Mayang Prasetyo, a trans woman sex worker, was killed by her boyfriend in Australia (trigger warning: article describes a brutal, perverse murder). The Courier Mail used some unconscionably unfeeling headlines in relating the murder, and is being called on it.
Oregon lobbyists are working with strippers and social workers to come up with legislation that will offer protections to strippers, reinforcing their labor rights given that, in Oregon as in so many other places, strippers are illegally classified as independent contractors. Mary Emily O’Hara notes:
Though the panel won’t finalize the bill until later in the year, everyone seemed to agree on one thing: if you’re going to work as a stripper, some sort of basic education that clarifies rules around touching, employee status, and other workplace protections is desperately needed.
The Association of Club Executives was way less than thrilled by O’Hara’s article, as you can see from the screen shot above, taken from their newsletter. “Empowerment Enterprises”! That’s some beautiful cheek.
The Cambodian government is also proposing to enforce the labor rights of workers in entertainment venues, including sex workers.
A recent study of sex workers over 40 in India found their circumstances to be very distressed, often exacerbated by the Devadesi system.
Another sex worker is on reality tv: Former stripper Courtney Lapresi is on Master Chef, and the response to this from contestants and critics has been even more negative than Irish response to sex worker Kate McGrew on Connected. Naysayers theorize that Lapresi might exchange sexual favors in exchange for winning. As Esmerelda Murray reports, Lapresi herself is framing stripping as an embarrassing and regrettable decision she made while she was broke. What’s embarrassing and regrettable is that, after making it on to a cooking show, she felt she had anything in her past to apologize for. Badly done, Master Chef.
Several cases of male violence after rejection made the news this week, only one involving a sex worker (progress?): An English sex worker was attacked on the outskirts of Manchester after attempting to keep walking and ignore a man who wanted her attention.
A days-long trafficking investigation/sting across Canada, which interviewed over 300 sex workers, resulted in 9 arrests, although police in Edmonton, for example insist that they got a very guarded feel from many of the women. You don’t say.
A warning has been issued to sex workers in Newfoundland after several reports of gang rape. More on that.
In the UK the Liberal Democrats are pushing the Merseyside Model as well as decriminalization. As we discussed in a Week In Links in May, Merseyside is a British county that informally treats crimes against sex workers as hate crimes.
Sex work arrest numbers in Massachusetts are skewed heavily toward women, with men coming in at well under half the number of women arrests.
File under questionable and voyeuristic clickbait: Amar Toor at The Verge interviews his friend Denise, a phone sex worker.
The final reading vote on C-36 happened in the Commons this week; the bill will now be passed to the Senate.
And Terri Jean Bedford is contemplating outing her politician clients. More on that from the National Post.
The Frisky picked up on Robot Hugs’ stripping comic, an amazing illustrated takedown of male entitlement, misogyny, and strip club dynamics. One quibble: the comic has the sex worker friend arguing for “legalization” rather than “decriminalization.” Other than that, it’s fantastic.
The Nation picks up on the bias of New York’s trafficking court.
The lead sentence here says it all:
Sweden’s new coalition government is trying to make it an offence for Swedes to use prostitutes when they are on holiday or working in other countries.
“Use prostitutes.”
More on the Indian sex worker who killed a cop and set fire to his body.
Sex workers in India are still demanding decriminalization.
A Penn student is financing and finding herself through sex work.
A New Jersey couple is suing the W hotel chain for allegedly allowing prostitution on its premises.
That line from the Association of Club Executives on the Portland stripper/lobbyist partnership: “… incredibly negative story about the efforts of *social workers* to impact our industry.” (’emphasis’ mine)
Why target the social workers? Do they not have the balls to flat-out acknowledge what’s pissing them off – that the dancers now have a place at the bargaining table?
I mean, let them go after social workers (they have much more clout and professional stability than strippers, obvs; I can’t really applaud them ‘going after’ anyone). I have the feeling that the Portland activist dancer crew would have found their way to the legislature’s buttonholes (errhaha?) one way or the other.
Really good optics in going after social workers, ACE. Sounds like a winning strategy. /s
Minor point – Merseyside is a county, not a town. It takes in the city of Liverpool and surrounding areas.
Thank you! We’ll correct that.