In the News (#592)

December 2, 2015 by Maggie McNeill

Someday we may look back at this era the way we now think about (alcohol) Prohibition: a failed experiment that was indefensible in principle. - Douglas Husak

Rough Trade

How are there actually still attorneys clueless enough to use this "defense"?

The mixed martial arts fighter who calls himself War Machine said in court...that it would be impossible for him to have raped his ex-girlfriend because she was a porn star. He then went on to blow an "offensive" kiss to Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqueline Bluth...the nonsensical defense ploy which War Machine - born Jonathan Koppenhaver - used during his trial [was in answer to]...34 criminal counts ranging from sexual assault to attempted murder...Christy Mack...was left with "a blowout fracture of her left eye and several other broken bones in her face, two missing teeth, a lacerated liver, broken ribs and serious bruising in several places" after the attack...defense attorney Brandon Sua said that Mackinday's career in adult films constituted consent and that her job instilled in her "the desire, the preference, the acceptability towards a particular form of sex activities that were outside of the norm." The sexual assaults Mackinday charges Koppenhaver with, said Sua, were a consensual part of their relationship...Judge Elissa Cadish told Sua that she failed to see how a person's choice of profession could determine their constant and ongoing consent to sex...

Think of the Children!

If prohibitionists really want to "rescue" sex workers, why do they keep stopping us from making money in other jobs?

A federal appeals court has ruled against a former porn star turned math tutor, saying he doesn't have a free speech right to hang a sign advertising his tutoring business at three [Florida] schools...David Mech paid $1,750 to advertise his "Happy/Fun Math Tutor" business in 2010, but the School District of Palm Beach County removed the signs in 2013 after learning that Mech was a porn star who acted under the name Dave Pounder... the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's decision that the signs are not considered free speech, but "government speech"...Since the banners were hung on school fences, the court opined that government property is "often closely identified in the public mind with the government unit that owns the land"...

Coming and Going

One of the most aggressive campaigns of sex worker persecution in the entire US gets even worse:

In roughly six weeks following Houston Police Department's Vice Division's announcement that it was changing its tactics for policing prostitution in the city, 30 individuals have been arrested and charged with felony prostitution. Almost 100 more have been handed misdemeanor charges. Several others have been charged with promotion of prostitution...[vice pig] Dan Harris...described a new [tactic for harassing sex workers by charging them with more serious crimes. He described this as] "Let's work smarter, not harder"...

Rescue industry & "authorities" invent a ludicrously-broad definition of "sex trafficking", spread panic over it, then pretend it means something when people claim to see it everywhere:

So far this year, the [Connecticut] department [of Children and Families] has received more than 80 referrals of possible victims of human trafficking in the state, said Tammy Sneed..."There is a direct correlation with an increase in training and an increase in referrals," Sneed said, referring to the amount of training now available for law enforcement agencies to identify victims of sex trafficking...

Don't Take My Word For It

It's good to see more in the media on the reality of male sex work:

Christopher said prostitution wasn't a career he dreamt of pursuing as a child but that it was a decision he wasn't ashamed of making. "A lot of people...think sex workers are all drug addicts or messed up people, but a lot of us just do it because we get satisfaction out of the work and make good money while doing it...I couldn't imagine doing anything else and I'll keep doing it as along as people keep booking me." He said there was less demand for male sex workers than women but that the industry was easier on men. "I think it's even easier for male sex workers than women because there's less stigma and its more of an even playing field in terms of strength so you're less likely to be taken advantage of...I've never been attacked or robbed or anything like that. Women sex workers have always been visible...but...now [men are] out and proud all over the internet and just as accessible and visible"...

Change a Few Words

I think it's a serious moral wrong to send people to prison for the recreational use of drugs...What we need is a total decriminalization of drug use...Everyone agrees it is seriously unjust to punish people in the absence of very good reasons to do so...it's wrong to punish people just to get them not to do something bad. That principle would allow us to punish overeating, smoking, failing to exercise, and lots of other activities that virtually no one proposes to punish. Most crimes we punish (murder, rape, robbery) do serious harm to other people. Almost all people who do drugs at most harm only themselves...We should not subject tens of millions of Americans to punishment because of bad effects that materialize in only a small subset of cases. In addition, threats of punishments don't do much to deter drug use. Most drug users don't believe they'll be caught, and they are right... longitudinal studies indicate that health and life expectancy of the roughly half of all Americans who have used drugs (with the exception of tobacco) is virtually identical to that of the half of Americans who have not...the consequences of punishment are worse than whatever harm the drugs are likely to have caused...

Profit from Panic

Is Rand Paul still claiming to be a kind of libertarian?

During this holiday season, we are undertaking a modest effort to raise awareness and money to fight human trafficking. We worked with a gifted designer to create a simple but elegant t-shirt that brings home a message of hope...the sale is supporting survivors of human trafficking in two ways: first, the campaign will donate its share of every shirt purchase to Braking Traffik, a charity that protects women...from human trafficking. Second, the campaign is partnering with To The Market...to source a limited supply of these t-shirts from a factory that employs women formerly trapped in sex slavery and gives them a new life...

Under Every Bed

I picture this dysphemism-spewing idiot as shouting in a kind of fit, spraying spittle everywhere:

...Alabama is a nexus for the [sex] trade...the highly organized pipeline...connection to the ring [is] horrendous...The victims were referred to and marketed like meat...[pogroms are] a much needed salvo to combat an evil that simmers, mostly invisibly, beneath the surface of civilized life. Sex trafficking entraps as many as 200,000 victims nationwide at any time. Atlanta's interstate corridors make the Southeast, including Alabama, prime real estate for traffickers...Obvious gaps that must be addressed include tougher laws to attack sex-trafficking crimes from the "demand" side - meaning harsher penalties for johns who solicit sex. For starters, solicitation of a prostitute should be a felony charge, not just a misdemeanor. Requiring that convicted johns register as sex offenders would also discourage demand...young victims can escape the trafficking hellhole...

On second though, maybe the body fluid he's spraying isn't spittle.

Shame, Shame

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is preparing for an en banc hearing on whether there is a privacy interest inherent in mugshots, or whether they are simply public records that can be obtained with an FOIA request. For the most part, mugshots have been considered public records. This has led to a shady mugshot-posting cottage industry, as well as an equally-shady mugshot-removal cottage industry...Despite the nation's justice system being built on the presumption of innocence, a large percentage of the population views "arrested and charged" as being no different than "found guilty." (Federal law enforcement databases - used for background checks - reinforce this perception by entering arrested persons' info when booking, but routinely failing to remove it when charges are dropped or the person is found innocent)...this case involves a federal law enforcement agency and the indictment of three local [cops]...the [DOJ's]... ultimate goal is to obtain the final say on the release of booking photos via a wholly internal process...Siding with members of the public who have been tarnished by this guilt-by-association also means siding with an agency seeking yet another way to withhold public records from the public. Siding with the Detroit Free Press means...allowing a whole host of dubious "entrepreneurs" to use public perception against private citizens to extract fees for the removal of booking info...

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#347)

The EFF steps up to do the ACLU's job:

A Los Angeles City Hall proposal to send "john letters" to the owners of cars seen in areas known for prostitution has drawn criticism from a California civil liberties group...The letters would be written to discourage those who were soliciting prostitutes from returning to the area while posing no harm to those who were there for legitimate reasons, Councilwoman Nury Martinez [pretended]...The collection of license plate data is opposed by the...Electronic Frontier Foundation...[which] has an ongoing lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department over the issue...other cities have used "john letters" to combat prostitution. In some communities, residents are encouraged to [snitch]...Some [badge-lickers] praised the proposal in Los Angeles...

Drawing Lines

It's so nice to see this from the other side of that imaginary line:

...we vintage enthusiasts have a problem: We often celebrate imagery created by sex workers of old, while stigmatizing...the sex workers of today...we're building this community...on the backs of women whom we then nakedly disclaim. I'm unsettled by the preponderance of pinup photographers who yearn for a time " when sexy was classy," of dancers who assure us that burlesque is " an art form [...] it's not sleazy", and of vintage enthusiasts who congratulate us on looking "so cute, and not at all slutty" (as I've been told on more than one occasion). These types of statements are simultaneously whorephobic ...and gratingly ahistorical. No, Bettie Page and co. weren't "classy" sex workers. They were sex workers, full stop. I've seen many a modern pinup reap the benefits of blushing "tee-hee" sexuality without acknowledging its origins in the "filthy whores" before her. Because that's what Bettie and Mae and Marilyn were, in the eye of much of the public. Marilyn Monroe posed fully nude. Bettie Page made fetish porn. Mae West was arrested and imprisoned for an "indecent" Broadway play. Bikini model Kiki Hakansson was condemned by the Pope himself. Even the red lipstick endemic to today's pinup girls was once the domain of the harlot ...

Feminine Pragmatism (#553)

Young Greek women are selling sex for the price of a sandwich as six years of painful austerity have pushed the European country to the financial brink...a new study...which compiled data on more than 17,000 sex workers operating in Greece, found that...sex on sale in Greece is some of the cheapest...in Europe...when the economic crisis began...the going rate...was 50 euros ($53)...now, it's fallen to as low as two euros ($2.12) for a 30-minute session...

What Were You All Waiting For?

Since universities have been hotbeds of neofeminism, this could be a huge development if more schools follow suit:

On Wednesday 25th November, Oxford University Student Union (OUSU) passed...a motion...resolving "to support and campaign for the full decriminalisation of sex work" and "campaign against any attempt to introduce the Nordic model"...The motion...also included a resolution "to campaign particularly for the rights of student sex workers"...as well as offer support to any student who comes out privately as a sex worker...the...motion...comes off the back of a move by Amnesty International...to urge decriminalisation of prostitution worldwide...