Archive for July, 2017
Not-At-All-Innocents Abroad
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous, tagged Ireland on July 21, 2017| 4 Comments »
Made To Be Broken
Posted in Q & A, tagged BDSM, ethics, psychology on July 20, 2017| 2 Comments »
My dominatrix is bright, a great listener, and knows her trade well; I’ve been seeing her for several years. A couple of months ago, in chit-chat after the scene was done, I asked her about her school and made an offhand remark about how she seemed to like unstructured events. She was offended, said I didn’t know her well enough, and left without a word of goodbye. Later she texted me saying I was intrusive and needy, and that it wasn’t her job to give me attention. Now she is ignoring me. What did I do wrong?
Different people have different boundaries, and sex workers are no exception. We’re a lot better at policing our boundaries than most people, but we all have different ways of doing that. Some of us, especially those relatively new to the profession, have extremely firm and rigid boundaries and strict rules about how we maintain them (which often includes rules about the consequences of boundary violation, up to and including “firing” a client who transgresses them). Over the years, many (perhaps most) of us get more flexible about our rules; we develop a better sense of which boundaries are serious deal-breakers and which we’re willing to negotiate for the right client under the right circumstances, subject to intuition. For example, when I first started I absolutely never gave out my personal phone number or legal name; now there are clients who know both. There were also things at first that I’d never do for anyone, but now don’t mind if I know the gent well enough. It’s not that I’ve become jaded or don’t care about my boundaries any more; far from it. It’s just that I’ve internalized my needs well enough, and have such a finely-honed sense of how I feel about a situation from moment to moment, that I don’t always need the rigid rules as I did 17 years ago. However, not everyone is like me; some ladies maintain strict rules for their entire career, and it’s their right to do so. Nobody can determine what works for any individual but that individual herself.
It’s pretty clear that your lady is one whose boundaries are both firm and non-negotiable, and you broke one of them. That isn’t a criticism of you; it may be that if I were in your place I’d have unknowingly done the same thing. And it’s equally clear that your offense, however unintended, was serious enough in her mind that she is willing to forgo the income to maintain her principles and/or avoid the possibility you may do it again. My advice is that you move on and find another domme; it may be that she is being manipulative and will contact you when she decides you’ve been punished enough (or when she wants your money enough). And when and if that happens, you get to decide whether that kind of treatment is forgivable or whether it violated one of your boundaries, and whether you should go back to seeing her or tell her where she can stick her moodiness.
(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 (#757)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Across the Pond, agency denial, Alaska, Backpage, Bad Girls, Bulgaria, Business As Usual, censorship, cops, dirty, disease, Guinea Pigs, hysteria, Israel, Kentucky, law, Pimping the Pimp, politicians, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, rape, rescue industry, robots, Russia, streetwalkers, surveillance, Swedish model, The Course of a Disease, The Immunity Syndrome, The Pygmalion Fallacy, The War Goes On, Total Eclipse of the Brain, United Kingdom on July 19, 2017| 2 Comments »
Give up hope — we’ll find you, too! – Je Suis Maidan
Translation: some robbers employ female accomplices who pose as sex workers to attract victims:
Hundreds of thousands of UK tourists travel to Sunny Beach resort in Bulgaria, where pints are as cheap as 80p…But the flocks of drunk Brits are attracting criminals, the Foreign Office said. It added: “Tourists are targeted by thieves and pickpockets in Sunny Beach. There has been an increase in burglaries from hotel rooms.” Prostitution is not illegal in Bulgaria…but it is believed [by cops] to be linked to the criminal underworld…”We’ve received numerous reports of muggings and assaults of British nationals by prostitutes and their minders…Tourists have been victims of overcharging in strip clubs [and] threatened with violence if they don’t pay”…
This scam has existed for as long as there have been cities; the Romans referred to such women as gallinae (“hens”). To report this as “news” is like pretending the existence of pickpockets and panhandlers is. Also: Try buying something at any business in the US or UK and refusing to pay, and let’s see if you aren’t threatened with violence. The fact that the thugs you’ll be threatened with in those places are more likely to wear costumes doesn’t change the fact that you’re being threatened with violence.
A watered-down disease culture, but a disease culture nonetheless:
…[Israeli] lawmakers [who happen to have vaginas]…announced they would present legislation punishing the clients of prostitutes…as the Justice Ministry wrapped up a year-long evaluation of the issue…The issue in recent months earned overwhelming support in the Knesset, with 71 lawmakers from both the coalition and opposition lending their support…Justice Ministry Director-General Emi Palmor ruled out leveling fines against those who paid for sex, saying it was not legally viable. However, Palmor said she was “very, very much in favor” of instituting gradual criminal penalties against those who pay for sex, beginning with a warning and building up to court-ordered “John school” attendance, and other criminal punishments…Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked…will then decide whether to pursue legislation that would both punish clients and set up [re-education] programs for the sex workers…
The last “super gonorrhea” scare turned out to be bogus, and I strongly suspect this one is as well:
…the World Health Association is now warning of an globally spreading gonorrhoea superbug which is resistant to all antibiotics…Thus far there have been only three identified cases of people with a strain resistant to all antibiotics, so it’s far from too late for us to stop this becoming a pandemic, or for you to protect yourself…
Observation: three cases of a dangerous disease. Conclusion: “globally spreading” pandemic! Everybody panic!
Elle Snow laces up her combat boots, prepared once again, to go to war with “The Game”…says Snow…”The [sex] traffickers like to move their victims frequently so they can’t get to know anyone and it’s harder for law enforcement to track them”…Snow…says she was 19 when she was first approached by an older man [named David Bernard Anderson] who…[coerced her into prostitution]…Anderson was one of many men and women following a set of carefully laid-out rules and guidelines for how to force women into prostitution. “What happened to me was called ‘The Game,’ this monstrous beast that is this world of sex trafficking…These guys have a complete structure, they have books, they have documentaries, they have podcasts”…Now Snow spends many of her days monitoring sex ads on online classified sites, looking for trends …”I’m looking for tattoos because traffickers like to brand their victims”…
Yes, Snow is intentionally conflating the street term “The Game” (which, like “john”, is used far more often among cops and prohibitionists than among streetwalkers, and virtually never by other sex workers) with “Game”, the pickup artist system. Anyone who’s ever researched the latter knows that it has nothing to do with pimping, but Snow doesn’t let that stop her any more than she lets the demonstrated falsity of that tattoo nonsense stop her from claiming that. Neither CNN nor her intended marks will bother to do any research, because they’re eager to hear more masturbatory fantasies they can pretend are about fighting evil rather than appealing to their prurient interests.
New surveillance weapons are usually used against sex workers first, but it never stops with us:
In late June, someone launched a website called Je Suis Maidan, identifying people captured in photographs from Moscow’s June 12 anti-corruption protest. On July 7, the website also started identifying demonstrators who attended protests that day in regions throughout the country. Je Suis Maidan relies on the controversial app “FindFace,” which makes it possible to find a random person’s social-media page on Vkontakte [Russian Facebook] with a photograph of that person. Using images that appeared in the news media (including a gigapixel photograph published by the pro-Kremlin tabloid Life.ru), the website finds people through FindFace, listing their real names and Vkontakte pages…
Politicians will keep persecuting Backpage until they find a new website to demonize:
Five members of Congress who [ride anti-whore hobbyhorses]…called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to launch a criminal investigation of Backpage.com after a trove of documents revealed that the website hired a company in the Philippines to lure advertisers and customers…The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations…[claimed] in January that Backpage was removing offensive terms from its sex ads but allowing the ads, some with [imagined] child-trafficking content, to remain posted…
Some of the five named politicians are the same ones working to gut Section 230, thereby destroying the internet as we know it.
Even though there’s nothing here which wasn’t already covered in earlier articles on the topic (including mine), its appearance in a mainstream and controversy-averse publication like Glamour is an extremely promising sign:
There’s a heated debate going on right now in Alaska between the police department and sex workers’ rights advocates over a bill that would make it illegal for [cops] to [rape or molest] sex workers before arresting them. If Alaska passes this bill, they’ll become the first state to outlaw any sexual contact between police and the people they’re [trying to entrap]…Advocates…[point out] that police catching sex workers in the act by engaging with them sexually is a human rights violation, and Amnesty International has made an official statement…that…“Such conduct is an abuse of authority and…amounts to rape and/or entrapment”…
Here’s that vile use of “safer neighborhood team” to mean “vice squad” again:
After a [supposed] spike in complaints…[cops] are launching the new campaign which they hope will stop the sex trade in Redbridge…Sgt Matt Taylor…was quick to [hide the persecution behind the faddish claim]…that his detectives are targeting the pimps and criminals which organise and use the prostitutes, and not the girls themselves…“We want to [force] them…out of prostitution”…Sgt Taylor said police [pretend] the gangs are “organised”…Insp Lee Canter, the head of Redbridge Safer Neighbourhoods, commented: “I would like to send a strong message out to those who intend to use the services of sex workers as we will seek to prosecute you and if convicted your picture may be published in the local papers”…
The eyes of the world will be on Hopkinsville [Kentucky] next month when a total solar eclipse brings tens of thousands of people to the small city. But law enforcement and activists are warning everyone of sex trafficking, a dangerous threat they hope does not become a reality…[profiteer] Amy Leenerts [claims]…“yes, it will definitely happen…it’s a human trafficking ring. And we expect that to probably end up in Hopkinsville”…The FBI is looking into the credibility of human trafficking threats during the eclipse. Meanwhile, the Christian County Sheriff Department is wasting no time preparing for the worst…
The Salvation Army has condemned…sex robots, warning that the technology could increase demand for people trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation…rather than decrease demand for real sex workers…Kathryn Taylor, of the Salvation Army’s anti-[whore]…unit said…”In the same way that pornography normalises certain behaviours, the availability of sexbots could normalise a distorted power dynamic which devalues the other person involved when transferred to human interactions. This could encourage increased objectification of women and children and a lack of respect for their fellow human beings”…Prof Noel Sharkey…said compliant and uncomplaining sexbots could encourage objectification, abuse, rape and paedophilia…
You know, kind of like Agatha Christie novels and TV cop shows increase real crimes. It’s funny how prudes expect everyone to believe that human beings are only volitionless tabulae rasae when sex is involved.
Diary #368
Posted in Diary, tagged blogging on July 18, 2017| 1 Comment »
Last week was a mad scramble of all-over-the-place for me! After a lovely but busy weekend with Lorelei, my week was spent trying to get as much ahead on the blog as possible (and succeeding through this coming Saturday, hurrah!); packing; preparing for the trip in other ways (such as making sure I had enough drugs and alerting my credit card provider to the fact that I might do that thing which 21st-century banks seem to find “suspicious”, traveling); selling a rental house I owned in Oklahoma; switching various accounts from my old Oklahoma address to my new Washington one; giving two interviews; and doing that thing which pays for it all, i.e. spending a lot of time on my knees and back. Lorelei & I flew out late Saturday night on a redeye, arriving early Sunday morning in Philadelphia and spending the day in a hotel with Ghost Rider before heading out to the airport. The flights were as good as I dared hope (which is to say: thank Aphrodite for Valium, Zofran and booze) and we arrived at Shannon airport early yesterday morning, just in time for breakfast (we decided to fly in there and out at Dublin rather than vice-versa). Today, and every day this week, I’ll surrender myself to the desires of Lorelei & Ghost Rider regarding where we go and what we do; I don’t want to make any decision more important than “What do I want to eat from this menu?” And on Friday, keep a look out for a bunch of pictures!
Not Even Close
Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, California, consensual crime, cops, diversion programs, end demand, hysteria, law, New York, propaganda on July 17, 2017| 7 Comments »
Usually, when I devote a whole column to picking on a news article, it’s because said article is so hilariously bad or deeply disturbing (or both) that I can’t bear to limit myself to a quick jab of the knife in a news column, and instead prefer to lovingly vivisect it until the entire virtual room is spattered in blood. But this is, alas, not one of those cases; the article’s author, Sonja Sharp, clearly believes herself an ally of sex workers, or is at least open-minded to the idea that sex workers deserve human rights, yet she can’t quite bring herself to shake off her childlike trust in government and her belief that cops are the “good guys”. So what we get is an article that is generally supportive of sex worker rights, yet fails to properly place the blame for our oppression on the prohibitionists; instead, it adopts a kind of mealy-mouthed “moderation”, pretending that there is a legitimate “debate” to be had between those who say humans own ourselves and have unalienable rights, and those who pretend that individuals are owned by the State, which has the “right” to use violence to “protect” us from choices with which our owners disapprove. There’s very little point in quoting the good parts, so I’m just going to concentrate on pointing out the bad ones.
[When] Police Commissioner James O’Neill and the city’s First Lady Chirlane McCray…[announced] the NYPD would bolster the size of its vice squad in order to stamp out sex trafficking…the hope on part of some advocates was that sex workers might see relief from the pressure traditionally brought to bear by police…
I have no idea who these “advocates” Sharp refers to are, but none of them are sex worker rights activists; we know better than to harbor naive beliefs that doubling the size of a police unit could in any way signal “relief” for those the unit is specifically intended to oppress.
…a growing number of law enforcement agencies…are forming their own anti-trafficking units—often using grants from the feds—and deploying similarly gallant rhetoric despite limited evidence their arrests do much to stop exploitation…But alternatives are time-consuming and remain opaque to most law enforcement agencies, which have been deputized to fight human trafficking in part because it’s widely understood to be synonymous with illegal sex work…Modernizing their approach is still a work in progress, to say the least…
Because the writer can’t bring herself to question the institution of policing, she buys into the claim that cops are interested in “stopping exploitation”; she imagines that the idea of just leaving people alone instead of persecuting them for private, consensual activities is “opaque” to cops, rather than recognizing “sex trafficking” as a boondoggle intended to disguise the ugly persecution of sexual behavior under a mask of “helping”. The idea that cops’ behavior needs to be “modernized” is the most asinine of all; what they’re doing now IS the modern approach, by definition, since it’s less than 20 years old. What we really need is a return to the approach which predominated throughout most of human history: recognizing that sex work is normal and not a government matter, and leaving it the fuck alone.
…Jean Bruggeman, executive director of the national anti-trafficking organization Freedom Network USA [says] “I think in their zeal to help [cops] are doing some very wrongheaded things,” including mass arrests of sex workers and John stings using fake Backpage ads…
…In what appears to be a more concerted approach than that of the NYPD, LA Sheriff’s detectives bring an outreach worker with them whenever they approach sex workers…always offering them diversion first, before an arrest is made…”if they flat-out refuse, we book them, and then they’re sent to the appropriate court,” where they are then [forced into] a system of mandatory services…It seems like progressive approach, one most people—even those who think sex work should be legal—might be able to get behind…
Yeah, it’s “progressive” all right, considering that the Progressive movement spawned the concept of Prohibition in the first place. To pretend that people who want to suppress consensual sex are actually trying to “help” anyone but themselves is disingenuous in the extreme, yet Sharp just can’t see that attacking peaceful people and then forcing them at gunpoint to accept the government’s idea of “help” is evil even if implemented exactly as planned, both in theory and in practice.
…demand reduction…is hotly contested among advocates and experts. While less explicitly harmful than arresting sex workers, opponents say it does little to rout traffickers, while those who endorse it argue arresting Johns makes sexual exploitation less attractive as a business…
Aaaaaaaand I’m gonna stop right there before I am seized with the urge to disembowel Sharp along with her crappy article. No, “end demand” isn’t “hotly contested” among anyone who actually gives a shit about human rights, nor is it less harmful than arresting sex workers (indeed, in the US it always includes arresting sex workers despite the rhetoric). There is no legitimate “debate” over whether people own their own bodies, nor whether they have the right to consensual sex with other adult partners; pretending that there is such a “debate” is nothing more than catering to evil control freaks and sucking the dick of power. The pretense that cops are some kind of sweet, well-intentioned social justice squad, and that it isn’t their fault the laws are bad, is so incredibly nauseating it boggles the mind. Stories like this, written by sheltered little girls barely out of their parents’ houses, are vile apologies for evil policies that enable uniformed rapists and soft-peddle operations intended to destroy lives, enable armed robbery of citizens and increase the real “modern slavery”, mass incarceration.
Links #367
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged activism, animals, California, Canada, censorship, cops, Georgia, I can't breathe, Illinois, internet, Minnesota, Netherlands, racism, video on July 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Ik kan niet ademen. – Jerry Afriyie
When this posts I’ll be on the first leg of my trip to Ireland, so it seems appropriate to share one of my favorite Vangelis compositions, the haunting and beautiful “Irlande”. The links above it were provided by Tim Cushing (“pigs”, “sirree” and “dogs”), Kevin Wilson (“serve”), Marijke Vonk (“brutalized”), Radley Balko (“bald”), and Nun Ya (“guess”).
- Pigs will be pigs.
- To protect and serve.
- Not a police state, no sirree!
- Man fined for being brutalized by cops.
- Cops claim to have “mistaken” teen girl for bald man.
- What kind of man beats an unarmed woman with a club? Guess.
- If a cop comes near your house, expect your dogs to be murdered.
From the Archives
- Why is CNN so in love with the “sex trafficking” narrative and the empty-headed actresses who promote it?
- Only in the US could men enjoying the sight of pretty girls be represented as strange or even bad.
- You might want to reconsider that helpful email, comment or tweet you’re about to write me.
- There aren’t enough real “victims” to go around, so the rescue industry creates fake ones.
- Do you want prosecution for acts that weren’t illegal when they were done?
- It’s heartening to see a sex worker run for office, especially when she wins.
- Cops, Shazam, Pokemon, Sweden, Michigan, bureaucracy and much more.
- A craptastic mixture of the obvious, the pearl-clutching & the dead wrong.
- “A who’s who of anti-sex-work, anti-science, and anti-free-speech zealots.”
- Media never tire of presenting ordinary sexwork practices as new & novel.
- On the notion that false rape accusations are so rare they can be ignored.
- If prohibitionists want to “rescue” whores, why keep us from other jobs?
- Remember, cops: raping whores is OK; it’s paying them fairly that isn’t.
- They “see it as a business transaction” because that’s exactly what it is.
- The gap between what actually happened & what cops claim happened.
- Hawaii joins other states in recriminalizing acts that are already illegal.
- Some stories are so egregiously stupid I just can’t resist editorializing.
- Portraying whores as depraved monsters rather than pathetic victims.
- Whores are bad, because drugs! “Trafficking”! Disease! And vehicles!
- Scaling back claims about Charlotte, NC being a “sex trafficking hub”.
- No, you fucking filthy liar, it’s not “unique” and you fucking know it.
- Labeling a particular street a “hotbed” of sex work or “trafficking”.
- Another example of amateurs profiting from sex workers’ images.
- The usual excuse for yet another sex worker registration scheme.
- Debunking stripper myths doesn’t require gratuitous whorearchy.
- Is it OK to ask a sex worker friend if she’d see me professionally?
- Is the ACLU finally beginning to do the right thing, at long last?
- An empathic courtesan, a killer gynoid and a devil’s bargain.
- Yet another surveillance tool for hunting down sex workers.
- A guest columnist writes about Dennis Hof & Lamar Odom.
- Another in an anti-“sex offender” registry series from Vox.
- How many “sex slave rescue” TV shows must we endure?
- Germany prepares a horrible new set of anti-whore laws.
- Chi Adanna Mgbako on sex worker activism in Africa.
- But picket-fence queers say cops aren’t our enemies.
- Maxine Doogan, Tara Burns and some lovely gloves.
- “Does the sex worker movement need men? No.“
- Laura Lee braves the hostile waters of Mumsnet.
- They’re not even trying to be credible any more.
- Kate Iselin gets it, though four years after I did.
- Notable American proponents of “end demand”.
- Why there are few good studies on sex work.
- Cops, Jesus, time machines and much more.
- Heading to the Desiree Alliance conference.
- Presumption of innocence? What’s that?
- Don’t think this is unique to Oakland.
- “The next generation of condom”.
- More about a dangerous placebo.
- It’s enough to make one vomit.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- Look at the cast of characters.
- Writing a column in the air.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- More of this, please.
In the News (#756)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged advertising, agency denial, Australia, Backwards into the Future, brothels, cell phones, Cooties, El Salvador, Fallen Idol, Hard Numbers, hysteria, illegal aliens, language, law, Legal Is as Legal Does, Most Uptight Nerd Ever, pizza!, politicians, porn, prohibitionist myths, Property of the State, psychology, rape, robots, South Carolina, Taiwan, The Pygmalion Fallacy, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, United Kingdom, Wisconsin, Zimbabwe on July 15, 2017| 2 Comments »
The law shouldn’t stipulate that we’re not allowed to make [personal] choices. – Sharon Jennings
A woman in El Salvador who became pregnant as a result of rape has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after the death of her stillborn child…Evelyn Beatriz Hernandez Cruz became pregnant at the age of 18 but was not aware of it because ”she menstruated regularly”…On 6 April 2016 the teenager felt a severe pain in her stomach and went to the bathroom where she fainted with the pain…The baby…was stillborn but prosecutors argued that it could not be proven the child didn’t die shortly after the birth…
As I’ve pointed out before, this reversal of the burden of proof is becoming more common in sexual matters in the US as well.
Not a good move on Deen’s part:
Porn star James Deen has blocked the distribution of a documentary that addresses rape allegations against him, according to a lawsuit filed by the film’s director. Maria Demopoulos alleges Deen thwarted the film’s distribution…by [stealing] the signed releases from her producer’s office…Demopoulos was hired by Deen’s company, Seven Sins, to direct the documentary in 2015…She was on track to complete a director’s cut…when Deen’s ex-girlfriend, Stoya [and a dozen other women]…accused him of rape…Her producer and a Showtime executive agreed that the film…would have to be re-edited to address the new claims…The producers screened the second version for Deen on July 30, 2016. He had some requests for changes, but his overall reaction appeared to be positive…However, three months later Deen appeared unannounced at the producer’s…office…and Deen persuaded a production assistant to turn over a binder of signed releases…Deen also asked a post-production staffer for the footage from the film, but the staffer recognized him and refused…Deen then walked out with the binder. Without the original releases, Demopoulos says the film cannot be shown at film festivals or aired on Showtime…
In 2011, sex work was re-legalized in Taiwan after ten years of US-style criminalization imposed due to pressure from Washington; however, the pressure has not been relieved, so Taiwanese police still harass sex workers thus:
A total of nine foreign women [whom cops pretend were] forced into prostitution in Taiwan have been [arrested] by Taipei police…during which the alleged mastermind behind the gang was also arrested…The [women] are currently [imprisoned] by…prosecutors…[cops fantasize] the gang…use[d magical] drugs to [mind] control the women, forcing them into prostitution…adding that the [police’s female] victims also included…foreign migrant workers [fleeing from exploitative but legal work contracts]…
Backwards into the Future (#629)
Adult man wearing a costume mansplains professionals’ own job to them:
…Justice Martin Makonese [dismissed a suit by sex worker rights activists in Zimbabwe] which sought an order interdicting police from interfering with [protest] marches…[the judge bizarrely claimed that Zimbabwe is] “an open and democratic society” [while spewing out the following censorious asshattery]…”It is a trade devoid of moral values and is demeaning…if this court allows prostitutes to parade, promote and glorify their trade, other groups…will be encouraged to promote perverse acts…”
The moron then claimed that for sex workers to demand basic human rights further stigmatizes us.
STOP SAYING “FORMER” COP. He was not a “former” cop when he committed the rapes:
A…Horry County [South Carolina] police detective [who]…sexually assault[ed] crime victims insists he will reject a plea deal…Allen Large…[raped] multiple women and [sexually assaulted]…the victims of cases he was supposed to be investigating. Some of those women are rape and domestic violence victims…Large also faces civil lawsuits from women who have accused him of sexual assault and harassment. Two of those cases have been [paid off]…
A promising start: “A bill to decriminalise sex work in South Australia has passed the Upper House…13-8…The bill will now be debated in the Lower House before a conscience vote by MPs…”
Despite the popularity of this fantasy with UK cops, not one has ever been found:
Crime busters are bidding to free sex slaves from pop-up brothels springing up in Cambridge…many of which house…victims of human trafficking…against their will…women [are] being used as sex slaves within these brothels, with many suffering abuse in the most inhumane conditions…
Though it’s hard to recognize through the layers of cop masturbatory fantasy, what they’re actually talking about is ordinary sex workers using AirBnB rentals.
Quite Possibly the Most Uptight Nerd Ever (#751)
A politician describes my flexible, lucrative job as “undesirable”. I hope she can hear me laughing:
…Online platform Rendevu has been downloaded by over 2,000 people since launching in Scotland last month and allows users to [book services from sex workers] at the click of a button. But…[attention-seeking] politician…Sandra White…[said] “It’s quite worrying; it’s like a takeaway menu. You just get the app, then phone it up and get to take away an escort. Depending on what the escort is asked to do, it’s really quite disturbing that anyone can access it. It makes this ‘undesirable’ type of work so available to anyone”…Australian entrepreneur Reuben Coppa founded Rendevu in 2015 and believes the app is a “game changer” for providing a safe space for sex workers…
I’m not sure whose ignorance is more astonishing, Miss “It’s like pizza!” or Mr. “Sex workers had no ability to advertise before my dumb app!”
This is another article on that same ridiculous exercise in “sex robot” navel-gazing that we saw in Wednesday’s news column, but it contains this jaw-droppingly stupid rationalization of why the speaker’s personal discomfort with pedophiles owning child-shaped sex toys should trump the obvious benefits of giving people with such desires a harmless way to satisfy their needs:
“Imagine treating racism by letting a bigot abuse a brown robot. Would that work? Probably not,” Patrick Lin, director of the ethics and emerging sciences group at California Polytechnic State University, told the Responsible Robotics researchers. “If expressing racist feelings is a cure for them, then we wouldn’t see much racism in the world.”
Yes, this psychological illiterate is actually espousing the dangerous and discredited belief that sexual desires are learned responses, like bigotry. Presumably he also believes in gay conversion therapy, “john school” and “just say no”, since those harmful brainwashing programs also rely on the belief that psychosexual needs can be “unlearned” or “gotten over”. Obviously, expressing queer or kinky feelings isn’t a cure for them either, so we should just ban all non-procreative sex, including sex toys that aren’t shaped like anything identifiable.
I am so enjoying watching “sex trafficking” hysteria spin out of control of the “authorities”:
The Brown County [Wisconsin] Sheriff’s Office is investigating a sex trafficking complaint after a local woman posted on social media about [her fantasy]…In a Facebook post, a mother [pretends] two men were discussing how much money they could get for one of her daughters while watching the children play at a park…[even most “sex trafficking” profiteers admit] that children are [not] randomly kidnapped from parks or pools or shopping malls…Authorities…urge people to [let them control the narrative]…
Humorous, Adventurous Rapists
Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged dirty, hysteria, imaginative fiction, neo-Victorianism, psychology, rape, slavery on July 14, 2017| 2 Comments »
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.
We kidnap and ravage and don’t give a hoot.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.
Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me.
We extort and pilfer, we filch and sack.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho.
Maraud and embezzle and even highjack.
Drink up me ‘earties, yo ho. – X Atencio
I often struggle to comprehend the incredible ability of the modern mind to not only reconcile cognitive dissonance, but to apparently function without even being aware of its existence. Last week we had to endure the false “controversy” over Disney’s announcement that it was making changes in the animatronic figures featured in the 1960s-era Pirates of the Caribbean ride. The story was covered in a number of places, but the writer from The Mary Sue made it easiest to zero in on the point I wish to make, so here she is:
Starting next year, Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride will no longer include the iconic Auction scene as we know it, in which animatronic “wenches” are sold as potential brides. The pirates in the scene chant “we want the redhead,” but that redhead will now be reimagined as a pirate herself. In a statement…Senior VP of Imagineering Kathy Mangum said, “We believe the time is right to turn the page to a new story in this scene, consistent with the humorous, adventurous spirit of the attraction.” I took regular vacations to Disneyland growing up and absolutely loved the Pirates ride. Yet I do remember, even as a child, finding something off about this scene. I never tried to articulate it, and didn’t yet know terms like sex trafficking, but I did know that these women for sale weren’t in keeping with that “humorous, adventurous spirit” that permeates the rest of the ride…
So Vivian Kane, like so many puffed-up prudes, imagines she can project her adult feelings back into her child self, pretending that she “knew” there was something about the slave auction scene that “wasn’t in keeping” with the other activities of pirates. Which other piratical activities, pray tell, is slave-taking “not in keeping” with, Vivian? Robbery? Kidnapping? Arson? Extortion? Torture? Murder? I mean, it’s not like the famous song heard throughout the ride doesn’t list them. In order: “We pillage, plunder, rifle, loot, kidnap, ravage, extort, pilfer, filch, sack, maraud, embezzle, hijack, kindle, char, enflame & ignite.” Most of these are synonyms for “steal”, the last few connote arson, and though murder is basically cheated of a direct reference, it’s present as the warning “Dead men tell no tales” (intoned earlier in the spookier part of the ride). But “kidnap and ravage” in the first verse there is pretty clear; it’s a nicer way of saying “abduct and rape”. Because despite the weird 21st -century idea that pirates are somehow humorous, whimsical characters with ridiculous vocal mannerisms, they are actually (note the tense; they’re not mere historical figures) violent criminals, hijackers and robbers at sea with little compunction against mayhem, torture, murder and yes, rape. But while nobody has yet managed to sell the idea of a humorous ride centering around terrorists, a kids’ movie series about carjackers or a “Talk Like a Rapist Day”, somehow pirates (bizarrely conceived as forever locked in the late 17th century) have been stripped of basically all of their realities (except maybe the ships) and re-imagined as lovable seafaring clowns led by strangely gender-and-sexual-orientation-ambiguous performance artists with highly idiosyncratic fashion senses.
Now, I’m not arguing against black humor; I’m actually a fan of it, and plays like Arsenic and Old Lace are among my favorites. I see absolutely no problem with using very nasty subjects such as theft, murder, insanity, war, tyranny and yes, even rape and slavery, in entertainment (even humorous entertainment), provided it’s done competently (“dead hooker” jokes are badly overused & I’ve never seen one act as anything but a cheap laugh). And the historically-illiterate man-children who have a problem with the existence of female pirates can sit and spin; here are two articles to start the rotation. My problem is the neo-Victorian pretense that rape (and by extension, sexual slavery) is one topic that is absolutely off-limits, even when depicting fictional characters who joyfully commit every other crime of violence imaginable, including murder and torture! Another example of the same asininity is provided by “feminists” who moan lugubriously about the lyrics of the Rolling Stones songs “Under My Thumb” and “Brown Sugar”, while failing to notice that the narrator of “Sympathy for the Devil” is boasting about having caused murder, war and genocide (because clearly, sexual exploitation of one single woman is much worse than the Holocaust). This is the old “fate worse than death” argument writ large across the face of our whole decaying culture; it’s worse than ridiculous, it’s completely deranged. If murder, piracy and the sack of whole cities are fit subjects for a “humorous, adventurous” amusement-park dark ride, so is “sex trafficking”; and if Disney’s going to start removing all subjects of moral panic from its properties, I’d like to see how it’s going to replace all of those witches.
Unprofessionalism
Posted in Perception, Philosophy, Q & A, tagged ethics, neofeminism, porn, sex work is work on July 13, 2017| 5 Comments »
I’m a member of a site from which people can purchase videos and pictures of women, and after a friendly messaging conversation I asked her for a series of pics. We agreed on a price for a set number of pics and general outline of them; in the detailed description I provided with the money, I asked for her to smile because I loathe the frowny model face and the “open mouth, vacant stare” model face that seems fashionable in glamour photography. She replied telling me that asking for a woman to smile is sexist. Now, I get that if I was passing her on the street it might be sexist, but on a site that exists explicitly for the sale of sexually titillating content, this seems ridiculous. Am I wrong? 
She’s full of shit and has been reading too much feminism. This isn’t the street, and you’re not demanding uncompensated emotional labor from a stranger; you are a client ordering a custom product from a vendor, and that vendor specifically asked you to describe the product you want. So when you do so, she tells you you’re “sexist”? Is it “sexist” for a client who’s a lingerie fan to request I wear stockings to a date he’s paying me for, or for a diner to tell his waitress how he wants his steak cooked? The very idea is idiotic. My advice is that you tell her that her pointing out your sexism has caused you to rethink the situation, realizing that for a man to buy sexy pictures from a woman is not only “sexist” but also “objectification”, and you don’t want to participate in that. Then cancel the deal with this airhead who doesn’t understand that sex work is work, and find an actual professional who understands professional behavior and will respond to a polite and reasonable request that’s outside her boundaries with a polite “sorry, I don’t do that” rather than with a hypocritical and absurd attack on your character. The online sex market is full of unprofessional ninnies who make it harder for the pros, and you’re not doing anybody any favors by rewarding that kind of unprofessionalism with your money.
(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 (#755)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Broken Record, brothels, California, Canada, Check Your Premises, Checklist, cops, dirty, Florida, Full of Themselves, hysteria, Indiana, Iowa, law, lawheads, Louisiana, massage, Michigan, Never Call the Cops, O Canada!, Oregon, Paint By Numbers, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, psychology, rape, robots, scams, Shazam!, The Pygmalion Fallacy, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, Traffic Circle, Washington (state) on July 12, 2017| 2 Comments »
Police, perplexingly, think that [stings are] a trust-building exercise. – Alison Clancey
Two days after turning eighteen, a California woteen [sic] was sentenced to 13 years in prison for human trafficking of younger girls. Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario…was tried as an adult…Detective Richard Pontecorvo…[fantasized while masturbating that] “These people are great at locating kids with low self-esteem…these pimps are ruining these kids’ lives at an early age”…
“Woteen”? I’m guessing he started with “teen” and then meant to change it to “woman” so as to create an apparent age gap & thereby demonize Almario more thoroughly. Oops!
Small cities come up with the most ludicrous concepts for supposed “gypsy whore” magnets:
Tourism and hospitality industry leaders will be meeting with the [Grand Rapids, Michigan] chapter of Women at Risk International (WAR)…to [spread propaganda about]…human trafficking…Michigan is one of the leading states for human trafficking…Between 100,000 and 300,000 underage girls are sold for sex in the United States every year…And, when there are…major events like ArtPrize…cases often soar. The conference will [subject] tourism and hospitality professionals to [propaganda claiming consensual sex]…is bad for business [and encouraging them to rat out their guests to the pigs]…
Fanatics are running out of stupid “sex trafficking awareness” stunts, so they’re recycling old ones:
A group of three recent University of Texas graduates are…cycling their way from Seattle to San Diego, to raise awareness of the sex trafficking crisis in our own neighborhoods. Sara Belmer, Savannah Lovelace, and Grace Pfeffer are the…members of Pedal the Pacific. They refer to themselves as “hilariously un-athletic girls” who are [spreading tired decades-old fantasies]…about the very real [masturbatory fantasy] of human trafficking…
Some cops prefer to rape by proxy:
…Maria Joseph [reported]…that Ville Platte [Louisiana] Marshall Deputy Arthur Phillips forced her to have sex with another man…Joseph [was asked to go for a ride]…with Phillips [and agreed] because she “assumed it was a date”…Phillips brought Joseph to his apartment, and then “called a couple of friends…‘Chris’ and ‘Ike,’ to come over and visit.” After asking his friends if they had any money, Phillips then proceeded to “[demand Joseph]…touch Chris”…after “she told the men she didn’t do prostitution,” Phillips “proceeded to physically push Joseph onto Chris…[then] told her to give Chris oral sex and to do it for daddy”…later…he…[forced her] to have sex with [another man named] Joe while [he] watched”…
Do I really need to say “don’t go on a date with a cop, either”? Why are people so naive?
It’s fascinating how much energy these fetishists expend on something that doesn’t exist:
…In a report on the growing market in sex robots, the Foundation for Responsible Robotics [fantasized that] rapidly advancing technologies have already led to the creation of “android love dolls” [even though they actually haven’t]…robots raise complex issues that should be considered by policymakers and the public, the report said…including whether use of such devices should be encouraged in sexual therapy clinics, for sex offenders, or for people with disabilities…Noel Sharkey…said it was difficult to predict how far or fast the market would grow…[but pearl-clutchers pretend] that allowing people to live out their darkest fantasies with robots would have a pernicious effect on societal norms…
Another chapter in this grotesque campaign to intimidate sex workers:
Sex-worker advocates are calling on police in British Columbia to stop participating in a…[scam] that sees [cops] pose as prospective clients and arrange dates in efforts to [intimidate] sex workers [into leaving the trade]…They…show up at the agreed-upon location…to [try to browbeat] the sex worker [into agreeing with their pretense that] she is working under coercion…advocates…call the operation deceptive, and say it erodes the already precarious relationship between law enforcement and the sex-work community…sex workers who have been targeted in these operations have described the events as frightening and traumatic…
Some cops just can’t stick with the “all whores are victims” program:
Escambia County [Florida pigs] have arrested 17 people in a two-day prostitution sting…Col. Robert Quinata [oinked that] operations such as this don’t stop prostitution in the county, but serve as a reminder to other offenders that police are aware [that human beings have sex]…he said…Escambia County doesn’t have a sex trafficking problem…as they don’t often find prostitutes working against their will…ECSO periodically uses undercover operations to target sex workers…and will continue to do so…to send a message…
Clearly, critical thinking skills are not a prerequisite for passing nursing school:
…As president of the Emergency Nurses Association, I am calling for nationally consistent policies and clear protocols for identifying victims of human trafficking, and mandatory training of all emergency department personnel. Those who work in healthcare, particularly in emergency departments, often encounter human trafficking victims. Yet [we have no actual proof of that claim]…Florida and Michigan now require human trafficking training as part of their healthcare licensing processes…There are physical clues, like certain scars, markings or tattoos like the barcode I [claim to have seen, yet have no proof of]…their captors exert…[magical mind] control over victims…
Remember, there has only been ONE actual case of a barcode tattoo, in Spain in 2012, and that one was a case of life imitating art. Yet this woman claims to have actually seen one, and produces no proof. This is exactly as credible as an Elvis sighting.
A new Indiana law could [magically] bring an end to [sex work]…Massage therapists must now get a license…This October, seven central Indiana businesses were raided after [cops tricked] women [into] performing sexual acts…The Indiana attorney general’s office said the incidence of human trafficking tips quadrupled over the past two years…Not just anyone can get a license — you must be at least 18; go through 500 hours of training from an accredited school and pass a criminal background check, and exam…
I am so enjoying watching “sex trafficking” hysteria spin out of control of the “authorities”:
The Dubuque [Iowa] Police Department is scrambling to correct a story about an alleged abduction that got warped after it circulated through social media…on Saturday, June 24, a woman and her 8-year-old daughter were at Kennedy Mall when [the woman claims] an unknown female [of indeterminate species] began conversing with the girl, offering to buy her a gift of her choice in the store…The mother [says she] took the girl away from the unknown female and left the area…the…story was posted on social media where it was embellished and widely spread…
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