The Week In Links–March 29th

Louis Vutton has been accused of promoting prostitution in a promo video for its 2013 fall collection, in which models do a poor imitation of street workers on a Parisian set.

Sex work abolitionist feminist Joan Smith concludes in the Independent that the Swedish model of criminalizing clients works, based on her experience jumping in a squad car to shadow the Swedish police.Hmmm, maybe she should have asked Swedish sex workers about that?

Maggie Mcneill ponders the implications of having the protection of prostitutes dropped from the final version of the Commission on the Status of Women in Cliterati.

A new study at the University of Victoria will collect data based on the firsthand accounts of Canadian clients of sex workers. Chris Atchinson, one of the researchers involved, hopes that the study will broaden perspectives mostly informed by research focusing on street survival workers.

Police say they’ve seen no evidence to back up an NZ First MP’s claims that  girls as young as 13 are working as prostitutes in South Auckland.

Psychologists finally notice the similarities between their jobs and ours in Psychology Tomorrow magazine.

Sex workers and women’s rights activists across India have welcomed the government’s move to drop the word “prostitution” as exploitation from the amended Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code.

Kate Zen asks in Policymic, “Why are sex workers left out of the women in violence conversation?”

The Australian Women’s Weekly published an interview with 5 brothel workers about their day to day lives, busting sex work myths matter-of-factly simply by confronting them with the quotidian reality of their work.

In Fiji, police scour the streets of Sugar City to “rid it of prostitution.” There’s some mention of “providing alternate sources of income” for the sex workers they mean to put out of business, but no elaboration on how that will be accomplished, exactly.

This account of hiring a sex worker for one’s disabled, elderly father is the least discriminatory piece of coverage on the issue we’ve seen from this New Zealand news site. As usual, sex workers get to be saintly in the context of disability–all bets off elsewhere. Along a similar line, Dan Savage consults Siouxsie Q of Whorecast to answer a question about whether or not to hire a sex worker for a mentally ill brother with a resounding yes.

New Zealand has a model policy on sex work, which is decriminalized throughout the country–except for its unfortunate clause against migrant sex work. This article in the New Zealand Herald reminds those on student visas that subsidizing their scholarship that way may lead to their arrest and deportation. Another article in the same paper covers the progress of a law meant to ban street work in parts of Auckland City, and the outreach efforts of the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective focused on workers in the area.

A new study on sex worker clients in the US found that though 14% of men had bought sex at some point, only 1% of men had visited a prostitute in the past year, but that this part of the population didn’t differ much from other men. The study’s authors say there’s little evidence that being a sex work client is inherently deviant or linked to psychological deficiencies, in contrast to findings by some anti-prostitution groups.

An article in the Star Phoenix about a new law increasing police powers and demanding escort registration in Saskatoon unknowingly illustrates the paternalistic evils of regulation, giving us a front row seat for police mistreatment of ticketed workers.

We linked the New York Times’ review of “Eden”, the latest anti-trafficking screed as movie, last week, but the New York Post really seems to get it in their review. They call it  “a Lifetime movie gone upscale-grindhouse…It’s not a documentary, it isn’t entertainment…it sure as heck isn’t art. It’s just a message, screaming on and on…”

‘Weird news’ columns were captivated this week by the story of  a Zimbabwean sex worker who ‘came back to life’ after seemingly dying during a session with a client. Predictably, coverage focused on the zombie-movie-meets-dead-hooker-joke qualities of the story, so details of the events that led to the woman’s almost-death remain unclear.

Bill Gates is offering a 10,000 grant through the Grand Challenges in Global Health Program to anyone who can reinvent the condom. The new condom should “significantly preserve or enhance pleasure; ” and come with  “attributes that increase ease-of-use for male and female condoms, for example better packaging or designs that are easier to properly apply” and  “attributes that address and overcome cultural barriers.” We can only  hope that the condom’s new features are ribbed for her pleasure as well as his.

The Time Out London Blog features an in-depth profile of X Talk, a program that helps migrant sex workers learn the English they’ll need most for interactions with clients, managers, and employees. One of  the X Talk worksheets’ list of helpful phrases include, “I’m hating every minute of this.”

Stella, a Montreal based sex workers’ rights org, explains in the McGill Daily why current Canadian laws and policy on sex work exacerbate violence against sex workers.

The Lancashire Evening Post reports police claims that the Preston sex trade is dwindling. The police assert that client arrests and the work of religious and social agencies are having an effect, but we bet that street sex workers have just moved to another area to avoid police harassment.