NoPornNorthampton

Letter to Gazette: "Urges Valley Advocate to stop running escort ads"

NPNAdmin — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:21:00 GMT

Today's Daily Hampshire Gazette publishes a letter to the editor from NoPornNorthampton's Adam Cohen. Links have been added to the text below for the convenience of the reader. The Gazette (a daily) and the Valley Advocate (an alternative weekly) are owned by the same company, Newspapers of New England, and serve similar regions in Western Massachusetts.

Urges Valley Advocate to stop running escort ads

To the editor:

The Gazette writes of past suffering in its Oct. 26 editorial, "Slavery's unfinished story," but you can find present-day exploitation in the Gazette's sister publication - the Valley Advocate - and its massage/escort advertising section. Many of these ads appear to involve prostitution.

As Joe Parker writes for Prostitution Research & Education, "Real sexual relationships are not hard to find. There are plenty of adults of both sexes who are willing to have sex if someone treats them well, and asks. But there lies the problem. Some people do not want an equal, sharing relationship. They do not want to be nice. They do not want to ask. They like the power involved in buying a human being who can be made to do almost anything."

The results? As reported by the Chicago Tribune in April 2008, a comprehensive 2004 mortality study, conducted by the American Journal of Epidemiology, shows that workplace homicide rates for women working in prostitution are 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women (which is working in a liquor store) and the average age of death of the women studied was 34.

In one study, 75 percent of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide and prostituted women comprised 15 percent of all completed suicides reported by hospitals.

In an interview on WHMP radio in March 2008, Valley Advocate editor Tom Vannah argued that most prostituted women freely choose their "job," but the reality is that most feel trapped by poverty, abuse, addiction and coercion. The harm, trauma and despair are all too evident. It's time for the Advocate to exit the escort business. More information on the subject is available on the Internet.

Adam Cohen

Northampton

See also:

Our Poster to the Valley Advocate: "Stand up for women! Drop your Massage/Escort ads"

Not For Sale Media Project; Downloadable Posters

Cincinnati: Coalition asks CityBeat to stop allowing promotion of prostitution through advertising

Orlando Weekly Drops Adult-Services Ads in Wake of Police Sting; "Operation Weekly Shame"

Orlando Sentinel: "Weekly's publisher: Arrests are payback" (10/23/07)
"When the video comes out, it will be telling because our officers tell them about specific sex acts they perform for money and ask how they can get that across better to their clientele," Zambouros said...

"First Amendment rights do not protect anyone from committing a crime," he said.

The Village Voice Earns $80,000/Month from Prostitution, Sex Trafficking and other Adult Ads (explicit language)
[Manny, a former pimp,] says it's not difficult for a pimp to recruit his harem.

"You don't have to tie a girl up -- you just keep her high."

MSNBC Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley Advocate Advertises "Foreign Fantasies" Where "Everything Goes"

Puncturing Alan Dershowitz's Delusions about Prostitution
Levitt and Sudhir Venkatesh analyzed arrest records and sexual transactions in Chicago. Far from earning a thousand dollars an hour, prostitutes typically receive $25-30 per hour. The risks of getting a disease are high--condoms are used in only a quarter of tricks. The average prostitute experiences one violent assault a month...

Ask the Valley Advocate's New Owner to Drop the Sex Ads

Belltown Messenger: "Greed, Lust and Ink"

"New York Press No Longer Marketing Arm for Prostitution/Trafficking"

Another Victory for NOW-NYC: New York Magazine Drops Sex Ads
One would think that this would be exactly the kind of exploitation the [Village] Voice would revel in exposing. But because the Voice is free, it apparently needs the revenue brought in by, this week, 10 pages of these ads.

And so its press release yammers on about how our freedoms are "under attack by the Bush administration," and makes NOW sound like the Taliban, and finally trots out the same pathetic excuse New York once made: "If there is evidence that any advertiser in our pages engaged in...sex slavery..." Blah blah blah.

It's hard to be part of the solution, when you're part of the problem.

November 13-14 Symposium in Philadelphia: Trafficking in Sex and Labor

November 13-14 Symposium in Philadelphia: Trafficking in Sex and Labor

NPNAdmin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:46:00 GMT

Please circulate this flyer widely. Download the full-size PDF (95KB). Register here for the symposium.

See also:

Hunt Alternatives Fund: Demand Abolition
Demand Abolition supports the modern-day slavery movement by combating the demand for sex trafficking. By conducting and disseminating research, convening key stakeholders to share best practices, and educating policymakers, Demand Abolition catalyzes systemic social change to reflect the dignity of all people.

Polaris Project Launches TraffickingResourceCenter.org

Press Release: Action Network to use RNC and Minnesota State Fair to Bring Attention to Problem of Sex Trafficking

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution - An Interview with Gunilla Ekberg by the Rain and Thunder Collective

"New York Press No Longer Marketing Arm for Prostitution/Trafficking"

"Trade - A Film Brings Sex Trafficking Home"

New York Times: "The Girls Next Door"; Worldwide Sex Trafficking; Role of Porn

Gloria Steinem at Smith: Cooperation, Not Domination
...there are more slaves in proportion to the world’s population--more people held by force or coercion without benefit from their work--more now than there were in the 1800s. Sex trafficking, labor trafficking, children and adults forced into armies: they all add up to a global human-trafficking industry that is more profitable than the arms trade, and second only to the drug trade. The big difference now from the 1800s is that the United Nations estimates that 80% of those who are enslaved are women and children...

New York Times: "For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival"

NPNAdmin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:58:00 GMT

Those who speak about "choice" in prostitution should consider the choices faced by the young and homeless. The New York Times reports on 10/27/09:

For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival

...Most of the estimated 1.6 million children who run away each year return home within a week. But for those who do not, the desperate struggle to survive often means selling their bodies.

Nearly a third of the children who flee or are kicked out of their homes each year engage in sex for food, drugs or a place to stay, according to a variety of studies published in academic and public health journals. But this kind of dangerous barter system can quickly escalate into more formalized prostitution, when money changes hands. And then, child welfare workers and police officials say, it becomes extremely difficult to help runaways escape the streets. Many become more entangled in abusive relationships, and the law begins to view them more as teenage criminals than under-age victims...

“It’s definitely worsening,” said Sgt. Kelley O’Connell, a detective who until this year ran the Boston Police Department’s human-trafficking unit, echoing a sentiment conveyed in interviews with law enforcement officials from more than two dozen cities. “Gangs used to sell drugs,” she said. “Now many of them have shifted to selling girls because it’s just as lucrative but far less risky.”

...more than two dozen convicted and still incarcerated pimps described the complicated roles they played as father figure, landlord, boss and boyfriend to the girls who worked for them. They said they went after girls with low self-esteem, prior sexual experience and a lack of options...

Built of desperation and fear, the bonds [juveniles] form with their pimps are difficult to break. Some girls continue working for pimps even after the pimps are incarcerated...

When recruiting, some pimps said they prowled homeless shelters, bus stations and shopping malls or posed in newspaper advertisements as photographers and talent scouts. Others said they worked Internet chat rooms and phone-sex lines...

For those girls not already engaged in survival sex, the grooming process was gradual and calculated. At first, the sex is consensual. Before long, the girl is asked to turn occasional tricks to help pay bills...

The article goes on to describe a successful policing approach in Dallas that involves identifying high-risk teens (repeat runaways), building trust with them and sheltering them in a special city facility. This approach is ready to be tested in other parts of the country but is languishing for want of federal funds.

See also:

Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate
We have asked the Advocate to drop ads for escort services and other commercial sex enterprises. Unfortunately, Mr. Vannah believes this is a matter of freedom of speech. Any compassion he might feel for people in the sex industry or the community at large is not as important.

Mr. Vannah concedes that "there is some percentage of people who are not willing participants in the sex industry", but believes that if the Advocate refuses to accept Massage/Escort ads, this will unacceptably crimp "artistic freedom". He mentions Mapplethorpe pictures as an example. How dropping ads for commercial sex enterprises will compel the Advocate to turn away Mapplethorpe pictures is not clear to us...

While a few women may choose a life of prostitution in a truly voluntary fashion, the reality for most is a history of sexual and/or child abuse, separation from their family and/or country, and poverty. Addictions to drugs or alcohol are common. They are routinely lied to, coerced, abused, threatened, and blackmailed (e.g. 'I'll hurt your family back in the Ukraine if you don't cooperate').

News Roundup: Age of Entry into Prostitution Declining

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations
The average age of entry into prostitution is 13 years (M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes, Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133) or 14 years (D.Kelly Weisberg, 1985, Children of the Night: A Study of Adolescent Prostitution, Lexington, Mass, Toronto). Most of these 13 or 14 year old girls were recruited or coerced into prostitution. Others were "traditional wives" without job skills who escaped from or were abandoned by abusive husbands and went into prostitution to support themselves and their children. (Denise Gamache and Evelina Giobbe, Prostitution: Oppression Disguised as Liberation, National Coalition against Domestic Violence, 1990)...

Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90%. The Council for Prostitution Alternatives, Portland, Oregon Annual Report in 1991 stated that: 85% of prostitute/clients reported history of sexual abuse in childhood; 70% reported incest. The higher percentages (80%-90%) of reports of incest and childhood sexual assaults of prostitutes come from anecdotal reports and from clinicians working with prostitutes (interviews with Nevada psychologists cited by Patricia Murphy, Making the Connections: women, work, and abuse, 1993, Paul M. Deutsch Press, Orlando, Florida; see also Rita Belton, "Prostitution as Traumatic Reenactment," 1992, International Society for Traumatic Stress Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA M.H. Silbert and A.M. Pines, 1982, "Victimization of street prostitutes," Victimology: An International Journal, 7: 122-133; C. Bagley and L Young, 1987, "Juvenile Prostitution and child sexual abuse: a controlled study," Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, Vol 6: 5-26...

Pimps target girls or women who seem naive, lonely, homeless, and rebellious. At first, the attention and feigned affection from the pimp convinces her to "be his woman." Pimps ultimately keep prostituted women in virtual captivity by verbal abuse - making a woman feel that she is utterly worthless: a toilet, a piece of trash; and by physical coercion - beatings and the threat of torture. 80% to 95% of all prostitution is pimp-controlled. (Kathleen Barry, The Prostitution of Sexuality, 1995, New York, New York University Press)...

Realities of Teen Prostitution Mock Notions of 'Sex Work', 'Sex-Positive', 'Freedom' and 'Empowerment'; Media Glamorizes Pimps
[ABC News:] "I think in the last couple years we've seen a real increase in the glorification of pimp culture," Lloyd says. "Girls growing up now, and boys too, are beginning to see this as cute and sexy or glamorous and not really understanding the realities of the sex industry..."

"What you see in the movies, what you see on TV -- it's not like that," Sara says. "They don't tell you the part about the rapes. They don't tell you about getting beat up. They don't tell you that you might die every day."

Salon: Atlanta's underage sex trade
The problem isn't restricted to so-called Hotlanta; Herbert notes, dispiritedly, that "the overall market for sex with kids is booming in many parts of the U.S." But the city's role as a convention and travel hub has given it a particular boost. And advocates say that the prevailing preference for ever-younger prostitutes -- fueled by "the cultural emphasis on the sexual appeal of very young women and girls" and "the widely held belief among johns that there is less risk of contracting a disease from younger prostitutes" -- has pimps and sex traffickers recruiting more at-risk kids than ever before.

The Village Voice Earns $80,000/Month from Prostitution, Sex Trafficking and other Adult Ads (explicit language)
[Manny, a former pimp,] says it's not difficult for a pimp to recruit his harem.

"You don't have to tie a girl up -- you just keep her high."

StandardNET: "Pornography at root of more and more domestic violence incidents"

NPNAdmin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:55:00 GMT

Utah's Standard-Examiner reported on September 19:

More women requesting help are reporting that their abuser views pornography, according to officials who work with abused women.

"Five years ago pornography wasn't something we talked about," said Kay Card, director of Safe Harbor, a women's shelter in Davis County.

The pornography is a "cancer", she said.

"Women can't compete with the Internet," Card said...

"The reason many women go back to their abuser is because they do not have a job or a place to live," said MacFarlane.

One in four women have experienced or are in a violent domestic relationship, she said.

If you're a woman looking for a mate, and that person uses porn and won't stop, in some ways it doesn't matter if the porn causes abusive behavior or merely correlates with it. If you want to reduce your chances of being abused, avoid porn users.

See also:

Testimony from Northampton Shelter for Battered Women: Half of Abusers Use Pornography as a Part of the Abuse (explicit)

Everywoman Center Coordinator: Porn Damages Women; Porn Addiction
Stacey Roth, coordinator of an educational outreach program at Everywoman Center, a women's advocacy group at the University of Massachusetts, said that, based on accounts of area women speaking about their experiences with domestic abuse, she agrees with recent arguments that pornography damages women.

"Typically, a woman will say that her boyfriend is into very violent forms of pornography and likes to act out specific aspects of that, and she doesn't know how to stop it," Roth said, "or a battered woman might perceive a connection between the pornography in her household and the bouts of violence...

"In no other case [of media communications] are people so quick to discount the argument about the human cost, which I think reflects how low protection of women ranks in our priorities. We're quicker to protest media (material) that depicts the mistreatment of animals than of women," Roth said. "A society does need to make choices about what attitudes it wants to condone."

Northampton Shelter Coordinators: Porn a Factor in Many Cases of Domestic Abuse
"People say pornography doesn't hurt anyone. Real women are being tied up to produce this. Men seeing it think it's all right," [Roz] Cuomo said...

Abusive Relationships and Porn: The Similarities (explicit language)

Evidence Assessment: The Role of Pornography in the Physical Abuse of Women
The REA [Rapid Evidence Assessment] identified three studies involving such women. Sommers and Check (1987) surveyed 21 battered women from a shelter and a comparison group of 21 women from the university to investigate the role of pornography in the physical abuse of women. They found the partners of the battered women read or viewed significantly greater amounts of pornographic materials than the partners of the comparison group, and the ‘battered women experienced significantly more sexual aggression at the hands of their partners than did women in the comparison group’ (p 189).

Video Presentation: A Content Analysis of 50 of Today's Top Selling Porn Films (explicit language)
Ana Bridges: "...I'm going to begin to talk about what it is that we found after looking at these 304 scenes in these 50 top selling pornographic films. In total in the 304 scenes we coded a total of 3,376 acts of aggression. That ends up averaging...to an aggressive act every minute and a half. The scenes on average contained eleven and a half acts of verbal or physical aggression...

Kink.com: Bondage Porn Gone Chillingly, Cheerfully Corporate (explicit language)
Sex and Submission
"Our powerless girls scream as they are tied up and forced to have sex over and over. Are they screams for help or do they really just want more?"

Hustler Cartoons: Racism, Misogyny, Anti-Semitism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Incest, Ridicule of Disabled People... (explicit)

A man watches TV while a woman looks on. On the wall, there's a baseball bat in a case with this sign: "In case the bitch gets mouthy, break glass".

Businessmen at a meeting discuss a new doll product, "Baby Kick and Bleed with Bandage and Crutch". The child is shown saying, "Please no!" The caption reads, "...And we pitch it toward the battered-child market!"

The police are called to a home with domestic violence. On the wall are portraits showing women in bandages and smiling men. One cop says, "Yep, it looks like another family with a history of wife abuse."

Childhood Spanking Linked to Coerced Sex and Risky Sex in Adulthood; Amazing.net Milks Pain for Profit (explicit)
The following movies are on sale now at Amazing.net/Goflix.com:

Bad Girls Get Spanked
Misbehavin' bitches get punished!

Intense Fetish # 724 300 Strokes For Spanky
Three hundred hard strokes using six different instruments! With assistance from his slave Nicole Master Len picks three instruments from the wall!Spanky picks three more for a total of six. Spanky is given fifty strokes from each instrument. The strokes are spaced out every three to five seconds. There is only a small break between each new instrument. Every stroke is applied to her tender ass. See her ass get red and bruised with small blood blisters forming. Spanky is a real pain slut. You will see her writhe in pain and then smile in ecstasy.

Details from box cover:

Pain 25
Remember when your daddy would come home from work and beat the living shit out of you? Remember how your
flesh bruised and bled at the end of his belt? Some days you thought your worthless life was over. My how you
begged and cried. Good times. Damn good times. Well now you can relive those special moments. Take Pain #25
home today!

Amazing.net stores also sell sadomasochistic magazines:

Herbert, Brooks and Osayande on Misogyny, Money and Power; Amazing.net's War on Women and Blacks (explicit)
Extreme Audition #6
What happens when you have a tiny little blonde walk into your studio? Well a lot of fun for Michael Kahn. This pretty little thing was in tears by the end of this video. She had no tolerance for pain and so it was great fun to beat her little ass.

Pain #26
Can you maintain ninety minutes of masochistic mayhem?! Watch today's most worthless degenerates line up for abuse and debasement. On the street. In private. Female pigs have been stripped of all dignity. Listen to their wretched screams. Watch their distorted pained faces. Then jerk off to the brutal inhumanity of it all!

Now on Sale at Amazing.net: The Swirlies (explicit)

Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Relationships (explicit)
Pain In The Ass
The bitch has been naggin at you all fuckin day. Take out the garnage. Do the dirty fuckin dishes. Dont drink so much beer. Blah Blah Blah. Theres only so much a man can fuckin take so when its bed time make it your turn to be the major pain in her ass...

Now Showing at Amazing.net: The War on Privacy and Consent (explicit)
Pain & Tolerance
4 hours of whippin' good fun! Non-stop spanking binding whipping and domination. This is filled with perversion and mayhem! Subjugate those pathetic little pigs and make them obey!!!

Amazing.net: Making Nazis Sexy (explicit)
Plenty of movies have been made about the Nazi regime, but only the porn industry expects you to orgasm to it. Now on sale at Amazing.net/Goflix.com, you'll find Nazi Torture Castle (explicit link)...

Punishment Porn: "Whether-She-Wants-It-Or-Not" (explicit)
Strictly Speaking Spanking, a magazine on sale at Bookends of Enfield, calls itself "entertainment for consenting adults". On reading the magazine, however, one could be forgiven for becoming confused about the role of consent in the entertainment...

SSS publishes a letter from Cindy in California:

I hate being discipline spanked, but I can honestly say I earned every one of them...like when I'd foolishly let my car run out of gas... This time I knew I had gotten myself into even bigger trouble...

"Take down your jeans and panties," he ordered.

My face averted, I did as I was told. I've learned the hard way that hesitating or protesting is stupid. But I haven't learned how not to feel utterly juvenile and humiliated while I stand there in front of Rich, naked from the waist down while he scolds me, explains what I've done wrong, and tells me exactly what I'm about to get...

My shrieking became progressively louder and my bucking became progressively more frantic as he spanked me, and then a funny thing happened. Everything went black. I didn't pass out, it was more like all my senses shut down, and all I could do was wail out my misery...

I snuggled into Rich's arms, returning his affections, and promised not to do anything to make him spank me so hard again.

As much as I hate spankings, this is one of my favorite times. The punishment is over, all is forgiven, and the man I love has shown me that he loves me and cares for me...

Military Still Selling Porn on Bases Despite Law (explicit)
We invite you to look over these samples from Playboy and Penthouse and judge if you feel their messages are harmless or not. These images are reproduced from Against Pornography by Diana Russell...

MacKinnon: Framing Torture as Porn Magically Makes It Acceptable

Testimony in Massachusetts: Porn Confuses Young Men about How to Behave
There's a professor of psychology at UMass Boston who has done his doctoral dissertation and subsequent research on sexual aggression among young college males, and he's found that in dozens and dozens of interviews that young guys will sit there in a room with him, and they'll admit to or talk matter-of-factly about, "I did this to her, I did that, and we did this and that," and they never once refer to themselves as rapists, of course, and they never once refer to the behavior that they've engaged in as raping behavior, or in any way criminal. But this psychologist will tell you that he knows that if they were under oath in the court of law, they would be admitting to first degree felonies, but they think it's normal, perfectly natural herterosexual relations.

Bitch Magazine: "Wack Attack" - Confronting Online Harrassment

NPNAdmin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:24:00 GMT

"Wack Attack", a 2008 article from Bitch Magazine, offers advice to women and feminists confronting online harrassment:

1. Don't Silence Yourself.

Even the staunchest advocates for ignoring harassment support this stance, because they want women to keep writing online. Do whatever you need to do to feel safe, but don’t quit. Your silence gives every fearmonger and troll a thrill of victory. The more women who insist on being heard online, the better place the web will be for feminist voices.

2. We Must Change the Culture Together

Hold offending sites accountable for the culture they create, and if they refuse to respond, shun them in favor of sites that welcome women’s voices. Report the identities of attackers to authorities whenever possible, and shame them online whenever practical. Pressure media outlets to cover online attacks on women as a serious issue without contributing to the culture of fear that leads to the silencing of women. Call on the men who claim to be our allies to do this work alongside us, and hold them accountable for moderating their spaces responsibly and for reading and linking to women bloggers at the same rate they do men. Join a group that’s concerned with these issues, such as the feminist bloggers’ listserv (contact here) or Take Back the Tech. Make this their problem more than ours.

3. The Best Defense is Good Tech.

If we’re going to be challenging the cyber-status quo, it pays to be technologically prepared. Says Kevin Andre Elliott, who writes as Thin Black Duke and suffered heinous racial attacks when he dared to speak out against Anonymous, “I kept up on [Anonymous’s] boards for some time, and I remember at one point many of the members were lamenting that Biting Beaver and Heart were just too web savvy for them to effectively do what they wanted to do. That made me smile.”

There are many ways to protect your site from attack and shut down offenders before they start, including hosting your photos separately from your blog (so that “image raep” techniques don’t work), and hosting your site on a feminist-friendly ISP like MayFirst, which understands the political as well as technical issues involved and will work with you to keep your site safe on your terms.

4. Better Together.

Another way to stay protected is to blog in a group--that way you can share responsibility, support each other, exchange knowledge, and have greater coverage when it counts...

See also:

Hackers Crow about "Downing" Feminist Websites; Image Raeping (explicit language)
First Amendment or no, it is remarkable how often porn defenders and anti-feminists leap to disrupt and suppress speech they don't like...

As Elaine Vignealt observes on her blog,

The fact that they consider bloggers’ decisions to switch to moderated comments or change their MySpace pages to “private” as a win for the crackers means their ultimate goal is to silence us. They are NOT hackers, taggers, or even crackers. They’re censors.

If you're a victim of harassment, Vignealt recommends documenting everything about the attack, including the attacker's comments, emails and websites (take screenshots since websites can disappear). Keep your software up to date and use strong, hard-to-guess passwords. We would add, back up your files often and be on heightened alert for "phishing" attacks or other deceptive ruses designed to grab your passwords and access your accounts. Someone might call you, for example, and pretend to be from your Internet Service Provider or your company's IT department.

Vignealt provides these further resources:

Resources for victims of web harassment:

King and Queen of MoPornNorthampton Savagery Do Freelance Work for Republican, MassLive (explicit language)
As those who have visited opposition blog MoPornNorthampton [currently offline] are aware, Jeff Hobbs, Jennifer Ruggieri and their associates have engaged in savage personal attacks on Northampton anti-porn citizens for months. These self-styled heroes of free speech actually suppress it by fostering an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, inducing many citizens to abandon the debate.

Recently Mr. Hobbs, the principal of consulting firm Uncanny Valley, put his considerable technical skills to work in creating a game where the object is to toss a graphic of Adam Cohen's head as far as you can. Mr. Hobbs lists the Springfield Republican among his clients. The Republican's online home is called MassLive. In May, MassLive began featuring a new blog by Mr. Hobbs, Link Farm...

Yesterday [6/6/07] we had to deactivate our standard commenting system because some individuals persisted in abusing it. Abuse typically means heckling, harassment, unsupported assertions, and a disinclination to engage with us on the facts.

The main tool our blog host provides to manage hecklers is to allow us to block selected IP addresses. However, MoPornNorthampton discovered and has promoted since March a way to defeat this system. We are now requiring all comments to be submitted by email to improve accountability and the quality of the debate.

Not much remorse is coming from Moporn, and they add a false accusation to boot:

I imagine a whispered *Eureka* in the long, bone-dry hours of the night over at NPN headquarters when they came up with that high-powered security protocol.

What a relief, though-- the proxy server workaround was a pain--and as a peripheral bonus, the new method will cut down on the long hours Adam spends crafting fake comments to post under fake names. Unlike his opponents, who posted real comments under fake names, he can now skip most of the tedious web interface and do a nice cut and paste from what I imagine as a single five thousand page Word document.

Jennifer/MPN

We have never crafted a fake comment. We have no trouble finding evidence for the harm of porn. For Hobbs and Ruggieri, however, it's apparently more fun to leave 'dry' facts behind in favor of subverting the debate process through technological subterfuge and plain old lies.

Pro-Porn Protesters Shout Out Slander, Make Threats
...The protester pictured below approached NPN, mentioned Japanese Yakuza, and said he was a "full-blooded Italian". We asked him if he was making a physical threat, and he denied it. This interaction was captured on video by another pro-porn protester. A short while later, the "Italian" began following NPN down the sidewalk on King Street, turning away only when told that harassment would lead to a call to the police.

This protester also interfered with NPN's photographing of his fellow protesters' activities for several minutes:

"Sex-Positive" Debate-Killing Tactics Stretch into Their Fifth Decade
Our opponents profess extreme devotion to free speech, yet in reality many of them freely employ debate-killing tactics such as disrespect, ridicule, misrepresentation and intimidation. Tactics like these have a history in this debate that stretches back for nearly half a century. They have been effective at skewing the public dialogue over issues of love, sex, relationships and the rights of communities, even as the evidence of the harm of porn and adult enterprises piles up into a mountain.

Capital Video Representative Swears at NoPornNorthampton During Public Meeting (10/26/06)

Abuse and Threats Drive Women Out of Online Participation (explicit language)
[Kathy Sierra's] Web site, Creating Passionate Users, was about "the most fluffy and nice things," she said. Sierra occasionally got the random "comment troll," she said, but a little over a month ago, the posts became more threatening. Someone typed a comment on her blog about slitting her throat and ejaculating. The noose photo appeared next, on a site that sprang up to harass her...

Sample Hustler cartoon: A man watches TV while a woman looks on. On the wall, there's a baseball bat in a case with this sign: "In case the bitch gets mouthy, break glass".

George Will: "Anger Is All The Rage"
Back in March we discussed the bile and vitriol on offer at MoPornNorthampton, and the consequences for the quality of public debate. Peter Brooks of TalkBackNorthampton considered the matter, then issued a defense of "trash talk". George Will discusses this phenomenon in "Anger Is All The Rage", published March 25 by The Washington Post...

The Virtue of Civility: Bringing depth, respectfulness and integrity back to our national discourse
Patricia Schroeder: Having participated in the political arena for a very long time, I find the meanness is way over the top. One of things we track is the number of women going into politics, and in the last four years the number has been going down instead of up. When you ask women who are more than qualified why they won’t get into politics, they look at you as if to say, “What, do you think I’m nuts?”

Advocate.com: "Business Before Pleasure?"

NPNAdmin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:34:00 GMT

Should porn performers enjoy the same workplace protections as other Americans? Matt Siegel raises the issue for The Advocate (8/12/09):

Business Before Pleasure?

...Tony Malice of JM Productions, a straight porn production company, says the business isn't really set up for performers who refuse to work on camera without a condom: “If a girl only wants to work with a condom, she can seek out that work ... same for men. But it will be much less work..."

The use of condoms on gay porn sets makes the issue of HIV status a moot point to some producers, enabling a sort of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But rumored government regulations mandating that all California-based porn studios test its performers has studio heads running scared.

Though there are no scientific statistics, there is a quiet acknowledgment among adult industry professionals that a significant number of gay male porn performers are HIV-positive. A survey conducted by TheSword.com of nearly 100 gay male performers says 30% of them responded as being either HIV-positive or status unknown.

Mandatory testing of gay porn stars would all but bar HIV-positive performers from appearing in films...

Stephan Sirard of NextDoorMale.com is one of the very few studio heads who requires condoms and monthly testing for all: straight or gay, male or female, for partnered or solo scenes.

“Condoms break. Condoms come off. And with testing there are window periods. Combine both for best practices. Studios that don’t use condoms and don’t test should be in court for murder,” Sirard says.

According to a report from the Los Angeles County health department, between 2004 and 2008, nearly 2,000 porn performers contracted almost 3,000 cases of various STDs. That said, the county department recommends but does not require condom use on porn sets.

“Right now it’s the policy of the county of Los Angeles and the state of California to look the other way,” says the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Michael Weinstein.

The AIDS group is currently suing the department in an effort to make it require condom use...

California Occupational Safety and Health is responsible for enforcing state laws and regulations such as the blood-borne pathogen standard, which requires employers to protect workers exposed to blood or bodily fluids on the job...

See also:

Hampden Superior Court Lets Capital Video Reopen Viewing Booths in Springfield; A Proposed Solution (9/30/08)
How much does Capital Video care about the health of its customers? A search of the term barebacking on its Amazing.net/Goflix.com website today brings up the following and more:

Bisexual Barebacking #6
Barebacking Tag Team
Unsafe Sex with Transsexuals Barebacking #2
Raw Bois #3 - A Twink Barebacking Adventure
Adventures in Barebacking

The title below was prominently on display at an Amazing.net store in Massachusetts on September 28. The character at the bottom of the box cover says, "Go Forth And Be Unsafe My Son!"

Los Angeles Times: "Groups to file complaints against 16 porn companies" (8/20/09)
The [AIDS Healthcare Foundation] sued Los Angeles County last month alleging that public health officials had failed to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to enforce laws requiring employers to protect workers against exposure to bodily fluids. The suit was filed after the disclosure that an adult-film performer had tested positive for HIV...

Cal/OSHA officials declined to comment because the complaints have not yet been filed. They said they continue their own investigation into the most recent HIV case, as well as 18 additional HIV cases since 2004 reported to them by the Southland porn industry's primary health clinic. The state has subpoenaed patient records, but that access is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has alleged a violation of patient privacy...

Former adult film performer Shelly Lubben, founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, said she contracted herpes and became infected with the human papillomavirus, or HPV, while working in the industry and had to have half of her cervix removed.

"...It's illegal for bodily fluids to touch skin, and yet it happens every single day in the porn industry."

AIDS Healthcare Foundation: "Tell Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky that LA County Must Enforce Condom Use in Adult Films!" (8/31/09)
In a written legal response to AHF’s lawsuit, the County showed its complete disregard for the well-being of young people who working in the porn industry and who are continuously threatened with STD and HIV infections. County lawyers wrote, “…the adult film industry employs approximately 1,200 adult film performers at any given time. The population of Los Angeles County is approximately 9,850,000. Thus, AHF is seeking that the County be compelled to take certain actions in regard to less than .01% of the population….Plainly, the public need here is minimal.”

You can be absolutely certain that if 1,200 Los Angeles firefighters, nurses or schoolchildren came down will other illnesses or infections, government health officials and politicians like Yaroslavsky would be scrambling to speaking out—and resolve—the public health threat in a heartbeat.

There is no firewall between porn actors and the general public—many performers have sex with people outside the industry, including boyfriends, girlfriends, casual partners and those who may pay them for sex.

Ex-Porn Star Shelley Lubben Talks about Days on the Set: Tedious, Intoxicated, Painful, Risky
...At the time I caught herpes, I had no help and no one to help me deal with the disease. But since AIM came on the scene, the organization has lowered some of the spread of HIV in the adult industry, and has certainly increased awareness among performers. But the truth remains, porn actors continue to risk their lives and the lives of others. Nothing is more devastating than to receive a positive test for a sexually transmitted disease. For me, it was the final blow.

Condom Use Below 20% in American Porn Movies
"In any sexual interaction where condoms are used, consumers tend to drift from that," said Graham Travis, head of production at Elegant Angel Video, a production company that turns out as many as eight new releases a month. "What the consumers want to see is performers without condoms, something that's as real and intimate as possible..."

Sharon Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who earned a Ph.D. in human sexuality before co-founding the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, said on Monday that condom use in the industry had gone up after the H.I.V. outbreak to 23 percent from 17 percent and that it was now back to about 17.5 percent.

Los Angeles Times: "In California's Unregulated Porn Film Industry, an Alarming Number of Performers Are Infected With HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases. And Nobody Seems to Care."
The Adult Industry Medical HealthCare Foundation (AIM), an industry-backed clinic in Sherman Oaks, administered voluntary tests to a group consisting primarily of adult film workers. Of 483 people tested between October 2001 and March 2002, about 40% had at least one disease. Nearly 17% tested positive for chlamydia, 13% for gonorrhea and 10% for hepatitis B and C, according to Sharon Mitchell, a former adult actress who founded AIM...

For chlamydia, 101,871 cases were reported for the year [in California as a whole], or about three-tenths of 1%--a rate health officials consider epidemic. The chlamydia rates in the porn world are about 57 times higher than those epidemic proportions...

Types of Porn and Their Occupational Safety Risks (explicit)
The list of STDS on the AIM handout includes: "HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphillis, Hepatitis, A,B,C, Herpes, Genital Warts, Molluscum Contagiosum, Crabs, Trichomonis, Bacterial Vaginosis, Rectal Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, Gonorrhea of the throat."

Penn State Law Professors Trot Out 'Female Porn Leaders' to Whitewash Realities of Adult Industry (explicit language)
As D.A. Clarke wrote in Christine Sparks and Rebecca Whisnant's anthology Not for Sale, most porn performers work under conditions more akin to sweatshop labor than to professional-level jobs. Sex workers receive very little of the profits made from their bodies; they have no social standing, no health care benefits, heightened risk for STDs and addictions, and little protection against sexual harassment and violence.

Martin Amis: "A rough trade"
"I have herpes," said [porn actress] Chloe as she drove me to a smoker-friendly bar. "After you've been in this business for a while, you have herpes. Everyone has herpes.... My movies are all-condom, but condoms won't protect you from herpes. They don't cover the base. Sometimes when you're doing girl-girl you'll say, 'Honey, I think you should go and see someone.' It can be a very stinky scene down there...."

All employers must comply with OSHA regulations on working with/cleaning up certain bodily fluids. Report non-compliant adult enterprises to OSHA.
The OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens standard [link added] covers employees exposed to bodily fluids including blood and semen. Some of the sections of this standard require the employer to develop a written exposure control plan, offer exposed employees the hepatitis B vaccination series, provide personal protective equipment (gloves, etc.) and provide training to employees.

You can make an anonymous complaint to a federal OSHA office [link added]...

2004: Cal/OSHA issues citations to adult film companies for failing to protect employees from health hazards
SAN FRANCISCO – Cal/OSHA, the state’s occupational safety and health program, yesterday issued its first-ever citations to employers in the adult film industry. Two employers, Evasive Angles and TTB Productions, each received citations totaling $30,560 for violations of health and safety regulations related to the exposure of three employees to HIV.

“Employers in the adult film industry must know how to protect their employees from health and safety hazards and understand the consequences of failing to comply with state regulations,” said Vicky Heza, Cal/OSHA’s deputy chief of enforcement.

Both companies are based in Van Nuys and both company names appear on the credits for the motion picture production during which some employees contracted HIV. It’s unclear at this point which company employed the workers who were exposed.

Evasive Angles and TTB Productions received citations for failing to comply with the state’s bloodborne pathogen standard, failing to report a serious work related illness to Cal/OSHA, and for failing to prepare and follow a written safety and health program, known as an injury and illness prevention program. The citations for failing to comply with the bloodborne pathogens standard and failing to report a serious illness carried the maximum penalties--$25,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Porn Worker Conditions: "Who failed Lara Roxx?" (explicit language)
Lara Roxx (aka Laura Roxx, Lana Roxx and Lara Coxx), who began her career in porn three months ago, has HIV...

There is nobody (with legal authority, at least) even to say to the industry, "You idiots. Start using condoms at the very least..."

Workplace Regulations for Porn Performers: A Dialogue with Renegade Evolution
Even Carol Queen, sex-positive heroine, thinks it's time for hetero porn to put on a condom:

As good a job as porn has tried to do in preventing its No. 1 occupational hazard, it falls short for a reason that should be instructive to everyone. Its antipathy to condoms puts performers at risk, pure and simple.

Extremely risky acts are safer when condoms are correctly used. To porn fans for whom the sight of a condom is pleasure-squelching, I say: Get used to it. The (heterosexual) adult industry has for 20 years shirked an opportunity to help normalize condom use. This doesn't just put its own talent at risk. It puts viewers and their partners at risk as well.

Sexual Ecology: Porn, Promiscuity, and AIDS (explicit language)
Rotello observes that all infectious diseases are ecological. The human behavioral environment is as important a factor as the biological properties of the virus. Variations in technology and culture explain why the same virus will remain rare in one population but start an epidemic in another...

Today's mainstream heterosexual porn similarly promotes rates of partner change ("50 Guy Cream Pie") that are far beyond what any society has considered sustainable for sexual health. The one community that adopted this porn myth on a massive scale--gay men in developed countries--was hit with a devastating epidemic within a generation. Nonetheless, porn continues to hold out extreme promiscuity as the universal and natural state of male sexuality, so central to male identity that critical analysis of its historical and ecological contexts is taboo...

Porn films reverse the status equation that Rotello sees as necessary for ecological survival. Monogamy is mocked as stifling or impossible. Unprotected sex with alarming rates of partner change is the ideal. Now that women as well as men consider it acceptable, even cool, to enjoy porn, will the widespread acceptance of porn myths produce a heterosexual STD epidemic to rival AIDS? Rotello's important book challenges us to treat ourselves, our partners and our sexual ecosystem with more respect if we want to survive.

Porn: A Deadly Occupation
RAME, "the official website of rec.arts.movies.erotica", keeps track of porn stars who have died. Here are many of the performers from their list...

CNN.com: "'John schools' try to change attitudes about paid sex"

NPNAdmin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:58:00 GMT

CNN.com reports on welcome efforts to focus on the demand side of prostitution (8/28/09):

'John schools' try to change attitudes about paid sex

...Across the country, about 50 communities are using John Schools. Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, are among dozens more cities that plan to launch similar programs by the end of the year...

...experts estimate 1 million to 2 million prostitutes work in the United States...

Experts add that easy accessibility to prostitutes and pornography on the Internet are feeding the problem...

A woman who called herself Alexis, a 35-year-old former prostitute with dark hair and bright blue eyes, spoke to the men as the class came to an end. Four years ago, she left the streets and now works at a factory.

By the age of 10, Alexis had learned to barter with sex with her stepfather. In her 20s, she found herself hooked on drugs and selling her body. She was arrested more than 80 times. She was hospitalized after someone shot her on the job...

Some evidence suggests that John Schools are working. A study released in 2008 by Abt Associates Inc. for the federal government looked at the John School program in San Francisco, California. It's one of the largest programs in the country; more than 7,000 johns have attended since 1995.

According to the study, the re-arrest rate fell sharply after the school was launched, and stayed more than 30 percent lower for 10 years afterward...

A recent study by the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation conducted among johns in Chicago, Illinois, found that 41 percent of them said John School would deter them from buying sex, compared with 92 percent who said being placed on a sex offender registry would scare them from re-offending...

See also:

Newsweek: "A School for Johns"
...The San Francisco program shows it is possible to appeal to the customers' sense of "empathy for those harmed," says Michael Shively, a sociologist who reviewed the program for the Department of Justice, which provides some of its funding. Shively's study [PDF], released in May, found that recidivism rates of those who completed "Johns school" were 30 percent less likely to be rearrested for soliciting sex than were men who did not opt for the program. And an earlier study of a similar program in Buffalo, N.Y., resulted in an 87.5 percent drop in the recidivism rate for attendees. Shively admits he was skeptical at first. "It didn't seem realistic that one eight-hour day of talking at men would change their behavior," he says. "Now I'm an advocate."

PBS: "John Schools" (5/30/08)
They hear first-hand from former prostitutes, like Kira, about what life as a prostitute is really like. She tells them about the sexual abuse she endured as a child, starting at the age of 3, how she was paid for sex as a teenager, and became addicted to drugs. She recounts the violence and rape that many prostitutes experience while working on the streets.

Media Watch: "Censored Truth"
"Other important steps are changing attitudes through education. Norma Hotaling’s school for johns is proving to help with part of that equation. The school allows first time offenders to remove the arrest from their record if they spend a day in school. These men pay approximately $500.00 to learn about the seriousness of second-offenses and sexually transmitted diseases. Most importantly, during the seminar former prostitutes tell them the truth about what it is like to be a prostitute. Out of 900 participants only three have since been arrested on similar charges. This school, which began in San Francisco, is being replicated in Toronto, Portland, Oregon and scores of other cities are considering joining them."

How to Deter Johns from Buying Sex
...some 89% would stop using prostitutes if "named and shamed" on the sex offenders' register.

Prostitution looks chic, but truth is ugly (Chicago Tribune, 4/27/08)
A comprehensive 2004 mortality study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and conducted by the American Journal of Epidemiology, shows that workplace homicide rates for women working in prostitution are 51 times that of the next most dangerous occupation for women (which is working in a liquor store). The average age of death of the women studied was 34.

Puncturing Alan Dershowitz's Delusions about Prostitution
Levitt and Sudhir Venkatesh analyzed arrest records and sexual transactions in Chicago. Far from earning a thousand dollars an hour, prostitutes typically receive $25-30 per hour. The risks of getting a disease are high--condoms are used in only a quarter of tricks. The average prostitute experiences one violent assault a month...

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations

Prostitution Research & Education: How Prostitution Works
Real sexual relationships are not hard to find. There are plenty of adults of both sexes who are willing to have sex if someone treats them well, and asks. But there lies the problem. Some people do not want an equal, sharing relationship. They do not want to be nice. They do not want to ask. They like the power involved in buying a human being who can be made to do almost anything.

Why Do Johns Buy Sex?
It is difficult for a woman to understand what it is that a prostitute can offer these perfectly attractive men that a free sexual encounter -- be it a one-night-stand or in a relationship -- cannot...

Disconcertingly, the men to whom I spoke suggested that lack of any emotional obligation is one of the most appealing attributes of paying for sex...

...When a man visits a prostitute, the mere act of handing over cash for services removes, in his mind, all emotional obligations to her.

“Money displaces the emotions. It frees you from that bond, that responsibility,” explains Sam. “The distance you get from exchanging cash for sex means that afterwards you don’t contemplate the impact on the prostitute.”

Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate
While a few women may choose a life of prostitution in a truly voluntary fashion, the reality for most is a history of sexual and/or child abuse, separation from their family and/or country, and poverty. Addictions to drugs or alcohol are common. They are routinely lied to, coerced, abused, threatened, and blackmailed (e.g. 'I'll hurt your family back in the Ukraine if you don't cooperate').

When a "progressive" outlet like the Advocate runs ads for commercial sex enterprises, it not only publicizes them but legitimizes them. It also puts a big dent in the Advocate's moral authority. If the Advocate truly wants to be a friend to underdogs, it needs to side with them over callous profiteers.

Even Dan Savage Has a Clue about the Realities of Prostitution

Our Poster to the Valley Advocate: "Stand up for women! Drop your Massage/Escort ads"

MSNBC Investigates Human Trafficking and Prostitution in the US; Valley Advocate Advertises "Foreign Fantasies" Where "Everything Goes"

Not For Sale Media Project; Downloadable Posters

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution - An Interview with Gunilla Ekberg by the Rain and Thunder Collective

Dorchen Leidholdt, "Demand and the Debate"

Hunt Alternatives Fund: Demand Abolition

“Clean Hotels” Initiative

NPNAdmin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:12:00 GMT

We are pleased to publish this announcement at the request of Chuck Derry from the Gender Violence Institute:

"Clean Hotels" Initiative

The Minnesota Men’s Action Network: Alliance to Prevent Sexual and Domestic Violence has posted the "Clean Hotels" Initiative on their website. This initiative is a collaboration between the Men’s Action Network and the MN Department of Health’s Sexual Violence Prevention Program. This effort is part of a growing primary prevention plan to curb the degree to which sexually violent and degrading material is increasingly more accessible and mainstreamed into our social environment.

The Clean Hotels Initiative encourages business, public/private organizations, and municipalities to modify their meeting facility policy to clarify that meetings and conferences will be held in facilities that do not offer in-room adult pay-per-view pornography, and that travel policies be amended to reimburse employees’ lodging costs only when staying at hotels that do not offer in-room adult pay-per-view pornography. We have created several documents that can assist you in the development of policies at your state and local levels of government, as well as private businesses, organizations, and agencies.

We imagine a society where every individual can grow to their full potential. The social environment can support that growth. We are joining others in their historical efforts to create and nurture communities that are safe, just, and equitable.

Chuck Derry
Gender Violence Institute
MN Men's Action Network
15510 Huber Avenue NW
Clearwater, MN 55320
320-558-4510 - office
gvi@frontiernet.net

See also:

CleanHotels.com: A network of lodging facilities that do not offer in-room, 'adult', pay-per-view movies

Truth About LodgeNet: "Titles of LodgeNet™ pay per view movies" (explicit language)

2005: "No more hotel porn for Swedish government officials"
On 4/6/05, The Local, "Sweden's News in English", announced that Swedish civil servants, soldiers and politicians would be required to choose porn-free hotels whenever possible.

"In the military, we have been working to curb attitudes that are degrading to women, which in no way can be accepted," [Major General Åke Jansson] said.

The initiative stemmed from discussions with Swedish women's organization ROKS, which claims that x-rated movies lead to increased abuse of women and widespread degrading attitudes towards them.

"We talk to a lot of abused women, and in many cases it turns out that men's interest in porn is linked to the abuse," head of the ROKS campaign Tina Olby told AFP...

...the military will not stop at just hotels in its drive to wipe out "unacceptable" attitudes towards women, [Jansson] said.

"We have also decided to halt the sales of so-called men's magazines in all stores" on military bases, he said.

Omni Hotels Drops Porn, Reaps Rewards
"Every day mail gets hoarded into this office. It's almost like Christmas," says Strebel of the more than 50,000 letters of encouragement the hotel has received since banning the video pornography...

Major Corporations Profit from Porn
The profits from porn movies and phone sex flow through several "blue-chip" American corporations. These include Holiday Inn, Marriott, AOL Time Warner, Comcast, EchoStar Communications, DirecTV, Adelphia, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Cablevision Systems and AT&T. If you own shares in these companies, you might consider discussing the matter with their shareholder relations departments, or simply selling their shares.

Press Release: Action Network to use RNC and Minnesota State Fair to Bring Attention to Problem of Sex Trafficking
Using the Republican National Convention and the Minnesota State Fair as a backdrop the Action Network to End Sexual Exploitation in Minnesota (ANESEM) announced today the launch of a public awareness campaign to draw attention to the devastating effects of sex trafficking and prostitution. The Action Network, a grassroots coalition of survivors, community activists, state government and non-profit agencies committed to ending sexual exploitation in Minnesota, hopes to confront the unique atmosphere of these large events that often increases the rate of sexual exploitation.

Partners In Health Helps Give Prostituted Women Real Choices in Malawi

NPNAdmin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:07:00 GMT

Prostitution defenders like to think that most in the sex trade freely choose their work. This June 2009 article from Partners In Health tells what happens when prostituted women in Malawi are given a real choice:

From "waitress" to waitress

...Poverty and gender inequality are woven into these women's life stories. Few have had the opportunity to pursue an education, which would have given them the skills and means to find other ways to economically support themselves and their families. Nearly all have been bribed or assaulted by the same men who in one moment condemn them and in the next are their regular clients. The language of individual blame and immorality that many, including the women themselves, use to describe those who practice commercial sex work fails to recognize the structural violence that lies at the core of its existence...

PIH/APZU [Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo] hopes to develop the Zalewa site as a women's empowerment center that gives commercial sex workers in the region the tools to find safer ways to support their families by addressing the women's medical, social, and educational needs...

"There has been a tremendous improvement in my life, because this time I am no longer risking my life," says Stella. "When I was doing commercial sex work, I didn't know what might happen that night. It was always my wish to [...] not to have to do that work, but with such poverty, I was desperate and needed cash." One year ago, Stella could not sign or even recognize her own name. She now attends literacy class five afternoons a week, and at 35, she has finally learned to read and write. When Tiyanjane Restaurant opens its doors in a few weeks, Stella will be ready to take orders as a real waitress, notepad in hand.

We encourage you to support this initiative. Contributions to Partners In Health are accepted here.

See also:

Letter to the Gazette: "Addressing prostitution, promiscuity in war on AIDS" (5/12/07)
Today's Daily Hampshire Gazette publishes a letter from Jendi Reiter. Jendi is a co-founder of NoPornNorthampton...

To the editor:

Laurie Garrett's column on the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief ("Perils of Moralizing Foreign Aid" , May 5-6) wrongly minimizes the social costs of prostitution and promiscuity. Garrett argues that the Bush administration is imposing arbitrary, repressive religious values when it conditions AIDS funding on a nation's willingness to denounce prostitution. She also criticizes the government for supporting AIDS programs that encourage abstinence outside marriage and faithfulness within it.

Most sex workers in developing nations are more like slaves than they are like the "D.C. Madam". Trafficking in women is a human rights violation that self-styled progressives like Garrett should oppose. Moreover, heterosexual women in the Third World, who lack the social power to enforce safe-sex guidelines in their relationships, are being infected with AIDS at an alarming rate by husbands who patronize prostitutes.

The connection between AIDS, prostitution and infidelity is not an invention of the religious right. Gay activist and journalist Gabriel Rotello, in his groundbreaking book "Sexual Ecology", concluded, after careful study of the epidemiological data, that the "condom code" had failed and that only monogamy (or, as a second-best, a serious reduction in the number of partners) could prevent AIDS and other STDs from wiping out the gay male community. Like the highly promiscuous men he studied, prostitutes who engage in unsafe sex - in their case, generally not by choice - constitute a "core group" that sustains an epidemic and allows it to cross over to the general population. If Garrett is not concerned about the morality of selling women's bodies, she should at least take the science of disease prevention seriously, instead of hijacking this issue to advance a naive agenda of sexual liberation.

News Roundup: Age of Entry into Prostitution Declining

"Consenting Adults" proclaims one of the ads above [from the 6/12/08 Valley Advocate]. An odd phrase to apply to a legitimate massage service, but perfectly understandable for a commercial sex business. Smokescreen phrases like these are often employed by defenders of prostitution in attempts to stifle debate. They are not convincing. Studies that show a majority of prostituted women want out, and claims that only "adults" are involved are ever more questionable.

Escort Prostitution: A Response to Tom Vannah, Editor of the Valley Advocate
While a few women may choose a life of prostitution in a truly voluntary fashion, the reality for most is a history of sexual and/or child abuse, separation from their family and/or country, and poverty. Addictions to drugs or alcohol are common. They are routinely lied to, coerced, abused, threatened, and blackmailed (e.g. 'I'll hurt your family back in the Ukraine if you don't cooperate').

When a "progressive" outlet like the Advocate runs ads for commercial sex enterprises, it not only publicizes them but legitimizes them. It also puts a big dent in the Advocate's moral authority. If the Advocate truly wants to
be a friend to underdogs, it needs to side with them over callous profiteers.

Even Dan Savage Has a Clue about the Realities of Prostitution

Our Poster to the Valley Advocate: "Stand up for women! Drop your Massage/Escort ads"

Not For Sale Media Project; Downloadable Posters

Prostitution: Factsheet on Human Rights Violations
62% reported having been raped in prostitution.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
72% were currently or formerly homeless.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
(Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, Ufuk Sezgin, "Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" (1998) Feminism & Psychology 8 (4): 405-426...

Child Prostitution: The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
Country by country reports

Realities of Teen Prostitution Mock Notions of 'Sex Work', 'Sex-Positive', 'Freedom' and 'Empowerment'; Media Glamorizes Pimps
...authorities know that child prostitutes are subjected to constant sexual abuse. Yet public opinion often paints these girls as criminals. The first step towards ending the misery for the exploited is to recognize them for what they are: victims.

...an estimated 80 to 95 percent of child prostitutes have a history of sexual abuse...

Iceland Criminalizes Strip Clubs

NPNAdmin — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:55:00 GMT

Object, a UK organization, has kindly given us permission to reprint the following bulletin from their Stripping the Illusion July 2009 update:

case study: Iceland

"We have now shown that we understand the connection between pornography, prostitution and human trafficking." Gudrun Jonsdotti, spokesperson for Stigamot, an Icelandic sexual violence support center.

"A complete victory has been achieved after many years of fighting by women's rights organization and other social organizations and no less by MPs who have often submitted bills on this topic to Althingi [the parliament]. I'm one of them and so this day is an especially happy day for me." Ásta Ragnheidur Jóhannesdóttir, Icelandic Minister for Social Affairs.

This case study focuses on Iceland - the first country in the world to fully criminalise strip clubs. In the wake of Iceland's financial and political crisis, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurðardottir (the world's first LGBT country leader) was appointed in January 2009. Sigurðardottir, a former Social Affairs Minister, leads a Left-Green coalition and her government has since passed a law which which bans strip clubs and the purchase of sex acts (the sale is already decriminalised).This is a bold step which recognises the links between different forms of commercial sexual exploitation. So how did it come about?

For several years women's organisations and human rights groups have been campaigning on this issue and puting pressure on the Government to take action. In 2002 research commissioned by the Icelandic Ministry of Justice found links between strip clubs and prostitution in Reykjavik and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance later reported that women were being trafficked into the industry. Local police also found that most of the North American women working in Icelandic strip clubs had been trafficked into the country by the Adventure Dance Agency, a "business entirely controlled by the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang in North America," according to the deputy police chief of Reykjavik at the time.

A poll undertaken in April 2009 found that 58% of Icelanders supported a ban on strip clubs and MPs frequently raised the need to take action in Parliament. It wasn't until Sigurðardottir was voted in that this became a reality. The persistent campaigning on this issue is an inspiration to campaigners worldwide!

See also:

Stop Violence Against Women: "Iceland Bans Stripping and Prostitution" (4/21/09)

Iceland Review Online: "Iceland to Ban Stripping and Prostitution" (3/18/09)

Valley Advocate Website Announces 2008's "Best" Adult Entertainment Club; Holsopple's Inside Report on Stripping (explicit language)
Rather than expose this industry for what it is, the Advocate has decided to party with the exploiters and the abusers. Let editor Tom Vannah know how you feel about this.

Springfield Republican: "Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno says strip club killing gives city a 'black eye'" (6/1/09)

Republican: "1 dead, 5 seriously injured in shooting rampage at Springfield strip club" (5/31/09)

Springfield Republican: "Man fatally shot inside strip bar" (1/22/09)
...a 22-year-old man was shot in the head while sitting at the bar at the Mardi Gras strip club downtown...

Police said Colon [the victim] had been involved in a "verbal and physical altercation with several other subjects" in the Mardi Gras about 20 minutes prior to being killed...

[Sgt. John] Delaney said police records show police have been called to the Mardi Gras a total of 30 times during business hours since July 1 and another 14 times after-hours for alarm activations...

Springfield Republican Reports on Strip Clubs and the Mafia

The Truth About Lap Dancing: A Performer Speaks Out

Carolyn McKenzie: Undercover with the Viewing Booths; Disease, Intoxicants Prevalent Among Strip Dancers (explicit language)

Former Stripper Tells Easthampton Hearing about the Life: It Stinks

Strip Poker Men's Club: Women's Lib to Blame for Men's Going to Strip Clubs
There is something about the atmosphere of a Strip Club, the way in which women strut their stuff on stage and not breaking eye contact is almost an animalistic approach that not only attracts men sexually but because of the eye contact that most women have mastered to enable to do their job well, it seems to offer men what they are so desperately in need off and they haven’t been able to get from today’s modern woman, “attention”...

So there you have it, no need to feel guilty, it's one of life's small escapes, the last bastion of the male domain, enjoy it!

Strip Club Tips: How to Savor an Exquisite Blend of Fantasies, Lies, Exploitation and Despair (explicit language)
For a stripper's perspective, we present a selection from 37 Stripper Rants, as posted in March to gripe site Ofuzi...

Strip Clubs: Dancers Pay to Work There

Profitable Exploits: Lap Dancing in the UK

"Waitressing, I cleaned the floors and I own a box of men's wedding rings that I found on the floor."

Sweden's Prostitution Solution: Why Hasn't Anyone Tried This Before?

Abolishing Prostitution: The Swedish Solution - An Interview with Gunilla Ekberg by the Rain and Thunder Collective

Hunt Alternatives Fund: Demand Abolition