Mr. Pinup

I was new to the expat community in Saudi Arabia when another American offered to sell me his stepdaughter

via The night I could have bought a wife – Life stories – Salon.com.

It has become the favourite haunt of the city’s call girls. The stretch of the BIA road between the CBI flyover junction and the Hebbal flyover hosts several government establishments and gets deserted after office hours, making it the ideal spot for a pick-up

via Bangalore Mirror – Bangalore Mirror.

A Hilton Hotel in southwest China lost its five star rating this week after an underground brothel was found to be operating out of the hotel last month. While law enforcement hasn’t released the ages of the persons identified in the illegal brothel, similar brothels have contained children and human trafficking victims. Companies like Hilton have the power to help prevent the the forced prostitution of children on their watch. Send a letter to Hilton Hotels asking them to prevent child prostitution here.

via Tell Hilton Hotels to Prevent Child Prostitution in Their Hotels | End Human Trafficking | Change.org.

In the wake of a catastrophe that leaves people fighting for food and shelter, you wouldn’t expect there to be a market for prostitution. But the influx of foreign aid (or at least the promise of it) has served as a beacon of hope, drawing a growing number of Dominican women to the quake-ravaged country in search of sex work, Time magazine reports today. There is the lure not only of the pledged $5 billion in donations — some 2 percent of which has actually made it to the country — but also the flood of cash-strapped foreign aid workers. It seems desperation feeds on desperation.

via Post-quake Haiti: A sex trafficking hot spot – Broadsheet – Salon.com.

Young children are supplying an increasing demand from foreign tourists who travel to Brazil for sex holidays, according to a BBC investigation. Chris Rogers reports on how the country is overtaking Thailand as a destination for sex tourism and on attempts to curb the problem.

via BBC News – Brazil’s sex tourism boom.

How to encourage the modern use of gold and silver coins: Copy the images on 2000-year-old obscene brothel tokensBy Andrew LeonardA colleague suggests that if Idaho wants a sure-fire strategy for stimulating the local silver industry, then the state should follow the lead of the ancient Romans, and encourage the minting of coins depicting pornographic acts.Pictures of Roman “spintriae” — a. k.a . brothel tokens — here. Not. Safe. For. Work.Readers would be correct to think that this post is little more than a shameless and brazen attempt to attract page-views for previously generated content, much in the same come-hither-big-boy way some Roman prostitutes generated their own business. However, at HTWW we also like to think we attract a higher class of patron, the kind of discerning customer who demands a more cerebral titillation than that provided by mere numismatic fellatio.

via Lessons for Idaho from kinky Romans – How the World Works – Salon.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Prostitutes in Greece demand brothel license (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

MONTREAL – Backing up demands for decriminalization of the Canadian sex trade with their third public action this month, the region’s sex workers are to take to this city’s streets en masse Thursday afternoon.

A march to begin at 4 p.m. from the Papineau métro station and head westward into the downtown core won’t just be marking the 7th International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, organizers from the Stella alliance of local sex-trade workers said.

With more than 60 attacks against sex workers reported across the city each year, Thursday’s action will underscore a practical, on-the-ground campaign of self-defence that has recently proved instrumental in helping take two accused serial rapists in the Montreal area to trial, they added.

via Sex workers march for decriminalization.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Throw out ‘bizarre’ prostitution laws, court told (cbc.ca)

This begs the question of Chinese censorship and what is, and is not, allowed. Anything that is inconsistent with the government’s role of promoting a “harmonious society” will be verboten. The “natural hierarchy” of the “wu lun,” five key relationship “dyads” that dictate human intercourse, will be maintained. Fathers should not be sassed by sons. Teachers must be respected by students. The Party must never be challenged by “alternative centers of authority” or any group “demonstration. ” Furthermore, explicit or extra-marital sexuality is always banned. This is driven by both the sensitivities of a genuinely conservative population and the Party’s patriarchical responsibility to “protect” the moral standing of the masses. When Ang Lee‘s artistic “Lust, Caution” hit theaters, blatant edits elicited nary a peep of protest.Importantly, the CCP limits its moral purview to official channels. Its tacit “don’t ask, don’t tell” commercial policy tolerates a thousand points of sinful light. Ultra-violent video games are pervasive in internet bars. Illegal DVD shops sell anything and everythiing. China‘s digital universe is chock-a-block with porn — straight, gay and anything in between. It’s an open secret that inexpensive hair salons provide “extra service” for a small fee. Prostitution “rings” are well-advertised on cyberspace. And most hotels are happy to proactively arrange “massages.”As long as it remains in power, the government will never liberalize censorship rules or entertainment distribution. But it will not crack down either. In Western eyes, this is profoundly hypocritical. However, to Chinese, the Party is not two-faced; it is pragmatic. In China’s high-context, morally-relative cultural universe, “understatement” — i.e., knowing when to turn a blind eye to transgression — is both a skill of advancement and contributor to social order. Authorities realize denizens of the Middle Kingdom, torn between Confucian regimentation and upwardly-mobile ambition, are emotionally repressed. They crave “release.” As long as “sin businesses” remain non-scaled, so long as they pose no threat to centralized authority, they will be accomodated. The Party’s “Green Dam” plans, intended to control access to unpalatable internet sites, elicited howls of indignation. Any efforts to clamp down on Western entertainment would be equally explosive, given the watered-down menu available via legitimate channels.

via Tom Doctoroff: Illegal DVDs in China: Here to Stay.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Chinese Censor-Beating Software Resembles Malware, But Isn’t (yro.slashdot.org)
• Protesting China’s Required Censorship Software (yro.slashdot.org)

By TONI BENTLEY

Published: August 20, 2009

Money and sex. Sex and money. Sounds dirty already. Is it the money that makes the sex dirty? Or the sex that makes the money dirty? Or, rather, the puritan strain that says they’re both dirty? How sexy! I mean, how inappropriate! And yet here we are again and again . . . and again. It’s former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York spending $80,000 on escorts, the parents (the parents!) of Senator John Ensign of Nevada distributing $96,000 to their son’s mistress and her family, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina using taxpayer dollars to visit his South American “soul mate” and the $4 million rock on Kobe Bryant’s wife’s finger after his adulterous mishap. Money to get the sex, and money to make it go away.

HOS, HOOKERS, CALL GIRLS, AND RENT BOYS

Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex

Edited by David Henry Sterry and R. J. Martin Jr

333 pp. Soft Skull Press. Paper, $15.95

If you are thinking this dynamic pairing is only for public figures, just contemplate your own divorce, past, present or future. And yet, still, it is taboo to regard sex and money as inextricably interwoven, to openly speak of them together. Why is sex supposed to be free? It never is. Ask anyone. Like Sebastian Horsley, England’s low-rent Oscar Wilde. “The difference between sex for money and sex for free,” he writes, “is that sex for money always costs a lot less.” Money is the elephant in every bedroom, making your parents’ constant presence look positively bourgeois.

But the connection is seeping into the mainstream. Witness Steven Soderbergh’s recent film, “The Girlfriend Experience,” which is about an expensive call girl and stars the real-life porn star Sasha Grey, and the new HBO series “Hung,” about a nice middle-aged dad who becomes a gigolo. The show, however, plays it safe, making him a financially strapped, reluctant gigolo and not, God forbid, a lusty one. Here, ironically, sex for money is more decent than sex for pleasure.

via Book Review – ‘Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys,’ Edited by David Henry Sterry and R. J. Martin Jr. – Review – NYTimes.com.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Girlfriend Experience (stlouiseats.typepad.com)
• The Girlfriend Experience: The idea of sex, rather than the act (thestar.com)
• The Girlfriend Experience (cinemablend.com)

KOLKATA: The economic slowdown has affected nearly every profession, and the world’s oldest is no exception. Thousands of commercial

sex workers

in Sonagachhi have been singed. A contracting clientele, coupled with spiralling real-estate prices in the area, has driven them to reduce rates and spend more time on the streets.

The worst affected are the approximately 1000 Category A workers, who charge minimum of Rs 1,500 per hour. Restricted from going on to the streets to lure customers and completely dependent on pimps to get business, these workers are slashing their rates.

“Till a few years back, we got five customers a day. Now, it is rare to get three. As a result, Category A girls, who charged up to Rs 8,000 per hour earlier, now hardly ask for more than Rs 4,000,” said Rekha, herself a Category A worker.

via Slowdown bug hits sex workers in city – Kolkata – Cities – The Times of India.