The Week In Links: June 10

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June 10, 2011

Elena Jeffreys, president of Australia’s Scarlet Alliance, gives a beautiful speech about violence against sex workers. (via Melissa)

In the aftermath of a club raid, Malaysian police “branded” the foreheads of suspected prostitutes using markers—then the pictures of those thirty women (none of whom were Malaysian-born) were published in the newspaper.

A mercifully rational book review of Girls Like Us discusses the necessity of bearing responsible witness to a person’s suffering: “While Lloyd’s perspective on sexual exploitation and trafficking is important, it is only one. Inherent to the concept of critical thinking is that there are always nuances, conditions, and alternatives to consider.”

A Republican Wisconsin State Senator apparently believes his “family values” include owning strip clubs. Progressive!

Rio is targeting its (legal) prostitutes in preparation to host the Olympics. Such measures in the past have forced indoor workers out onto the streets.

On male and transgendered prostitutes in Tel Aviv.

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The Week In Links: June 3

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suzyhooker

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June 3, 2011

You may have already seen the above video but of course we had to include here for good measure. He’s dancing to Girl Talk!

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The Week in Links: May 27

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suzyhooker

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May 27, 2011

A Stockholm sex worker was kicked out of school—meaning banned from taking classes, not banned from teaching—because of her (legal) work. This on top of the news that European students are increasingly entering into or considering entering into the sex industry.

Kristen Davis aka the Manhattan Madam is claiming that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the (former) IMF head recently charged with attempted rape, used her services in 2006. Meanwhile, the heinous defense lawyers for Strauss-Kahn have announced their intent to look for a history for sex work in the accuser’s past, based on the suspicion that she might be HIV positive.

Speaking of HIV, it looks like not all sex workers in the Philippines are infected with it which is a big shock to health officials: “This […] has shattered the traditional belief that HIV-AIDS only infects sex workers and homosexuals.”

Underneath this journalist’s cliched and banal opening (“selling her body”? Really?) is a very sweet story about sex workers helping one another receive sex education and health counseling.

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The Week in Links: May 20

By

suzyhooker

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May 20, 2011

400 South Korean sex workers rallied against police crackdowns, with some protestors even attempting to set themselves on fire. (Thankfully, none were successful.)

This charming article reveals groundbreaking research from the University of Arkansas. Apparently, it’s big news that some prostitutes are educated, make a “rational decision” to go into the biz, and aren’t spending all their money on drugs. Who knew?

A primary school teacher in the U.K. who was outed as a dominatrix was allowed to keep her job—the teaching job, that is. Unlike Melissa Petro, who had left the sex industry years before becoming a teacher and subsequently being fired, “Mistress Saffron” was working both jobs at the same time when her double life was revealed, but was still let off with a written reprimand.

Australian sex workers deserve better than the Swedish model: “Those proposing the implementation of the Swedish model in the ACT are showing wilful ignorance to the harms of criminalisation, and are ignoring sex workers’ actual needs.”

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Not Good Enough To Be Objectified?

By

Bettie

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May 17, 2011

I will be the first to admit that my experience in the industry has been super privileged. I was lucky to find a gig that works for me and hasn’t created in me a serious hatred towards the world in general for being kind of terrible and fucked up around race and sexuality. Having said that, I do recognize ugliness when I see it, and this industry is, in some ways, extremely racist, as are some of the people who participate in it. I often struggle to put that into words, because sometimes it’s as simple as someone thinking my body, because it is not white, is not worth as much as a woman whose body is white, and sometimes it’s as complicated as a client going all the way around the race issue (in his mind) but saying things that are clearly race specific and kind of awkward and weird (like “I love the things you people do with your hair.” because he didn’t want to say “Black Women” even though “you people” is so much worse and actually made me recoil in disgust and say, without thinking, “If you’re going to fetishize me you should figure out a way to do it that doesn’t make you sound like a troglodyte, ugh.”)

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