Churches in Kentucky and Tennessee have joined forces to protest a bar on the state border that features gogo/pole dancers. A local pastor has stated that he hopes to keep the community safe “from the filth and degradation that just ruins people.” Did we mention that these aren’t even strippers, just gogo dancers?
Meanwhile, an Ohio pastor set up a stripper pole next to the pulpit to illustrate a sermon about good Christian married sex.
Pre-Olympics prostitution hysteria begins as London starts arrest sweeps of street workers and brothels. UK-based activists are concerned about sex workers being the victims of police violence as a consequence.
Teachers with porno pasts are “nothing new,” declares the L.A. Weekly, in an article featuring their list of Top 5 porn performers/schoolteachers. The piece was written in light of the recent outing of Stacie Halas, an Oxnard, Calif., junior high teacher who was placed on administrative leave when someone recognized her from an internet porn video.
Oregon’s liquor board will consider granting a license to another outpost of Casa Diablo, the bizarre vegan strip club with questionable food safety practices. Read the Tits and Sass report on the Oregon SOS protest (and the Casa Diablo counter-protest) against the club’s proposed second location.
A Peoria, Ill., strip club anticipates going out of business if a proposed “pole tax” is approved.
A pole dancer performed at Toronto’s City Hall as part of a discussion about changing the city’s adult entertainment regulations.
Jennifer Love Hewitt talks with the Huffington Post about portraying a sex worker in The Client List.
Porn performers are uniting in protest against Rick Santorum’s proposed pornography ban with a “Wankout” on May 1.
Tits and Sass contributor Kitty Stryker published a piece in the Huffington Post this week on sex workers and the internet.
West Australia is considering a ban on prostitution in residential neighborhoods.
Sex work activists in South Africa are speaking up for legalization.
Sarah Tressler, former Houston Chronicle reporter who was recently fired for moonlighting as a stripper, has taken a freelance job with Good Morning America.
The Free Speech Coalition is backing filmmakers who don’t want the condoms-in-porn mandate to spread from the city of Los Angeles (where it recently went into effect) to the entire county. According to a poll by the AIDS Health Foundation, the majority of L.A. resident support the new ordinance.
So Glad that Tressler got picked up by GMA.
Is anyone else bothered by the way Jen Love Hewitt has been talking about sex work?
“Do you think this is a role you would have taken if it was on a cable network, like something like, “Secret Diary of a Call Girl”?
I mean, I can’t say, but I definitely would have been more nervous about it for sure. There would have had to be definite deeper conversations and more restrictions in regards to what I was willing to do and not do if it somewhere else, if it was a male-driven network or really any other place. But because it was Lifetime — and they’ve inspired and empowered females for so long and only want to continue to do that — I do feel like I’m doing this in the safest place possible.”
“The movie was based on some real events that took place in Texas, where you’re from. Had you known about them or do any research?
It’s sort of loosely based on a lot of different things that we sort of compiled together. So I didn’t really dig too deep into that. I kind of wanted to create my own thing. And research-wise, being from Texas and growing up in a house with a single Texas mom, who did everything for her children to make sure that we were happy and safe and taken care of, I’ve kind of been researching that for my whole life. And the other stuff I just didn’t really want to do research on. I was like, “Nah, that’s okay.” [Laughs.] Some things can just be acting.”
I wasn’t thrilled with what she said, but honestly, considering how mainstream she and Lifetime are, I’m glad it wasn’t even worse. This isn’t an indie film company with an edgy social/political agenda of any sort. I didn’t have especially high hopes for her having a super-enlightened or educated view of sex workers—at least she avoids saying anything explicitly insulting.
It’s a Lifetime show, of course it’s going to cater to suburbanite, middle American, middle aged, middle of the road women. *surprise!*
I smell Oscar!