Notebook on Sexwork

The Internet Escort's Handbook

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:57:00 +0000

by Amanda Brooks

Solid information about being an escort is difficult to find. When I stopped stripping and began working as an escort, I realized I had found my ideal job. I was successful, happy, and no longer grinding my teeth at night from the stress of trying to fit my personality into a job that didn't fit me. I have a feeling I'm not the only woman who has discovered this hidden secret.

I had a lot of questions when I started escorting, but there was no one source that could answer all of them; most of the answers came with time. It's very hard to find thorough information on being an Internet escort, even though the Internet is teeming with escort Web sites, discussion and review boards, and hundreds of advertising malls.

read the article on
www.theinternetescortshandbook.com

see also
The Notebook - a busine$$ blog for escorts

Selling sex

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

Economists let some light in on the shady market for paid sex

IT IS all too easy to become a lost soul in New Orleans. The annual meeting of the American Economic Association this month was part of a huge gathering of social scientists sprawled across the city. Each venue itself was a warren of meeting rooms. Take a wrong turning and a delegate seeking an earnest symposium on minimum wages might innocently end up in the conference session devoted to the market for paid sex.

The star attraction there was Steven Levitt, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and co-author of “Freakonomics”, a best-selling book. Mr Levitt presented preliminary findings* from a study conducted with Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociologist at Columbia University. Their research on the economics of street prostitution combines official arrest records with data on 2,200 “tricks” (transactions), collected by Mr Venkatesh in co-operation with sex workers in three Chicago districts.

read the article in
The Economist

An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution
Steven D. Levitt and Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh

At Home Amid the Red Lights

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:28:00 +0000

BANGKOK, Oct. 24 — As John Burdett ambles down a street packed with girlie bars, he passes two women in skimpy outfits waving their hands excitedly and calling out, “John! John!”

There are plenty of johns around — this is Soi Cowboy after all, one of the better-attended red-light districts in Bangkok — but the bar girls are waving to John with a capital J, their author friend and confidant. Mr. Burdett waves back.

Mr. Burdett, a 56-year-old former lawyer turned novelist, has spent the past seven years chatting up hundreds of bar girls as inspiration for his trilogy, soon to be a quartet, of detective thrillers set in Bangkok’s netherworld.

read the article in the
New York Times

Video
John Burdett's Bangkok

"Trade - Willkommen in Amerika"

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:19:00 +0000

"Trade - Willkommen in Amerika" ist ein Politthriller, den Kreuzpaintner nach einem amerikanischen Drehbuch in der Produktion von Roland Emmerich in Szene setzte. Hochemotional, in der Bildsprache auf einen halb-dokumentarischen Touch setzend, wird die wohl schlimmste Form des mafiösen Menschenhandels thematisiert: die Versklavung minderjähriger Mädchen als Prostituierte. Das Drehbuch basiert auf der Aufsehen erregenden Titelgeschichte aus der "New York Times", die unter dem Titel "The Girls Next Door" die Menschenhändlerringe zwischen den USA, Mexiko und Europa recherchierte.

Deutschlandradio

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The Girls Next Door

On a tip, the Plainfield police raided the house in February 2002, expecting to find illegal aliens working an underground brothel. What the police found were four girls between the ages of 14 and 17. They were all Mexican nationals without documentation. But they weren't prostitutes; they were sex slaves. The distinction is important: these girls weren't working for profit or a paycheck. They were captives to the traffickers and keepers who controlled their every move. ''I consider myself hardened,'' Mark J. Kelly, now a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security), told me recently. ''I spent time in the Marine Corps. But seeing some of the stuff I saw, then heard about, from those girls was a difficult, eye-opening experience.''
...

Sex trafficking is one of the few human rights violations that rely on exposure: victims have to be available, displayed, delivered and returned.
...

In the past several months, I have visited a number of addresses where trafficked girls and young women have reportedly ended up...
These places all have at least one thing in common: they are camouflaged by their normal, middle-class surroundings.
...

''This is not narco-traffic secrecy,'' says Sharon B. Cohn, director of anti-trafficking operations for the International Justice Mission. ''These are not people kidnapped and held for ransom, but women and children sold every single day. If they're hidden, their keepers don't make money.''
...

I.J.M.'s president, Gary Haugen, says: ''It's the easiest kind of crime in the world to spot. Men look for it all day, every day.''
...

''There's a vast misunderstanding of what coercion is, of how little it takes to make someone a slave,'' Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission said. ''The destruction of dignity and sense of self, these girls' sense of resignation. . . . '' He didn't finish the sentence.
...

''The girls can't leave,'' Mamacita said. ''They're always being watched. They lock them into apartments. The fear is unbelievable. They can't talk to anyone. They are always hungry, pale, always shaking and cold. But they never complain. If they do, they'll be beaten or killed.''
...

Who can expect a young woman trafficked into the U.S., trapped in a foreign culture, perhaps unable to speak English, physically and emotionally abused and perhaps drug-addicted, to ask for help from a police officer, who more likely than not will look at her as a criminal and an illegal alien? Even Andrea, who was born in the United States and spoke English, says she never thought of escaping, ''because what's out there? What's out there was scarier. We had customers who were police, so you were not going to go talk to a cop. We had this customer from Nevada who was a child psychologist, so you're not going to go talk to a social worker. So who are you going to talk to?''
...

When I first met her, Andrea told me: ''We're way too damaged to give back. A lot of these children never wanted to see their parents again after a while, because what do you tell your parents? What are you going to say? You're no good.''

read the whole article in
The New York Times

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The article's assertion that sex slavery was widespread in the United States is disputed in the Slate Press Blog.

Assessing Landesman
How well does Peter Landesman's sex-slavery investigation in New York Times Magazine stand up?

The Sex-Slavery Epidemic That Wasn't
Revisiting the numbers behind the New York Times Magazine's sex-slave story.
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GAO - United States Government Accountability Office

Report to the Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary and the Chairman,
Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
Better Data, Strategy, and Reporting Needed
to Enhance U.S. Antitrafficking Efforts Abroad

Why GAO Did This Study

Human trafficking is a worldwide form of exploitation in which men, women, and children are bought, sold, and held against their will in involuntary servitude. In addition to the tremendous personal damage suffered by individual trafficking victims, this global crime has broad societal repercussions, such as fueling criminal networks and imposing public health costs. In 2000, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to combat trafficking and reauthorized this act twice.
This report reviews U.S. international antitrafficking efforts by examining (1) estimates of the extent of global trafficking, (2) the U.S. government’s strategy for combating the problem abroad, and (3) the Department of State’s process for evaluating foreign governments’ antitrafficking efforts.

What GAO Found

The U.S. government estimates that 600,000 to 800,000 persons are trafficked across international borders annually. However, such estimates of global human trafficking are questionable. The accuracy of the estimates is in doubt because of methodological weaknesses, gaps in data, and numerical discrepancies. For example, the U.S. government’s estimate was developed by one person who did not document all his work, so the estimate may not be replicable, casting doubt on its reliability.

Moreover country data are not available, reliable, or comparable. There is also a considerable discrepancy between the numbers of observed and estimated victims of human trafficking.

The U.S. government has not yet established an effective mechanism for estimating the number of victims or for conducting ongoing analysis of trafficking related data that resides within government entities.

Read the report

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Further reading

The Truth Behind the Sex Trade

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Doña Carmen e.V.
Pressemitteilung:

18. Oktober - Europäischer Tag gegen “Menschenhandel”
Schluss mit der Hysterie!

Die Prostituiertenorganisation Doña Carmen e.V. (Frankfurt/Main) fordert ein Ende der verbreiteten Hysterie zum Thema „Menschenhandel“. Die Debatten darüber beruhen in den seltensten Fällen auf Fakten, sondern auf fiktiven Annahmen.

So bedauerte das Europäische Parlament in einer Stellungnahme vom Januar 2006 „den Mangel an verlässlichen Daten über das Phänomen des Menschenhandels in Europa sowie die Tatsache, dass weder die Kommission noch Europol noch irgendeine andere Einrichtung der EU in der Lage war, konkrete Zahlen über das EU-weite Ausmaß des Menschenhandels zu veröffentlichen, und bedauert insbesondere den Mangel an Daten über stärker gefährdete Gruppen wie Frauen und Kinder…“

So erklärte ein im Juli 2006 veröffentlichter Bericht des US Government Accountability Office (GAO) - eine amerikanische Regierungsbehörde mit Sitz in Washington D.C.: „Die US-Regierung schätzt, dass jährlich 600.000 bis 800.000 Personen über internationale Grenzen gehandelt werden; nichtsdestotrotz sind solche Schätzungen der weltweiten Menschen-handelsopfer fragwürdig. Die Genauigkeit der Schätzungen wird aufgrund methodologischer Bedenken, Lücken bei den Daten und zahlenmäßiger Abweichungen in Zweifel gezogen. Die Schätzung der US-Regierung wurde - um das zu verdeutlichen - von einer einzigen Person entwickelt, die nicht ihre gesamte Arbeit dokumentiert hat, so dass diese Schätzung nicht mehr nachvollziehbar ist und damit Zweifel hinsichtlich ihrer Verlässlichkeit aufwerfen dürfte.“

Laut bundesdeutscher Polizeilicher Kriminalstatistik zur Entwicklung des Straftatbestands „Menschenhandel“ sind in der Zeit von 1998 bis 2005 die Zahl der Fälle sowie Tatverdäch-tigen bei Menschenhandel um 39%, die Zahl der mutmaßlichen Opfer sogar um 69% zurückgegangen. Pro Jahr werden lediglich 140 Personen hierzulande als Täter verurteilt.

Es ist das Ziel der Kampagnen gegen den so genannten Menschenhandel, die freiwillige Migration insbesondere von Frauen in reichere Industrienationen zu unterbinden. Dies trifft besonders Prostituierte. Dagegen wendet sich Doña Carmen.

Dass sich mit dem Film „Trade“ jetzt auch noch die Märchenfabrik Hollywood mit „Menschenhandel“ befasst, ist nur konsequent: Dichtung und Wahrheit gehen munter durcheinander, die Fakten bleiben auf der Strecke. Diese aber besagen: „Menschenhandel“ ist kein Phänomen von gesellschaftlicher Relevanz.

Mexican ex-prostitutes find home

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:57:00 +0000

By Duncan Kennedy
BBC News, Mexico City

Go to the centre of Mexico City after dark and you can see the women start to colonise the district.

The grey suits that are everywhere during daylight hours give way to multi-coloured miniskirts as the time arrives for a different kind of product to be traded.

There are not enough street corners to accommodate all the women. Instead, there are rows of them along the main boulevards.

The parade of women means the male clients can stay in the dry warmth of their cars as they make their impersonal choice.

One estimate says there are 3,000 prostitutes in the city at any one time.

But what happens when they get older and can no longer walk the streets?

One answer lies behind an unremarkable brown door of a two-storey block in the city's poorer northern neighbourhood.

read the article in
BBC News

Further informationen and links regarding Casa Xochiquetzal:
Community Center for Sex Workers in Mexico

Elderly sex workers live in appalling conditions on the streets of Mexico City. Independent sex workers have the need to come together to hold seminars, organize reflection groups, and take primary- to high school-classes. Casa Xochiquetzal, a community center in one of the poorest and most marginalized neighborhoods in Mexico City, will give older and independent sex workers the space and opportunity to gain dignity and learn about their human rights.

Prostitution Behind the Veil

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:51:00 +0000

Married for a day
Minna and Fariba are neighbours and good friends. They support one another. Both have to live under the pervasive curtailment of women's rights and the double standards of today's Iranian society. They make a living walking the streets looking for men. They have a choice between leaving their small children at home alone or bringing them along when they have sex with men.

The film is a sympathetic portrait of the two women, exploring their day-to-day life and the workings of prostitution in a country that bans it and prosecutes adulterers, sometimes with the penalty of capital punishment.

read the article
Danish Film Institute

Persson, who left Iran for Sweden two decades ago, says she met and befriended Fariba and Minna while filming a fortune-teller in Tehran about two years ago. She says the women were happy that someone was interested in their plight.

Once filming began, Persson says she was herself at risk filming in Iran -- where prostitution is illegal and adulterers can face the death penalty.

"We had a natural relation. We trusted each other," Persson says. "They even asked me on several occasions to go with them when they were going to meet some of their regular customers, because they were from some police station. But I didn't do it out of the fear that I had to film someone who wears the uniform of a pasdar [Iran's Revolutionary Guard]. And it was also better for them that I didn't do it."

...

Fariba and Minna are close friends who provide each other with support. Persson describes their lives: "Their life was about finding clients and getting money so that they could buy an egg or some food for their children. And because of their addiction, they had to buy heroin. They didn't have a normal life. When one becomes addicted to drugs, one forgets about [real] life."

read the article
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Prostitution Behind the Veil
on YouTube

Canadian Sex Workers Plan Brothel in 2010 Olympics City

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 21:13:00 +0000

Sex workers in Vancouver--the scene of Canada's worst suspected serial murder case--are planning a cooperative brothel, which they say will give them a safe place to work as officials polish the city's image for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
...

The group, formed by a sex workers' alliance based here, called the British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women, will incorporate next month and is already setting the groundwork to open the co-op brothel.

Members have begun scouting for a location and are enlisting the backing of local businesses, police and labor organizations.

Faced with the task of cleaning up the city to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver authorities said they are open to the idea.

"We would be willing to explore anything that . . . would be helping the situation of sex trade workers, and make it safer for them and make it better for the community," said Vancouver police spokesperson Howard Chow. He noted one requirement: "It has to be something that is lawful."

Aiming for Official Exemption

Prostitution itself is legal in Canada. However, since most activities associated with it are not--such as soliciting sexual services in a public place, operating a bawdy house and living off the avails of prostitution--the group is planning to appeal to the federal government for an exemption.

read the article in
Women's eNews

____________________

British Columbia Coalition of Experiential Women

Our Values and Principles

Creating a supportive network for sex worker activists to have opportunities for leadership and action on issues that impact their lives and the well being of their communities;

Ensuring the fundamental recognition of human rights for sex workers including their right to dignity, safety, equality and empowerment;

Supporting and promoting experiential leadership, the development of essential services and a continuum of services for active sex workers through class advocacy;

Supporting and advocating for enhanced prevention, education, health and healing for women in and from the sex industry.

Opening dialogue for the reduction of harm and abolition of the social economic and political conditions cause harm in the sex industry.

Hvem har krav på at sige sandheden om prostitution?

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:51:00 +0000

Ludere uden stemme

Hvad er prostitution egentlig, og hvor har vi den fra? Fra sexsælgerne selv? Eller spiller samfundets syn på kvinders seksualitet og den ærbare kvinde en rolle, spørger Petra Östergren, svensk forfatter til bogen 'Porr, horor och feminister'. Hun advarer Danmark om at indføre en lov, der kriminaliserer sexkunder: Fjern stigmatiseringen, dernæst kan vi diskutere, hvordan vi kan hjælpe de sexsælgere, der har brug for det, siger hun.
...

Hvem udnytter hvem?

... de svenske prostituerede i bogen er glasklare omkring, hvem det er, der udnytter dem. Det er ikke mændene eller en samfundsstruktur, der accepterer ulighed. Det er det svenske samfund og de svenske feminister, der sørger for, at sexarbejdernes stemmer ikke bliver hørt, og at de reduceres til at være lig med selve den handling, de udfører. Akkurat det, som man anklager de mandlige sexkøbere for, pointerer Östergren.

"For en del kvinder er det at sælge sex et arbejde, for nogle er det et selvdestruktivt forehavende, nogen tjener penge til et misbrug, penge til mad, er shopoholics, ser det som en hobby, ekstra spænding. Forskellige kvinder gør det af forskellige årsager. Men det er også et meget specielt arbejde."

læs hele artiklen i
Information
____________________

Petra Östergren
Porr, horor och feminister

Är alla som säljer sex offer? Är all porr kvinnoförnedrande? Och varför blir den feminist som ställer dessa frågor anklagad för att vara anti-feminist?

Porr, horor och feminister är en kritisk genomgång av det svenska porr- och prostitutionsmotståndet. Petra Östergren visar att den underliggande sexualmoralen är föråldrad och genomsyras av stereotypa föreställningar av kvinnligt och manligt.

Untersuchung „Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes“

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:30:00 +0000

Report by the Federal Government on the Impact of the Act Regulating the Legal Situation of Prostitutes (Prostitution Act)
_________________

Hiermit legt das Sozialwissenschaftliche FrauenForschungsInstitut der Kontaktstelle für praxisorientierte Forschung der Evangelischen Fachhochschule (SoFFI K.) den Abschlussbericht für das Forschungsprojekt „Untersuchung zu den Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes“ vor. Das Projekt begann am 1. 3. 2004 und wurde Ende Juli 2005 abgeschlossen. Ziel des Forschungsprojektes war es, einen Überblick über die Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes in der Praxis zu geben. Die Untersuchung dient der Vorbereitung eines Berichts der Bundesregierung an den Deutschen Bundestag. Sie wurde vom Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend in Auftrag gegeben.
Die Untersuchung besteht aus mehreren Teilstudien, die sich aufeinander beziehen:

- Einer quantitativen und qualitativen Befragung von in der Prostitution tätigen Frauen und Männern, Betreibern bzw. Betreiberinnen von Prostitutionsbetrieben, Expertinnen und Experten aus unterschiedlichen Bereichen und Berufsfeldern,

- einer Auswertung der Rahmenbedingungen in ausgewählten Regionen,

- einer Recherche zu den Konsequenzen der neuen Rechtslage,

- einer Rechtsexpertise.

In der Integration der Ergebnisse werden die bislang erkennbaren Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes und die Einschätzung des Gesetzes aus einer Vielfalt von Perspektiven beleuchtet. Darüber hinaus wird die Prostitutionspolitik in anderen Ländern in den Blick genommen und es werden Schlussfolgerungen und Empfehlungen abgegeben.

Mit einem Werkauftrag waren Dr. Margarete Gräfin von Galen für die Rechtsexpertise und Dipl. Psych. Katja Grieger für die Datenbearbeitung eingebunden.

Die Untersuchung gibt nicht nur Antworten auf die Frage nach den bislang messbaren oder beobachtbaren Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes, sondern verhilft auch zu einem besseren Verständnis, warum zurzeit erst wenig konkrete Veränderung feststellbar ist.

Bundesministerin für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend

Sozialwissenschaftliches FrauenForschungsInstitut
Untersuchung zu den Auswirkungen des Prostitutionsgesetzes

The Truth Behind the Sex Trade

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:13:00 +0000

While many migrants are forced into sex work, the rescue industry's moral position has hindered their own efforts to stop it, according to a new book, Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labor Market and the Rescue Industry.
____________________

For quite some time, we've heard about the sex slaves -- the traffickers, the sexual bondage emerging at the border. The discovery makes free citizens sick; we feel like we must to do anything to make it stop, to uncover the beast.

But something very weird has been happening. Last month in the Washington Post, a shocking story appeared: Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence: U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short.

...

When well-intended social workers and enforcement agents sought out female migrant workers with grievances, they often found people who said, "I'm desperate for papers, but I'm not doing sex work -- I'm in a different sort of bondage!"

Or, they found migrants who said, "I am doing sex work, but I'm making it worth my while, and the one way you could help me is by either getting out of my way or getting me legal documents so I make my own decision." Or, they found male prostitutes who didn't fit the feminine portrait of victimization at all, and they weren't eligible for "help," either. The problem as conceived by the policy makers was completely mismatched with the reality.

read the whole article on
AlterNet
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Human Trafficking Evokes Outrage, Little Evidence
U.S. Estimates Thousands of Victims, But Efforts to Find Them Fall Short

read the article in
The Washington Post
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Laura Agustín
Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry.
London: Zed Books.

This groundbreaking book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work; that migrants who sell sex are passive victims; and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest.

Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' disempowers them. Based on extensive research amongst migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustín, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry. Although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy.

Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice.

The truth behind prostitute Fanny Hill's sexual antics 200 years ago

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:33:00 +0000

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - by John Cleland
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On this occasion, the earth moved quite literally.

In 1750, severe land tremors struck London, rattling the chinaware in rich houses, toppling old buildings and chimneys in slum quarters, and causing thousands of the capital's inhabitants to flee from the metropolis to safety in the country.

When they returned, it was to the words of their bishop, Thomas Sherlock, denouncing from the pulpit the sins that had brought this divine anger down on their heads.

The taste for bawdy books was among the evils he identified.

"Have not the histories of the vilest prostitutes been published?" he asked his frightened flock.

Newcomer Rebecca Night as Fanny Hill in the TV adaption

And he singled out one in particular - 'Memoirs of Fanny Hill, this vile book, the lewdest thing I ever saw.'

Fanny Hill, the story of a country girl who makes her fortune selling sex in the brothels that abounded in London in the 18th century, was pornography.

Literally so, because 'pornography' was a word made up at exactly that time, from Greek roots meaning 'writing about prostitutes'.

It was explicit in its graphic descriptions of sexual couplings - 'the truth, stark naked truth', as its author wrote, full of 'unreserved intimacies' and expressly 'violating the laws of decency'.

The affronted bishop called for 'its progress to be stopped', and so powerful was his voice that its author and publisher were arrested and threatened with prison.

Fanny Hill was banned - and remained illegal for more than 200 years.

read the article in
Daily Mail

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure - by John Cleland

Tricks of the trade

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:49:00 +0000

"SO, UH, does my penis turn you on?" The mild-mannered software engineer, naked and lying flat on his back on my massage table, quite startles me with his question. True, I've had his penis in my hand for the last ten minutes, but my attention had drifted and I was wondering idly what to have for dinner later. I look down and sigh inwardly as I manage to utter an unconvincing affirmation.

"What can I do to please you?" he asks, undaunted. Would he believe me if I told him that I have a particular penchant for premature ejaculators who shut the hell up and leave as quickly as possible?

In the ten years I've spent working in the sex industry (I started out at 19 as an escort in Glasgow, worked in Germany and France and am now into erotic massage in the USA to fund my postgraduate studies), it never ceases to amaze me how johns desperately need to hear that the women find them attractive. Having to flatter the male ego is much more emotionally draining than the actual sexual act itself.

read the article in
scotsman.com

more on
Belle de Jour - The Secret Diary of a Call Girl

.

Frit lejde til prostituerede

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 13:01:00 +0000

Dansk lovgivning gør det reelt umuligt for flertalletaf prostituerede at slippe fri af prostitution

28. september 2007
Af: Hanne Dam

Forleden hørte vi i radioen igen en politiker med et stort hjerte kræve frit lejde til prostituerede. Det har politikere med bevægelige hjerter jævnligt gjort gennem de senere år. Og det vil de gøre igen, siger de, selv om effekten for de prostituerede hidtil er udeblevet.

Og hvorfor så det?

Måske fordi vi i dette land er for optaget af at skabe lighed og retfærdighed ud fra samme skabelon all over - for uvillige til at bøje teoretiske begreber i forhold til kød og blod og social virkelighed.

læs hele artiklen i
Information

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Prostitution i Danmark
Af Nell Rasmussen
Servicestyrelsen 2007.
Hånd- og undervisningsbog. 184 sider.

Download i PDF-format

Ny bog om prostitution som socialt problem

Prostituerede er socialt udsat gruppe, som mange faggrupper på social- og sundhedsområdet kommer i berøring med – måske nogle gange uden at vide det. Men prostitution som socialt problem er sjældent noget, der undervises i på de forskellige uddannelser.

Det er baggrunden for udgivelsen af hånd- og undervisningsbogen Prostitution i Danmark. Bogen er en lettilgængelig grundbog, der kommer rundt om alle de basale facetter af prostitution, bl.a. omfang, karakter, lovgivning og ikke mindst de sociale tilbud. Forskellige grupper af prostituerede beskrives, og der sættes fokus på de mange aspekter af livet som prostitueret – fra økonomi og retsstilling til ambivalens og skadevirkninger.

Scars that will never heal

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:44:00 +0000

With scars that will never heal, one woman fights human trafficking

When Isoke Aikpitanyi boarded a plane in Benin City, Nigeria, she dreamed of a new life in Europe. She found a nightmare instead.
...
"I made a promise with myself that I would help them, as a sort of therapy to heal a wound I know will never heal," Aikpitanyi said. "Sometimes all they need is someone to listen."
...
Compared with many countries, Italian legislation in support of women trying to escape sexual exportation is very advanced, experts who study human trafficking say.
...
On the surface, life is good.

But her book implies otherwise. She writes: "Outside I am calm and strong and I try to fix things. But inside, instead, nothing is right. Not even for me. Inside I am full of rage, and shame. Because I am here and I am alive." Others, she goes on, did not make it.

read the article in
The International Herald Tribune
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Le ragazze di Benin City
La tratta delle nuove schiave dalla Nigeria ai marciapiedi d'Italia
Laura Maragnani – Isoke Aikpitanyi
Edizioni Melampo

Voices of Warning

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:51:00 +0000

En Strippas Dagbok
...
Jag önskar för framtidens strippor att detta endast är en svacka (även om statistiken inte visat mycket på uppgång än)...Nästa generations strippor önskar jag en värdigare arbetsmiljö och framgång som leder till en hälsosammare tillvaro och livskvalitet inom yrket....
För det första behöver dem ett fackförbund som erlägger dem rättigheter...Och sen behövs det sättas upp klara regler och det behövs fler seriösa och empatiska klubbägare som inte behandlar tjejerna som boskap...

Jag har fått en del förfrågningar från tjejer som är intresserade av att ge sig ut i branschen...
Till dessa nyfikna tjejer har jag en del råd att ge...
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Confessions of a College Callgirl
The Price

To the potential sex workers who write me:
“Looking to try this,” you say. “Is it really, really awful?” you ask.
...
I want to be very clear that I recommend this lifestyle for no one. It is easy enough to cross the line because the line is invisible. Much harder still to go back, to return to a time when you shared no piece of yourself with strange men, men you don’t like, even men who don’t like you. I detached myself completely from the work I was doing and felt that I was getting off scot-free with minimal psychological impact. I was having fun at first; I felt beautiful and confident and adored and I was financially secure for the first time ever. But those nights found their way underneath my skin. They just burrowed down deep under the folds of my subconscious like a rat nestled at the bottom of a shopping bag.

read the whole article here

Sweden Is Not Utopia, Even Though White Liberals Think It Is

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 19:56:00 +0000

I stumbled upon this post about the situation in Sweden in another blog. Don’t know who the author is, but I like the tone in the post.

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The white progressive/liberal obsession with Sweden as the land of Ideal Social Policies and Perfect Socialism is one that never fails to discomfit. A bunch of blond white folks sharing everything is the fantasy white liberals have of it, and yet when trumpeting Sweden as the One Right Way, white liberals never mention how much difficulty Sweden has in accepting those who aren’t blond white folks.

...

Several years back, closing in on a decade ago, Sweden basically made prostitution illegal for johns but legal for working girls. Sounds very pro-prostitute, very sexworker-rights-friendly, doesn’t it?

It totally isn’t.

In a nutshell, the Swedish model, oft-cited by feminists of multiple stripes as The One Way To Help Prostitutes, basically leaves them open to every kind of abuse with almost no true legal recourse.

read the whole article on
Secular Apostasy

Selling sex is a choice

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:59:00 +0000

Criminalising men who use prostitutes won't help women find another means of earning a wage
Diane Taylor
Tuesday September 11, 2007

There is a beautifully simple logic behind the proposals said to be under consideration by the government to criminalise men who pay for sex - apply the laws of supply and demand. If the demand is wiped out by tough laws, the supply will wither on the vine.
The argument continues that women involved in prostitution are victims of coercion by evil pimps or in the grip of addiction to class A drugs. They know not what they do and are in urgent need of rescue. It is not fair to punish them with Asbos, soliciting convictions and the like, when it is men who are to blame for their miserable predicament.
One problem with this argument is that it oversimplifies a highly complex area in which women have a huge range of different experiences.

read the article in the
Guardian Unlimited
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My Name Is Angel: This Is My Story:
A Traumatic True Story of Escaping the Streets and Building a New Life
by Rhea Coombs; Diane Taylor
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de

Easy money but with an added cost

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:53:00 +0000

Back at the beginning when she was the new girl on the scene - sweet 16 - she was gladly pocketing at least £600 a week, cash which funded her newly independent lifestyle of partying and shopping. Now she is 27, the money has dropped while the clients - men, sometimes women, occasionally couples - become more and more sexually demanding.
She'd like to stop working and find a job but, she shrugs: "What else would I do? It's not like I can put what I have been doing for eleven years on my CV."

read the article in the
Scotsman.com

Campain against Human trafficking in the Czech Republic

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:49:00 +0000

DON'T BE AFRAID TO SAY IT FOR HER!

You may come across a woman who, in your opinion, is being forced into prostitution, who is under some kind of pressure or in danger. If the woman trusts you, she may even confide in you, asking for help.Anyone who has witnessed a woman being forced into prostitution or knows about a place where he/she suspects it could be happening, can report it to us. It could be a prostitute’s client, a person living in the vicinity of a club or an apartment where prostitutes provide their services, or a family member of the victim. Each piece of information is of great value!

Red Light Despatch

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:22:00 +0000

Red Light Despatch is India’s first magazine produced by prostitutes for prostitutes

Deep inside the cramped streets of the bustling Kamathipura district in Mumbai , India’s financial capital, an editorial meeting is in progress at the tiny office of a new magazine. The clatter of keyboards is audible as contents for the upcoming issue are finalized, page layouts planned and the past issue dissected.
This could be any small publication in India’s bustling print media industry, except for one thing. Most of the reporters are female prostitutes and the newsroom is located inside a brothel. The magazine is the freshly-minted Red Light Despatch, India’s first monthly publication exclusively by and for sex workers.

read article on
asia sentinel
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Red Light Despatch
Red Light Despatch, India’s first newsmagazine for sex-workers, is brought out exclusively by sex-workers from an office located within a brothel in Mumbai’s Kamathipura district. This unique magazine discusses the problems and dreams of sex-workers.

read article on
InfoChange
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RED LIGHT DESPATCH on line
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Video: Sex workers turn reporters, bring out Red Light Despatch
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AdventureDivas: INDIA: RUCHIRA GUPTA

She came to the brothels of Bombay to make a documentary about sex trafficking and never left. Realizing she couldn't walk away from the atrocities she had witnessed, she started Apne Aap (On Our Own) to help women and children who have been sexually exploited regain their independence. Meanwhile, her Emmy award-winning film The Selling of Innocents continues to spread the word.
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Apne Aap - an initiative to end sex-trafficking

Apne Aap Women Worldwide began as a community-based initiative of women in prostitution in the Khetwadi/ Kamatipura red light area of Mumbai in 1998. Twenty-two women in prostitution, who had worked with Emmy award-winning journalist Ruchira Gupta, to make a documentary "The Selling of Innocents", decided to start this organization. Their aim was to lead the end of their own exploitation and prevent their sisters from being exploited through sex trafficking.

http://www.apneaap.org/

Bundeslagebild Menschenhandel 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:55:00 +0000

Bundeskriminalamt veröffentlicht aktuelle Zahlen für Deutschland

Wiesbaden (ots) - Im Jahr 2006 wurden in Deutschland 353 Ermittlungsverfahren wegen Menschenhandels zum Zwecke der sexuellen Ausbeutung abgeschlossen. Dies bedeutete einen Anstieg um 11% gegenüber dem Vorjahr (317 Verfahren).
Die Anzahl der festgestellten Opfer lag mit 775 um 21% höher als 2005 (642).

Der überwiegende Anteil der Opfer stammte auch im Jahr 2006 mit rund 94% (731 von 775 Opfern) aus Europa. 155 Opfer und damit der größte Anteil der ausländischen Opfer kam aus der Tschechischen Republik. Diese Entwicklung ist auf zwei Großverfahren mit vielen Opfern tschechischer Nationalität zurückzuführen.

Die Zahl der Tatverdächtigen, die im Jahr 2006 wegen des Verdachts des Menschenhandels zum Zwecke der sexuellen Ausbeutung registriert wurde, lag bei 664 (2005: 683).
Bei den Tatverdächtigen dominierten 2006 mit einem Anteil von gut 43% weiterhin deutsche Staatsangehörige (282 von 664 Tatverdächtigen).
Den größten Anteil bei den ausländischen Tatverdächtigen bildeten türkische, rumänische und polnische Staatsangehörige.

Trotz einer Steigerung der Anzahl der gemeldeten Verfahren und der Menschenhandelsopfer, bleibt das Ausmaß des in Deutschland festgestellten Menschenhandels im Jahr 2006 begrenzt.
Allerdings ist im Bereich des Menschenhandels zum Zwecke der sexuellen Ausbeutung weiterhin von einem hohen Dunkelfeld auszugehen.

Die Strafverfolgungsbehörden werden weiterhin Schwierigkeiten haben, Opfer des Menschenhandels zu identifizieren und entsprechende Ermittlungen einzuleiten, da die Mehrzahl der betroffenen ausländischen Frauen zwischenzeitlich aus EU-Mitgliedsstaaten stammt und damit legale Aufenthaltsmöglichkeiten in Deutschland besitzt.

Zum Menschenhandel zum Zwecke der Ausbeutung der Arbeitskraft (erst seit 2005 Straftatbestand) ist eine solide kriminalpolizeiliche Lagebeschreibung und -analyse in Anbetracht der wenigen bisher in der PKS registrierten Fälle noch nicht möglich.

Kurzfassung des Bundeslagebildes Menschenhandel 2006

Ältere Berichte
www.bka.de → Berichte und Statistiken → Kriminalitätslage → Menschenhandel

Bordelle machen Bezirksamt an

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 07:05:00 +0000

Der Streit über die Schließung von Wohnungsbordellen geht weiter. Der runde Tisch dazu ist geplatzt. Ein neues Gutachten soll die Gerichte nun bewegen, sich nicht nur juristisch, sondern auch inhaltlich mit der Sache zu befassen. VON WALTRAUD SCHWAB

...
Seit einem halben Jahr schon laufen die BordellbetreiberInnen Sturm gegen die Schließungen. Sie haben deshalb auch das erste wissenschaftliche Gutachten zu "Berliner Wohnungsbordellen in Wohn- und Mischgebieten" in Auftrag gegeben, das gestern vorgestellt wurde. Die Soziologin Beate Leopold, die für das Familienministerium ebenfalls das Prostitutionsgesetz evaluierte, bestätigt darin, dass Wohnungsbordelle genau das Gegenteil von dem bewirken, was ihnen angelastet wird: Sie fördern weder die Kriminalität, noch stören sie in den allermeisten Fällen die Nachbarn. Meist sind die Puffs Tagesläden, Freier möchten so ungesehen wie möglich rein- und rausgelangen. Auf Werbung wird deshalb in der Regel auch verzichtet, um den Ruf der Kunden zu wahren.
...

Der ganze Artikel in der
taz.de

„Berliner Wohnungsbordelle in Wohn- und Mischgebieten“

noreply@blogger.com (J) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:44:00 +0000

Sozialwissenschaftliches Gutachten

Juli 2007
Verfasserin: Diplom-Soziologin Beate LeopoldI. S. F. P. (Institut für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung und PraxisAuftraggeber: Bundesverband Sexuelle Dienstleistungen e. V. (BSD)

Das typische an Wohnungsbordellen ist das ruhige, diskrete Auftreten, die äußerlicheUnauffälligkeit, das Private, die Distanz von Gewalt und Zwang sowie Drogen- und Alkoholfreiheit. Sie sind Ausdruck selbstbestimmter Prostitution und humaner Arbeitsbedingungen.
Dies belegt ein umfangreiches sozialwissenschaftliches Gutachten. Es handelt sichhierbei um unser erstes Gutachten. Bzgl. seiner Methode und seiner tiefen Einblickein die untersuchten Prostitutionsbetriebe ist es einmalig. Beate Leopold konnte alsrenommierte Sozialwissenschaftlerin für die Durchführung der Studie gewonnenwerden. Sie führte im Bereich Prostitution bereits unterschiedliche Untersuchungendurch und war zuletzt entscheidend an der Evaluation des Prostitutionsgesetzes fürdie Bundesregierung bzw. das Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen undJugend beteiligt.
Mit dem Gutachten werden die Sachvorträge in den laufenden Gerichtsverfahren zumBaurecht untermauert und parallel dazu die politischen Diskussionen fortgesetzt.

Download Gutachten
Sozialwissenschaftliches Gutachten

Kære Socialdemokrater

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:34:00 +0000

Selv de allerbedste hensigter kan have alvorlige konsekvenser. Her må I træffe et valg

Af: 'Mille' og gadepigerne

Dette er et opråb! Et opråb fra kvinder, der sælger sex på gaden. Gadepigerne. Det er et opråb til Jer Socialdemokrater. I håbet om, at I fortsat vil være vores allierede. Vi har brug for Jer. Vi ved, at I kæmper for os på så mange andre måder. I kæmper for eksempel for at kunne give os fixerum og heroinbehandling. Det er vi Jer meget taknemlige for.

Men beslutter I at ville kriminalisere vores kunder, skaber I blot nye og meget alvorlige problemer for os. Uanset hvor gode Jeres hensigter er, vil en kriminalisering ikke på nogen måde være en hjælp for os. Tvært-imod. Lyt nu til os.

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Taletid til ’gadepigerne’!

noreply@blogger.com (Jay) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:00:00 +0000

Af Nanna W. Gotfredsen
(Først publicert:Politiken 14. juni 2006)

...
Set fra en gadevinkel, hvor Gadejuristen takket være satspuljemidler, kan tilbyde socialt arbejde også blandt de prostituerede på gadeplan og ikke mindst bruger lejligheden til at lytte til dem det handler om, er der meget der kan og skal gøres. Gå endelig i gang med at overbyde hinanden, men start med at spørge kvinderne selv. De har masser af bud. Nogle har brug for heroinunderstøttet behandling, andre for lægeordineret benzodiazepin. De fleste har brug for kvalificerede sociale behandlingstilbud med realistiske mål. Et sted at bo eller i det mindste reelle lavtærskeltilbud, som ikke finder på at bortvise dem på grund af manglende ”forandringsvilje”. De har brug for et tilstrækkeligt økonomisk fundament. Det er nemlig ikke bare stoffer der trækker kvinderne i Gaden. Vi møder også kvinder, som fx er lykkes med at blive stoffrie, men sendes tilbage til gaden af et urimeligt lavt eksistensgrundlag, kontanthjælpsloftet og mistet boligsikring. Så lad os bare komme i gang med at løse deres problemer. Giv dem taletid, lyt til dem og forstå, at det i hvert fald IKKE er kriminalisering af kunderne der efterlyses.

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