Radical Vixen Interviews Amanda Brooks

Sex Worker Solidarity: Amanda Brooks

What do you think is the best way to promote solidarity with fellow sex workers?
Since every sex worker has their own pet issues, it’s important for all of us to step back and view the big picture. The truth is, every sex worker faces the same basic social issues – only [...]

Memory Lane

I have a book shelf that has old notebooks from school, day planners and such. I recently decided that it’s time for a major purge so I’m sorting through all of it and throwing out what I don’t need.
Going through the pages of one of the day planners I came across one of my first [...]

NY Times Makes Attemp at Correction

Editors’ Note: March 30, 2008
An article on March 16 profiling three sex workers in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s resignation after revelations that he patronized prostitutes misconstrued how two of the women, identified by the pseudonyms Faith O’Donnell and Sally Anderson, said they earned a living. The resulting misrepresentation [...]

Look’s like we’ve got a regular reader here….

Immediately after the BNG post calling for responses to the 20/20 story, came this post over at the blog “Feminist Reprise”:
From Melissa Farley:
Please pass this on asap to feminists who are web activists against sexual violence. Friday March 21, Diane Sawyer did an excellent job in a 2-hour 20/20 special on [...]

Twitter, iPhones Let Sex Workers Spread Their Gospel

By Regina Lynn at Wired
When the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal heated up headlines earlier this month, every media outlet in the country suddenly began scrambling to talk to a sex worker.
The downfall of Spitzer, the New York governor who resigned after his private sex life unexpectedly became public, generated an enormous amount of interest [...]

Live on Blog Talk Radio XBN: Sex Worker Rights Broadcast Network 5PM Eastern Saturday 3.29.08

XBN Sex Worker Voices, Sex Worker Viewpoints, Sex Worker Rights
Please join XBN at www.blogtalkradio.com/swopeast
Listener Call in number 646.200.3136
Join sex workers and sex worker rights activists in media created and driven by us!
Upcoming Guests
Guest Carol Leigh! Carol Leigh AKA Scarlot Harlot Unrepentant Whore published by Last Gasp Carol Leigh,
3/31/2008
6:00 [...]

Spitzer linked to most recent NYC bust

Woman arrested by NYC Vice still no legal consequences for Spitzer…

From Gawker:
We never thought we’d see the day when the Governor of New York’s illegal sex trysts would give us only a renewed sense of ennui, but: Okay, we get it. The guy liked hookers. If the Post keeps this up, lots of other valuable [...]

Lawyering and Organizing for Sex Workers’ Rights

CUNY Outlaws presents
“Lawyering and Organizing
for Sex Workers’ Rights”
Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 6pm
CUNY Law School Auditorium,
6521 Main St. in Flushing Queens

Join us for Dinner and the Film, “A Safer Sex Trade”, to be followed by a discussion that addresses how criminalization and stigmatization of [...]

East Side Madam with America’s Largest Black Book Busted

Yesterday afternoon a 32-year-old woman was busted for running a prostitution ring on the East Side of Manhattan that charged $900/hour for its services. Kristen Davis (no relation to the Sex and the City star…probably) operated four websites, sending her gals to one of two apartments she kept for the illegal trysts (the magic apparently [...]

In (Partial) Defense of Eliot Spitzer

by Tristan Taormino the Village Voice
When news of Eliot Spitzer’s link to a prostitution agency first broke, “Why Do Powerful Men Cheat?” stories sprang up all around us, from morning shows to the nightly news. Within the framework of the cheating-husband narrative, no one made the distinction between employing a sex worker and having an [...]

The world is not ready for THE SONGS of THE WHORE REVOLUTION! (Or perhaps, maybe Ashley Alexandra Dupre will lead the way?)

This is from a performance I did at an open mic that I thought was an open mic, but ended up being an open CHRISTIAN MIC. So the guy on stage next to me ends up PRAYING FOR ME ON STAGE in front of the audience after I was done. It was a shocker. But [...]

Terminology: Sex Work

People bristle at the term “sex work.” They feel it’s too PC. They often argue because prostitution is illegal it’s “not a job.” Or they over-think the term, usually in a lame attempt at humor (exemplified here). Even though these pontificators have nothing to do with sex work — at least not publicly admitted — [...]

NYT: “The Double Lives of High-Priced Call Girls”

The New York Times actually did pull off a very good article during Spitzergate. While one should not ignore that sex workers inhabit a wide range of social classes, I’d say based on sex workers I’ve met, the article describes the lives of indoor prostitutes pretty accurately (avoiding both the jetset demimonde and the Farley-esque [...]

Shame on Diane Sawyer

As sex workers, allies, and activists, we are deeply concerned about the “Prostitution in America” report that aired on “20/20″ hosted by Diane Sawyer.
Although prostitutes are the people most strongly affected and harmed by existing prohibitionist policies against prostitution, the report did not feature prostitutes’ perspectives on the legal status of prostitution. The only person [...]

Reaching the media, Sex Workers Against Rape

We’ve briefly touched on this as a topic in various forums but never really gone forward with it.   This is a hard topic but one I honestly believe we have to put forward.  The media couches our movement, our efforts at social justice behind the myth that we are a very small fringe of all [...]

Kristen’s Mom

…she wasn’t worried about her daughter after news erupted that she was the prostitute Spitzer slept with, causing his fall from power. “She is a very bright girl who can handle someone like the governor,” she said.
NY Post 
Has anybody been able to find interviews with Spitzer’s parents?

Awesome interview at Feministe

Holly interviews Sienna Baskin from Sex Workers Project.
The barebacking thing is slightly different, because its about a client asking for an experience that could be physically unsafe for the sex worker. My experience has shown me that this is very unusual. Sex workers who have access to safe sex stuff—and the power to use it—universally [...]

The Music Biz and The Moral High Ground

Jay Smooth. Intelligent and cute!

Call to Action: 20/20 Report Demands SW Responses

As an active sexworker, longtime sex worker rights activist, and member of SWOP and this board, I urge anyone and everyone who viewed Diane Sawyer’s “Prostitution in America” on 20/20 last night to write to ABC in one of two ways (or both):
1. Seen something? Heard Something? Know something? Please let us know [...]

Sex 2.0 is April 12th!

Come join us in Atlanta!
Sexing Up Social Change & Social Media — Melissa Gira and Stacey Swimme
The non-profit web, it’s so hot right now. But what of us sex activist outlaws — working queer politics, throwing feminist actions, laboring for sex worker rights, and promoting sexual health uprisings? Many of our community members are super [...]