Stephen Colbert responds to the New York Post
I’m all about Stephen Colbert’s response to last week’s headline in the New York Post. I wonder how many other headlines we can make up with the word “hooker” where it makes no sense.
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Stripper Music Monday: Grace Potter Respects Strippers Enough To Stare And Not Tip
From Cincinnati CityBeat:
GP: I knew what I wanted “Paris (Ooh La La)” to be. I had a concept of what I wanted the video to look like. But we really wanted to see how dancers move and watch these girls dance to our songs. A lot of these clubs would be playing “Paris” in the club which is really crazy to see. We were in New Orleans and that was the first time we ever saw an exotic dancer dancing to our song which was a real inspiration actually. It may sound cheap, but it was a really fulfilling experience to see the string of dancers moving to our music. What we do there, it’s not a degrading experience, and we’re not throwing dollar bills or anything like that. We are the quiet weird band that lurks in the corner.
CB: That’s even worse I think. You are the creepy people in the back.
Top 10 Anti-Sex Trafficking Campaigns
I’m a little nervous to have been tasked with following in the footsteps of Kat’s outrageously hysterical Top 10 Anti-Sex Work Billboards. Mostly just because hers was so good but also because, as Kutchergate proved, anyone who criticizes the methodology around anti-trafficking measures may be automatically labeled a trafficking-loving monster. But I’ve probably already made my bed on that front, and dammit, somebody’s got to talk about how ridiculous these ads are.
10. I couldn’t rank this project higher because I couldn’t get too far into the website with either Safari or Chome and I think Lion is destroying my computer. What I did get to see was a super cute guy sucking on his fingers and grabbing his crotch, which totally did it for me even though I’m sure he was mistaking me for a man. Then I came back for seconds and got a Suicide Girl with a rockin’ bod dancing around like she was in a music video. (I suspect the video might be for that great rock classic, “Surprise! She seems willing but you’re a rapist.”)
MTV’s True Life Confirms that Sugarbabydom is a Hassle
The popularity of the sugar baby/sugar daddy relationship in the media is a bit of a recession phenomenon. It’s a grey-area of sex work lite that women with no experience in the sex industry can dip their toes into before they realize that if something sounds too good to be true, it is. The odds of finding an asexual millionaire benefactor are not good, but that won’t stop those with student loans or retail addictions from signing up on sites like Seeking Arrangement, Sugar Daddy For Me, Whats Your Price, and the like. MTV’s True Life follows twenty-one year-olds GG and Olivia, and twenty-two year-old Steve on their quests for financial dependence. Despite silly narration like, “They’re willing to ignore their hearts for the Benjamins,” I thought this was an accurate portrayal of what happens when young laypeople make an attempt at dancing the tango of conflicting interests.
Funeral Strippers?
I never knew about the phenomenon of strippers performing as part of funeral processions in certain parts of Taiwan until I heard about a new documentary, Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan. There is an interesting interview with its creator, Marc L. Moskowitz, on io9. I’ve encountered many grieving men whose first stop after a funeral service was the strip club, so as strange as this tradition strikes me, I’m almost not surprised to learn about grief and strippers being consolidated. The whole concept also kind of reminds me of a New Orleans jazz funeral. Not to mention, those of us who have ever worked a day shift basically have danced for the dead. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a full review of the documentary.