The
bad news: I’m finding it a lot more difficult these days to keep up with my blogging while on the road. The good news: That’s mostly because I’m learning to relax a little and enjoy myself more while I am on the road. Though my trips are mostly for business and activism, they also contain plenty of socializing; in the week since my last diary I’ve visited friends in Las Vegas, Tucson and Albuquerque, and today I’ll be headed back to Seattle by way of Salt Lake City. And the reason I’ve had so much trouble keeping up with my blog of late is that I’ve spent large parts of 13 of the last 18 days hanging out & having fun with beautiful, awesome whores. So yeah, I’ll have to scramble to catch up when I get home (tomorrow night, gods willing). But I think it was worth it, and I suspect everyone who loves me will agree.
Posted in Diary | Tagged activism, blogging | 6 Comments »
Most of you probably already follow me on Twitter (and if you don’t, you should). But while Twitter is a very powerful tool for publicity and activism, tweets are intrinsically ephemeral; though they do actually continue to exist indefinitely, they’re very difficult to find after a few days. Therefore, I hope you’ll forgive me if, when I write a string of tweets that I think are particularly important, I republish them here for more attention ad greater permanence. On January 14th, in response to the widespread fear in our community due to the Backpage takedown, I tweeted out the following message; it isn’t long, but it expresses a truth I think it’s very important that whores remember in these trying times.
Our profession truly is the oldest one on Earth. Older than the pyramids, older than cities. Older even than Homo Sapiens. The US as an institution is just a toddler, albeit one of those toddlers we read about that gets ahold of a gun and kills their parents. We have survived the fall of empires and the disappearance of whole peoples. We have survived fire, flood, famine, pestilence, war and every other disaster. We have survived persecution, pogroms, confinement in brothels, literal slavery, mutilation & even burnings. We will survive this too. Read what the ancients wrote about us. We are the mothers of human civilization; it couldn’t exist without us. And these so-called “leaders” know it. They’re petulant children who resent their debt to us and are acting out violently. But like all children they have a short attention span, and when some new shiny toy or victim to torture catches their attention they’ll leave us alone. What we need to do is to survive until then, and to keep fighting to be heard and recognized by good people who will stand with us. But no matter what, we WILL survive. And our tribe will exist when The USA is nothing but a thing kids learn about in history, then forget.
We are as eternal as the sea; our enemies are mere insects, who annoy for a season and are then gone. In order for them to win, they would have to completely destroy human sexuality; in order for us to win, all we need do is practice the patience and courage which we have in abundance. And though it’s difficult to remember that in trying times, it doesn’t even matter if we do or not because even if we as individuals forget, we as a group will survive and triumph nonetheless.
Posted in History, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged activism, archeofeminism, blogging, Twitter | 3 Comments »
When I say by any means necessary that would be up to those in charge. – James Tomes
It recently came to my attention that Mystery Science Theater 3000 has been uploading full episodes onto YouTube, so to call attention to that I’m going to feature their treatment of Prince of Space, one of my favorite so-bad-it’s-good movies (though it pales in comparison to the Starman movies). The links above it are from Radley Balko (“necessary”), Mike Siegel (“sirree”), Jesse Walker (“gaslight”), and Mark Bennett (“smug”).
- Fascism in action.
- Still not a police state.
- “By any means necessary“.
- Not a police state, no sirree.
- Gomer Pyle verbed “gaslight”.
- Trump vows to censor protests against cops.
- I hope they never catch him; think of how smug they’ll be if they do.
From the Archives
- Dudes pretend responsibility for women’s abortions, because silly women can’t make decisions like that for ourselves.
- As usual, the media are pretending this is unusual, when in fact it’s the norm everywhere in the US.
- Remember the big “Super Bowl sex trafficking bust” the cops were crowing about last January?
- Prohibitionist claims she has never talked to a happy hooker while talking to a happy hooker.
- Morally-retarded academics will invent bullshit to support your propaganda.
- Men paying for sex isn’t nearly as rare as “sex researchers” like to pretend.
- Sweden, Nancy Grace, D&D, cops, Australia, cops, dogs, phalluses & more.
- When migration control disguised as “sex trafficking” law is very apparent.
- Sometimes education actually makes it harder for people to accept reality.
- Not a “mistake”, but a result of government-approved profiling guidelines.
- Manufacture of “sex trafficking victims” uses exactly these same methods.
- So much writing on something that doesn’t exist & never will in this form.
- This is where sex workers “rescued” by the likes of Somaly Mam are sent.
- A heaping helping of the usual “trafficking” feces served up Arizona style.
- Polite guys women can hire to do romantic but non-sexual stuff for them.
- Cops think “sex trafficking” is a more credible explanation than jealousy.
- Swedish model fanatics won’t stop trying to impose their filth on the UK.
- Kenyan sex workers say a serial killer is targeting and mutilating them.
- While cops have power over private behavior, this will keep happening.
- Non-issue complicated by sociopathic need to control others’ sexuality.
- Cops, Sweden, Yuggoth, yoga, longbows, “Fuck you” and much more.
- Canadians still don’t want the state butting into their consensual sex.
- Perverts want to inspect children’s genitals before they use the toilet.
- Mark Draughn thought that “trafficking hotspot” map looked familiar.
- I wish gay men stuck up for whores as often as we stick up for them.
- Only the second instance I’ve seen of this literally impossible claim.
- “Authorities” destroy lives in furtherance of a wanking fantasy.
- The 30-year fight to de-classify kink as a psychiatric disorder.
- Can this absurd little coffee-stand drama finally be over now?
- Suppressing dissident views is a typical behavior of religions.
- I’m infatuated with a sex worker, but I think she’s using me.
- As I always say, we save far more marriages than we wreck.
- In other words, he was a time waster, not a “sex trafficker”.
- The right way to report on sex workers’ use of technology.
- State actors pretending that porn causes “sex trafficking”.
- How can I get over the death of my sex worker girlfriend?
- Kenya considers criminalizing the outing of sex workers.
- A man’s career is destroyed for seeking consensual sex.
- The only kind of sex robot I could ever be interested in.
- Bogus “signs” and masturbatory “awareness raising”.
- Marijke Vonk on the facts about Dutch sex workers.
- “Victim”. Can these people even hear themselves?
- And this is why I call Wendy Lyon “indispensable”.
- A sign of the decline of the “gypsy whores” myth.
- Internet porn just claimed another casualty.
- Serial rapist of sex workers caught in Spain.
- Rapist cops of the week, 2015 and 2016.
- All of the interview that’s printed to fit.
- In which I prepare to move to Seattle.
- Sex worker runs for congress in Peru.
- Two strippers sue a vegan strip club.
- “Woman has two jobs” is not news.
- More amazing activism from India.
- More “condoms in porn” nonsense.
- Rapist/murderer cop of the week.
- Sweden, the feminist paradise.
- The slow death of Die Wallen.
- But what does “porn” mean?
- Fantasy film double feature.
- Is Jamie Dornan for real?
- Control freak of the year.
- Mind your dysphemisms.
- Alea iacta est, y’all.
- Bad laws never die.
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny | Tagged censorship, cops, fascism, imaginative fiction, Indiana, Japan, language, nostalgia, Pennsylvania, video, Washington (state), Wisconsin | 1 Comment »
If all the little black books in the world were opened, far more than golden showers would trickle out. – Brooke Magnanti
Another excuse to justify rape:
…Inmate visit procedures for Rikers Island state visitors are subject to search at any time. Before anyone is allowed to visit an inmate, he or she must pass through a metal detector and have items such as handbags pass through a fluoroscope machine. If the metal detector sounds an alarm, prospective visitors might face a “pat frisk” search…Jasmine Quattlebaum…was led to a private area by a female [screw] who asked her during the pat frisk to unbutton her pants…“Once I put my hands back up, she pulled my panties out, takes her two fingers, and just jams it in between my crotch…I slapped her hand away a little bit”…When she objected…the [screw] “tried to pull both of my hands together with one hand, and she tried to still put her fingers into my crotch”…her experience is one many female Rikers visitors experience, according to information from 311 complaint calls obtained by The Intercept…
Dunwoody [Georgia] Police say a months-long [violation of peaceful citizens’ private lives] has netted nearly 60 arrests…Police Chief Billy Grogan [bloviated that sex work]…“damages families” [yet somehow arresting fathers doesn’t]…DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said the arrests should send a strong message…“Both supply and demand must be eradicated if we are to stop…consensual sex”…Among the accused customers arrested is Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorney Chris Quinn…
A Tale That Grew in the Telling
My friend Cris Sardina of Desiree Alliance on the ridiculous “statistics” spouted by prohibitionists:
…If you look at any leading anti-trafficking organizational rhetoric…hundreds of thousands of sexually exploited people…are held captive by hundreds of thousands of pimps…[Norma Jean] Almodovar satirically makes a valid point in questioning Polaris’ statement as to why neighbors wouldn’t take notice of the lines of men waiting outside to be sexually serviced in the approximate 15 minutes they would have from the door to the sexual act itself? In truth, these much cited numbers would entail victims to service 25 to 48 men daily during a 12 hour shift, with no time to take care of daily functions such as using the bathroom, eating, sleeping, or texting the Polaris BeFree Textline…
A [Houston, Texas] sheriff’s deputy is out of a job after a [not remotely] shocking allegation…[involving] production of obscene material that includes sexual contact with a dog…Andrew Sustaita Jr…was relieved of duty after his arrest…
On what planet is “end demand” anti-client bullshit “disregarded” in “sex trafficking” propaganda?
[New Hampshire’s] Trafficking in Persons Council announced its new “End Demand” campaign…“Conversations about sex trafficking almost exclusively disregard the role of the individual buying sex — the ‘john,’” TIPC Chairwoman Jillian Gilchrest said [moronically]…
If Rainbow is “notorious”, I’d hate to see what adjective they use for me:
Seattle-area madam Rainbow Love has again avoided prison time for operating a string of Seattle-area “temples”…Love, 51, pleaded guilty to pimping- and drug-related crimes…[and] was sentenced…to inpatient drug treatment, rather than jail…
Think you’re safe being a sexual minority just because money isn’t involved?
Recent censorship enacted at FetLife is the result of financial discrimination by multiple credit card processors who have ceased business with FetLife for what the processors claim are “Illegal or Immoral” reasons. It began for users one week ago when FetLife announced changes to content guidelines, stating “We can no longer allow FetLifers to publicly share sexual pics and vids containing blood visible in them.” Then without warning, Fetlife deleted hundreds of groups and literally thousands of fetish categories that represented a range of kinky communities (like ones with hypnosis, blood, and humiliation in the name). This was in response to to significant pressure from FetLife’s credit card processor…
Four female [New Hampshire] representatives have sponsored a bill that proposes establishing a committee to study decriminalizing…sex work…[yet] one of the bill’s sponsors…Kate Murray…said…”I have no interest in legalizing prostitution…this is about…human trafficking with the goal of protecting the victim”…the committee would study reports about sex work and human trafficking by Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, the International Labour Organization, the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Foundation and Anti-Slavery International…and…would also study prostitution laws in Germany, Great Britain and New Zealand where it is legal…
Your regular reminder that rapist cops aren’t solely an American aberration:
…a garda detective has been suspended after a woman accused him of demanding sexual favours…this…is the third garda from the same district to be suspended, transferred or disciplined over separate sexual assault cases…the Garda Ombudsman (GSOC)…shows 70 allegations of sexual offences were made between 2010 and 2015. However, so far, only one of these cases has resulted in the DPP directing there be a criminal prosecution…
The prohibitionist Seattle Times once again prints a story containing the typical libel against sex workers without consulting any sex workers for the story, despite the fact that this particular reporter knows several of us and has our phone numbers:
[New and awful Washington state] legislation would extend the statute of limitations from three to 10 years for the crimes of human trafficking, commercial sex abuse of a minor and promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor. “For victims of human trafficking, the very nature of that relationship is that they’re under the control of their trafficker,” [attorney general] Ferguson [fantasized while touching himself]…Many victims are reluctant to go to police and are so traumatized by their exploitation that by the time they come forward, “three years has gone by and there’s no justice for that victim”…Embedded in the bill to extend the statute of limitations is a request to alter the legal definition of commercial sex…[to] change “fee” to “anything of value,” which could mean drugs, food or even a bed for the night…
Backpage.com…shut down its erotic services section where most prostitution ads were posted. But in New Orleans, people posting ads for prostitution have found an easy workaround: Just post them in the section reserved for people looking for dates. At least 60 ads had been posted in the “Women seeking men” section of the website…Jan. 17…Some of those ads contained emojis that [fetishists fantasize]…the prostitute may be underage…the volume of ads began rising significantly on Jan. 10, the day after Backpage announced it was shuttering its adult services section…
My friend Brooke Magnanti on politicians & whores, including a quote from me:
The rich are jaded souls. Kinks that we otherwise associate strictly with lifestyle BDSM seem to litter stories about wealthy men caught in compromising positions…For some sex workers, golden showers are bread-and-butter work. Dominatrix friends admit to chugging diet cola by the litre in preparation for such dates…Nearly every sex worker has at some time met someone powerful and famous. Because it isn’t just about the kink, it’s about the discretion…Maggie McNeill, an escort in Seattle, remarks: “I personally could wreck the careers of a dozen politicians. And there are roughly half a million [sex workers] in the US”…
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged A Tale That Grew in the Telling, A Woman's Point of View, advertising, animals, Backpage, Canada, censorship, Choke Point, cops, Do As I Say, Elephant in the Parlor, end demand, End Demand (updates), Georgia, internet, law, License To Rape, New Hampshire, New York, Permanent Record, politicians, porn, prisons, prohibitionist myths, rape, sacred prostitutes, Scapegoats, Size Matters, Sold Out, Texas, The War Goes On, To Molest and Rape, Washington (state) | 1 Comment »
It’s been a long time since I did a hooker songs column, so I decided it was time to rectify that! Actually, the immediate inspiration was that one of my earliest whore anthems (actually one of my party pieces during my early whoring days at university) came on my Pandora the other day, and I realized I had never featured it! So without further ado:
Material Girl (Peter Brown/Robert Rans)
Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me
I think they’re ok
If they don’t give me proper credit
I just walk away
They can beg and they can plead
But they can’t see the light (that’s right)
‘Cause the boy with the cold hard cash
Is always Mister Right
(refrain) ‘Cause we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
Some boys romance, some boys slow dance
That’s all right with me
If they can’t raise my interest then I
Have to let them be
Some boys try and some boys lie but
I don’t let them play (no way)
Only boys who save their pennies
Make my rainy day
(refrain)
Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
Boys may come and boys may go
And that’s all right you see
Experience has made me rich
And now they’re after me
‘Cause everybody’s living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
Living in a material world
And I am a material girl
You know that we are living in a material world
And I am a material girl
A material, a material, a material, a material world
Living in a material world (material)
Living in a material world
[repeat and fade]
It’s always annoyed me that the video undercuts the message of the song, but that wasn’t unusual at the time (and still probably isn’t, though I rarely watch videos any more). While this one is pretty overt, the next one seems to slip under most people’s radar:
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John & Bernie Taupin)
When are you gonna come down
When are you going to land
I should have stayed on the farm
I should have listened to my old man
You know you can’t hold me forever
I didn’t sign up with you
I’m not a present for your friends to open
This boy’s too young to be singing the blues
(refrain) So goodbye yellow brick road
Where the dogs of society howl
You can’t plant me in your penthouse
I’m going back to my plough
Back to the howling old owl in the woods
Hunting the horny back toad
Oh I’ve finally decided my future lies
Beyond the yellow brick road
What do you think you’ll do then
I bet that’ll shoot down the plane
It’ll take you a couple of vodka and tonics
To set you on your feet again
Maybe you’ll get a replacement
There’s plenty like me to be found
Mongrels who ain’t got a penny
Sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground
(refrain)
The narrator is clearly a kept boy who has decided he doesn’t like that life and is saying goodbye to his patron to head back to his rural origins. Actually, Elton has recorded a number of sex work songs; on the very same album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, appears this one (which is much more graphic):
Sweet Painted Lady (Elton John & Bernie Taupin)
I’m back on dry land once again
Opportunity awaits me like a rat in the drain
We’re all hunting honey with money to burn
Just a short time to show you the tricks that we’ve learned
If the boys all behave themselves here
Well, there’s pretty young ladies and beer in the rear
You won’t need a gutter to sleep in tonight
Oh, the prices I charge here will see you alright
So, she lays down beside me again
My sweet painted lady, the one with no name
Many have used her and many still do
There’s a place in the world for a woman like you
(refrain) Oh, sweet painted lady
Seems it’s always been the same
Getting paid for being laid
Guess that’s the name of the game
(refrain)
Forget us we’ll have gone very soon
Just forget we ever slept in your rooms
And we’ll leave the smell of the sea in your beds
Where love’s just a job and nothing is said
So she lays down beside me again
My sweet painted lady, the one with no name
Many have used her and many still do
There’s a place in the world for a woman like you
(refrain)
(refrain)
And then there’s this one from Rock of the Westies:
Island Girl (Elton John & Bernie Taupin)
I see your teeth flash, Jamaican honey so sweet
Down where Lexington cross 47th Street
Oh she’s a big girl, she’s standing six-foot three
Turning tricks for the dudes in the big city
(refrain) Island girl
What you wanting with the white man’s world?
Island girl
Black boy want you in his island world
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s world
Well she’s black as coal, but she burn like a fire
And she wrap herself around you like a well-worn tire
You feel her nail scratch your back just like a rake, oh oh
He one more gone, he one more John who make the mistake
(refrain)
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s world
(refrain)
He want to take you from the racket boss
He want to save you, but the cause is lost
Island girl, island girl, island girl
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Tell me what you wanting with the white man’s
Long-time readers will recognize the familiar theme of the young man in love with a sex worker who thinks he’s going to “rescue” her and can’t understand why she isn’t interested. But Bernie Taupin threw a sly little twist into this one; by making her so incredibly tall, it’s pretty obvious the implication is that she’s a transwoman. But while Elton wasn’t quite ready to broach that subject openly in the 1970s, Lou Reed certainly was:
Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)
Holly came from Miami F.L.A.
Hitch-hiked her way across the U.S.A.
Plucked her eyebrows on the way
Shaved her legs and then he was a she
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side,
Said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side.
Candy came from out on the island,
In the backroom she was everybody’s darling,
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She said, hey baby, take a walk on the wild side
Said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
(refrain) And the colored girls go,
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
Little Joe never once gave it away
Everybody had to pay and pay
A hustle here and a hustle there
New York City is the place where they said:
Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side
Sugar Plum Fairy came and hit the streets
Lookin’ for soul food and a place to eat
Went to the Apollo
You should have seen him go, go, go
They said, hey Sugar, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side, alright, huh
Jackie is just speeding away
Thought she was James Dean for a day
Then I guess she had to crash
Valium would have helped that bash
She said, hey babe, take a walk on the wild side
I said, hey honey, take a walk on the wild side
(refrain)
Posted in Music, Perception | Tagged drugs, halfway whores, male prostitutes, New York, pragmatism, streetwalkers, transgender, video | 3 Comments »
Now that I’m able to fly again, I’m much more open to traveling for speaking purposes; in just the past few months I’ve done two talks (counting the one I’ll be giving day after tomorrow) and a number of interviews. As you can probably guess, that means I’m being asked more often (because these things tend to snowball), and people want to know how to go about getting me to speak at their events. It’s easy; just ask. No, I’m not being facetious; all you have to do is send me an email, tell me about your event and when and where it is, what you’d like me to speak about, and who you are. That last is important because, while I ask a $500 speaking fee for most events, I’ll donate my time to sex worker events pro bono (except for lodging and board, and honestly I’m not especially persnickety about that; I’m perfectly happy being put up in one of the organizers’ guest rooms and fed from their table). Thanks to the generosity of a patron, I can easily get around by air at no cost to myself, which lets me help sex workers all over the country without running myself into poverty. I only ask one favor: whether you’re paying or I’m donating the time, please ask me well in advance of the event; I want enough lead time to advertise for clients wherever it is I’m going.
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A | Tagged activism, blogging | 1 Comment »
There is a well-established connection between moral panic…and laws that produce grotesque injustices. – Matt Welch
A Tale That Grew in the Telling
Fetishists claim that Texas has about 500% of the underage sex workers in the US:
With 79,000 kids currently being trafficked in Texas, human trafficking is a statewide, underground issue, and Waco is no exception…The Heart of Texas Human Trafficking Coalition held a roundtable meeting…to discuss the underlying issues and new efforts to prevent trafficking. A [fascist] effort is underway between law enforcement, church groups, and social workers to minimize the demand for prostitution…
Politician pays whores for mildly-kinky show. Yawn.
An unverified and salacious 35-page document, a summary of which was presented to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump last week, includes allegations that Russian operatives sought to “exploit Trump’s personal obsessions and sexual perversion” to gain compromising material on him…The most explosive allegation is that Trump hired a “number of prostitutes to perform a ‘golden showers’ [sic] (urination) show in front of him”…
Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic
“Sex addiction” is becoming a “get out of jail free” card:
A man [is] accused of trying to have sex with an underage girl, while dressed up as a character from the Men in Black movie…Michael Geressy is known for dressing up as various movie characters…but…police said he had a secret identity as a child sex predator…His attorney…asked the judge to continue his arraignment so his client can begin treatment for sex addiction…
If only amateurs realized how common this sort of thing is:
Jason Mount…is suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security…for records purportedly held by DHS…”that contain information regarding an allegation that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, Supervisory Special Agent Peter Edge lost his official credentials to a prostitute and the credentials had to be retrieved by local police“…If the allegations are true, it means that a top ICE agent cavorted with a prostitute, lost his credentials during his date, and then summoned the local police to help him find his papers…
I find the lack of “victim” rhetoric here kind of refreshing:
…four people who live there presented me with the problem of hookers and hopheads in Brooklyn, on the south side of Baltimore…all of them are concerned about crime creep: more and more prostitutes who gather on sidewalks day and night; men in expensive sedans and pickup trucks that form…a virtual caravan of johns looking for sex. The prostitutes…sometimes solicit customers near a church and an elementary school…Lisa Bowling say[s]…”We can count the whores and johns and drug dealers as they stroll down the street…We have been to meetings with the police where they state that it’s a ‘victimless crime.’ Funny, I don’t think they have whores in front of their houses every day”…
“Sex trafficking” debunking comes to the LA Times:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein…[led] off her critical cross-examination of the nation’s likely next top cop with a factually insane claim that will probably give him more power…In order for “human sex trafficking” to be the second largest criminal industry in the United States, it would at minimum need to supplant illegal narcotics (roughly $100 billion a year)…or Medicare fraud (in the ballpark of $60 billion)…So distant is reality from those numbers that even the commonly cited figure of $9.8 billion a year for all trafficking…was given “four Pinocchios” by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler. Feinstein wasn’t done. “Trafficking victims,” she warned, average “12 to 14” in age. (“Four Pinocchios,” judged Kessler.) These fake numbers have consequences. Congress has leaned on such bogus statistics by periodically ratcheting up the penalties of…the criminals apprehended [who] are disproportionately adult females who work in the sex industry by choice…
It’s Different Because It Involves Sex, Part Umpteen (#546)
As usual, Indians understand this far better than Americans do:
If the government of Maharashtra has its way, there would be bars in the state where the clientele won’t be served alcohol…The law…demanded the abolition of alcohol anywhere near the dancers at dance bars as well as the installation of CCTV cameras on the premises…Even the highest court of the land called these strictures “absurd” and “arbitrary” and “absolutely regressive by centuries”. Now, in a fresh affidavit to the Supreme Court, the state has argued that bar dancing is “vulgar” and “not an art form that needs to be protected and promoted”. It has alleged that such activities are often a cover for…the exploitation of women. The girls who perform the dances, the state added, were not “trained artistes”, their dancing has very little “entertainment value” and borders on the obscene…
Note that such laws are very common in the US, especially in so-called “progressive” states like Washington.
It was inevitable that the “escort licensing” scam would eventually spread beyond Wisconsin:
…Escorts working in Mesa [Arizona] will now have to register for a license with the city. [Politicians fantasize that] increasing regulations could help crack down on sex-trafficking operations that masquerade as escort services…Escort applicants will undergo a business and criminal background check…
Unfortunately, this doesn’t really help Backpage now:
The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t hear an appeal from three sex trafficking victims who accuse advertising website Backpage.com of helping to promote the exploitation of children. The justices left in place a lower court ruling that said federal law shields Backpage from liability because the site is just hosting content created by people who use it…
The Last Shall Be First (#675)
Alabama wants to put pigs in women’s bathrooms. Seriously.
Alabama might place attendants in public restrooms as part of the state’s potential transgender bathroom bill…to guard against potential “molestation, assault and battery”…The act…would force public institutions to have bathrooms that only serve one gender or to place attendants in bathrooms that serve both genders…
Medical ethicists are now solidly behind decriminalization:
…health care workers should support the full decriminalization of prostitution…By removing punitive laws that prevent reporting of exploitation and abuse, decriminalization allows sex workers to work more safely, thereby reducing marginalization and vulnerability. Decriminalization can also help destigmatize sex work and help resist political, social, and cultural marginalization of sex workers…
The Naked Anthropologist (#701) 
Dr. Laura Agustín on why she wrote The Three-Headed Dog:
…I’m not making a sudden switch to fiction. It’s one of the things I used to write before the Internet, before doing postgraduate degrees, before social media. I began this story, in my head and scribbled notes, not long after starting those degrees in the late 90s…In general such stories are not published unless the migrants are portrayed as passive victims needing rescue by much straighter and more comfortable characters…Just as I strove to show in Sex at the Margins that many migrants don’t perceive themselves as inert objects of cruel fate and evil men, here a few of them act out their stories, trying to find ways to get ahead and stay out of trouble…The characters here are neither real nor unreal but created themselves in my imagination out of my long experience of travelling on my own and talking with people. I’ve seen everything that happens in this book. I’ve known people who thought and acted these ways…
The operators of…Backpage.com…declined to answer questions from a Senate panel investigating the company’s adult services ads, which lawmakers and law enforcement [fantasize] have helped facilitate pimping and child sex trafficking in the U.S. Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer, his business associates James Larkin and Michael Lacey as well as other company officials appeared before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations but invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves…
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged A Tale That Grew in the Telling, Alabama, Arizona, Backpage, Crying for Nanny, Dysphemisms Galore, Elephant in the Parlor, ethics, illegal aliens, India, It's Different Because It Involves Sex, language, law, Maryland, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, North Carolina, politicians, Russia, scams, Shift in the Wind, Standard Operating Procedure, streetwalkers, stripping, Texas, The Last Shall Be First, The Naked Anthropologist, The War Goes On, Traffic Circle, transgender | 2 Comments »
The big snowstorm in Portland delayed my departure by a day, but fortunately I was able to reschedule my Friday appointments in San Francisco for Saturday. Though I shouldn’t have been, I was rather surprised to discover that a hothouse flower from New Orleans who never drove in snow until after her 36th birthday was still able to do it better than the majority of Portlanders; most of them seemed unable to grasp basic concepts like “driving in the rougher lane or in the tracks left by others will result in better traction”. But in spite of it I had a lovely dinner with a young sex worker who is starting to become interested in activism, then had a long but uneventful drive down to San Francisco on Friday and lots of fun in San Francisco on Saturday (y’all know who you are!) On Sunday I continued on to Los Angeles and spent two days with a friend who in turn introduced me to many of her friends; sometime today I’ll be moving on to Las Vegas, so if you’d like to see me there I still have availability for ONE gentleman tomorrow. I also have time for ONE gentleman in Albuquerque on Monday, but other than that I’m afraid I’m booked solid. If you missed me, please try to book early next time! Anyhow, a week from today I plan to start for home by way of Salt Lake City, and if the weather cooperates I’ll be home a week from tomorrow. Though I don’t like to tour often, it always seems to give me new energy; in fact, things are already looking up for February! But as usual, you’ll have to wait to see what that means (except for my book, which should be out in the next few weeks).
Posted in Diary | Tagged blogging | 2 Comments »
With Backpage in the news so much, and various government actors vomiting out so many egregious lies about it, I thought it might be a good idea to recap how this whole shitshow developed from its roots in the previous “sex trafficking” moral panic to the present political circus. See, while the politicians want you to believe that Backpage is some sort of magical pimp machine the likes of which has never been seen before, the truth is that Backpage ads are the end result of a slow and steady progression of advertising starting roughly a century ago, just after prostitution was criminalized in the US at the height of the last go-round of hysteria over “sex trafficking” (or as it was called then, “white slavery”). Once brothels could no longer operate openly, escort services appeared, while some women chose to frequent hotels and such and others preferred to take out personal ads in newspapers. Once the alternative weeklies appeared in the 1960s, the latter approach became far more popular; escorts were able to be more blunt than they could in major newspapers, though not remotely as blatant as they later became once those weeklies went online. Even the name “Backpage” is a tribute to the site’s origin as an online version of the back pages of alt-weeklies, where the classified ads (including escort ads) were located. In fact, the only important differences between the online version and its print ancestors are those directly related to the differences between the online medium and the print medium, such as ease of access and speed of both posting and reply (ask a whore who worked prior to the late ’90s about going to one’s PO Box to pick up actual paper letters from clients answering one’s ad, requesting appointments days or weeks in the future).
So when Craigslist first appeared in 1996 as an online classified ad site, it was a foregone conclusion that whores would post ads in its classified and massage sections, just as they had in newspaper sections. It wasn’t any kind of “revolution”; it just sped things up and made them more efficient. But whenever a new technology is involved, you can be absolutely sure the Puritans and Luddites will insist that it’s the source of all manner of new evils, and that it will surely bring about the end of civilization (usually by corrupting women and harming children, naturally). It took them over ten years, however; though Craigslist had a dedicated “erotic services” section by 2002 (I’m not sure of the exact date it was added), the “sex trafficking” fetishists, at that time far less numerous and vociferous than they are now, did not really begin to take note of it until sometime after 2005. That was the year bureaucrats from the San Francisco Department of Public Health embarked on a campaign to blame the site’s personals section for a rise in syphilis among gay men, using the typical government argument that adults are so stupid and passive that they need to be “encouraged” or “facilitated” by some corporation or communications medium to do things like have sex. The blame-game seemed to attract the attention of the “sex trafficking” fetishists, and by the following year they were starting to put pressure in the site to “do something” about their favorite imaginary problem. A group of 40 state attorneys general demanded that Craigslist facilitate pigs’ attempts to arrest sex workers (under guise of “stopping “trafficking”, naturally) and the site responded by requiring a working phone number and charging a fee to post in the erotic services section (to keep underage people out). Of course, that wasn’t enough; the following year Craigslist renamed the section to “adult services” while prohibitionists blathered about how much money the company was making from the fee they had forced it to charge. Finally, in 2010 the site shuttered the section, putting up a “censored” bar over the link to it, and advertisers either migrated to Backpage (founded in 2004 specifically as a competitor to Craigslist) or went back to advertising in the personals & massage sections as they did before the “erotic services” category was established.
Drunk with their victory, the prohibitionists immediately turned to Backpage; within weeks of Craigslist’s defeat they sent a similar letter to the one they had sent Craigslist, no doubt expecting a similar reaction. Instead, they got a fight which has gone on for over six years, with Backpage winning at every turn for the simple reason that the government’s demands are blatantly unconstitutional. But the evil don’t stop being evil merely because they’re wrong; faced with repeated defeats in their attempts to take legal action against the company, government prohibitionists decided to simply take illegal actions instead, ranging from Tom Dart’s threats against credit card companies to Senate “hearings” of the same sort previously held to intimidate moviemakers, comic book publishers and the music industry. Then in October, California attorney general Kamala Harris upped the ante by committing the blatantly criminal act of arresting the CEO and both owners of Backpage and filing charges against them that she absolutely knew were illegal for her to file. Naturally, a judge slapped her down, and she replied by filing even more ridiculous charges, shitting all over the dying protection against double jeopardy in her quest to be a hero to fanatics. Exhausted and facing the prospect of an infinite succession of similar nuisance charges from criminal tyrants the courts seem unwilling to charge or even rein in, Backpage finally followed in Craigslist’s footsteps and censored its adult ads one week ago today.
But while the mainstream reaction to Craigslist’s defeat was largely a collective yawn, the same is not true this time around. While Craigslist’s resistance and eventual surrender was generally conducted rather quietly, the war on Backpage has been extremely noisy and impossible to ignore; as a result there have been many articles about it already. The best of these, as usual, is by Elizabeth Nolan Brown; David Meyer Lindenberg of Fault Lines and Mike Ludwig of Truthout, both strong and dependable allies, also wrote on the topic, and Alison Bass ridiculed Nicholas Kristof’s predictably-ridiculous take on the subject. Sex workers are coming together to help each other find alternative advertising resources, and other groups such as free-speech advocates and anarchists are chiming in as well. Backpage has vowed to continue the fight, and I certainly hope they do, because as soon as they stop struggling the prohibitionists will need to find another advertising site to turn into a monster. Their campaign of eternal outrage needs a target for its hate, or else it means the end of all the accumulation of money and power which is the true aim of this ugly anti-sex crusade.
Posted in Current Events, History, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged Backpage, censorship, Craigslist, Creating a Monster, law, rescue industry | 12 Comments »
The government concedes it presented no evidence. – 9th Circuit Court
We’ve all seen American propaganda cartoons from the Second World War, but here’s an interesting twist: a Japanese propaganda cartoon from 1936 in which the evil Mickey Mouse bombs Japan and is defeated by Japanese cartoon characters. Like so many interesting videos lately, it was called to my attention by Jesse Walker; the links above it were provided by Rick Horowitz, Ed Krayewski, Jason Kuznicki, Tim Cushing, Emma Evans, Kevin Wilson, Dave Krueger, and Tim Cushing again, in that order.
- Fascism in action.
- Futurism in action.
- Progressivism in action.
- Much more of this, please.
- The predictable result of celibacy.
- Naturally, this happened in Florida.
- Cops don’t care who they arrest as long as it’s somebody.
- Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- St. Louis cops tell politicians that knife-wielding hookers who need to be gunned down in the street are among “the risks officers face every day”.
- Unless they can bruise, heal, cry and exude a certain rare and as-yet-undiscovered pheromone, I’m not remotely interested.
- I’m not sure which is more ludicrous, the cops’ insistence that this is prostitution, or the cuddlers’ insistence that it isn’t.
- Supposed “sex slavery” decades in the past is unsupported by anything remotely resembling evidence.
- “Authorities” hound a woman’s husband to death, humiliate her & lock her in a cage for six months.
- Tinder appears to be the new hub for aggressive moralists seeking to sexually shame others.
- The increasing grandiosity of the Bakken oil field subsection of “sex trafficking” mythology.
- For those surprised by feminists getting in bed with evangelical Christians.
- Neofeminist lunatic Meghan Murphy attacks a pro-sex worker video game.
- Blog debunking prohibitionist mythology makes it into the national media.
- The UK version of an app which premiered in Ireland over two years ago.
- Novelist declared “sex trafficking expert” on the basis of BDSM fantasies.
- Referring to the same old lies as “new statistics” is a pretty stupid move.
- The reason for the strippers’ plight is Washington’s idiotic prudishness.
- If someone stole $100 from a store, would reporters call it a “quibble”?
- Anything on a card held by a po-faced person in a photo must be true.
- Feminist Whore debunks the King County sheriff’s press conference.
- Good takedown of a ridiculously mouth-foaming anti-whore screed.
- A lawsuit vs credit card processor discrimination vs adult products.
- Give lies weight in the public mind: embed them in an infographic.
- This won’t stop until Gay, Inc throws its full weight behind decrim.
- The most revealing look yet at New York’s “sex trafficking” courts.
- A game whose developers want to promote empathy for whores.
- “What a Sex Worker Can Teach You About Working for Yourself“
- “Re-parenting” & “restructuring their normal” = “re-education”.
- Fetishist claims “black holes” are vacuuming up girls in India.
- Policing Sexuality: The Mann Act and The Making of the FBI.
- New Hampshire politician introduces a decriminalization bill.
- Idiotic “signs of sex trafficking” proliferate to absurd levels.
- Terrorist toddlers, Garfunkel & Oates, headlines and cops.
- Men: pay your whores! Ladies: get the money up front!
- I sincerely doubt these pics were intended for a woman.
- “5 Ways Life as a Prostitute is Nothing Like You Expect”
- Mere “sex trafficking” isn’t shocking enough any more.
- David Bowie, cats, shit, government and much more.
- US Marine jailed for murder of Philippine sex worker.
- In which I’m hailed as a badass for being stubborn.
- Actually, all website takedown cases are this weak.
- Prohibition always makes things more dangerous.
- A young gay man’s moving essay on being raped.
- In which I announce my relocation to Seattle.
- Russia bars transgender people from driving.
- Elizabeth Nolan Brown on kink and cookies.
- There are two forms of female ejaculation.
- “Youth pastors” are nearly as bad as cops.
- A short biography of Mandy Rice-Davies.
- Why I didn’t report being raped by cops.
- That’ll teach them dirty “sex offenders”!
- What wonderful company the US is in!
- The second story in my snake trilogy.
- Women are such fragile little flowers.
- An official red-light district in Leeds.
- Shaking off learned helplessness.
- Another pre-Olympic sex purge.
- Cowboys4Angels is at it again.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- 2014 and 2015 in review.
- A periodic table of kink.
- Rapist cop of the week.
- Boo fucking hoo.
- “Peacekeepers“.
Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny | Tagged cops, drugs, evidence, fascism, FBI, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Japan, Just Call Me Nobody, libraries, porn, propaganda, surveillance, Texas, Things We Choose To Do Together, video | Leave a Comment »
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