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That Was the Week That Was (#4)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, All Shapes and Sizes, Australia, avails laws, Backpage, bad customers, brothels, censorship, cops, cosmetic surgery, dirty, disease, drivers, ethics, Forward and Backward, Full of Themselves, genitalia, harm reduction, law, lawheads, Legal Is as Legal Does, Madonna/whore, neofeminism, Nevada, New Orleans, pimps, prohibitionist myths, rape, Real Men, restaurants, Russia, sex work is work, stereotypes, streetwalkers, stripping, survivors, The More the Better, The Red Umbrella, transgender, violence vs. sex workers, Washington DC on February 12, 2012| 21 Comments »

Nothing can be more surely established by a larger experience than that a Government which interferes with any trade injures that trade. – Walter Bagehot

Seven updates to previous columns from the fourth week of 2012.

All Shapes and Sizes (September 8^th, 2010)

In this column I mentioned Peyronie’s Syndrome, which causes penile deformity; according to this January 23^rd article from Science Now a more effective therapy may be on the horizon:

…A new study in rats shows that lacing a penis graft with adult stem cells yields better healing and sexual function…Men with penis injuries, deformities, or severe Peyronie’s disease…sometimes need surgery to reconstruct their genitalia and restore their sexual function. Many receive a graft made of their own tissue, cadaver tissue, or pig intestines, but the surgery can cause complications, including erectile dysfunction. Wayne Hellstrom, a urologic surgeon at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans…wanted…a surgical intervention with fewer side effects. So he teamed up with colleagues in California and China [to seed] pig intestine grafts with adult stem cells taken from fat tissue in rats…the researchers…found that rats with stem cell-laden grafts had less scarring and better erectile responses…than did those with stem cell-free grafts. The rodents’ erections were comparable in rigidity, blood flow, and response time to those in the…control rats…The results…suggest that lacing the grafts with stem cells enhances blood flow and boosts the production of molecules that make and maintain erections, all of which makes for a better penis reconstruction…Hellstrom and colleagues plan to test the method in primates next and then eventually in people. “Peyronie’s affects 3% to 9% of adult males and causes a lot of psychological distress,” Hellstrom says. “If we can improve what we have now, it seems like the logical thing to do.”

The Red Umbrella (December 17^th, 2010)

“As we’ve discussed many, many times in the past, violence from the police [and] bad customers…is all too common a part of the lives of prostitutes, most especially streetwalkers; too many men…consider whores to be disposable, “non-persons” against whom assault, robbery or rape is permissible. A large part of the reason for this is the suppression of our trade; the laws criminalizing our profession allow weak-minded men…to convince themselves that since we are “criminals” we don’t deserve to be treated like human beings, and the attitude of both the law and the police makes it difficult to impossible for…prostitutes to even be heard by the police much less have crimes against us investigated.” This story from the January 10^th Orlando Sentinel demonstrates the first part of my statement and provides a welcome exception to the latter part; too bad Juarez will never recognize the poetic justice of the date he was arrested:

…Ernesto Juarez, 32, is facing several charges in a Dec. 17 attack, including sexual battery with a deadly weapon…[he] admitted to attacking, raping or attempting to rape five prostitutes…[but] detectives have yet to charge him in four of the cases. One of his alleged victims…told [reporters] about her dangerous encounter…Juarez…picked her up on the afternoon of Dec. 10…agreed to pay her $40…and said he was going to take her to his house…[but when he] head[ed] into a secluded area and stopped at a metal gate, the woman became suspicious…[he] got out…went around to her side of the vehicle and pulled off his pants…[but when she asked for her] money, he punched her in the face…[then] pulled her outside and continued hitting her…[she got free and] crawled under the truck, grabbed ahold of the frame and held on as he tugged on her legs…[eventually she got] away…and [ran] to a nearby business screaming for help…A week [later] the property owner noticed Juarez’s pickup parked in the same [spot]…[he] found Juarez [raping] another prostitute in the front seat and called police…Juarez managed to drive away but didn’t get far…he first denied hurting the woman…but later changed his story and described how he had beaten and raped several prostitutes beginning in September. [He claimed] he would “lose control” when the prostitutes asked him for money up front, because he viewed it as a sign of “disrespect”…Juarez is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail.

One wonders if he “loses control” when cashiers expect him to pay before taking groceries from a store, or if he just reserves his indignation for women he thinks won’t call the cops.

Real Men Support Sex Worker Rights (April 22^nd, 2011)

In this January 26^th essay in Reason, Jacob Sullum demonstrates his balls not only by opposing the popular campaign against Backpage and criticizing Forbes columnist Daniel Fisher (who ruined his own attack on Backpage’s critics with a mealy-mouthed anti-whore statement), but also by standing up for our rights and slamming Nicholas Kristof as one of the perpetuators of the system which exposes us to harm:

…Fisher hastens to add, “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with trying to shut down the vigorous market for human flesh.” Well, I am saying that, if…he means the exchange of sex for money. It makes as much sense to ban prostitution because some prostitutes are forced…as it does to ban agriculture because farms have been known to use slaves…prohibition forces…prostitutes to work in dangerous conditions, picking up customers on the street or covertly connecting with them online, and makes it harder for them to seek legal remedies when they are cheated or abused. These hazards, similar to those seen in black markets for drugs and gambling, are not inherent to the business of selling sex; they are inherent to the policy of using force to suppress peaceful commerce. Since these dangers are entirely predictable, prohibitionists like Kristof should be reflecting on their role in perpetuating them, instead of making scapegoats out of businesses that run classified ads.

I strongly urge you to read the whole thing!

Full of Themselves (June 7^th, 2011)

“I always find it fascinating when women in professions which are only barely different from prostitution (such as stripping or domination) or historically connected to prostitution (such as acting and massage) get all holier-than-thou, proclaiming themselves ‘better’ than we are…”

Would you believe…competition pole dancers trying to distance themselves from strippers?

Three Russian pole dancers…applied for visas to travel to the United States…they were told that it was best not to mention…that…[they were] in a pole dancing competition…the visa authorities decided to do some poking around…on…Facebook…[and discovered] they weren’t just tourists…their visas were…canceled…[and they] were subjected to an humiliating…grilling by three federal agents…Any other dance competition would have been above suspicion, but since it was pole dancing, they immediately [made] the stripper connection and…presumed that the competition was just window dressing for human trafficking, prostitution and illegal stripping! This sad lack of comprehension is unfortunately still a reality and we have a long way to go before the stripper association is dislodged from people’s minds. As of now the stereotype that people still have about pole dancing prevents them from viewing it as the legitimate art form that requires creativity and imagination and a sport that requires tremendous skill, athletic ability and great strength.

Because, you know, when a stripper does it to make a living it isn’t “legitimate” and requires no creativity, imagination, skill or athletic ability. The writer doesn’t criticize the whole “sex workers are trafficked” nonsense; she’s only irate because the dancers were confused with “common” strippers.

Forward and Backward (November 22^nd, 2011)

Remember those “prostitution-free zones” that enable Washington, DC cops to arrest people for “looking like prostitutes”, and how they’re trying to make them permanent? Well, a coalition of civil rights advocates and transsexuals (who suffer disproportionately because cops assume they’re all drag streetwalkers) are fighting it, and the DC attorney general reluctantly agreed with them. According to the January 24^th Washington Post:

The D.C. attorney general’s office said…that the District’s temporary “prostitution-free zones” are probably unconstitutional, raising fresh doubts about a bill…that would broaden the zones and make them permanent…In [such] areas…police can make arrests for up to 24 consecutive days if two or more people congregate in public…and ignore dispersal orders…Council member Yvette Alexander…has introduced a bill that would empower police to make the zones permanent. But [assistant AG Ariel] Waldman and Assistant Police Chief Peter Newsham expressed broad reservations about the bill…The statements…and…concerns from social service and gay rights activists, present fresh hurdles for Alexander’s efforts to combat prostitution…

When a politician says something is “probably unconstitutional”, it really means “this is so obviously unconstitutional we haven’t a snowball’s chance in Hell of slipping it past the civil libertarians without raising a huge stink.”

Legal Is as Legal Does (December 14^th, 2011)

Yet another example of the dangers of legalization, in this case laws which presume hookers are so stupid we need Nanny to “protect” us from big bad pimps (unless they have a government license, of course):

A young prostitute was caught out in a covert operation called Operation Heatwave after she and three other prostitutes went to visit clients who turned out to be undercover police. Aimee Louise Roy, 21, went to a hotel…with three other sex workers on October 23 to meet clients…[who were secretly] police and the group was arrested. Roy was charged with knowingly participating in providing prostitution…If she was acting on her own, she wouldn’t have been in trouble. There are two forms of legal sex work in Queensland – sole operators (private work) where a single sex worker works alone and sex work conducted in a licensed brothel…Magistrate Matthew McLaughlin noted the law was designed to catch out “pimps” and told Roy if she wanted to keep up that line of work she should do it through a licensed premises.

The story also demonstrates that pigs are pigs and will inevitably use whatever loophole the law gives them to harass and victimize whores.

The More the Better (January 9^th, 2012)

The “gentrification” of Nevada brothels continues:

…a legal brothel near Reno [Nevada is]…taking the world’s oldest profession into the modern age of luxury recreation, featuring a cabaret…a fully equipped spa, and 10 deluxe suites. “We see this as the Ritz-Carlton of brothels,” [said] Lance Gilman, co-owner of the Mustang Ranch Resort…[which] seeks to earn 40 percent of its revenue from goods and services unrelated to private time with the ladies…It costs nothing to stay at the resort [but] guests have to pay at least one of the women to accompany them around the Ranch at all times…Gilman and [his wife Susan] Austin said they were inspired by Walt Disney, who famously took his children to a shabby carnival and imagined building what would become the world’s first theme park — Disneyland. “Most brothels are basically trailer parks in isolated places and there’s nothing to do once you get there other than have sex,” Gilman said…

This is great news; it was after Vegas casinos started “gentrifying” in the ‘80s that people from other states dropped their prejudices against gambling, and now casinos are everywhere in the US. Of course,

…That’s not good news to people like Anne Bissell…[a] former prostitute…[whose self-appointed] mission is to deglamorize the…sex industry, which she believes to be full of what are not victimless crimes. “The sex industry has hijacked so many terms, like freedom of choice…It used to be the definition of an empowered woman was a doctor or lawyer. Now it’s a stripper or prostitute…”

This incredibly stupid statement has become very popular among prohibitionists; I wonder what looking-glass world they’re living in? Because in this one, legally barring women from certain jobs is a restriction of choice, and the government and media paint sex workers as powerless victims.

One Year Ago Today

“February Updates (Part One)” features items about a hooker accused of spreading HIV, a former madam pandering to popular prohibitionist myths and an Anglican priest fighting for strippers’ rights.

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That Was the Week That Was (#3)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, Against Their Will, brothels, California, Canada, censorship, condoms, crypto-moralism, dirty, disease, genitalia, harm reduction, hysteria, India, law, libraries, Madonna/whore, neofeminism, New York, porn, psychology, rescue industry, restaurants, Sex Lies and Busybodies, So What Else Is New?, stereotypes, stripping, violence vs. sex workers, welcome to our world on February 11, 2012| 25 Comments »

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is not religion. – Charlotte Bronte

Five stories from the third week of 2012.

Twice As Interesting

It’s not too often a story attracts my attention both as a librarian and as a harlot, but this one from the January 18^th National Post did:

Instead of a book, patrons of Ottawa’s city libraries will have a chance to check out a stripper, a prostitute, a Somali refugee, a judge, an HIV-positive man, a Peking Opera performer, a woman born as a man, a police officer…a bipolar man [and many others] as part of a Human Library program. Billed as “real people, real conversations,” the Ottawa Public Library is bringing dozens of people with diverse experiences into its branches, encouraging patrons to check them out for a 20-minute, one-on-one chat…Human books cannot be placed on hold…Patrons peruse the list of options like an old-fashioned card catalogue and ask to check out the title. While the event’s message is diversity and dialogue, there have already been complaints about including a stripper and a sex trade worker, said Elaine Condos, the acting city librarian… “Books are about information and information comes in many, many formats, and a human book is a unique way of presenting information…The role of the public library is to provide access to information,” Ms. Condos said. “People will have an opportunity to have a one-on-one conversation…for 20 minutes and ask them questions about their experiences.” It is being billed as an event for adults and conversations will take place in open areas of the libraries. “These are conversations, not presentations,” she said of the stripper and prostitute. “I don’t think we want the pediatric neurosurgeon to do any demonstrations either”…

It’s sad that bigots felt compelled to complain, but can you imagine a stripper and a hooker being included in such an event in the US? Not in this decade!

So What Else Is New?

This item from the January 19^th Huffington Post isn’t really news because it’s what researchers have said for years:

Many women swear they have one, but a new review of 60 years of sex research shows science still can’t definitively find the G-spot. Researchers have used surveys, imaging scans and biopsies of women, all trying to locate and define the presumably orgasmic area on the vaginal wall known as the G-spot. Based on a review of 96 published studies, an Israeli and American research team came to one conclusion. “Without a doubt, a discreet anatomic entity called the G-spot does not exist,” said [lead author] Dr. Amichai Kilchevsky …The G-spot was named in honor of the late Dr. Ernst Gräfenberg, who in 1950 described a particularly sensitive…spot…a few centimeters in from the vaginal opening…toward the front of a woman’s body…[but though] a majority of women believe a G-spot actually exists…some of those women also say they can’t locate it.

…Kilchevsky doesn’t think women who claim to have a G-spot are crazy…”What they’re likely experiencing is a continuation of the clitoris,” he said. G-spot skeptics often point out that the tissue of the clitoris extends into the body, behind it where the G-spot would be located…Barry Komisaruk…of…Rutgers University…advocates calling it the…G-region…instead. “I think that the bulk of the evidence shows that the G-spot is not a particular thing. It’s not like saying, ‘What is the thyroid gland?'” Komisaruk said. “The G-spot is more of a thing like New York City is a thing. It’s a region, it’s a convergence of many different structures”…pressing on the area…also presses the urethra and a structure called Skene’s gland, which is analogous to the male prostate. “Each of those areas have different nerve sites,” said Komisaruk. “I think there’s good enough data that a lot of women feel that that is a particularly sensitive region”…

I’ve always adhered to the “back of the clitoris” theory myself, mainly because it’s consistent with my own experiences.

Update to “A Moral Cancer” (March 6^th, 2011)

Crypto-moralists just love pretending that their puritanical agendas are really about physical (rather than spiritual) health, and always disguise their desire to control others’ lives as “for the public good”:

…The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine…put up [a series of] graphic cellulite-filled billboards around Albany [New York on January 17^th]…The group claims cheese products play a big role in the epidemic of childhood obesity, and want the Albany city school district to cut cheese from its lunch menu…

Well, if they’re doctors promoting health, they must know what they’re talking about, right? Wrong. Their name and hype has fooled the media for 25 years, but in reality they’re a fanatical animal-rights group with ties to PETA which relies primarily on scare tactics and gross-out ads in its continuing attempt to impose veganism on everyone, and less than 5% of its members are physicians. Its founder is a psychiatrist with no background in nutrition, and the American Medical Association has repeatedly tried to inform the public that the PCRM is a “fringe organization” which uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.” Sort of reminds you of trafficking fetishists, doesn’t it?

Update To “Against Their Will” (July 23^rd, 2011)

Prostitutes “rescued” against their will generally fight their “saviors” and attempt to escape from “rehabilitation centers” at the first opportunity, but at least one “rescue” organization has figured out how to get around this issue: they simply abduct the women’s children instead.

“How many nights of safety can you give a child?” is India Partners’ tagline for its campaign to rescue children of sex workers in India. More than 2.3 million girls and women in India are believed to be working in the sex industry against their will. In addition, there are at least 5 million children of sex workers in India. India Partners is working with an organization in Mumbai to rescue the children of trafficked women and relocate them to loving safe homes outside the red-light districts.

Children in red-light areas are vulnerable to abuse, trauma and second-generation prostitution. During the day, children are often left alone while their mothers are sleeping. At night, some are drugged and put under the bed while their mothers work the trade. Anandalay, a safe home for daughters of trafficked women, provides the rescued girls with education, food and excellent accommodation under the committed care of a houseparent couple. If the child’s mother is still living, she is granted supervised visits.

One couldn’t ask for a finer example of doublethink; we are told that these women are “trafficked” and working “against their will”, and that the solution is to further victimize them by stealing their children. The brainwashed supporters of this filthy scheme are assured that the children are “loved” by their jailers, because obviously those degraded whores (oops, I mean “exploited victims”) can’t possibly have any maternal feelings. But hey, India Partners isn’t completely inhumane; they magnanimously allow their victims to occasionally stare at their kidnapped babies under the watchful gaze of armed thugs.

Update to “Sex, Lies and Busybodies” (January 27^th, 2012)

From a January 18^th AP release:

Some of the most prominent purveyors of porn say they’ll start packing up their sex toys and abandoning the nation’s Porn Capital if authorities really do…police their movie sets and order that every actor be outfitted with a condom…[on January 17^th] the Los Angeles City Council voted 9-1 to grant final approval to an ordinance that would deny film permits to producers who do not comply with the condom requirement…the council has called for the creation of a committee made up of police officials, the city attorney, state health officials and others to determine how it might be enforced. “It’s going to be interesting to see how…they…try to enforce it…[and] fund it…” said Steven Hirsch…of…Vivid…”Ultimately I think what they will find is people will just stop shooting in the city of Los Angeles…”

…Other industry officials condemned the measure as an unneeded [and unenforceable] exercise in political correctness…”The only thing that the city could potentially achieve is losing some film permit money and driving some productions away, but you can’t actually compel an industry to create a product that the market doesn’t want,” said Christian Mann…of Evil Angel…The ordinance would require filmmakers pay a permit fee…to pay for surprise inspections at film shoots…Mann said smaller productions involving only a handful of people can probably fly under the radar and just ignore the permitting requirement. Larger ones, he said, will likely just leave town…

Raise hands, anyone who didn’t see this coming. The porn industry has no choice; in order to survive it has to produce a product consumers want, and if it can’t do that in Los Angeles it will do it elsewhere.

One Year Ago Today

“Not an Addiction” explains what an addiction actually is, why it’s impossible to be addicted to sex and how the myth of “sex addiction” is used to promote moralist agendas (and dating websites).

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Change a Few Words

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Change a Few Words, cops, dirty, drugs, harm reduction, hysteria, law, lawheads, neofeminism, prohibitionist myths, rape, stereotypes on February 6, 2012| 33 Comments »

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right. – Laurens van der Post

Though prohibitionists will vociferously deny it, all prohibitionism is the same. Oh, they’ll throw out all sorts of bogus reasons such as “morality”, “decency”, “health”, “public order”, “national security” and of course “the children”, but in reality they’re all based in one thing: a busybody desire to control the private behaviors of others because they make individual prohibitionists uncomfortable. Many of my columns tagged “welcome to our world” clearly demonstrate this; just change a few words and Presto! an argument against porn, gay rights, immigration or even a woman wearing a certain article of clothing or selling her eggs for research becomes an argument against prostitution. The closest parallel is probably the expensive, rights-trampling, unwinnable “War on Drugs”, and this article from the January 17^th Huffington Post demonstrates it as clearly as anything I’ve ever seen. It’s called “How to Write a Clichéd, Unpersuasive Argument Against Drug Legalization” by Scott Morgan, and is a dissection of a (drug) prohibitionist article. Change a few words, and it’s equally applicable to those who support the War on Whores:

This piece by Manon McKinnon at The American Spectator is so perfect an exhibit in pompous drug war cheerleading that one can construct a fairly comprehensive crash course in bad drug policy writing based entirely upon its contents. Let’s take a moment to review some of the tactics on display here…

Step 1: Attempt to marginalize supporters of drug policy reform by claiming they are “pot heads.”

From the article: “Every so often, alas, the subject of drug legalization reappears. This time it is…one of many bad ideas from presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul and is cheered on by the usual fans, from libertarians to pot heads”…Since recent polling shows that half the country supports marijuana legalization, you’ll immediately offend many of your readers by ignoring their legitimate public policy concerns and dismissing them as a bunch of self-righteous drug addicts. Huge numbers of non-users are interested in improving our approach to drug policy, so name-calling is a quick way to alienate well-meaning people and prove that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Step 2: Frame legalization as a plan for “surrendering” or “giving up” and letting drugs defeat us.

From the article: “’Paul deserves full credit for endorsing drug legalization,’ writes Ms. Charen as she goes into all the reasons she thinks the U.S. should give up and give in to corrosive drugs.” This is a good way to show that you don’t understand the opposing argument. Supporters of reforming drug laws believe that the problems associated with drug use…can be better addressed [under legalization]…Referring to that process as a form of surrender will help to demonstrate that you aren’t listening and don’t understand even the most basic motivations behind reforming our drug policy.

Step 3: Insist confidently — but without citation — that no one actually gets in serious trouble for personal use.

From the article: “…the imagined wrongful incarceration of simple users (no — such prisoners have plea bargained down from major trafficking and violent crimes)” This is great for destroying your credibility, because examples of people being sent to prison for personal use are so numerous. A lot of people know someone who’s done time for drugs, without ever getting involved in “major trafficking and violent crimes,” so you can lose a lot of people quickly by speaking against their own experience…one of the main concerns people have…is that their own friends and family could be scarred for life by the criminal justice system…a minor marijuana arrest can [result in] lost employment opportunities, loss of public housing, child custody, professional licenses, and…other serious consequences. By implying that a drug arrest is insignificant unless it involves jail-time, you can show everyone how little you know about the real impact of the policies you’re promoting.

4: Insist that illegal drugs can never have medical value.

From the article: “…medical necessity (banned drugs are not medicine)”…Many Americans have seen firsthand the benefits of medical marijuana in their own families, and public opposition to medical use has dwindled into near invisibility. Meanwhile, the federal government itself is growing medical marijuana for select patients and the DEA is trying to change the rules so that pharmaceutical companies can begin growing marijuana plants and making medicines out of them…

Step 5: Compare regulating drugs to legalizing rape.

From the article: “[If] Drug prohibition creates drug crimes, so legalize drugs and, poof, no more crime. However, it should be pointed out that no one makes the same argument for rape.” No incoherent anti-legalization rant is complete without a variation on this classic theme. You can appear instantly and fundamentally clueless by suggesting that all criminal laws are equally sound…the “why not legalize rape, then?” argument could be made in defense of any law, no matter how stupid and unjust. Demonstrate your demagoguery and total lack of perspective by mindlessly comparing marijuana users to rapists.

Step 6: Mention something bad that happened involving drugs and ask smugly whether legalization would have prevented it.

From the article: “Two small children were found that night wandering alone in the storm with no coats. They were trying to find their grandmother’s house with food and warmth because their own parents had passed out on drugs. Would legalization have helped here?” Another trademark of the typical drug war supporter is the habit of pointing out examples of the failure of our current approach and then incoherently citing them as arguments for continuing the policies that produce these outcomes. Insist that legalization must be proven to be the indisputable solution to every single existing social problem on the planet before being considered in any form.

Step 7: Close with a sweeping, apocalyptic generalization.

From the article: “And here are the words of sociologist James Q. Wilson who once put it: ‘drug use is wrong because it is immoral and it is immoral because it enslaves the mind and destroys the soul.’ Let’s not legalize that.” In your closing statement, you’ll want to double-down on outrageous claims that defy the knowledge and experience of the general public. Hyperbolic concepts such as slavery of the mind and destruction of the soul will leave you plainly and hopelessly divorced from reality. If executed properly, your conclusion should result in…everyone…wondering what your problem is and doubting whether you’ve ever actually met a drug user in real life…

I couldn’t have written a better primer on “How to Write a Clichéd, Unpersuasive Argument Against the Decriminalization of Prostitution” if I tried. The seven steps are almost exactly the same:

Step 1: Attempt to marginalize supporters of decriminalization by claiming they are “trafficking apologists” or “rape supporters.”

Step 2: Frame decriminalization as a plan for “surrendering” or “giving up” and letting the “exploiters” win.

Step 3: Insist confidently — but without citation — that “real men” never pay for sex and only damaged or coerced women sell it.

Step 4: Insist that sex work can never be consensual or therapeutic.

Step 5: Compare decriminalization to legalizing rape.

Step 6: Mention something bad that happened involving prostitution and ask smugly whether decriminalization would have prevented it.

Step 7: Close with a sweeping, apocalyptic generalization.

See what I mean?

One Year Ago Today

“Real People” is a look at people (especially politicians and prohibitionists) who promote their anti-whore campaigns by working to dehumanize the real people involved in sex work.

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Objectification Overruled

Posted in Philosophy, tagged censorship, dehumanization, dirty, fantasy, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Madonna/whore, neofeminism, Objectification Overruled, porn, psychology, stereotypes on January 31, 2012| 53 Comments »

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Feminists of nearly all stripes are always blathering about the “objectification” of women, as if society, the media, the magical “male gaze” or whatever had the power to literally transform women into inanimate objects like the aliens in a certain memorable episode of Star Trek. To any reasonable person, the very idea is absurd; women are not passive “things” and cannot be transformed into such by any process known to modern science, nor are humans machines to be programmed by “society” or “The Patriarchy” (or whatever other devil one cares to conjure) into treating other humans in any particular way. To be sure, the weak-minded are subject to considerable social pressure which colors their thinking about others, but only the most completely brainwashed (who are and always have been a small minority) are wholly unable to see individuals as individual.

This is why the process of demonization works so well in maintaining hostility toward minority groups; the average person doesn’t deal with members of any given minority nearly as often as with members of the majority, and if hate or fear toward that group can be maintained he isn’t likely to have an intimate enough relationship with any of its members to learn that the prejudice and propaganda are false. If black people or Jews are segregated into ghettos and prohibited from frequent interaction with the majority, members of that majority don’t get the opportunity to learn the truth about them; and if homosexuals and whores are criminalized they are afraid to expose themselves to the majority. But women are not a minority; we are, in fact, a slight majority, and it’s a rare human who is not on intimate terms with at least one of us. Contrary to feminist propaganda, it is impossible to truly convince a majority of the population that women are something other than we are, because most of the population are women and the majority of the men are in the position to observe plenty of examples of individual female behavior.

The word “objectification” derives from the concept of a “sex object”. But sexual desire is transitive; it requires an object. The word “object” in the phrase “sex object” is therefore used in the sense of “object of the preposition” or “object of one’s affection”, not in the sense of “inanimate object”. Women ARE sex objects for heterosexual men, and anyone who doesn’t like it needs to take it up with Nature (and find another way for us to reproduce). Furthermore, the human body is an object in the concrete sense; it’s a physical thing which can be touched, takes up space, etc. Only the will or spirit animates it, and even then the body is merely a vehicle for the self. So I have a lot of trouble with people who decry the “objectification” of something which is already an object, in both senses of the word. I reckon what radical feminists are trying to get at is that men or “society” ignore women’s personalities, but that is nonsense; the fabric of society is largely woven and maintained by women, and (outside of some extreme areas of BDSM) the personality of a female “sex object” is just as important to the average male observer as her body is, despite what some feminists would like to believe.

OK, so what about graphic art? Women are a popular subject for both male and female creators and beholders of visual imagery, and even moderate feminists often decry the “sexualized images” of women they perceive as increasingly common. But what is an image? It’s a collection of tiny dots (electronic or paint) on a surface, which the human mind chooses to shape into something familiar. But the image is not the thing; this is what Magritte is telling us when he paints a pipe and labels it, “This is not a pipe”. It isn’t; it’s a picture of a pipe. And images of women – whether in advertising, porn, “feminist” art, medical illustrations or paintings by Flemish masters – are just that, images. Any “message”, sexual or otherwise, exists in the mind of the observer, and judging by some of the sexual “interpretations” I’ve heard applied by some feminists to pictures I see as innocuous, their minds are very dirty indeed (if not highly disturbed). I’m not trying to be difficult or facetious here, but rather to help you recognize that the “sexiness” of an image really is in the eye of the beholder. Would you be turned on by a photo of two dogs coupling? How about two monkeys? Two chimpanzees? Two really repulsive people? How about a poorly-drawn sketch of a nude woman? An artistic nude painting? A black-and-white photo of a nude woman wholly without sexual context? What if it was a nude man without an erection? A photo of a clothed man in some situation that appeals to a kink you don’t share? Some modern fanatics want to keep people from taking photos of fully-clothed children in public for fear that pedophiles might masturbate to them, and overzealous Victorians draped the legs of tables to avoid arousing the easily-aroused.

What I’m getting at is, people tend to see in a picture whatever it is they’re predisposed to see; I wouldn’t call a picture of a cop beating a man “sexual”, but an extremely sadistic or masochistic gay man with a uniform fetish might conceivably find it so. Pictures, like attitudes, are powerless to “objectify” women; that can only happen in the mind of individuals, and even then only in those who are predisposed to perceive such content everywhere they look.

One Year Ago Today

“January Q & A” answers questions about oral sex, electrolysis and the “Video Vigilante”.

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Moloch

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, tagged cops, dirty, harm reduction, hysteria, law, lawheads, Moloch, neofeminism, paganism, psychology, rape, sex offender registry, sexting, Shazam!, welcome to our world on January 29, 2012| 29 Comments »

MOLOCH, horrid King besmear’d with blood
Of human sacrifice, and parents tears,
Though, for the noyse of Drums and Timbrels loud,
Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire
To his grim Idol. – John Milton, Paradise Lost (Book I)

Moloch is the traditional (via the Bible) name for a Semitic god worshipped by the Canaanites, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. There is some debate over whether the word is actually the name of the god himself, or else the type of sacrifice he demanded in times of crisis: living human children thrown into a furnace at the base of the idol, sometimes in the shape of an open mouth. Some historians dispute the scale of the practice, claiming that it was exaggerated by enemy writers, but there is little doubt of its historicity considering that it is described independently in Hebrew, Greek and Roman sources. A cemetery in which the charred remains of such offerings were buried was called by the Hebrews tophet, a word which has since become synonymous with “Hell”. And the name of Moloch has come to mean any institution or cause which requires a horrible sacrifice, especially of children. Some Victorian writers used the name as a metaphor for industry which employed child labor, and modern America has its own Moloch: our viciously-misnamed “justice” system, into the maw of which uncaring functionaries hurl kids by the thousands for the sake of a “war” as barbaric and ultimately futile as those lost by the Carthaginians over two millennia ago.

In the early ‘90s, politicians responded to rising crime rates with a number of measures designed to convince the Great Unwashed that they were “tough on crime”, including “three strikes” laws, wildly disproportionate sentencing and trying juvenile offenders as though they were adults. And while some ruthless teenagers undoubtedly deserve more serious sentences than those available in the juvenile court system, most do not…and some states allow even prepubescent children (most of whom have not even achieved adult cognitive levels) to be tried and convicted as adults, with results that endure for decades if not for life. Furthermore, this draconian “crackdown” occurred just as America was relapsing into a state of hysteria about sex, especially sex among legal minors; despite a total lack of evidence for the belief, the public and legal establishment became convinced that any kind of sexual contact (including mere conversations or the taking of nude or simply suggestive photos) before the magical age of 18 was inherently harmful, and that the older party – even if under 18 himself – was automatically “exploiting” the younger one, even if they were not in physical proximity to one another or the younger one was unaware of the sexual interpretation the older placed on such interaction. This eventually led to the absurdity of charging teenagers with “child pornography” for “sexting” (because the little monsters should know better than to sexually exploit their innocent, childlike selves), and when combined with the nightmare of “sex offender registration” we arrive at a formula for mindless, destructive tyranny and child-sacrifice on a scale that would’ve made the Carthaginian priests avert their eyes in horror.

This article, which appeared in Time on January 8^th, gives some idea of the full scope of the injustice:

…more than one-third of the sexual abuse of America’s children is committed by other minors…these juvenile offenders pose a profoundly complicated challenge for the child-protection and criminal justice systems. It’s a diverse group…encompassing a minority of youths who represent a threat…and a majority who are…unlikely to reoffend…[Our] public policy includes a federal law…with a requirement that states include…offenders as young as 14 on their sex-offender registries. Many [experts]…object to the requirement, saying it can wreak lifelong harm on adolescents who might otherwise get back on…track…Some states have balked at complying…even at the price of losing some federal criminal-justice funding. Other states have provisions tougher than the federal act, subjecting children younger than 14 to the possibility of 25-year or lifetime listings on publicly accessible registries that include [their] photos…Delaware recently [registered] a 9-year-old…Several other states have registered 12- and 13-year-olds. “We’re bringing down a very heavy hammer on the head of kids, with significant life-altering consequences,” said Marsha Levick…of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia. “It’s a knee-jerk reaction that’s foolhardy beyond imagination.” [And] Nicole Pittman, a Human Rights Watch researcher…says states should halt the practice…”Most legislators do not believe children should be on the registry — yet it’s the kiss of death for most politicians to vote against any sex offender law,” she said.

…[A government] analysis…found that juveniles accounted for 35.6 percent of…[those accused of sex offenses]…against minors…93 percent [of them] were male [with an average age of 13]…and…59 percent [of “victims”] were younger than 12 and 75 percent were female. The report referred to a popular misconception that juvenile sex offenders are likely to reoffend, and said numerous studies over the years have shown the opposite — that 85 to 95 percent of offending youth are never again arrested for sex crimes. University of Oklahoma pediatrics professor Mark Chaffin…says efforts…are complicated by the tendency…to lump them together with adult sexual predators…”Now that the data has shown most of those assumptions were wrong, it’s difficult to undo those messages that people in the advocacy and treatment fields were putting out a generation ago.”

…While some youths commit violent, premeditated acts of sexual assault and rape, others get in trouble for behavior arising from curiosity, naivete, peer pressure, momentary irresponsibility, misinterpretation of what they believed was mutual interest, and a host of other reasons. Some cases involve sibling incest; sometimes the offenders have autism or other developmental disorders that lessen their ability to self-police inappropriate conduct…sociologist David Finkelhor…of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center…[says the system] “…needs to differentiate between the kids we should stigmatize as little as possible…and others who need a lot of intervention…”

…The latest juvenile crime data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that arrests of juvenile sex offenders declined by about 25 percent from 2000 through 2009. That would mesh with a decline in child sex abuse committed by adults, as well as a decline in the overall juvenile crime rate. But data from New York City, Florida and elsewhere indicates that the prevalence of child-on-child sex hasn’t dropped noticeably. In any case, forms of abuse evolve with the times as sexting becomes a common youth activity and easily accessible online pornography affects some children…”There’s a fear of technology — parents don’t think they can control it,” said Marsha Levick, who has been working…to dissuade prosecutors from criminalizing commonplace teen sexting activities…Nancy Arnow of Safe Horizon, a New York-based victim services agency…said the child-on-child sex abuse cases are among the most difficult. “We have to distinguish between sexualized behavior that might be pretty normal — experimenting, touching each other — versus molesting, subjecting another child to harm,” she said. She recalled investigations of children as young as 7, and the arrest of an 8-year-old…

Another challenging type of abuse cases involves youths who are autistic…[Jay Deppeler, who runs a treatment program for adolescent male sex offenders,] recalled one autistic young man who…had committed a sex offense as a 14-year-old and later — after turning 18 — committed a property…offense…[he was then] obligated to apprise prospective employers of his full record, including the juvenile sex offense — making him “virtually unemployable…Long term, I fear his prospects are quite bleak,” Deppeler said. “What do we end up doing with a guy like that?”

Though there’s some good information in the article, it has a major flaw: it doesn’t actually question any of the established “child sex abuse” narrative. Oh, we’re told that the majority of the “offenders” are no real threat, but the assumption is still that they did something wrong and need “correction”. The basic idea that it’s OK to punish someone for life for a non-lethal offense goes unchallenged, and though the article calls the belief in high recidivism among sex offenders a “misconception”, it wrongly qualifies the term with the adjective “juvenile” (in fact, adult sex offenders have a low recidivism rate as well). Even Nancy Arnow, who clearly states that adolescent sexual experimentation is normal, feels compelled to add the qualifier “pretty” and to say it’s “difficult” to distinguish harmless activities from crime. Adolescent sexual experimentation isn’t just “pretty normal”, it’s absolutely normal. And there’s a very easy way to distinguish sex play from molestation: did the supposed “victim” complain or draw adult attention via obvious stress or anxiety, or did some busybody adult discover the young people together and impose “exploitation” and “crime” paradigms on what was actually a harmless and mutually consensual activity?

One Year Ago Today

“Aggressive Ignorance” demonstrates the truth of James Baldwin’s statement that “ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

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We’re Not Done Yet

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged brothels, cell phones, censorship, Connecticut, cops, dating, dirty, ethics, Europe, harm reduction, hysteria, Kentucky, law, masturbation, neofeminism, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, porn, prisons, psychology, rape, Sales Pitch, Sweden, Swedish model, Tennessee, The Pro-Rape Coalition, The Punitive Mindset, What Were You Thinking? on January 28, 2012| 21 Comments »

Tyrants have not yet discovered any chains that can fetter the mind. – Charles Caleb Colton

What, you thought we were finished with updates for the month? I’m getting so many of these now I’ll soon be changing the way I handle them; look for a new feature, “That Was the Week That Was”, coming next Saturday (February 4^th). But in the meantime…

What the Hell Were You Thinking? (April 4^th, 2011)

I’ve suggested that amateur women protect themselves by taking tips from the pros, including checking in and out. Well, somebody had the same idea:

…myDate…makes it easy to set-up a network…who will receive text and e-mail alerts should you not make it back from your date at a [predesignated] time…Provide details of your upcoming date, including where, when…contact information for the person you are going out with…[and] a check-in time…[when] you expect to be back home alone…If you don’t [check in]…text and e-mail alerts are sent to your [contact] list…if something goes wrong, you’ll have loved ones on your trail as soon as possible…if…you stay out longer than expected, you can always…change the check-in time…[or] cancel the whole thing if your date never shows up…

The main flaw in this is that the man doesn’t know about the “app” unless you tell him. A callout does more than let others know your status; “it also sends a clear message to the man: People know where I am and how long I’m supposed to be here…It’s difficult to stop someone who intends to commit a crime with malice aforethought; what basic protective measures do is to deter opportunistic crimes. Locks prevent morally weak people from being tempted to easy thefts, and the knowledge that others know a woman is with him might stop a man with poor impulse control from succumbing to the desire to rape her.”

The Pro-Rape Coalition (April 14^th, 2011)

The evidence strongly indicates that as porn has become more available, the rates of rape and other sex crimes have decreased; some studies even suggest that porn is actually responsible for the drop. Therefore, any politician who wants to increase the number of federal obscenity prosecutions is, whether he admits it or not, pro-rape. Some of you might like to know the names of the current presidential candidates who want to see more American women raped, and XBiz is happy to oblige:

…Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have each pledged to enforce federal obscenity laws against major commercial distributors of hardcore adult pornography. The pledges [were] compiled and published by Morality in Media [as] part of the organization’s…”War on Illegal Pornography”…None of the other…candidates nor President Obama has responded to efforts initiated by MIM to learn their views…

Sales Pitch (May 22^nd, 2011)

Sweden is so invested in selling itself as the “feminist” moral arbiter of the world that it’s willing to lie about the success of its eponymous model, pretending that it has greatly reduced both prostitution and the demand for it. So I think it’s fair to consider this scandal (as reported in Feminist Ire) what the young people call an “epic fail”:

I posted…here…that, contrary to the claims of advocates of the Swedish model, brothels continue to thrive under the sex purchase ban. Now, it seems that they’ve had a little bit of help from friends in high places:

A high-ranking civil servant in Sweden’s defence ministry has been sacked after it was revealed he was involved in running several Thai massage parlours on the side…The raids revealed that the wife of the defence ministry official operated three massage parlours in the Stockholm area and that he served as an alternate board member of the company that ran the operation.

And according to the Swedish Tax Agency,

“We have clear indications both in the trafficking of girls and that many deal with unreported wages and pay unreasonably low payroll taxes”.

This isn’t the first time a high-ranking official has been found to be personally involved in undermining Sweden’s claims to have all but eliminated trafficking and sex work. Last year, the chief of police in Uppsala…was convicted on numerous charges including rape, purchasing sex, and “procuring” (translation: he was running a prostitution ring, involving underage girls). And regular Swedish press reports prove that they have as many examples as any other country of police and government officers being (literally) caught with their pants down…What gets my goat is the deliberate deception of those Swedish officials who come to other countries and tell us…that it’s “impossible to run a brothel in Sweden” when your own fucking government official is running several of them – and when their tax non-compliance seems to be the main source of your interest in them…

The Punitive Mindset (October 20^th, 2011)

Remember how the unholy union of sadists and neofeminists are trying to ban porn in Connecticut prisons? Well, as explained in this January 10^th article from Slate, it gets much worse:

…While you might think of masturbation as a sort of last refuge for the incarcerated…that is not the case. In fact, a number of state prisons regard jerking off as a rule infraction…In North Carolina…it is a violation to “touch the sexual or other intimate parts of oneself or another person for the purpose of sexual gratification”…Tennessee forbids “any behavior intended for the sexual gratification of the subject.” Ohio prohibits “seductive or obscene acts, including indecent exposure or masturbation.” Kentucky regards inmate masturbation as “inappropriate sexual behavior.” In California…masturbation is permissible provided it is stopped immediately if noticed by staff, blue balls be damned. If the masturbator perseveres, even if concealed by bed sheets, he can be cited for “Intentionally Sustained Masturbation without Exposure.” These policies are part of a long correctional tradition to forbid all forms of sexual activity…

In practice, inmates are seldom sanctioned, so long as they touch themselves discreetly. In Connecticut, masturbation is against the rules only when performed “in a lewd and public manner.” Other states have similar policies. But the line between intentional and inadvertent exposure can be blurry in a context where inmates do not control their privacy and cells are sometimes defined as public places. What’s more, some experts on prison sex contend that anti-masturbation and anti-porn policies in prisons are counterproductive because they effectively drive inmates to engage in risky sexual behavior…increased access to pornography—which goes hand-in-hand with increased access to one’s doo-dads—might be just what correctional facilities need to stem prison rape…

…the idea that sexual amenities could or should be part of the American correctional tradition never gained wide acceptance. Prison policy…grew more punitive in the ’70s…Today only six states allow conjugal visits, down from more than a dozen two decades ago… [Another] new factor [is]…the female prison guard…women are steadily replacing men because prisons prefer to hire guards without criminal records and with some education beyond high school—both of which favor female applicants…[also] they can legally oversee housing units for both male and female inmates, whereas men often are permitted to guard and conduct pat-searches only on other men. The result is that male inmates are accorded less privacy in which to masturbate than female inmates…

Prisons must also protect female guards from the hostile work environment…as established in a [2006 federal] case…The threat of sexual harassment is now also used as a justification for keeping porn out of prisons…Connecticut said explicit materials create a hostile environment for staff…[and] Pennsylvania’s 2006 ban was designed to improve working conditions for women…But…what if porn—and its natural consequence, masturbation—has the potential to deter sex crimes like prison rape?…a review paper on porn and sexual aggression from 2009 points out that as the availability of sexually explicit content has exploded in the Internet era, sex crimes have dropped nearly everywhere the matter has been studied. That doesn’t match with the theory that using porn facilitates rape, and some researchers even argue that porn might have a protective effect, by giving people a safe outlet for pent-up desires…patients seeking treatment in sex offender clinics often say porn helps them restrict their urges to their imaginations rather than acting them out by force. In effect, masturbation displaces rape…yet in prisons, Stone Age attitudes toward…sexuality still rule…Correctional officials may wish inmates were sexually inert, but a more pragmatic attitude might yield better results…

Ask yourself what kind of sick mind would want to be a female guard in a male prison, and I think you’ll understand where a lot of this “harassment” nonsense comes from. Angry, sadistic neofeminists aren’t allowed to literally castrate men, but they want to get as close as possible. And if their ridiculous demands cause more men to be raped, that’s just a bonus.

One Year Ago Today

“Wild Guessing (Part Two)” dissects the Schapiro Group’s treatise on stealing grant money from worthwhile programs using lies, exaggeration and appeals to emotion.

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Safety in Numbers

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged Australia, bad customers, bogus studies, brothels, condoms, cops, disease, drugs, East Asia, Europe, hysteria, law, marriage, neofeminism, New York, pimps, porn, prohibitionist myths, psychology, rape, rescue industry, Rome, sex offender registry, sex work is work, statistics, stereotypes, streetwalkers, Swedish model, Texas, underage, United Kingdom on January 24, 2012| 23 Comments »

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. – Josh Billings

One year ago today I published “Numerology”, my most-viewed post of all time (discounting the three with extremely popular illustrations). As of today it has been viewed 3790 times, and that doesn’t count all the times it was viewed on the home page. I’m really quite proud of that article because as far as I know it’s the only realistic estimate ever done of the number of professional whores in the United States; previous estimates either counted only streetwalkers (and were therefore far too low), or else presented wild guesses dressed up as facts. Despite what the trafficking fanatics claim, figures based on sound methodology and realistic estimates are very important, unless of course one wants to sound like an idiot by claiming that about one in ninety teenage girls in America is a “sex slave”, that the number of “sex slaves” in the world exceeds the population of Australia by a considerable margin, or that there are as many one-year-old hookers as 25-year-olds.

So, I’ve decided to observe this column’s first birthday by presenting a catalog of other essays and studies, both mine and others’, arranged by title, with a short description after each. I hope it proves especially useful to those of you who are writing essays of your own or debating prohibitionists and need a convenient list of supporting materials.

All Shapes and Sizes: Basic data on the size and shape of human genitalia.

Amazingly Stupid Statements: My answers to a number of common non-statistical prohibitionist arguments.

As Young As Possible: My debunking of The Schapiro Group’s Atlanta “study”.

Bad Fantasy, Good Reality: The truth about 10% of women declared “trafficked sex slaves” by the U.S. State Department.

Bad Jobs: The ten most depressing jobs in the U.S.; sex work is not among them.

The Ban on Purchasing Sex in Sweden: The So-Called “Swedish Model” by Bob Wallace, Principal Policy Officer, Office of the Prostitution Licensing Authority of Queensland (See Down Under)

Beyond Gender: An Examination of Exploitation in Sex Work by Suzanne Jenkins (See Out of Context)

Bone of Contention: Contains links to a few different (but very similar) estimates of the percentage of all prostitutes who work on the street.

By the Numbers: An analysis of how Prostitution and the Sex Discrepancy in Reported Number of Sexual Partners (see below) supports my estimate of the total U.S. prostitute population.

Chupacabra: Demonstrates that the fraction of prostitutes with abusive, controlling pimps is almost the same as the number of women in the general population with abusive, controlling husbands/boyfriends; also links statistics of underage girls with pimps.

Coming and Going: Contains a calculation of the annual amount of money the state of Texas wastes on incarcerating prostitutes.

A Commentary on “Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland” by Teela Sanders et al (See A Load of Farley)

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City by Ric Curtis, Meredith Dank, et al (The John Jay Study; see A Narrow View and Water Seeks Its Own Level)

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico by Richard Estes and Neil Weiner (See A Tale That Grew in the Telling)

Counterfeit Comfort: Reports on the cost and ineffectiveness of sex offender registries.

Deconstructing the Myth of Careful Study: A Primer on the Flawed Progression of the Child Pornography Guidelines by Troy Stabenow (a scathing critique of federal guidelines for “child pornography” sentencing)

Dirty Whores: Statistics on STI transmission and the shocking rate by which the infection rate in promiscuous amateurs exceeds that in professionals.

Dirty Whores (update): Statistics on the rise of STIs among British amateurs, including the admission that sex workers are not an important vector of such infections.

Dog Bites Man: Reports on Catherine Hakim’s study which demonstrates that the rate of hypergamy (“marrying up”) among Western women has actually increased since the 1940s.

Don’t Buy It: My debunking of the notion that major sporting events are accompanied by a rise in prostitution (with links to evidence).

Down Under: My synopsis of The Ban on Purchasing Sex in Sweden (see above)

The Growing Moral Panic Over Prostitution and Sex Trafficking by Ronald Weitzer: I think the title is self-explanatory.

Handy Figures: A compilation of figures which appeared in other columns, with links.

Harm Reduction (May update one): Links to a study showing that Portugal’s decriminalization of drugs actually reduced their use.

Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments and Recommendations by the Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group: An exhaustive study which conclusively demonstrates that there is absolutely no correlation between mega sports events and either sex trafficking or a dramatic increase in prostitution (See Don’t Buy It).

Imaginary Crises: My report on Christina Hoff Sommers’ debunking of the claim of a “rape epidemic” on American university campuses.

In Their Own Words: A short list of very telling quotations from neofeminists.

John Jay Study: See The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City

July Q & A: Reports on surveys of favorite sexual positions, by percentage of respondents.

The Law of Averages: My calculation of the real average age at which American prostitutes enter the trade, with a link to Emi Koyama’s debunking of the “average entry at 13” propaganda.

A Load of Farley: My debunking of Melissa Farley’s work in general and “The Growing Demand for Prostitution” in particular, with links to other articles debunking her as well.

Lying Down With Dogs: Contains an unflattering list of all countries in which prostitution is criminalized.

Meretrices and Prostibulae: A glossary of the many types of whores found in ancient Rome.

A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse by Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman: A vilified, censured study which demonstrates that (contrary to popular belief) consensual sexual contact does no psychological or emotional harm to most legal minors.

Moloch: Facts on “children” (i.e. legal minors) committed to the “sex offender” registry.

More Q & A: What percentage of men see prostitutes?

Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostitute Women by John Potterat, et al: Study of streetwalker mortality rates misquoted by Melissa Farley (see A Load of Farley) to claim that “the average prostitute dies at 34”.

The Mythology of Prostitution by Ronald Weitzer: A general critique of neofeminist anti-prostitute propaganda

A Narrow View: Introduces the John Jay study (Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City, see above), which demonstrates that few underage prostitutes have pimps.

New Directions in Research on Prostitution by Ronald Weitzer (See Out of Context)

Not an Addiction and Neither Addiction nor Epidemic: Debunking the notion of “sex addiction”.

Out of Context: Quotes and links several studies of sex worker satisfaction and reveals the sources of many of the false claims made by prohibitionists about sex work.

The Pigeons Come Home: A synopsis of Calum Bennachie’s complaint to the APA about Melissa Farley (see below), with links.

Pimps: Contains my calculation of the fraction of prostitutes controlled by abusive pimps.

Pornography, Public Acceptance and Sex-Related Crime: A Review by Milton Diamond: Demonstrates that as availability of porn increases, sex crimes decrease.

Pornography’s Effects: The Need for Solid Evidence by Ronald Weitzer: A review of two neofeminist anti-porn screeds (by Karen Boyle and Gail Dines)

The Pro-Rape Coalition: Contains statistics (with links) demonstrating the positive effects of porn on society.

The Proper Study: Explains why there are so many bogus prostitution studies and links a number of good ones.

Prostitution and Sex Crimes by Kirby Cundiff: Demonstrates that sex crimes decrease when prostitution is decriminalized and predicts a 25% decrease in rape if it were decriminalized in the U.S.

Prostitution and the Sex Discrepancy in Reported Number of Sexual Partners by John Potterat et al: Contains a census of streetwalkers and demonstrates that most male infidelity is conducted with prostitutes. (See By the Numbers)

The Punitive Mindset (update): Links to a number of resources on the subject of masturbation in prison, including laws restricting it, statistics on female guards in male prisons and studies (including Pornography, Public Acceptance and Sex-Related Crime) demonstrating that pornography reduces rape.

Request to APA to revoke Melissa Farley’s Membership by Calum Bennachie (See The Pigeons Come Home)

Sales Pitch: My synopsis of The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects (see below)

Schadenfreude: Contains a number of links to material detailing the abuses heaped upon sex workers by those who claim to be “rescuing” them.

A Short Glossary of Prohibitionism: I think this is self-explanatory.

The Social Construction of Sex Trafficking by Ronald Weitzer: I think this is also self-explanatory.

The Soft Weapon: Synopsizes and links the Village Voices’s debunking of Schapiro Group “studies”.

The Swedish Sex Purchase Act: Claimed Success and Documented Effects by Susanne Dodillet and Petra Östergren (See Sales Pitch)

A Tale That Grew in the Telling: My debunking of the Estes & Weiner study (The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, see above), from which so much “trafficking” propaganda is derived.

A Tale That Grew in the Telling (update): Reports the latest absurd lies about “sex trafficking”.

Terminology and More Terminology: Short glossaries of terms used by hookers, both online and off.

That’s the Ticket!: My debunking of the 2012 “prostitution census” and accompanying map released by French prohibitionist group Fondation Scelles.

A Thousand Words: A visual demonstration of why “trafficking” fanatics should support decriminalization.

Validation: Describes Jennifer Hafer’s University of Arkansas study, which demonstrates that most women make a rational decision to enter prostitution.

Validation (update): Describes Nick Mai’s study, which debunks several key aspects of trafficking propaganda.

The View from the North: Links to a Canadian study which demonstrates that “most prostitutes are consenting adults who do the work to pay the bills like any other job, that only about 15% are streetwalkers, and that very few are forced into the work by men.”

Village Voice Strikes Again: My synopsis of Village Voice’s attack on Ashton Kutcher’s spurious claims about “sex trafficking”.

Waking Up: Contains a short synopsis of data from several studies on the attitudes of female university students toward sex work.

Water Seeks Its Own Level: A synopsis of information from the John Jay Study (“The typical [underage hooker] is not a tween girl, has not been sold into sexual slavery, and is not held captive by a pimp“) and Nick Mai’s study (“Most foreign prostitutes in London are not trafficked and choose to sell sex because it earns more money than other jobs“).

We Told You So: Reports on U.S. government findings of waste, fraud and abuse among groups who receive anti-trafficking grants.

What’s the Cost of a Rumour? by Julie Ham: Yet another study (this one commisioned by the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women) demonstrating that there is absolutely no link between large sporting events and either prostitution or “human trafficking”.

Where are the Victims? The Credibility Gap in Human Trafficking Research by Johnny McGaha and Amanda Evans: I think this title is also self-explanatory.

Who Watches the Watchmen?: Quotes and links a study showing that only a miniscule percentage of “missing” minors are actually abducted.

A Whore in the Bedroom (November 2011 update): Describes and links a study showing that a husband’s sexual satisfaction is the single greatest indicator of whether a marriage will succeed.

Wild Guessing (Part One) and Wild Guessing (Part Two): My debunking of the Schapiro Group’s “study” for the Dallas Women’s Foundation.

Other Resources (PDF)

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Fredrick Federley’s Anti-Swedish Model Speech to the Riksdag (May 12th, 2011) translated by Michael Goodyear
The Himel Decision (September 28th, 2010) overturning prostitution law in Ontario (complete text)
The Power of the Powerless by Václav Havel
The Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, June 2011 (recommends decriminalization of drugs in all countries)
Short critique of Janet Shibley Hyde’s “gender similarities hypothesis”
TSA waste graphic by Online Criminal Justice Degree (click to enlarge)
Twenty-One Different Frameworks of Sex Work Law and Still Counting by Cheryl Overs (various ways of categorizing legalization status)

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Rhinoceros

Posted in Perception, Philosophy, tagged agency denial, anecdote, Cambodia, East Asia, ethics, fantasy, harm reduction, homosexuality, neofeminism, pimps, psychology, rescue industry, Rhinoceros, sex work is work, stereotypes, streetwalkers on January 21, 2012| 28 Comments »

Berenger: And you consider all this natural?
Dudard: What could be more natural than a rhinoceros?
Berenger: Yes, but for a man to turn into a rhinoceros is abnormal beyond question.
Dudard: Well, of course, that’s a matter of opinion… – Eugene Ionesco

In Ionesco’s 1959 absurdist play Rhinoceros (filmed in 1973 with Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder and Karen Black), the inhabitants of the characters’ town begin turning into rhinoceroses. Though the cause is not explained, there is a strong implication that the transformation is at least partially voluntary, because the more people change the more others join them. At first the townspeople are outraged, but by the end of the play everyone has become a rhinoceros except for the protagonist, Berenger, who considers joining the rhinos but just can’t force himself to change. The play is generally interpreted as a political allegory; no matter how ridiculous a mass movement is (Ionesco probably had fascism and communism in mind), nor how ugly and destructive it makes its adherents, it will often continue to grow in popularity until many who once opposed it now defend and may even join it.

The metaphor popped into my head on January 5^th while reading the comments on Laura Agustín’s column of the previous day; one of the commenters stated that she knows a sex worker who accepts some of Melissa Farley’s monstrous lies, and I replied:

A lot of sex workers buy into the “trafficking” mythology as well; I’ve read many comments and emails from such women who look around for where the “anti-trafficking” fingers are pointing and fail to realize that the supposed “sex slaves” are them and their friends and associates. It rather reminds me of Ionesco’s absurdist play Rhinoceros, in which the people who haven’t turned into rhinoceroses begin to perceive themselves as ugly outsiders.

It should be obvious that moral panics, like Ionesco’s “Rhinocerism”, are psychologically contagious; most people who are exposed to them are essentially brainwashed into accepting them, the victims of their own herd mentality. And so insidious is their influence that even some people who should know better are drawn into them, making whatever rationalizations are necessary to resolve the cognitive dissonance caused by the conflict of their knowledge and their desire to go along with the crowd. Thus many escorts, who intellectually know that the notion of prostitutes as coerced “sex slaves” is ridiculous, accept the “trafficking” hysteria by rationalizing that there is indeed an epidemic of “human trafficking” in other countries, or among streetwalkers, or in other places they conveniently never visit. Some of them even accept the outrageous claims of numbers and ages, egotistically assuming that they are part of some supposed elite of “free” hookers despite the fact that every other whore they know is equally “free”. Some even spin idiotic conspiracy theories in which there is a secret network of pimps who magically “get” girls and secretly control them without clients or other escorts being any the wiser. Many clients, too, are caught up in the hysteria; they worry that girls they hire might be secretly “pimped”, and that patronizing them somehow contributes to that prohibitionist devil, “demand”.

There is only one way to fight this contagious fantasy, and that is by rejecting the entire “trafficking” paradigm. In a September 2010 essay entitled “Willing Brides and Consenting Homosexuals” Cheryl Overs pointed out the danger of ceding any ground to the prohibitionists on this issue:

…I have noticed emergence of a new term “willing sex workers”. The danger here is that this term signifies that even those who support decriminalisation of sex work are now accepting the trafficking paradigm by repositioning willing sex workers as a subset of this broader category “sex worker/victim of trafficking or sexual exploitation”…The implications of this slow but clear shift are enormous. Health and human rights promoting programmes…can now be seen as applicable only to “willing sex workers” while “unwilling” sex workers deemed to be trafficked or sexually exploited need raids, rehabilitation and anti-trafficking programmes.

Perhaps the most depressing thing about this is that sex workers themselves and other well-meaning folks are buying into the trafficking paradigm…I am not going to argue about how many people are forced into sex work, but even in that overstudied “hotbed of sex trafficking” Cambodia, the only credible study [showed that] less than 2% of sex workers say they had been sold or coerced (CACHA 2008). How might this compare to the percentage of married women who were forced into marriage – even in the “hotbeds” of forced marriage? What percentage of gay men have been forced into sodomy? We don’t know, but clearly both happen. But it would be absurd to preface the words “bride” and “gay man” with “willing” or “consenting”. Can you imagine reports that say that condoms should be distributed to “consenting homosexuals”? Can you think of anything more absurd, more homophobic or more stigmatising? Can you think of anything more absurd than describing Kate Middleton as a “willing bride”? Positioning “willing” and “unwilling” doesn’t contribute to justice for people who have been raped, beaten [or] imprisoned in the course of either marriage [or] homosexuality and no one would suggest that. Nor would anyone suggest that rejecting the terms “willing brides” and “consenting homosexuals” amounts to a denial that those things happen. Yet this is exactly what the trafficking paradigm sets out for sex workers…

Perhaps the highest priority for the sex workers rights movement should be…to reject the entire paradigm of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Only by doing this can we focus on convincing the public and policy makers that public health, human rights and social development outcomes for sex workers depend on justice for all…our slogan says it perfectly – “only rights can stop the wrongs.”

Those with long memories may recognize her point as essentially similar to the one I made in my New Year’s Day column for 2011: “It isn’t necessary to have an adjective to describe every way in which a given person isn’t unusual; we assume the usual unless something different is specified, not vice-versa.” The vast majority of sex workers take their jobs as willingly as anyone takes any job, and it’s no more necessary to say “willing sex workers” than it is to say “willing doctors”, “willing teachers”, “willing cops”, “willing maids” or “willing cashiers”. The trafficking paradigm is an ugly fantasy which flies in the face of both reality and human nature, and must therefore be rejected completely in order to avoid being swallowed up by it; anyone who claims that the unnaturalness of a man becoming a rhinoceros is “a matter of opinion” is well on his way to becoming one himself.

One Year Ago Today

In “The Specialist” we meet Wanda, a call girl who specializes in clients of a most unusual (and exceptional) nature.

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The Beat Goes On (Part Two)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, tagged A False Dichotomy, Australia, bad customers, BDSM, brothels, condoms, cops, dirty, disease, East Asia, ethics, harm reduction, infidelity, law, Madonna/whore, marriage, Michigan, neofeminism, pimps, Secret Squirrel, semen, sex work is work, sisterhood, stereotypes, streetwalkers, surveillance, Thailand, Where Are the Protests? on January 19, 2012| 24 Comments »

The grocery store’s the super mart, uh huh
Little girls still break their hearts, uh huh
And men still keep on marching off to war
Electrically they keep a baseball score. – Sonny Bono, “The Beat Goes On”

Three more variations on previous themes.

A False Dichotomy (June 22^nd, 2011)

As I’ve pointed out many times, prohibitionist laws (and legalization regimes) are based in the ridiculous notion that sex work is magically different from all other work, and that whores somehow need “protection” from our own choices; accordingly, artificial lines are drawn and false dichotomies constructed between whores and other women, “sex buyers” and other men, streetwalkers and “indoor” workers, “free” and “coerced” prostitutes, those who cross borders to buy or sell sex and those who don’t, etc. This January 1^st op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald by Elena Jeffreys (no relation to Sheila as far as I know) deconstructs a lot of this nonsense:

…Sex workers… make money from sex work. The clients…pay for sex work. This is a relationship, this is negotiation and this is a system in our culture. Yet our laws, social mores and the morality police tell us it’s scandalous – a one-way ticket to hell. Or jail, if you live in Sweden. All this assumes that sex workers and clients are supposedly doing something wrong. But what makes it wrong? The government, even when it legalises or reforms laws in favour of sex workers, does not want to be seen to be endorsing sex work – just regulating it for those who are in it and need ”protection”. What are we being protected from? Why should it be reasonable to criminalise the negotiation of financial arrangements for sex? Rape is criminal. Violent assault is criminal. But consensual sex with a dollar figure attached to it is not. In [New South Wales] sex work is decriminalised and workers, clients and health advocates believe it should stay that way. We are talking about 30 minutes or so of massage, sex, nakedness, talking, showering, then getting on with your life. Is that evil or wrong? Negotiate, pay or be paid, have sex, see ya later.

…Now I know what you are thinking. It’s OK for me. I’m articulate, educated. I get articles published by newspapers. I’ve been president of the Australian Sex Workers Association. I can see what you might prefer to imagine: a typical downtrodden, desperate sex worker without any choices or an education, struggling on the streets with pimps breathing down her neck and unable to use condoms. Facing violence. Facing addiction. Facing a personal hell prescribed to her by men who want to pay for quick sex. Let’s examine some facts. Sydney’s…street-working area was the first site of condom use in Australia…Why? Because street-based sex workers knew about HIV and didn’t want to catch a life-threatening disease. In the brothels…owners were stopping sex workers from using condoms, threatening sacking, and worried about losing business. But because street-based sex workers were demanding condom use, it made the brothel workers more able to stand up for themselves and demand condom use also…Street-based sex workers are organised about their rights in ways that go unnoticed on night-time TV cop shows…[they] are often imagined as victims…In fact, [they] are victimised by laws, police and lack of access to justice. Not by clients who spend money to have sex with us.

The same applies to sex tourism…Even if…1 million Australian clients travelled to Thailand for sex tourism, Thai men even at the conservative estimate of 15 per cent visiting sex workers, STILL outnumber potential Australian clients 3 to 1…Thai sex workers [state] that their bread-and-butter income is from local clients and that travelling Anglo men make up only a small – but consistent and welcome – clientele. What’s more, it is our racist Western attitudes when we see a Thai sex worker with a white, fat, old Western man that lead us to believe she is being victimised by him…But as the sex workers in the Chiang Mai offices of EMPOWER say: ”Many fat old men are very respectful, kind, entertaining, generous and polite customers. We don’t discriminate.”

In the words of author and sex worker Juliet November, ”Sometimes sex work is about being gentle with someone’s need for touch; sometimes it’s about being kind toward a man who’s ashamed of his body; sometimes it’s about being friendly and fun with someone who’s lonely; sometimes it’s about holding someone’s vulnerability very lightly in your hands; sometimes it’s about making someone feel desired…sometimes it’s about sharing intimacy, cigarettes and a laugh.” So let’s rid ourselves of our prejudices and preconceptions and repeat after me: IT’S OK TO PAY!

Secret Squirrel (July 16^th, 2011)

I’ll slightly modify my own previous statement to introduce this January 5^th item from Jezebel: “I guess the concept of ‘trust’ has gone out of style. And perhaps I’m old-fashioned or idealistic, but I think it would irreparably shatter my relationship with a person if I found out he or she had used this nasty little Secret Squirrel [procedure] on my [underwear]”:

…Infidelity DNA Testing’s incredibly creepy press release asks, “How many times have victims had the horrible feeling that their husband, wife or partner was cheating on them but were afraid to confront their partners without 100% non-disputable proof?” Really, if there’s anything the Clinton presidency taught us, it’s that all infidelity scenarios are made much better by semen analysis. And with just a little underwear subterfuge…satisfaction — of a sort — can be yours:

The process is real [sic] simple. Just provide us an article of clothing preferably underwear or panties and we will do the rest. We can identify if semen is present, make sure it’s viable for dna [sic] extraction and then do a final comparison to make sure the DNA belongs to the correct person.

He adds, “There is just no legitimate reason or lie that a wife can come up with for having another man’s semen in her panties.” And why stop with wives? Users can submit men’s underwear too, to be tested for semen or for incriminating ladyjuices. The real piece de resistance of creepiness, though, is Infidelity DNA Testing’s suggestion that you use its semen detection service to find out if “your daughter is having sex.” Because having your child’s panties analyzed is definitely a better option than talking to her about sex…in order for it to work, your partner (or, cringe, daughter) would have to have unprotected sex and then leave underwear soiled from such sex around for you to find. If your wife or girlfriend is doing that, chances are she’s also giving you other signs that she’s cheating. And if you’re even thinking about stealing some of her underwear for DNA analysis, your relationship is probably in trouble. Actually, I think Infidelity DNA Testing does provide one useful service: breakup advice. If you are seriously considering working with them, you should break up. And this test is actually free!

I totally agree; if you have that little trust for your wife, your relationship is doomed so you might as well save the money and just break up. With “no fault” divorce it doesn’t matter if she’s cheating anyhow, so why bother? And if it’s your daughter, you stand to lose a lot more from spying on her than from letting her have sex.

Where Are the Protests? (December 3^rd, 2011)

From the December 30^th Huffington Post:

A health alert warning residents of Michigan’s Kent County that “possibly hundreds of people have been exposed to HIV” was issued…after the arrest of David Dean Smith, a 51-year-old HIV-positive man who told police he was on a mission to infect as many people as possible, MSNBC reports. Smith allegedly told Grand Rapids police…that over the past three years, he had engaged in unprotected sex with as many partners as he could – a number he estimated to be in the “thousands” – in an effort to infect them with HIV and kill them…Smith targeted Michigan residents as well as those living many states away, whom he contacted via Yahoo! Personals…It’s unclear why Smith chose to alert authorities of his behavior at this time, but…he has a history of mental illness which includes a recent admission…for threatening suicide….hospital records say that Smith is “sexually aroused by causing pain to females”…

Now, I don’t believe for one second that “thousands” of women gave this loony free bareback pussy. But as I wrote in the previous column, “Where are all the protests, the online petitions and the expensive full-page newspaper ads demanding that [Yahoo] close its [personals] section? After all, it’s being used by [psychos] to lure [women] to their deaths! Sure, [attempted] murder…[isn’t] as bad as prostitution, but [his method involved sex], so surely that counts for something?”

One Year Ago Today

“Hello, Dolly!” is a short birthday tribute to Dolly Parton (she turns 66 today), who has never disguised her admiration for and support of hookers.

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Not for Everybody

Posted in Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, archeofeminism, dirty, ethics, hysteria, law, naturalness, neofeminism, Not For Everybody, psychology, Rhode Island, stereotypes, survivors on January 17, 2012| 22 Comments »

A dream to some; a nightmare to others. – Merlin (Nicol Williamson) in Excalibur

One of the central goals of this blog is to help people realize that prostitution is completely natural female behavior; it actually predates marriage in human development and similar behaviors appear even in non-primate species. Most women will not hesitate to use their “erotic capital” (as Catherine Hakim calls it) to get ahead, and many have no qualms about openly using sex for material gain. About 10% of all women have directly taken money for sex at least once, and about 1% have actually worked as prostitutes at some time in their lives. As George Bataille put it, “Not every woman is a prostitute, but prostitution is the natural apotheosis of the feminine attitude”; in other words, full-time professional prostitution occupies one end of a whole spectrum of female behaviors on which it is impossible to draw a line separating the whore from the non-whore.

Obviously, only about 5% of all women (the historical percentage of the female population involved in the trade at any given time) feel comfortable enough with formal, professional prostitution to be able to actually make a living at it; in my column of one year ago today I discussed Amanda Brooks’ theory that such women, who often feel drawn to the profession from an early age as I did, might actually be genetically predisposed to it. In other words, there might be a “hooker gene”, and harlotry might be a sexual orientation just as homosexuality is. The comparison is an apt one: just as some men find ecstasy in homosexual activity while others are utterly repulsed by it, so for some women whoring is a dream job while others find it a total nightmare.

Those who consider homosexuality “unnatural” might be inclined to use the comparison to argue that prostitution is equally unnatural (despite this view flying in the face of facts); for those who are so tempted, let me point out that motherhood is as natural a role for women as one could ever imagine, yet I doubt any sane person would disagree that there are some women who are totally unfit for it. No life-path or career is suitable for everyone, and as long as those who are unsuited to a given role avoid it there is no issue. But when a woman who is repulsed by motherhood becomes pregnant, or one who has difficulties dealing with people is forced into a job in which public contact is unavoidable, nobody should be surprised when serious problems ensue. And if a woman who dislikes men or has sexual hang-ups (or both) is forced by circumstance into prostitution, the result can be an unmitigated disaster.

I’m not talking about women who simply aren’t cut out for whoredom; there are lots of those, which is why 10x as many women have tried hooking as have actually stuck with it for a time. The majority of women who directly take money for sex once or a few times simply decide it’s not for them (for whatever reason) and find some other way to make a living. But there are a small number who should never have even tried it in the first place, yet are driven by necessity, desperation or actual coercion to practice it for weeks, months or even years; such women are among the worst enemies our profession ever had. Because they hate the work, they tend to see and remember only the negative aspects. And because many of them are emotionally damaged even before entering prostitution (due to whatever trauma caused them to hate men and/or sex), and virtually all of them became even more damaged by having to endure what for them was a loathsome existence, they either become fanatics on their own or are easily driven to fanaticism by the prohibitionists. These are the women who call themselves “survivors” and learn to “reframe their experiences” (i.e. lie to make their stories more lurid and to more closely conform to anti-whore rhetoric). They are the mainstays of “john schools” and provide ammunition to prohibitionists who represent their highly-embroidered claims as typical of sex work and even multiply the accounts by changing small details so as to make them sound like different-but-similar tales rather than one repeated ad nauseum. The very worst of them (as typified by Somaly Mam) are so obsessed with their own darkness that they are willing to utterly destroy the lives of any real human beings who get in the way of their quixotic crusades against private behavior that is literally impossible to eradicate as long as humans remain human.

In a world where individuals were allowed control over their own bodies and the decisions of adults (however strange those choices might seem to others) were always respected by the “authorities”, fanatics who were harmed through ill-fortune or harmed themselves through their own poor choices would have no power over other, less damaged individuals. But unfortunately we do not yet live in such a world; even in jurisdictions which have legalized prostitution to one degree or another, governments believe they have the authority to abrogate the rights of individuals for whatever excuse strikes their collective fancy (provided they can convince the masses to lie still for it). As we saw in Rhode Island two years ago, a small group of vocal fanatics can easily convince the “authorities” to strip away rights held without challenge for decades, and one of the chief weapons of such fanatics is the emotionally-damaged “reluctant whore” who refuses to accept that her feelings or experiences are anything other than typical.

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