Home Blog Page 202

Quote of the Week

Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested–for a while at least. The “righteous” cry against the white slave traffic is such a toy. It serves to amuse the people for a little while, and it will help to create a few more fat political jobs–parasites who stalk about the world as inspectors, investigators, detectives, and so forth.

What is really the cause of the trade in women? Not merely white women, but yellow and black women as well. Exploitation, of course; the merciless Moloch of capitalism that fattens on underpaid labor [… T]hese girls feel, “Why waste your life working for a few shillings a week in a scullery, eighteen hours a day?”

Naturally our reformers say nothing about this cause. They know it well enough, but it doesn’t pay to say anything about it. It is much more profitable to play the Pharisee, to pretend an outraged morality, than to go to the bottom of things.”

From feminist icon Emma Goldman’s bad-ass 1917 response to “white slavery” hysteria.

How to be an Ally to Street Workers

(The following has been reproduced from SWOP-USA)

  1. Don’t push yourself on me in the name of help if I don’t want or need it. I have the ability to make decisions for myself. Honor my decisions even if you don’t agree with them.
  2. We have lots of people offering us “help,” but most are NOT actually meeting our needs. Meet my needs, not your desires. If you don’t know what my needs are, it is ok to ask.
  3. If you offer help and I accept, follow through on your promises. Do not lie to us or give us a false sense of hope. Be real about how much you can and will help.
  4. If you offer help, I want it to address my immediate needs! Not something that will help me 5 years from now. For instance, if I don’t have food, a place to sleep or my fix, then scholarships for school have very little relevance in my life.

The Weekly Unwrap

We’re excited to welcome story as a contributor with her review of I’ll Show You Mine.

The T&S staff help answer a reader question about how to handle a stalker.

Good news from Louisiana as some prostitution charges drop from felonies to misdemeanors.

Elle interviewed her childhood friend, porn performer Sadie West.

The Week In Links: July 15

New York Gov. Cuomo is considering a bill that would increase penalties for those convicted of street prostitution. You can sign a petition discouraging him from doing so.

Whorelover is an anthology being compiled of essays from the partners of sex workers. Today is the last day for submissions.

Over the past three years, 44 women have been murdered in Mexicali, Mexico. The vast majority were prostitutes.

In 1998, the boyfriend and pimp of a Welsh prostitute were convicted of her murder—only to have a client later confess to being the sole guilty party. Now, police are being charged with conspiracy to “pervert the course of justice” for their involvement in the unjust convictions.

A Canadian city counsel decided to spend $500,000 of taxpayer money to buy and shut down a strip club, preventing the Hell’s Angels from buying it for the more reasonable $346,000. Well done, elected officials!

Six Florida strip club employees accepted a settlement after suing the city for a policeman’s illegal strip search. The police department still denies wrong-doing.

A Houston club is being sued over its racist policies.

Portland has a club called Pitiful Princesses. Kat would probably be pleased to play Pitbull preceded by Prince at Pitiful Princesses’ potentially packed premiere party.

A New Mexico escort talks about how the recent prostitution board bust has affected her work.

Wrenna Robertson’s I’ll Show You Mine

I’m putting my eyeliner on, but when Diamond, who’s next on stage says, “Hey can I check my shit?” so I move over to give her space at the mirror. She pulls down her panties, she bends over, ass side to the mirror, spreads her cheeks, looks through her legs at the mirror, checks, straightens up, straightens her panties and walks out of the dressing room.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m a stripper in an all nude club. Strippers need to “check their shit” because they show their “shit.” Since I see my coworkers’ vaginas on a pretty regular basis, I’ve learned there’s nothing regular about vaginas and I’ve been on a personal mission to convince women of all occupations that their non-regular vaginas are plain normal. Hence, I was thrilled to be getting a book all about vaginal diversity.