Sugar Babies=Sex Workers?

Excerpt from “Seeking Arrangement: College Students Using ‘Sugar Daddies’ To Pay Off Loan Debt” by Amanda Fairbanks

“When people think about sex work, they think of a poor, drug-addicted woman living in the street with a pimp, down on their luck,” says Barb Brents, [Professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas] who co-authored “The State of Sex: Tourism, Sex and Sin in the New American Heartland.” “In reality, the culture is exceedingly diverse and college students using these sites are but another example of this kind of diversity.”

With the exception of women who consider sex work their profession, Brents finds that nearly all the women she encounters in her research describe it as a temporary, part-time, stopgap kind of measure.

“These college women didn’t see themselves as sex workers, but women doing straight-up prostitution often don’t see themselves that way either,” says Brents. “Drawing that line and making that distinction may be necessary psychologically, but in material facts it’s quite a blurry line.”

Read the whole article at the Huffington Post HERE

A Sex Worker-based Approach to Media

Though I know not everyone here is on the SWAN bandwagon, I do think they’re doing some good work.

Here are two news items from their feed about how they’re dealing with mainstream media, sex worker media and getting out their messages. Though these news items are vague on the how-to of it all, I like the concepts.

media sensitization seminar

sex worker training on community media

Oh, The Possiblities!

Group considers relaxing internet naming rules

If ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] approves the proposals, the world of .com and .org and country names like .jp or .fr would be opened to a much wider choice, such as .hotel or .sex.

Just the thought of .sex has bloggers predicting an auction frenzy, as almost any word in any language could become a domain name extension.

“You can almost guarantee the most highly sought-after one will, unfortunately, probably be dot-sex,” said Bryan Glick of Computing Magazine.

XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network on Blog Talk Radio

Here is the latest updated program listing. All shows available at www.xxbn.net www.blogtalkradio.com/swopeast Times listed are Eastern time. All programing subject to change. All previous programs are archived, please check for great guests. Thank you to Liz Berlin of Rusted Root and The Naked Heroes for their music for our programs. Listener call number 646.200.3136

	[172657] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	Desiree Alliance The Desiree Alliance is a diverse, volunteer-based, sex worker-led network of organizations, communities and individuals across the US working in harm reduction, direct services, political advocacy and health services for sex workers. We provide leadership and create space for sex workers and supporters to come together to advocate for human, labour and civil rights for all workers in the sex industry.		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/2/2008 6:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[171963] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	Guest: Renegade Evolution Profile of a Henchwoman: Often over generalized as a bit of a clockwork apocalypse, heartless capitalist and generally ruthless scum, the terrifying truth is RenEv is a stripper, Internet pxrn performer, sex workers rights advocate		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/3/2008 6:30 PM 60 Minutes
	[172663] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	Discussing the alleged “The Pimp Lobby” Maxine Doogan, Jill Brenneman and other guests..		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/4/2008 12:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[171948] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	Melissa Gira Bio: http://www.melissagira.com​ht Unpacking the Wired story on tech & sex work: http://www.wired.com​ht — and adding more on how sex workers internationally use technology in advocacy for human rights.		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/4/2008 3:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[172226] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	Gracie Passette Gracie Passette is a sex worker, though no longer working directly with clients in the flesh; she now uses media to work with the issues of sexuality.		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/5/2008 10:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[173836] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network SerpentLibertine	SerpentLibertine is a veteran sex worker and activist with Sex Worker’s Outreach Project-Chicago. She has worked in many facets of the sex industry as a dominatrix, escort, masseuse, and madam, as well as behind the camera doing castin, camera, and sound on shoots. She is currently creating sex worker made videos and podcasts for her new project, Red Light District Chicago and helping organize the Desiree Alliance Conference in Chicago in Summer of 2008. You can also visit her blog at http://www.sexpr		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/6/2008 3:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[173589] XBN Swopeast Broadcast Network	Queen of the Sky the Most Famous Blog-Fired Flight Attendant”		Politics Progressive Everyone	4/7/2008 4:30 PM 60 Minutes
	[171042] XBN Special Guest Der Gregor	Der Gregor- FEMINISM UNMODIFIED		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/7/2008 11:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[173109] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network Bill Nelson	Bill Nelson		Politics Progressive Adults Only	4/8/2008 9:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[173858] XBN SWOP East Broadcast Network	The Naked Heroes, time to be determined		Politics Progressive Everyone	4/10/2008 9:00 PM 60 Minutes
	[173647] TBD	TBD		Politics Progressive Everyone	4/22/2008 10:00 PM 60 Minutes

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 in the escort industry and in Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the woman he had been seeing.

But the whirlwind didn’t catch sex workers and activists lying down. They organized a media blitz through blogs, Tumblr, Twitter and shared Google Docs. They kept tabs on which reporters approached the topic with respect and which didn’t. And perhaps for the first time, they made their voices heard in mainstream venues like Fox News and CNN — organizations that cannot be dismissed as fringe or adults-only media.

More…

Check out Amanda Brooks and Jill Brenneman on KMUD

http://kmud.org/site001/program-schedule/302.html The whole show is archived.

on Wednesday Night Talk. Wednesday 19, March 2008 7PM

The “feminist” caller that was “offended” and her statement about sex worker rights causing women to be viewed as holes…………………… I wish I could have heard her better at the time as there was a lot of distortion and she hung up before I could ask her to repeat the remainder of her question beyond the hole comment.   Fighting oppression by generalizing Amanda and I as causing women to be viewed as “holes”  Nice………….

OMG! Sex Work2.0!

A breathless article describing the online world of escorts. Because, you know, no one has been aware of it before.

I took exception to the description of the ECVIP site as “complete with photographs in which female bodies are on display, while their faces stay out-of-frame or are digitally obscured”. First, many sex workers need to keep their identities safe in this society. (Google “Eliot Spitzer” or “DC Madam” if you want to know why.) Second, how are these photos any different than a Victoria’s Secret site? Other than the face-blurring, where’s the difference? One is to compel men to spend money, the other is to compel both men and women to spend money.

Two Days in Sex:Tech Heaven

Cory Silverberg at About.com: Sexuality talks about our presentation at Sex:Tech!

Sex and Politics

There wasn’t a lot of open political debate at the conference, and the shared political agenda was about doing more help youth protect themselves from STDs/HIV Politics emerged more in the spaces between people working in different environments: The freedoms enjoyed by individuals running their own sites or blogs who didn’t have to worry about insurance, investors, or boards of directors getting in between them and their target audience; the privilege of the relatively well funded organizations or government agencies, the ones who get paid for their work, probably own homes, and weren’t paying for their own hotel rooms; the differences between organizations for youth and those by youth. None of these differences prevented attendees from connecting, but that may in part be because the differences were generally kept under wraps.

The most overtly political presentation at the conference was a fascinating talk given by two sex work activists who presented on a blog project called Bound Not Gagged. The project, which is a group blog by and for sex workers developed out of a frustration with the medias portrayal of sex work and sex work issues, and fear that coming out as a sex worker can make you a target for arrest or prosecution. The blog, which I’m now an avid reader of, collects the opinions and voices of sex workers on a variety of topics. They have also done some exciting things using online collaboration and actively dealing with the media through their blog.

While the Bound Not Gagged presentation used sex work as an example, it was just as relevant to questions people working with youth need to be asking about tech tools:

• How can technology give disempowered and disenfranchised people a voice?
• Can technology stretch the limits of anonymity to allow us to hear from those we serve who might not otherwise speak up?
• What role can technology play in shifting the public discourse on youth and sexuality?

Thanks for the link Cory!

Who were those hot bitches talking about BoundNotGagged.com at SF State?

photo by Audacia Ray

Attendees at Sex::Tech– The Inaugural STD/HIV Prevention Conference focusing on Youth and Technology- were all abuzz about the “sex work blog thing” before our panel even happened. Or so Melissa and I were told at the post-conference happy hour. (Yes, despite missing many of the workshops, I did manage to make it to both of the cocktail parties!) “What does this have to do with youth and HIV/AIDS prevention?” “Why are they presenting at this conference for prevention educators?” After our presentation, people were stopping us in the halls to tell us how great and informative our presentation was! I certainly observed a furrowed brow or two when I looked out into the audience, but in general I think that our message was clear.

Sex workers have everything to do with sexual health education and disease prevention. We are a huge part of the solution. Our presentation was the first time that many educators learned about the PEPFAR provisions that limit health and education funding to agencies that serve sex workers. It was the first time that many people learned of the hypocrisy with which such policies are implemented and of the exposure of Randall Tobias, former Deputy Secretary of State who said that “it was just like ordering pizza” when he’d “call up and have the gals come by for a massage.” This is the birth point of BnG.

So we told them how the blog started. We told them about long, teary, angry all-hours-of-the-night phone calls that Melissa and I shared while as sex workers we were sitting in our own isolated worlds watching the media tell our stories through the lens of the “DC Madam Scandal.” That we desperately needed a space to respond and share our own opinions, to tell of our own exploits and scandals and to confront the stigma and harassment that we experienced with every twisted, slanted and salacious ‘hookers-to-the-elite’ story emailed out over our various list-serves. We told them that we didn’t really expect anybody besides our friends to read it, so we set out. But then Melissa actually talked to the DC Madam and the story suddenly felt accessible to us. Web-based radio shows and other bloggers were actually interviewing Jeane Palfrey, ABC News interviewed us about our first Blog-Scandal-Viewing party where sex workers got together and watched ‘Taking the Pledge’ along with the 20/20 fluff piece about the ‘Madam’s phone list.’ People were actually listening to us! Bloggers were linking to us and lurkers were stopping by regularly to see what those crazy hookers were talking about this week.

But the more we talked out in the open, the less crazy and foreign we seemed to people!

The conversations bounced around, lots of people came by to hate on us, which only sparked a whole bunch of new people coming to stand in solidarity with us! Once we found our collective voice we began using it to confront enemies on all sides. We held a virtual rally to support the actions in Philadelphia to oppose the reinstatement of Judge Deni who tolerates sexual violence against sex workers. Just a few weeks earlier we had our biggest day ever (9/18/07 with over 2,100 hits!!!) when we held a virtual press conference to confront Melissa Farley and her not-peer-reviewed research that conflates prostitution with trafficking…

…leading us back to how the blog started… US policy… the conflation of forced labor with consensual sex… the trafficking smoke-screen used to distract Americans from their own responsibility for the demand for cheap labor and to hide the corporate-driven severe exploitation occurring in many labor markets… pledges that prevent us from giving away condoms… the divide-and-conquer tactics that keep feminists busy fighting against women so that the anti-choice forces can focus on attacking Roe v. Wade… the horrible things said about us in the media… in ‘journalism’… in blogs…in living rooms…

People die when sex workers are silenced and stigmatized.

BnG exists because sex workers are the solution, and despite the gag orders that bind us, we will never be silent!!!

We made lots of new friends at the conference and got to meet up with some folks we already knew. Have to send a shout out to Guy and Nikol at the Midwest Teen Sex Show!! Thank you to all the people who attended and asked great questions about sex work at the end. We welcome all service providers and agencies to use this blog as a resource to get info, ask questions or just come hang out with hot, sexy, politically-minded people of all genders!

Thank you Melissa for putting together the power point and being our amazing messing-around-under-the-covers goddess!

In solidarity,

Stacey