We are simply sisters, mothers, neighbors and friends. We shop where you shop, we vote where you vote and we pay taxes like the rest of you. – Kristen DiAngelo
…Bill Gates has…[offered] a $100,000 grant…to…develop “the next generation of condom”. Though condoms are the most reliable…method to protect against pregnancy and STIs, it doesn’t take your ex-boyfriend to tell you how much they kind of suck (oh, and will he tell you). So the foundation is requesting proposals for a…condom that “significantly preserves or enhances pleasure, in order to improve…regular use”…
Amanda Brooks published her own set of tips for clients; I think it’s worthwhile for a gentleman to read as many of these as he comes across, because every woman is different and may include something others didn’t think important.
Ask yourself once again: Is this really the company you want the US to keep?
Egyptian prosecutors ordered the detention of 17 women and a Lebanese man…[for]…commercial phone sex…security forces raided [their] office…and confiscated phones and computer devices…Investigations showed “gang members” recruited female university students through job ads in newspapers and then agreed with them to perform acts “that run contrary to morality”…
Sweden says its “model” has reduced prostitution and deters clients: “[A] newspaper…published an advert about a fictional 19-year-old [sex worker]…Over the weekend, the phone had 130 missed calls and seven texts. After a week, the number had grown to 287 calls and 57 texts…[a] local police [spokesman claimed]…the callers were more curious than interested in buying sex…” What a pathetic rationalization! Here’s the real attitude of Swedes toward the law:
Can you imagine American cops contradicting a prohibitionist politician’s lies?
Police say they’ve seen no evidence to back up [a New Zealand] MP’s claims that girls as young as 13 are working as prostitutes in south Auckland…Asenati Lole-Taylor says there is “growing prevalence” of underage girls selling sex…and she’s backing a bill to ban all street prostitution and confine sex work to brothels…[she also claims] she has witnessed police dealing with young prostitutes …That was news to police Area Commander…Chris de Wattignar. “It’s not something that police have seen ourselves. We also work with a number of agencies and community partners in the Otara town centre and that’s certainly not the information we have”…
The US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has [issued] regulations on…Bitcoin…there’s been zero regulation…[so far, because that] would essentially admit that it’s legitimate…The nature of Bitcoin makes it untraceable so unless firms are coaxed into cooperation, it’s hard to imagine the regulations being enforced.
Though the main Wikipedia entry for “Prostitution” is an unusable (and uncorrectable) mess due to aggressive sabotage by neofeminists, there is a new article on “Migrant Sex Work” which is comprehensive, fact-based and non-judgmental and includes citations from many good writers like Laura Agustín, Elizabeth Bernstein, Pardis Mahdavi, Nick Mai and Rhacel Parrenas. Here’s hoping the author is able to keep control of it.
Charlotte Shane’s “’Getting Away’ With Hating It: Consent in the Context of Sex Work” is a brilliant exploration of how the weakness of the concept of “enthusiastic consent” (now being pushed by the “rape culture” folks) is demonstrated by sex work. This is definitely a must-read, especially for my male readers, as it looks at an area of female sexual psychology most men seem to have difficulty understanding. Even the comment thread is worth your time, especially the reactions to a Good Men Project writer who apparently thinks it’s only OK to pay a whore if she doesn’t need the job and is only doing it as a hobby or something.
The Australian Woman’s Weekly published “When Sex is Your Day Job”, an interview with five sex workers (including Rachel Wotton) about prejudice, sex work myths, discrimination and sex as a human right. What a difference from the United States!
…New Jersey [prison guard]… Juan R. Stevens, 50, was charged with…sexual assault and…criminal restraint…Stevens would call…escorts…[and tell them] he was a police officer in order to intimidate them into having sex with him for free…
For once, I agree with a Femen leader’s analysis; too bad they don’t see it also applies to sex work:
A 19-year-old Tunisian activist who was threatened with death by stoning after posting topless pictures of herself online has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The woman, known only as Amina, posted the photographs…to the Femen-Tunisian Facebook page…Amina’s aunt claimed…”She had decided to kill herself and so posted nude pictures of herself online.” [Femen leader Inna] Shevchenko described the move as “a typical way of reacting to a woman’s demand to be free – they say she’s gone crazy or is being too emotional”…
A…Mexican politician who…[appeared] in a…lingerie video is taking legal action against political rivals who claim she was [an] “escort girl.” Giselle Arellano says the…accusations resulted in her failing to win the nomination of Mexico’s conservative National Action Party (PAN)…She wants the election annulled on the grounds that she was “slandered” by her rivals…Arellano…resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she has done stints as a model and also runs a small company that offers “concierge services” to visitors. She was running for a seat in the Zacatecas State Legislature that is reserved for Mexicans who emigrate abroad…
Besides conventional services, Black Rose Services plans bachelor parties and group excursions to strip clubs and only takes clients by referral.
Microsoft recently sponsored a “hackathon” based on the theme “combating human trafficking”, and a story on the ever-credulous NPR reports that one of the entries is a smartphone app that middle-class teenage girls who are suddenly “trafficked” by surprise (presumably by “pimps” leaping out at them from bushes) can use to surreptitiously “connect with resources, like a hotline number or a chat room where they can get help. ‘One of the requirements of this project was to make it covert, so it’s not easily detectable…and [that] it’s for girls ages 11 to 21.’ So the app, which they call Blossom, is disguised to look like it’s just about fun for teens…” Because captives would certainly be allowed to keep their phones, and university-age adult women are interested in the same sorts of games as 11-year-olds.
“Authorities” not only refuse to recognize the damage licensing laws do, but often insist on congratulating themselves that they’re “helping” sex workers:
Saskatoon’s new adult services licensing bylaw…gives police new…powers to keep a closer watch on a large part of the sex industry…Anyone advertising sexual services…is now required to get a licence from the city…This is…taking part of the sex trade out of the shadows to protect vulnerable women, police and city officials say…”Prostitution is not against the law. If a person is working at a hotel and communicating in a private place, then they are not committing a criminal offence”…
And that obviously wouldn’t do, so they had to find a way to make it into one. For our own good, of course.
North Carolina’s entry into the “trafficking hub” competition is especially hilarious for its claim that rural areas with low populations are “attractive” to those in the “sex trafficking trade”:
…On Eagles Wings Ministries plans to [build]…a haven for girls involved in the sex-trafficking trade…Gaston County provides a location that’s close enough to Charlotte to help girls there, but far enough away to keep traffickers at bay…North Carolina has become a hotspot for human trafficking…[due to] major highways and interstates, transient populations and large rural areas…
Two of the authors of books from this column (Rob Arthur of You Will Die and Laura Agustín of Sex at the Margins) were interviewed on the subject of what inspired them to write those books; I think you’ll find their answers illuminating.
A Tale That Grew in the Telling (TW3 #50)
It’s a very hopeful sign when a review of a movie based in “trafficking” myth can conclude with this passage: “Eden…[is] not a documentary, it isn’t entertainment, and…[it] sure as heck isn’t art. It’s just a message, screaming on and on at people who agreed with the point before they bought a ticket.”
More on the escort from American Courtesans who was arrested after complaining to police about a stalker:
Last month Lora LePoudre, who goes by the escort pseudonym Hilary Holiday, was arrested by the Eden Prairie Police department in Minnesota following an anonymous tip off by a neighbor and a subsequent sting operation…Neighbors in her family-friendly condo complex [said] they were thankful police had arrested her…
As you may remember, there was no “complaint” except from Hilary herself; the reporter also cherry-picks neighbors, spews inanities like “family-friendly” and misquotes Kristen DiAngelo as saying escorts are “very different” from other sex workers, when actually she said there was a difference between free and coerced prostitution.
…The head of the Essonne department…Jerome Guedj…called for allowing sex surrogates…as part of regular social services…[noting] that [they]…are permitted in some other European countries…But…[removed] the term…just ahead of the vote…after coming under criticism for opening the door to legalized prostitution…a national ethics council…ruled that authorizing sex surrogates would essentially “merchandise the human body”…
But while France says it’s OK to neglect disabled folks in order to “send a message” to dirty whores, New Zealand sees stories like this one:
I hired a sex worker for my late 93-year-old father. He had dementia and lived in a nursing home when he said to me, “You’ll need to find me a woman”…I took his request seriously [because]…I’m a disability support worker and I’ve seen how an individual’s sexuality needs to be considered…Touching Base put me in contact with…the person they thought most suitable: ‘Emma’…After time with Emma, my father’s well-being and consequently his behaviour improved…He wasn’t as agitated. He didn’t obsess over things like he used to. He was serene, happy and relaxed…
For Those Who Think Legalization is a Good Idea (TW3 #139)
The Indian government has now completely reversed its sneaky criminalization attempt: “Sex workers and women’s rights activists across India have welcomed the…move to drop the word ‘prostitution’…from the amended…Penal Code. The new formulation targets sexual exploitation and not adult consensual sex work…”
There is considerable sympathy among Dutch MPs for moves to get tougher on people who visit prostitutes and don’t report suspected exploitation or abuse…The senate…is currently considering legislation that would force prostitutes to sign up to an official register. Clients who fail to check if a girl is registered, could face prosecution…[some] want to go further and say clients should be prosecuted for failing to report to the authorities if they suspect a woman may be being abused or forced to work as a prostitute…
Oregon is really ramping up the hysteria; between two different stories on the same legislative/cop antics we are told that “trafficking happens in small towns” to 9-year-olds, that “80 children are victims of sex trafficking each year” in Portland, that prosecutors want to use “racketeering laws” to prosecute whoever a girl names as her “pimp” after being jailed indefinitely (for her own good, of course), and that “men looking to buy sex from minors describe the victims they want to order.” All this on the word of unnamed women who present no evidence; you know, kind of like witch trials.
Fuck I’ll add a few hundred of my own greenbacks to the hundred grand Bill Gates is putting up if he can come up with a better damned condom!!
I’m sorry, but I didn’t get off on Amanda Brook’s “advice for clients”. She’s actually bitching about guy’s rough SKIN and calloused hands? Does she even LIKE guys? Real men have calloused hands and they’re careful with them.
Duh? Of course I leave her in peace. On the other hand – I can’t count the number of escorts and free women that seemed to ENJOY leaving the door open while they performed “Number One”. Hey well, if a girl will do THAT in front of you then it’s a good sign she feels comfortable with you!
Uhm no Amanda. They do it quite often. They come in and open the shower curtain and gaze at you and smile – and it’s pretty damned hot when they do that. Sometimes they jump in. Sometimes they just watch you get undressed.
That was about the worst written “advice to clients” I’ve ever seen a hooker write. Very condescending and lectures men as if they are idiots – see her fucking description of a washcloth and you’ll get the jist.
WTF?! Now I’m even more confused. Amanda Brooks’ rate is $1000 per hour and she’s still getting a lot of uncouth, uncivilized “rough necks”??!!
How can a guy with calloused hands (unless he’s a famous guitar player) afford THAT rate? LMAO!!
I’m sorry … I listen with deep empathy to hookers who charge $300 an hour complain about smelly and inconsiderate clients. Those girls KNOW. But a $1K per hour escort? Sister nothing against you but I really don’t see how you’re getting all this “riff raff” walking through the door to your incall at a rate like that.
$1000 PER HOUR?
What does she wash your car, fold your clothes, paint your house, rake the leaves, and bang you senseless for that money?
Because that’s what I’d expect at that rate, because what in the WORLD makes her think her Love Tunnel feels so much better, or so much different than any other woman’s?
And she’s COMPLAINING?
*facepalm*
That’s what I was thinking. Obviously, for 1K per hour she’s not going to come and playfully harass you in the shower and that’s a damn shame.
Also – I got that rate off her contacts page. THAT’S HER NON-SEX RATE!!! You pay 1K per hour to have tea and conversation with the lady!!! Fully clothed the entire time. I shudder to think what her real escort rate is!! LMAO!!
*sigh* The more you hear what women really think, the more depressing you realize it all is.
What’s depressing about it?
That it’s all an act, that you have very little chance of matching libidos, “duty sex,” etc.
It’s the unrealistic expectation that two different things be alike that causes the sorrow; you might as well be upset that your cat doesn’t come running to meet you, panting & wagging its tail.
“It’s the unrealistic expectation that two different things be alike that causes the sorrow; you might as well be upset that your cat doesn’t come running to meet you, panting & wagging its tail.”
Hmmmm. I’ll have to ponder that.
My cat always comes running to meet me.
OT, but I wanted to let you know I haven’t forgotten your question about Stillwater; I’m planning to call the professor on Monday or Tuesday to ask for directions and such, and I’ll ask her at that time if it’s OK that you sit in. Email me on Tuesday to remind me, OK?
I’m kind of in Scorch’s corner on this one…I find duty sex from a partner distasteful, find “going along to get along” sex (i.e. don’t want to be pressured) *really* distasteful, and faking enthusiasm so I’ll feel better about it feels like a breach of trust. Enthusiastic consent really is what I want, at least for sex with a partner. (note that want != expect; I’m aware the universe gives less than two shits about my desires or moral code)
I’m not sure how that squares with being OK with prostitution. I’ve never hired one, but introspection suggests I wouldn’t have the same problem with it. I think because while enthusiasm is still faked, nobody is really fooled; it would feel like role-playing rather than deception.
Yah, I mean, that’s the whole point of hiring a professional, to get precisely what you’re paying for, and to eliminate the guesswork and costly risks involved with dealing with an amateur or your legal live-in prostitute, i.e. your wife.
If you’re paying for a service, and enthusiasm is an expected part of said service, then it just makes sense to find sex workers that understand that and pay *them.*
Nobody likes a rock star or other musical artist that gets up on stage and half-asses through a musical set. People don’t want the music just played with detachment and robotic execution; they want enthusiasm! That’s what those high ticket prices are for.
Same applies here.
If you’re tired of sex, of men, of getting into it, get out of the profession or take less clients, so you can be fresh when they show up.
Seems perfectly reasonable to me, and it’s the same standard you’d apply to a waitress or a child care professional.
Having had a few hours to think about it, I still sense a loose end. I know why faking feels different in each case, but I don’t know why I have a problem with unenthusiastic partner sex (“duty sex”) but *not* with unenthusiastic paid sex. Resolve that one and the other follows easily enough.
Because part of the unspoken yet very real emotional covenant between consensual partners is the presence of desire.
That is also, on both sides, one of the things that makes committed partner sex worthwhile. No matter how you slice it, we feel that our partners “owe” us a level of desire or else it kind of kills the whole point of being in the relationship.
None of that could possibly be true for paid sex in terms of it coming from the heart, the way we want it to at home.
Don’t feel that way. Not all women feel like that; as I said, the reason I shared it is specifically because SOME do. I also think she’s being a bit snarky, overstating things for effect.
EDIT: I’m talking about the Brooks piece, but now I realize Scorch was talking about Shane’s essay.
That IS a depressing piece. Essentially, the message … “Worry not that I think having sex with you is distasteful – it’s still not “rape” because you’re paying me!!”
I hope I NEVER find an escort like her.
Let’s take this out of the realm of prostitution and just apply it to my own job. I have a “3D” … dirty, difficult, and dangerous job. I do it … because I enjoy it. Hell, when I see construction workers working I-12 in the hot Louisiana sun I want to get out of my car and jump in and work with them. For that moment, as I drive by them, I envy them. They are working, producing something with their hands – and their labors will be evident at the end of the day. This is much the same with my own work.
Now, other guys I work with … hate the job. They don’t think it pays enough. They think the hours are too long. They think the time away from family is excessive … whatever – they do the job simply for the money.
I’m fine with those guys but they aren’t my first choice when I have to put together a team and go out and do something difficult. I want someone like me – who gets weird enjoyment from the job and the challenge. Enthusiasm to DO a job is a big piece of making it successful and rewarding – not just the money.
I’m not wired like most guys. Most guys my age hate physical labor. Whatever, I’m in exactly the right occupation and I’m happier than a pig in shit about it!
It’s the same thing with Shane here. No – I won’t begrudge her a livlihood, but I’m not going to be picking up the phone and calling her now that I know she’s not really into it. Just like those other guys who are only doing it for the money – she’s not gonna be my first choice … ever.
“I want someone like me – who gets weird enjoyment from the job and the challenge. Enthusiasm to DO a job is a big piece of making it successful and rewarding – not just the money.
It’s the same thing with Shane here. No – I won’t begrudge her a livelihood, but I’m not going to be picking up the phone and calling her now that I know she’s not really into it. Just like those other guys who are only doing it for the money – she’s not gonna be my first choice … ever.”
^EXACTLY this.
I suspect she recognizes her writings might have that effect; she uses different names for escorting and writing.
RE: Bottleneck
They even took the poor woman’s money to pay for Chinese food, which she wasn’t allowed to eat. *Fumes*
Rural NC probably is a hotbed of human trafficking. If you define it as undocumented workers being transported to a location to work.
Apropos the Bolshoi, a Twitter contact told me is was no different from the Paris Ballet in Degas’ day. Plus ça change…
I’ve been waiting to see if this one is allowed on the US market:
http://www.futuramedical.com/content/products/csd_500.asp
“CSD500 is a condom developed for use by healthy men. The product incorporates an erectogenic compound to help men maintain a firmer erection during intercourse whilst wearing a condom. The gel is to be licensed under the trademarked brand name of Zanifil®.”
“North Carolina has become a hotspot for human trafficking…[due to] major highways and interstates, transient populations and large rural areas…”
I think this describes just about every mainland state in the US.
Give that man a cigar!
By the way, I just double checked, and the age of consent in North Carolina is 16, in addition to a “Romeo and Juliet” law for Eighth graders seduced by High School Juniors.
Maggie, I think that this is probably the most interesting and overall informative TW3’s you have published since I started reading you a little more than a year ago.
On the other hand. I despair because there seem to be an increasing number of doody-head hypocrites coming into prominence on the Cool Green Hills of Earth.
PS- Back in the day, the KGB and GRU used the Bolshoi extensively to attempt blackmail prominent Western politicians.
Re: Hilary Holiday
Knowing Eden Prairie, MN as I do, the interviewer wouldn’t have to cherry-pick that much to get negative statements. Especially if her condo complex is closer to the ultra-wealthy suburbs of Edina or Bloomington.
The word on the cryptography groups is that Bitcoin actually is traceable. That’s why the government has allowed it to exist for so long. True anonymous digital money would make tax evasion impossible to prevent.
Bill Gates is living proof that billionaires don’t have to be villains. Of course, he kind of is every now and again, but only in business, where the current legal regime encourages a bit of villainy.
If I ever find myself in a position to avail myself of this most ancient of service industries, I plan to read as many of these as I can find.
Our Senate is putting us together with North Korea, Syria, and Iran so they can grandstand about international gun-grabbers and other such bullfeathers. I don’t think lawmakers care about what dogs they lie down with.
Even subtitled, he’s funny. It helps that he’s also right.
The Aussie police have no real incentive to lie about prostitution, unlike their American counterparts, who profit tremendously from lying about prostitution.
I’ve been using L$ lately. I’ll read up on Bitcoin before commenting on it.
Obviously, we must ban ballet immediately. This fits the trafficking model a lot more closely than most of the prostitution going on.
BTW, what about all the little girls saying they want to be ballerinas when they grow up? Would there be as many saying “I want to be a call girl when I grow up” if call girls were presented as favorably as ballerinas?
Wikipedia is a global treasure, and it’s sad when it’s compromised in any way. Every step towards reclaiming parts of it which have been corrupted should be applauded, supported, and, if one believes in such things, blessed.
OK, I’m about to go home. I’ll get to the rest of this later. How caught up am I so far? I’ve got eleven days (not counting various Links and of course Short Stories) before I’m even in the current month.
The idea that a woman might feel degraded by having an orgasm is something I’ve encountered in porn. I never guessed there was any reality to it.
Well, there’s a whole can of worms when it comes to government and private business! Shouldn’t a private business be able to turn away anyone they choose? Then again, if government IS going to limit their ability to say, “not you,” then why shouldn’t sex workers be one of the groups they can’t say “not you” too?
Good article overall, and thanks for linking to it.
If police were better behaved, Stevens wouldn’t’ve been able to make this scam work.
The reasoning, such as it is, seems to go something like this: “I would never do that! I’d have to be crazy to ever do that! She’s doing that, so she must be crazy!!”
I have to wonder if, in an American election, she would’ve been disqualified in the eyes of voters just for being a babe. There are some female politicians in this country who are fairly attractive, but few have such a sexy appearance, even when wearing regular clothes. Many Americans seem to assume that a woman can be sexually attractive or she can be serious, but not both. There was Christine “I’m not a witch” O’Donnell, and there was Sara Palin, but neither of them won. Of course, they both had problems which went far beyond being pretty, primarily the fact that they were both hard to take seriously.
I’m sure somebody will reply to this with links to pics of babalicious politicians. Well, if I’m all wet on this, the evidence of my allwetness will at least be fun to look at.
Is it just me, or is the Age of SHAZAM! creeping ever upward?
So… You don’t have to have a license to be a hooker, but you do need a license to tell people that you’re a hooker. Um, yeah.
Because if I were going to kidnap large numbers of underage girls to sell into slavery, or if I wanted to hide a bunch of underage sex slaves, of course I’d want to take them from (or hide them in) small communities where everybody knows everybody else. What could possibly go wrong?
They both sound like interesting books. Of the two, I think I like Augustin better, on the grounds that she doesn’t assume that I don’t know that people die.
I suppose that we really should be cheered when the voices of oppression get shrill and claims become more blatantly outrageous. We will know that marijuana prohibition is done for when when somebody makes the next Reefer Madness and expects it to be taken seriously. And when somebody prominent tells us, expecting us to believe it, that all prostitutes are part of a global conspiracy to create a one-world communist government run by Fidel Castro (or something equally goofy), then it isn’t time to start popping corks on the champagne, but it’s time to start budgeting for some champagne.
It is hard to call the cops when you’re defined a a criminal, and not a lot easier when you’re defined as an inevitable victim.
When we in the US (and many other countries) feel that it’s more important to send a message to kids with glowsticks than to help war veterans and rape victims with post traumatic stress disorder, it doesn’t surprise me that sending a message that whores are icky is considered more important than helping the disabled. It saddens me, but it doesn’t surprise me. And yet, even here…
Hooray for India! I wish I could ask Kama what she thinks of all this.
So… how do the cops know whether the client suspected coercion and didn’t report it, or whether he didn’t suspect anything and that’s why he didn’t report it? Obviously, guys are going to go to jail because “well he should have been suspicious.”
Can spectral evidence be far behind?
You might also enjoy this: a blunt–but clean–talk about the ups and downs, and in and outs of America’s oldest profession with one of its most elite international escorts, Kristen DiAngelo. She stars in and produced the new documentary film, American Courtesans. Is it for everybody? No. But if you have an open mind, Kristen has quite a story to tell. http://www.mrmedia.com/2013/07/american-courtesan-documentary-secret-life-of-an-escort-video/#.UeGW61OVQSI