Pictures have been released of two men wanted for questioning about the assault and robbery of two different prostitutes working in midtown Manhattan. (Yes, the article is tone deaf and offensive—yet the Gothamist’s rewrite manages to be even more so—but look at these pictures if you work in New York!)
Let’s be prepared for more articles like this one about sex surrogates as The Sessions, the film about quadriplegic writer Mark O’Brien’s relationship with the woman he hired to teach him sex, prepares for a wide theatrical release. People who have been on the internet for a long time might remember reading O’Brien’s amazing first-person account.
Gawker has a massive profile of porn gossipmonger/the guy who helped take down Porn Wikileaks, Mike South.
Tits and Sass contributor Peech promotes a fundraiser to cover the cost of funerals for young murdered strippers Tjisha Ball and Angelia Mangum. (Screenshot of twitter feed.)
This fundraiser to support Miss Major, Black trans woman elder and sex workers’ rights proponent, to recoup her losses after her house burned down recently, is also worthy of everyone’s attention.
In the wake of a documentary about underage sex workers in Malaysia, critics are saying it’s wrong to call them sex workers: not because of issues of consent or trafficking, but because there isn’t enough of a sex industry in Malaysia to warrant calling anyone in it a worker. That happens in Thailand. Oh.
Greg Lundgren’s movie CHAT looks like it will either be appalling or amazing: a one camera, one take film about a cam girl, unfortunately from the point of view of her clients (who cares about them) and even more unfortunately, facing an unknown future: CHAT has “only screened once before, and no one really knows if it will screen again.” I hope it does.
File under nauseating: councils in New South Wales have been left with “no other choice” but to hire middle aged men to sleep with workers in unlicensed brothels, all as a part of busting the operations. Though New South Wales has decriminalized sex work, a loophole regarding local council regulations renders this legal.
Glenn Kessler is on a roll debunking the hysterical claims of prohibitionists, and this week he slams the “average age of entry into prostitution is 13” stat with four Pinocchios.
In the latest example of anti-trafficking laws destroying futures rather than saving lives, we have two Oregon teens, one of whom is expected to be sentenced to four years in federal prison, after which she can’t access FAFSA or expect most jobs to hire her.
So, if disabled men also pay for sexual services, what happens to them when paying for it becomes a crime? Good question!
Last week’s episode of Carte Blanche, a South African reality show, introduced Gita November, site co-ordinator for South African sex work organization SWEAT, without any condemnation and in fact called her “inspirational.”
The production team behind 8 Minutes says they weren’t expecting the independent sex workers they got, which is still no excuse for how they treated them—and, as the article notes, they weren’t equipped to help trafficking victims either, so it’s just good all around that the show got cancelled.
Last week was the annual Red Umbrella March, which carries new urgency in Vancouver as Canadian workers face End Demand repercussions, although Vancouver police have stated they will not be enforcing the new law.
Faisal Riza, a queer sex worker in Indonesia, is doing harm reduction outreach and education among Indonesian sex workers. Although the climate in Jakarta is less oppressive and homophobic than in the past, it’s an ongoing struggle.
Sex workers from all over Europe, many representing hundreds of thousands of workers in unions, gathered in Lyon to lobby for decriminalization and against the End Demand model, which threatens their lives as well as their livelihoods.
April Bloomfield and Ken Friedman–can we trust them with the Lusty? (Photo by Nick Gripton on Flickr, image via Eater)
The Lusty Lady’s vacant space will be reopened by Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield, who own the cafe next door, as a cocktail bar which “will pay homage to what the Lusty Lady was…the wonderful seediness, and the dying breed of seediness.” Apparently, “initial design ideas include…a riff on peepshow windows ‘wherein a customer inserts a dollar and then a window opens to reveal a bartender—instead of a stripper.’ ” Holy hipster gentrification, Batman.
Rebecca Woodard, one of Eliot Spitzer’s escorts, was pimped by the city of New York: “Manhattan prosecutors insisted she continue seeing clients while working undercover—and then forced her to turn over all of her earnings and gifts.” Oh, and Spitzer wanted to pretend to be a self-defense instructor testing a student by attacking her. Yay gubernatorial role play.
Former Chicago cop Steven Mandell was secretly taped vacillating over which strip club owner he should murder in order to most easily take over their business. Decisions, decisions.
Honduras Redtrasex, the Network of Sex Workers of Honduras, demand justice for the murder of four local sex workers on December 30th, when five Centre City San Pedro Sula sex workers were shot, including one heavily pregnant woman. One woman survived and is in the hospital in stable condition. RedTrasex’s statement also noted another recent sex worker murder on December 15th.
Melissa Gira Grant lists her picks for 2013’s Best Sex Work Writing. Tits and Sass is honored to have so many of our posts, as well as outside posts by our contributors and co-editors, included.
New regulations came into effect on January 1st in Saskatchewan which allow bars in the province to feature strippers. Anticipating this provincial change in liquor law, Saskatoon’s city council voted to isolate strip clubs in heavy industrial zones, legislation in the same spirit as the adult services bylaw they passed in July 2012, which requires escorts, massage parlor owners and anyone working in adult entertainment to get a business license. More tut tutting and talk ABOUT sex workers from city officials without any input FROM sex workers is covered in the Star Phoenix.
Meanwhile, new federal Canadian laws which went into effect on Dec. 31st ensure that labor market opinion applications from employers seeking to hire foreign workers in the sex industry will no longer be approved. These rules come almost seven years after the federal Conservatives first promised to put an end to the “Liberal strippergate,” in which temporary work permits were issued to hundreds of exotic dancers by the previous government. “Strippergate,” seriously? Hiring migrant workers is somehow a scandal worthy practice?
