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Archive for June, 2017

In the News (#746)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 10, 2017| 3 Comments »

Being lonely is hardly a crime.  –  Jake Adelstein

The Rescuers 

Harassing streetwalkers to scare away their clients has become a popular rescue industry pastime:

Friday afternoon, a group called “Code Red” gathered their efforts to stop prostitution throughout the Bay Area and across the country.  “We love people and we know sometimes you just have to keep working and working because they are going to come,” said Sylvia Vigil, who…spent hours out on the streets of Oakland looking for sex workers.  She says she saw ten girls out there and tried to reach as many of them as she could…The girls were all invited to a special dinner Friday night and from there Operation Code Red will offer them places to stay in recovery homes.

“Love” = “pathologically need to control”.  “Reach” = “steal income from”. “All invited…offer them places” = the girls were all too smart to walk into that trap, so nobody actually showed up.

It Looks Good On Paper

Another story credulously touting bullshit “safe harbor” laws:

Ohio…Senate Bill 4…would allow trafficking victims to apply to have records removed of some guilty convictions, dismissed charges or findings of not guilty…prosecuting attorneys…successfully pushed for changes that require the person seeking expungement of…felonies to [somehow] prove the degree of duress they were under…

Surplus Women 

Cops threaten and harass sex workers, yet believe we’ll come to them when we need help:  “…a prostitute was found stabbed to death in her north London flat…[on] May 29…Detectives have warned other sex workers in the capital to be “extra vigilant” as they hunt the killer…”

Elephant in the Parlor 

Quite possibly the most ridiculous excuse any politician has ever used:

On May 22, the Yomiuri Shimbun…alleged that [Japanese politician Kihei] Maekawa frequented a shady dating bar…for a few years until around the end of last year.  The article implied that many of the women who come to the bar…offer sex for money…At a news conference on May 25, Maekawa admitted he used to go to a dating bar but said he went there to talk to the women and learn about poverty in the country…after watching a TV documentary that said many women going to such bars are barely getting by.  “Sometimes I had meals with women and gave them some pocket money,” Maekawa said.  “Talking to them, I have learned that child poverty is connected to the poverty of women”…

Can we please all grow up now and recognize that it’s not merely normal but common for men to pay for sex, and that many women accept money for sex either directly or indirectly?

Welcome To Our World (#15)

Another rape victim caged to force her participation in the state’s morality play:

…in June 2015, Angela Cardinal was led into an Edmonton courtroom handcuffed and in leg shackles…She was not the accused, but rather a victim — called to testify at a preliminary hearing after she was savagely attacked and sexually assaulted by a notorious sexual predator…Cardinal was forced to spend a total of five nights in [jail]…during her testimony…Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley was appalled when…told…of Cardinal’s treatment…she has…formed a special committee to look at the case to review policies, with an eye to making what she calls “aggressive changes”…

Bottleneck 

No, they aren’t “forced” to work without a license; in every place where sex work is legalized, the vast majority prefer not to be registered by politicians and “supervised” by pigs.  Just look at the headline and tone of this article and you may understand why:

In Singapore, prostitution is legal, but [related activities are not]…The government regulates prostitution…but nevertheless illegal sex workers saturate the industry…There are an estimated 1,000…licensed sex workers in Singapore…Yet thousands more choose – or are forced – to work without a license.  Unable to access the same protection the state offers licensed workers, illegal sex workers will either work from massage or beauty parlours or…set up a profile online…Dr. Thein Than Win explains, “In the licensed brothels, everything is in place: mandatory health screenings, condoms.  But for the illegal sex workers…there are no [compulsory government-ordained restrictions]…As police stepped up their efforts by increasing surveillance…and…lawmakers [banned online advertising]…sex workers used websites hosted outside of Singapore to circumvent it…

Pyrrhic Victory (#139)

Some readers implied I was a crank when I predicted this exact development four years ago:

After the Freddie Gray riots in 2015, Baltimore residents began noticing small planes circling the city.  As reporters later uncovered, Baltimore Police had quietly begun using a “wide-area surveillance” system, which deploys Cessna planes to constantly record the movements of an entire metro area.  Police never bothered to tell the public they were using the invasive technology, which had been developed by the U.S. Air Force…Now Miami-Dade Police are quietly trying to deploy the same system.  In a county document posted online Tuesday, MDPD revealed the force has applied for Department of Justice funds to begin using wide-area surveillance (WAS) tools throughout the county…Civil liberty groups say they have major concerns about police using such a system, especially without telling the public about it…

Worse Than I Thought (#433)

I’m surprised this has taken so long to catch on, given the considerable overlap between anti-whore & anti-abortion busybodies:

There are only 13 states in the U.S. where it is possible for a minor to obtain an abortion without either notifying or explicitly receiving permission from either one or both parents.  For those who get pregnant in such states there is the option of continuing the pregnancy, finding a judge…willing to grant a judicial bypass…or [traveling]…to one of the few states that allows minors unrestricted…abortion…In 2006…the Child Custody Protection Act was proposed…[to make] crossing the borders a crime…it…died in committee a few times since then, but now it has once more reared its head…Ohio Senator Rob Portman reintroduced the Child Custody Protection Act in May, putting the restriction back on the table as a means of allegedly combating human sex trafficking.  “Human traffickers and child molesters don’t want parents involved in abortion decisions, so they take underage girls across state lines for abortions to avoid laws in the victim’s home state,” writes the conservative news site OneNewsNow…

Are you satisfied, feminists?  Helping the anti-sex loons spread their “sex trafficking” myth sure was a good strategy, wasn’t it?

Soap Opera (#553) 

I wonder where Theresa Flores will get a real job once “sex trafficking” hysteria collapses?

…Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution…gathered a couple of dozen volunteers in Arlington, Virginia…to…deliver…[bars of magic anti-pimp soap] to hotels and motels around the D.C. Metro area…S.O.A.P. Founder Theresa Flores [claims she] recently received a text message from someone…[who was saved by] one of these [soap bars]…The volunteers…also gave…hotels…a list of warning signs for desk clerks to watch out for, and also photos of missing girls…Flores [also claimed she happened to be] around when a photo of a missing girl put in the hands of a desk clerk [happened to be someone in the hotel that specific clerk had checked in]…

Flores’ entire shtick derives from TV cop shows, right down to the convenient coincidences.

What Were You All Waiting For? 

The ACLU still has a long way to go if it wants to help sex workers:

…For sex workers…[prohibitionists’] view of “help” is paternalistic.  Most of us probably don’t think much about sex workers, and when we do, we tend to immediately assume the worst stereotypes…Criminalizing sex work just allows the dark side to flourish.  When sex-work is driven underground, victims of violence and exploitation feel the need to hide…Sex workers facing criminal sanction are less likely to report rape and violence committed by their customers, and they are more likely to take risks like unprotected sex when they operate entirely outside the law.  If we were really concerned with protecting [those]…who engage in sex work, we would set up a legitimate legal framework in which they could operate…

Eli Baumwell clearly needs some education; legalization (which is what he’s advocating here) doesn’t really work because in the same paternalism he himself says doesn’t work, and the chief danger we face isn’t violent customers but violent cops who lose no power over sex workers under the legalization model he’s advocating.  But this very flawed effort is still better than the ACLU’s long silence on sex worker rights.

Full of Themselves (#650)

Massage parlor licensing is widely touted as a way to “fight prostitution”; let’s see how that actually works:

Last month, Venice [Florida] police arrested three women for prostitution after raiding three massage parlors…[all three] still have “clear and active” massage therapy licenses issued by the DOH…all three have prior histories of prostitution arrests or convictions…Spotty enforcement and regulation of sex crimes in the massage profession happen all the time…Until 2015, the DOH operated on the honor system by requiring massage therapists to report their own arrests.  Now there is fingerprinting, that in theory, will automatically catch arrests of licensees for prostitution and other crimes…[the DOH] insists the state’s $6.5 million a year massage regulatory program that You Paid For is doing well…

I love it when authoritarian busybodies feed on each other.

Storyville (#697)

Some parts of the American west tolerated prostitution long after it was criminalized in the rest of Puritanland:

…When the discovery of gold and silver turned [Wallace, Idaho]…into the center of the mining universe, men moved [there]…by the thousands…Dr. Heather Branstetter….has literally written the book on the history of the sex trade here…”The madams contributed so much in anonymous ways that people don’t know about,” Dr. Brantsetter explained.  “They would leave money at the grocery store for people who couldn’t afford food.”  Many in Wallace say they don’t remember ever having to do a school fundraiser; what they needed was always provided.  In 1972, the state of Idaho no longer allowed cities to legalize prostitution.  But…in Wallace, it was [tolerated as long as] madams…follow[ed police] regulations, like not hiring local girls and keeping the women off the streets in their off hours.  But, over time, the [mining] industry declined.  By the mid-1980’s, only a few houses were left.  The AIDS epidemic…shut down [the last one]…in 1988…

The Widening Gyre (#738)

Still more infantilization of migrant Nigerian sex workers:

Although no fewer than 1, 594 illegal migrants from Nigeria have so far returned from Libya from January through May this year, many more are still stranded outside the country, having been deceived of a better life by traffickers, so said a representative from International Organisation for Migration (IOM)…Dr. Nahashon Thuo…Mrs. Winnie Aideyan, said…“There is nothing wrong with travelling, but people need to travel the correct way.”  Aideyan called on Nigerian youth to stop illegal migration, stressing, “Women need to be empowered so they will not be tempted by these traffickers”…

Because “empowered” women will obey self-appointed nannies and only travel in the “correct”, government-approved way, sitting with folded hands until they get permission. Naturally.

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Testimonial

Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , , on June 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Regular readers know that I’m not usually one for giving testimonials, and never unless I actually try and like a product.  And that doesn’t happen all that often for the simple reason that I’m rather set in my ways, so it isn’t often I actually try a new product to discover whether I like it or not.  But when the product A) was developed by a very dear friend; B) is derived from cannabis; and C) is intended to intensify orgasms…well, obviously I was much more motivated than usual to try it.  The product, as most of you can probably guess, is Mistress Matisse’s new Velvet Swing, a cannabis-infused lube which enhanced orgasm in 80% of the women who tried it during the testing phase; I bought some at the official product launch three weeks ago, but it took until last week to try it because I really wanted to give it a fair test.

Many of you may recall that I don’t orgasm easily or often; I have a recessed clitoris (which makes external stimulation generally ineffective), plus most people aren’t willing or able to give me the kind of stimulation I need for long enough and hard enough to actually get me where I need to go.  And to make things worse, it’s extremely difficult to get my overactive brain to relax enough for me to actually achieve the proper headspace unless one or more of my kinks are engaged intensely enough to nullify my high distractibility.  So needless to say, I wasn’t sanguine about the possibility of any lube, cannabis-infused or otherwise, doing much for me; I’m used to being a statistical outlier in anything to do with sex, so I figured it was very likely I’d be in that 20% the product didn’t do much for.  On the other hand, cannabis tends to have very strong effects on me; 20 or 25 mg of edible and I’m good for the whole evening, and my trips are very intense and border on the psychedelic, including full audiovisual effects (visions and hallucinations).  So if any sexual product could enhance my orgasms, a cannabis-based product would probably have the best chance.  Given all those facts, I figured it was best I try the product with someone I’ve been with often, and whose primary interaction with me is vanilla instead of kink (so that I’d be able focus on what was happening in my genital region rather than on my endorphin high).  On the 31st I spent the night with one of my favorite regulars, and I knew he wouldn’t mind (because SCIENCE!)

I used 10 pumps, the maximum regular dose, because I didn’t want there to be any doubt in my mind; I rubbed it onto my clitoris, between my labia and into my vagina, and then we kept ourselves occupied for 40 minutes to allow it to achieve maximum effect (as recommended).  By the 30-minute mark I experienced a distinct tingling, and when he started to touch me I found the sensation much more intense than it would normally be; he was able to give me six orgasms with manual stimulation alone, a feat which nobody (male or female) has ever achieved before.  The first orgasm was a fairly big one and the other five were just little ones, but given that external stimulation doesn’t normally result in any orgasms, big or small, that’s pretty damned impressive.  I didn’t really notice a lot of difference in the stimulation resulting from penetration, though my labia & vagina did seem “fuller”, more engorged.  As the old commercials used to say, Your Mileage May Vary; however, if you live in or can travel to Seattle (it’s not sold anywhere else yet), I’d definitely recommend trying it.  I plan to again at the next available opportunity; next time with a woman, I think!

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Lifeline

Posted in Perception, Q & A, Tyranny, tagged , , , on June 8, 2017| 2 Comments »

I have a “good girl” job and a secret sex work career; aside from my clients, there are exactly two people on this earth who know what I do – and one of those is my therapist.  I feel zero shame about doing what I do, and have felt it as a calling from a young age; however, I’m deeply aware of the consequences of exposure.  But I’m quite clear that my silence comes at the cost of isolation, so I’d like to change that and develop a support system.

There are a lot of sex workers who don’t have a support system or peer friends they can turn to; as you point out, this work can be very isolating because the stigma makes it difficult-to-impossible to discuss with anyone who isn’t a fellow inhabitant of the demimonde.  And since we’re in the midst of a moral panic over our work, the danger isn’t just emotional but physical; sex workers can be arrested, see their businesses and careers (both sex-related and “straight”) destroyed, have their kids abducted by the State, lose friends and family or even be infantilized and forced into “treatment” or “diversion” programs which treat our choices, jobs and sexualities as pathological.  If you live in a city with a SWOP chapter, I suggest you join right away if at all possible; your privacy will be respected and you’ll meet other sex workers to talk to.  If there is no nearby sex worker group, or if you feel uncomfortable attending meetings in real life, I strongly suggest you reach out to other sex workers on social media; you’d be amazed how much it can help and how real & strong those friendships can become.  For example, Mistress Matisse & I met online more than 5 years ago and now we’re extremely close friends in real life; I’ve also met & befriended many other sex workers on social media, and have developed strong bonds even with folks I haven’t met in the flesh.  Such connections not only help to keep physically-isolated sex workers emotionally healthy, but can also help us to stay safe.  And best of all, they remind us that we’re not alone, that the anti-sex busybodies cannot control us and that we are slowly but surely moving toward a day when we don’t need to hide any more.

(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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In the News (#745)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2017| 1 Comment »

Criminal laws don’t deter hungry humans.  –  Kate McGrew

Welcome To Our World (May Updates)

Though various tit-related laws are covered in this video, the milk-sharing angle is the one that gets least press:

Follow Your Bliss 

Though it’s possible this guy’s telling the truth, I think it much more likely we’re actually looking at a McNeill Rule specimen who’s had a complete mental breakdown:

A London detective is claiming he is being punished for investigating a pedophile prostitution ring, which is being protected by members of Parliament, judges and senior police officers.  Jonathan Wedger…had been investigating cases in the London area since the early 1990s involving girls between the ages of nine and 17 who have been driven into drug addiction and groomed for prostitution…he discovered that police, judges and politicians have been aware of the problem and allowed them to continue…The website Funding Morality is raising money to help Wedger with living expenses and medical costs…his case has received only limited media coverage…

Micromanagement

This plan is supported by useful idiots who don’t understand the concept of “precedent”:

…Under new [Canadian] prostitution laws that…criminalized buying (or trying to buy) sex, the [moronically-named] operation [John Be Gone]…resulted in charges being laid against 27 men.  Police…held a press conference to name the men…and [publicize] their…addresses…three of the men charged…[were] found not guilty and three had…the charges against them dismissed, but the…public shaming…cannot be reversed…those men found guilty were ordered to supply samples to Canada’s National DNA Data Bank (NDDB)…Back in 2000, when the NDDB launched, there were only 37 designated offenses…By 2009…the list had “undergone significant expansion” to “more than 250 offenses…depending on how you count them.”  In 2017, it’s even more extensive…The rapidly expanding list of offenses connected to the DNA database might seem to a cynic like a backdoor way of achieving what police in the UK had hoped to achieve from the get-go — a database including the DNA of the entire male population of the United Kingdom…

Torture Chamber

“Correctional officer” is a term straight out of Orwell:

Twenty-five prisoners told a lawyer the same disturbing story:  Two armed correctional officers poured hot sauce into sandwich bags and forced inmates to stick their hands inside and lick the sauce from their fingers…It was not a mild Texas Pete-type sauce, but an “exotic hot” variety sold over the internet and stronger than police pepper spray…it was so toxic that it blistered their skin and mouths…[but] the [screws] wore surgical gloves…the two [screws] forced inmates to smuggle contraband into the prison…[in their anuses so the screws could make] thousands of dollars a week off the sale of cellphones, cigarettes and marijuana…Inmates [were] forced to kiss snakes and throw rabbits in front of oncoming traffic…authorities at the prison knew what was going on…If inmates refused…the [screws]…withheld water, gloves and vests while the inmates worked in the sun.  But what the inmates feared most was that the [screws] would kick them off the road crew, jeopardizing their early release from prison…

Schadenfreude (#404)

“Sex trafficking tours” are arguably the most vile, tone-deaf product the rescue industry has yet dreamed up:

Bored of the beach?  Done with mini breaks?  Time to take an “advocacy journey” and spend a blissful few days in the Caribbean fighting human trafficking…holiday makers can twin a visit to the colonial Colombian city of Cartagena with a…program aimed at [indoctrinating people in “sex trafficking” propaganda.  Rescue industry profiteers]…Ecpat-USA and travel company Altruvistas [colluded to profit from the moral panic.  The conspirators also]…run…similar [poverty porn] trips to Thailand…

All-Purpose Excuse

If you’re a politician in a city which likes to pretend to be noble and forward-thinking, but you still want to persecute whores & homeless people, the rescue industry has an excuse for you!

In October 2016…the Jungle, a homeless encampment in Seattle, was cleared out and people were forced to leave.  The city told some of those who left the Jungle they could safely stay in another encampment nearby.  Five months later, the city swept that camp too, citing alleged sex trafficking.  During these cleanups, the city allowed a religious organization, the Union Gospel Mission, to be the service provider.  UGM claims clients are not required to participate in religious practices to receive services, but the organization’s mission is known.  This means anyone who feels uncomfortable with UGM’s religious mission—including sex workers—is left without an alternative…

Moving Pictures 

In which an asleep-at-the-wheel editor allows a clueless reporter to publish a pro-censorship story lauding a propaganda film celebration of a court case which would cripple their publisher’s online business:

…child sex abuse and human trafficking are generally considered indefensible crimes.  So who’s defending them?  According to I Am Jane Doe, that would be Google.  And Microsoft.  And Facebook.  And Yahoo…the documentary advocates for [censorship] of online [advertising sites and provides propaganda for]…members of Congress working to [increase]…Internet [censorship by gutting]…Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act…

Only in the midst of a moral panic do so many so-called journalists bleat out pro-censorship idiocy.

Profound Mental Disabilities (#562)

Sadly, it’s never a good idea for a sex worker to transact with anyone who could be considered mentally disabled to any degree:

[Manchester, Connecticut] police arrested a…woman on prostitution charges after parents of a man with diminished mental capacity complained he had been duped out of his video game system in exchange for sex.  Veronica Arroyo…was being held…on bail [much too high for her to afford until] a court appearance on June 19.  Police [said] that a 19-year-old man, whose IQ is 80, had paid Arroyo $30 for oral sex…The man’s friend told him he could get “the whole experience” with the same woman if he traded his Xbox…

Though the young man is impaired, it’s not like he has his IQ tattooed on his forehead.  Arroyo didn’t “dupe” anyone; the guy offered her a trade and she took it.  Only the intervention of the parents, who obviously don’t think their son’s sexual needs are real or important, transformed this into a “crime”.  If they were decent human beings they’d have offered to buy the Xbox back from her, asked her not to do business with their son any more due to his disability, and then made arrangements themselves to have his needs cared for regularly.

To Molest and Rape 

Another pig claims a random woman he raped wanted to suck his filthy dick:

…Harris County sheriff’s deputy…Thomas Carl Pierson…[orally raped a woman on] Feb. 14, 2016…[after pulling her] over [on the pretext that she was allegedly] speeding about 1 p.m…He wrote her a warning and let her go, but pulled her over again five miles away [and raped her]…After that case made the news last year, two more women [reported similar incidents]…One said that on Oct. 20, 2015, Pierson pulled her over [and molested her]…then showed up at her…home the next day…The other woman said Pierson [molested her] after pulling her over on Sept. 12, 2015, then followed her to her grandmother’s home…“for the purpose of harassing and intimidating” her…Pierson’s defense is that the [rape] in 2016 was [actually] consensual…

Uncommon Sense (#676)

Because whores are morons whose lives and businesses must be micromanaged by governments:

ICRSE launches a briefing paper titled “Professed Protection, Pointless Provisions – Overview of the German Prostitutes Protection Act”…ICRSE has serious concerns about the ways the…Act…will significantly undermine many of sex workers’ fundamental rights. The mandatory registration of sex workers…limit[s] their right to freedom of vocational choice, and the extensive means of surveillance…infringes the constitutional right of the inviolability of the home.  The recording of personal data…about persons’ sexual life is a particularly serious issue…The “Prostitutes Protection Act”…only pretends to be a law for the protection of sex workers…What is labelled as protection is in large parts simply a law aimed at repressing sex work…

Worse Than I Thought (#707)

Wisconsin’s entry in the race to make the most mindlessly-draconian anti-sex laws:

A pair of bills proposed by [Wisconsin politicians]…would [attempt to destroy the lives of people seeking consensual sex]…One of the bills…would make the third conviction a felony…sponsor…Joel Kleefisch [vomited out disgusting “end demand” propaganda in the process of pushing his tyranny]…A second bill…would require people convicted of soliciting or patronizing prostitutes — or [having an incall]…to pay $5,000.  The money would be used to [spread propaganda & enrich the pigs]…The sponsors of both bills [masturbated to the fantasy] that Milwaukee is known as a hotbed of sex trafficking…

How long are you guys going to sit on your arses rather than supporting the fight against this evil?  Until you’re the one whose picture is in the news prior to your entry into the “sex offender” registry?

The Course of a Disease (#715)

This is exactly what prohibitionists wanted, despite their claims to the contrary:

On 27 March it became illegal to buy sex in Ireland – a law which legislators and campaigners said would change the industry for the better.  But for many women who offer sexual services throughout Ireland, the new laws have forced them to operate on their own – away from the women they leaned on not just for help with day-to-day activities but for emotional support and other issues…

Across the Pond (#744)

More harassment from another “safer neighborhood team” (ie vice pigs):

Police in Derby will be stepping-up patrols to [harass] communities during Ramadan celebrations…One of the actions being taken will see additional patrols to take action on the problem of prostitution and kerb crawling late at night…

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Diary #362

Posted in Diary, tagged , on June 6, 2017| 6 Comments »

One might think last week would’ve slowed down after the property closing, in which case one would be wrong; if anything, it got busier after that.  I had a beauty appointment on Wednesday, after which I spent the night with a wonderful & generous gentleman; the next day, Lorelei Rivers came to visit with us, and my gentleman (who is extremely experienced) declared the session absolutely the best sex he’d ever had.  A few months ago an idiot wrote an article for Vice about how awful threesomes are, and I literally laughed; I have no doubt that they can be pretty bad when three incompetent amateurs are involved, but when two are professionals who work extremely well together and the third is an experienced and open-minded man, the results can be pure, unforgettable magic.  You really ought to see for yourself, and if you’re coming to the Seattle area you have no excuse not to ask Rivers & McNeill to provide the experience.  Anyhow, on Friday I had to drive down to pick up my keys, where I was left waiting for an hour by extremely disorganized realtors; I took this selfie while there, and I think you’ll agree the combination of boredom & mild annoyance is pretty clear on my face.

P.S. – Chicago!  It looks like I’ll be visiting from the 21st to the 24th. It’s still tentative but email me ASAP if you want to see me because my availability will be limited.

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The Power of Passivity

Posted in Miscellaneous, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Three years ago I wrote “Passive Voice“, an indictment of those who use that sentence form to shift blame from the actual culprit to some amorphous & anonymous scapegoat, or even to the victim.  Cops who murder people, for example, always shift blame from themselves with constructions like “shots were fired” and “he was struck by bullets”; it’s a bit harder when the assault the cop commits is a sexual one, but they still manage a subtle version even when they aren’t claiming it was “consensual” (because obviously women are all running around hankering to spread our legs for whatever random cop pulls us over on the highway).  This is done by a manipulation of the idea of consent; most people understand that consent obtained under certain circumstances is invalid, so it’s easy to choose words that imply invalid consent is a characteristic of the victim of a sexual assault rather than of her assailant.  A couple of weeks ago, for example, I saw a comment about this story containing the phrase, “a prisoner is unable to consent to sex”; though I understand what the commenter meant, I still refuse to phrase that in the way “authorities” prefer:  “She is unable to consent”, as though SHE was defective.  The problem isn’t that prisoners lack something (ability to consent), but that anyone in power in such a situation MUST be presumed to be using it coercively.  The “authorities” don’t want to phrase it as a problem with state actors (“People in power must be assumed to be coercive”), so they phrase it as a deficiency in prisoners (“People in jail cannot give consent”) instead.

This may seem like splitting hairs, but it isn’t by a long shot; years of speaking about legal minors as though they were small children who are literally unable to understand the ramifications of sex and therefore cannot be treated as fully-informed agents, has led to the idea that this is indeed the case.  The notion that a person 17-years-and-assorted-months old is literally a child, actually unable to give sexual consent, while the same person on her 18th birthday is fully adult & sexually competent even if she’s a sheltered virgin, is so ludicrous it tests the bounds of credulity, and yet people run around acting as though this were actually, factually true.  Teens having sex with one another, or even just flirting by sending partially-nude selfies, are labeled “victims” of “child rape”, regardless of how willing they were; whichever partner is older, or sometimes whichever is male, is on the other hand held to be a “sex criminal” or a “predator” because everybody knows that only predatory perverts are interested in sex with anyone below magic 18.  That’s right, there’s a detector in the brain that magically knows the actual, legal age of anyone the eyes gaze upon, and in healthy people of any age it totally shuts down sexual response if the person is even one second below the sacred Age of Shazam.

That such an absurd idea is so common is why I’m so suspicious of stories like this:  “Based on observations or tips, school staff now quietly keep an eye on kids they worry are sexually aggressive…the school intervenes if behavior threatens to escalate, whether the student is a kindergartener or about to graduate…” The story goes on to use words like “attacks” and “sexual assaults”, but in truth the majority of sexual contact between peers or near-peers is consensual; the only “aggressor” is the one teachers or administrators label as such, usually on the basis of age and/or sex.  The phrase “overly sexualized behavior”, which also appears therein, is very telling; it’s US bureaucratese for either “sexual behavior” or “behavior with sexual undertones”.  The reason for the passive construction is the aforementioned official US dogma that nobody under 18 has natural sexual impulses at all, so if anyone below that age demonstrates any sexuality at all, they must have been “sexualized” by someone or something.  Since any sexuality in any person below 18 is held to be “unnatural”, any external sexual behavior at all is “overly sexualized” and the young person displaying it is a “predator” because his peers are all below Magic 18.  Yet cops who commit willful murder, torture or rape are excused by the same linguistic sleight-of-hand; once we accept that responsibility can be shifted by words, we shouldn’t be surprised when the State uses that power to shift responsibility from its own actors, steal the agency of those it wishes to control, and assign blame to those it wishes to crush.

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Links #361

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2017| 3 Comments »

I could see planes circling in mid-air.  They grew in number and hummed, darted and dipped low.  I could hear something like hail falling upon the top of my office building.  –  Buck Colbert Franklin

If you’re phobic of snakes or just easily disgusted, you probably don’t want to watch this video, contributed by Scott Greenfield; the links above it were provided by Mike Siegel, Walter Olson, Amy Alkon, David Ley, and Lenore Skenazy (in that order, skipping the first link).

From the Archives

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In the News (#744)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2017| 5 Comments »

To make policy that truly benefits sex workers we must separate myths from facts.  –  Lynzi Armstrong

Down Under

Another good, basic article on the success of the New Zealand model:

Myths abound regarding New Zealand’s model, including unsubstantiated claims that the sex industry has expanded, with pimps emboldened in the wake of the new law, and that sex trafficking is rife…Decriminalisation in New Zealand differs from legalised regimes, such as that in Germany, since it focuses on empowering sex workers themselves, rather than the state, to have greater control over their work…[a government-mandated] study…by researchers from the University of Otago’s School of Medicine, highlighted many benefits: more than 60 per cent of the 772 sex workers who participated reported feeling more able to refuse to see certain clients, and 95 per cent said they felt they had rights after decriminalisation…[it] supports sex worker’s safety strategies, enabling street workers to take their time in initial conversations with clients…and…clients can provide information to police when sex workers are assaulted…there is neither evidence that trafficking into sex work is a problem in New Zealand, nor is there evidence that the size of the sex industry has increased…research suggests that decriminalisation has had little impact on the sex worker population at all, apart to provide it with protection…the academic evidence that has been gathered so far clearly supports the New Zealand decriminalisation model as an ideal starting point…

Saving Them From Themselves

No law caging people for consensual behavior is “well intended”:

Teens who text each other explicit images could be subject to 15 years in federal prison under a new bill that just passed the House of Representatives.  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee…ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, has called the measure “deadly and counterproductive…While the bill is well intended, it is overbroad in scope…[and increases] the unfair and unjust mandatory minimum sentencing that contributes to…mass incarceration”…[bill sponsor] Mike Johnson [idiotically claims that]…the measure would [never] be used [by prosecutors] in ways he didn’t intend it to be used [and quoted the Bible to claim he’s acting as God’s agent]…

Smoke and Mirrors

Another of those cases whose reported details don’t add up:

A 19-year-old Toronto woman is facing human trafficking-related charges after allegedly coercing a 39-year-old woman to work in the sex trade.  Police say the older woman met the teen in the Hamilton area in 2016 and was allegedly recruited into working as a paid escort so she could make money to repay a debt she owed to the 19-year-old.  They allege the 19-year-old took photographs of the woman in various stages of undress, and posted advertisements on…backpage.com…

Train Wreck 

I’m fascinated by the bizarre & stilted language used in African news articles about sex workers:

The rusty, broken down coaches, disused rail wagons and the unkempt grass at the National Railway of Zimbabwe Harare locomotive yard have become a haven for concubines, street urchins [and] drug abusers…destitute…hooker goddesses from around Mbare…are…using the “sleepers” as their permanent place of residence…women dressed in skimpy outfits laugh hysterically and make obscene gestures, hoping to attract men passing by…Street urchins…claim than hookers…are invading their home, turning it into a “brothel”.  “Prostitutes are disturbing our peace here.  Sometimes we discover used condoms in our apartments,” complained one…The sex workers, however, accused the street kids of being naughty as they often disturb the former when they entertain their clients…Trymore Sanduri…said…“We have heard worrying cases of men being robbed and beaten up by these hookers”…[busybodies] urged…authorities to remove the locomotives and the police to restore order…

Hard Numbers (#321)

Another try at decriminalization in South Australia:

State Parliament could vote on decriminalising sex work within months after an Upper House committee recommended South Australia become the second state to do so…The seven-member committee received 87 written submissions and went on interstate brothel tours after it was formed in 2015…the majority of the committee agreed it should be passed with no amendments…

Naturally, authoritarians on the committee want violence inflected on people seeking consensual sex, and vomited out evil nonsense about “sending messages”.

Japanese Prostitution (#327)

Japan’s descent into American-style anti-whore rhetoric is highly distressing:

Fifty people were rescued from human traffickers in Japan in 2016, with Japanese nationals making up half of the victims, a government report [claimed]…13 were aged 17 or younger…Many of the Japanese victims were forced into prostitution through online dating sites.  Foreign nationals were largely forced to work as hostesses or prostitutes…

Signs

Ever notice that the supposed experiences of self-declared “survivors” are always years or decades in the past & thus very difficult to disprove?

A woman who [profits from] training [cops in “sex trafficking” dogma]…is now facing a new battle, because a federal grant is about to expire.  “Bruising, and abuse, and things of that nature — you don’t always get to see that”…said Shanna Parker…a survivor of human trafficking…The crime is hidden so well even [self-declared] experts [paradoxically] say they’ve missed signs before getting training…[one sign is] a young person…getting their hair and nails done…Parker…[did] not [ever] discuss [her supposed experiences] until almost 20 years after she [claims to have been] rescued…

Across the Pond (#653)

Though gullible reporters believe cop lies about “helping” sex workers, the truth is that this policy of harassment has dramatically (and predictably) decreased sex workers’ willingness to report crimes against them:

[In Hackney the] vice patrol…[is euphemized as the] safer neighbourhood team…[they stalk known sex workers] and pull over the van to [scare clients away], asking them to leave the area and handing leaflets with details of organisations that can help with addictions…[the cops pretend they’re trying to] build up a rapport to get information about…people who have attacked them [but in actuality they treat them like vermin to be removed from the area via]…dispersal orders…

Send In the Clowns 

“A psychiatric evaluation was done on the scene”, in other words by cops, who believe their little tin talismans magically grant them expertise in all fields of study:

…motorists in California…spotted a creepy clown standing along Highway 101, [carrying what appeared to be]…a bloody machete…deputies from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office arrived on the scene with guns drawn to find…61-year-old Larry Allen Tovey holding out his thumb like a hitchhiker…He was then handcuffed, questioned and released.  “The guy wasn’t charged because we didn’t have a victim that was threatened by him with the machete,” the department wrote on Facebook, adding that the “blood” on the knife was just cotton with red dye.  Since a machete is technically a tool and not classified as a weapon, it’s not a crime to carry one in public ― unless it’s being used in a threatening manner…Although a psychiatric evaluation was done on the scene, Tovey did not meet the guidelines for commitment.  He also didn’t meet the requirements for arrest on a charge of disturbing the peace…

Something Rotten in Sweden (#710)

San Diego ramps up its anti-whore pogroms:

Thirteen sex buyers were arrested in a [sting]…conducted by more than 75 [filthy pigs] from various agencies across San Diego County.  “Operation Big Bad John” was spearheaded by the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force (HTTF)…[Pigs] also [stole] more than 17 grams of methamphetamine and several ecstasy pills…

75 evil men playing soldier, down to the moronic and childish “operation” name, to destroy the lives of 13 peaceful men seeking consensual sex.  But hey, San Diego, I’m sure y’all think this was a wise use of funds, right?

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Whores’ Day 2017

Posted in History, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , on June 2, 2017| 3 Comments »

Government…persecutions [of sex workers]…are nothing but the temper tantrums of frustrated authoritarians.  –  “Whores’ Day 2016”

42 years ago today, French sex workers occupied the Church of St. Nizier in Lyon to protest the depredations inflicted on them by the police; the event garnered worldwide attention and is considered the beginning of the sex worker rights movement.  For a long time, not much changed; the early successes of the movement were suppressed within a decade by the growing anti-sex coalition of fundamentalist Christians & fundamentalist feminists, fueled by the AIDS panic (which also choked the Sexual Revolution).  But slowly, sex workers won rights in many countries, and public opinion slowly turned in our favor; by 2004 the only way prohibitionists could effectively fight us was to intentionally launch a moral panic by recycling the century-old “white slavery” hysteria.  Governments found the myth of sex workers as passive, “voiceless” victims a useful one for expanding their police states and restricting immigration while pretending not to be racist, and so applied themselves to spreading the panic on a scale unprecedented since the witch panics of the 15th to 18th centuries.

But even though governments continue to pour money and manpower into anti-whore propaganda and campaigns intended to terrorize sex workers, our clients and our families, and police abuse of sex workers is at least as bad as it was in 1975, the rise of social media has allowed sex workers to interact with the public on an unprecedented scale.  Every day, sex workers of all backgrounds, all around the world, work to debunk prohibitionist lies and expose the ugly truth about government persecution of individuals for the “crime” of consensual sex.  All reputable human rights and health organizations, and every academic and journalist who has actually taken the time to objectively research the subject, now support sex workers’ demands for decriminalization; the foundation of lies on which prohibition is built is now crumbling, and soon everyone not blinded by their own sick need to control others’ private behavior will see the prohibition of sex work as the destructive evil it is.  This does not mean the War on Whores will end soon; the War on Drugs is now recognized as a tyrannical abomination by the majority of people both in and out of government, and yet its demise will still take years due to the fact that powerful interests profit from it both monetarily and in increased power.  But any cultural change requires a victory in the court of public opinion, and we’re slowly winning that; we’ve already passed the turning point in this war, and all that is required for eventual victory is that we keep relentlessly hammering at the lies, fighting bad laws and policies, and sharing the truth.

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Stolen Trust

Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

I’m trying to join a site that requires a reference; could you provide that for me?

Unless you’re someone I’ve actually met in person and know to be a sex worker, the answer is “absolutely not”.  Ditto if you’re a client I haven’t actually had a full-rate appointment with.  The reason should be obvious: the entire point of references for joining sex worker sites is to provide some measure of trust.  If I’m a trusted member of a site and I give a reference for a lady or gent I’ve met and feel reasonably good about, that says something about that person.  But if I just give references for people who haven’t actually done anything to earn that vouch, I’m deliberately cutting at the webwork of trust such sites rely upon and sabotaging the system; that’s an ethical nightmare which could allow any number of awful and even dangerous people behind the walls.

Now, it’s absolutely true that all a cop needs to do to infiltrate an escort board is to talk somebody into seeing him, then using her as a reference to see someone else, and after he does that a few times getting them to vouch for him (maybe even writing a few reviews for good measure).  That’s morally reprehensible behavior; it’s serial consent violation for the purpose of destroying a community, ruining lives and wrecking careers, which puts it on the same moral level as rape even if the individual women who were tricked don’t realize it.  Of course, cops (being moral retards) have no aversion to rape and other vile, thoroughly loathsome violations of the most basic human decency; they are, however, subject to limitations imposed by time, money and their own stupidity, and therefore tend to prefer low-hanging fruit to that which can only be harvested via years of sleazy spying and exploitation.  With a few notable exceptions like the violation of Seattle’s The Review Board, cops prefer to capture and parade the largest number of victims possible in front of the reporters’ cameras for the least possible effort, and that means when they bother trying to infiltrate sites at all they generally do it in the quickest, easiest way possible.  And you’ve got to admit that if it worked, getting a fake vouch from a well-respected escort would be a helluva lot quicker than the months-long process of actually behaving like a decent paying customer for long enough to worm his way in.  Of course, most well-respected escorts are going to answer this question in exactly the same way as I did back in the first sentence, though without the explanation.  Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s very likely that the person who asked me this question is a real sex worker, but I don’t know that for a fact.  And the stakes are much too high for me to gamble them on a guess.

(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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