The Ohio State University has made a slew of classic images from the Charles H. McCaghy Collection of Exotic Dance From Burlesque to Clubs available online. Let us take inspiration for future outfits from it.
Bad boys! Whatcha gon, whatcha gon, whatcha gon do? That awkward moment when the chief of police gets arrested for soliciting a prostitute.
Strip club regulations are so weird. San Diego police raided a strip club to check for “business permits and work cards.” The raid concludes with police officers taking invasive photographs of the dancers. So, what are the dancers going to do? They’re going to sue their asses, that’s what. And a second club has come forward to complain about the SPD’s tactics.
Tits and Sass contributor Tara Burns helps New Inquiry readers figure out if they’ve been sex trafficked in this handy dandy quiz. So glad we can further simplify the choice/coercion dichotomy in time for April 1st!
Ex-call girl/madam Maggie Mcneill eviscerates the Urban Institute “study” on prostitution in the Washington Post: “Lies, Damned Lies, And Sex Work Statistics.”
People Magazine profiles Rajib Boy, a Kolkatan sex worker’s son selected to participate in a Manchester United soccer training camp in England: “I am not ashamed of being a sex worker’s son…[My mother] is my main source of inspiration.” The article goes into how Indian sex workers’ rights organization Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee coaches local Kolkatan children and holds a soccer tournament every two years with children participating from over fifty different red light districts around the country.
A former basketball coach accused of sex trafficking was freed after a month in jail because prosecutors concluded he had been entrapped by police. Gee, some of us wish we had that defense available to us when we were arrested by undercover cops posing as clients!
Wah wah. Honolulu police can’t have sex with prostitutes anymore after all.
The man who attempted to rob the Australian male exotic revue Thunder From Down Under (but was thwarted when the male strippers caught him in the act) says he was on meth and needs therapy.
Awesome lady and Philadelphia police officer Terra Barrow after being outed as a former phone sex worker: “But where are your morals at by judging somebody?”
Of course an actual victim of human trafficking shouldn’t have a criminal record.
More than 300 international researchers and academics wrote an “Open Letter Calling for Decriminalization of Sex Work in Canada and Opposition to Criminalizing the Purchasing of Sex.”
On Wednesday, the Michigan state senate voted to raise the minimum age for prostitution charges from 16 to 18 on recommendations from the state’s human trafficking commission.
LMFAO, Dominique Young Unique on her stripper days: “My slowest nights I would make $3,000 a night. It was pretty cool.”
“Uh, shouldn’t Canada’s new sex work legislation include sex workers’ voices?”
Belle Knox helped the Atlantic belatedly discover the existence of student sex work. However, it does quote Christina Parriera and Melissa Gira Grant while it’s at it, so we’ll go easy on it.
A self help group of ten Mumbai ex sex workers bagged a local slum sanitation contract last year. However, the central government scheme that helped these women transition from red light district to sewage work is likely to be discontinued. The ex sex worker who founded the group, Lata Mane, told the Times of India that “if society wants prostitutes to reform, it should give them a helping hand. It also needs to change its perception towards sex workers.”
A number of deaths in Orange County has the OC Register asking if a killer is targeting sex workers.
A dismal San Francisco Bay Guardian op-ed in favor of the Swedish model reaches new abolitionist lows by putting the phrase “survival sex” in scare quotes because, what, it doesn’t exist?
This week’s SF Weekly cover story is about the sad story of Solace SF, a faith-based sex workers’ outreach group that fell apart after an audit allegedly revealed a pattern of wrongdoing by founder Laura Lasky.
Former Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby has become a patron of advocacy group Touching Base, which links sex workers with people with disabilities.
On Wednesday, the Michigan state senate voted to raise the minimum age for prostitution charges from 16 to 18 on recommendations from the state’s human trafficking commission.
Chris Hall’s excellent Alternet review of Cheyenne Picardo’s Remedy—”What If Your Drab, Dull Job Was Working In A Sex Dungeon?”— features a nod to Tits and Sass’ own Lori Adorable’s even more excellent review of the same film.
US federal law enforcement announced proposed legislation earlier this month that would allow for federal felony charges to be brought against operators of web sites that feature escort ads. Senator Mark Kirk and Illinois Cook County state attorney Anita Alvarez stated that the Stop Advertising Victims of Exploitation Act (got a great ring to it, huh?) specifically targeted the owner of backpage.com.
A couple of podcasts featured sex workers this week: The Nerdist had Siouxsie Q of The Whorecast on, and Mistress Matisse and friends appeared on the Savage Lovecast.
In a suburb of Mumbai, India, the ex-wife of a senior government official was arrested for running “a prostitution racket” out of her beauty parlor.
The Gloss’ Harlotry reminds readers that “sex work is not empowering, it is work.” Yeah, some of us have been saying that for a while now.