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Hot Topic: What about the children!? (200-300 words)
What about your kids in relation to the work you do? Ever worked while pregnant? Did you enter the biz to support your kids, or leave it when they were born? Please include your location (city and state) and whatever name you’d like us to print.

Consumer Report: Stripper heels (100 words per)
We’re looking for pointed, possibly humorous, product reviews of stripper footwear. Please provide one-to-two sentences per product and be specific about its usefulness, or its incompatibility, in relation to your line of work. Items should be identified by brand and style name.

Positions: Coming out (400 words)
Is coming out to friends, family, or the public worth it?

Reviews (400-600 words)
Like to review a recent piece of sex-work related culture? Please let us know. Reviews should be between 400 and 600 words, but inquire before writing to make sure we haven’t already covered your particular selection.

News Reports (500-1,000 words):
Reports should cover current sex worker-related news and events from across the globe. If possible, please include photos with your report.

Scene Report (500 words)
Where do you work? Send us a description of your local workplace (e.g., brothel, club, parlor, dungeon, or street corner) and tell us about the venue where you work and how it compares to other locales. Past scene reports covered the New York street scene in the Village and escorting in Orange County, CA. Please include both personal and more industry-wide perspectives of your region.

 

A sticky mess: HIV cases in the porn industry

I started to write a post about the recent HIV+ diagnosis in the porn industry… I looked up points and counterpoints of people who say condoms should be mandated and others who say porn actors know their risks when they get into the industry and should be allowed to choose their risk (which, incidentally, is incredibly low, considering that the last “outbreak” of HIV+ diagnoses was in 2004. Compare that with the consequences of risk-taking activities of, you know, the rest of us). I saw porn actors being demonized and porn actor-detractors being demonized. And unfortunately, as with every conversation I’ve ever had or seen that revolves around pornography, this conversation  has degraded into two opposing, hyper-simplified poles, the undercurrent of which was “porn is bad and evil vs. porn is good and right”.

I’m too ambivalent and irritated to have this conversation again, which, yes, is a total cop-out, but I’m interested in what you young whipper-snappers have to say.  Should condoms be mandated in hetero porn (as they currently are in gay male porn?)? Or is this too “hands-on” a role for the government to play? Should porn actors be able to choose their risk? What of their non-industry partners? Is the fact that the risk is truly so low among actors enough to ward off regulation? What of other STIs? Should, perhaps, the standard 30-days-between-HIV-tests rule be made more stringent instead? Would consumers watch porn in such quantities if condoms were universal, when there’s already a dent in sales due to the ubiquity of free online amateur porn? Can we have a nuanced discussion of pornography, like ever?

The list goes on and on. My thoughts on this are complicated, and I can see the merits of all of these arguments. Anyone have anything particularly new or enlightening to add to the discussion?

-Eden

 

Going steady with Hitler

Check out these hilarious abstinence ads. Personally, I love the cartoon Hitler one… too soon?

 

The Chinese sex amusement park that almost was.

The world is now bereft of a theme park depicting larger-than-life genitals and the bottom half of a woman wearing a questionable g-string. Talk about a roadside attraction. Ba dum bum.

I, for one, am heartbroken, but some claim Love Land would have been “an evil influence on society.”

Photos from the Times Online and guardian.co.uk

 

Another blow to public nudity

At first, when the BBC claimed that the Swiss region of Appenzell was “conservative” for banning hikers from tromping nude through the frigid Alps, I tittered a bit to myself. Conservative! They don’t know from conservative. Try living under the thumb of King George for the entirety of your 20s and then we can talk conservative.

But then I read that this self-same Swiss region only gave women the right to vote in 1990! Zuh? Can you even do that by region? Anyway. This article is about naked hiking. And Appenzell may have overstepped its legal bounds:

Some Swiss lawyers are describing Appenzell’s decision to prohibit naked hiking as akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

“The Swiss parliament voted to remove public nudity from the penal code in 1991,” he explains. “So at a federal level, naked hiking is not punishable, and Appenzell’s laws are not higher than the federal ones.”

“I estimate there are only around 20 to 25 naked hikers in the whole of Switzerland,” says lawyer Daniel Kettiger. “So really arresting them and fining them is a bit silly. And our courts do have better things to do.”

What’s more, Mr Kettiger points out, Appenzell may have over-reached itself legally in deciding to introduce a prohibition.

Okay. So let’s just review, shall we? Women can vote in Appenzell, Switzerland as of 1990. Public nudity is no longer a crime as of 1991. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for public nudity. But if I had to choose between freezing my tits off in the Alps or voting for my government representatives, I think I’d prefer the latter.

Read the whole article here.

-Eden

 

Pakistani Mom n’ Pop fetish shop

It’s funny. This New York Times article reminds me of a character in Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth – a Bangladeshi woman living in London who sews fetish gear out of her home for supplementary income. The article tells the story of two brothers who wanted to own their own business in Pakistan and stumbled across the lucrative fetish industry.  Somehow they manage (for the most part) to escape the scrutiny of the Pakistani government, partially because no one but them seems to know what fetish products are actually used for:

…the dozens of veiled and uneducated female laborers who assemble the handmade items — gag balls, lime-green corsets, thonged spanking skirts — have no idea what the items are used for. Even the owners’ wives, and their conservative Muslim mother, have not been informed.

“If our mom knew, she would disown us,” said Adnan, seated on a leopard-print fabric covering his desk chair.

“Due to cultural barriers and religion, people don’t discuss these things openly,” Rizwan said. “We have to hide this information.”

Even customs officials were perplexed at how to tax the items, not quite sure what they were, they said.

Recently, when a curious employee inquired about the purpose of the sleep sack, a sleeping bag-like product used in certain kinds of bondage, she was told it was a body bag for the American military in Iraq.

I am reminded yet again, how strange it is that death can be more palatable to some than sex. I have nothing new to contribute to that particular discussion, so I’ll just leave it for now.

Suffice it to say, I think I have that flogger.

via The New York Times

-Eden

 

Lessons learned from orgies

I’ve posted a blog by Greta Christina before, and I have to say, she is quickly becoming one of my favorite sex bloggers. It seems like a cop-out to just keep pasting her blogs here, but really, I couldn’t say any of this better.

Check out “My Very First Orgy and What I Learned There“. Five minutes well spent, I’d say. Reading the blog, that is, not having an orgy. Orgies should be longer than 5 minutes. This isn’t freaking Burger King, people.

-Eden

 

Congress bans phthalates in kid’s toys

Here’s an interesting article about it.

According to the article:

The ban, which took effect in February, prohibits making or selling duckies and other children’s products that contain chemicals called phthalates, which are used to make plastic soft. Congress passed the ban in 2008 after concluding that the chemicals posed a risk to children who chew on their toys.

The action came despite advice not to enact the ban from scientists at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates toys.

 

Yes Means Yes!

Join The Public Square at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for a conversation with writer, performer, and activist Jaclyn Friedman, editor of the brand-new book: Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. This anthology attempts to connect the dots between the shaming and co-option of female sexuality in culture and some of the ways rape is allowed and encouraged to function, and has been called “a book that could change the world,” by award-winning social theorist, media critic and gender expert Dr. Jean Kilbourne.

This event will take place on Thursday, February 19 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (800 S Halsted St, Chicago). This program is free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be made at events(at)prairie(dot)org or at 312.422.5580. Light refreshments will be served. This program is sponsored by The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council, in partnership with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, and Gender and Women Studies at UIC.

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, performer and activist, whose work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Lambda Award-nominated transgender anthology Pinned Down By Pronouns and the cultural commentary blog PopPolitics.com. Her opinion column “Where Your Mouth Is” was a popular monthly feature in the magazine Sojourner: The Women’s Forum, and she later produced a podcast of the same name. Friedman holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College and has received a 2001 Cambridge Poetry Award, a 2004 Sommerville Arts Council Artist Grant, and a recent fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center.

ABOUT THE PUBLIC SQUARE The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council, fosters debate, dialogue, and exchange of ideas about cultural, social and political issues with an emphasis on social justice. Programs promote participatory democracy by creating space for public conversations. More information about The Public Square is available at www.prairie.org/publicsquare.

 

EtB Customers Rock!

Hi Folks,
I just wanted to let you know that since we put out a collection box in the shop a few months ago, you all have donated over $200 in loose change (and few paper bills) to the Chicago Abortion Fund! Whoo hoo!

And thank you all for helping make choice possible!

xoxox,

Searah