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Posts Tagged ‘The War on Whores’

Diary #467

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , , on June 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I promised I’d show y’all a photo of the lovely steel rose sculpture a gentleman gave me three weeks ago, but I’m afraid photography is not one of my strong suits and this was the best I could do (I decided to hold it in my hand for scale).  It’s one of several generous gifts I’ve received lately; another was a very fancy drill press for Grace, which I’ll be taking her when I visit Friday for her birthday.  Alas, unlike the rose I don’t know who sent the drill press; ever since Amazon started doing its own deliveries it has really dropped the ball on packaging, so the first I knew of the delivery was when one of my neighbors told me it was sitting outside my door, just as though it had been taken from a shelf at Home Depot, with no shipping carton or packing list or anything to let me know who sent it (other than the shipping label with my address on it).  I’ve mentioned it on Twitter several times, but no answer; if you sent it, please let me know!  And speaking of presents, it’s now my turn to give one to some of y’all:  Paul Johnson received our first shipment of DVDs late last week, so I’ll be sending those out to donors very soon!  If you donated at the $60 or $125 level, expect me to ask your address in the next few days.  In just over a week I’ll be flying to Florida for three screenings arranged by SWOP Behind Bars; thanks to all my donors for helping that to happen!  And thanks to everyone who kindness and generosity – in the past, in the future and every day – helps make my life just a bit easier and a whole lot nicer.

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Help!

Posted in Perception, tagged , , , , , , on June 10, 2019| 1 Comment »

As the Beatles said in a song that isn’t the one this column is named for, “I get by with a little help from my friends”.  And that’s what this is; a request for a little help from you, my readers and friends.  Of course, the most helpful help is usually monetary, but I’m aware that many of you may be suffering from giving fatigue lately; therefore only the FIRST of these requests is for monetary help.  The other two won’t cost you a cent, though the second one will cost you some time; the third only requires a change in the way you do things.

First, as is not unusual with GoFundMe projects, mine is stalled at just over the halfway mark.  So if you haven’t contributed yet, please do so by clicking here!  And if you already have, please consider doing so again, or subscribing to my blog by clicking one of the handy buttons in the margin.  So far, your contributions have enabled the burning of DVDs (which should be delivered to us this week), getting The War on Whores onto Amazon (where you can watch it for FREE if you’re a Prime member), and doing several sponsored screenings for groups which couldn’t otherwise afford it.  Please keep us going so we can get on iTunes and keep doing those sponsored screenings (next ones are coming in Florida in only two weeks)!  And even though I’m not allowed to advertise gifts directly on GoFundMe, there are indeed gifts and you can see them here.

Second:  speaking of Amazon, their algorithms dig up things a lot better if they have more reviews; would you please consider reviewing The War on Whores, The Forms of Things Unknown and/or Ladies of the Night for me?  More reviews could result in more sales, and more sales not only means more money, but more exposure.  Since all the items are linked by my name, increased attention to the books could also mean increased attention to the film, which will get the message out that much more.  And since the film is being considered “adult” by search engines, that’s extra-important in these days of shadowbans, hidden content and de-weighted search results intended to bury anything sex-industry-related where it can’t disturb the sleep of prudes and prohibitionists.

And that brings us to number 3.  Due to Twitter shadowbanning sex workers (removing us from search results, etc) my follower count has been stalled for a very long time.  So what I need is for those of you who follow me there to consider replacing some or most of your “likes” with retweets.  “Likes” are nice, but they don’t put my tweets in front of more eyeballs, and since I’m fortunate in having a very large fraction of my followers come from outside the demimonde, retweets allow my tweets to be seen by people who might not otherwise have seen them.  More viewers = more readers = more exposure for my writing, speaking, etc, including The War on Whores.  And because of that war, we whores need all the support we can get.

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One of Those Days

Posted in Diary, tagged , , on May 23, 2019| 2 Comments »

I wrote this column yesterday, on a very overcrowded plane with one baby screaming behind me, another to my left and still another a few rows ahead of me.  I can’t really blame them for crying because there has been a lot more turbulence than I prefer so far (though the flight tracker shows it’ll get better once we get over North Dakota).  As of the time of this writing I’ve been up since quarter to 8 EDT and haven’t eaten since 8:30 EDT, and won’t be eating again until probably an hour after we land in Seattle at about 21:00 PDT (an egg sandwich will hit the spot, I think).  I arrived at the airport just before 10:30 EDT and was bumped from two flights before I finally squeaked onto this one by the skin of my teeth, and I feel generally yucch.  However, I am returning from a lovely overnight with one of my favorite gentlemen, and even with the problems of standby flying it’s pretty damned awesome to be able to go wherever I want for free; my meds work great at preventing the worst of the vertigo, and even when the pilot is too much of a goddamned cowboy for them to fully protect me, my fasting ensures that there’s nothing in my stomach to throw up except a little water.  I’ll be going out to Sunset tomorrow for the dreaded Memorial Day weekend, and I probably (barring another overnight booking) won’t have to fly again for almost a month, when I go to Florida for my next several screening of The War on Whores.  So despite all the problems (not the least of which was forgetting Lilac at home in the rush to get to the airport Tuesday morning) I’m still in a good headspace, albeit an exhausted one.  And I know that some of my lovely readers will want to make me feel better by contributing to my fundaiser so as to make future travels easier (see, I’m not too exhausted to be shameless).  However, I’ve hit all the notes I need to hit and this pilot seems determined to hit every bad patch he can, so I think I’ll sign off now and try to at least doze, though I doubt I’ll actually sleep until I’m wrapped in my own scarlet sheets in my own harlot’s bed after some comfort food, a nice hot shower and enough edibles to knock me out until after most of you have read this.

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Diary #464

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , on May 21, 2019| 3 Comments »

Some of you may have noticed that for all my steel, thunder and rationality, I’m also a very sentimental person.  The top of my desk is cluttered with cards, small gifts and other mementos given me by people I love, and I have difficulty getting rid of things I’m used to having around even if they don’t actually work well anymore.  But a car is something that must be reliable to be useful at all, so when my mechanic told me that my automatic transmission’s shifting difficulty was a harbinger of its imminent demise (and that wasn’t even the only issue), I knew it was time to retire my burgundy-colored 2000 Honda Accord (just a few months after the premiere of The War on Whores, in which she has a small part).  Fortunately, another sex worker I know was thinking of getting rid of her 2002 Saturn; the car’s in very good shape (and very low mileage for an 18-year-old) but she rarely drove it, and didn’t feel it was worth the expense of maintaining any longer.  She gave me a very good price, and yesterday I sold the old one to a mechanic who’s going put a salvage transmission in it for his teenage daughter to drive.  All very reasonable and practical and for the best, and it wasn’t like I was really in love with the Accord, and she’s going to a good home.  But I was used to her, and comfortable with her, and I really dislike change.  So I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I shed a tear for the old girl, and thank her for getting me around dependably for the past three and a half years.

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Diary #463

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , on May 14, 2019| 1 Comment »

After a week of events and misadventures, it was good to get back to my normal routine for a few days.   The night I got home I wasted a perfectly good buzz on falling asleep like a log, and for the next few nights couldn’t even stay awake through my usual bedtime TV show.  But I caught up on my sleep, had a good week of work, solidified a lot of travel plans and event arrangements, saw The War on Whores become available on Amazon, enjoyed a Doctor Who night with Lorelei and then yesterday got up much too early to do a remote-via-internet Q&A session after a screening of The War on Whores at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Bangkok, Thailand (made possible by your generous support!) So that was my week, and this one looks to be not-dissimilar; I’m enjoying the relative quiet and normality before I have to start traveling again next week!

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Guest Columnist: Meagan Ingerman

Posted in Guest Columns, Perception, tagged , , , , , , on May 13, 2019| 4 Comments »

Meagan works for Prostasia, the organization which sponsored the Bay Area screening of The War on Whores, and I met her in person the day of the screening.  She interviewed me for Prostasia’s podcast (see below), and when Jeremy Malcolm sent me the link to the video he also included this essay Meagan wrote, which I found so sweet and touching I asked for permission to share it.

Why Maggie McNeill is My Hero

There are a lot of good reasons why Maggie McNeill should totally be your hero.  I mean, she’s brilliant, well spoken, sexy as all get out, an outspoken advocate for civil liberties, sex worker rights, sex positivity, child protection, the list goes on.  Basically, Maggie is the feminist we need if not the feminist we deserve.  But that’s not why she’s my hero.

Allow me to tell you a story.  Just to set the scene, it’s a Tuesday in the Bay Area.  My boss and I have had the pleasure of hosting Maggie all afternoon and evening.  She was kind enough to do an interview for Prostasia’s Podcast Sex, Human Rights, and CSA Prevention, then we all shared a lovely dinner and cocktails.  That was followed with the Bay Area premiere of The War on Whores, and we all capped the night off with lovely conversation and pie in a little diner near her hotel where we were dropping her off.  But on the way from screening to pie, there was a spot of bother on the freeway; a large plastic garbage can had wedged itself under the car and for a moment we feared we’d popped a tire.  So we pulled over and got out to investigate.

Now, it’s worth noting that I don’t drive and have a deep mistrust of cars, despite accepting them as a necessary means of transportation.  So I’m standing on the side of the road with my boss and Maggie, and she comes to the conclusion that if she and I stand on the garbage can while he backs the car up slowly, our combined weight will keep the can in place so we can free it from under the car.  I dunno what you always thought a day with a (in)famous sex worker would be like, but friends, this isn’t what I had in mind…Anywho, Maggie, who is super brave, btw, and I stand with a foot each and most of our weight on the can and the car is backed up slowly.  The closer the wheel got to our feet, the more I started to panic; directly to our backs were cars rushing by at freeway speed and directly in front of our toes was a car tire.  So, some part of my brain is aware that in my professional capacity, I should have probably had Maggie stand at the side of the road, away from the scary cars, and done this myself, because good hosting and whatnot.  But I’m apparently a giant baby, so instead of honorably protecting our guest, she casually coached me through this ordeal as I whimpered and had trouble forcing my body to keep my foot in place.  Her plan worked perfectly, but during the last stages she kept her foot on the can and it started dragging her a bit (she’s been in heels and a slinky evening type gown this whole time, btw).  So before I know what I’m doing, I think I wrapped my arms around her to make absolutely sure she didn’t go down as the center of balance changed.  I’m pretty sure she was in no danger of that, and it was a dorky overreaction on my part.  Hi, my name is Meagan and I was a huge dork in front of Maggie McNeill several times in a day and she was nice to me anyway.

The thing is, anyone can cultivate a reputation, and social media makes it easier than ever to build and perpetuate propaganda.  But these silly, random, slightly dangerous moments in life where people have to just be people to get through it, reveal a lot more about a person than their press does.  Like I said, there are a lot of good reasons to be a huge fan of Maggie.  Her social work, her “social” work, her writing, her documentary, her body, her mind, her fantastic makeup and fashion tips, how incredibly down to earth she is when she really doesn’t have to be…but I will always be a big fan of Maggie because of one very random, very silly, very human moment on the side of the road, headed towards San Francisco.

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Paging Dr. Bowdler

Posted in Perception, tagged , , , on May 10, 2019| 4 Comments »

If you’ve been waiting to watch The War on Whores until it was on Amazon, you need wait no longer; it’s there, and even included with your Prime subscription!  As I explained on Monday, Amazon objected to the word “whores” in the title (despite there being lots of titles containing that very-ordinary word all over their site), but customer service told my producer Paul Johnson that they would not object to the title The War on Sex Workers.  So naturally I just rolled my eyes and let them clutch their pearls, especially because the film isn’t changed in any way; when you play it you’ll still see The War on Whores as the title, so only the display title on Amazon will be bowdlerized, presumably to protect Amazon’s delicate algorithms from sex rays which might cause them to malfunction or something.  Still, I’m glad we’re there; Amazon is very good exposure and presumably the title will pop up on my IMDb page soon (it already appears on Amazon searches with my books).  Now let’s see if iTunes gives us similar issues, given Apple’s legendary prudishness (surpassed only by Facebook).  Of course, the best way to see the film is on a big screen followed by a Q&A session with me; we had several of those last week, and as of right now the next scheduled ones will be in Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg Florida (courtesy of SWOP Behind Bars) on the 21st and 22nd of June (I’ll give you more details as I get them).  I’ll also be screening it at the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit in Alexandria, Virginia at 6 pm on August 16th, then elsewhere in the DC area in September at an event for Reason Magazine.  Screenings in New Hampshire and Austin, Texas are also in the works, but they are tentative for now.  One more thing:  please consider helping out by donating to my fundraiser!  So far you’ve made two events possible that would not otherwise have been feasible, not to mention getting us on Amazon and starting the DVD burning process.  The same increasing censorship which forced me to hide the real title of the film has also prohibited me from listing the rewards for donations on the fundraiser itself, so here they are again:

$30 or more – Donor
Permanent inclusion in blog-supporter deals (free stories, etc).

$60 or more – Friend
Autographed DVD of The War on Whores (will be sent when DVDs are delivered to us, probably late spring)

$125 or more – Sponsor
Autographed copies both of my books, plus The War on Whores DVD when it comes out.

$250 or more – Patron
When I’m in your city, I’ll have coffee with you and hand-deliver the Sponsor-level gifts plus an autographed poster!

$500 or more – Angel
When I’m in your city, I’ll have a leisurely dinner with you and hand-deliver all the Patron-level gifts!

$1000 or more – Producer
I will make a special trip to the city of your choice and give a full screening of the movie, with Q&A session, to the group of your choice!  If you have no special group, I’ll give you the Angel package without your having to wait until I reach your city!

Wont you join me in my continuing efforts to spread the word about this important film?  Thank you so very much; I couldn’t have made it this far without your help, and I’ll need more of it before we’re done!

 

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Diary #462

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , , on May 7, 2019| 2 Comments »

As I briefly mentioned on Friday, last week’s travels did not go well; every single flight went from wide open when I scheduled it to tight by the time I checked in 24 hours in advance, to nigh-impossible by the time I arrived at the airport.  On Tuesday, my flight from Minneapolis was delayed for just long enough to cause me to miss my connection to St. Louis by minutes, then the next flight was delayed by hours (and it was a rough landing too).  Then on Thursday both I and an air hostess were booted off of our flight to Chicago, and there were no other flights that day which weren’t horribly overbooked, so I had to do another one-way car rental and invited the lady to ride with me (which actually turned into a fun little adventure as we quickly made friends during the drive).  Then driving back from Bloomington to O’Hare on Sunday I got a brief scare; I was cruising along with the traffic coming into Chicago (fairly heavy but not slow) in the left lane when I heard a crash behind me; a glance in the rear-view mirror revealed that the driver of the car immediately behind me (maybe 30 meters back) had lost control, crossed the shoulder and crashed into the concrete guardrail.  My guess is that he was both texting and going too fast, glanced up and realized he was about to rear-end me, and then lost control while trying to swerve and brake; I shudder to think what would’ve happened had he not glanced up in time to wreck only his own car and not my rental as well.  It certainly didn’t do my nerves any good; I had been watching the flight loads grow increasingly worse for the previous several days, and none of the backup flights looked any better.  But apparently Aphrodite interceded with Hermes on my behalf, and four people ahead of me must have missed their connections or something because I got onto my flight at literally the last minute (as in, the gate agent walked me down the jetway herself and closed the door behind us, and I had barely time to get settled in and take my meds before the captain announced we were about to depart).

But while the travels were difficult, the events were great!  My Minnesota State event on Monday had the largest attendance yet, and my St. Louis crowd was very enthusiastic and not much smaller; I got to meet Dr. Eric Sprankle and spend some time with my friends Kendra Holliday and David Wraith in St. Louis, and then made some new friends at the Libertarian party convention in Bloomington.  My talk was very well-received, and the audience questions at all three events were top-notch and thoughtful.  On Saturday evening I got sort of roped into being the auctioneer for a fundraising auction, but even though I’ve never been an auctioneer before I am a fast learner and it was a lot of fun (and two of the items were my own books!)  So in the end I would call the week a definite success; I just hope Hermes is done playing tricks on me now!  If you’d like to help make future events like the Minnesota State & Sex Positive St. Louis screenings possible (eg SWOP Behind Bars in Florida in June, and Woodhull conference in August), or to soothe my frazzled nerves from my travel misadventures, please donate to my fundraiser!  And don’t forget that even though GoFundMe won’t let me list the rewards for donations on their own page, those rewards definitely do exist and we’ll be starting to send them out in just a few weeks!

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By Any Other Name

Posted in Perception, tagged , , on May 6, 2019| 4 Comments »

I’ve been promising that The War on Whores would soon be available on Amazon for a couple of weeks now, and Paul Johnson was mystified as to why it was taking so long when all his other films only took a few days after submission.  Naturally I thought it might be a matter of FOSTA-related censorship since the film could be interpreted as “promoting prostitution”, but I was only slightly correct.  We finally found out the reason, and it’s one Ken Russell would sympathize with:  they objected to the word “whores” in the title.  However, in going back and forth with Amazon customer service, he was told they would not object to the title The War on Sex Workers. The silliest and most eye-rolling part is, the film isn’t going to change in any way; when it’s played from Amazon streaming you’ll still see The War on Whores as the title, and there won’t be any other censorship (or so I’m told).  Only the display title on Amazon will be bowdlerized, presumably to protect the delicate eyes of browsers from the sex rays emitted by a very ordinary English word.  Vimeo will continue to  display the proper title, as will the DVDs when they come out in a few weeks; it’s possible iTunes will clutch its pearls in the same way as Amazon, but that remains to be seen.  And maybe this will generate a bit of buzz it the same way putting “Banned in Boston” on a book cover or movie poster used to.  In any case, it’ll be the same movie, containing the same hard-hitting content and the same opening scene of me in sexy lingerie (you didn’t know that was in the movie?  Oh yes.)  And from an ethical standpoint, I don’t feel as though faking modesty in a title is any different from faking an orgasm:  it’s just done to please someone in order to get them to give me money.

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Diary #459

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , on April 16, 2019| 4 Comments »

Though my Bay Area screening was a success, several things definitely did not go smoothly.  The screening audience was very engaged and I was joined in a Q&A afterward by veteran activist Kristen DiAngelo (American Courtesans); before the show I also recorded a podcast interview for my hosts, the Prostasia Foundation.  The next day I met one of my regular readers for a coffee date, then had a lovely overnight with one of my favorite gentlemen.  Also, the problem with my fundraiser was resolved, so at least I didn’t have to use personal money to pay my hotel and all (if you’d like to help me in future travels, please donate).  Those are the parts that went well; it was all the nonhuman factors which gave me trouble!  As regular readers know, I fly for free thanks to Ghost Rider, but that means flying standby and sometimes getting bumped to steerage, and if things are really overbooked it can mean getting bumped off of a flight entirely.  Well, last Monday I flew first class to LAX, but it looked like I was going to be bumped off of my flight to SFO until the very last minute (when they managed to get me onto the flight, apparently due to someone else’s missed connection).  At the screening Tuesday, we had some kind of glitch wherein the sound got about a second out of synch with the picture and the projectionist apparently could not resolve it; the theater made up to us by refunding part of our fees, and if you were in the audience and felt distracted, we will give you a free download (just email me for details).  Then on Wednesday afternoon, Ghost Rider (who keeps an eye on flight loads when he knows I’ll be traveling) let me know that it didn’t look good for the next day; we decided the best bet was for me to try to follow through with my original itinerary, but to understand it might not work out.  That turned out to be an understatement; by the time I got to the airport, my standby position for the flight had dropped from one to nine, on an already-overbooked plane.  Consulting with the gate agent revealed that, partly due to spring break traffic and partly to the genius who decided to repair a runway during the day (thus resulting in dozens of cancelled flights), there was no way to get a seat out of San Francisco for love or money.  Every flight on every airline out of SFO, San Jose, Oakland and Sacramento, flying to Seattle, Portland and even Everett (on Alaska Air) through every hub in the US was overbooked for both Thursday and Friday.  But I was in a good mood and mentally prepared for the eventuality; Priceline gave me a one-way car rental, SFO to Seattle, for only $130; I booked it, drove out of the parking garage about 2 pm, and I pulled into my driveway in Seattle at 12:45 (that included two refueling stops).  Definitely not an ideal situation, but in the days before I learned how to control my vertigo I did a lot of long-distance driving; the worst part about it was losing a whole day of writing time.  And it takes more than stupid bureacrats & drunk students to stop me from getting where I need to go!

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