Tag: Melbourne

Peta Brady’s Ugly Mugs—An Analogy

(Photo by Julie Bates, via Jane Green and sexliesandducttape.)

As a writer, a former sex worker, and someone who has been quite vocal in my writing about the industry, I’ve been approached quite a number of times to write about the play Ugly Mugs by Peta Brady. I’ve declined each time. Firstly, because I have not seen the play. I’ve only read about it online and read sex… Continue reading Peta Brady’s Ugly Mugs—An Analogy

Deeply Leisured (2014)

Deeply Leisured, a one-woman show by local Melbourne talent Queenie Bon Bon that details the joys and battles of being a sex worker, played during this season’s 2014 Fringe Festival. I was fortunate enough to see one of the six nights of Queenie’s show—her final performance was last weekend. It’s always fun supporting a fellow sex worker (or… Continue reading Deeply Leisured (2014)

The Week In Links—December 20

Behold that jubilant smile, and that everpresent, oh-so-stylin' riding crop. Terri Jean Bedford is a woman who knew she was going to win. Along with the two other sex worker plaintiffs of Bedford v. Canada, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott, Bedford won the day today when the Canadian Supreme Court struck down Canada's anti-prostitution laws. Looks like Canadian sex workers have a lot of decriminalized whipping to do. (Photo by Jack Boland/QMI Agency Files, via northumberlandtoday.com)

What a triumphant end to this week of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Work: today, the Canadian Supreme Court struck down the country’s prostitution related laws in a unanimous decision on Bedford vs. Canada, calling all three statutes—prohibiting brothels, living on the avails of prostitution, and communicating in public with clients—over-broad and “grossly disproportionate.”… Continue reading The Week In Links—December 20

Satisfaction (2007-2010)

When I heard about the Showtime Australia drama Satisfaction, set in a swanky Melbourne brothel, I think I elbowed an old lady out of the way to check it out of the library. Yep, library: they take sex work much less negatively in Australia than they do in the United States. It’s legal, although to… Continue reading Satisfaction (2007-2010)

The Week In Links: June 10

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… Continue reading The Week In Links: June 10