The SWOP-East blog -- Sex Workers Outreach Project

Not Really News

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:13:00 +0000

Bored, so I caught up a bit on my Google Alerts. Since I was searching through my pile for specific terms, I came up witha random selection.

People are circumventing the new CL ad restrictions by advertising for different items. It's amusing, but waiting for the new censorship on selling anything to do with women.

Kansas City discovers the Intertubes and that cyber sex work exists! In 2009. Geez, weren't they aware of CraigsList, like, last year? The KCPD also seem stunned that wholesale arrests aren't solving the financial/social/legal problems sex workers have.

These are just two stories that caught my eye. Otherwise, there have been lots and lots of arrests (most off CraigsList), trials on charges of soliciting or trafficking or running a "ring", politicans getting in hot water, lots of arrests, ill-mannered blog posts by people who openly state "I've never [been a sex worker] or know anyone who has BUT...", a few more arrests, trafficking hysteria (with very few actual victims) and quite possibly some violence but I haven't dug down enough to find it.

In other words, though I haven't been seriously following my Google Alerts for about a year, nothing has changed.

Another CL Tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:37:00 +0000

A woman and her child are killed because of CraigsList. Moral of the story...stop having babies! AGs should step in and regulate births to prevent any more killing of children. Either that or arrest anyone under the age of 5 as a murder-prevention measure. That'll take care of pyschotic baby-killers! What? Wrong violence-preventation strategy? If it "works" for sex workers, why can't it "work" for helpless children too? (Thanks to a friend for the link.)

News Bit

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:36:00 +0000

This report on sex workers with HIV, though scary on the surface, just re-confirms that sex work isn't the issue, drug addiction is. And anyone can be a drug addict.

News Bits (new and old)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:27:00 +0000

Mumbai's red light district being sold to real estate developers. (Thanks for the link to a BnG poster.)

"Shell said that he has been surprised by the response he receives from college students. "They don't care about condom usage or about their partners," he said, adding, "There is a blatant disregard that anything is going to happen to them." I think I'm including this here simply to contrast it with most sex workers' hyper-awareness of disease risk, yet sex workers are considered major disease vectors when statistics don't bear this out.

Possible legal advisor for the US State Department, Harold Hongju Koh, is roundly reviled in this article for having "European" views on many things. This includes the radical notion that sex work should be decrminalized as part of ending discrimination against women (a UN convention in 1979). Just someone I think it would be good to get to know.

This has nothing to do with anything...

The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 even regulated how often burlesque dancers could be required to strip. Just thought it was interesting that burlesque was once considered a real job at the federal level. (This link goes more in-depth into the bill, but it has many pop-ups!)

News Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:56:00 +0000

Somehow that Madoff may've visited massage parlors or escorts has something to do with him running a Ponzi scheme. Someone please connect the dots for me.

South Carolina goes after CraigsList Erotic Services ads because...well, crime is at an all-time low and there really isn't anything else to do.

(Thanks to a friend for both links.)

Influx of Strippers

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:31:00 +0000

The economy is bringing an influx of newbie sex workers to the field. $2000 in a good night in this economy for a newbie stripper? I'm not quite buying it. I know the clubs in Vegas are packed -- with strippers!

Sex work indeed offers a flexible schedule. Fast cash? Not as much as it used to. Easy cash? Never.

(Thanks to a friend for the link.)

News Bits -- AIDS

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:15:00 +0000

The Pope doesn't think condom distribution curbs the spread of AIDS. "On the contrary, it increases the problem." Right, Pope. Medical science proves that completely. Much like Bush, he feels abstinence is the answer to stopping AIDS. That one works well for asexual people, not so well for everyone else.

The Vatican responds to the outcry following the Pope's reckless statement, contending it was mostly symbolic and morality-based. No, I don't think so. It sounded pretty blunt and literal to me.

Dayton, OH arresting more HIV-positive sex workers than before. They're speaking of setting up a special treatment center for them since these sex workers have drug addictions as well (my guess: IV-drugs, hence the AIDS). A needle exchange might be useful as well, but this idea is not in the article.

New Female Condom FDA Approved

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:31:00 +0000

New female condom FDA-approved!

News Bits (disease edition)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:43:00 +0000

STIs rising among sex workers in Bali due to lack of treatment.

STI rates still rising among old people. If you have old clients, they may not be "safe"!

Vancouver study of sex workers reports a higher prevelance of HIV than the general population. Drugs are a factor. The study admits it cannot track sex worker clients -- which to me is a big freakin' knowledge gap. Pinning a damning statistic like this on only one half of the equation is irresponsible from a public health standpoint (IMO). Certainly does no favors to an already-maligned group of people.

News Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:18:00 +0000

A call for HIV prevention that includes "empowerment of sex workers". Yes, exactly and for more reasons than preventing AIDS.

Cute Valentine's card. The message? Whores get more love. (okay, at least that's what I took from it.)

News Bits (Tuesday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:33:00 +0000

According to Facebook, breast-feeding is obscene and could harm children who see those photos. While you wrap your head around that one...

Proponents of female genital mutilation argue that it helps prevent women from getting AIDS because it decreases their sex drive, leading to less partners. Mutilating naturally-working body parts is NOT disease prevention.

News Bit (Wednesday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Costa Rican sex workers can now teach other sex workers on AIDS prevention. Not knowing the legal status of sex work in Costa Rica doesn't allow for complete perspective on this news, but still, it's good news.

News Bits (Saturday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Also amusing in the Ted Haggard interview linked here previously, when he's discussing consenting to be filmed for a documentary he says "Here's the way I've worked in my lifetime: I tend to say yes." Indeed, Ted.

Number of boob jobs deflating due to economy. I liked how the writer put it "boobs or food on the table?" As a member of the natural tribe, I only have to worry about eating enough to keep the ones I already have.

How men groom schoolgirls for entry into prostitution. In the descriptions of drug and alcohol-soaked dates leading to sex, I gotta wonder where the hell the parents are. Or are these 12yr olds totally living on their own already?

Arrest on "attemped trafficking" charges. While I'm glad this vile man was thwarted in his desire to buy a fictional 9yr old Mexican girl sex slave from a Burger King, really wonder if it was worth this much effort to catch someone who has not actually trafficked another human (though he did have quite a collection of child pornography -- certainly an arrestable offense).

Chicago police discover that Las Vegas girls are expensive. They crow about her hourly rate but I'm worried it will just motivate them. Though again -- NEVER discuss sex. Not before or after he's paid. Don't talk about sex! (Thanks to a friend for the link.)

The Vidocq Society solves cold-case murders, except if the victim was a criminal -- such as a prostitute. Never mind that sex workers are probably the only "criminal" group who is specifically targeted for murders and a lot of these "criminals" are single mothers. They obviously don't wish to be bothered seeking justice for someone who doesn't deserve it -- by their moral code. (Learned of this group via a magazine article.)

News Bits (Tuesday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:01:00 +0000

Ad agency in Canada employs sex workers to bring attention to a radio station under the guise of discussing the legality of sex work.

High-end English/European agency busted. Love the non-high-end picture with the article.

The black market in human organs. Not sex work-related, but it is called trafficking and no one pays attention to it. Of course, if abolionists got their way, everyone who has organs will have to give them up in order to stop the organ traffickers.

In Ted Haggard's first interview since his fall, he finally realizes that "...sexuality is complex and confusing". It is indeed. So why the hell do people like him feel that they should regulate everyone else's sexuality if they can't even get a handle on their own?

News Bits (Monday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:59:00 +0000

Conde Nast outlines the high-end and mid-range escort markets. Who knows how accurate they are? I can toss around numbers all day long too. But sure is fun to see the math in action.

Dallas County lifts ban on free condom distribution as they figure out, 13 years late, that condoms prevent AIDS.

News Bits (tiny and random)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:59:00 +0000

Nice work if you can get it: high-end escort work in India, which sounds a lot like regular escort work in the US, only the hourly rate is higher than normal.

Phoenix cop harrassed into resigning because he hired escorts on his off-time.

Many goodies at the Sexual Intelligence newsletter, especially another teenager (a minor) who exploits herself with nude photos (of herself). That's child pornography, you know.

Woman discovers sex trafficking and feels that "sex has become pure evil". No, my dear. Human exploitation has existed since (I'm guessing) more than two people lived on earth. Sex can be a weapon -- as can most interaction between humans -- but it's exploitation that's evil.

Spot the Trafficking Victim

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Learn how to spot a trafficking victim. Signs include: looking "like illegal aliens or prostitutes or people working in construction". They also forgot: working in a hotel or restaurant, working in landscaping, or being a domestic. Especially likely if the person in question looks young, poor or has dark skin.

sex Workers: Once again, what is best for us-

noreply@blogger.com (Renegade Evolution) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:21:00 +0000

As you may or not may be aware, under the auspices of a woman named Jacqui Smith, the UK is considering a law that will criminalize the purchase of sexual services, namely, men who participate in, as they call it in the UK, “kerb crawling” (street based work). As usual, the evidence Smith is basing her proposal off of is questionable, but the proposed law is there none the less.

A blogger and ally Caroline, who is in the UK, has written extensively about the downsides of this law, and what very real consequences and potential consequences it has on sex workers of all kinds within the UK, she was even given quest posts at the UK based the F-Word and a US blog, Feministe!

The responses to her posts were, how shall I say, typical, and the reaction to her stance on the matter, equally so. Both Caroline and sex workers who bothered to participate were bogged down by generally radical leaning feminists with countless issues not necessarily germane to the legal issue at hand, shouted down as “unthinking”, “idiots”, or “happy hookers”…

I have to ask, to those of you who have met me and what not, do I generally come across as Teeheeeheee I can by Prada woo-hoo happy? Do most sex workers? Umm, no. Yet this is, consistently, how any who disagree with the pervading theme of repression of sex workers are written off and thusly discounted.

But as usual, those of us who oppose Swedish-like models, even considering the troublesome evidence that has shown such models to be far from perfect and the words of actual sex workers, as is typical, we are a tiny minority who truly know nothing about our business and do not care about all the poor trafficked women and girls. Which is bullshit, and I note, these people so concerned, from feminist anti sex work people to world governments, find it far more easy to criminalize the people who buy sex and attempt to play (often unwanted) savior to the people who sell it than to actually go after criminal organizations that deal in trafficking or take on the underlying causes, such as lack of education, poverty, drug abused, and lack of other job opportunities that face people who are unwillingly involved in prostitution…but apparently that is too hard and too messy…it’s easier to play Capitan save a ho.

I’ve also noted, in this particular latest round and in countless others, the apparent need of these people to demonize any and all sex worker outreach/activist programs which do not tout a 100% exit / prohibition stance. Currently, the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and International Union of Sexworkers (IUSW) are under attack by supporters of the proposed UK law. The same sorts of tactics have been used against SWOP, COYOTE, the Scarlet Alliance, and countless other Sex Worker Organizations in the past.

And while all the smoke and mud about happy hookers and how sex worker orgs don’t really care about sex workers and what about the poor trafficked women and girls (no mention of the transwomen, men and boys, for that matter) rages on one simple thing remains fact: a law which will affect countless sex workers adversely is poised to go on the books in the UK, with, best as I can tell, no input from any sex workers and no real ear to the objections of any sex workers…So once again, we have people building law and political prestige on our backs.

Now, I am not in the UK, nor are most of you, but that doesn’t mean this should not matter to us. Sex Workers in the UK are sex workers, just like us, and just as the UK looked to Sweden for inspiration, there is no guarantee where ever you are might not look to the UK for the same thing…

So yes, if you find this as annoying and patronizing and seriously ill advised as I do?Say something, because if we don’t, nobody else will.

I’ve already said a few things…

And why yes, please feel free to redistribute at will...

How much are celebrities worth?

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:16:00 +0000

Kristin Davis, pay-handicapping the stars. I still say working as an indie is much better. And Sarah Palin could charge quite a bit more than $300/hr.

News Bits

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:02:00 +0000

(Rather stale edition)

FDA reviews new version of female condom.

Successful seminars with the media in regards to sex work.

Sex workers are "invalids" "conceived by drunkards." Where's a media-training seminar when you need it?

Treating sex workers as children by writing a letter to their parents after arrest.

Sex-worker newsletter created in Macedonia.

The Slutcracker in Boston (thanks to a friend for the link).

Dallas figures out that condoms helps prevent HIV.

Utterly appalling wrongful assault and arrest of an alleged 12yr old prostitute. (Thanks to SWOP-LV for the link.)

News Bits (Thursday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:36:00 +0000

Obama already looking to restructure PEPFAR, among other policies, that links HIV prevention to abstinence-only education and anti-abortion restrictions. No word yet on his views about the anti-prostitution pledge.

Old people have a lot of AIDS.

Men try to infect other men in Amsterdam with HIV. The case is not ruled "attempted murder."

A man writes a novel about porn addiction Saying No to Naked Women. I say, say yes to them and pay them well.

Site listing people with STIs. Makes TER look good.

The famous Natalie, girl of Jason Itzler, releases her book about being a $2000/hr agency girl. Not that I don't doubt her story, but not all sex workers have a pimp, a drug problem and are bad with money -- regardless of what they charge their clients.

News Bits (Monday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:59:00 +0000

What Obama needs to do for sex and some forms of sex work.

Wonderful rant from an adult store clerk, one of our oft-forgotten sex worker colleagues.

Cambodia needs to take care of unsafe sex work. However, isn't Cambodia one of the places recently cracking down on sex workers, confiscating condoms and generally making their work a living hell? Can't have both ways. Oh, for the record, I still think the term "commercial sex worker" is redunant. Non-commerical sex workers are simply promiscuous people.

Walgreens starts offering care to people with HIV. Support Walgreens. This is so very forward of a mass-market chain anything in America.

UN wants India to decriminalize homesexuality to better fight AIDS. Hey, what about sex workers?

News Bits (Tuesday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:36:00 +0000

Israeli brothel workers cannot use condoms because police will seize them as evidence. Obviously, disease is flourishing, which harms the workers -- physically and socially -- making it less likely the laws will turn in their favor.

Korean sex workers committ suicide under intense police crackdown. The first comment on the article: "Poor, poor creatures. But in many ways, they're better off. What's the point of living like that anyways???"

The economy hits Donna's Ranch in Wells (next door to Bella's).

News Bits (Thursday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:04:00 +0000

People still confuse the whole Prop K thing. They talk about legalizing prostitution in SF, not decriminalizing it. Big difference, folks.

Bail bondsman sentenced for running escort agencies. He would bail out his employees. Of course, he was running a "prostitution ring".

Decriminalization is good for STI rates among Australian sex workers.

Scandinavian lawmakers don't want to meet in a hotel that has porn or prostitutes. They see all women as victims. I'm more concerned about the sex workers expecting to make money off this meeting not making their rent.

French film shows that female clients of male sex workers aren't losers, though people still stereotype male clients as losers. Stigma exists no matter what.

George Hamilton as sex worker? Do scroll down for an amusing moment in a Spanish brothel.

Snarky piece on sex workers as Democratic voters. "You don't disregard any voter, but how would you even advertise with these women?" and "For years and years we had politicians paying too much attention to hookers, so it's great to finally see hookers paying attention to politics".

Great piece about condom use in the US, particularly among young people. Interestingly, the huge lack of condom use is not seen as a public health threat, whereas condom-using sex workers generally are.

Women in the military seem to have a higher incidence of sexual assault and PTSD than street-based sex workers. Not to make light of these women's pain, but I wonder where Farley is? I also have to think that if sex workers were allowed access to military bases, some of these problems might be alleviated.

Former canadian sex worker becomes an activist to right wrongs, mainly because of the laws surrounding sex work. Though she had bad experiences, she can see how the laws made it worse.

Taiwanese sex workers want prostitution decriminalized. Currently their laws criminalize the sex workers but not their clients -- kind of a reverse Swedish model.

Apparently the Brazilian government created online tips to help sex workers in their business. Regardless of what you think of the tips, I love the attitude. Can't see that happening here anytime soon.

Continually miffed that things I've reported on here months ago get posted elsewhere as news. One of the reasons I stopped doing this daily. Not worth the effort. Right now it's more or less a repository of interest for myself.

News Bits (Wednesday)

noreply@blogger.com (Amanda Brooks) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:05:00 +0000

Mostly leftover bits from last week (sorry). And AIDS stuff.

Ghana realizes the ABC method is a bunch of CRAP.

The ideal college job: visiting sex clubs and interviewing sex workers. (Notice how they differeniate between porn stars and sex workers?)

Have an STI? Send your sex partners an e-postcard announcing your status. Sounds silly, but if it fosters honest communication and better health -- then e-postcards it is.

UK Scouts are fully prepared for sexual adulthood. Can you imagine trying to accomplish this in the US?

MIT has created a new sexual assult service.

St. Louis students being tested for HIV after an HIV-positive student possibly infected others. No real details as to what went on. Being high school, I can only imagine this will turn ugly and someone will end up in therapy.

Bali sex workers at increased risk of AIDs because government interference has led them to start working in remote villages.