More Than Ever

While these celebrations are useful rallying points, if we’re to succeed we need to fight for sex worker rights 365 days a year.  –  “365 Days of Activism”

If we didn’t already know how much hatred and disdain the rulers of the American Empire have for sex workers, they certainly let us know last year with an extra-special Sex Worker Rights Day gift, a massive internet censorship bill named FOSTA; they then soon followed it by demolishing Backpage, the platform most accessible to marginalized sex workers.  But if politicians hoped these evil attacks would demoralize and suppress sex workers, they certainly got a surprise; instead, the viciousness and blatant malice of the acts have galvanized sex workers like nothing I’ve ever seen before.  New sex worker organizations have sprung up and old ones have been revitalized, and backers who had long remained silent stepped up with money and other resources to support them.  Sex workers’ protests and demands are beginning to be heard at last; some journalists are looking up from cops’ boots, some members of the general public are stirring in their fitful sleep of ignorance, and even a few politicians are beginning to push for decriminalization.  More writers are questioning the two-decade-old “sex trafficking” hysteria, and even the useless ACLU issued its first pro-decriminalization statement (albeit a very brief one) in ages.  Normally, my essay for this day is directed toward my sex worker sisters, but I’m pleased to say they’ve got this; what we need now more than ever is for those of you who aren’t sex workers to amplify our voices and support our cause.  Share and retweet sex worker essays and interviews; counter prohibitionist bullshit you see or hear; support politicians or other public figures who are pushing back on criminalization; loudly challenge media narratives presenting the arrest of sex workers as the “rescue” of “victims”; educate yourself by reading books and articles by actual authorities (sex workers & academics who work respectfully with us) or watching videos like mine (which premiered to a packed house in Seattle last night).  And most of all, support us pragmatically with the funds we need to fight.  Most of y’all reading this don’t have the money to back a ballot campaign or hire lobbyists, but you can buy a video, help to arrange a screening, donate to organizations which are on the front lines, or even book a session with an escort you know to be an activist.  Our movement is becoming louder than ever, but that also means we need your support more than ever; can we count on you?

In the News (#917)

The government has…tried to financially strangle these defendants at every turn.  –  Ariel Neuman

Droit du Seigneur

Hey, King County; maybe you should consult Matthew 7:3 for your “sex trafficking” policy:

Mark L. Norton, the superintendent of transit security…for King County Metro, was arrested…for allegedly “coercing a female to engage in commercial sex acts in King and Snohomish Counties.”  Norton…allegedly “groomed” the victim for five years while [she] was a babysitter for Norton’s children, using “emotional and psychological coercion [to] convince [her] to participate in prostitution for his benefit…the suspect operated as a pimp and pressured the victim to engage in prostitution on numerous occasions…and kept [her fees]”…ironically, King County Metro’s buses were recently covered with anti-trafficking signs as part of a [propaganda] campaign…by the…County…

What the Hell Were You Thinking? (#335)

Destroying sex workers’ safety net, one internet “improvement” at a time:

…Google could be putting [Irish sex workers] at risk by blocking key functions on an app used to warn of dangerous clients.  The tech giant decided…to include limits on call logs and SMS permission access on apps in the Google Play store…[this could cripple] an Android app called Ugly Mugs, which…has been using advanced access features since 2013…[to] screen…incoming calls and text messages to sex workers and alert…them if [the initiating] number…is in the app’s database…

He Said, She Said (#624)

A psychiatrist who has sex with patients is a fool.  A male psychiatrist who draws vulnerable female patients into kink relationships is a dangerous fool:

…psychiatrist…Keith Ablow…[is facing malpractice lawsuits from three female patients who say he] abused his position while treating them for acute depression…the…therapist…encouraged women to trust and rely on him, then coaxed them into [BDSM] sexual activities, often during treatment sessions for which they were charged…three women who worked for Ablow [also] agreed to file affidavits, included in the lawsuits…that Ablow sexually harassed them, too.  One former staffer, Amy Dixon, said she had sex with Ablow during which he would regularly hit her and that he told her he wanted a “master/slave relationship”…In all three cases, the women…relocated from other states, at Ablow’s request, to be closer to his Newburyport [Massachusetts] office where he…treat[ed them] for depression…[with] Ketamine…in conjunction with talk therapy…

Ablow, who was a consultant for Fox News for years, has been mentioned in this blog before.

To Molest and Rape

When a cop rapes kids, there’s usually at least some chance of a conviction: “…[cops from] the Cascade County [Montana] Sheriff’s Office and agents from Homeland Security [quietly] arrested [rapist pig] Virgil Wolfe on 80 counts of sexual abuse of children…”

False Target (#873)

Using “gayness tests” to deport refugees spreads to the UK:

A [67-year-old] man faces deportation to Malaysia, where homosexuality is illegal, after the Home Office [claimed] it did not believe he was gay – suggesting it was suspicious that [a 67-year-old migrant] did not have a boyfriend.  Yew Fook Sam…will be persecuted and imprisoned for his sexuality if he is deported to Malaysia, where homosexual acts are punishable under federal and sometimes sharia law.  He fears he will be forced to undergo gay conversion therapy should he be returned to the country, where the opposition leader last year blamed gay people for causing earthquakes and a lesbian couple were caned publicly for having sex in a car…

Dangerous Speech (#880)

The government keeps making up new rules in its war on thought:

…federal prosecutors are arguing that they’re entitled to all money made by Backpage, even proceeds derived from unquestionably legal ads, and that decades worth of earnings made by former Backpage leaders before the website even existed are also tainted…their lawyers [state in a recent filng that] “Virtually all of the Defendants’ assets have been seized, virtually all of the money in their attorneys’ trust accounts designated to fund the defense has been been seized or is effectively frozen,” and defense lawyers “may expose themselves to criminal liability if they use those funds to pay fees” from the case…the Cato Institute, DKT Liberty Project, and the Reason Foundation…filed a brief in support of the defendants on this matter…”The government has shut down a major internet site and confiscated millions of dollars of assets and proceeds not only from that site, but also from defendants’ numerous other publishing venues—ventures completely unrelated to the alleged criminality of the site and indisputably protected by the First Amendment…The history of government efforts to suppress and censor disfavored speakers, particularly speakers who offer sexually explicit materials, is long [and has]…involved tactics…designed to bankrupt speakers by forcing them to litigate on multiple fronts to prove that their speech is protected by the First Amendment”…

Dutch Threat (#885) 

Dutch authorities are now pretending their attempts to Disnify De Wallen are really intended to help sex workers:

…the De Wallen neighborhood…could soon face [forcible gentific]ation as local government officials strive to implement a new policy, set to increase the number of sex-work permits beyond De Wallen in an attempt to p[ush] sex workers…elsewhere…the Netherlands has been increasingly [aggressive] in [selling its Disnification efforts as] combating human trafficking…the…government…shut down many coffee shops and 112 sex-worker windows…pushing many sex workers towards illegal work or abroad to Brussels…[due to increased harassment] it’s often no longer in the interest of many independent workers to be registered under Amsterdam’s Municipal Ordinance…because sex workers [are rightly concerned] that their…work might be [criminalized or they might be branded “victims” against their will]…sex workers are increasingly demanding…the ability to book clients online and work [legally]  from home…

Traffic in Nonsense (#896)

The “sex trafficking” propaganda from these fetishists is some of the most blatantly derived from sexual fantasy in the entire rescue industry:

A national group is trying to get people not to…[listen to] sex workers, but to [instead label] them as…victims of human trafficking [no matter what they say about their own lives].  The group Truckers Against Trafficking [indoctrinates] truck drivers–and others–[in] how to [project their fantasies about] modern day slavery [on other people without their consent]…Ohio has been [trying to convince people that it’s] a hotbed of human trafficking in recent years…

A Broker in Pillage (#896)

SCOTUS demolishes a major pillar of government extortion schemes:

States are bound by the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines and fees when they seek to [steal]…assets from individuals charged or convicted of a crime, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously…It’s a decision that hands a major victory to critics of civil asset forfeiture, and it opens another avenue to legal challenges against that widely…abused…practice by which states and local governments can seize cars, cash, homes, and pretty much anything else…[under the pretense that it was] used to commit a crime…Timbs v. Indiana, involved the seizure of a $42,000 Land Rover…from Tyson Timbs…During oral arguments in November, Indiana’s solicitor general got boxed into a corner by Justice Stephen Breyer, who managed to twist the government’s lawyer into arguing that Indiana should be allowed to seize vehicles for as small an offense as driving 5 mph over the speed limit, which literally elicited laughter in the courtroom…

The Crumbling Dam (#901)

“The law is the law and if more people die, tough shit“:

…The U.S. Department of Justice took aim…at the movement to open a supervised consumption site in Philadelphia…[with] a civil lawsuit…against Philadelphia-based nonprofit Safehouse, asking the the U.S. District Court to rule that safe injection sites violate federal law…Ronda B. Goldfein, vice president of Safehouse…said the federal government is using the “crack house” statute in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986…[which] was [supposedly] intended to prevent businesses from profiting off drug consumption…

The Widening Gyre (#911)

I’m really happy to see Uber hoist on its own “sex trafficking” petard:

On February 19 2019, a woman shared a [fantasy of the type common in moral panics]…that a phony Uber driver in Tampa had nearly successfully abducted her for the purposes of sex trafficking…Within 48 hours, the post had been shared more than half a million times…[because of] its similarities to long-circulating urban legends involving nearly identical scenarios at locations [such] as Target, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart…police were able to verify that she did indeed get in the wrong car, but [pretended] they were perplexed as to how Hurley concluded that the mix-up was due to “sex trafficking” [despite the fact that they have themselves been spreading scare stories about “sex trafficking” for a decade now]…the car entered by Hurley was in fact a legitimate Uber driver, not an Uber impersonator.  The [hysteric] called for an Uber at the airport and appeared to have entered one of the several other Ubers not there for her…[her claim that] she “later found out” that the Uber driver was “a sex traffic worker”…[even though] police said [no]thing like that at all [is typical of the way “sex trafficking” propaganda tales are boosted by false claims of official verification]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#913) 

The fascists don’t want their surveillance powers limited by mere civil rights:

Microsoft is pushing back on a bill sponsored by a…group of Washington state [politicians] that would ban local and state governments from using facial recognition until certain conditions are met…Microsoft has endorsed a [much weaker]…bill…[with largely cosmetic] facial-recognition rules…Shankar Narayan, director of the technology and liberty project of the ACLU’s Washington chapter, says requiring public notice of face recognition won’t check its use, and he warns that authorities [will] use the “emergency” exception as a loophole. “Microsoft’s bill has us heading to a world where face surveillance is ubiquitous and the norm,” Narayan says…

An Avalanche of Bullshit

Last week, a massage parlor pogrom of the sort which has, sadly, become a typical skirmish in the ongoing War on Whores blew up into national news because a famous person was among the customers arrested:

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is being charged in Palm Beach County [Florida] after being caught in a [massage parlor pogrom]…He is charged with two counts of soliciting someone to commit prostitution, and police say they have videotape of him paying…at…the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, where two women were [also] arrested…after [cops repeatedly got hand jobs for] several-month[s, then claimed without evidence that]…women there were in “sexual servitude”…About 200 arrest warrants have been issued…and more are expected…

Naturally, this resulted in an avalanche of bullshit on Twitter and other social media sites, with prohibitionists moaning while masturbating to their favorite racist “sex slave” fantasies, bootlickers eagerly swallowing every filthy thing cops ejaculate into their mouths, and know-nothing imbeciles imagining themselves to be “sex trafficking experts” who know The Truth about massage parlors in general and these massage parlors in particular, presumably by Divine Inspiration since none of them actually worked at the businesses which were raided.  The Queen of Whore Allies, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, saw right through the propaganda:

…Authorities are calling this a “human trafficking operation,” with some media outlets invoking “modern-day slavery.”  But so far all signs suggest this is just an ordinary anti-prostitution effort.  Kraft was charged with…a misdemeanor.  Orchids of Asia’s owner, Hua Zhang, was charged with [the usual]…charges [hurled at]…prostitution-business bosses even when everyone involved consents.  Martin County Sheriff William Snyder [claimed]…that some of the workers at these spas lived in them and weren’t allowed to leave during the day.  This is something we frequently hear from police chiefs and county sheriffs at the start of big “sex trafficking busts” that turn out to yield nothing but ordinary prostitution charges.  (See, for instance, King County, Washington, cops on Korean sex workers there.)  Police across the country have been ramping up stings at massage parlors, driven by…federal law enforcement…and a whole lot of misinformation.  In most cases, these investigations don’t lead to trafficking charges but do result in arrests for prostitution or people giving massages without a license.  In at least one recent high-profile instance, they led to a Chinese sex worker’s death.  It’s not just undocumented immigrants who face deportation after an arrest in these stings.  Prostitution charges can mean deportation even for immigrants here legally..Despite some reports referring to the spa workers as “girls,” police have not indicated that any employees were actually underage…cops want you to know they wish they had found horrific abuse instead of just sex workers.  “Even though we may have charges on some of them, we’d rather them be victims,” said Vero Beach Police Chief David Currey…

While the police chief limited himself to merely wishing the women had been helpless, passive vegetables, the sheriff publicly shared a creepy racist masturbatory fantasy about them:

…One spa worker is currently in [regular jail]…while others are being [locked up in psychiatric facilities]…Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said…he [wants to keep]…the women from deportation [to secure] their cooperation [until he no longer has nee of them]…Snyder said [in complete defiance of the evidence that] it was clear the women were trafficked…[he then fantasized that] “These women are treated as human chattel…They were almost in a zombie-like appearance, it’s really sad.  Their lives [will be] ruined [by us if I get my way],” said Snyder…

As of the time of this writing, the “zombie sex slave” narrative is already beginning to collapse, though of course the media will try to shore it up as they did in the TRB case here in Seattle.  But sex workers aren’t having any of it, and a lot of bystanders on the internet are listening.  A lot of people, including Kraft himself, don’t understand that the “millions of sex slaves” in the propaganda are merely dehumanized, misogynistic, racist caricatures of ordinary sex workers, but thanks to our tireless efforts many of them are starting to wake up.

Community

How do I connect with other escorts in my area?  The few that I have reached out to for references, haven’t appeared to be too keen on continuing a conversation past the reference subject.  A point in any direction for support, friendship etc would be much appreciated.

I don’t believe there are any sex worker organizations in your immediate area, but the easiest way for you to start finding other sex workers to talk to would be Twitter.  If you follow me (@Maggie_McNeill) you will see that I interact with and retweet LOTS of other sex workers, some of whom may live close to you.  You can then follow other people and interact yourself, and even make good online friends (some of whom you may later meet IRL).  It’s a very good idea to do this; though it’s lucrative and flexible, sex work can be very isolating, especially in a criminalized regime.  And when you get overwhelmed by all the bullshit lies told about our work in the media, it’s good to have other ladies you can get a reality check from.  Twitter’s also a good way to keep up on what’s happening in our world; people post information on bad clients, stings, activist events, etc.  I think you’ll find it’s exactly what you’re looking for.  There is currently considerable concern that due to FOSTA Twitter may kick sex workers off as so many other platforms have, so you may also with to join Switter and also get contact information (phone, email, etc) from the friends you make so that if catastrophe happens you won’t be cut off.

(Have a question of your own?  Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)

In the News (#916)

Harris’s contempt for sex workers lies at the heart of her hypocrisy.  –  Stephen Lemons

Feminine Pragmatism 

Wherever there are men making money, there will be enterprising women working to get some of it:

…Mongolia’s mining boom started in the early 2000s and mining now accounts for around 20 per cent of Mongolia’s gross domestic product.  The growth…has created a spike in internal migration to mining areas – most notably Ömnögovi…The coal route from the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit to the Chinese border is synonymous with sex work fuelled by the mining industry…In contrast to the stigma…in the city…the border area [i]s accepting and open…four or five women travel to the border area with a driver and rent a ger (a traditional round felted tent) to stay…If [truck] drivers don’t have cash, they pay in fuel: 40 or 50 litres of diesel for one act, 100 litres for one hour.  The women then resell the fuel when they can…Ulaanbaatar…is [by contrast] a harsh environment for women working in the trade…sex [workers] in…sauna[s] in the capital…[are beaten by] police and customers…ultra-nationalists target sex workers on the street and shave their heads to disgrace them…

Despite the obligatory “sex trafficking” disinformation and nonsense sprinkled throughout, the article is not a bad look at sex work in a part of the world few Westerners know anything about.

See No Evil (#25)

Are the Japanese the only people left on Earth who can tell fantasy from reality?

The United Nations has proposed an international initiative…to tighten…restrictions and prohibition of…child pornography…However…child pornography…”is defined…as ‘any representation of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities…includ[ing]…visual material such as photographs, movies, drawings and cartoons…including when…such material represents…non-existing children”…

Blunt Instrument

Massage parlors are popular targets of “anti-trafficking” pogroms because they’re low-hanging fruit:

One South Carolina [politician] is working to shut down massage parlors…Mandy Powers Norrell proposed legislation that could close those places for good.  “It will give labor, licensing, and regulation the authority to close them down and prosecute any [women] found there,” [she bloviated]…

Policing for Profit

Cops will never stop doing this as long as the state keeps giving them pretexts:

…In case after case, [motorists were robbed by cops claiming]…the cash was found near drugs.  Yet few…ever were arrested.   They were caught in one of the most aggressive [robbery] operations in [South Carolina, where the]…police…[stole] nearly $50,000 from…motorists over a two-year period…$135 for every person living in Nichols.  That’s six times more per resident than any other police department in the state…

An Example To the West (#636)

Ugandan sex workers demand their rights:

Human and women rights activists have appealed to Members of Parliament not to criminalise prostitution as they debate and pass the pending Sexual Offences Bill of 2015…”These arrests are mostly carried out to solicit bribes from sex workers and harass them.  Few of them get to trial.  The provision, is therefore, unnecessary since it is unenforceable,” [said] Macklean Mary Kyomya…of Alliance of Women Advocating for Change…activists brandished placards reading…”outlaw poverty not prostitution…rights not rescue…my body, my business”…

Secret Squirrel (#686)

Conditioning squares to accept intrusive monitoring of every aspect of their lives:

…Devices worn on employees’ bodies are an increasingly valuable source of workforce health intelligence for employers and insurance companies.  It’s fueling a boom in the use of wrist-borne health and fitness monitors such as those made by Fitbit, Garmin and Apple…the information is not covered by federal rules that protect health records from disclosure.  And when it’s combined with data such as credit scores, employees are giving up more insights about themselves than they realize…In general, employees in such programs [“voluntarily”] sign up for digital health monitoring.  They are lured by cash, reduced premiums, or reimbursements for co-payments and deductibles…Fitbit is moving aggressively to sign up companies.  It added a call service that [nag]…workers…via text messages and phone calls…whose data shows they are falling short of their [assigned “fitness goals”]…

You amateurs really think being spied on like this is OK?  No wonder fantasies of whores “enslaved” by exploitative bosses who spy on their every move are so popular; it’s just amateurs projecting their work conditions onto us.

Pyrrhic Victory (#697)

The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:

The use of PredPol—a predictive policing software…is far more widespread than previously reported…PredPol claims to use an algorithm to predict crime in specific 500-foot by 500-foot sections of a city, so that police can…surveil specific areas more heavily…PredPol [has] contract[s or] negotiation[s]…with…South Jordan, UT; Mountain View, CA; Atlanta, GA; Haverhill, GA; Palo Alto, CA; Modesto, CA; Merced, CA; Livermore, CA; Tacoma, WA; and the University of California, Berkeley…Los Angeles, Elgin [CA], Oakland [CA], Richmond [CA]…Milpitas [CA]…Santa Cruz, CA; Morgan Hill, CA, Fairfield, CA, Los Gatos/Monte Sereno, CA; Campbell, CA; Salinas, CA; Alhambra, CA; Lansing, MI; Seattle, WA; San Francisco, CA; Columbia, SC…Manhattan, KS…Little Rock, AK; Kent, England; Reading, PA; “and many more”…Predpol explicitly encourage[s] police departments to dedicate their resources towards petty crime…Shahid Buttar, the Director of Grassroots Advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)…[explains] it’s impossible to expect unbiased results from predictive policing technology, because the data it analyzes is structurally biased.  Predictive policing is “driven by…data that itself reflects longstanding and pervasive bias…If you overpolice certain communities, and only detect crime within those communities, and then try to provide a heat map of predictions, any AI will predict that crimes will occur in the places that they’ve happened before”…

The Spiral of Absurdity (#743) 

“Sex trafficking” fetishists are still masturbating to the fantasy that emojis are part of some mysterious pimp “code”:

Bay Area prosecutors were trying to prove that a man arrested during a prostitution sting was guilty of pimping charges, and among the [supposed] evidence was a series of Instagram DMs he’d allegedly sent to a woman…with high heels and money bag emoji placed at the end…[a hired gun claiming to be] an expert…in sex trafficking…[fantasized under oath that] the high heels and bags of money supported the interpretation that the defendant was accused of sex trafficking, essentially translating to “wear your high heels to come make some money.”  Another message from the defendant included the crown emoji, which was said to signify that the “pimp is the king”.  Ultimately, the ruling didn’t hinge on the interpretation of emoji, but [that didn’t stop prosecutors from trying to destroy lives based on the masturbatory fantasies of people who’ve never done sex work in their lives]…

Uncommon Sense (#745)

Yet another registration regime fails miserably, as we keep telling y’all:

Only 76 of the reportedly 200,000 women (0.038%) who work as prostitutes in Germany have registered for state services [and of course politicians can’t understand why]…sex workers [can] register for state-run health insurance, pensions and unemployment benefits…[but the price after a new and paternalistic] law was enacted…in 2017 [is] regist[ration with pigs, mandatory “counseling”, prying into their private lives by social workers and compulsory] regular health [inspections]…most prostitutes…register under some different professional category in order to continue working anonymously…

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#848)

Never underestimate the human capacity to obsess about things that don’t exist:

…sex robots are rapidly becoming a part of…national [fantasies] about the future of sex and relationships….a number of companies are currently developing [human-shaped sex toys]…with a few already on the market…A 2017 survey suggested almost half of Americans think that having sex with robots will become a common practice within 50 years [the same fraction who think Donald Trump is intelligent and genetically-modified foods are dangerous].  As a [pompous windbag]…I’m interested in the legal and policy questions that sex robots pose…How will [masturbating] with a sex [doll]] affect the human [soul]?  Would sex with a child[-shaped toaster] be ethical?…

These articles are so deeply stupid, I just can’t take them at all seriously any more.  Despite the claims in the title, “sex robots” are not here, and never will be in the form envisioned by both fetishists and prohibitionists.  And the dolls (that’s all they are, silicone dolls) which people insist on incorrectly calling “robots” are inanimate objects which raise no more “ethical issues” than a Baby Alive or a tablet computer.

Held Together With Lies (#858)

We haven’t seen this concentration of ludicrous claims in a couple of years now:

[The rescue industry] is the business of stealing freedom for profit.  [Sex workers labeled against their will as] victims of trafficking are deprived of their basic human rights, dehumanized, brutalized and objectified [by police]…Human trafficking business is [fantasized] to generate $100 billion annually, more than Apple, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Nike combined…there are 40.3 million victims of human trafficking globally…we [masturbate furiously while fantasizing] that there are countless victims, some only young teens…in our own communities…Sex trafficking data is scarce and has many gaps, due to [our making it up as we go]…

As usual, ridiculous numbers are slung about in self-contradictory fashion, mis-citing sources (the 40.3 million fantasy is from the NGO “Walk Free Foundation”, not the ILO as claimed) and claiming knowledge while admitting there is none.  So naturally I had to correct the wording a bit.

Top Cop

Another example of the odiousness of the police-state operative Hillary fans have anointed as their savior:

It’s the hypocrisy, stupid.  That’s what pundits from The Nation to the Washington Post fail to grasp about the onetime romance between former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and California Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.  Harris’s apologists would have people believe that discussion of the relationship, which occurred two decades ago when Brown held the powerful post of Speaker of the California Assembly and Harris was a lowly deputy district attorney in California’s Alameda County, is sexist, racist, or both.  Viewed in light of Harris’s ongoing war on sex workers, however, her advantageous liaison with Brown indicates that she has no problem applying different rules to herself than she does to others…Maggie McNeill [said]…“I have absolutely nothing against the fact that she used her sexuality to get by in the world…What I do have a problem with, is that having gained that power, she used it to attack other women for doing the same thing”…

Disaster (#909)

The successors of Tumblr:

…with Tumblr’s strict adult-content ban…kinky bloggers fled the site–searching for, and trying to build, new communities.  One of the fastest growing of these sites is relative newcomer newTumbl, which has gained about 40,000 blogs since it launched on December 31.  True to its name, the site closely resembles Tumblr–at least the NSFW parts that are now banned…MojoFire, a site created by members of the BDSM community but aspiring to host all types of content, has not yet launched.  Yet others were already in the works before the Tumblr porn ban and have seen a large influx of refugee bloggers.  For instance, Pillowfort–another site meant for a broad community–has been straining with the arrival of former Tumblr users, forcing it to limit new sign-ups…MakeLoveNotPorn…[has] provided a hub for user-generated “social sex” videos since 2009…

Diary #452

I thought last week seemed slower than it should’ve been, since the snow was over and the weather is warming up.  So I checked my Eros ad, and discovered that it was not online because someone over there decided my ad (which has been on the site in much the same form for years) violated some of their new and ever-changing “publishing standards”.  This has become the new normal for US escorts; all of our advertising sites are being murdered, committing suicide, dropping dead of sheer terror or else lobotomizing or castrating themselves.  Eros is in the latter category; although it has periodically installed some new and ninnyish changes over the past few years, ever since FOSTA it has gone completely bonkers, inventing new and increasingly-incomprehensible rules and then declining ads for failing to adhere to them, yet refusing to tell advertisers what rule was broken other than “it’s a picture” or “it’s text”.  So all one can do is to guess, make changes based on the guess, resubmit the ad and then wait a day or two for Eros to either post it or decline it again.  I’ve been watching friends deal with this for the past year, and I reckon it was finally my turn; luckily, I’m a good guesser and got it right in only two tries (taking almost a week).  If you’ve had this problem yourself and can’t understand why they won’t tell you what’s going on, I suggest you familiarize yourself with both the text of FOSTA and the prosecution’s rhetoric in the Backpage persecution.  The law now prohibits “knowing” faciltation of sex work, and the government has claimed that Backpage’s telling advertisers WHICH words and pictures were prohibited constitute “knowing” facilitation (this is phrased as “Backpage told pimps how to disguise their sex trafficking ads”).  So Eros is whistling past the graveyard, thinking that the government won’t simply change the rules again when they feel like it.  And the sooner I can broaden my media exposure to the point where Eros (and every other ad platform) is superfluous to my income generation, the happier I’ll be.

Back Issue #68

Controlling pimps who steal whores’ money…really aren’t that rare…they just…wear uniforms or judicial robes rather than garish outfits with silly hats.  –  “Pimps“

• “Authorities” don’t care how many whores are killed to further their show.
• Apes call consensual sex “trafficking”, marvel at number of “traffickers”.
• Barely a week passes that I or one of my friends isn’t quoted in media.
• The badge-licking in this is so loud and fellatory, it may nauseate you.
• Do they think about anything other than who’s allowed to fuck whom?
• Is there any job fetishists don’t think needs “sex trafficking” training?
• The magic word appears herein only in the name of a phone number.
• COAST pretends busybodies know more about our trade than we do.
• Man talks to young women in public. Conclusion: SEX TRAFFICKING!
• Even cops whose crimes are less than rape use disgusting defenses.
• Until prohibition is banned, decriminalization is a temporary respite.
• They didn’t add a new sodomy law; they never repealed its old one.
• Doubting “gypsy whores” myth, but not “sex trafficking” mythology.
• Prohibitionists think US can criminalize sex work in other countries.
• IOW they provide passage & papers for migrants to escape Nigeria.
• In Sweden, teen boys have more sexual agency than adult women.
• Is Michael Weinstein’s bizarre one-man crusade against porn over?
• Another place classifies women as passive objects without agency.
• Sweden bans paying for sex, except as a defense vs rape charges.
• Small cities can only compete to be in-state “sex trafficking hubs”.
• If antis want to “rescue” us, why do they keep us from other jobs?
• A profession as old as civilization, yet somehow always “growing”.
• Massage parlors are taking the brunt of “sex trafficking” hysteria.
• Swedes just can’t admit that whores can do things for ourselves.
• Belief sustains itself by feeding on nothing other than pure faith.
• Pig says life on “sex offender” registry isn’t a “real severe thing”.
• Court delays favor the rich and powerful, so this is unsurprising.
• NOLA prosecutors love to put whores on “sex offender” registry.
• A “sex tourism destination” about an hour’s drive from Chicago.
• Raped by a cop?  Say he’s your client; that, they’ll fire him for.
• I think we’ve reached the “possessed toaster” level of hysteria.
• Remember, kids, the Swedish model^TM eliminates prostitution!
• Anti-whore “studies” aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
• A cop wanking fantasy inspired by arrest of two petty thieves.
• Oh, California Massage Therapy Council, please never change.
• The word for government/corporate “partnering” is “fascism”.
• A couple of “trafficking bowl” debunkings that both quote me.
• All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency.
• It’s always so great to see academics stand up for us in print.
• About the least-infuriating coverage of this story I could find.
• Weapons forged for use against whores will work on anyone.
• Liz Brown assesses toll in lives from a Swanee Hunt pogrom.
• Lux Alptraum on financial discrimination vs sex businesses.
• Because women are too stupid to use AirBnB for ourselves.
• James Deen appears to have been welcomed back to porn.
• Hey Australia, can the US import some of your journalists?
• It took three years to bring these serial-rapist cops to trial.
• “Cumfiesta”, “Screw You”, “Nut Sack Ale” and much more.
• In which “sex trafficking” is defined as simple prostitution.
• Man is shamed and disgraced for seeking consensual sex.
• What century do “sex trafficking” fetishists believe this is?
• Should I do something about my ex-girlfriend’s sex work?
• I predict this will be lousy with cops within a few months.
• This is the typical “Super Bowl sex trafficking” story now.
• Reminder: Spitzer’s a fan of choking women during sex.
• Apparently, there’s at least one decent judge in Ireland.
• A glimmer of sanity in “child pornography” prosecution.
• Vice is back to spreading “sex trafficking” myths again.
• These types of stories are often stunningly incoherent.
• A bill in New Hampshire would decriminalize sex work.
• Laura Lee talks about how she became a sex worker.
• “Hookers for Hillary” was just a Dennis Hof PR scam.
• In the US, the victim would’ve been arrested as well.
• A short profile of escort and activist Kimberlee Cline.
• Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi.
• Politicians just can’t get their minds out of the toilet.
• Moron who claims porn increases whores’ business.
• Korean cops are learning US-style agency negation.
• She’s facing a lot worse than mere “discrimination”.
• A short biography of Phryne, the Athenian hetaera.
• Cops nearly always get the least-possible charges.
• What alternatives to P411 would you recommend?
• A theologian debunks “sex trafficking” mythology.
• Governments now think they own their subjects.
• A selection from reader Mike Siegel’s new book.
• As opposed to what, legal trafficking of minors?
• Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Queen of Whore Allies.
• WE’RE NUMBER FOUR! WE’RE NUMBER FOUR!
• This picture of me would be illegal in Victoria.
• More Swedish model shenanigans in the UK.
• The more sex workers come out, the better.
• Is there a serial killer in Anchorage, Alaska?
• “Anti-trafficking” stunts grow ever stupider.
• In which I open up the throttle on harlotry.
• This is kind of like “legalizing” prostitution.
• It’s cops’ job to cause harm, not reduce it.
• Butterfly mourns the death of Tammy Le.
• How many times do we need to say this?
• Another sex worker who subverts hijab.
• No, NBC, this is not “bribery”; it’s rape.
• First trans sex worker murder of 2016.
• Parallels between abortion & sex work.
• Swanee’s brother.  Need I say more?
• If this is real, it’s hilariously pathetic.
• Brooke Magnanti’s first crime novel.
• How I slowly grew toward sex work.
• Facebook causes “sex trafficking”!
• Damn, has this girl got chutzpah!
• Is a sex-for-job deal prostitution?
• Journalists are starting to listen.
• Is it just me, or is this hilarious?
• A debunking of the pimp myth.
• On the vile bigotry of Gay, Inc.
• Rapist cops of February 2016.
• Most incompetent pimp ever.
• A selection of “Lilli” cartoons.
• I’ll just leave this right here.
• Another fishy P411 incident.
• “Sex traffickers” use roads!
• A lesbian client speaks out.
• Much more of this, please.
• On rape of sex workers.
• A year of rapid change.
• It’s for their own good!
• It only starts with us.