The only difference between an escort and, say, your sister is probably that an escort charges money. – Felix Clay
Reporter casts violent rapist as a victim of prostitution:
…The havoc prostitution can wreak on lives played out in a London [Ontario] courtroom…when [Nelson] Martinez…was sentenced for what was described as a “callous and dangerous” attack on a sex worker…Martinez received a sentence of [merely] 38 months…[because] Justice Peter Hockin [was] impressed by Martinez’s promise to take counselling for his anger and sexual problems…[his] marriage was healthy until…Martinez turned away from his wife and children, and to pornography and prostitution…
Quite Possibly the Most Uptight Nerd Ever
Actually, the author of this particular article isn’t uptight; he seems accepting, though he’s a bit ill-informed about screening and seems to believe streetwalking is the norm:
…the Berlin-based Peppr app uses GPS to connect potential clients with prostitutes in their immediate area…to save prostitutes from having to pound sidewalks for customers. It was created by…Pia Poppenreiter…after seeing sex workers out of doors on a cold night…To help make sure that its sex workers don’t become part of any human trafficking chain, Peppr interviews its advertisers over the phone before they sign them up…The company will also not work with brothels, only individuals and escort agencies…
Megalomaniac speaks for thousands of people, claiming they all want celibacy:
Massage parlors…have multiplied over the past decade, and city leaders don’t believe the boom is based on increased demand for back rubs…South Pasadena City Manager Sergio Gonzalez said…“That is something I believe is exploitation of women…it’s promoting sex, and that’s not what we want in South Pasadena”…
The rest of the article lays the blame for this terrifying invasion of peaceful businesswomen on the incompetence of the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC), an organization which claims to be such an efficient investigative body that it “did what the FBI couldn’t: uncover PROOF of a “vast network” of traffickers!” The law which created the CAMTC contained a “sunset clause” which will expire next year, and many politicians want it to do just that; however, CAMTC director Richard McElroy warns of dire consequences if his crack team of super-massage-cops is dissolved: “The human trafficking cartel…are [sic] praying we sunset because we are the biggest thorn in their side”…
Men just can’t let go of the pathetic fantasy of the high-income heterosexual male prostitute with gorgeous customers:
…in…Fading Gigolo…John Turturro…plays…a gentle bookstore employee who loses his part-time job…For his first trick – a passionate one-on-one with [Sharon Stone] – Fioravante earns $2,500…A string of satisfied clients follow…and the money rolls in…
A [Washington state cop]…involved in fighting…sex trafficking was arrested…on child porn charges…Donald Glunt…described himself on his LinkedIn page as being a training coordinator for the church-based group Hope4Justice…officials…discovered images on Glunt’s city-owned cell phone while conducting an internal administrative investigation…
Just when you thought fake teen drug scares couldn’t get any stupider, Ohio local news brings us beezin, in which kids rub Burt’s Bees lip balm on their eyelids…If I had to guess, I’d say beezin is probably most popular at rainbow parties after drinking hand sanitizer and butt-chugging some vodka…”The peppermint oil in the lip balm is a very strong irritant and can cause inflammation in the eye”…[said] Dr. Brett Cauthen…
The scare appears to have been touched off by this parody video:
Panhandling…in Louisiana would be banned if a bill the House unanimously [approved] …gets signed into law…[sponsor] Austin Badon…proposed the bill…[in] answer to a call by [cops] to help…break up obvious patterns of prostitution…The legislation would allow for prostitutes to be “hassled by the cops,” he said…it would also apply to hitchhikers…
Four French police officers are being held in custody on suspicion of raping a 34-year-old Canadian woman at their Paris headquarters…[after she met them] during a night of heavy drinking at a nearby Irish pub…
Given that politicians who obsess about certain kinks are nearly always practitioners of those same kinks, what are we to make of Joe Arpaio’s crusade against zoophiliac women?
Once again, deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have busted someone who went to Craigslist looking for sex with an animal. This time, a 22-year-old Phoenix man went to…Craigslist seeking a male horse “on which to commit the act of fellatio”…Detectives were able to identify the poster as…Donald Waelde…
It takes a truly sick mind to vomit out the phrase “commit fellatio”, and unless I miss my guess that’s not a man but a transwoman; of course, Arizona’s pretty intolerant of them as well.
Once again, Cracked demonstrates it has the smartest talent pool in journalism today:
…I feel that if an adult woman…wants to charge money for sexual services, it’s not a lot different from anyone else charging for massage services, or to be a clown at your birthday party, except the balloon animals are way more fun. They have an ability others are interested in that they have monetized. If that upsets you, it’s probably because you have an issue, not them. Naturally, I’m opposed to human trafficking, sex slavery, underage prostitution, violence, and substance abuse, but I really believe a person can sell sex and not be involved in any of that, just as you can be a pot smoker and maybe not be involved in Mexican drug cartels, the beheading of civilians, organized crime, robbery, and meth-related buggery…
At least this particular iteration of “robot hooker” idiocy recognizes the possibility that sex work is here to stay:
John Danaher…published a paper that…lays out two contrasting hypotheses: one in which robots dominate the sex industry; and another in which robot use actually leads to an increase in human sex work…The displacement hypothesis says sex robots will eventually push human sex workers out of a job…The resiliency hypothesis…[argues] that human prostitutes are here to stay…[because] humans will overwhelmingly prefer a human-on-human encounter to one with a robot…and…somewhat humorously suggests that there will be a spike in human prostitution because robots will edge people out of otherwise conventional jobs…
Yes, women turning to sex work because they can’t find any other profitable work is “humorous”. Naturally, the first hypothesis is “supported” with nonsense about “exploitation”, “sex trafficking” and “diseases”.
“Sex trafficking” is caused by abortion!
The one-child policy in China has resulted in more than just forced abortions and sterilizations — it has led to massive cases of child trafficking as families attempt to buy children. It’s also leading to international sex slavery rings and selling women as brides…
…SWOP [Chicago held a]…public event…called, “Understanding Sex Work and Allyship”…on…the…social misperceptions surrounding sex work, and the services that SWOP provides…including…the need for decriminalization and basic labor rights as a way of countering isolation and shame…SWOP should be respected as a union organization, and equally as fighting an important civil-rights battle…
“Eat the Poo Poo” sounds like the title of a punk album:
A Ugandan pastor who has spent years calling for a stricter anti-gay law could now be charged under that very same law…Martin Ssempa is notorious for screening gay porn in church and claiming it is common for gay men to “eat the poo-poo”…Paul Kaliisa, from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST)…[suggests Ssempa] is almost “obsessed” with [gay porn]. “He moves everywhere with clips of gay men”…
Melissa Gira Grant has a good article about the evangelical Christian basis of “sex trafficking” hysteria, focusing especially on Sold No More (the ones who claimed a mineral show was a hotbed of “trafficking”) and Shared Hope International. One interesting point: Sold No More began as a “crisis pregnancy center”, one of those scams that trick women seeking abortions into anti-abortion propaganda sessions.
…I’m Felicia Anna, a 27 year old prostitute from Romania working in the heart of the Red Light District in Amsterdam. I’ve been working there now for more than 4 years, unforced, unexploited and completely on my own free will…Before I got in touch with my boyfriend, I had no idea of the stories, witch hunt and simply false facts…about my work place…and prostitution in general…most of the prostitutes don’t speak out…because they’re scarred of a pimp, or because what people are saying is true, but simply because they just don’t know what’s going on…almost nobody does anything to debunk these false stories and bring out the truth, and the people who did hardly got heard…
What the hell is going on in Washington state? These recent anti-whore editorials read more like something one might expect from a small-town paper in the Bible Belt than from a major newspaper in a supposedly “liberal” state. This one urges the government to grant itself censorship powers over the internet and includes pearl-clutching sentences like “The Internet empowers pimps to post an endless stream of titillating photos of sex workers, many of whom are forced into the trade as children” (gotta love the juxtaposition of the term “sex worker” with blatant anti-agency propaganda). Another one infantilizes women even further with prudish arsehole-clenching about “illicit ads that reduce people’s daughters to faceless bodyshots…body measurements…and suggestive pseudonyms.” Yes, a grown woman with a university education wrote that. A third one from Olympia quotes the usual idiocy, calls strip clubs “hotbeds of human trafficking” and cheers the enacting of a new law which “makes it a felony to coerce someone into involuntary servitude” (apparently, they’ve never heard of the 13th Amendment up there). All I can say is, I know a lot of people who will be very disappointed when this moral panic collapses and they need to find a new way to sell papers.
Held Together With Lies (Hysteria on Parade)
This article is an odd hybrid; it admits that the majority of “trafficking” is for manual labor rather than sex, yet inflates the Bales number to 32 million, then claims that exploitative sweatshops aren’t exploitative if they’re owned and operated by “rescue” organizations.
Another mob-with-torches story from Los Angeles, containing this gem:
“We’ve got to swarm these girls with love,” said the Rev. Deborah Manns, who…works with police, probation officers and parents to reclaim runaway girls…”We go to parties, we go to parks, we go to malls…I will chase a girl down the street, grab her, hold her, fight her…whatever it takes to keep her from going back to the track”…where trafficking victims are often forced to sell their bodies…
Ignoring people’s choices, spying on them, tackling them and betraying them to cops is “love”.
This Random Brothel Exposé Generator is pure brilliance.
Worse Than I Thought (TW3 #403)
It’s really good to see Reason expressing such strong opposition to sex work criminalization lately, especially when they quote me in the process; I just wish they wouldn’t give quite so much time to the awful Dennis Hof.
Under Every Bed (All Traffick, All the Time)
The grandiosity of these delusions increases by the day:
Windie Jo Lazenko …went to [North Dakota]…to fight the sex trafficking…that…is a direct result of the oil boom…she said…she has helped 10 trafficked girls escape the sex trade…“Some…hotels…actually have floors that are bought out by pimps…and it operates pretty much like a brothel”…
Marching Up Their Own Arses (TW3 #414)
You should’ve known that Arizona, which is trying to market itself as whore-hater central, would be the next to jump on the “escort licensing” fad:
Gov. Jan Brewer…signed sweeping legislation that…[forces] businesses such as massage parlors and escort services that advertise online…to post their license numbers…[and] have written permission of any women they depict and have evidence they are not minors. Cindy McCain…said the…law will help close off the state to…traffickers…[it] received unanimous support in…the…Legislature…
Of there was a policy anywhere on Earth that I thought might result in something as anti-sense as “human trafficking”, it would be China’s population control policy. Once you have granted the State the right to perform abortions on unwilling women, any obscenity seems possible. I would expect that the persons “trafficked” would be mostly male babies, sold to wealthy couples who were having trouble producing an heir, but I don’t really expect anything connected with that horrorshow to make any goddamned sense.
On the other hand, I trust news coming out of Communist China even less than I trust news from most other countries (except, maybe, North Korea). So who knows what the ^%^&&*% is going on?
“Human trafficking” makes a lot of sense (in an evil way), but it’s only possible on the scale fetishists masturbate to with the complicity of the governments of regions where it’s practiced. The reason “trafficking” makes no sense in the way the term is now used is that it is applied to things that are not slavery (such as sex work), but not applied to things that come close enough to qualify because governments define their own behavior and that of their fascist cronies as right and proper.
And that’s more of or less my point; a State that is immoral enough to enforce China’s abortion policy is immoral enough to engage in human trafficking, as the term is understood by the hysterics.
The Chinese government does not perform compulsory abortions. Nor do they perform sterilisations without consent. Abuses of power by local administrators have happened, just like you can easily find reports of police misbehavior in the US and UK, and in most cases these officials are punished severely.
The majority of the people who have more than one child are fined. I and my family have travelled to China often over a period of decades, and no one one has ever claimed that this happens. We speak fluent Mandarin and our friends in China are not government officials or civil servants.
Minority races are exempt from the one child rule, and rural residents who break the rule once are usually overlooked without even a fine.
Do not believe everything you hear from Western propaganda outlets or NGOs who have ulterior motives.
It is unwise to underestimate the viciousness of Communist government. Historically, it has been unwise to underestimate the viciousness of a Chinese government. You may well be right, but I strongly suspect that you are not.
Manns admits to assault and battery (and unlawful confinement?) involving a minor, and she’s not in prison?
Speaking of Martin Ssempa, I know one Newgrounds user called biIIgates who took his soundbyte and made a funny Flash cartoon with it. (Too bad NG went from a bastion of unpretentious fun into the website equivalent of Windows 8.)
Due to today’s boiling social cauldron, I’m well past the point of being willing to approach anyone for any sexual reason. Just an observer these days, other than my partner (see icon), who feels about the same. So, for many years now, no straying, no hookers, just us. One fewer way to get caught in society’s gears and ground up on the sharp teeth of rules made by idiots. If we were to break up, I would just count my sex life as regards human interaction as over.
But… a robot hooker? A simulacrum that for the majority of intents and purposes sexual, is an accurate and fetching portrayal of a female human? Good grief, count me in. In fact, even better… I’d invest in adding one to my household as a regular sexual participant, and if this construct was a worthy stand in for a female body with female sexual responses, I’d be willing to spend to do so — six figures, perhaps seven. This is *far* more interesting to me than the idea of buying an experience or a series of experiences with a human being who might be diseased, might be unhappy, almost certainly is just as ultimately disinterested (or perhaps even brings more unfavorable thinking and/or attitudes to the event) and definitely puts me at legal risk. A robot appears to be safer on every front.
From there, all of the benefits of a paid stand, for as many events as one was inclined to indulge, none of the typical downsides — but, I’d imagine, quite expensive. Still, the value of opting out of society’s continuing efforts to stab itself in its face over lighthearted matters sexual, and yet have all of the entertainment? Priceless.
Sadly, before anything actually worthy along those lines gets here, I’ll probably have shuffled off my mortal coil and only be supporting the worm hooker community, lol.
Robot hooker will never work. Sex is extremely subtle, to the point that sex with a gay girl – real live biological female – is somehow kinda missing something. For a clue as to how difficult it is for a computer to convincingly play human, watch Polar Express.
I won’t say that a gynoid will never be able to convincingly simulate human female response, though I believe that’s centuries in the future rather than the decades predicted by silly people. However, as I explained in the original “Pygmalion Fallacy” essay, any mechanism which is indistinguishable from a human in a GFE interaction will also be indistinguishable in a court of law, thus invalidating the premise that it’s possible to create artificial beings to be genuine “companion slaves” without creating the human rights violation prohibitionists and “sex trafficking” fetishists only imagine exists now.
> any mechanism which is indistinguishable from a human in a GFE interaction
Speaking for myself, I’m not after such indistinguishability. Just as with sexual services purchased from a human, I’d not expect (or want) real feelings or thoughts such as those I might desire from a conventional relationship with some actual love and depth backing it up. This is a sexual transaction for which I am the beneficiary and the other is the paid/designated provider. What I’m really “getting” is physical; almost certainly the majority of the rest of what the supplier provides is performance art, and as such, an illusion anyway.
You have said here on your blog that you fake orgasms; this is the crux of the thing. I’m not buying your orgasm; I’m buying mine (although I will say that if I *could* buy yours, i would.) I’m not even slightly deluded that our interaction is any form of actual GFE; it’s something else entirely. The quality of it depends not on your (or the robot’s) quality of emulation, but on my own ability to employ my imagination.
So it would be with a robot. That’s not a problem. That’s a feature. 🙂
I think we’re already beginning to see the very faintest edges of this with realdolls and the like. They are in no way “indistinguishable”, yet for some, they are filling some needs — and without many of the downsides that society and custom have glued to actual humans in these roles. That last is no small thing.
WRT “companion slaves”, my vacuum cleaner (a robot, as it happens) is indeed bound to my every intent and desire for the domain it operates within. When, where, how much, how long, who for, etc. What’s the problem with an upscale realdoll, as it were, serving in the same role? I think if you assume that human or human-like intelligence is a prerequisite for this, you’re not seeing the entire picture; I am confident that the role can exist without the need for intelligence and/or consciousness — and it may be better all around if that’s exactly how it’s done. Not only because of the issues of constraining a truly intelligent entity to a role at my whim, but also because, like a human sex worker, as soon as you have an actual intelligent partner, you’re already getting a performance anyway.
Or to put it another way, if you want a real relationship, you need to find a real relationship. Sex on demand as a service is not likely to be that. So less-than-intelligent robots would be fine. Just as my robot vacuum cleaner is fine. I can easily imagine that with a robot that was actually intelligent, most relationships would be actual, not simulated. Because they’d be people, and unless they chose the life of a sexual service provider, you’d have to work at the relationship just as you do with an intelligent human being. Given success in such a pursuit, the potential for (any kind of) interaction because this individual actually cares for you seems just as likely as it would be with a human.
I suspect you are not a very regular client of sex workers. While there are certainly many men who might want a mechanical interaction, it’s human interaction that is most sought after…which is why it commands the highest price, always has, and always will.
As I said in my post just previous here, I no longer avail myself of professionals — I don’t consider the candle worth the risk at this point in time, nor would I seek another personal relationship if the one I am in ended. Society, as far as I’m concerned, is deep into a vicious and dangerous batshit crazy phase, and I decline to participate.
However, I’ve been there, and to me, one thing was consistently obvious: the physicality is real. The other facets are performance art, and to take even slight advantage of them, one must engage suspension of disbelief, like any other performance.
If the choice was between a participant who actually cared and was as involved as I am, as opposed to one that is not, then what I’d have is a choice between a relationship and a service. But that’s not what the choice is. Assuming the availability of adequate robotic service, it’s a choice between one service and another. Both of which require suspension of disbelief.
I agree, you have humanity in your court, as it were. But non-AI robotics should have many advantages in theirs — actual ownership, consistency, compliance, range, health, risk and liability, both on an individual basis and WRT society’s sword of stupidity as applied to personal choice. Add the fact that it should be possible to bring such a thing home and have it available 24/7… And since your humanity is first, on loan, and second, playing a part… I’m having trouble seeing why a human should even be considered.
My bet is that far in the future, a non-AI robot that brings the look and feel and a set of skills will be a serious competitor in this particular regard. Just an IMHO.
An interesting point to consider is how many people snuggle up with vibrators rather than go seeking an insincere, costly, risky partner. Vibrators definitely don’t bring humanity; but the other advantages are myriad, and they are a lot more popular than sex workers are in terms of uses per capita. Think of a sex robot as the most awesome vibrator ever. There’s a pretty clear message there, I think.
A couple of elements in play here. You speak as if the US experience is the only in in existence. I live in a place where prostitution as widely available and reasonably priced, and is not subject to legal harassment or social censure.
You also speak from the point of view of a man who only wants to penetrate and orgasm. Not everyone is like that. For instance, I am into BDSM. It is the emotions and sensations I evoke in my partner that interest and arouse me. I can also assure you that my partner fakes nothing. And I am not talking only of pain. And experienced person can read physical responses as well as or better than a lie detector.
And while there may be no “love” in the exchange, a regular relationship with a sex worker can build up a friendship as real as any other, unless you subscribe to the sex slave/trafficking paradigm.
My favourite escort of past years is now one of my best friends and we remain in regular contact even though she lives in another city and is no longer in the business.
I do not necessarily subscribe to the AI = Personhood idea, but robots have a long way to go before they supplant a human sex worker. Sex toys are a different thing. I see them as a supplement, not a replacement. There is also the cost factor. A robot of such sophisticated design and function would be insanely expensive for a very long time to come.
> You speak as if the US experience is the only(sic) in in existence.
I speak from my experience, and do not presume to speak for any environment with which I am not familiar.
> You also speak from the point of view of a man who only wants to penetrate and orgasm
Not at all. I speak from the POV of a man who knows that the essence of the most common US sex worker experience is that the women fake orgasms, fake responses, fake interest, and so on. So when one engages a sex worker, what you’re going to get is your physical act, whatever that might be, but you are very rarely going to get an honest experience of sharing a mutual interest in pleasuring each other. Our host here has spoken multiple times on this, as have some of her guests who have worked in the profession, and faking is very much what one can expect.
Also, if you had read my posts here a little more carefully, you would have read this:
“I’m not buying your orgasm; I’m buying mine (although I will say that if I *could* buy yours, i would.) ”
It’s not that I don’t care about my partner — quite the opposite — it’s that I can’t trust a sex worker’s responses to be honest. Why? Because, generally speaking, they aren’t — it’s just that simple. I’m there because I want a sexual experience, and because I want it enough that I’m willing to pay to get it. The sex worker is there because they want that payment. Anything beyond that, I cannot be certain of, nor do I consider it fair to expect.
> I am into BDSM
As long as you engage only with informed, consenting partners, I don’t care if you’re into sucking radioactive waste out of oxidized storage containers.
> I can also assure you that my partner fakes nothing.
I’m sure that if you use enough force, you can ensure that you get an authentic response from a randomly selected sex worker. I am also just as certain that if you *don’t* force them, you can’t ensure you get an authentic response.
As I find the idea of forcing my partner into anything to be utterly repellent, this path is closed to me — and to my partners, at least insofar as their experience with me goes. With that in mind, expecting me to consider your particular kink in my observations is more than a little optimistic. I am writing from my POV, which fact the presence of IMHO’s should have cued you into.
You apparently speak from the POV of someone with a great deal of hostility and anger, if anything, as well as a lack of common courtesy.
You are also missing the point of sex services. The escort is trying to give you a pleasant sexual experience. Most people would rather that she appear to be enjoying herself than if she looked bored or indifferent. This requires no greater suspension of disbelief than to accept the smiles and greetings of service staff as an attempt to be courteous. To speak as if this was some kind of deficiency is idiotic.
As for your “IMHO”, your entire passage contains a single instance at the end of a paragraph which addressed the possibility of future technological developments. To use that as an attempt to cover all your other statements is pathetic.
Since you appear unable to carry on a civil conversation I shall not be reading or responding to anything else you may care to write.
fyngyrz,
You make a good many points. If someday non-AI robots that actually look like women come into existence, I suspect there will be a good deal of male interest. There are women who appear content with the vibrator and there will also be men quite happy with a non-AI sexbot.
Hi Maggie! Thought I’d point you in the direction of this article at AlterNet if you haven’t seen it: http://www.beta.alternet.org/civil-liberties/freedom-growing-sex-workers-around-world-not-so-much-us?page=0%2C0. Thanks, Happy Beltane to you!