Sex work

blissed · 30-10-10 15:45:14

After reading about the decriminalization of sex work in NewZealand I found a Good video about a long time sex worker there. She currently advises the government.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKVclFN6cas

I like what she has to say about improvements that can be made like zoning street prostitution. In those zones I think government provided wardens could provide security, perhaps providing a hotel with rooms for hire by the hour. That would improve safety too. I was appalled at the list of injuries Rachel reported. Definitely being injured shouldn't be part of the job.

Focusing on sex workers welfare and career progression would be helped too by helping those sex workers who use it solely to fund drug addiction by decriminalising drug taking as has happened in Portugal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7FshBjkS6U

Hopefully this could remove all the criminal opportunities from sex work and replace them with fair business opportunities and creativity. Creativity is definitely needed, the neon seedy dark environments shown in the NewZealand film look awful and (to me) repellant and unsexy, when a beautiful art gallery or coffee shop style environment costs no more to create.

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Last edited by blissed (30-10-10 15:47:07)

blissed · 25-11-10 13:51:11

OK I know this thread could be turning into my sex work blog but this is interesting. At 81 I think she seems like quite an amazing woman.

http://www.shropshirestar.com/uk/uk-new … -sex-work/

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chmchrischm · 26-11-10 09:16:53

Blissed, you are GREAT! Sexwork, because it is WORK and hence money and business is probably one of the ultimate frontiers where capitalist harsh exploitation and total desregard for anything like "being human" shows its true face. And it is so not only in the case of prostitution, but all the same throughout the pornographic industry where the alledged "sex liberation" turns out to be chain-work and imposed, forced and violent sexual practices at the costs of poor abused and deceived young girls who initially were told they could make some money "enjoying" themselves! And it IS a battle to be fought in the field of human sexuality, as it has been (and it is still) the case with feminism, homosexual rights and so on. Maybe you'd be interested to take a look at the few translated works of a great Lady both a writer and a prostitute, Griselidis Real who battled on this field both in Paris and Geneva and brought about great contibutions to sexwork emancipation- but won no final battle! Still, putting the foundations in Geneva of an instituion called Aspasie (from the name of the celebrated Hetaïra who was great Pericles companion in Vth century b.c. Athens) for the education and protection of sexworkers, which organization played a decisive role in eliminating "pimps" (those guys who exploited prostitutes) and legalizing prostitution as a profession.
Thanks for your noble commitment! And for the very interesting links.
The old sexual health lecturer from the other part of the world...
chmchrischm

blissed · 26-11-10 16:03:15

Ooh thanks for the compliment chmchrischm! (how do you pronounce that BTW

chmchrischm wrote:

because it is WORK and hence money and business is probably one of the ultimate frontiers where capitalist harsh exploitation and total desregard for anything like "being human".

I tend to think the more choice us end consumers have the more we're responsible for the harsh exploitation by buying the cheapest products without concern for how they're made. If we want to shop at 2 am it's more likely we may one day have to serve at 2 am.

and in any job where I've served customers most people are nice. Nearly everyone likes sex and so I think the number of people who are happy to pay for sex in dingy smelly disgusting conditions with even a hint of non-consent is tiny. But those people are out there and so the trade exists.

I'm sure it's possible to be a nice pimp and offer people security and respect, in an environment that maximises the value of their skills in a really nice premises. If your all pulling in as much money as a firm of lawyers the least you can do is spend the same amount of money as they do on your premises. Even if your only making the same as a cosy French cafe, the same principle still applies.

Thanks for the reference to Griselidis Real, I found a video of her talking with subtitles. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 297304846#

I like where someone else says I'm selling my time and skill not myself. Though in return for money we all decide how much of ourselves we invest in the person who's our customer. I know a financial adviser (not me I only deal with the stars who became a very supportive friend to someone she met as a client.

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chmchrischm · 28-11-10 20:46:14

Dear Blissed, I couldn’t agree more with you saying “I tend to think the more choice us end consumers have the more we're responsible for the harsh exploitation by buying the cheapest products without concern for how they're made. If we want to shop at 2 am it's more likely we may one day have to serve at 2 am.” (by the way, how do you proceed to frame a quotation from someone?). This smart and logical way of thinking is unfortunately not in many people’s capacities as we have to deplore in votes… However I am surprised of your overall positive experience of customers attitudes. You probably live in an anglosaxon or northern European or Latin american country where peoples social attitudes are more respectful than in my latin-european country where people are often rude with cashiers in supermarkets. As of most people liking sex, there again I am stunned to hear… it doesn’t fit neither the clinical literature, nor my own professional experience… I really wish they would for their own sake and because studies prove that happy sex keeps you in better shape and longer than not. Maybe your view is influenced by a professional bias? And last but not least, about “nice pimps”. Well, over here there are networks of illegal trafficking of girls you would find with a bullet in the head down some hill because she tried to escape or simply to terrorize another group. Nice pimps… But it can be that a girl on her own has a nice “boyfriend” of some sort that she pays for. But our experience over here was that these guys were as a whole quite brutal and disgusting and one of Griselidis Real’s prostitutes center contribution was to allow the girls first of all to be and work on their own without being forced to depend upon one of these guys. But Griselidis Real herself as she describes in her books both ways had some very rich clients who came regularly to visit her and gave her big moneys and in turn, she had “crushes” on some “nice” thugs she funded. That’s human relationships – not too rational, hey?
And about Griselidis Real, at least a book of hers and about her has been translated into english: The Little Black Book of Grisélidis Réal: Days and Nights of an Anarchist Whore, Semiotext Paperback , Oct. 2009, 176 p. ISBN-10: 1584350784 or ISBN-13: 978-1584350781
Yours truly, chmchrischm (pronounce it Chris! ;-))
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chmchrischm · 28-11-10 20:47:20

Oh, PS, your cartoon is excellent!

blissed · 29-11-10 03:21:32

Thanks Click quote at the far bottom right corner of this post. and you'll see little bits of code before and after my text. Type something below my quoted text and then click submit and you'll get the result below.

blissed · 29-11-10 03:22:39

blissed wrote:

Thanks Click quote at the far bottom right corner of this post. and you'll see little bits of code before and after my text. Type something below my quoted text and then click submit and you'll get the result below.

Something.

blissed · 29-11-10 03:26:36

Now write something before my quote and Now edit it deleting everything but the part you want.

blissed wrote:

Thanks Click quote at the far bottom right corner of this post.

Click quote on any post and you'll see the code that makes it appear the way it does.

Last edited by blissed (29-11-10 03:28:20)

chmchrischm · 29-11-10 09:42:20

Thank you so much, Blissed!

blissed · 09-03-11 02:10:22

I found this yesterday http://sexuality.videosift.com/video/Ge … loadcomm=1

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Liandra_Dahl · 10-03-11 15:06:09

I fucking love that George Carlin! I saw the quote on a friends facebook status the other day and it certainly made me smile. Personally I comfort myself when I envisage a much more sane parallel universe where we have an army trained to give people sexual pleasure and we pin meddles on them for liberating the anorgasmic and for various feats of sexual prowess and increasing the general global happiness with endorphins and oxytocin. You know in quantum physics there is a valid argument that parallel universes exist as an explanation for the extraordinary way atoms behave at a quantum level. It gives me comfort to think of a Liandra living in a world where state condoned violence, murder and thuggery do not exist and disputes, conflicts, hostilities are settled with consensual fuckfests and orgasms not wars. Like the Bonobos do! *sigh*

blissed · 10-03-11 17:33:24

Liandra_Dahl wrote:

increasing the general global happiness

I like that, why not have the Increasing global happiness awards with all kinds of categories like comedy and sport with the last top of the bill spot going to sex. with prostitutes / sex therapists / porn contributors / porn makers / pinup models (Justin Bieber would win that category) I think we could hold that ceremony in this universe in about 10 to 15 years. Though the viral ideas of the net can change the collective consciousness very quickly (Tunisia, Egypt) So that change could arrive sooner kind of unexpectedly after pushing over a tipping point. Hope so.

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artist_kitkat · 18-03-11 05:25:43

Thanks Blissed for explaining the mystery of partial quoting
I remember in the early 90's in Brisbane a prostitute was raped - the rapist was given a lesser sentence for his crime because of her profession (she was "asking for it" bet they had a good giggle in the chambers over that one). The judges of the day made some awful decisions and had some atrocious attitudes. As a young woman back then, my first thought was that he should have been tried for rape and theft, and received a greater sentence. But I wasn't a judge or a police officer nor a minister for justice, so there you go.

I would really enjoy stepping into a parallel universe sometime, although I suspect I do when I'm dreaming. Could this be related to thought and imagination as well? Do thoughts, and acts of imagination and visualisation appear in parallel universes? And if so, would a parallel universe be full of unexpressed desires, unrecognised dreams, and so on? Would the subconscious appear there too? Thanks for the interesting thought start to my day, Liandra

viva · 24-03-11 04:06:49

artist_kitkat wrote:

in the early 90's in Brisbane a prostitute was raped - the rapist was given a lesser sentence for his crime because of her profession... my first thought was that he should have been tried for rape and theft, and received a greater sentence.

Just showin' off my partial quoting skills, don't mind me...
No seriously I wanted to single out Kitkat's genius here ^
before I start asking some questions.

Recently my partner and I were having a discussion about prostitution and our relationship. We were talking about how I would like to visit a prostitute one day (for tea and snacks - get your mind out of the gutter!) and how I would find it hot if he saw one especially if I came and watched. He asked me, "So, if I went to Thailand and had sex with a prostitute, that would be okay with you?"

My reaction was instant - a big fat NOT OKAY! I rejected this idea, as supporting even vicariously a sex trade which often exploits young girls, and which convinces women that prostitution is one of the only ways to support herself and her family, was so sad to me.

I have lofty ideals of sex work as a profession chosen of free will, especially after visiting a screening of several short films by all types of sex workers who are incredible people and extremely self-aware about their line of work. Obviously not everyone who sells their sex likes it, but then, how many people adore their desk jobs?

I am having trouble reconciling therefore my blanket condemnation of supporting sex workings in Thailand, on moralistic and judgmental grounds that unlike Australians, these girls and boys "have no choice." Is that fair to/respectful of these people who are, as we all are, responsible for their own choices? Or is it a valid feeling because of the high amounts of sexual slavery and a culture which tends to pimp young chicks out to old white dudes?

aside from issues of safety related to legality and regulation, I would like to ask what you folks think about this general concept. I would love to be more specific and concise but my time is up at this internet cafe so I will be back to respond and clarify shortly.

blissed · 24-03-11 23:57:02

I found this http://www.sexwork.com/Thailand/traditiions.html looks like premarital sex in Thailand is socially banned and prostitutes fill the need.

I would really enjoy stepping into a parallel universe sometime, although I suspect I do when I'm dreaming. Could this be related to thought and imagination as well? Do thoughts, and acts of imagination and visualisation appear in parallel universes? And if so, would a parallel universe be full of unexpressed desires, unrecognised dreams, and so on? Would the subconscious appear there too?

Common sense says that the Sun goes round the Earth and the brain is a separate machine from the rest of the universe. But if we use uncommon sense and the Planck length really is the smallest space that is possible, below which nothing can be known about the position of an object and quantum physics take over. Then the universe is digital and the planck are the digits and I can quite easily see how string theory places the universe on a flat membrane in another dimension just as a computer games 3D universe fits on a flat computer chip. And so the notion that the brain is a separate machine, would simply be an illusion. Something Jill Bolt Taylor eluded to in her talk as she described her stroke and witnessed her own brain losing it's left brain functionality and felt herself merge into the universal whole, perhaps revealing a reality, just as anything that malfunctions tends to reveal a mechanism that usually remains hidden. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

I find it all fascinating

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Last edited by blissed (24-03-11 23:59:05)

blissed · 23-07-11 19:31:17

Been following a thread about a film festival about sex workers at the F word blog and discovered a great post in the comments there http://www.thefword.org.uk/reviews/2011 … ent-150354

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carstuff1000 · 23-07-11 20:16:30

Good site, good thread, good post. If there is a demand, there will always be a supply. Regardless of rules, regulations and laws.

#1 30-10-10 15:45:14

Sex work

#2 25-11-10 13:51:11

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#3 26-11-10 09:16:53

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#4 26-11-10 16:03:15

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#5 28-11-10 20:46:14

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#6 28-11-10 20:47:20

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#7 29-11-10 03:21:32

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#8 29-11-10 03:22:39

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#9 29-11-10 03:26:36

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#10 29-11-10 09:42:20

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#11 09-03-11 02:10:22

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#14 18-03-11 05:25:43

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#15 24-03-11 04:06:49

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#16 24-03-11 23:57:02

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#17 23-07-11 19:31:17

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#18 23-07-11 20:16:30

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