Posts tagged as:

sexwork

Bookmarks for 5-17-2011

by Viviane on 05/17/2011

in del.icio.us,sex

  • My Family Found out I Blog About Sex | BlogHer – “Have you considered changing your name?” the message from my aunt read. “Our name is too obscure and boring, don’t you think? The famous do better with something catchy and bright.”…This wasn’t a compliment. It was a very polite way of saying that what I was doing with my life — writing about sex — was not in keeping with the image my father’s family desires for itself.
  • Dissent Magazine – Arguing The World – What Gail Dines Doesn’t Get About SlutWalk – Dines shares more common ground with SlutWalk than she realizes. The organizers are not celebrating the word “slut” or “promoting sluttishness in general.” The SlutWalkers are marching in solidarity with all women who have been dismissed, degraded, or hurt by the label. They are marching against sexual violence and the ugly stereotypes that help to perpetuate it.
  • Botox and Better Butts? What Messages Are We Sending to Young Girls? | RH Reality Check -
  • Uganda’s LGBT Activists Get a Temporary Victory | violet blue ® :: open source sex – The reprehensible “anti-gay” bill in Uganda has been dealt a blow by that country’s brave LGBT activists and the world human rights community. In a nation where homosexuality was already illegal, and punishable by 14 years in prison, this law would have made things even worse, establishing the death penalty, among other things, for having gay sex while HIV positive.
  • Bill Sienkiewicz And Frank Miller’s Wonder Woman: Bondage (Bleeding Cool) – DC Comics never saw this image. Neither Bill Sienkiewicz nor Frank Miller intended it to go public. But when it was sold, despite assurances that it wouldn’t go online, somewghere alon the line, it got sold to someone who didn’t know about that requirement.
  • NCSF Wallet Card – A pocket reference for dealing with law enforcement
  • ‘Paying For It’ Without Regret: An Intriguing Graphic Memoir Of Prostitution : Monkey See : NPR – It’s not that getting dumped by his girlfriend soured Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown on the notion of romantic love, exactly. Because to sour on something, one would have to, at some point, feel strongly about it. And given the facts on evidence in Brown’s latest autobiographical comic, the guy’s not much for strong emotion. No, the Chester Brown we glimpse through the tiny black and white panels the artist arranges with such exacting precision is a creature of intellect. His approach to sex, in the wake of his girlfriend’s rejection, is one of cool logic, dispassionate conclusions — and some very literal cost-to-benefit ratios.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks for 4-26-2011

by Viviane on 04/26/2011

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Rules of Misbehavior – Benjamin J. Dueholm – Dan Savage, the brilliant and foul-mouthed sex columnist, has become one of the most important ethicists in America. Are we screwed?
  • Trve West Coast Fiction: Spoiled (or why I sometimes feel like a rapist) | Danny Wylde – Having sex with beautiful women for a living is fun – except when it’s not.
  • ‘Game of Thrones’: Making Sense of All the Sex – Atlantic – Ultimately, Game of Thrones is about power, and the consequences of sex—both immediately and years down the line—can mean the difference between gaining and losing it. Westeros is not a modern or progressive world, and sex and violence remain its primary trades. Viewers who find either untenable should steer clear.
  • Getting Away with Murder on Long Island – Some of those 10 people might be alive today if it hadn’t been for the lackluster response of law enforcement and the press coverage of the case — much of it sensationalist and dehumanizing — all because of the first victims’ sex-worker status.
  • The Perversions of Campus Sexual Culture – Brainstorm – The Chronicle of Higher Education – In other words, campus sexual culture in its dominant, heteronormative form is kinda f#%@ed up. Sexual desire is wrapped up in public humiliation, drunkenness, and yes, I’ll say the word, patriarchy. It’s not that I don’t get how such things can be sexy, how humiliation and domination in conditions of inequality can be turned into pleasure. But what is interesting is the very conflation of that pleasure with both profit and publicness, a visual pornification of power inequities so beautifully symbolized by the booty cam at Yale or the drunk college “chix” porn site.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 12/16/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 12/07/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 11/05/2010

in del.icio.us

  • Facebook and adult social networking: A dream that’s all wet | Violet Blue| ZDNet – That’s what a perfect Faceporn might look like. All of the good aspects of Facebook: finding people with similar interests that aren’t necessarily about sex, but with whom you could also share a dirty gallery with for fun or… or more. Sharing links and videos with friends you’ve chosen in your own network, without the fear of censors deleting your posts without notice.
  • To NSFW or not to NSFW? (NSFW) – Roger Ebert’s Journal – Now as to the problem of the workplace. I understand there will be pictures on a computer screen that will be offensive. I get that. Why will they be offensive? Perhaps because they foreground a worker’s sexual desires, and imply similar thoughts about co-workers. Is that what’s happening with the blog entry on Hefner? Is anyone reading it for sexual gratification? I doubt it. That’s what bothers me about so many of the New Puritans. They think I have a dirty mind, but I think I have a healthy mind. It takes a dirty mind to see one, which is why so many of these types are valued as censors or online police.
  • ‘Client 9′ Filmmaker Focuses On Spitzer’s Foes : NPR – Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, suggests that Spitzer’s demise wasn’t just about sex — that the many enemies Spitzer made on Wall Street and in the New York state capital at Albany may have contributed to his political demise.
  • Oakland home to nation’s first transgender trial judge | SF Gate – Oakland resident Vicki Kolakowski became the first transgender trial judge in the country when she won Alameda County’s vacant seat on the county’s Superior Court bench in yesterday’s election.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 10/23/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • The Downfall of Alexa Di Carlo | Charlie Glickman – But I do take exception when someone creates false credentials in order to dupe the gullible. I worked hard to get a doctorate in sex education and many of my colleagues, whether they have academic credentials or not, have dedicated years of their lives to learn about sexuality in order to provide good information. I feel a lot of anger when someone pretends to have done the work in order to make it seem as if they know what they’re talking about….It also upsets me when people misrepresent sexwork. Usually, people make it seem as if it’s much a much worse career than it might be, especially when they want to ban it. But it’s also problematic when people glorify it because it creates a misrepresentation of the challenges and difficulties that sexworkers face. In turn, this romanticizes the profession and makes it more likely that people will decide to try it out without knowing how to protect themselves.
  • Law.com – ‘Cached’ Pages May Be Evidence in Child Porn Case, Panel Says | Law.com – In a case of first impression in New York, a Brooklyn appellate panel has held that temporary files automatically “cached” by an Internet browser may serve as evidence of promoting and possessing child pornography…The Appellate Division, 2nd Department, looked at similar cases from other jurisdictions and concluded that their “consistent thread” was the need to distinguish “inadvertent” acquisition and possession of child pornography from “knowing” and “intentional” acquisition and possession.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 10/14/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Prostitution “Experts” Versus Prostitutes: Why Don’t All Sex Workers Deserve a Voice? | Monica Shores |Huff Po – This ugly display of disrespect is unwarranted and near inexplicable. Why would these women be so threatened by sex workers organizing for themselves, gaining national attention, and working to influence public perception? Is the abolitionist narrative or abolitionists’ prominence as experts more important than the people they’re purporting to help? The poor thinking and outright bigotry exhibited by some anti-prostitution figures can no longer go unchallenged. Sex workers of all ages and genders deserve better advocacy than this, and thankfully, as the recent VAMP example proves, their demands for more honest discussion may no longer go unheard.
  • How Obscene is This! The Decency Clause Turns 20 — NCAC – In September 2010, the National Coalition Against Censorship, in partnership with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School and the BFA Department of Visual & Critical Studies at the School of Visual Arts, held a series of programs to highlight the effects 1990s attacks on culture continue to have on art and society and to reassess the state of art funding, censorship and self-censorship today. The programs included panel discussions, film screenings and event-specific videos.
  • PEEP SHOW Interview w/ Tristan Taormino, Part One « FilmSnobbery – Tristan’s written several books, including The Ultimate guide to Anal Sex for Women, and served as an editor for many others. She was a syndicated columnist for the Village Voice for almost ten years and currently writes an advice column for Taboo Magazine. Between her writing, her teaching, and her TV appearances, we feel lucky to have gotten her to answer our Peep Show questions.
  • Trve West Coast Fuck-Up Lit: Protection | Danny Wylde – Anyone who’s been a part of the adult industry for any significant amount of time has no doubt heard countless rumors about who’s an intravenous drug user, who escorts (a polite term for an upscale hooker), who has gay sex in their private life, and who has sex with transsexual women. Some of them are baseless, but a portion always turn out to be true. Each of the above stated behaviors could be considered “high risk,” and each are practiced by performers within the straight “side” of the industry. So when going to work, every performer puts themselves at risk. It’s a part of being a sex worker. Surely, no one wants to increase that risk, but finding a scape goat is the worst possible way to address the issue.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 10/04/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Largest Survey of American Sexual Behaviors Offers Snapshot of 21st Century American Sex | Cory Silverberg – The holidays came early for sex researchers and anyone interested in catching a glimpse of American sexuality at the beginning of the 21st century. They came today, to be precise, in the form of the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior (NSSHB). Conducted by a team of researchers at The Center for Sexual Health Promotion based at Indiana University, with funding from Church & Dwight (the company that brings us, among other household products, Trojan condoms), the NSSHB represents the largest nationally representative survey of sexual behaviors conducted in the U.S. since 1994, and in many ways a significant leap in sophistication and specificity in terms of what we mean when we talk about sex.
  • The Secret Lives of Big Pharma’s ‘Thought Leaders’ – The Chronicle of Higher Education – What if there were a way to avoid the masses and simply concentrate on the special people? Today the pharmaceutical industry uses the terms "thought leader" or "key opinion leader"—KOL for short—to refer to influential physicians, often academic researchers, who are especially effective at transmitting messages to their peers. Pharmaceutical companies hire KOL's to consult for them, to give lectures, to conduct clinical trials, and occasionally to make presentations on their behalf at regulatory meetings or hearings.
  • In Vitro Fertilization delivers Medicine Nobel Prize | Ars Technica – The Nobel Prizes in science and medicine typically recognize the collaborative nature of modern science by recognizing groups of individuals that contributed towards a significant breakthrough. This year, however, the Physiology or Medicine prize is going to a single individual, Robert Edwards, for his efforts in developing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Although Edwards had many key collaborators over the years, his focus on fertilization started in graduate school and spanned decades before culminating in the birth of the first "test tube baby," Louise Brown, in 1978. There are now approximately 4 million individuals alive due to IVF procedures.
  • Adult Services" and Craigslist" (October 1, 2010) | On The Media (WNYC) – In 2001, Craigslist created a separate category on its website called "erotic services" (later renamed "adult services"). In addition to posting apartments for rent or sofas for sale, this site now facilitated sex – presumably between consenting adults. And so it went for nine years, until early last month when Craigslist closed down the service amid pressure from government prosecutors and child advocates. Daily Beast columnist Michelle Goldberg explains that many using the service were in fact trafficking minors.
  • PurrVersatility: The 6 Feet Under Club – Until she asked me if I would join her for this Arse Elektronika experiment exploring private and public space. And how did they want to do this? By creating a coffin for two, with a night vision camera, burying it in a dumpster in SoMa, and recording/projecting the camera's visuals onto the side of a building, of course. I mean, what better way to explore what privacy means in an internet age?

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 09/29/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

When Is Bondage Prostitution? Records May Help Set Boundaries (New York Law Journal)

by Viviane on 09/09/2010

in legal,sexwork

by Mark Fass

A Manhattan judge has ordered the New York City Police Department to shine a light on the hazy legal line separating bondage, domination and sadomasochism from prostitution.

In a decision last week, Supreme Court Justice Carol R. Edmead directed the NYPD to provide the Urban Justice Center’s Sex Workers Project with documents regarding police investigations of several Manhattan bondage, domination and sadomasochism clubs between 2006 and 2008.

The judge, however, ruled that the police department is not required to turn over a copy of a confidential Vice Enforcement Division manual, which sets forth the procedures used by undercover agents to identify, engage and arrest suspected prostitutes.

“Disclosure of this information…would ‘furnish the safecracker with the combination to the safe,’ as it would alert the potential violators of the prostitution laws to the unique factors and methods the undercover police officers are likely to use to communicate with the other members of the team,” Justice Edmead wrote in Urban Justice Center v. New York Police Department, 400988/2010 (Subscription reqd).

The Sex Workers Project, which provides legal services and policy advocacy for people who work in the sex industry—exotic dancers, dominatrices and pornography actors, among others—considers the contested documents essential to understanding how the NYPD interprets and enforces New York Penal Law 230.00, the single-sentence statute that prohibits engaging in “sexual conduct” for a fee, but fails to define “sexual conduct.”

Since NYPL 230.00 was enacted in 1969—”prostitution” had previously been treated as a form of vagrancy, according to the annotated McKinney’s Penal Law—the definition of “sexual conduct” has slowly been teased out by the courts. Homosexual intercourse is “sexual conduct,” courts have ruled, though “lap dancing” is not—so long as the person providing the lap does not touch the dancer’s naked breasts or buttocks.

The case law provides scant guidance regarding bondage, domination and “fetish for a fee” services. Only a single reported opinion, the 1994 Brooklyn Criminal Court decision People v. Georgia A., 163 Misc.2d 634, addresses whether such acts constitute prohibited “sexual conduct.”

Read more

Tagged as: , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 09/05/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Craigslist Censored: Adult Section Comes Down | TechCrunch –
  • Court won’t force state to defend Prop. 8 | SFGate – The outlook for the legal defense of Proposition 8, California's ban on same-sex marriage, grew cloudier Thursday as a state appellate court refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal a federal judge's ruling overturning the measure.
  • Conservative Group Foiled in Attempt to Mandate Defense of Prop. 8 – Law Blog – WSJ – On Thursday, a state appellate court in Sacramento without comment refused to order Schwarzenegger and Brown to appeal a federal judge’s ruling overturning the measure.
  • Bering in Mind: Polyamory chic, gay jealousy and the evolution of a broken heart | Jesse Bering | Scientific American – Unless you have the unfortunate luck of being coupled with a psychopath, or have the good fortune of being one yourself, broken hearts are not easily experienced at either end, nor are they easily mended by reason or waved off by all the evolutionary logic in the world. And because we’re designed by nature to be not only moderately promiscuous but also to become selfish when that natural promiscuity rears its head—again, naturally—in our partners, “reasonable people” are far from immune to getting hurt by their partner’s open and agreed-upon sex with other parties. Monogamy may not be natural, but neither is indifference to our partners’ sex lives or tolerance for polyamory. In fact, for many people, especially those naively taking guidance from evolutionary theorists without thinking deeply enough about these issues, polyamory can lead to devastating effects.
  • American Academy of Pediatrics: ‘The media have become one of the leading sex educators in the U.S.’ – National Sex education | Examiner.com – In a policy statement released yesterday, the American Academy of Pediatrics weighs in on Sexuality, Contraception, and the Media, calls for a national task force on children, adolescents, and the media, and advocates for comprehensive sex education, noting that "It is unwise to promote 'abstinence-only' sex education when it has been shown to be ineffective and when the media have become such an important source of information about 'nonabstinence.'"
  • One Woman Explains Her Journey From Anti-Porn to Pro-Porn | Our Porn, Ourselves – After working with her former boss and mentor for an unspecified amount of time, female research intern Beth Brigham completely disagrees and now openly disputes with Gail Dines anti-porn claims. Brigham and has since worked in porn and so now can speak firsthand about what’s true in Dines’ porn statements about porn and its performers, and what is not.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 08/12/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Judge Allows, but Delays, Gay Marriage in California – NYTimes.com – Just a week after ruling that Proposition 8 — a 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage — was unconstitutional, a federal district judge lifted a stay on his decision on Thursday, opening the door for untold numbers of gay couples to marry in the nation’s most populous state. But he delayed implementation of the order to lift his stay until Aug. 18.
  • Who I Am: A Cadet Leaves West Point | Pam’s House Blend – In her own words, here is a video of Cadet Katie Miller discussing her decision to resign from West Point because of life under DADT.
  • Dissecting Decontextualization: Donna M. Hughes’ Happy Endings? | Maybe Maimed but Never Harmed › – Having examined how the sex-negative “scare” tactic is perpetuated, let’s look at the pernicious “confuse” tactic. This tactic relies on an audience not to fact-check, as it includes outright lying, omitting important facts (“de-contextualizing”), and even creating false contexts. In this way, the tactic is identical to Andrew Breitbart’s famous example: take the facts, strip them of context, and present them in as emotionally charged a way as possible.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 07/26/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

  • Samuel Steward’s Life in ‘Secret Historian’ – NYTimes.com – When the author Justin Spring finally tracked down the executor of Samuel Steward’s estate, he had no idea what this sexual outlaw and little-known literary figure had left behind after his death in 1993…So he was taken unawares by the 80 boxes full of drawings, letters, photographs, sexual paraphernalia, manuscripts and other items, including an autograph and reliquary with pubic hair from Rudolph Valentino, a thousand-page confessional journal Steward created at the request of the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, and a green metal card catalog labeled “Stud File,” which contained a meticulously documented record on index cards of every sexual experience and partner — Rock Hudson, Thornton Wilder, “One-eyed Sadist” — that Steward said he had had over 50 years.
  • Interrogating Sexual Intentions on Mad Men | Cory Silverberg – Whatever the season brings I plan to follow Don's lesson about sex to Peggy; "Sex doesn't sell. You are the product. You feeling something is what sells." Watching characters we know have sex, particularly the ones we think are hot, may be fun, but it's what the sex makes them feel, makes us feel, that's far more interesting.
  • The Lesbians Who Love Male Gay Porn – The Daily Beast – “I wouldn’t have guessed lesbians would want to watch porn that didn’t have women,” said a straight woman who recently saw the Lisa Cholodenko comedy.
  • Prohibitionists, where are the answers when comparing sex work and straight work « Bound, Not Gagged – I have been far more harmed by “straight jobs” than I ever was as either a stripper or an independent escort.
  • GLAAD – Publications – Network Responsibility Index: 2009 – 2010 – The fourth annual GLAAD Network Responsibility Index is an evaluation of the quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people on television. It is intended to serve as a road map toward increasing fair, accurate and inclusive LGBT media representations.<br />
    <br />
    Primetime programming on the five broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox and NBC) was evaluated as well as 10 highly-rated cable networks (A&E, ABC Family, FX, HBO, Lifetime, MTV, Showtime, TBS, TNT and USA). Based on the analysis, a grade was assigned to each network: Excellent, Good, Adequate, or Failing.

Tagged as: , , , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Bookmarks

by Viviane on 04/26/2010

in del.icio.us,sex

Tagged as: , , , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Sex Worker Literati – “Goddesses, Sinners, and Saviours”

by Viviane on 03/31/2010

in Events

04/01/2010
8:00 PM

delrio Sex Worker Literati Goddesses, Sinners, and Saviours

Hosted by Audacia Ray and David Henry Sterry
Location: Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street bet. Forsyth and Eldridge, NYC
Cost: FREE
Admission 21+

15% of the bar goes to support the Young Women’s Empowerment Project

Stick around after the reading to dance and party with hos, hookers, and ne’er do wells!

Our readers this month:

Vanessa del Rio is the all-time queen of the Latina sex stars, a lusty, exotic slice of mocha-skinned sensuality. Her name is synonymous with fiery, unrestrained sex at its rawest. Vanessa made her erotic debut in 1974’s ‘CHAIN DOLL,’ and was a top star right up until her retirement in 1986. Her enthusiasm for all kinds of wild sex made her one of the most bankable of 70’s and 80’s stars. Producers and fans knew that the name Vanessa del Rio meant sexual abandon, plain and simple. Vanessa del Rio appeared in nearly 100 films and videos during her 12-year career and never disappointed fans of lust-crazed Latin erotica. A member of the X-Rated Critics Organization’s Performers Hall of Fame, Vanessa is still one of the best-loved, most fondly remembered sex stars of all time, a bad girl with a feverish hunger for nasty, all-out sex. Vanessa del Rio has been mentioned in countless rap music videos, appeared on various talk shows, and played herself on ABC’s N.Y.P.D Blue.

Barbara Carrellas is the author of Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the Twenty-First Century and Luxurious Loving: Tantric Inspirations for Passion and Pleasure. Barbara’s pioneering Urban Tantra® workshops were named best in New York City by TimeOut/New York magazine. Barbara delights in blurring the lines between sacred and profane, enlightened and perverted, pleasure and pain.

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including The Adderall Diaries which has been described as “genius” by both the San Francisco Chronicle and Vanity Fair. The Adderall Diaries was the best book of the year in Time Out New York, a best of 2009 in Kirkus Reviews, and one of 50 notable books in the San Francisco Chronicle. Elliott’s writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times,The Believer, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 and 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He is the editor of The Rumpus.

Raven Koch (Bio Forthcoming)

About the Young Womens Empowerment Project
The mission of the Young Women’s Empowerment Project is to offer safe, respectful, free-of-judgment spaces for girls and young women impacted by the sex trade and street economies to recognize their goals, dreams and desires. Young Women’s Empowerment project is run by girls and women with life experience in the sex trade and street economies. They are a youth leadership organization grounded in harm reduction and social justice organizing by and for girls and young women (ages 12-23) impacted by the sex trade and street economies.

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

← Previous Entries