Full Frontal Politics free speech from a phone sex operator

The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #127? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you’re all set.

This Week’s Picks
Up Your Bum
“Now, every mainstream porn film seems to include anal sex as part of the sequence”

A Moment Captured
“Right now I am looking out down at the street from my window and my fingers have found their way to my soft wet labia.”

Things Every Man Should Own/Know/Hear
“You can also give the controller to her, or use it yourself, and play with the power of the vibrations.”

Mr. Sugasm Himself (one from the vaults)
The New York Times’ Best Porn Articles

Editor’s Choice
Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy #1

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.

(Sugasm participants should re-post all the links above within a week. The following links may be excluded as long as you include all the above links.)

Another unexpected sex worker ally: R. K. “Randy” Milholland of Something Positive fame. Several of his recurring characters work at Nerdrotica, a woman-owned boutique phone sex and webcam company catering to geeks. His most recent storyline “Customer Serviced” struck me hard and made me laugh in that “I swear I’ve had that guy” way fellow phone sex operators and camgirls will know all too well.

Randy covers a remote sex worker’s bad night at work in a way that makes you wonder how many of his good friends have worked the lines. He deals with the whore-shaming double standard, the lovesick client, the long hours—and he shows it for what it is: a bad night at work. Anyone who’s ever worked customer service or done freelance work for clients can relate to the sentiments, if not the particulars.

Kudos to you again Randy. I’ve said it before privately and I’ll say it publicly: you’re damn good at what you do. Thank you.

(Of course, as a webcomic creator who bathes in caustic sarcasm, he’s turned the poison pen on sex workers a time or two. It wouldn’t be Something Positive if he didn’t insult everyone at some point. But I’ve been reading for years, and the overall thread is one that’s very sex-positive, and—and this heartens me—sex worker supportive. Sharp-eyed readers will also have caught his recent Isobel Wren Easter egg.)

Anyone else have any unexpected shows of sex worker support? I’d love to link to them here. Just shoot me an email at sabrina morgan at gmail dot com and I’ll give you credit or anonymity, your choice. Thanks!

Top career advice blogger Penelope Trunk has been known for taking unorthodox stances, but I was still surprised - and proud - to see her come out against three common sex worker-bashing cliches: oppression by pimps/madams, lumping different types of sex work together, and the depressed sex worker.

In response to “Career Lessons from Eliott Spitzer’s Call Girl, Ashley Dupre,” Sakoro writes:

The only problem with her career is that prostitutes tend to have much higher rates of depression and other mental health disorders. It sucks having to behave sexually for people you aren’t attracted to and who probably don’t respect you.

Penelope Trunk’s reply:

I am not sure it’s fair to lump depression statistics of high end prostitutes and crack-addict prostitutes and everyone in between. Not really informative. And, as a side note, lawyers have a very high rate of depression and I think if you compared lawyers and prostitutes with similar yearly incomes, the lawyers might be more depressed, on average, than the prostitutes.

I’m not saying prostitution is a great career choice, I’m just saying that it’s a complicated discussion.

And in response to the madam talking point:

Also, I want to point out that even as a supposedly self-employed business owner, I work for someone else — I mean, I have investors, and they will make a lot of money off of me (hopefully) for doing much less day-to-day work than I’m doing. And I actually feel lucky to have the investors.

So (to Matt’s point) it’s not like the issues of prostitution are all completely unique to prostitution. [emphasis mine -Ed.]

She may not be much for nude modeling but it’s still nice to see a respected mainstream female career blogger sticking up for the agency of women to choose sex work. Thanks, Penelope.

December 17th is the 5th annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers. This event was created to call attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe.

Originally thought of by Dr. Annie Sprinkle and started by the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA in 2003 as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle Washington, International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers has empowered workers from over 30 cities around the world to come together and organize against discrimination and remember victims of violence.

During the week of December 17, 2007, sex worker rights organizations will be staging actions and vigils to raise awareness about violence that is commonly committed against sex workers. The assault, battery, rape and murder of sex workers must end. Existing laws prevent sex workers from reporting violence. The stigma and discrimination that is perpetuated by prohibitionist laws has made violence against sex workers acceptable. Please join in drawing attention to this injustice around the world with the 5th annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Please check out the new DEC 17 web site.

If you or your organization are holding an event, please email your info.

If your organization would like to help sponsor an event in your local area, please send your contact info.

Please go to the web site for Dr. Annie Sprinkle’s ‘10 Things You Can Do for International Day to end Violence Against Sex Workers.’

We encourage participants to carry red umbrellas on December 17 as a symbol of international solidarity for sex workers’ rights!

***Please post widely***

(source: Being Amber Rhea)

The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #72? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the linklist within a week and you’re all set.

This Week’s Picks
Roué (http://www.easilyaroused.co.uk)
“Her sighs of contentment build as my touch does its work.”

Wrong Number (http://radicalvixen.com/blog)
“They said clients were trying to call me and getting this restaurant instead.”

Ride to the Cabin (http://eroticawriter.blogspot.com)
“As he pulled into a dark lane that led into a grove of trees, I reached over to stroke him.”

Mr. Sugasm Himself
Loveland (http://sugarbank.com)

Editor’s Choice
Your hair (http://erotischism.blogspot.com)

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

The good news: Conservative anti-porn organization Morality in Media recently lost $150,000 in Congressional funding.

The bad news: For the past two years, conservative anti-porn organization Morality in Media had $150,000 in Congressional funding.

From the Morality in Media announcement list:

Dear Friend of Morality In Media,

You can’t save the world if you can’t pay the bills.

It’s a sad truth. Many a fine project has disappeared into the dustbin of history because of a lack of funding.

And now Morality In Media is facing a financial crisis. The Congress has changed hands, and MIM has lost vital congressional funding for one of our most important projects.

Which means that, in months ahead, MIM will have to raise $150,000 from other sources to keep this project operating!

If you want us to keep up our battle against pornography, please click here to donate your most generous possible emergency contribution!

Let me explain how this happened.

You see, for the past two years, Congressional appropriations for the U.S. Department of Justice have included critical funding for MIM’s obscenity-fighting website.

That website, www.obscenitycrimes.org, supplies vital information that federal investigators and U.S. Attorneys can use to investigate and prosecute internet obscenity.

I’ve told you in the past of the important role this website plays in our nation’s fight against internet obscenity.

In fact, since its inception, MIM’s website has received over 60,000 reports of internet obscenity!

But we are now facing what is for us a major crisis.

You see, for the past two years MIM has received an annual grant of $150,000 for our website. That money was contained in an Appropriations Bill that was passed by Congress.

But, this past November, Congress changed hands.

And with the change in Congress, the Appropriations Committees changed. As a result, the 2007 Appropriations Bill contains no funding for MIM’s obscenity-fighting project.

Yes, we can and will apply directly to the Justice Department for a new grant. But when we do so, we will be competing with thousands of other applicants.

MIM won’t know for months whether we will get a new grant from Justice. But one thing is certain – THIS PROJECT SHOULD AND WILL CONTINUE IF WE CAN RAISE THE ADDITIONAL $150,000!

That’s why I’m writing you today with this appeal.

You know, fighting obscenity and indecency is tough work. But there are also great rewards.

And I want you to know that there is one reward that all of us at MIM find very encouraging.

It is the realization that so many Americans are willing to sacrifice to help us in our battle against pornography.

Yes, the generous and faithful support of Morality in Media’s donors gives us great inspiration in our work.

But the job also has its hard parts. And today MIM is facing a potential deficit of $150,000. And today I am asking you to make a truly sacrificial gift to Morality In Media.
So here’s what I’m asking you to do…

First, we need your fervent prayers in support of our work. We simply couldn’t survive without them.

Second, we need your most generous support possible, right now. I know from what MIM president Bob Peters tells me that MIM depends a great deal on gifts of between $100 and $1,000.

Some of our donors can make donations of much more than $1000. And others of very limited means give us $10 or $25, with their enthusiastic and prayerful support.

Can you help Morality In Media at this critical time?

Please click here to make a truly sacrificial contribution! Can you support our work with a $250 donation? I know it’s a lot, but this situation is crucial.

Your critical donation today will assure that Morality In Media can continue its vital work to combat illegal obscenity and indecency in every facet of American life.

And let me assure you, with your indispensable help, we will continue that battle on all fronts.

In recent months, MIM lawyers submitted amicus briefs in two federal court cases involving the broadcast indecency law.

Both cases were filed by broadcast TV networks that are unhappy about specific indecency fines they received for polluting the public airwaves with vulgarity and nudity.

But the networks aren’t just asking the courts to reverse the fines for specific programs. They are asking the courts to declare the broadcast indecency law unconstitutional!

And by suing in both New York and Philadelphia, they think they have a better chance of finding friendly judges.

Yes, these are critical battles, and MIM needs your most generous possible help to win them!

Thank you, and may God bless you.

Sincerely,

Christopher Manion
Vice President

If that lengthy fundraising letter has you fumbling for your wallet, I’m sure the Free Speech Coalition (adult entertainment advocacy group) will be more than happy to take your money.

You can find out more about Morality in Media through their official website and through ObscenityCrimes.org.

Update: Viviane’s Sex Carnival saw fit to link this piece. Thanks, Viviane!

Today, March 9, is the last day to comment on the proposed .XXX domain extension.

• .XXX domains would cost $60 per URL per year
• The new extension would be voluntary, punishing businesses that choose to self-regulate and not addressing the vast majority of adult webmasters using .com, .net, or international extensions
• Defining adult content, commercial or noncommercial, is very subjective
• The extension would likely become mandatory or pseudo-mandatory through credit card processor regulations; this would financially penalize the adult industry in a way that no other industry is subject to as well as open the industry up for censorship

From the Free Speech Coalition:

It is imperative that ICANN hear from the industry in a BIG way! Please send an e-mail to ICANN and simply state “I am in the adult entertainment industry and I oppose .XXX”. If you are a webmaster, state that you are a webmaster in your e-mail as well as how many websites you manage.

E-mail your comments to: xxx-icm-agreement@icann.org.

Public comments can be viewed at: http://forum.icann.org/lists/xxx-icm-agreement/. Comments received on or before March 9, 2007 will be considered at the next scheduled Special Meeting of the ICANN Board.

“Oppose .XXX,” Free Speech Coalition

Act now and make your voice heard.

(Thanks to Madame for the reminder.)

Thank you for the votes!

The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #63? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the linklist within a week and you’re all set.

This Week’s Picks
Slut (http://lafillemariee.blogspot.com)
“I fucked one man at the request of another, in exactly the way asked for. Then I reported what happened to the one who requested it.”

When Clients Look Like Relatives (http://radicalvixen.com/blog)
“I walked out the door, saw a man standing there and almost puked.”

Low Class Stripper? Classism and society’s view of adult entertainment (http://fullfrontalpolitics.com)
“For a lot of women sex work is a last-ditch option, something we all consider in the back of our minds when we’re growing up; we ask ourselves once or twice, if we needed the money, would we strip?”

Mr. Sugasm Himself
Playboy Soldiers (http://sugarbank.com)

Editors’ Choice
Where the Wild Things Are (http://kinkyfarmwife.blogspot.com)

More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm

Sexy lace panties courtesy of How About Now?

The ladies at dirtyspoke are still taking nominations for the 2006 Sex Blog of the Year awards. Nominations close 12 midnight EST on January 15, 2007 so get yours in now!

Only one nomination per IP address (duplicates will be deleted). Make sure to include the blog site address (i.e.-http://your-site.com) in the ballot form.

The following categories are open for nomination:

• Best Overall Sex Blog (Any sex blog, by a man, a woman, a group, gay/lesbian, etc.) - Winner to appear with Meme on the radio and receive a copy of Rachel Kramer Bussel’s new book “Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhbitionists.“
• Best Female Sex Blog (Limited to blogs written by a woman, that means she’s gotta have a vagina)
• Best Male Sex Blog (Limited to blogs written by a man, yes, with a penis)
• Best Couple/Group Sex Blog (This can be a blog written by a couple or group, but has to have at least 2 writers - Not a blog about group sex) Winner to receive a 2 DVD set of The L Word, Season 4 (Catch the premiere on Showtime Jan. 7, 2007 at 10pm)
• Sexiest Sex Blogger (Based on pictures of the blog writer) Winner to receive a copy of “The Ethical Slut: A Guide to Infinite Sexual Possibilities“

If you’d like to submit Full Frontal Politics for nomination, please use http://fullfrontalpolitics.com/ as the address. Thank you!

It isn’t safe for an honest pornographer in Iran these days:

Tehran, Iran, Jan. 07 - A man was flogged in public in the town of Behshahr, northern Iran, for producing home-made pornographic videos, state media reported on Sunday.

The unnamed man was lashed 100 times in public, the daily Etemaad Melli wrote.

He had been found guilty of filming his sexual relations with married women, the report said.

Thousands of young people are flogged in Iran each year on trivial charges that include drinking alcohol, attending mixed-sex parties, and sexual misconduct. Iran’s Judiciary views flogging as the appropriate punishment for combating moral crimes, particularly among the youth. Islamic judges insist on carrying out the punishment in town squares, as “a lesson for all to see.”

“Iran man flogged in public for making home-made porn film,” Iran Focus

Oh, it gets worse. Iran’s amateur porn stars have particularly short-lived careers.

TEHRAN, Iran — An amateur porn movie could net 31 people the death penalty in Iran’s capital city. The group faces death for filming and producing an adult movie that was shot using a cellphone, said Saiid Mortazavi, the president of Tehran’s criminal court.

The group of 31 people also has been charged with sexual assault on the actress in the movie.

[...]

Iran has a track record of executing amateur adult makers. A man who made adult movies with his wife was publicly hanged in late-2005 and a female porn star was stoned to death after spending eight years in prison for performing in an adult film.

“Amateur Pornographers Face Death Penalty in Iran,” XBiz

Keep it safe and legal, folks. And remember - it wasn’t always this way.

“When I sit in the alehouse, I am a woman, and I am an exuberant young man. When I am present at a place of quarrelling, I am a woman, a perfect figure. When I sit by the gate of the tavern, I am a prostitute familiar with the penis; the friend of a man, the girlfriend of a woman.” - from a hymn to Inanna (translated)