Sex Work

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.

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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.

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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.

Monday, Jul 06, 2009, Page 8

The sex industry has been a hot topic of debate recently. Perhaps the most popular view, based on the notion that the sex industry is a necessary evil rooted in human nature, is that it should be deregulated and decriminalized. This view is questionable. On the surface, sexual transactions seem to be a fair trade in which one person wants the service and the other is willing to provide it. A closer look, however, reveals an important element of gender domination that should not be overlooked.

Many people say that the sex trade has existed since ancient times. Those who urge the business to be decriminalized or legalized are unaware of the implicit chauvinism of indulging this so-called necessary evil in men while ignoring the possibility that it may put disadvantaged women into an even worse situation.

Statistics for supply and demand for sexual services in various countries show that the providers are mostly women who are forced to “choose” to sell their bodies to survive. Even in the Netherlands, where the sex industry operates openly, men account for just 10 percent of sex workers, and most provide services to other men.

via Taipei Times – archives.

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Once, on a long business trip to Europe, my friend Sue suggested we take advantage of a KLM airline special, which allowed passengers en route from Munich to Houston to spend an extra day and night in the lovely city of Amsterdam. KLM offered a free hotel room and breakfast, plus transportation to and from the airport. In exchange we’d leave our hard-earned American dollars in the Amsterdam economy.

It seemed like a pretty good deal, the trip had been particularly grueling, and so I agreed. It sounded like fun.

That night in the hotel room we perused a guide book and agreed that the one thing we absolutely must see was Anne Frank’s hideout. The next morning we had a nice breakfast, yucking it up over the untranslated menu we pretended not to understand, e.g. Appel Pancake (translation: apple pancake). It was as if Dutch were created by a tipsy gentleman with his fingers on the wrong keys of the keyboard, and no spell check.

via American Women In The Red Light District – Sandra Stephens – Open Salon.

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June 22, 2009 | Castro Valley, Calif. — “Boob play,” “pics of kitty,” “topless housecleaning” and “hypno role play.” The list, scribbled in a lined yellow notebook, is followed by a double-underlined figure: $725.

It’s 9 a.m. on a Friday and 30-year-old Marie is sitting on her couch clad in Donald Duck pajamas, munching on buttered toast and staring at her cellphone like she can will it to ring. If someone calls in response to the ad she posted this morning on Craigslist, she can add $75 to her projected income for the month.

Five months ago, before being laid off, Marie was bringing in $45,000 a year at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Now, she operates out of two offices: her living room and a regularly changing hotel room. Her uniform is different, too: Instead of conservative business attire, she dons a lace bra and booty-hugging capris. The former corporate supervisor has become a sex worker.

via Going down in the downturn | Salon Life.

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Craigslist is saving newspapers!

I respectfully disagree with Arianna Huffington’s claim this week that Craig helped her kill print journalism.

Just as Prohibition handed over the lucrative liquor trade to the Bronfmans and the Kennedys, rabid law enforcement agents are chasing the equally lucrative classified sex ads from craigslist back to old-fashioned newsprint businesses nervy enough to keep publishing them.

via Phil Bronstein: A Real Missed Connection: Craigslist Saves Print and Stands to Profit Even More?.

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