Whenever things in the demimonde go haywire, as with the recent ramping up of the US War on Whores, my own schedule gets much busier (as might be expected). Between interviews, consultations, answering questions from nervous sex workers, planning for moving this blog and my escort website offshore, joining Switter, dealing with the time-wasters & harassers these events have drawn out of the woodwork, modifying my upcoming article for the next print edition of Reason (on sale in about 3 weeks) and doing my regular paying work, I’ve also had to push myself harder to plan and write as many columns in advance as possible so I don’t have to stress about it so much while I’m in the UK with Brooke Magnanti. If you want to see me there, please let me know ASAP so we can schedule, and if you’re in the US you may want to take advantage of my “Two Out of Three” special. However, the week wasn’t all work work work; I received this lovely lilac dress and a very flattering casual top from Paddy from NY, some super-sexy black snakeskin tights from Cdk, and a very generous cash donation from a reader in the Netherlands who wanted to show his support during these dark times. Thank you all, and especially to my subscribers whose regular donations brighten my days; I couldn’t do this without y’all!
Diary #409
May 3, 2018 by Maggie McNeill
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Ugh, yep. I went out to my first outcall flake in quite some time- he didn’t answer the damn door! Not much can be done there when it all checks out to that point Phone number was from overseas, so not much info on it nor many places to flag it.
You look fantastic!
I notice a lot of the media articles opposing FOSTA/SESTA are purely defensive saying how it is hurting unintended people, blah, blah, blah. None of them go on the offensive and point out that the whole scam by the puritans and prudes is based on an urban legend of mythical “sex trafficking.” Like arguing for the first amendment rights of heavy metal musicians in the 80s, but accepting the moral panic’s lies at the time that there really were hundreds of thousands of secret satanists meeting in bible belt towns across the nation sacrificing children to the devil in occult rituals. Nope, the whole law is based on lies used to go after the real goal, ordinary, mundane prostitution. It’s doing exactly what it was intended to, these prudes just don’t feel they can come out in this era of “gay marriage” and pot shops in Colorado and say they want to crusade against adult prostitution to such an extent guys can’t even have a discussion board about hookers anymore. Bait and switch, the way stoners pretended to be concerned solely about big agribusiness maximizing their profits from a new wonder crop of hemp when their real goals were legalizing weed for recreational use.
I was part of the mainstream media of which you speak. For the most part, reporters don’t do much research on subjects. Few would think, for example, to connect today’s moral panic with those of the past (i.e. cults, recovered memory, satanic heavy metal, daycare center panics, wife-beatings on Super Bowl Sunday, etc).
The reason for the poor media coverage of FOSTA/SESTA is that reporters mostly just rework press releases or pass along so-called “received wisdom.” They strengthen the narrative and rarely refute it.
When the local police put out press releases about a “crisis,” for example, writers don’t think “Gee, it looks like they’re ginning up hysteria because that’s how they justify their budgets.” They just copy/paste the info. Part of this is due to conformity. Reporters want to fit in within their news organizations. Part of it is because of poor training. Colleges are now like finishing schools for the politically correct class. Graduates leave after having ingested various pseudo-religious beliefs and — like religious fanatics — are unable to understand (or empathize with) anyone outside their belief system.
You wonder why none of these reporters ever asked to see the “thousands” of trafficked women who supposedly invaded cities on Super Bowl Sunday. Or why they didn’t question the source who provided that info. Had ANYONE witnessed that many women being trafficked on one day? Also, they never thought to connect the fact that the Super Bowl Sunday trafficking claims started up right when the wife-beating-on-Super-Bowl-Sunday myth was exposed as a lie.
This is all basic reporting — and what reporters used to do. Decades ago, a writer might have even thought to bring up the fact that since men pay for dates, they’re essentially paying for a woman’s time. And what does that signify? Nowadays, the best non-mainstream thoughts on the subject are found on Twitter feeds, not in newspapers.
FYI, the “timewasters and harassers” link above is broken.
Actually, it isn’t; it just links to tomorrow’s post, so you can’t see it yet. Try it again tomorrow.