"A statistical summary of women in prostitution is a chronicle of human wreckage—economic, physical, and chemical." GQ magazine's three-part investigation into the global sex trade is fascinating, if horrifying, reading:
Part 1 (on sex clubs in the Phillipines),
Part 2 (on human trafficking in Moldova),
Part 3 (on sex tourism in Costa Rica).
posted by Catseye
on Dec 11, 2011 -
95 comments
"In the last few years, the rise of free online porn — content-rich sites that tease viewers to subscribe for more — and pay-site juggernauts like Brazzers have put the L.A.-based adult-video industry against the ropes. Its answer, in part, has been the high-dollar parody, designed to attract ComicCon nerds, science fiction fans and other pop culture aficionados who must collect everything within their target oeuvre." -- The troubled US economy affects pornstars too, so
"Porn Defends The Money Shot" (NSFW)
[more inside]
posted by bardic
on Sep 29, 2011 -
80 comments
Chester Brown's autobiographical works such as
I Never Liked You (1.3 MB PDF) placed #38 on
The Comics Journal's
list of the 100 Best Comics of the 20th Century. In his new graphic novel,
Paying For It, he "calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world's most hot-button topics--
prostitution".
posted by Trurl
on May 16, 2011 -
46 comments
Since the fur-coated Boot Girls’ particular services were suggested by the iridescent colors of their calf-length, patent-leather boots and shoelaces, suitors had to be intimately familiar with their semaphore-like advertising before accompanying them to nearby apartments. Naturally, only devoted aficionados could decipher such specific messages with confidence. Other potential clients had to buy special primers, where Berlin’s complex street semiotics were thoughtfully decoded for the uninitiated.
-
Sex tourism in Berlin during the Jazz Age, along with some
illustrations from the period.
(Racy rather than obscene, but somewhat NSFW)
posted by Slap*Happy
on Mar 24, 2011 -
16 comments
Devadasi are women in southeastern India who were dedicated in their youth to the goddess Yellamma. When they reach puberty they are forced into sex work. Once they were women of high status, but now they've been relegated to the outskirts of society. The devadasi practice goes back a long way in history, and was once celebrated in poetry.
When God Is a Customer, a collection of translated classical Telugu poems about the devadasi, is free to read online. Their modern life is described by
William Dalrymple in The New Yorker and in a
video interview with filmmaker Beeban Kidron which includes clips from her documentary Sex, Death and the Gods. The devadasi have been targeted by exploitative Western media for a long time, but have recently
started to hit back, using
the internet to disseminate their views.
posted by Kattullus
on Jan 22, 2011 -
14 comments
[Warning: some links
NSFW] Callgirl and blogger Alexa DiCarlo had some questions raised about her authenticity dating back to
2008 and
2009, but her website RealPrincessDiaries.com (
archive.org cache) still attracted huge traffic and she was even named
the #1 sex blogger of 2010. A student at SFSU's
master's degree program in sexuality studies, she also volunteered her time providing sex education advice to teenagers online under the name Caitlain or Cathy. And she mentored newbie sex workers via e-mail, giving them pro tips and even sharing with them one of her top clients, Matt, whose identity and safety she vouched for.
But in true
Kaycee Nicole /
JT LeRoy style, it now turns out there
wasn't any "Alexa", "Caitlain", or "Cathy". Outed by the anonymous blog
Expose A Bro, combined with the anonymous twitter account
@ExposingAlexa, the real story has emerged. Alexa was apparently a married middle-aged guy named Pat, not a student at SFSU, had no formal training from which to be sharing "advice" (or naked photos!) with those teenagers online, and
he was the "client" that "Alexa" had sent to her protégées to sleep with...
[more inside]
posted by Asparagirl
on Nov 22, 2010 -
188 comments
Two-
part video of interviews with residents of a home for elderly prostitutes in Mexico's senior-citizen sex-worker capital. (
via)
posted by prefpara
on Mar 22, 2010 -
4 comments
Confessions of a Call Bear - "At 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds, he's a pretty big guy, though he "carries it well." His red hair is cut in a flattop, and he has a closely cropped beard, but he doesn't look particularly imposing." Rusty McMann is a 40something male escort.
posted by desjardins
on Mar 11, 2010 -
62 comments
Dallas police were skeptical at first, nicknaming the program "Hug-a-Ho." Two years later, the
STAR Court ("strengthening, transition and recovery") is attracting attention from agencies and researchers nationwide, for its innovative approach to prostitute diversion.
"It's absolutely apparent when you work with these women that they're struggling with incredible issues of domestic violence, substance abuse, sexual violence. We want to help these women change their lives, and if we want to change what's happening, we have to change our approach."
posted by pineapple
on Jan 28, 2010 -
35 comments
Sex Worker Literati is a monthly storytelling series that features sex workers, former sex workers, and people with stories about the sex industry who read, monologue, perform, and shimmy their ways into your hearts, minds, and naughty bits. (NSFW video feed)
[more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Jan 20, 2010 -
46 comments
An interview with the first male gigolo of the Shady Lady Ranch:
I think for a male, if you want to be successful in this type of venture, you're not a prostitute. You're a surrogate lover. You encompass everything that's required of you—not only emotionally, physically—but psychologically. Because women are wired differently. They're much more sensitive creatures. You actually have to enjoy what you do. You can't necessarily say, "Oh, it's just a job." You actually have to say it's a passion.
Background:
Nevada has legalized male prostitution (LATimes)
posted by andoatnp
on Jan 14, 2010 -
213 comments
Tart cards [NSFW] are the means by which many London prostitutes advertise their services. Step into almost any central London phone box and you can contemplate up to 80 cards inviting you to be tied, teased, spanked or massaged.... [Wallpaper Magazine] asked designers – from students to superstars – to find the tart hiding in every typeface and create their own graphic numbers.... all 450 cards can be viewed
here.
[NSFW] [more inside]
posted by carsonb
on Jun 26, 2009 -
39 comments
"Iran is dying.
The collapse of Iran's birth rate during the past 20 years is the fastest recorded in any country, ever. Demographers have sought in vain to explain Iran's population implosion through family planning policies, or through social factors such as the rise of female literacy. But quantifiable factors do not explain the sudden collapse of fertility. It seems that a spiritual decay has overcome Iran, despite best efforts of a totalitarian theocracy.
Second, according to a recent report from the US Council on Foreign Relations, "Iran serves as the major transport hub for opiates produced by [Afghanistan], and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime estimates that Iran has as many as 1.7 million opiate addicts." That is, 5% of Iran's adult, non-elderly population of 35 million is addicted to opiates. That is an astonishing number, unseen since the peak of Chinese addiction during the 19th century."
[more inside]
posted by 445supermag
on Feb 24, 2009 -
72 comments
Christiane F was a 1981 German film that portrayed the life of young heroin addicts growing up in 1970's Berlin. Notable for the collaboration of David Bowie, the film became
well known for its realistic portrayal of drug use.
[more inside]
posted by panboi
on Jun 29, 2008 -
28 comments
"This might be a weird request, but I just want to cuddle," Nevada Sagebrush columnist Jordan Butler decided to do something for his last column (before graduating college) that he hadn't done before. He decided to solicit a brothel. Here's the catch: he wasn't interested in paying for sex. He just wanted something to write about for his last column. The result is half after school special and half Twilight Zone episode, but it's all funny.
posted by ZachsMind
on May 23, 2008 -
55 comments
Hooker raped & robbed by justice system. Apparently, if you're a prostitute and you're gang-raped at gunpoint, that's not actually rape, but "theft of services". In Philadelphia, judge Teresa Carr Deni ruled exactly that in a case where a woman posted a Craigslist ad offering sex for money -- but when she met with her John, instead of the agreed upon exhange, he pulled a gun on her, raped her, then invited four other men to rape her as well. As if this weren't sad enough, a near-identical case --
with the same defendant -- came up four days later, and the prosecutor decided not to even try it as to not put the woman through the misery of being so resoundly denied justice. Devolution is real, spuds.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me
on Oct 20, 2007 -
61 comments
Meet
Uma Khurana, a government school teacher in Old Delhi, who was almost
lynched after rumours that she had forced her students into prostitution started doing the rounds, was vindicated when it was discovered that the sting operation to frame her was a
scam.
posted by hadjiboy
on Sep 30, 2007 -
4 comments
The Price. Confessions of a College Call Girl is a blog by... well a prostitute who is in college. While her posts are mostly entertaining stories about her experiences, her most recent entry addresses e-mailers who have expressed interest in her field.
posted by spec80
on Aug 31, 2007 -
96 comments
The Aphrodite Project :
both an homage to Aphrodite and her prostitute-priestesses as well as a practical tool for the contemporary sex worker. Or, GPS platform shoes for street hos. Check the demo.
posted by Burhanistan
on Aug 18, 2007 -
23 comments
Winners of an international poster competition to raise awareness about prostitution (probably
NSFW).
Quanto "
wants to arouse new reflections to bring forward a topic that tends more and more to hide and become unconspicuous,"
by "attempting to explore the meaning of the word "prostitution" both from a moral and a sexual standpoint."
200 more entrants.
the via is also teh NSFW .
posted by Rumple
on Nov 20, 2006 -
26 comments
