s because criminalization means that if we’re victimized, we’re unable to report the incident to law enforcement without implicating ourselves in a crime. Potential abusers are aware of this dynamic and, consequently, they often target sex workers for exploitation or violence precisely because they know the offense is likely to go unreported. Like women engaged in sex work, male providers need the harm reduction benefits associated with decriminalization too.
No one is trying to rescue us (not that I’m complaining)
I have a Google Alert set up for stories related to sex work; every day I receive a reminder that I could be arrested at a moment’s notice for trying to do my job. While that’s not an unrealistic fear, the vast majority of arrests for the actual act of prostitution are of women. Data on male sex work is hard to come by; most sources that capture statistics by sex only report using the catchall “prostitution related offenses” making it impossible to parse out if male offenders are being charged as clients, facilitators, or workers. That said, at least one study validates the common knowledge that women are much more likely to be arrested for prostitution than men. The rescue industry is also entirely unconcerned with male sex workers. Men are coerced into commercial sex (though, just like women, they’re far likelier to be trafficked into another sector) and forced into prostitution, but you’ll rarely hear even the most cursory acknowledgement of that fact; this is unsurprising if you understand the very gendered, often racist narratives used by these organizations to raise the funds necessary to keep themselves in business.
We’re an inconvenient reality for prohibitionists
Moral scolds who wish to completely prohibit commercial sex generally fall into two categories: the family values crowd (often religious fundamentalists) and radical, carceral feminists. Fundamentalists rarely attempt to make any form of coherent argument against sex work, preferring to bully others into submission through sheer force of moral authority. It’s trickier, however, for radical feminists who often do attempt to use pseudo-logic to advance their agenda. In their limited, dated, heteronormative view, all sex work is the exploitation of women by men – women are “prostituted” by some invisible hand that apparently strips them of their agency and personhood in the process. Correspondingly, all sex work is damaging, both at an individual and a social level; for the individual, it is demeaning and destructive, for society, it is a perpetuation of the patriarchy that feeds male entitlement to women’s bodies. Setting aside for a moment all of the troubling implications of that world view, you can easily see how the very existence of male sex workers is problematic. After all, as a male I’m an instrument of the patriarchy, but as a whore, I’m a victim. Am I simultaneously the victimizer and the victimized? Am I actually feeding male entitlement to male bodies?
Superficial differences in the experiences of sex working women and men aside, the broader context in which our rights are debated and our work is policed reveals much about the real beliefs and motivations behind the ongoing stigmatization and criminalization of sex work. If these efforts are really about “rescuing” people “from the life” why are male sex workers not targeted by the rescue industry and law enforcement in their quest to offer their unique brand of “assistance?” In rare instances such as the Rentboy raid where male sex work is targeted, why is the dialogue framed as cracking down on vice rather than saving victims? The answer lies in a new social conservatism – one perpetuated by fundamentalists and inexplicably embraced by radical feminists. This trend is as infantilizing as it is paternalistic; it tells women they can’t possibly really choose to enter into sex work while making no such claims about sex working men. It maintains that sex work is inherently abusive – that it is the paradigmatic manifestation of male exploitation of women – yet offers no explanation of how this dynamic applies when men purchase sex from other men. It can’t adequately address the very existence of male sex work because it is nothing more than classist concern trolling, a Victorian ethos repackaged in Post-Structuralist, radical feminist bullshit and marketed to the masses by the likes of Lena Dunham; anyone who truly believes in the full equality of women and men should reject it roundly.
Links #310
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged Canada, cops, drugs, Georgia, Kentucky, lawheads, Massachusetts, Never Call the Cops, New York, North Carolina, video on June 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »
(She was) Just the sweetest lady.
A lot of my readers enjoy flattering me about the ease with which I take down idiots who try to challenge me on the internet, and needless to say I enjoy it, too, especially when the jokes are as funny as this video shared by Ablative Meatshield. The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya (“happens”), Dave Meyer Lindenberg (“state”), Tim Cushing (“seizure” and “innocence”), Radley Balko (“sociopathic”), and Charles Hill (“backward”).
- I hate it when this happens.
- This week in your police state.
- Cops beat & taze man for having a diabetic seizure.
- Calling them isn’t just stupid; it’s de facto sociopathic.
- Hopeless lawheads have this situation completely backward.
- That whole “presumption of innocence” thing was nice while it lasted.
- Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.
From the Archives
- The Bay Area tries desperately to cash in on the “gypsy whore” myth before it collapses completely.
- If cops don’t want people spreading stupid rumors, they need to stop spreading such themselves.
- A 33′ painted bronze sculpture of a beyond-naked pregnant woman with an exposed fetus.
- What next, shooting ’em with tranquilizer darts & RF tagging ’em for study?
- Thaddeus Russell reviews a book on sex work during the Alaska gold rush.
- Control freaks can’t get that the Swedish model is unwelcome in Scotland.
- Delusional men think they can “abolish prostitution” by ham-handedness.
- Sonja Dolinsek on the harm caused by the “gypsy whores” myth in Brazil.
- Vietnamese “authorities” think 3 weeks’ pay will convince whores to quit.
- The pill pushers are determined to sell a non-cure for a non-dysfunction.
- Try not to get sick from propaganda vomited up all over these reporters.
- Ghosts, Seinfeld, video, cops, perverts, Christopher Lee and much more.
- When “prostitution ring” means one girl, her boyfriend and his mother.
- The people accused of “trafficking” are almost never actually criminals.
- Women do whatever they need to do to survive in a worker’s paradise.
- Ninja pimps with mind-control powers are rarer in Canadian folklore.
- Slender Man, prisons, cops, cheese, emasculation, kittens and more.
- Another article on the prohibitionist documentary Hot Girls Wanted.
- “The first step…is…getting the women to see themselves as victims.”
- What coffee stands are to Everett, massage parlors are to Bellevue.
- “Gypsy whores” idiocy with a Swedish-Canadian police-state flavor.
- The “juju sex slaves” myth just keeps going like a battered zombie.
- Researcher Bo Jensen shares sex work statistics from Denmark.
- It’s so nice to see a few public intellectuals actually saying this.
- FBI reports make rape sound humdrum and almost accidental.
- Glenn Kessler continues to hammer at “sex trafficking” myths.
- The Swiss government rejects criminalization of prostitution.
- Congress stops all federal funding to Operation Choke Point.
- 18 months for whores, 8 hours for clients. Yeah, that’s fair.
- Snopes debunks the “teen job sex trafficking scam” rumor.
- Yet another “reality” show about prohibitionist vigilantes.
- This will continue for as long as our work is criminalized.
- How can I deal with issues that keep me from intimacy?
- Yasmin Nair is on the same page as I am about Kristof.
- Judge says stage stripping is art, but lap dancing isn’t.
- Molly Smith on the problems with the Swedish model.
- A short biography of the courtesan Ninon de l’Enclos.
- An amusing “future story” in a Canadian newspaper.
- Here’s the magical pimp mind-control philter again.
- Christina Parreira on working in a Nevada brothel.
- Another “sex trafficking survivor” bites the dust.
- Wanted: a really big tour bus with 40,000 seats.
- The continuing adventures of Aella the Amazon.
- Welcome to our world, New York housewives.
- Why is “pussy” slang for female genitalia?
- In which I just can’t resist teasing y’all.
- The truth about “child sex trafficking”.
- Will these “reporters” never wake up?
- “SEX TRAFFICKING” IS EVERWHERE!
- My visit to Los Angeles & San Diego.
- Kristof the Rat turns on his “hero”.
- An exceptionally stupid sex toy.
- R.I.P. Christopher Lee.
- Friday the 13th, 2014.
- Piano criminalization.
- Now he asks.
In the News (#645)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Arizona, asset seizure, BDSM, censorship, Check Your Premises, cops, fantasy, Illinois, India, Indiana, internet, Lack of Evidence, Michigan, Oklahoma, One Born Every Minute, Policing for Profit, porn, prohibitionist myths, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, scams, sex rays, Sexcrime, sporting events, surveillance, The Notorious Badge, The Puritan Recrudescence, Think of the Children!, To Molest and Rape, Traffic Circle, underage, United Kingdom, Utah, Washington (state), Welcome to the Future, Zimbabwe on June 11, 2016| 12 Comments »
Instead of Scheherazade telling a sociopathic Persian king a thousand stories to save herself and her sisters, McNeill taps away at a laptop with posts that reach sex workers across the world. – Sydney Brownstone
DON’T THEY KNOW SEX RAYS CAN PENETRATE WALLS, LOCKED DOORS & PRIVACY PANELS?
A new business, a baby store for adults, is sparking outrage in suburban Mt. Prospect, Illinois…Dozens of residents showed up at village hall…calling for the business to be shut down or moved. However, officials said they had no legal basis to bar the business, Tykables, which includes features such as a seven-foot crib, an over-sized high chair and adult-sized playpen…the primary focus of the business is selling adult diapers for medical needs and for “ABDL” or “Adult Baby Diaper Lovers”…Residents…said…the store has no place near schools and homes. “It’s hard for us to swallow in this community,” one concerned resident said…”we’re supposed to sit back and watch,” another…complained. The doors are locked…and customers can only enter by appointment. White panels cover the windows, for privacy…The village is investigating whether the store owner lied on the business application. However, the village attorney said civil rights laws may protect against any action against the business.
The jokes write themselves.
Because anything can be “evidence of prostitution”, even if you’re 12:
[A Zimbabwe] regional magistrate Dambudzo Malunga has lashed out at a Grade Seven pupil for alleging that she was raped and infected with a sexually transmitted infection, only for medical results to reveal that her alleged rapist never had an STI. The…suspect…has been found not guilty…Magistrate Malunga then…lashed out at the…girl [claiming she] “has experience in having sex with different men and would charge them for her services”…
Does this writer actually understand the meanings of these words?
The Telangana Government…has been organising campaigns to drive [sex workers] out of the town. The victims who have been depending on this profession for generations, though ready to comply with the government’s move, demand rehabilitation for themselves and quality education for their children. The government has vowed to end the flesh trade…Most of them are either forced into this or enter it on their own to meet their family’s needs…
Another sleaze tricks young would-be sex workers in order to rape them:
According to her Facebook profile, she was “Deja Stwalley,” and her photo showed a youngish blonde woman in a blue romper. Stwalley claimed she was a recruiter for indie porn studios…Stwalley’s webcam was always broken, and she could never speak by phone. But she could always type. If the person Stwalley was chatting with seemed skeptical of the porn recruiter’s legitimacy, Stwalley added that she got into this business to protect women from getting lured into sketchy situations…Liz Shearer was 20 years old when she met Stwalley online…Stwalley told her that she could audition with her ex-boyfriend, a photographer named Matt. Stwalley told Shearer that she would also have to have sex with Matt. “To prove to production companies that having sex with someone I didn’t know was something that I could handle”…Allysia Bishop…and Shearer are two of at least six women who…met online after one woman’s account of her experience with Stwalley went viral on Facebook. Now, after sharing their stories with one another, they believe that the Deja Stwalley profile was fake…the two e-mail addresses—Stwalley’s e-mail that had supposedly been sent from Las Vegas and Matt’s e-mail sent from Seattle…used the same IP address near the University District…Matt…is local freelance tech journalist Matt Hickey…who…did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the specific allegations…Scammers…target sex workers…so often…that Seattle-based sex worker, writer, and activist Maggie McNeill has a regular feature on her website documenting these sorts of scams…
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling for an end to government research that could be used to map connections or make inferences about people based on their tattoos. The National Institute for Standards and Technology began its initiative to refine automated tattoo recognition technology for the FBI in 2014…[it] collected 15,000 images of tattoos from arrestees and inmates and distributed the images to third parties…to test tattoo recognition algorithms…Now the institute is prepared to begin a new, larger experiment using 100,000 tattoo images that will sort people and their tattoos based on images…the institute…says tattoos can suggest affiliation to gangs, subcultures, religious or ritualistic beliefs or political ideology…EFF says…“This type of tattoo matching could sweep up fans of the same bands or members of the same labor union or military unit. This application has a high likelihood of generating false positives—matching someone whose tattoo may be visually similar, but not actually symbolically similar. That could result in people being improperly associated with groups, such as gangs, with which they have no actual affiliation”…
Oklahoma police agencies are being equipped with devices that allow officers to scan prepaid debit cards and [steal] funds linked to them…The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has purchased Electronic Recovery and Access to Data machines for installation in Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Oklahoma City police cruisers…The device [allows pigs to root in] the balance of prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and allows them to [steal] the money if they [pretend] it’s suspicious. ERAD readers also can provide limited information about pretty much any card with a magnetic strip, including bank debit cards and credit cards. Oklahoma has become a battleground in the debate over civil asset forfeiture reform in recent years, prompted by high-profile cases of cops using the practice to [steal] cash and property from innocent people…Each ERAD reader is costing the state about $5,000, plus…7.7 percent of all funds [stolen] with the readers…
A feminist pornographer has won the right to re-launch her fetish website…Pandora Blake, who runs DreamsofSpanking.com, was among UK pornographers forced to close their websites after a 2014 law brought porn made in the UK in line with rules binding DVDs sold [in] shops. The Audio Visual Media Services regulations (AVMS) banned sex acts that were deemed morally damaging or life-threatening, including strangulation, face-sitting and fisting. Spanking beyond what was deemed to be a gentle level, humiliation, full bondage and restraint…female ejaculation, and depictions of non-consensual sex were also forbidden…Blake is believed to be the first pornographer to be granted the right to re-open her website in the wake of the law, and is one of only two UK producers who can legally publish videos of face-sitting, female ejaculation and spanking which leaves a mark…she…now plans to continue campaigning and fundraising to see the anti-porn regulations scrapped entirely, alongside obscenity lawyer Myles Jackman who helped her with her case…
Regular readers know that last year the The Fact Checker exposed a series of false statistics associated with sex trafficking of children. All too often, we found, politicians and organizations credulously accepted flimsy or poorly researched statistics…advocates only harm their cause when they tout statistics that are so easily disproved. Our fact checks led many politicians and organizations to be more careful in their use of statistics concerning sex trafficking, but problems continue to surface. Case in point: a billboard campaign launched by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, tied to the recent Indy 500…One of the billboards offered a statistic we had thoroughly debunked last year — that 13 is the average age for children to get involved in the sex trade…
Deon Haywood of Women With a Vision on The Girlfriend Experience:
…Most sex workers operate in the shadows…[they are criminalized] for the simple act of surviving. Decriminalizing this work is the way toward providing health, safety and true economic opportunity for marginalized women. As it stands, sex work is wrapped up into the language of anti-trafficking, the new war on drugs. And like that war, it fuels the incarceration of mostly poor black and brown people just as the misbegotten drug war has done for 40 years…the so-called war on trafficking has been a vehicle for expanding criminalization because incarceration—including for a woman’s “own good”—is touted as the chief tool of justice…About 55,000 prostitution arrests occur in the U.S. annually, and more than two-thirds are women…
Say what you like about Larry Flynt, but he’s a dedicated foe of censorship:
Every member of the Utah State Legislature is getting a free copy of Hustler…as part of a protest of the state’s declaration that pornography is a “public health crisis”. The magazines began arriving in the mailboxes of lawmakers on Monday…publisher Larry Flynt…has famously sent members of Congress subscriptions to Hustler since 1998…Jim Dabakis…the only openly gay member of the…Legislature, joked that the magazine was “wasted on me”…[but] many lawmakers [used the arrival as an opportunity for moral signaling since they]…recently passed a law that allows [them] to throw away publications they get in the mail…
Practically a definition of “wrongheaded”: A popular porn site is shaming its customers for enjoying one popular type of porn:
In response to media coverage of the recent, high-profile Stanford University sexual assault case, porn giant xHamster is taking on rape fantasies. When a user searches for the term “rape” on the site, they are greeted with a pop-up window reading, “If you are searching for this category, probably it’s time you consulted with a professional psychologist.” It then links to a free online therapy website…David Ley…says it’s…“a gross exaggeration to suggest that all people who have a fantasy regarding rape or forced sexual behavior are…psychologically ill”…more than half of women have fantasies of being “overpowered” by a man…Dan Savage…agrees. “I get letters constantly from women who feel deeply conflicted about having rape fantasies while viewing themselves as feminists, progressive and opponents of rape culture—and to shame people, I don’t see that as helpful”…
Scottsdale [Arizona] police arrested…[rapist cop] Jay Hun Wu…[molesting] a woman in his custody…On March 29, Wu gave the woman a courtesy ride to her home…she asked…Wu to let her out at her residence but…he pulled over…next to a residential wall…and said he needed to pat the woman down before he [groped] her under her clothing. He then gave her his business card and told her to call if she ever needed anything. The victim immediately told her family and Scottsdale police about the encounter…She recalls “nightmares and a lot of crying,” saying the incident has “really impacted me emotionally…to have trust in a law officer an then feel violated”…Sgt. Ben Hoster [lied]…”when police find a bad apple among their ranks, they’re quick to remove them”…
Cops are such clueless narcissists, they just can’t resist any excuse to belch out pathetic, self-congratulatory lies. And prosecutors use any excuse to reduce their penalties:
A [cop] charged with sexual assault has taken a plea deal. Troy Estree pleaded no contest to assault by strangulation…In return, prosecutors agreed to drop one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct…Estree was [previously charged with and acquitted of] sexually assaulting a teen relative…
In which Facebook demonstrates the dirty-mindedness of its censors:
…this actually is…an attempt…to show how similar the bone structure of human beings and horses are by aligning their respective physiology in this way. A rep from the publisher told BuzzFeed: “Obviously, we never wanted to shock our readers with that drawing…our goal was to make the child visually comprehend that the bone structure of the horse and the human being are similar…Putting them in the same position makes the likening more understandable and concrete”…BuzzFeed wrote a post on the image, only to find that — you guessed it — Facebook had begun flagging the article as it was being shared on the site….And this is why Facebook should get out of the morality business to every last degree possible…
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