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That Was the Week That Was (#131)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, Against Their Will, agency denial, Backwards into the Future, bogus studies, Brazil, censorship, Convenient & Inconvenient Victims, cops, dirty, disease, drivers, East Asia, escort review sites, Europe, First They Came for the Hookers, Florida, France, Georgia, harm reduction, Hooker Humor, hysteria, Imagination Pinned Down, India, internet, Japan, Japanese Prostitution, Latin America, law, Little Boxes, Madonna/whore, neofeminism, Netherlands, New Mexico, New York, oral sex, porn, pragmatism, Presents, psychology, rape, rescue industry, Shift in the Wind, slavery, Spain, streetwalkers, Swedish model, That Old Black Magic, The Course of a Disease, The Public Eye, The Widening Gyre, Twitter, video, violence vs. sex workers, virginity, We Told You So, Wholesale Hypocrisy, witchcraft, With Friends Like These on January 5, 2013| 37 Comments »

The actual number of people trafficked is so much less than the targets [governments] are supposed to meet, so they end up running around and accusing people of being victims of traffickers and sticking them in cages to try to satisfy this US hysteria. – Liz Hilton, EMPOWER Foundation

Japanese Prostitution

The highly dishonorable Prime Liar of Japan is at it again: “…Shinzo Abe…may revise Japan’s 1993 apology for forcing thousands of women to be sex slaves in the service of Japanese soldiers during World War II…an assertive, unapologetic Japan could antagonize much of Asia, especially South Korea…”

In a Similar Vein…

This woman takes the term “cougar” much too literally:

Police in Florida arrested an “extremely intoxicated” woman after she allegedly beat her boyfriend over bad oral sex…Jennie Scott, 50, assaulted her 32-year-old boyfriend, Jilberto Deleon…following a joint-oral sex encounter that ended…after Deleon “finished first and stopped pleasuring her”…In November, Raquel Gonzalez, also of Manatee County, was charged…after beating her boyfriend following a sexual encounter during which he climaxed and she did not…

Convenient and Inconvenient Victims

Another example of how prohibition harms all women: it allows “authorities” to claim prostitutes can’t be raped, then to accuse rape victims of prostitution: “…Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar came the nearest to calling the Park Street rape victim a sex worker when she described the February 5 incident not as a rape but as a ‘misunderstanding between a lady and her client’…”

Against Their Will

Take especial note of the un-ironic use of the word “rescue” in this context:

At least 11 woman inmates…[who] were trafficked to Mumbai…[then] rescued and brought to [a destitute] home [escaped on New Year’s Eve]…West Bengal Minister for Women and Child Development…Sabitri Mitra denied any lapse of security at the home…”Inmates…have a tendency to escape…They have been trying to escape ever since they were brought here…”

We Told You So

As I predicted they would, members of the mainstream media are slowly beginning to wake up:

The situation was dire, police warned. The City of Atlanta was under siege by human traffickers. Some 1,000 Asian women and girls ages 13 to 25 were being “forced to prostitute themselves” in the city…To free them, police forged ahead with a $600,000 task force. Had agency leaders questioned the estimate, they would have found it defied common sense. If it were true, one in eight of the city’s Asians would have been sex slaves…it’s little wonder that the program had such poor results that it drew scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice. An initial report said Atlanta police had found more than 200 victims, but auditors could only confirm four…

Instead of quoting Polaris Project, Melissa Farley and the other usual suspects, this reporter went to “trafficking” skeptics Ronald Weitzer, Elzbieta Gozdziak, Charles Grassley and Meredith Dank. And while he still buys into the cops’ convoluted paradigm (for example, “Girls confuse investigators by calling pimps their boyfriends” instead of recognizing that the so-called “pimps” are their boyfriends), he also recognizes that Atlanta is the norm, not an exception: “Los Angeles…identified 49 victims and…Washington, D.C., found 51. Auditors confirmed none of them…”

Presents, Presents, Presents!

I received two more Christmas presents this week; Krulac sent me Flute of Sand, and another reader sent me Crisis and Leviathan. Alas, the seller neglected to include a card or packing slip with the latter, so I have no idea who sent it; if it was anyone reading this, please let me know via email or in the comments. Thanks very much to both of you!

First They Came for the Hookers…

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep trying to stop us from getting other jobs? “Reality star Olivia Black has been fired from the cast of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars after…her…past on the soft-core site SuicideGirls.com was revealed in the National Enquirer…”

Imagination Pinned Down

In the process of reviewing a new book on hallucinations by the brilliant Dr. Oliver Sacks, Michael Roth shows just how easily false memories are formed:

As a young professor, I traveled to Vienna…and…[visited] Freud’s old apartment and office, which had been converted to a museum. One rang a doorbell to be admitted, and I was shocked when the museum attendant greeted me by name…in German, calling me “Professor Doktor Roth” — or so I thought. My wife was right beside me, and she later told me that nothing of the kind had happened. The museum employee had merely told me the price of admission…I realized that what I’d heard so clearly was probably an auditory hallucination. I so very much wanted to be recognized in the house of Freud that I’d perceived something that wasn’t there at all…our brains call up simulated realities that are almost indistinguishable from normal perceptions…[and construct] a world that nobody else can see, hear or touch…

Ex-porn actress Monica Foster outs sex workers on her website, yet she recently placed this escort ad.

Wholesale Hypocrisy (TW3 #25)

Prosecutors never hesitate to appeal when there’s political coin to be made at others’ expense: “The New Mexico Supreme Court has agreed to take up [the] case [of] ‘Southwest Companions,’ linked to former University of New Mexico president F. Chris Garcia and retired Fairleigh Dickinson University physics professor David C. Flory…prosecutors [appealed after]…District Judge Stan Whitaker found that an online message board is not a house of prostitution under state law…”

The Course of a Disease (TW3 #26)

Unsurprisingly, the woman who thinks other women must be “protected” from free will also believes free speech to be “dangerous”: “France’s women’s rights minister, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem… [demands] that Twitter help the French government criminalize ideas it dislikes…by [installing] ‘alerts and security measures’ to prevent tweets which French officials deem hateful…”

The Widening Gyre

New York’s new video helpfully explains that the law doesn’t say what it says, but does require cabbies to magically divine whether a woman is “helpless”:

…Taxi officials yesterday released an anti-sex-trafficking video — mandatory viewing for all cabbies — that explains when it is and is not OK to transport a working girl. Picking up street walkers is fine, but driving helpless women around for pimps is not…The nine-minute video was created after the City Council approved an anti-sex-trafficking bill…and…prostitutes worried that the measure meant that cabbies would be too scared to pick them up…“Suspecting or knowing that someone is a prostitute does not give you the right to refuse that person a ride,” the video says…

Shift in the Wind

This is incredibly good news:

“Save us from saviours” is the piercing refrain of a growing human rights movement demanding that sex workers be recognised as more than victims to be rescued…”Sex workers are discriminated against and their human rights unrecognised around the world, even where sex work isn’t illegal,” says Nadia van der Linde, co-ordinator of the Red Umbrella Fund, the first global grant-making mechanism set up to give sex workers more control of projects that directly concern them…The fund, which was launched in April 2012…will announce this month who will receive its first grants…Embracing a philosophy of “nothing for us without us”, the innovative fund is governed by sex workers, who sit alongside donor representatives on the committees that oversee and manage its work…

Hooker Humor (TW3 #31)

Miranda Kane, the escort turned stand-up comedienne, has written a new piece on “Selling Comedy vs. Selling Sex” which compares preparation, advertising, reviews and much more: “I get asked a lot about my security. In 7 years of escorting, I was never threatened, robbed, or found myself in any danger. In 7 months of comedy, I had two iphones nicked from my bag when I was on stage, venues and promoters not paying my pitiful fee, and several parking tickets…”

That Old Black Magic

Spain’s Interior Ministry says police have arrested 17 people on suspicion of smuggling Nigerian women into Spain and forcing them into prostitution using threats including claims they would cast Voodoo spells on them if they didn’t comply…around 10 women had been brought into the country illegally using a small boat…

Little Boxes (TW3 #40)

Rebecca Bernardo…posted a video on YouTube…[in which]…she…announces…”Hi, my name is Rebecca. I’m here to auction off my virginity”…she made the offer because she was desperate to help her ailing mother. She heard about Catarina Migliorini, a Brazilian woman who reportedly sold her virginity for $780,000…Migliorini has reportedly yet to finalize the deal and receive the money…[but] has received widespread publicity and modeling contracts — including a spread in Brazil’s version of Playboy…”I made up my mind right after my 18^th birthday…when my mother suffered a stroke”…[which] left her…bed-ridden, unable to feed herself or go to the bathroom alone. Bernardo said she looked for jobs…but…the pay was minimal…A Brazilian TV network offered to pay for her mother’s medical expenses if Bernardo called off the auction. While she initially accepted…during a television interview, she later rejected it because the network would not pay for a house in a different town where she could “start a new life”…

CNN doubts the girl because she’d rather do a few hours of work than sign an exclusive (and probably sleazy) agreement with a TV network, which goes to show how perverse and dishonest CNN is on the subject of sex.

With Friends Like These…

Radio Netherlands recently published an article called “China Can’t Duck the Issue of Prostitution” which correctly and concisely demolished every model of prostitution law except decriminalization, including the Dutch model; it even recognizes that a prostitute is no different from an economically dependent wife. However, the argument then bizarrely self-destructs in the conclusion:

…Free and consensual sexual relationships are obviously the ideal, but in reality there are many paid and involuntary sexual relationships between the sexes…if people choose to have an immoral lifestyle, they should not be punished by the law, regardless of how morally wrong they might be…The only effective means to curb…prostitution is…to make [it] socially unacceptable…

The Public Eye (TW3 #49)

As Kristen di Angelo expressed it, “This is just how it is… but it shouldn’t be”. One of the women who appeared in the film American Courtesans went to the police after being terrified by an abusive stalker; they told her they could do nothing, but instead subjected her to a sting in which five cops in riot gear trashed her home and robbed her. Because obviously an escort who primarily works with the disabled is a dangerous criminal, but a possibly-deranged stalker is just a good citizen doing his civic duty.

Backwards into the Future (TW3 #52)

Though the Burmese government’s anti-sex work policies mimic those of Washington, Burmese journalists are not content to parrot those policies as their American counterparts do:

…Over 10,000 prostitutes…work in Rangoon, mainly in informal settings such as karaoke bars, nightclubs and guesthouses…they are among the most vulnerable citizens in Burma, facing widespread discrimination and abuse, often at the hands of authorities…Those who refuse or are unable to bribe the police face arrest and incarceration, sometimes in so-called “rehabilitation centres” intended to reform immoral behaviour…rape and sexual assault are a daily occurrence…police often use condoms as evidence of prostitution, even though the government formally banned the practice in 2011. Unsurprisingly, Burma has one of the highest HIV rates in Asia, with as many as one in three sex workers infected. Campaigners on HIV prevention have long called for harm reduction strategies to replace prohibitionist measures…But…some key actors are lagging behind. The US government, which recently earmarked $170 million in development aid to Burma, continues to enforce its so-called “anti-prostitution” pledge…It means that any organisations that refuse to condemn sex work – even though they often have the best access to vulnerable persons – are systematically excluded…

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That Was the Week That Was (#44)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Whore in Church, activism, Africa, agency denial, Australia, Backwards into the Future, bad customers, Bottleneck, brothels, censorship, China, Coming and Going, cops, Day of the Dead, dirty, Dirty Whores, disease, Dominican Republic, East Asia, end demand, escort services, ethics, Europe, Follow Your Bliss, harm reduction, holidays, hysteria, Illinois, India, Iowa, Islam, Latin America, law, Legal Is as Legal Does, Little Boxes, Lying Down With Dogs, Malawi, Much Ado About Nothing, neofeminism, Not the Leading Players, politicians, rape, Russia, Shift in the Wind, Something Rotten In Sweden, stripping, Swedish model, Taiwan, The Last 13, The Public Eye, TSA, United Kingdom, video, violence vs. sex workers, virginity, Wholesale Hypocrisy on November 3, 2012| 29 Comments »

Why are feminists so afraid of sex? – Gopinath Arunima

Lying Down With Dogs

Take a good, hard look at the prohibitionist company the US prefers to keep:

…fundamentalist Islamists, though…shut out of power in countries like Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, nonetheless manage to promote their…agendas — often taking the law into their own hands, and in this case threatening…prostitutes and their customers and driving away the only industry in [the town of Ain Leuh]. “The economy is in free fall here,” said Ali Adnane…“The girls rented. They had cash. They bought things”…Exactly what happened…is in dispute. [Campaign leader Mohammed] Aberbach says the Islamists never did anything illegal. The campaign, he said, largely involved demonstrations in the main square. No one threatened anybody or used violence or stood at the entrances to the village demanding identification from men who wanted to enter…But others, including Haddou Zaydi, a member of the town council, say all those things, and more, took place. Sometimes, he said, the Islamists used padlocks to imprison the prostitutes in their houses after a customer had gone in. Then, they called the police…Mourad Boufala…said he was not in favor of prostitution…but…was offended by the Islamists’ methods. “The way they did it was really rough,” he said. “They hit girls…scared them…and…offered them no alternatives”…

Coming and Going

From the big booming metropolis of Muscatine, Iowa:

Sixteen agencies worked together on a human trafficking and prostitution investigation that led to 27 people being arrested…County Attorney Alan Ostergren said…that agencies across Iowa have participated in these stings lately. He claims that agencies chose Muscatine…because the law enforcement there wanted to investigate the prostitution problem. Investigators took two months to set up the sting…The prostitution charge is an aggravated misdemeanor…[but] Robert Kennedy, 56, of Peoria, Illinois was charged with felony human trafficking…

Even if you believe that prostitution is a “crime” worth persecuting people for, do you really think tying up 16 different organizations for two months – literally thousands of man-hours and many tens of thousands of dollars – is really worth it for 27 misdemeanor arrests, many of which won’t even bring in a fine?

Dirty Whores

Here’s a short Guardian article on the history of the Contagious Disease Acts, including a rather odd epilogue: Cambridge University continued its own version of the national laws – complete with arrest powers – for ten years after the latter were repealed!

A Whore in Church

The fact that people think there is something remarkable about this brothel’s location is a sign of the deep Western weirdness about sex:

Two women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution after seven rooms were found in a [Moscow] building close to Sretensky Monastery where sexual services were offered from 1,750 roubles (£35) per hour. Father Tikhon, the abbot of the monastery, is said to be a religious counsellor to Mr Putin…There were conflicting reports over the ownership of the brothel, found in one of a chain of mini-hotels called Podushkin…

Much Ado About Nothing

Wow, déjà vu! “Two women from the Dominican Republic [said] that…New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez paid them for sex earlier this year…they claimed Menendez agreed to pay them $500…but in the end they each received only $100…” When will reporters learn? A government official paying for sex is not even news; the scandal here is that he cheated two women out of money he agreed to pay.

The Last Thirteen for Fourteen

If you’ve been looking for a meaningful opportunity to speak up for sex worker rights, now’s your chance:

Rhoda Grant MSP believes that “prostitution…is a form of sexual violence against women…[which] is inherently harmful and dehumanizing” and that “the majority of those who are involved in prostitution are unwilling participants.” She is proposing to make it illegal to purchase sex in Scotland…The public consultation on Rhoda Grant’s proposals for a new law to criminalise the purchase of sex is open until 14^th December. This is an open consultation – you do not have to be a resident of Scotland or the UK to respond…

That bears repeating: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A RESIDENT OF SCOTLAND to reply; responses from sex workers, clients, allies or just those who care about liberty are all welcome. You don’t even need to “out” yourself”:

…the consultation document asks specifically for answers to 8 questions – but you can also just write in with your opinion if you prefer. Your letter will be much more powerful if you can add your own views and experiences, although at Scot-PEP we have prepared some template letters here which you can use as a guideline…or simply print the letters off and sign them. You don’t need to use your real name, for example you can use your work name or an alias to send in your opinion…email your letter to: Rhoda.Grant.msp@scottish.parliament.uk…

The Public Eye

Yet another generally-balanced profile of several sex workers, including Audacia Ray of the Red Umbrella Project. Nobody could accuse it of “glamorizing” sex work because it’s a bit too enchanted with the lurid, but it does clearly present the position that “it is patronizing to view all sex workers as victims” and “choosing to become a sex worker is self-determination in its own right.”

Bottleneck

Some politicians just can’t resist cutting off their noses to spite their faces:

…Experts from 11 countries [who] have converged on Sydney…expressed dismay at the NSW government’s proposal to remove decriminalisation of sex work…The Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP) has apologised to the international visitors, who have come to Australia looking to pick up tips on best practice…

The Day of the Dead

In Taiwan, traditional funeral processions and festivals for the dead include strippers; this is a short trailer for Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan, a documentary made last year by anthropologist Marc L. Moskowitz.

Metaupdates

The Leading Players in the Field, Not in TW3 (#14)

Indian women’s studies professor Gopinath Arunima responds to Gloria Steinem’s April 2^nd lecture at Jawaharlal Nehru University:

…witnessing the saviour Gloria [lecturing about]…rescuing hapless victims of ‘prostitution’ trafficked, abject and forever victimized…set me thinking…of what it is about sex work that makes…feminists so deeply uncomfortable…the anti-trafficking lobby maintains that prostitution is violence against women, tantamount to rape and coercion, and requires abolition…in [her] impassioned plea…Ms. Steinem spoke…of her…crusade to rid the world of that heinous crime prostitution, akin to yet far worse than slavery…After all what could be worse than the bodily abuse that is prostitution (“they are inflicted with multiple penetrations, daily”) except possibly only the vicious stranglehold by traffickers…significantly the areas that sex workers identify as most damaging to them like societal opprobrium and police violence did not find any mention in Ms. Steinem’s talk…By compulsorily desexualising the prostitute and rendering her as perpetual victim, the feminist anti-trafficker can then validate her own position as saviour…

Wholesale Hypocrisy in TW3 (#25)

While US courts have repeatedly blocked governmental attempts to interfere with escort advertising, China has no such mechanism in place and Apple was happy to lick its boots for the almighty dollar:

…When a Mandarin speaking Siri first arrived in China this summer, she generally responded to the question “Where can I find hookers” by pointing people to a nearby location — usually a bar or a club…but a customer service rep for the company told China Daily that the company has…cut off Siri’s ability to help people find prostitutes, escorts and brothels…

Legal Is As Legal Does in TW3 (#32)

What’s a politician to do when a court ruling protects the civil rights of someone he’s bigoted against? Make a new law overruling the decision, of course!

Hotel and motel owners across [Queensland] will have the right to evict guests they believe are sex workers under new legislation put forward today by Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie. The amendments to the Anti-Discrimination Act will be debated next year and will likely be passed by the LNP-majority Parliament…Queensland Council for Civil Liberties spokesman Terry O’Gorman slammed the move, saying it…targeted a “particular class of people” and enabled arbitrary discrimination on the grounds of personal prejudice, the likes of which was seen during the 70s when some motel owners refused accommodation to indigenous Australians…

Something Rotten in Sweden in TW3 (#36)

We keep explaining that, despite prohibitionist claims, “end demand” campaigns actually hurt sex workers. However, it usually isn’t quite this direct:

…Illinois prostitution law…is among the harshest in the country…any repeat prostitution misdemeanor is eligible to be upgraded to a felony—one of two states allowing such upgrade after a single charge. On paper, sex workers are still not as likely to face felony charges as their patrons, who can be charged with a felony on their first offense…But…analysis of the…data shows that prostitution-related felonies are being levied almost exclusively against sex workers. During the past four years, they made up 97 percent of the 1,266 prostitution-related felony convictions in Cook County. And the number is growing: Felony convictions among sex workers increased by 68 percent between 2008 and 2011…

Follow Your Bliss
in TW3 (#37)

“…a TSA agent [named Paul Magnuson] has been arrested for the rape of a boy he was mentoring…the TSA attracts pedophiles. Several that we’ve documented. The TSA attracts criminals and those with personality disorders that exaggerate control and sociopathic tendencies…”

Little Boxes in TW3 (#40)

The winning bid for Catarina Migliorini’s virginity was $780,000 US, offered by a Japanese man identified only as “Natsu”. However, busybody control freaks just can’t resist trying to interfere with other people’s mutually-agreeable business deals:

Justin Sisely, the director who helped [Migliorini]…may face sex trafficking charges…Brazil’s attorney general, Joao Pedro de Saboia Bandeira de Mello Filho, ordered an “urgent investigation,” to look into the auction, which he equated to “people trafficking”…He also said Migliorini, who currently lives in Australia, should have her passport revoked and she should be returned to Brazil for “the exercise of prostitution”…

Backwards into the Future in TW3 (#41)

Pakachere Institute of Health and Development Communication (PIHDC) will launch a national wide Alliance of sex workers in Malawi on November 7, 2012…[to provide] a platform [for] sex workers [to] discuss issues affecting their…lives…Executive Director Simon Sikwese said the alliance is targeting all sex workers across the country and that it is one of the forums aimed at ensuring that sex workers rights are protected…

Shift in the Wind in TW3 (#43)

The reaction of the world’s most prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, to the UN’s call for decriminalization could be summed up in two words: “We agree”.

…Law can be used to protect and promote the human rights of sex workers…and…Legal empowerment of sex worker communities has been shown to be an effective approach in HIV prevention. However, law is often used to criminalise and penalise sex workers, resulting in their exposure to violence and discrimination from society in general, and law enforcement officers and health-care providers in particular. This situation limits access by sex workers to health and social services they need, and increases the risk of HIV for them and their clients…It is imperative to review and reform the current laws, ensuring that sex workers and sex worker organisations are fully and centrally engaged in improving legal environments to safeguard their human rights.

This Week in 2010 and 2011

Besides my two previous Halloween columns, All Hallows weeks have featured columns on both porn and horror movies, the War of the Worlds panic and another H.G. Wells comparison, deadbeats and death goddesses, Amsterdam, Election Day and Roman prostitutes. They also saw short articles on a Spanish city’s harassment of streetwalkers, Charlie Sheen’s meltdown, the FBI raid on Escorts.com, labioplasty, sexual satisfaction in marriage, a yogurt-tainting creep, “end demand” programs, an app for arrestees, Detroit’s persecution of parties and Florida’s criminalization of questions.

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That Was the Week That Was (#40)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, acting, Acting and Activism, activism, Africa, Australia, Backwards into the Future, BDSM, California, Catholicism, contraception, cops, Cosmopolitan, Counterfeit Comfort, dirty, disease, Down Under, drugs, end demand, ethics, Europe, Feet of Clay, Follow Your Bliss, Good Fantasy-Bad Reality, harm reduction, holidays, Hollywood, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Iran, Ireland, King of the Hill, Latin America, law, Little Boxes, Madonna/whore, Middle East, Misdirection, Missouri, My Body My Choice, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, neofeminism, porn, Presents, Profit from Panic, Prudish Pedants, psychology, sex offender registry, sex rays, South Africa, streetwalkers, tabula rasa, The Public Eye, Think of the Children!, TSA, video, virginity, yin and yang on October 6, 2012| 22 Comments »

[A] silly uberfeminist crusader…once called me a sex addict in a national newspaper…To some…[that] would be the gravest insult; to me it was the intellectual equivalent of claiming I am Father Christmas. – Brooke Magnanti

King of the Hill

The latest entry in the contest to claim bragging rights for “biggest sex trafficking hub in the United States”: “Reports from cities with federal Innocence Lost Task Forces lists Toledo [Ohio] as the third largest city for human trafficking and sex slavery…” Previous claimants include New York, Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Phoenix, Arizona; and the entire state of Tennessee.

Updates

Good Fantasy, Bad Reality

A southwest Missouri woman who says she shared her bed for years with her husband and his sex slave has decided she needs help defending herself against five federal charges. Marilyn Bagley… is charged with conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor trafficking, document servitude and use of an interstate facility to facilitate unlawful activity. She and her husband, Edward, are scheduled for trial in February.

My Body, My Choice

Note that prohibitionist “feminists” had no comment on this: “Former U.S. Congresswoman Linda Smith…[who] founded Shared Hope International…said that efforts to stop the sell [sic] and trade of minors in the sex industry should be an extension of the ‘pro-life’ cause.”

Acting and Activism

“President Obama is not alone in the fight to end sex trafficking. Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino…[is] starring in a new Hollywood film, Trade of Innocents, following a sex trafficking ring in Cambodia.” Thanks, CNN; had you not told me that Obama wasn’t alone in pandering to hysteria, I would never have known.

Backwards into the Future

Even some politicians in Zimbabwe have more respect for human rights than their American counterparts:

Zimbabwe Parliamentarians against HIV and AIDS…wants government to decriminalise commercial sex work…The Director of the Public Personalities against AIDS Trust, Tendai Westerhof, [also] condemned criminalisation of sex workers…“It is disappointing that the country still criminalises sex work…these people suffer a lot as a result of the discriminatory laws…They are raped and cannot report such abuses. As a result, they cannot access health services”…

Meanwhile, in South Africa, sex worker rights group SWEAT recently made a presentation in their parliament.

Down Under

Though the Australian cops in this story subscribe to fashionable “end demand” malarkey, some of them also admit that client persecution harms streetwalkers:

As a crackdown on kerb crawlers in St Kilda intensifies, street sex workers could be moving…to…Dandenong or Footscray, or [using smartphone] apps to meet clients in unsafe areas. Police tried unsuccessfully for decades to curb the trade by targeting workers…But halfway through the new two-year strategy, they noticed that the switch to targeting clients was having unwanted consequences. ”If we do push them out of the area, they won’t necessarily all leave the industry – and they’ll either adopt online or they’ll go and work in another location”…said [Senior Sergeant Brad Daly]. ”We might be creating things that we haven’t thought of yet”…lawyer Vanda Hamilton works with more than 50 legal and illegal sex workers and said…she feared many were being forced into troubling scenarios. She said the only way to ensure safety was to follow New South Wales’ example by legalising street-sex work…”You’re never going to stop sex work, you’re just going to push it so far underground that you can’t help people”…

Guess what, Brad? Virtually none of them are leaving the industry; they’re just going where you can’t see them.

Counterfeit Comfort

More of this, please (but where’s the ACLU?)

Less than a month after approving restrictions on Halloween activities by registered sex offenders, the city of Simi Valley has been sued…the…law bans Halloween displays and outside lighting every Oct. 31…[and] requires a sign on the front door in letters at least an inch tall: “No candy or treats at this residence.” Both the prohibition on decorations and the mandatory sign violate free speech rights, according to the lawsuit. A total of 119 registered sex offenders live in Simi Valley…None has been involved in crimes involving children on Halloween, according to police, who say they have no records of any such crime occurring in Simi Valley during Halloween trick-or-treating…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic

Dr. Brooke Magnanti on the newest, even stupider adjunct to “sex addiction”:

…The Daily Mail…claims [that young men] are addicted…[to] Viagra…[which unlike sex] is a pharmaceutical drug…[which] could [conceivably produce] physical dependency…[their “proof” consists of an]…interview [with] exactly one guy who uses Viagra a lot during sex…and…one…“psychosexual counselor”…who says this is “just a small sample of the problem”…Any studies…Any scientific research in any labs anywhere? Because I…don’t see any. At. All. Reading further down the article I see their real target: porn “addiction”…[and] sexually empowered women…How dare the ladies express interest and enjoyment in sex! Why won’t we just lie back and think of England like we’re supposed to!?…

Presents, Presents, Presents!

Mere days after I added it to my Amazon wishlist, a reader who prefers to remain anonymous sent me a copy of The Handmaid’s Tale, which I somehow never got around to reading before. Thank you so very much!

Profit from Panic

Hey, kids! Fight “human trafficking” for fun and profit! Implicate your neighbors! Persecute sex workers! Win big prizes! “To raise awareness of human trafficking…the Department of Justice and Equality in Dublin and the Department of Justice in Belfast will launch a photography and video competition for Third Level students…Research human trafficking and present your understanding of the issue through a photograph or short video…Winners of each category will receive…1^st prize €1,000…2^nd prize €500…3^rd prize €250.”

Prudish Pedants

Here’s an interesting article debunking the fallacious notion that some kinds of porn are more “positive” than others, that “erotica” is intrinsically different from porn and that men can be “taught” to reject the kind of porn they prefer in favor of the kind women prefer…argued from a marketing perspective rather than a traditionally psychological one. One important point: “Human minds are not passive and infinitely malleable receptacles prone to any form of socialization and learning. Successful marketers are well aware of this reality. Ideologues, including some academics in the ivory tower, have much to learn!”

Misdirection

Remember when controversy over contraception was only something we read about in history books or in reference to unusually conservative Catholics? I sure do. But over the last two decades that equine carcass has been dragged out of the glue factory and is once again being set upon by sex-hating control freaks trying to call attention away from the uncontrolled tumescence of government, national debt and the police state. The fact that the public obediently paid attention to this distraction has enabled lots of crazy people, including a group of nuns who produced an anti-contraception video chock full of propaganda because they obviously forgot that lying makes Baby Jesus cry:

Feet of Clay

Anne Elizabeth Moore and Melissa Gira Grant write:

This week Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn’s book Half The Sky premieres on PBS as a two-part miniseries, providing an opportunity for his audience to step into his well-worn white savior shoes…viewers will survey the lives of young women whom Kristof and WuDunn have chosen as the best ciphers for their agenda…to…“turn oppression into opportunity”…[by] proposing dubious schemes for advancing women’s rights—like arresting sex workers in order to “rescue” them from prostitution, or enthusiastically supporting the creation of “sweatshops” to accommodate sex workers and other women in the global south…

In response, Moore & Grant presented a “collective evaluation” of Nicholas Kristof, in other words excerpts from essays by Laura Agustín, Teju Cole and many others (including yours truly). The article is also mentioned in this Buzzfeed article, which shows the outcry is getting big enough for even the usually-oblivious media to notice.

Little Boxes

Catarina Migliorini says that cooking, driving, reading and every other human activity magically become different things if one only does them once:

…A 20-year-old Brazilian woman is auctioning off her virginity for a one-time tryst on an airplane…Catarina Migliorini says she’ll donate some of the money to provide housing for poor families in her native Santa Catarina…the Internet bidding [has already] reached $160,000…[and] ends Oct. 15…Migliorini insisted in a statement to the Sao Paulo daily Folha that…”For me, it’s not prostitution…when someone does something once in his or her life, this is not considered a profession. If you take a picture and it comes out good, you are not a photographer because of it”…The Daily Mail reported that Migliorini is [also]…part of an Australian film project called Virgins Wanted. She’s getting $20,000 and a 90-percent cut of the auction price…

The HuffPo comments are, of course, predictably disgusting. Meanwhile, Slate presents this series of portraits of female Iranian singers, who are legally barred from singing on stage for a general audiences because it is “immodest”. This is not a hypothetical reductio ad absurdum; it is the natural result of busybodies having control over women’s interactions with men and attempting to draw imaginary lines between “good” and “immoral” behavior.

The Public Eye

Rachel Aimee, one of the founders of the late $pread magazine, covers one specific aspect of the “sex workers as mothers” topic: deciding if, when and how to tell one’s children that one is a sex worker. She interviews an escort, a stripper, a dominatrix, a nude model and a sex educator, and though as you might expect she doesn’t reach a definitive conclusion, she presents a lot of worthwhile food for thought.

Metaupdates

Think of the Children! in TW3 (#11)

Another good, clean organization refuses charity from nasty, dirty whores:

A pornographic website has launched a fundraising effort for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, but the nonprofit says it wants nothing to do with the campaign…the…website said it would donate 1 cent for every 30 views of certain videos featuring breasts during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month…[but the Komen organization said] “We are not a partner, not accepting donations, and have asked them to stop using our name”…

Obviously, the Komen Foundation has not yet learned that they are supposed to care more about women’s health than about prudishness.

I Really Shouldn’t Even LOOK at an Issue of Cosmopolitan in TW3 (#25)

Priya-Alika Elias imagines what it would be like if Homer, Shakespeare, Joyce, Tolkien and others wrote Cosmo sex tips. Alas, she didn’t do Lovecraft, but it’s still pretty damned funny.

Follow Your Bliss in TW3 (#37)

The…TSA…didn’t bother to do a background check on a priest who had been defrocked for molesting girls before they gave him a job, which included doing pat downs on children at Philadelphia International Airport. The Philadelphia Inquirer…reported that…65-year-old Thomas Harkins…has since been promoted from the…job that required him to pat down children and now oversees screening operations for checked baggage.

This Week in 2011

I answered questions on NBA policies, Wikipedia, gravatars and epigrams, discussed busybody control freaks who use women’s dignity as an excuse for oppression, introduced you to a young courtesan named Su Xiaoxiao, reported on a complaint to the APA about Melissa Farley’s numerous ethical violations, and shared short items on marital sex issues, Gardasil, a Sydney mega-brothel, a pervert cop, BDSM persecution, Edmonton’s attempt to create a bottleneck, a claim that the average hooker is 13, cops’ armed robbery of a strip club, AHF and an essay by Catherine Hakim.

This Week in 2010

I introduced the concept of “sex rays”, talked about my boob job, explained how criminalization exposes whores to danger from real criminals, discussed the families of sex workers, presented brief biographies of the five victims of Jack the Ripper, looked at the archetypal “hooker with a heart of gold”, and shared short items about Congress’ first attempt to control the internet and two creepy men’s attempts to sexually violate women unnoticed.

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August Movies

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged archeofeminism, brothels, ethics, Europe, Greece, Hollywood, New Orleans, pimps, sisterhood, underage, virginity on August 6, 2012| 16 Comments »

…and then they all went to the seashore. – Ilya (Melina Mercouri)

We recently watched several movies, three of which were sent to me as gifts by readers (I picked up the last one on a double-feature disc at Big Lots for $3). If you’re interested in seeing other reviews I’ve done in the past two years, take a look at my filmography page.

Never On Sunday (1960) Ilya is the most popular whore in Piraeus, the port of Athens; she entertains the sailors by swimming near the ships, and every Sunday she has an open house with music and food for her friends and clients. She loves her life until she meets Homer Thrace, a moralistic American busybody who views her as a symbol for the decline of Greece and sets about trying to “save” her, with his efforts bankrolled by a local landlord who would love to see Ilya out of the business so she stops trying to organize the other whores in a rent strike against him. My description cannot possibly do this movie justice; you just have to see it for yourself. It’s one of those films that just makes you feel good, and unlike most American films on the subject it does not end with the “rescue” of the “fallen woman”, but rather a declaration that Ilya and her life are just fine as they are. Highly recommended!

New Orleans (1947) This movie is worth seeing for the performances by jazz greats including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, “Kid” Ory and Woody Herman, but it could’ve been so very much better than it was that I just can’t give it a good review. First of all, though the first half of the movie takes place in Storyville, the face and fate of the District is whitewashed (both figuratively and literally). The film tries to make it seem as though the District was mostly casinos and music clubs with prostitution as but one seedy component (that the other businesspeople look down on); in reality the music and bars revolved around the brothels. Here, the District is closed down by local pressure from “society” snobs; in reality, most New Orleanians were happy with the system and the pressure was externally applied by the prudish Secretary of the Navy. And though the story should’ve been about the inhabitants of Storyville it’s instead a sort of “Lady and the Tramp” thing where a Yankee opera singer falls in love with the “scoundrel” club owner. And though I love the song “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”, once or twice would’ve been enough.

Pretty Baby (1978) This movie, which presents a far more realistic view of life in Storyville than New Orleans does, is a perfect example of how much more repressive and anti-sexual our culture has become; there is simply no way it could be made in the United States today. 12-year-old Brooke Shields is Violet, the daughter of a prostitute who was born and raised in a brothel; though her virginity is auctioned off at the end of the first act it’s made clear that she was working before that, though “only for French” as her mother (Susan Sarandon) tells a client. And does this life “destroy” her or make her into a pathetic, empty husk of a girl? Nope; her life is normal to her, and her loss of virginity a rite of passage which is celebrated by the whores and the other kids alike. The beauty of the movie is that it is neither judgmental nor glamorized; director Louis Malle presents the events dispassionately and leaves the viewer to make his own judgments about the relative morality of the people and events depicted therein. All in all, a much better film than I expected, and if Brooke Shields had continued to develop her acting skills from the extraordinary promise and screen presence she displays here, she would’ve become a superstar rather than a relatively minor actress.

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) The 4^th Hammer Dracula film begins with an extended scene in which three respectable gentlemen visit an exclusive brothel and meet the disinherited son of a nobleman who dabbles in black magic, but appears to mostly use it for supporting himself by playing pimp. The three have a sort of secret club dedicated to experiencing every exciting, forbidden thing they can think of, and the pimp promises to show them a black mass but in reality tricks them into reviving Dracula from the powder into which he crumbled after his destruction at the end of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave. As in most of the Hammer Dracula outings, Christopher Lee has so few lines he probably memorized them in ten minutes and the plot is as full of holes as a Swiss cheese; furthermore, the ending of this one is almost completely inexplicable. But as usual, the sets and costumes are gorgeous, the women more so, and the sexual undertones are…well, if you like Hammer films, you already know.

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Q & A (May 2012)

Posted in Call types, Miscellaneous, Perception, Q & A, tagged brothels, condoms, courtesans, disease, drivers, drugs, ethics, fantasy, psychology, underage, virginity, yin and yang on May 31, 2012| 22 Comments »

Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked, and which doubtless don’t even arise. – Jean Baudrillard

One year ago today I answered questions about the word “whore”, working for donations rather than a direct fee and the personal romantic relationships of prostitutes; today’s column contains the answers to four new questions. If you have one for me, email me at maggiemcneill@earthlink.net and I’ll reply personally, usually within 24 hours.

When I go to brothels I don’t want the girl to think of me as just one of many, so I’d like to leave her a little present, not only the money she asks for her job. The natural choice would be flowers, but there’s no way to bring flowers without being noticed. So the second choice would be chocolate candies; do you think the girl will appreciate that? So maybe, when she gets home she’ll have some chocolate and remember me as one who treated her a bit better.

Most girls do indeed appreciate small gifts given at the end of the date; some girls even state on their websites the sort of thing they like best. Candy is good, so are music CDs and books (of the type she prefers) or even cash. It’s not so important what you give her, as much as the fact that you gave it; when given after the appointment it even assures her that you especially enjoyed her company. And yes, most girls will think of you more fondly for being a gentleman who does so; in my column “Presents” I wrote of clients who gave me such gifts, some of whom I clearly remember all these years later.

I’ve recently turned 21 and though I’ve been in bed with naked women I was unable to get an erection. I’m very worried about disease, but condoms reduce the sensation. Plus, I’m really confused about my sexuality; I love the way women look, but I’m also obsessed with crossdressers. Do prostitutes deal with young virgins much? Because I’d like to find a call girl to have another attempt at sex with, but I’m paranoid that she’ll mock me in some way; would an older escort be more understanding? And do you think seeing an escort will resolve my situation or make it worse?

I think a prostitute might definitely be worth a try; you needn’t worry about being made fun of, because we deal with many sorts of men and nervousness is very common; “The First Time” is about whores initiating virgins, so you might find it helpful. If you are attracted to mature women an older escort would probably be a good choice because she’ll be more experienced at relaxing you, but if you still have trouble with her, you really ought to consider trying a trans prostitute; if you have a fascination for them it could help you to relax and to be more excited. Once you are able to perform and climax once, I think a lot of your nervousness will evaporate and then you’ll be able to explore more freely. If you still have problems with genetic women but not with trans women, it may just be that’s the way you are, and there’s no shame in it; everyone’s different and you’re lucky to be living in these modern times when that’s not nearly as stigmatized as it used to be!

I do think you may be a bit overworried about disease; you’re wise to refuse unprotected intercourse, but if you choose a reputable escort the chances of getting a disease from unprotected oral sex are next to zero.

I’ve often had thoughts of providing escort services, or helping brothels or driving an escort around. I am just tired of the same old drag; as you discussed in “Amazingly Stupid Statements” nine out of ten people would easily leave their profession if they could, but due to money we ceaselessly do the same work each day with no end in sight. What I wouldn’t give just to leave this cube job and get out and meet new people!

It’s nearly impossible for a man to be an escort unless he’s gay; the fact is that in general men will pay for sex and women won’t. If you live in a country where escort services or brothels are legal, you could simply call one and ask if they have any driver-type positions for men, but if you live in a country where it’s illegal they’re unlikely to hire someone they don’t personally know. I do know a gentleman here in the United States (one of my regular readers) who started his own escort service by offering his favorite escort backing; he provided the cash and she provided the know-how and they became partners in an escort service. Of course, you have to get to know an escort pretty well before offering something like that!

Even if you don’t find new work in the sex industry, though, there are plenty of other ways to break out of the job you’re in; perhaps an employment counselor of some sort could help you, or you might talk to friends with companies of their own to ask for advice. Going into business for oneself isn’t easy and it carries considerable financial risk, but for many people it’s well worth it for the freedom.

About ten years ago I became involved with a prostitute who was very vulnerable and messed up. She was 20 when I met her, but had been in the trade since 13. Our relationship was unhealthy and codependent, and our interaction led us both more deeply into drug addiction. We had two children and have overcome our drug dependency, but no longer maintain a relationship so I have become very lonely and seek companionship from escorts. Most women I meet now are young and educated, and are seeking to supplement their income by being escorts; the boundaries are more defined than in my long-term relationship. I realize that I am escaping intimacy, and I feel a sense of guilt because I feel I am exploiting women. I guess I am looking for some perspective on this.

I think you’re letting your first relationship with a prostitute affect your perception of those you’re meeting now. 13 is definitely too young to be in the trade; a girl that age is just too impressionable, and many who start that early have a lot of problems even years later (as you discovered). I can understand your feeling guilty about being with her, but it seems to me from what you’re telling me that both of you were mutually harming each other, as is typical in unhealthy relationships. The fact that money changed hands is immaterial; the two of you would still have been wrong for one another even if you had met under non-commercial circumstances.

However, most escorts are not that way just as most people in any profession are not; as you said, the girls you’re seeing now are true professionals while your girlfriend was not. It is not exploitative to hire someone of either sex to perform a service as long as you deal fairly with that person; it only becomes exploitative if you try to cheat them or change the terms of your agreement without the other’s consent. Would you feel you were “exploiting” a woman you hired to clean your house or give you a massage? Of course not, and it’s not any different with a sex worker. Judging your current dealings with sex workers by your long-term relationship is not a valid comparison.

It’s certainly possible that you are using escorts to escape intimacy; if you were with your girlfriend long enough to have two children by her, it was a serious enough relationship that it may take a considerable time to get over. The fact that you weren’t right for each other does not change the fact that you were in love, and though separation was the wise course of action that doesn’t mean your heart will immediately follow in step with your mind. Eventually you will get over her, and then you will be ready for regular dating again. If you have no close friends to confide in, most good escorts will be happy to listen and even give advice, and if that doesn’t seem enough you might seek counseling. You mustn’t feel ashamed of your confusion and self-doubt; overcoming drug addiction takes great inner strength, so I’m sure you will be able to get past this difficult time as well.

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That Was the Week That Was (#19)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Q & A, tagged Africa, archeofeminism, Australia, Backward Turn Backward, bad customers, Because We Say So, brothels, censorship, Central Asia, China, condoms, cops, dirty, disease, East Asia, escort services, ethics, Europe, fantasy, FBI, Greece, harm reduction, hysteria, Illinois, India, internet, Latin America, law, lawheads, Little Boxes, Madonna/whore, Much Ado About Nothing, neofeminism, Nepal, rape, sex work is work, shame, Spain, sporting events, streetwalkers, The Camel's Nose, The First Time, The Immunity Syndrome, The Scarlet Letter, vaccines, violence vs. sex workers, virginity, Whorearchy, witchcraft on May 12, 2012| 26 Comments »

What most men desire is a virgin who is a whore. – Edward Dahlberg

Nine updates and a metaupdate.

Backward, Turn Backward (March 15^th, 2011)

Apparently, Zimbabwe is a colony of the Bizarro World, where whores force men to have sex with them for free:

Three sex workers accused of raping 17 men in Zimbabwe have been freed…[they] were arrested last year after…a police…search of their vehicle revealed more than 30 used condoms…men…said the women forced them to have sex while brandishing weapons. However, DNA evidence…disproved any link between the women and [their accusers]…[there was] widespread speculation that the sex workers were collecting semen for witchcraft.

You’ve gotta love the use of the modern term “sex worker” in that last line.

The First Time (March 20^th, 2011)

Victorian men used to pay big money for whores who could credibly be passed as virgins, and apparently that kink is still around:

…Sweet Girls Premium Escort…is offering a Chinese-born Melbourne high school student [for $12,000]…”She is a virgin, you can tell,” [said] a spokeswoman…”She goes to your place or hotel and you can spend two days together. She does not have a boyfriend and she wants to do it for the money,” she said. The escort agency recruits mostly Asian women aged 18 to 25…The website written in English and Chinese suggests working for the agency “to solve your financial problem within short time”…

The rest of the article is a chorus of “feminists” clucking a lot of nonsense about “financial desperation” (as if anyone ever worked for any other reason), “no woman should have to sell her body” (because a woman is nothing but sex so selling it is equal to selling her entire self) and “double standards” (like the one they’re upholding by suggesting a girl’s virginity is too precious to sell and should instead be pointlessly given away). I wish I had had the sense to sell my virginity; the experience probably would’ve been a lot more interesting than being clumsily mounted by some inexperienced boy in a dark room, and I would’ve had a lot fewer money worries the first few years of university.

The Scarlet Letter (March 29^th, 2011)

Greece has joined the parade of countries using extrajudicial punishment against hookers, and Cheryl Overs explains why this is a bad idea:

Greece has been in the news for prosecuting HIV positive sex workers and posting the women’s photographs on the Internet…public health prosecutions and “naming and shaming” of [HIV+] sex workers occurs…across the world, including in the UK and US. We are also observing a general increase in mandatory HIV testing…Successful HIV prevention is known to depend on a large portion of sex workers and clients using condoms and accessing…treatment …there is sufficient research and experience to compare the results of “rights based” approaches with heavy handed tactics like those used in Greece that have been shown to drive sex industries underground…repeatedly testing a few “legal” sex workers while alienating “illegal” sex workers from services and testing them forcibly in the wake of sporadic raids is not good public health…

Simply put, if hookers know they’ll be shamed and prosecuted for turning up positive, they simply won’t get tested. And if legal workers are forcibly tested, they’ll simply work illegally instead. This isn’t rocket science, but “authorities” seem completely unable to comprehend it.

Because We Say So (June 8^th, 2011)

The crusade to impose Western cultural norms on Nepal has turned low-caste people into persecuted criminals:

…[Members of] the Badi, a Hindu caste that has for centuries been associated with entertainment and prostitution…live in the western districts of Nepal but…work in…cities…including Kathmandu, Mumbai and New Delhi. Four years ago the Nepal government banned the Badis from pursuing their traditional occupation…[and] local communities…[have] used violent methods to compel the Badis to give up their sole means of livelihood…”We didn’t want to continue with prostitution but the government has failed to fulfill its promises of rehabilitation,” says Bishal Nepali, husband of a Badi sex worker. The government did announce a package that included housing, income generation activities and scholarships…but these were never implemented…Nepali society gives little encouragement to Badi girls to pursue other professions and those among them who enter public schools are “often severely harassed by high caste students”…Badis are not allowed to run legitimate businesses. “People fear to buy anything from my shop because they fear the villagers,” says Dinesh Nepali, a Badi male who runs a small shop selling cigarettes, vegetables and soft drinks. “How can we survive like this?”…In 2007, Badi activists threatened to march naked through Kathmandu to embarrass the government into implementing the court-ordered rehabilitation, but that brought nothing except more promises…

September Q & A (September 30^th, 2011)

In response to a questioner who defined using every minute of a call in penetration as “getting what he paid for”, I replied: “…the price doesn’t assume that; it’s like going into a restaurant and complaining because every square centimeter of the plate isn’t covered in food. Though I usually gave a price break for multiple hours, I didn’t do so if I knew the client was doing cocaine because the work of attending to him was much more difficult; the same thing could be said of a client who wants 60 full minutes of pumping. Most girls even give a price break for dinner-date type calls because they’re much easier per hour than calls spent entirely in bed.” Well, here’s a man who apparently had the same attitude as the questioner, but was far less civilized about it:

A 58-year-old Elgin [Illinois] man…tried to strangle a prostitute in a motel room after the woman refused additional sex after more than 30 encounters over a four-day period. Kim P. Brandmire was charged with aggravated battery…[the] woman said the two had rented a room at the motel Thursday and…when she refused to have sex Sunday…Brandmire…choked her…The woman was charged with prostitution…

The realization that it’s sick and sadistic to charge a crime victim with a crime herself never dawns in the lawhead mind.

The Immunity Syndrome (March 5^th, 2012)

Back in March I mentioned in passing that gonorrhea was rapidly becoming immune to all antibiotics; here’s an article from Scientific American which goes into more detail:

…Last summer…the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…demonstrated that up to 1.4 percent of 5,900 gonorrhea bacterial samples from around the U.S. had diminished susceptibility to cephalosporins…gonorrhea…is the second-most reported infectious disease in the U.S., with more than 600,000 new cases a year…if untreated, it can cause widespread organ damage…and infertility…Gonorrhea…[can borrow] DNA from other bacteria to construct new…defenses. It steadily gained resistance…first the penicillins in the 1960s, then the tetracyclines in the 1980s, and…fluoroquinolones…in the 1990s. By 2000 the only class of drugs that could provide [the inexpensive, effective, single-dose cure that] public health strategies rely on…was the cephalosporins. [But] cephalosporin resistance has been emerging in Japan, and moving east and west from there, for at least a decade…Efforts to control STDs may have inadvertently accelerated the spread of resistance. For years standard practice has been to quickly identify an infection, dole out the appropriate treatment and then move on to the next patient. If symptoms return, the assumption has been that the patient was reinfected. Experts now say that such patients may in fact have harbored resistant bacteria that were never killed in the first place—bacteria that the patients possibly spread to others…so far attempts to create a vaccine against gonorrhea have failed…

Even if a vaccine is eventually developed it won’t help the US, where adolescents – the carriers of 35% of all STIs – will certainly be blocked from receiving it by the same parental insanity which already prevents their vaccination against HPV.

Much Ado About Nothing (April 18^th, 2012)

Dania Suarez, the escort Agent Arthur Huntington cheated, was interviewed on the Today show in Madrid:

…the alleged escort at the center of the Secret Service scandal… [described] the…agents…as “stupid,” “idiots”…Dania Londono Suarez told NBC that the Secret Service agents seemed accustomed to soliciting women, saying the three men who approached her were not shy, drinking vodka “like it was water”…U.S. investigators have yet to talk with the single mother after she says she fled Colombia fearing for her life.

Note the dysphemism “alleged”, as though prostitution were criminal (which it isn’t in Colombia); if you don’t understand what Suarez was afraid of, you might want to read my column on Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Meanwhile, “Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby…stated in a May 6 memo that troops in Chicago during the [NATO] summit that begins May 20 will not ‘solicit prostitutes or engage in conduct which is unprofessional or unbecoming of a member of the armed forces.’ One military officer called the restrictions ‘an overreaction to recent Secret Service misconduct in Colombia’.”

Hiring whores is “unbecoming” to a soldier? Pardon me while I die laughing.

Little Boxes (April 29^th, 2012)

Dr. Marty Klein published a superb essay entitled “Why Janet Jackson’s Nipple Won’t Go Away”:

You may recall that way back in 2004, Janet Jackson’s right nipple was unexpectedly exposed for exactly one-half second during the Super Bowl halftime show. Grown men cried. Women fainted. Children were driven mad by the brown protuberance. Not surprisingly, the stock market crashed only four years later, soon followed by the meltdown of Japan’s nuclear reactors. To punish the TV network on which the travesty occurred, the…FCC levied enormous fines…Since then, the FCC and our federal courts have been going back and forth in an attempt to design a TV censorship policy that doesn’t involve, um, censorship…So why are two successive presidencies…obsessed with a half-second of nipple? Why are millions more of your tax dollars about to be spent attempting to punish CBS for what they failed to prevent over 8 years ago?…It’s a special kind of politics: coding certain phenomena as sexual…makes them…subject to public control. There is virtually no private sexual behavior in America…the “public-izing” of sex is a key weapon in the War On Sex…

One has to wonder: Do American politicians want to make the US the laughingstock of the entire world, or do they really not comprehend that’s what they’re doing?

Whorearchy (May 10^th, 2012)

In a perfect example of how “authorities” draw lines to divide whores from one another, Spain continues to turn the screws on streetwalkers so as to make it increasingly harder for them to make a living, while brothels are doing fine:

Indignant prostitutes take to the streets in Barcelona, angry at the city’s plans to ban street prostitution. Unemployment in [Spain] has reached 23 percent, and sex workers say this is the only way they can earn a living…the police make their lives difficult as it is and…tightening the law will make it even harder to feed a family. But…[brothels have] been making bigger profits every year since the crisis hit…

Metaupdates

The Camel’s Nose in TW3 (#16) (April 21^st, 2012)

Even if Obama really does keep his promise to veto CISPA, there’s already a contingency plan in the works:

The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms…to build in backdoors for government surveillance…FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans…The FBI [wants to force] social-networking Web sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging, and…e-mail [to] alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly…The FBI’s proposal would amend a 1994 law, called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, that currently applies only to telecommunications providers…there are [also] indications that the [FCC] is considering reinterpreting CALEA to demand that products that allow video or voice chat over the Internet — from Skype to Google Hangouts to Xbox Live — include surveillance backdoors to help the FBI…

One Year Ago Today

“A War for Peace” turns a critical eye on the antics of Femen, the Ukranian feminist group known for topless protests.

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Stranger Than Fiction

Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, tagged BDSM, bisexuality, New Orleans, psychology, virginity, yin and yang on October 22, 2011| 31 Comments »

Truth would quickly cease to become stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it. – H.L. Mencken

In my column of September 18^th I told y’all about Ralph, who “was one of the most singularly unattractive people it’s ever been my misfortune to meet; he had odd, asymmetrical features, a serious case of acne, greasy hair, terrible posture, a high, shrill voice, pungent body odor and irritating mannerisms. As if that weren’t enough, he wore ill-fitting and unfashionable clothes and was wont to show off his high mathematical intelligence.” He was a virgin and asked me for advice on how to get girls to like him, but wouldn’t accept anything I had to say! Several readers expressed an interest in knowing the rest of Ralph’s story, and I promised to tell it sometime this month; since one year ago today I published my column about Linda and her many idiosyncrasies, I figured it was as good a day as any to introduce you to several more eccentric New Orleans characters. I promise that, with the exception of the obligatory name changes and a few details edited so as to simplify what would otherwise be an incredibly lengthy and complicated story, what follows is the absolute and unvarnished truth; one simply can’t make stuff like this up!

As I reported previously, all my friends got to know Ralph, and he especially grew to admire my cousin Jeff, of whom I’ve written many times. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that after rejecting my counsel, Ralph decided to ask Jeff…who promptly suggested he ask me instead. Ralph explained that he had asked me, and when Jeff asked what I had told him and received the answer, he told Ralph that it all sounded like good advice to him. Jeff didn’t tell me how Ralph reacted to that, but one can imagine. Still, it seems to have sunk in a little; his hair soon became noticeably less greasy and more neatly groomed, and he must’ve found an anti-perspirant which better agreed with his body chemistry. But other than that, he was still the same nigh-hopeless case and his complaints about his virginity grew ever-bolder until everyone in our circle was sick of hearing it. Then one day, Jeff and I had a conversation which went something like this:

“What are we going to do about Ralph?” he asked.

“We?” I replied. “Please don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking!”

“Well, he wouldn’t be the first mercy fuck you’ve given.”

“Yes, but…you don’t understand. It won’t stop with just sex; he’ll get attached, and I’ll never be able to get rid of him. There’s no such thing as ‘no strings’ with needy guys like that.”

He realized I was right, but a couple of days later I mentioned the conversation to Philippa and to my surprise, she volunteered to break him in. I asked if she was sure, and reminded her of his clinginess, but she pointed out that her being ten years older than him, a divorced mother and a grad student who lived out in Kenner would make him less likely to attach to her than to me. The theory was good, but neither of us had allowed for Ralph’s self-defeating obstinacy; rather than gratefully accepting her kindness, he insisted on trying to negotiate MSOG and multiple hours! This of course infuriated Philippa and she withdrew the offer. Next, one of Jeff’s friends set Ralph up with a “sure thing” from the friend’s home town in Mississippi; he did go out with the girl, but (for some reason which nobody could adequately explain to me) that didn’t work out, either. Then one of my high-school girlfriends met him and decided to turn him into a “project”…also to no avail, though I think that was more her fault than his because she was notoriously flaky.

By this point, I had left the dorm for an apartment of my own and turned my very first trick; it was the spring of 1985 and one lovely Friday afternoon I was over at Jeff’s (there were no classes at UNO after noon on Fridays) when there was a knock at the door. I couldn’t believe what I saw when I opened it; there was Ralph, soaking wet and reeking of beer, with a giggling blonde hanging on his arm. He asked Jeff if he could take a shower and borrow a change of clothes, explaining that the girl (whom I‘ll call Lily) had spilled beer on him at an engineering department keg party (Jeff lived only half a block off campus, but Ralph lived miles away with his parents). Before too long he was clean and they departed, and I said to Jeff, “You’re not going to believe this, but that girl is sweet on Ralph.”

“She told you that?”

“She didn’t need to. Wasn’t it obvious?”

He had to admit she seemed remarkably affectionate toward Ralph, but he could scarcely credit his impression because this girl was seriously hot. I am not exaggerating; she had lovely legs, flawless white skin, a tiny waist, a beautifully-shaped bottom and enormous natural mammae. Her face wasn’t gorgeous but it was pretty enough considering everything else, and she certainly seemed fun-loving if a trifle indiscreet. I was certain she could’ve had any man in the science or engineering departments she had wanted…but for some reason she wanted Ralph.

Soon they were doing everything together, and though I quickly discerned that she was using him to get away from an abusive boyfriend, that hardly seemed to matter because she was giving him sex, and quite a lot of it as I understand. She made no secret of being a masochistic submissive, and that made sense in light of my impression that she had chosen Ralph not in spite of his repellent characteristics but rather because of them (though his clothing and complexion dramatically improved under her influence). It could’ve been a match made in heaven, except for one thing: as time rolled by, it became increasingly obvious that Lily was a psycho. Her friendly, even giddy façade soon peeled away to reveal a narcissistic, obsessive, jealous, amoral, thoroughly dishonest and possibly delusional bitch. She was also incredibly manipulative; I was not yet familiar with the term “topping from the bottom” but she sure taught me what it meant as she played Ralph like a violin. Within months she had managed to get him thrown out of his parents’ house, and because Jeff had a spare bedroom he temporarily took them in until they could find a place of their own.

By this point I found Lily repulsive; her horrible personality had destroyed any attraction I had felt to her, and her face was now always so twisted with anger and malice toward me (presumably because I was another beautiful girl Ralph liked) that I almost forgot I had ever seen her as pretty. But one afternoon during their brief stay at Jeff’s I learned a lesson I have never forgotten about the effect of personality on beauty. I had come over on some errand, and found her asleep on the living room couch; to my amazement, she had the face of an angel. In slumber, she was untroubled by whatever demons drove her while she was awake, and her face relaxed into its natural and lovely contours. But when she was awake that same face was twisted by her poisonous emotions into an ugly mask; the transformation was as profound as something one might see in a horror movie. To this day I remember that moment every time some feminist whines that it’s better to be valued for intelligence than beauty.

There’s not much left to tell; Lily led Ralph from bad to worse. He was expelled from UNO for stealing expensive lab equipment (to pay Lily’s bills), and she drove a wedge between him and his friends and family; the two of them even spread nasty rumors about people who had never offered them anything but kindness. A couple of years later I heard through the grapevine that they were still together and had good jobs, and then sometime in the early ‘90s Frank and Olivia (Frank had met Ralph before) ran into them at a Halloween party thrown by a certain famous New Orleans horror writer; Frank said that though they didn’t mention me, they were still badmouthing Jeff many years after having last seen him. This didn’t really shock me because it was obvious from early on that Ralph was starting to take on Lily’s personality characteristics; as I explained their story to Jack (whom I hadn’t met until about a year after Ralph’s expulsion), I remembered something that Jeff used to say about him: “Ralph is a minor character in his own life.”

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Droit du Seigneur

Posted in Current Events, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged bad customers, condoms, cops, drivers, Droit du Seigneur, drugs, escort services, fantasy, Florida, hysteria, language, law, marriage, New Mexico, New York, pimps, psychology, rape, underage, violence vs. sex workers, virginity on August 6, 2011| 18 Comments »

So easily do weak men put in high positions turn villains. – Dmitry Pisarev

Since mammals first evolved, alpha males of many species have collected harems for themselves and kept lower-status males from mating. Humans are no exception; DNA studies show that though 80% of female humans who have ever lived have descendants, only 40% of males do. In other words, a minority of males mates with a majority of females, and though modern monogamous systems have evened that number out somewhat they still are by no means equal; nearly every woman eventually has at least one child by somebody, but a large percentage of men never father children. In a state of nature this was the natural result of women being drawn to strong, dominant, successful men, but as civilization developed men in positions of power developed schemes for mating with as many women as possible, even if their personal characteristics were insufficient to draw those women to them. Money, fame and political power have always drawn women regardless of what the possessors of those attractants might be like, but for some unscrupulous overlords even that might not be enough. There is a persistent legend (going back at least to the Epic of Gilgamesh) that some tyrants would actually demand the right to deflower all of the virgins in their realm prior to their husbands’ being allowed access to them; in Europe this concept was called jus primae noctis or droit du seigneur, and though the occasional despot may have been able to get away with it for a while, it is extremely unlikely that the custom was ever codified into law or widely practiced because people can only be pushed so far. Every source which mentions the custom, even Gilgamesh, describes it negatively as something practiced in the past or by a foreign king.

But though it is unlikely that any man in a position of power ever enjoyed the kind of unfettered access to every female in sight described by the legends, that doesn’t stop males from trying it; real sexual harassment (as opposed to the whiny hurt-feelings variety maladjusted or maladjusted women accuse their peers of) results from men attempting to extract sexual favors from the women under them, and as we have discussed before cops are well-known for taking what they want from women, especially if those women are whores living under criminalization regimes. It is even possible that the strange aversion cops have for condoms (discussed in my column of one year ago today) may derive in part from this primitive impulse, a sort of unconscious “how dare she attempt to stop me from impregnating her?” reaction. Nor are cops the only members of the so-called “justice system” who believe they have the right to rape women, as revealed in this July 20^th story from the Huffington Post:

Albuquerque’s chief criminal judge [Pat Murdoch] was arrested on charges he raped a prostitute…the complaint against him says a detective first heard about the reported attack and the recording from an informant, who helped the investigator buy the video on DVD for $400. Police then questioned the woman, who said Murdoch solicited her on a prostitution website…she met with the judge about eight times and he paid her about $200 each time…[but] he forced himself on her during one visit, and she returned and secretly recorded a second forced encounter…after making the recording, she began to worry about her safety because when she posed hypothetical situations to the judge about a woman making allegations against him, he replied he would use police and his connections to take care of the situation…Murdoch…sentenced an Albuquerque man to 20 years in prison earlier this year for promoting prostitution, extortion and racketeering…

How dare someone outside the power elite “promote prostitution” and threaten people! No wonder the judge sentenced him to 20 years; we can’t have the proles getting the idea they can indulge themselves in buying sex or just taking it when that’s a privilege reserved for the Lords of the Earth. Of course, not all bureaucrats are equal; Judge Murdoch’s victim wouldn’t have had a prayer of getting him arrested had she not managed to film him exercising his judicial privilege, but cops and petty school board employees lack the exalted status of chief judges and can therefore be brought down by mere accusations. Of course, it kind of helps that these geniuses chose to prey on legal minors in the midst of a “child sex trafficking” witch hunt:

A Florida cop and a school bus monitor were arrested Thursday [July 14^th] in connection with a child prostitution ring…police arrested 27-year-old school bus attendant Paul Rosoan Aaron for allegedly forcing two young teens into prostitution, at least one of whom he solicited while on the job…25-year-old Haines City police officer Demetrius Lamar Condry [is accused of being] one of Aaron’s clients. He, too, is now facing charges. Condry allegedly…received oral sex from the then-15-year-old victim [while still in uniform with his police radio buzzing], the teen reported in her statement to investigators. Aaron typically charged between $60 and $100 for similar encounters, though Condry appears to have been given a free pass in exchange for protection from the law…The girl told police she “felt like a sex slave” throughout the seven-month ordeal. A second victim, then 16, said in court documents that Aaron approached her on the school bus after learning she danced in…[a] gentlemen’s club. The teen said he promised her better work, luring her and the other victim to his house, where he took down their social security numbers and other identifying information and threatened to have them arrested if they tried to leave…

Among other things, Aaron was charged with two counts of sex trafficking, which somehow seems like a really tasteless pun. Of course, some whores are too expensive for cops and their ilk to afford, too well-organized to be blackmailed and too experienced to be fooled, in which case the “justice system” makes sure that they pay dearly for excluding the bullies:

Seventeen people were indicted on Wednesday [July 20^th] on charges of running a high-end prostitution ring that catered to Wall Street clients who often spent more than $10,000 in a night…the ring pulled in more than $7 million over three years, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said at a news conference. “The business of high-end prostitution is enormously profitable,” Hynes said. The prostitution service, named High Class NY, was run 24 hours a day out of an office in Brooklyn and charged from $400 to $3,600 an hour for its services, according to the 144-count indictment. It also provided customers with cocaine and other narcotics, the indictment said. Hynes said clients often spent in excess of $10,000 in a single night. They were “all high-end customers coming from the financial markets. People with nothing but money,” he said.

Police said the business was extremely sophisticated, running several escort websites and using dummy corporations with misleading names and codes during business-related phone calls. High Class NY even had a law firm draw up employment contracts for its prostitutes, who described themselves as models and fraudulently agreed to refrain from sexual contact with clients, police said. “They were on the high-end of sophistication,” said Vice Detective Joe Panico. Among those indicted were High Class NY owner Mikhail Yampolsky and his wife Bronislava, who allegedly used the proceeds from their business to finance expensive trips to Atlantic City and luxury car purchases, Hynes said. Also indicted were Yampolsky’s son Alexander, step-son Jonathan, 11 managers and supervisors and two investors, Efim Gorelik and Yakov Maystrovich, he said. Each of the investors had put $700,000 into High Class NY and were being paid back with interest, he said. Each of those indicted faces the possibility of 25 years in prison if convicted. Two prostitutes face separate indictments on prostitution and drug charges.

Remember, “ring” is just a dysphemism for “suppressed business”; this was a large escort service, nothing more. All this nonsense about “sophistication” is just hot air the cops puff themselves up with to make their “achievement” seem bigger than it is; independent contractor agreements are used by the majority of services, having more than one website isn’t unusual either, and “code” is a term pompous cops use for jargon like “GFE” or “BBBJ”. Actually, what got these folks busted was their extremely unsophisticated decision to sell drugs as part of their business; that instantly turned it into a federal case with the possibility of decades-long sentences rather than a tough-to-prove pandering lawsuit which wouldn’t likely produce very long sentences. Escort busts, and to a large extent prostitution laws themselves, are popular with control freaks because they can’t stand the idea of women choosing whom they will have sex with for their own reasons; cops and politicians believe they should be able to have any woman they want, and free-willed whores are a threat to their fantasies of droit du seigneur.

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Wild Child

Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, tagged anecdote, archeofeminism, bisexuality, dating, dirty, psychology, virginity, yin and yang on May 7, 2011| 16 Comments »

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. – Oscar Wilde

In the commentary following my column of April 7^th, Sexhysteria made the statement “Boys see the violation of rules as a heroic act of independence.” And Andrea replied,

Girls do, too. Our acts are just a little different. Swiping that first tube of lipstick comes to mind. How many of us were GIVEN our first “not appropriate” shade (my was black)? We had to use our babysitting money or steal it, and wipe away every trace before we got back home.

First push-up bra?
First thong?
First cigarette (thankfully, not a popular thing to do anymore)?
First copy of the Story of O?

I don’t think a rebellious heart is gender specific, but how we express it undoubtedly is.

I saw the potential for an interesting discussion in that comment, and since many of my posts have been rather heavy of late I thought a lighter one might be nice. I’ve written about my childhood before and I don’t think I need to tell anyone that rebelliousness and unconventionality are bred deep in my bones, but Andrea’s post inspired me to talk about some of my adolescent rebellions.

As I’ve said before, my mother never quite knew what to do with me; in addition to my precociousness and independence I was a strange, moody child, prone to visions and flashes of insight which quite disturbed her. I was the product of a brief flirtation with unconventionality in her early twenties, and I think she unconsciously viewed me as a sort of “punishment” for that flirtation. I was never, ever maltreated nor denied any needs, and in fact my parents spent more on my secondary education than on that of any of my siblings. But my mother seemed bound and determined to control my natural free-spiritedness and to delay my sexual maturation for as long as possible. When I started my period a few months after my tenth birthday, she seemed almost angry about it; she asked if I knew what it was about and when I replied in the affirmative, gave me a box of pads and told me to read the directions.

But though she couldn’t hold back the natural developments, she sure could try to stop the social ones. For example, I was forbidden to shave my legs despite the fact that, as I’ve written before, I have the terrible combination of dark hair and translucently fair skin. The first few months of 9^th grade were thus an ordeal of mortification, and soon after my 13^th birthday I decided I was going to shave my legs whether my mother liked it or not. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing and though I mostly managed OK, I somehow gashed one of my ankles (with a safety razor yet) and could not stop the bleeding for a frighteningly long time (the scar was visible for years afterward). I’m not sure when she realized I was doing it, because nothing was said; she just started buying more disposable razors.

Makeup was another forbidden fruit; due to chronically chapped lips I was allowed clear lip gloss from the age of 12, and when (at about 14) I started crying and fussing and carrying on about pimples she relented enough to allow concealer and powder, but colored lipstick, eye shadow and such were absolutely off-limits. This actually worked out all right because I had been blessed with spectacularly long eyelashes and a lovely natural coloring which made everyday makeup unnecessary; years later I actually did most of my calls with no makeup at all because I didn’t need it. Still, I was pretty excited when, after I turned 16, I was finally allowed to wear real makeup for the dates I was finally allowed to go on. Of course, I really hadn’t waited for permission; I had already learned how to “do my face” years before from less-restricted friends, and in fact had often made up when going places with those friends (though I was always careful to wash my face thoroughly before coming home).

And though I guess my mother thought she was “protecting” me from sex by not letting me date until 16 (and even then restricting me to group dates for chaperoned events), she couldn’t stop me any more than prohibitionist laws stop prostitution. As I’ve told before I lost my virginity on my 15^th birthday to an 18-year-old LSU freshman, and by the time I had my first official “date” with a boy I was already two months into my first lesbian relationship. Nor had the complete lack of sexual information from her done anything to stop my learning about the “normal” stuff from library books and the “kinky” stuff from various sources, including a shoplifted copy of Xaviera’s Fantastic Sex (I hated doing it but I knew the clerk wouldn’t let me buy it), a borrowed copy of The Happy Hooker and a garage-sale copy of My Secret Garden (see bibliography for both). My copy of Story of O (which I still own) was obtained neither rebelliously nor secretly, though; I bought it in the UNO bookstore a few months after my 17^th birthday.

There were a host of other small rebellions, many of them absurd or stupid when considered through adult eyes but important to me at the time. Sneaking into R-rated movies at the age of 14 and 15, going out for walks late at night after everyone was asleep, wiring up a kill switch on my ancient black and white Motorola TV set so as to watch reruns of The Twilight Zone which aired after my bedtime (10 PM on school nights until I left home), and innumerable curfew violations which nobody recognized as such because I was a university student and looked about 25 even when I was 16 and 17.

Adolescent rebellion is born from an impatience with arbitrarily-imposed restrictions and does not necessarily end at 18 (or 21 nowadays) because parents don’t always automatically recognize those landmarks. Though I moved out of the house for good several months before my 17^th birthday my mother still attempted to re-establish control every time she saw me, so of course I had to resist and rebel in any way I could. Judging by her attempt to restrict my employment choices at the age of 30 she never did accept that I had grown up, but most everyone else did; a family friend once said “Maggie was born adult”, and I still remember the day I finally knew most of the women in my family felt the same way. I guess I was about 20 and there was an extended-family picnic; my father’s sister (who had a strong impish streak herself) had made a dessert popular at that time called “Better Than Sex Cake”, and as I took my very first bite she asked loudly, “So what do you think, Maggie? Is it really better than sex?” Instantly all the older women grew quiet, awaiting my answer; I took my time chewing and swallowing, then said, “it depends on who with.” The sincere laughter and total lack of censure let me know with certainty that I had been accepted into the circle of adult women.

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April Updates

Posted in Current Events, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged anecdote, Check Your Premises, cops, dirty, Egypt, ethics, How Old is Oldest?, hysteria, It's a Start, Lack of Evidence, law, Madonna/whore, Massachusetts, New Orleans, pimps, psychology, stereotypes, Think of the Children!, underage, virginity on April 5, 2011| 32 Comments »

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies are. – Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s time once again (though relatively early this month) for my monthly collection of articles which hearken back to previous columns.

Think of the Children! (September 30^th)

The considerable hysteria around child sexual abuse, which has grown to the proportions of a full-fledged witch hunt in which thousands of lives have been ruined, rests upon the belief that any sexual contact between two humans, at least one of whom is under the local age of consent, is inherently and devastatingly harmful, no matter what the circumstances. Yet, “playing doctor” was at one time very common among children, even children separated by a few years, and I’m not aware of any claims that practically the entire human race existed in a permanent traumatized state prior to the genesis of sex abuse hysteria in the 1980s. I’m not talking about rape or exploitative incest (which can be harmful indeed), but rather contact between children who are friends or voluntary contact between adolescents and adults. At one time it was common for girls of 14 or 15 to marry men in their 30s; are we to believe they were all irreversibly traumatized by it? And frankly, I’m highly skeptical of currently-fashionable claims that the average teenage boy considers being seduced by an adult woman anything other than fantastically good luck. What if most of the trauma associated with sexuality involving minors derives not from some mystical property of sex itself, but from the considerable fuss adults make over it when it is discovered (including endless invasive and uncomfortable interviews with creepy strangers asking highly personal questions), not to mention guilt over getting someone else in trouble?

Psychologists Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch and Robert Bauserman asked those questions, and in 1998 published a meta-analysis of 59 child abuse studies which found that, when physical abuse and other such factors were controlled for, university students who had experienced what authorities termed “child sexual abuse” (CSA) reported that “negative effects were neither pervasive nor typically intense, and that men reacted much less negatively than women. Basic beliefs about CSA in the general population were not supported.” But did the therapeutic and law enforcement communities breathe a collective sigh of relief upon hearing the good news that most of those kids weren’t as badly hurt by this “secret epidemic” as previously thought? Of course not! Therapists were unhappy at the prospect of a lucrative income stream being interrupted, and cops NEVER welcome the removal of excuses for harassing, controlling and destroying people. For their pains, the good doctors were widely vilified and even subjected to a vote of censure by the United States Congress, and since then the paper has been largely ignored except for misuse by child molesters attempting to defend their disgusting actions in court. This is particularly sad because, though child sexual abuse is relatively rare in comparison with physical abuse (beatings, etc), the sexual abuse gets vastly more money and attention due to its lurid appeal; the common problem with serious (sometimes fatal) consequences is therefore pushed aside in favor of a far less common one with less serious consequences. And that’s a damned tragedy.

Lack of Evidence (December 16^th)

I’ve often pointed out that as long as prostitution is criminal not even amateurs are safe because, since prostitution is defined by its motive, no actual evidence of the “crime” is possible and cops are allowed to claim almost anything as “evidence” of it. Well, a particularly horrible example came to light on March 23^rd as Amnesty International reported that Egyptian women arrested in last month’s protests were subjected to “virginity tests” and told that any who “failed” them would be charged with prostitution. Would these women have still been tortured if prostitution were legal in Egypt? Undoubtedly, but it would have been impossible to pass off a sort of medical rape as an “evidence-gathering” procedure for any other “crime”.

It’s a Start (December 30^th)

It looks like New Orleans may really be serious about curtailing its long tradition of harassing prostitutes; according to a March 25^th report by WDSU-TV, the NOPD fired two cops for arresting women on a charge of “loitering for the purpose of prostitution”:

The New Orleans Police Department terminated officers Beau Gast and Thomas McMasters on Friday after an administrative investigation…[which] revealed that both men falsified records and knowingly arrested two women on prostitution charges without a warrant…[both] admitted that they didn’t check to see if either of the women had a prior conviction of prostitution solicitation within the previous year…That check is required by law to arrest anyone on prostitution loitering charges. Both men said they were aware of the law, but they did not abide by it. The charges…include…false imprisonment, neglect of duty, failing to take appropriate and necessary police action and creating false and inaccurate reports. McMasters had been with the force for 13 years and Gast became an officer in 2007, NOPD said.

Thanks to regular reader Joyce for calling the story to my attention.

Check Your Premises (March 10^th)

Witch-hunting is apparently still a popular pastime in Salem, Massachusetts, where a journalist was recently convicted of “victimizing” two prostitutes by employing them in his low-end escort service. The following is paraphrased from a story which appeared in the Eagle-Tribune on March 19^th and was sent to me by regular reader Alex:

Former sportswriter Kevin Provencher, 52, was sentenced to 2½ years in jail after he pled guilty in Salem Superior Court to running a “prostitution ring” out of hotels in Andover, Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. Assistant District Attorney Melissa Woodard accused Provencher of “taking” half of his employees’ earnings and charging them for the hotel rooms he booked for them. Provencher carelessly booked rooms for the hookers at the same hotel every weekend, eventually attracting the attention of busybody hotel staff who called the cops on them. The women earned $240 per hour or $150 per half hour with a 50% agency fee. Provencher was also charged with intimidating a witness after he “threatened to have his attorney shred the two women apart in the media if they spoke to the police,” Woodard claimed.

The two prostitutes, who were identified only as “Jane Doe” and “Jill Doe” during the hearing, decided not to appear in court but one said she believed Provencher took advantage of her, and the other said that she was held accountable after being arrested, and Provencher should be as well. Based on these claims, Woodard tried to get Provencher imprisoned for 35 years and was apparently disappointed when she didn’t get her way; “His crime was not a one time lapse in judgement,” Woodard said. “(Provencher) planned, thought out and ran these services on the expense of these two women.” Defense attorney Paul Garrity said that his client should only serve probation because he has no prior record, saying that the “side business” was started because the downturn in the newspaper business resulted in a significant salary reduction. He called it a bad decision on Provencher’s part and said the district attorney’s recommendation was not reasonable. “To call these women victims is really overplaying this,” Garrity said. “That’s just not accurate.” He said the two women and Provencher were “equal players” in the operation, and said there is evidence that the two women still may be active prostitutes.

Of course they were equal players, and of course they’re still working as whores; why shouldn’t they? They probably have extensive client lists now, and if they get caught again they have learned how to play the victim card by pointing a finger at a driver, boyfriend or other convenient male. Assuming the threat accusation was a prosecutorial fabrication intended to paint him as a dangerous criminal, Provencher made three major mistakes that I can see; he took too high an agency fee (50% is excessive if he charged the girls for the room), should have changed hotels and enforced discretion, and should have provided a lawyer when the women were arrested. But his greed and stupidity don’t automatically convert hookers into innocent lambs, except in the eyes of predatory DAs employing trafficking rhetoric to score convictions.

How Old is Oldest? (March 12^th)

In this column I mentioned the blog The Scientific Fundamentalist and described a correspondence I had with its author, Satoshi Kanazawa. He was very interested in what I had to say, and told me he was going to do a follow-up column on what we discussed. Well, he published that column last Sunday night (March 27^th) and not only was I very flattered by his praise, but also very pleased at the huge amount of traffic which came from the links in his post! That influx enabled me to hit a milestone I’ve been slowly approaching for a few weeks now: 100,000 total views as of the morning of March 28^th. That’s still just a small cloud in the blogosphere, but it’s growing fast (116,208 at the time this was posted) and is a big step toward my first million. Thanks, Satoshi!

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