There is nothing so absurd that it cannot be believed as truth if repeated often enough. – William James
Sixteen updates and two metaupdates.
Rough Trade (Part One) (July 25th, 2010)
Ah, synchronicity; the same week this early essay was featured on Debatbond to introduce the topic “Can a prostitute be raped?”, two California lawyers presented their own views on the subject in court. Representing the “no” position:
Prosecutors dropped rape charges…against…Michael Stanford…[Defense attorney Roberto] Dulce said…the alleged victim was a prostitute and…the sexual contact between her and Stanford was consensual…In a dispute over money, the woman accused Stanford of rape…Dulce said he had witnesses who would testify that they, too, had engaged in sex with the woman…
Yet she didn’t accuse the other “witnesses” of rape, probably because they didn’t rape her. I think we can guess what happened; “dispute over payment” means he cheated her, but since Fresno isn’t Cartagena he got away with it. The story says the charge was dropped because “the alleged victim could not be found for Stanford’s trial”; she was probably afraid to go into a building full of cops. It might have been different in Modesto: “[Judge Linda McFadden]…denied a motion to overturn a grand jury indictment against…police officer…Lee Freddie Gaines…The alleged victim…testified…that she was working as a prostitute…[when Gaines] handcuffed her and demanded oral sex…”
Amsterdam (November 1st, 2010)
Despite a total lack of evidence, Dutch police and anti-whore politicians keep beating the “sex trafficking” drum:
…Amsterdam…plans to force brothel owners to submit a business plan to the city describing what measures they are taking to ensure sex workers are healthy and not being exploited…in recent years both the city and national government have become increasingly critical of the industry. [They claim] many prostitutes are victims of human trafficking or coerced by pimps…
It’s impossible to prove a negative (“whores are not coerced”); that’s why the burden of proof is supposed to be on the accuser. And greater legal restrictions will only force whores into the shadows, providing greater opportunity for coercion as they always do.
December Q & A (December 28th, 2010)
Not even doctors and scientists are immune to idiotic male-ego-boosting myths:
…A stem cell expert is looking to treat sex workers with their bodies’ own stem cells, so they can have tight, toned vaginal muscles…“The idea…was tried…by a team of scientists in Japan. They recruited commercial sex workers who wished to give up the trade and get married…” said Dr Himanshu Bansal…The clinical trial involved mostly young women, some of them mothers, who were worried that their vaginal muscles were too lax…
I hate to break this to you, guys, but your penises are not as big as babies. Not even close. No amount of sex, commercial or otherwise, can loosen the vaginal muscles; only babies do that. Notice that “some of them mothers?” The truth is “most of them.”
I Really Shouldn’t Even LOOK at an Issue of Cosmopolitan (January 18th, 2011)
I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s willing to say out loud that Cosmo’s “sex advice” is ludicrous; Ben Reininga writes “Ridiculous Tips for a Miserable Sex Life”, which this month features his hilarious picks for Cosmo’s 44 most ridiculous tips of all time. Enjoy.
A Narrow View (April 29th, 2011)
An organization of young Chicago sex workers fights for their rights against a system which treats them as infantilized victims:
When youth who live on the streets and work in the sex trade…are victimized…often the institutions that are supposed to help them…do more harm than good. [Leaders of]…the Young Women’s Empowerment Project…said, “We don’t dictate a young person’s future and make decisions for them, we support them to make it on their own”…While many organizations dealing with sex workers aim to help them leave sex work, YWEP maintains that it is a valid individual choice and practices a harm reduction philosophy…
Social Construction of Eunuchs (July 18th, 2011)
Apparently forced feminization of little boys isn’t enough for Swedish neofeminists any more:
…Vänsterpartiet, [a feminist socialist party,] tabled a motion that would require office washrooms to be genderless with a sit-down-only requirement…Party speakers cited medical research they said shows men empty their bladders more efficiently while seated…[which] reduces the risk for prostate problems…[motion author] Viggo Hansen…[said] the move does not represent an attempt to meddle in the bathroom habits of citizens…
Wholesale Hypocrisy (October 12th, 2011)
It’s always refreshing to see judges slap witch-hunters down:
Instead of presenting prostitution-related charges against former University of New Mexico President F. Chris Garcia and others to a grand jury this week, prosecutors are now discussing the future of the case…[after] Judge Stan Whitaker…ruled that neither a website, an online message board nor a computer amount to a “house of prostitution or a place where prostitution is practiced, encouraged or allowed”…Garcia’s attorney, Robert Gorence…last month called on District Attorney Kari Brandenburg “to…[exonerate] Dr. Garcia” after owning up to “the mistake she made when she bought in to APD’s flawed investigation and exaggerated charges…[Garcia] never received a penny from any such activities nor did he control or direct the activities of women who advertised as escorts”…
As another legal expert stated, “Connecting people to do whatever they want to do is not illegal, it never has been.” And as Melissa Gira Grant succinctly put it, “Data is not prostitution.”
Forward and Backward (November 22nd, 2011)
While American prohibitionists continue to demand that whores’ advertising be censored, Spain has moved into the 21st century: “…the Spanish parliament reversed a 2010 ban on advertising by…prostitutes and brothels…[in order] to stimulate Spain’s poor economy. The sex industry spent approximately €40 million annually on advertising, according to a 2007 report…” Perhaps if the economy continues to worsen, American politicians may eventually wake up; this is, after all, the same reason alcohol Prohibition was repealed in 1932.
The More the Better (January 9th, 2012)
This article about University of Wyoming students who work as strippers is not only fairly sensible, but includes these encouraging words from Women’s Studies (!) professor Susan Dewey:
“It is a reality that some women see sex work as a form of liberation…in recent years…trafficking has become conflated with sex work…I have many students who will use [the] terms prostitution and trafficking synonymously, interchangeably. This is very, very problematic because when you say to someone ‘you do not have the right to do something legally’ that’s one thing…but when you say to a person ‘you think are making a choice but you’re actually not, because no person with self-respect would make that choice,’ that’s a real problem.”
The Course of a Disease (February 16th, 2012)
This week Scottish Labour MP Rhoda Grant was defeated in her attempt to fast-track Swedish Model legislation without allowing opponents to speak:
The proposal…must now go out to consultation, instead of taking a quicker route through the Scottish Parliament. Ms Grant argued a previous attempt to pass such a law meant the issues had already been aired…A similar proposal in 2010 was opposed by ministers, who feared it would push the sex trade underground. Critics of such legislation believe that making workers in the sex trade less visible to the authorities would place them in greater danger…
Here’s an example of how different the US and UK can be sometimes: one of the groups opposed to client criminalization is the Association of Chief Police Officers. Dr. Brooke Magnanti’s excellent essay on the issue concludes with the eminently-quotable line, “It’s time we started acting like grownups and stopped pretending that making something illegal makes it cease to exist.”
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (March 3rd, 2012)
The new “Trafficking in Persons Report” has been released; Algeria, Central African Republic, Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe are now on Tier 3, “Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so” (those “standards” are defined by the US via methods it neither discusses with anyone else nor even explains). Several other countries were raised to Tier 2 after they stepped up pogroms against whores (as Malaysia did in 2008), and Israel was promoted to Tier 1 (probably due to its flirtation with the Swedish Model).
The Immunity Syndrome (March 5th, 2012)
Parents in Onalaska, Washington are reportedly “furious” that a school principal honestly answered students’ questions in a sex education class; apparently, the parents expected her to lie, and one of them said that talking about sex in a sex education class is “just the same as raping somebody.”
Above the Law (March 8th, 2012)
The British government has finally admitted that cops are allowed to trick women into having sex while spying on them: “[Home Office Minister Nick] Herbert said it was important police were allowed to have sex with activists because otherwise it could be used as a way of outing potential undercover officers…” In other words they’re allowed to do whatever they like, including rape, in order to accomplish whatever it is they want to do.
Little Boxes (April 29th, 2012)
The inevitable result of trying to make artificial distinctions between consensual behaviors:
The owner of a [Las Vegas] massage business…says she’s losing crucial business because of a [new] city law requiring her to close at 10 p.m…”If we don’t get an extension, I’ll be closed within a month…The daytime does not pull in what we need to cover. It is barely paying the rent for that space and utilities.” Mayor Carolyn Goodman said changing the ordinance for the Johnsons would set a precedent for more than 50 other “massage establishment” licensees…
As I’ve said before, “attempting to define sexuality…as being in the… ‘legal’ category rather than the…‘illegal’ one is a tacit acknowledgement that such lines of demarcation are valid and that government has the right to draw them…even if one wins the battle, the government can simply re-draw the line to include one’s entrenched position.” The Johnsons are learning that the hard way.
Naked Truth (May 23rd, 2012)
I’m going to use this title for articles written by current or former sex workers in mainstream sites or publications. This time, two outstanding pieces by Tits and Sass contributors: “The Ways We Don’t Talk About Wealth” by Charlotte Shane in The New Inquiry, and “Can Sex Workers Transition to a Cashless Economy?” by Susan Shepard (AKA Bubbles Burbujas) in Forbes.
Reframing (June 20th, 2012)
My friend LilyRose sent me a link to this “reframed” trailer, which is exactly the opposite of the Mrs. Doubtfire one and just as clever:
Metaupdates
Law of the Instrument in TW3 (#20) (May 19th, 2012)
Think about these stories next time you hear some “authority” blathering about how “trafficking” has increased. The first one comes via Wendy Lyon: “A 30-year-old man…[was] charged with an offence under the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act…[after] travelling to Ireland [to meet] a child, having…communicated with that child on two or more previous occasions with the intent of doing an act that would constitute sexual exploitation…” And here’s another one from Minneapolis, Minnesota:
[Mickey Cupkie]…has been charged under Minnesota’s new Sex Trafficking law for having sex with two teen prostitutes, ages 15 and 17…The girls were runaways, says Minneapolis Police Sgt. Grant Snyder…He says pimps picked the girls up…and then placed an add [sic] on Backpage.com…Ramsey County Attorney John Choi says he hopes the charges send a message to the Johns…
Said message being, “’trafficking’ means whatever we want it to mean, and if girls act alone we’ll just invent pimps and ‘traffickers’ to fit the narrative.”
See No Evil in TW3 (#21) (May 26th, 2012)
Even Sweden gets it right once in a while: “Swedish news outlet The Local reports that their Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of manga translator Simon Lundström on child pornography charges…The court’s decision reflects the viewpoint of free speech advocates…that sexually explicit manga images are…not child pornography…”
One Year Ago Today
“Lola Montez” was one of the most colorful courtesans of the 19th (or any other) century.
Fresh from the Guardian:
French minister for women seeks abolition of prostitution in Europe
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem to organise conference of experts on how to contain sex-trade and human-trafficking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/22/french-minister-abolition-prostitution-europe
Unfortunately no comments possible but a related article might show up in CIF.
Well, the one bright spot in the article is this:
“In 2003 a controversial law against soliciting was introduced by Nicolas Sarkozy, then interior minister, making it illegal to stand in a public place known for prostitution dressed in revealing clothes.”
I’m glad he’s out then, and if the new prime minister simply follows the policy of the old, then it’s just a wash. (In other words, the policy was likely the same under the Sarkozy government.)
Another important point that if not for the Dominique Strauss-Kahn fiasco, there may not even have been a French Minister for Women, the post had been vacant for many years and the DSK thing was a black eye for the Socialist party.
After all, DSK would probably have won the election and be in charge of France now if not for that scandal.
Germany, in the meantime, is making sure that only “off the books” work like prostitution is going to be viable in most of Europe (possibly even France if things keep going the way they are going), with increases in taxes, fees and every other way the state can extract money from the individual being part of every Bailout/Austerity plan so far. (Heck, in places like Greece even doctors and dentists work off the books these days when they can get away with it.)
RE: Cosmo’s absurd sex tips, SMBC also did a short video mockery of them as well.
Im skeptical that we will enter into a cashless society anytime soon. Why? I doubt the governments of the world will want their financial transactions tracked.
I beg to differ; governments LOVE cashless society, because it allows the people’s transactions to be tracked so they can’t avoid taxes and other controls. No matter how cashless the citizenry, governments and the mega-rich can always make “black” transfers via specie, bearer bonds, etc.
That’s why I’m surprised that your escort agency took credit cards. How the hell does that work? Most girls – well almost all I’ve seen – demand cash only … can’t be tracked unless they deposit into a bank.
It just seems CC transactions would be one more way for Uncle Sam to locate and persecute you.
Why does it surprise you that a legal, taxpaying business organized under an LLC, equipped with a business license, and advertised in the phone book would accept credit cards?
Remember, until “sex trafficking” hysteria became a big deal the feds didn’t give a damn about prostitution; individual federal prosecutors occasionally targeted an interstate service so they could rob it and make themselves look like big men, but that was pretty rare.
Let me count the ways …
First off – dodgy customers who make a charge – and then try say it’s a fraudulent charge later. How do you fight that? In the same court system that doesn’t recognize prostitution as a legal business?
Second of all – well hell, I guess I don’t know exactly how much the feds know about cc transactions – but if the IRS tracks them, I would think you would be the first in line for an audit. Who’s going to defend you against unwarranted scrutiny from the feds? If there’s cc transactions the feds could assume that there are a lot of cash transactions also – and … are they ALL being claimed? Now we’re talking – “hey, let’s dig into the lives and finances of all the gals working for Maggie – just to see if they’re living within the means they’ve claimed.”
I don’t know – maybe I’m paranoid or just incredibly stupid about how the feds work – it’s too many “targets” for me to track. You got IRS out there … you got FBI … you got local yokels – everyone gunning for you. Even DEA and BATF can find excuses to dive into your shit. It would seem to me, the less of a paper trail you have the better. Yep, prostitution may not have been on the radar back then as much as it is now – but it’s always been on the radar. Only reason I know this is the few times I did use an escort agency or “brothel” in the US, they took great pains to ensure I wasn’t a cop until I became a regular.
I’m surprised some clients even used CC’s to pay for sex. I wouldn’t and never have – and not just because I don’t want my wife to find the trasaction – but because it would be a paper trail directly linking me to an illegal activity.
Only it isn’t illegal. Escort services are perfectly, 100% legal businesses. Chargebacks are easily defeated with proper paperwork except in very rare cases involving American Express, so rare the monetary loss from not taking the cards vastly exceeds any risk. Girls working for me couldn’t be tracked because they were independent contractors and I didn’t have anything but their names on record; at the slightest hint of trouble those would’ve gone into the shredder. As for the rest, that’s what big-name CPAs with offices on Poydras Street are for.
C’mon, Krulac, just because I’m gorgeous it doesn’t mean I’m stupid.
I don’t know who has a bigger ego – you or me. 😀
But I DO know who has a bigger brain! And it’s not me! 🙁
Thanks for explaining this! It’s still too many targets for me to track – but you were able to do it.
I am not egotistical! I agree with Sherlock Holmes:
“My dear Watson,” said he, “I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers.”
The question is, would Bitcoin quality as “cashless”… Since there’s no physical cash, but it retains a lot of the properties of it (irreversibility, pseudo-anonymity, etc.)
Wow. I am so impressed with the Young Women’s Empowerment organization you linked. I want to support them, I wish someone like that had been around when I got started back in the 1970’s.
Re: Sweden’s bathrooms.
That’s just ridiculous. That said, there are plenty of bathroom seats where I do not sit, merely hovering over them. My thigh muscles are extremely strong.
Hey girl! Maybe it’s NOT the men – but the WOMEN who think they won’t be able to enjoy sex with a regular sized husband. Maybe THEY’VE bought into the myth that sex work stretches you out.
More proof that it’s not just right-wingers who want to “meddle” in our personal affairs. Oh yeah – right wingers may want to dictate what kind of conduct goes on in your bedroom – but here we have a gang of socialists trying to dictate how the hell a man goes to the bathroom! Wonderful! And by the way – how do I play “hit the target” while sitting down? That’s half the fun of being dude!!
I know she was trying to implement the Swede model … but there’s some quotes in that article from a former prostitute where she seems to have a problem with John’s getting off scot-free while the hookers are charged. I agree with her – if they’re going to charge the girl they should also charge the guy. This puts “skin in the game” for men to get off their asses and help overturn these stupid laws.
Undoubtedly, women buy into the absurd “sex destroys vaginas” myth, just like they buy into the Madonna/whore duality from which it springs. But we don’t expect hookers to know as much about human biology as doctors and scientists so they are the ones I’m going to criticize.
As for the Swedish Model: one of the reasons it’s gone as far as it has is that its proponents were clever enough to enlist the cooperation of “survivors” and of morally retarded whores who think the solution to their own mistreatment is to campaign for other people to be mistreated as well (or instead).
They never say that “sex destroys penises” do they???
I’ve never seen stats on this – but it’d be intresting to see exactly which “member” gets more of a workout over the lifespan of humans – the penis, or the vagina.
I’m betting it’s the penis many thousands of times over – if you count everything a guy does with his. 😀
Even though, statistically, sex probably does destroy more penises… Not even counting STD’s; two words: penile fracture.
You’re on target as usual with the Swedish model. Of course my heart bleeds, literally, for anyone who faces injustice, abusive violence or mistreatment.
However thing’s aren’t going to change under the Swedish model, people will still need sex and intimacy and there will always people who feel the need, or in rare cases, enjoy offering it as a way of making a living. It just moves everything underground, forces people to take risks and generally dis-empowers people.
All the Swedish model has the potential to do is take an income away from enlightened women and create a new class of minor criminal dealt with by way of financial penalty and criminal conviction for choosing to act upon desire.
The Swedish ruling doesn’t quite reflect the idea that manga is not child pornography, rather, that most of the images in question aren’t sufficiently “realistic” to qualify (source: http://www.thelocal.se/41460/20120615/):
The court gave the following reasoning in finding his possession of one illicit image as defensible (courtesy of Blanchimont: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=2173994&highlight=#2173994):
So, in Sweden, manga drawn in an unrealistic manner is legal regardless of content, while realistic manga depicting underage “figures in sexual poses” is not. I’m sure this could never cause confusion in the future, as clearly everybody can determine at a glance whether a drawing is realistic to the point of transgression.
Amsterdam – The closure of some brothels, and harassment of the remainder has merely pushed much of the sector into escorting and home-based work. The irony is that this makes snooping around and interfering more difficult for the power structure.
Social Construction of Eunuchs – A perfect example of the totalitarian mindset of neofeminism. No activity is beyond politicization and (attempted) control.
Forward and Backward – The rationale for the 2010 ban on advertising was that it was normalizing sex work – and indeed it was – since newspapers like La Vanguardia, El Mundo and El País were carrying hundreds of adverts every day. Without censorship, such a mainstream activity cannot be classed as fringe.
Social Construction of Eunuchs –
As a guy I don’t have much of a problem with sitting down pee-ing, I can pass it off as being drunk/lazy/both. But due to my….attachments…. I can shit standing upright, so it all balances out nicely.
The course of the Disease:
Uh oh! A wild Butlerite appears!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/22/french-minister-abolition-prostitution-europe
OMG you have that drunken stork – that cartoon was easily in my top 5 looney toons sketches.
Enjoy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm5fgzmLqek&w=640&h=360]
Not surprised TheDudes might have had difficulty finding this cartoon sketch in regular media anymore. I can easily see why networks wouldn’t run it, even before the neofeminist complaints started rolling in…
An economically accurate depiction of a married couple in the 50s? (Husband works outside the home; wife works in it).
A husband allowed input into how “his” child gets raised (despite that the responsibility for it is entrusted in the stay-at-home-mom’s hands)?
A wife who agrees politely with her husband’s opinions?
HORRORS! We can’t have any little girls in this enlightened modern age watch a cartoon like this! They might grow up to be parents wanting to raise their own children instead of paying strangers to fail at it! They might grow into wives who are NICE to their husbands instead of ordering them around like a marriage certificate was an employment contract!
Our little children might grow up with their grandparents; values (like having decades-long, successful marriages, taking care of your family members, being fiscally responsible, property owners who leave money to their heirs rather then debt). What a tragedy THAT would be. >.>
(And all this outrage based on the premise that small children will remember the cartoon as a social instruction on gender roles, rather than a funny story about a giant baby acting like a normal baby in amusing ways.)
This is why I wholeheartedly support a free internet without political interference. And yes I extend that right to groups that even I dislike: hate sites, animal porn etc…
THat being said, I think I might still have Goliath on VHS somewhere….
I’m not surprised Israel would be “trying out” the Swedish model — they already have what is probably the most ridiculous, feminazi definition of rape on the planet, namely “rape by fraud.” Meaning it is considered rape if you lie about irrelevant things like your religion or national origin in order to get laid. Give me a break!
Fraud is a violation of consensual action (and a form of force) because it is deliberate deception in order to obtain that which you cannot obtain consensually by telling the truth. Religion and National origin ARE bullshit ideas, but that doesn’t matter with regards to consent if someone uses those as a means of determining what kind of person they will have sex with. Or to put it another way:
You don’t get to override other people’s choices and preferences (even stupid ones) that don’t hurt you.
For a male at least sitting down to piss is unsatisfactory – you always want to do a bit more when you stand up. Something to do with the route of the urethra, I think (it was on QI one time).
I have kidney failure so I hardly do anything at all: but I still want to do more when I stand up.
Sure that isn’t backwards, Stephen? O.o
I’ve always found sitting down (and more to the point, being able to lean my torso forward and point the urethra to the ground) is the only way to fully empty my bladder, as opposed to standing up, where I sometimes have the problem completely emptying the hose, leading to some minor leakage when I put it away.
It’s like only being able to tip a glass of water to 20 degrees from horizontal; You just can’t get that last bit out until you can upend it the rest of the way.
Sorry – I meant when you stand up after sitting on the toilet. (Do you want more detail?)
I read the Cosmo thing. There is only one reason Eden didn’t have to call 911 and tell them, “Hurry up! He’s hardly breathing, and when he does, all he can do is gasp something about a walrus.”
That reason is because Eden doesn’t exist.
I think the answer to the question “can a prostitute be raped” is pretty basic. Of course she can, the same way as anyone else, if her will is overborne through force, fear or drugs. But I am hesitant to describe an after-the-fact dispute over the fee as a rape.
What if there is an honest misunderstanding about what was due. Or what if the guy thought he was promised an hour but only got 15 minutes and the woman watched Oprah the whole time, so he doesn’t want to pay the full amount. Is that rape? I think if you treated those situations as some version of fraud or theft it would make more sense. There would also be an established body of law to apply.
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