Full Frontal Politics free speech from a phone sex operator

Some Positive News for Camgirls  11 Comments

Posted on April 3rd, 2008. About Culture, Feminism, Sex Work.

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!

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An Unexpected Sex Work Advocate  1 Comment

Posted on March 24th, 2008. About Feminism, Sex Work, Society.

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.

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December 17 - International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers  3 Comments

Posted on December 1st, 2007. About Activism, Feminism, Sex Work.

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)

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Low Class Stripper? Classism and society’s view of adult entertainment  19 Comments

Posted on January 8th, 2007. About Adult Industry, Feminism, Society.

From the “I like to think I’m this insightful when I’m drunk” files:

So here’s what I want to talk about with class. This guy was all, “I would like to see sex shops zoned into a particular area.” Well that’s how it Already IS, fucker!! That’s how it’;s BEEN for decades now, and guess what, that’s where the PROBLOEMS come from! Just think for one nanosecond about the term “slumming.” That is fucked up. That implies a direct corrolation between porn/sex/dirty stuff and LOW CLASS. And let’s not forget lower class folks are presumed to be “wilder” and all that bullshit… oh and when it comes to sex shops, strip clubs, etc., eben if they DON’T want it in their neighborhood, guess who has the most effect when it comes to NIMBY (not in my back yard) bullshit? It’s not the poor!

Look I was blind to a lot of this stuff (not all of it tho) for a long time but now that I see it? I fucking see it EVERYWHERE, and it pisses me the fuck off!! Because to me it is now so fucking OBVIOUS, that it pisses me off that some people just.don’t.see it.

Okay and this is one of the main things that annoyed me about Pamela Paul’s book Pornified too. She doesn;t want porn to go away. She just wants it to go back to being something confined to the wrong side of the tracks. And she doesn’t see anything wrong with that! She just puts it out there like there’s nothing worth examining. She even used the phrase “low class stripper” a couple times and just didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

-the fabulous/infamous Amber Rhea, under the influence of a little vodka and a lot of pissed off

(”Drunkblog RANT - classism and other shit,” Being Amber Rhea)

It’s funny - I didn’t see it either for a while, or I saw it and didn’t focus my eyes on what I was seeing.

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? Would we do porn? Turn tricks? And that fallback, that fishnet safety net, is there for every woman when times get tough.

Of course, it’s a valid emergency gig, but it’s not a decent job, let alone a respectable career choice. Once again, nice girls don’t. Well bred girls don’t. It’s beneath them - much like community college and dating outside their background.

So, yeah, it’s a class thing. Sex work is something a woman can turn to when she’s down and then slander once she’s back on her feet. In fact, she’s expected to. That’s part of the ritual of the redemption of the whore: she has to cast off her old life to be reaccepted into society.

It’s funny, the correlation between porn and lower-class neighborhoods. There’s an assumption that sex shops lower property values, so they’re restricted to less desirable areas. Interestingly enough there is no cause and effect there. According to Manhattan lawyer Herald Price Fahringer, “[New York City] did a study a couple of years ago that showed no rise in crime or decline in real property values.” (There’s been more on that issue recently, but I can’t find the link I’m thinking of; if anyone turns up some info, you’ll be duly rewarded with link love.)

Question your assumptions: porn is adult entertainment, and a working-class stiff doesn’t have half the entertainment budget a CEO does…

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The Politics of Tease and Denial  10 Comments

Posted on October 17th, 2006. About Adult Industry, Feminism, Society.

Tease and denial is a form of submission even non-masochistic men can understand. It’s a sensual form of domination: the playfully wicked pricktease vs. her hopelessly devoted toy/wanker.

At its core orgasm control and denial is about men submitting to the control a woman has over their pleasure and orgasm, letting her have her way with him even when it means she might deny him his way. It’s radical for questioning the idea that foreplay is for women (since as we all know, men aren’t interested in foreplay or being on the receiving end of a pleasurably teasing touch) and that the male orgasm is the natural culmination of sex.

Many submissive men sometimes get off on the idea that their teaser finds male orgasms messy and disgusting and sex with them a hassle. They eroticize the idea of female disinterest in their cock. It’s a form of erotic humiliation that some thrive on and it can be fun but in reality it’s not my style.

After the great feminist blowjob debate of 2006 it’s worthwhile to remember the immense amount of power and control a woman has over her partner’s orgasm… the ability to speed it up, slow it down, hold it off, make them beg, or deny it completely. It’s a rush and yes, you can feel that power on your knees with your hair held in a fist. The choice to cover your teeth or let him feel them and be reminded you have claws…

Men have a right not just to the pleasure of taking but the pleasure of surrender - perhaps the last great male taboo. Too many women still look down on their man if he shows such a sign of “weakness” as submission to her power and strength, even for a night. Too many women fear themselves, and being able to ask for - no, demand - what they really want. It’s easy to hesitate. Dominating is hard work and requires self-knowledge and self-control any student of the occult would envy.

It’s more about the tease, the art of the coquette, the temptress, the tester, than the denial. It’s very much about the possibilty of denial in its most basic form, the removal of pleasure… part of the dance of love, part of the art of increasing wanting, taking away your interest, your touch, your company.

I love directness and boldness and honesty but there’s no sense in being artless when it comes to the oldest arts of all.

There’s nothing wrong with making him beg for it. In this age of cheap and easy instant gratification pleasure delayed is all the more precious. We’ve been told for too long now just to cut to the chase, only to find out that maybe all he really wants is to be seduced “our” way. (I say this knowing full well that for huge swaths of women, “our” way is to cut straight to the chase. I’m a big fan of the “Wham Bam, Thank You Sir” approach myself at times.)

Chicks don’t get a monopoly on the either foreplay or the oh-so-willing victim role. Sensual touch just plain feels good and there’s something incredible in giving another person complete control over your orgasm. It makes the eventual - okay, possible - release that much more potent.

To a smartass tease, the game of stroke-and-release has a lot of potential for mindfucking. Modern culture assumes the male orgasm. It’s almost a right in any given sexual encounter: the man will come.

In tease and denial that assumption is blown out the window. He gets what she chooses to dish out. If he comes without her permission, she might subject him to punishment. (Of course sometimes the punishment’s half the fun, right?) I kinda like the implications this has for premature ejaculators. Ladies, we have our retraining program and the men are already lining up.

Tease and denial is a very feminist femdom slant on male/female equality and parity. Standard fare “male” sex isn’t the one true way - for either men or women. Not all guys want it fast and hard and now now now. And not all girls feel like giving it to them that way, anyway.

Some of us would rather see them beg.

To me, feminism means equal opportunity gender roles. I can play sugar mamma and he can stay home with the kids. I can wear high heels and lipstick and try to coax him into eyeliner between bouts of hardware swapping and stick fighting. I can ride him hard and fast, use him for my selfish pleasure, and he can surrender to a sweetly langorous sensual touch that may or may not end in anything at all. You choose which traits to reject or claim, whether they were labeled pink or blue.

Of course that’s tease and denial from a female dominant/male submissive perspective. There are other flavors. I think the gender role flip is most pronounced with femdom/malesub, though.

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Pornification of America  1 Comment

Posted on January 25th, 2006. About Culture, Feminism, Society, War on Porn.

This post from the Boston.com forums might be the best summary of the current U.S. porn “problem” I’ve seen yet:

The “Pornification of America” eh…

This argument is sounding erily familiar to the anti-porn arguments from the Regan era.

Sex sells…everything. So unless you think you can stop advertising agencies from using sexuality to sell thier products, which is not likely, get over it.

There are many different types of pornography for many different types of people regardless of gender or sexual orientation. We’ve been fighting over this same issue for 30 years and were no closer to resolving it.

The United States is a young country by comparison to the European nations, we are at best pre-pubecent, and like a young person on the cusp of adulthood we’re painfully uncomfortable with our own sexuality. On the one hand we flaunt ourselves sexually and on the other we bury our heads in the sand with shame and try to place the blame on the media or the press or our parents. It’s pathetic.
Posted by hex on 11:57 AM

The thread was commentary for the recent Boston Globe feature, “The Pornification of America.” (Registration required; go see BugMeNot for a workaround.)

One thing I noticed, both in the article and in the thread, was that a woman’s worth is still being defined by whether she “does” or “doesn’t;” whether she’s a lady or a whore. As we all know, any female who (by society’s standards) goes too far sexually is supposed to regret and repent. Willingly crossing sexual boundaries is about consequences and punishment.

The article was very heavy on the idea that if a woman acts brazenly sexual, it’s not because she wants to but because she feels obligated to please and entertain men. (The idea that some of us get off on pleasing and entertaining men would, obviously, not exist in Pamela Paul’s world.) As fantasy objects, women have no right to fantasies of our own; if you want to get into pretentious subject-object theory, we’re always the viewed and never the viewer.

(My blogs are going to put a different spin on that, as does the growing niche of CFNM porn.)

Human lemmings are incapable of doing anything because they want to, or not doing something because they don’t; if they think they’re supposed to behave a certain way, they will. If the current look is big-breasted, tan, and lean, then it’s not okay to be okay with milky skin and a little belly, or to like whatever it is that you like anyway. If you don’t look like everyone else thinks everyone else thinks you should look, then you’re supposed to at least be worried about it…

This especially goes for behavior. I’m a big fan of exploring to find out where your boundaries are, rather than relying on a map someone else gave you, and this goes whether yours are farther out or farther in. Mine are pretty far out there in some areas (okay, a lot) and in some ways I’m as innocent as a schoolgirl.

A Catholic schoolgirl whose socks have wear-marks on the knees, but still.

It seems like there are a lot of femmes out there eagerly claiming their place at or under the pervert’s table (it’s about damn time), and a lot of girls (that aren’t exhibitionists doing it for their own thrills) who think if they look, act, speak, and think sex, they’ll get attention - as if it was the only way.

The way I see it, if you’re doing it to put on a show anyway, and you’re not doing it for yourself, you might as well get paid for it. Scabs!

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