HuffPo set up an interview with two student sex workers through Student Sex Worker Outreach Project coordinator Adrienne Graf, whom we featured in a post the other week. One of the workers interviewed was Tits and Sass’ very own contributor Red, who valiantly resisted all of the interviewer’s efforts to sensationalize stripping.
Screenwriter and go go dancer Jeff Tetreault: “Sometimes you have a good dick day, and sometimes you have a bad dick day. It’s like a good hair day and a bad hair day: Sometimes the blood just settles down there and it’s sweet — it’s an awesome dick day. And sometimes, I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ ”
John Turturro gives sex workers his vote of confidence in an interview on “Fading Gigolo,” a film he directed and starred in about a laid off bookstore employee turned escort for lonely ladies. Our only quibble is that perhaps Turturro should’ve done a bit more research first–we find it highly doubtful that a middle aged guy sex worker in most heterosexual markets would be netting “$1k for each hour of his time, plus a $500 tip.”
OK, so this guy’s thesis is that the development of sexbots will somehow lead to the adoption of basic income, once the state is inundated with a bunch of human hookers put out of work by robots. Right, because the government obviously gives a shit if sex workers go the way of cottage weavers.
Nearly 65,000 sex workers and their family members across Bengal have decided not to vote for any candidates this year, planning to press the NOTA (None of the Above) button instead. Bhurati Dey, sex workers’ rights organization Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee secretary, stated: “None of the political parties have ever looked into our demands. So it is our conscious decision to opt for the NOTA option.” In Forbesganj, Dehli, and Kolkata, Mumbai based federation of sex workers Aastha Parivaar and nonprofit organization Apne Aap Women Worldwide have also taken action on the eve of the election, collecting demands from regional sex workers for politicians.
What is it really like to work in a brothel? This Buzzfeed piece won’t really tell you much about that, but it will let you know all about Dennis Hof’s ego.
Former Tory cabinet minister Caroline Spelman called for the UK to adopt the Swedish model of criminalizing the purchase of sex. She’s just shocked to hear about estimates that thousands of prostitutes in the UK had been trafficked. Um, how about a citation and some factual basis for those estimates, Ms. Spelman?
Thankfully, though, the Swedish model also garnered some naysayers this week. Northern Ireland’s justice minister David Ford said that prosecuting clients of sex workers on a large scale would be unworkable there because the devolved government at Stormont has no powers to authorize telephone bugging operations. Cell phone intercepts – crucial in prosecutions in countries which have introduced laws against the purchase of sex – are rarely used in the country even in cases against republican and loyalist terror groups. Hip hip hurray! Now, if only the article weren’t illustrated by a typical stock photo of a faceless street worker bending over a car window on a dimly lit street, of the sort we’re all thoroughly tired of.
In a point/counterpoint feature in the Guardian which pits her against Joan Smith, Melissa Gira Grant exposes the lie hiding behind the compassion supposedly motivating supporters of the Swedish model.
A push to close Bangkok bars at 1 AM is striking terror in the hearts of bar owners, including the proprietors of the famous local girlie bars.
That awkward moment when a cop is busted for running a child prostitution ring. Really, it seems like there’s a law enforcement vice related awkward moment for every week!
Deon Haywood tells the New Yorker about the arson committed against harm reduction and sex workers’ rights organization Women with a Vision’s office space.
More on cop misbehavior: Police in southern France have been accused of racism after asking local hotel owners to report the arrival of Eastern European guests, in a bid to crackdown on “certain crimes like pimping.” Look, if you really want to catch sex workers, guys, you’ve got to realize profiling won’t help you. We’re everywhere and everyone.
Oh, AND, an aggrieved Seattle sheriff’s deputy, piqued by divorce proceedings, made the laughable mistake of reporting his wife for prostitution, incriminating himself for pandering in the process seeing as how he was using county computers and databases to perform background checks on her clients.
A histrionic Sydney Morning Herald piece reports that three massage parlors “have muscled in on a private, 23-storey [sic] residential complex in the knowledge that the local council and owners corporation are powerless to stop them.” The NSW Police Force was motivated by this scenario to announce the largest ever statewide audit of brothels. Doesn’t sound quite so much like powerlessness to us.
A sympathetic story on homeless Inuit survival sex workers quotes reps from Montreal sex workers’ rights org Stella.
Business Minister Dave Tollner plans to canvass his colleagues and the public on legalizing brothels in Australia’s Northern Territory.
Thaddeus Russell attacks the mythmaking behind trafficking hysteria in Reason.
Canada’s treatment of foreign strippers is oppressive, to say the least.
Even anti-trafficking organizations are speaking up against Project ROSE.
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Are those go go dancers guys dancing nude? Sounds like it from the article.
Sounds like it to me, given all the dick commentary.