This icon is totally appropriate.

[x_los]

If you want, please to be admiring my WICKED AWESOME list of articles for this week's 'Porn and Sex Work' discussion. If you'd like to talk about any of these or if you've got an awesomegood sex industry or porn-related article to share yourself, lay on, Macduff.

Sex Work in America:

Wired's Rundown of the Suicide Girls Controversy

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/09/69006

Porn actress Sasha Grey on the adult film industry

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=105&sid=fdfaee62-b23d-44fe-8357-132a26911cd3%40sessionmgr108&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=39144605

Feminist approaches to pornography and sexwork:

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1297

Sex Workers' Perspectives:

Peruse Spread Magazine, a publication for and by sex workers:

http://www.spreadmagazine.org/index.html
(with articles like 'tips on clients with disabilities,' and Ask a Ho: Should I tell my parents?)

Wikipedia's summary of Sex Worker Rights issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_workers%27_rights#European_Conference_on_Sex_Work.2C_Human_Rights.2C_Labour_and_Migration

Sex Trafficking and Tourism:

check out "Why Hiring a Sex Worker is Like Sunning on the Beach: A Defense of Sex Tourism in Thailand" (http://www.spreadmagazine.org/sextourism4.2.html) from Spread, versus

http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/thailand , and
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208800,00.html

Other cultural perspectives:

Japan's Sex Industry

on the book Pink Box--bouncy, encyclopediac pictorial guide:

http://www.straight.com/article-74893/a-visual-journey-into-japans-sex-industry
http://www.pinkboxjapan.com/about.html

the Darker Side:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/world/tokyo-journal-red-light-scouts-and-their-gullible-discoveries.html

Sex and Taboos in the Islamic World

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,443678,00.html

"a look (at) how the modern gay rights movement in Cuba is interwoven with the rise in sex workers and why this communist country just may grant same-sex marriage rights before the United States in order to demonstrate their commitment to human rights." PODCAST

http://www.feastoffools.net/gay-fun-show/2009/05/01/fof-979-cuban-sex-workers-and-british-scally-lads-050109/

"Risk exposure and risk management strategies among gay male sex workers in Germany"

http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102238193.html (abstract)

Holland: Tempting the Tourist With Hookers and Hookahs

http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/holland_hookers_and_hookahs.htm

Comments

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

Crazy stuff. I didn't read all of them, but I skimmed, and came to a conclusion I have come to before: that what is wrong with the sex industry isn't that women are being paid for sex, but that so often they do it because they have no other options.

And what is revolting about the response to the sex industry is that so often, it's a rejection of the idea of sex rather than the exploitation of such women. Or (possibly worse) it's a reaction to their victimization that comes largely in the form of contempt--because for some reason it's wrong of these women to make the most of the only option they've got?

I really wonder what would happen if we had some sort of protective regulation for sex workers--just something to keep them from falling all the way while they try (if they so desire) to claw their way back out of the pit. Possibly we don't because of the fear we have of those who're in the pit because they like it down there. (I suspect that might be the fear we feel for those who we know can kick our asses five ways to Sunday any time they damn well please. Harder, better, faster, stronger than you. When Darwin makes his rounds, you're not the one who'll be left standing.)

But, I would like to know, is there some particular reason people should be entitled to sex for free? What I can never figure out is where these responses to the idea come from. From the socialization of hard-wired instinct, from what I can tell (judging by the behavioral patterns of every other animal ever), but still. Female objections I can actually understand, because I expect most women would far rather sex be a bit harder to get. Commitment is a higher price than $200 for a one-night stand. But frankly I've never quite grasped the two-faced reaction so many men seem to have regarding sex. Are they stuck between the twin motivations of procreation and having female relatives?

[x-los.livejournal.com]

And what is revolting about the response to the sex industry is that so often, it's a rejection of the idea of sex rather than the exploitation of such women.

It is problematic that these negative responses are so conjoined, and the resultant unholy alliance between anti-porn feminists and hardline conservatives is obviously of the Dark Side?

protective regulation for sex workers-

Canada and Amsterdam do, though? And Japan apparently has a de facto economic imperative to keep the girls happy, but even in those situations, issues of stigma and ineffective implementation of the regulations are apparently actively keeping women from pursuing this in a sort of Marxist 'it's my right to use my body as a personal resource/in whatever manner I choose' way.

is there some particular reason people should be entitled to sex for free?

Eh, it's kind of sex-negative to assume that it's not also in a woman's best interest to establish egalitarian access to sexual fulfillment alone consensual lines?

[prettyarbitrary.livejournal.com]

t is problematic that these negative responses are so conjoined, and the resultant unholy alliance between anti-porn feminists and hardline conservatives is obviously of the Dark Side?

Most alliances with hardline conservatives are of the Dark Side. They've even got their own Sith Lord.

Mind you, I'm not keen on the hard left, either. Extremism of any kind doesn't really work...but their leaders by and large don't seem to be as effective. Clearly they need to invest in some good supervillain costuming.

Huh. I knew about Amsterdam, but not Canada. The things you learn about your neighbors. I've read a little about Japan's setup, which sounds...problematic in its attempt to toe both sides of the line ("We want happy prostitutes, but nothing about sex must ever be acknowledged openly in our culture!").

I suppose that wherever you go, it's about preferring to pretend these people don't exist except when you want them.

Eh, it's kind of sex-negative to assume that it's not also in a woman's best interest to establish egalitarian access to sexual fulfillment alone consensual lines?

It is, yes. I did have a point with that comment, but I could not resist going the smart-mouthed route rather than the way that's actually explanatory. What I really meant to comment on was the entitlement issues surrounding sex: this idea that anyone has a right to sleep with someone else, regardless of the other person's opinion on the matter. In a historic context, it makes perfect sense. I mean, I can trace the evolution of the logical structure of "control sex/control women" from older formations in various cultures...but honestly the whole fundamental "We need to know who our babies are coming from!" argument for why it exists in the first place never really rang true on an intellectual level. Hence the rest of that paragraph.

Way to pack a sentence, eh?

Also, my apologies for the delete-and-repost. Sometimes I want a paid account just for the convenience of being able to edit my comments.