Social Media, Zola, and the Sex Worker Horror Story

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October 29, 2015

Screen Shot 2015-10-28 at 10.35.59 PM — The headline at Jezebel.

By now, you’ve probably heard the story of Zola and her fabled strip trip to Florida with her new friend, Jess. If you haven’t, the story was told in a series of dramatic tweets by Zola, AKA twitter user _zolarmoon. In it, she spins a story that’s so intense and absurd that it’s hard to believe. In sum: she reluctantly agrees to take a work trip with her new pal, Jess, to Florida. Things immediately go wrong in a variety of terrifying ways. Zola’s narration of the journey is flippant and casual. She saw a lot of humor in the events that allegedly occurred.

The series of tweets were so flagrantly wild that they exploded on Twitter—at one point her story was (and still may be) trending worldwide. The story was picked up and regurgitated by your typical new media blogs: Fader, Buzzfeed, Complex, and, Jezebel (the list is still growing). It’s not surprising that Zola’s narrative was embraced so thoughtlessly. It contained the trappings of a good story that the new media elite thrive on, a perverted version of the who-what-where-when-why-how I learned about in journalism school: sexy pictures, nefarious and criminal doings, content that could be quickly mined and embedded, and, uh, Florida.

Sex worker Twitter did not appreciate the Jezebel piece. It triggered a familiar dialogue about the intersection of social media and journalism. What, ethically, is public record? Is Zola’s Twitter account public record? Jia Tolentino, the author of the story, argued that YES, it is. And further, the original tweets themselves had been shared hundreds of times—so who cares? The story went viral. Deal with it.

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The Week In Links: June 10

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suzyhooker

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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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Tits and Sass Supports The Anti-White Supremacist Protesters of Charlottesville

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suzyhooker

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August 13, 2017

For our readers who’d like to help, we put together a list of local organizations which stand against white supremacy and fundraisers for victims of the white nationalist violence at Charlottesville:

Fundraiser for the family of Heather Heyer, the counter-protester murdered by a white nationalist driving into a crowd on Saturday. This fund has met its goal, but additional money would still probably be helpful.
Medical fund for Comrades of Charlottesville, run by the Democratic Socialists of America, for the medical expenses of all those injured in Saturday’s domestic terrorist attack by white supremacists. This fund has met its goal also, but there’s no telling how much the victims will have to pay in medical expenses.
Medical support for Bill Burke, an International Socialist Organization member who suffered serious head injuries from the Charlottesville assault.
Medical support for sisters Alexis and Noelle Morris, who were both injured by the domestic terrorist attack.
Medical support for Dre Harris, who was beaten by white supremacists. Here is his interview with The Root.
Donations to Black Lives Matter Charlottesville
Donations to Legal Aid Justice, an organization providing legal guidance to low-income individuals throughout Virginia since the 1960s.
Charlottesville Solidarity Legal Fund, a community resource which emphasizes anti-racism work, have quickly exceeded their fundraising goal and are urging people to donate to medical funds for the victims instead.
Donations to the Black Student Alliance at the University of Virginia
Donations to Piedmont Housing Alliance, which helps diverse populations access housing and financial stability in the Charlottesville area.
Donations to the International Rescue Committee branch in Charlottesville for their work in refugee resettlement
Donations to Beloved Community Charlottesville, a campaign which enlisted people to pledge a certain amount of money to public housing, refugee resettlement, or black community organizations for each white supremacist protester who showed up for the Unite The Right rally on Saturday.
Donations to IMPACT Charlottesville, an interfaith organization working for social justice
Donations to Charlottesville Pride
Donations to the Charlottesville branch of the NAACP
Unicorn Riot, a nonprofit media organization whose equipment was damaged and destroyed during the events.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, who do exceptional work suing hate groups into oblivion.
Joseph Fink has pledged to match all donations to Black Lives Matter.

Please leave any additional fundraisers and ways to support in the comments.

Don’t Hit Women Or Whores: Whorephobic Domestic Violence and Its Discontents

By

Leigh Alanna

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August 18, 2014

War Machine's rationalizations (Screenshot of War Machine's tweet) — War Machine’s tweeted rationalizations—note the number of retweets and favorites (Screenshot of War Machine’s Twitter feed)

“Don’t hit women or whores” reads an oh-so-helpful comment under one of the many reports of the brutal assault and attempted rape of porn actress and dancer Christy Mack by her ex partner, War Machine (formerly known as John Koppenhaver), this past week. And that’s one of the nice ones. Most of the not-nice ones start with “what did you expect?” and get worse from there. Koppenhaver himself seems to see his role in the attack as a tragic victim of fate, a “cursed” man who had hoped to be engaged to the woman he broke up with in May, whose house he broke into in August.

While, in the face of the graphic and horrific story that Mack released, Koppenhaver’s view seems woefully out of touch with reality, the truth is, he’s right to predict sympathy for himself. Assaulting a sex worker, especially one that you once deigned to be in a relationship with, is viewed as pretty understandable. Just by watching TV or using the internet (ever), how many hundreds of jokes and not-jokes did Koppenhaver encounter excusing and encouraging him to do just that? It might be tempting, for the sake of our views on the state of humanity, to label his on-the-run tweets as a disingenuous ploy for public understanding, but I believe it is the less likely explanation of the two. What reason have we to believe that Koppenhaver was special, that he was somehow immune to the prevailing cultural narrative about the worth of those who do sex work? Why wouldn’t he think of himself as a lamentable casualty of an unfair system?

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Dennis Hof (1946-2018)

By

ana mri

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October 22, 2018

The late Dennis Hof with Heidi Fleiss and Ron Jeremy. (photo via the creative commons)

Dennis Hof passed away last week at his Love Ranch brothel after a night of celebrating his 72nd birthday and political campaign. The days following have been filled with an outpouring of discourse about his death, much of which is contentious as people reflect on the so-called legacy Hof left behind. Between his business empire and celebrity fame, Hof exposed the nation to regulated prostitution and Nevada’s brothels in a novel and undeniably impactful way. His celebrity existed within a paradox of tolerance—rural communities in Nevada were often against the brothels, which perhaps itself contributed to his ability to stay in the spotlight. “I’m always looking for a new angle and something funny to keep my name and the name of the Bunny Ranch in the national media,” Hof told the Reno Gazette Journal in 2005.

This quest for the limelight was achieved for some time through exposing legal full-service sex work. However, it recently took a political turn with Hof winning the Republican spring primary for a seat as an assemblyman. His name is to remain on the upcoming November ballot for the Nevada Assembly, and many are saying he is set to win, despite being dead. With him running on a Republican ticket, conservatives are still likely to vote for him so as to ensure a Republican gets appointed to the seat afterwards.

Much of the coverage of his death is fixated around one question that everyone seems to be asking: are his brothels continuing operation, and if so, under whom? Madam Suzette (Suzette Cole) is reported to be receiving Hof’s brothels but, even with the inheritance, the Nevada system has several requirements in place that will need to be met before she can run them legally. In fact, the Love Ranch brothel was shuttered shortly after his death. Hof’s executive assistant, Zack Hames, appears confident in moving forward with the operation of Hof’s brothels, commenting that “it’s business as usual.” Other coverage has focused more on the polarized reactions to his passing, illustrating how while some are celebrating it, others are deeply grieving his loss. This split is highly visible in the sex work community.

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