Kiki D'aire, Kami Andrews, and Anastasia Blue are three former porn performers (one of whom allegedly is returning and two of whom I've met) who have large and eclectic fan bases that are different from those of the standard-issue porn star. They also have ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands (and, in one case, ex-families) who will take every opportunity to trash them.
In recent months I have received anonymous e-mails and comments from people telling me everything from these performers' real names, addresses, and telephone numbers to how much their escorting fee is and how much they've let themselves go. I delete as many of these comments as I can. No offense to any other website or publication, but I have neither the time nor inclination to air your grievances.
According to the women themselves, each of whom has contacted me, they are getting on with their lives and have guarded words about the people who are putting them down anonymously, all of whom share certain identifiable characteristics with exes.
However invested a porn star is in his or her fan community, she is performing a job that ends when she quits, and she has a right to privacy and, at the least, the right to defend herself in person. I would no sooner print an anonymous tip about Kiki D'aire as I would about Tom Cruise (a little bird told me they are the same person - ZING!) and the fact that their detractors want to attack them in such a personal manner leads me to an issue I have with some porn fans.
Public bulletin boards and website comment sections are not the place for personal attacks, especially anonymous ones. And the woman you pay to jerk you off, whether she is on a screen or in your hotel room, is a temporary employee and not a substitute for every woman who has ever turned you down.
To paraphrase Mika Tan, porn performers are whores, not sluts. You pay them and they perform a service, in the same way that you pay me and I file nuisance lawsuits at the courthouse. And if you encounter them in an outcall situation, you do not own them and, despite literature to the contrary, being a 'monger does not make you cool.
As always, the only reliable metric of coolness is the amount of sex one gets for free (without being Uday Hussein).
UPDATE: A commenter said today that Anastasia Blue died on July 19 from an overdose of Tylenol. I have yet to verify this. If anyone has reliable information please share it with me.
San Francisco takes first step in decriminalizing prostitution
San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, mulling the idea of succeeding Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California, is against decriminalizing prostitution in his city, saying that it will hinder investigation of sex trafficking.
But members of the Erotic Service Providers Union, which represents some prostitutes, strippers, and other hands-on laborers, who gathered 12,000 signatures to land a measure to end prostitution prosecution (as well as requiring first-time johns to attend a class) on this November's ballot, rejoiced.
"We made it!" said Starchild, a Bay Area male prostitute and activist. "Now all we have to do is win the election."
A Prostitution Task Force convened by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recommended decriminalization in 1996.
Sex worker activist Maxine Doogan said it was about time the said it was about time the Task Force's suggestions were implemented.
"Criminalizing sex workers has been putting workers at risk of violence and discrimination for far too long," she said.
Director David Crawford, whose alias in the porn industry is David Lord, said in a statement released today that his recent arrest on charges of staging a sham marriage has nothing to do with prostitution, as has (allegedly) been reported elsewhere.
According to the Associated Press Crawford, 37, married the Hungarian Agnes Jeges in 2003 and two years later applied for a green card for her. Routine investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service revealed that Crawford and Veges, who is alleged to have worked in a Sherman Oaks brothel, did not live together.
Crawford is charged with perjury for having lied on Jeges' immigration application. If convicted he faces five years in prison. Jeges would serve ten years if convicted for making false statements.
Having once been married to a Hungarian myself, I agree that it was a sham.
Jennifer Silliman, deputy special agent in charge of the ICE office in Los Angeles, said her agency investigated the legitimacy of the Crawford/Jeges marriage on a tip.
Everyone I know who knows Lord likes him, but I guess I don't know the type of people who ratted him out. Apparently there have been reports that the director, who has worked for a number of companies, was "linked to a prostitution ring" and he denies this, as does Jeges deny she is or was a prostitute.
"Those statements are false and have absolutely no merit," Lord said in a statement. So not only did someone drop a dime to the federales about his marriage to Jeges, but there have also been reports he's linked with illegal prostitution. Someone is pulling out all the stops.
Crawford's attorney could not be reached at press time, but I do wonder why a porn director facing federal charges in one matter would make an effort to distance himself from something he is not charged with, unless there is a risk of being charged with more crimes.
I have known several people involved in sham marriages and it really does seem like a victimless crime, especially when compared to the large number of legitimate but loveless marriages.
Lord was released from jail on his own recognizance yesterday.
Mom and pop whores benefit from rising gas prices: Report
While legal brothels in Nevada, zoned for communities of fewer than 400,000 people and often far from interstates, are suffering from the steady increase in gas prices, illegal prostitutes are doing just fine, the National Network of Johns, Pimps, And Prostitute Teamsters (NNJPPT) reported.
"Corporate prostitution is and always has been the bane of the individual practitioner," said [name withheld], a user of prostitute services in Detroit. MI. "It is only now, when truckers can't get to the Bunnyranch without shelling out an extra 200 bucks for diesel, that any light is being shined on the millions of streetwalkers, escorts, and hot prosties who don't have some gated trailer in Pahrump to fellate in."
A recent Newsweek story said that revenue in legal brothels in Nevada was down by nearly 50 percent across the state, due in part to a flagging economy but also because truckers, who represent a significant amount of bordello customers, could no longer afford to both fill their tanks and clean their pipes.
"And that's fine by me," said [name withheld], a rail-thin Reno prostitute delivering a vigorous handjob to [name withheld] in the Atlantis Hotel lobby mens' room. "America isn't Wal-Mart; it's the corner shop where things might not smell as good but, damn it, you get personal service."
[name withheld] relaxed her grip and effortlessly caught [name withheld]'s issue in a ready Kleenex in her left hand. "I see you've had your Zinc today, [name withheld]," she said as he exited and his successor arrived.
"For generations, prostitutes have given head for little or no overhead," said [name withheld], curator of Miami's Museum of Hookers, "and while state-sanctioned brothels may have conferred some legitimacy on the profession of hookery, the corporatization of whorehouses has by and large neutered the essentially in-call nature that made a prostitute's visit more than just a GFE; it was a cultural event."
[name withheld] said that, when brothels were legalized in Nevada, the retronym "stationary escort" was coined to describe the difference between a mobile prostitute and the kind sequestered in places like the Chicken Ranch.
"We don't want Middle America to believe that the fate of the stationaries is the fate of the mobiles," she said.
[name withheld] also warned that the public should not think that, just because one state's legal prostitution profits are down, that hookers from Freeport to San Diego aren't benefiting from increased walk-and-bike-up traffic.
"It's amazing what you can get done in a bicycle basket," [name withheld] said.
"The only potential side effect to the brothels' money hemorrhage and increased work for truck stop prostitutes is the resuscitation of the career of JT Leroy."
The first thing one thinks when confronted with Wicked's new Latina Hollywood Hookers is, "Well Duh. You think there's Latina hookers in Glendale? It would be a step up to have Latina hookers in Glendale."
After the triumph of Cinco de Mayo we are faced with harsh realities: some Latinas turn to prostitution. Luckily the "hookers" of the title are not streetwalkers but classy call girls with phone numbers, credit at a florist, and their own couches.
Demi Delia is the head of this escort agency but, striving to stay close to her roots, also sees select clients. One is Ben English.
In the first scene, English and Delia offer a valuable service to consumers, providing an example of the small talk and protocol characteristic of a session with an escort: he places the money on the table, she pretends to have missed him since the last time, and then they get down to it.
The only inaccuracy was that they kissed each other. That Wicked requires condoms made for more authenticity. If a hooker does not require a condom, you should run (unless you are only there to strangle her, in which case you should reconsider and go to Baskin Robbins).
The second scene is even more authentic in its awkwardness. Tommy Gunn forgets to pay Sienna West until she prompts him with something legally innocuous, just in case he is a cop:
"Do you want to take care of business?"
Sienna West utters not one "Ay, Papi" throughout the scene, but she does imply she is a Latina by asking, "So do you like to fuck Latinas?"
Daisy is a massage therapist in the next scene, and Randy Spears tells her that her "money is over there."
Nick Manning plays a serial whoremonger in his scene with Cassandra Cruz. She asks if he has seen women from the agency before.
"All of them," he says. "And none of them can keep up with me."
Finally, Alex Sanders and Dick Delaware sign on for Maya Gates. "You know it will cost you a little more?" asks Delia in the phone interview.
I found this scene the most verdad of all of them. The conversation was stilted and Cruz knew very little English. In fact, it was less like a porn scene and more like a hard-hitting HBO documentary, with poignant human drama everywhere you looked.
One bit of dialogue I would have liked to see was:
"You sure you're not a cop?" "You sure you're not Armenian?"
Wicked has done a great public service in releasing this prostitute primer. Still, I can't help thinking that if these women had been white, they would have been called "escorts."
Prior to steady employment as America's Beloved Porn Journalist I parlayed my state-issued Commercial Driver License into a gig driving escorts to appointments.
When driving a pro it was as solid a job as working at General Electric; when the escort didn't take her job seriously it was like herding cats. Cats who lie to you and have gonorrhea.
"The Delivery Man," the debut novel of Joe McGinniss, Jr. (his father wrote "The Selling of the President 1968" and the Ted Kennedy biography "The Last Brother," among other books), tells the story of Chase, a half-hearted artist who takes a driving job for a Las Vegas escort agency.
Like any resort town, the desperate side of Las Vegas is never too far away. And that might be its appeal. "The Delivery Man" paints a picture of Chase, the artist, and Las Vegas, his home, in equally somber tones, but no less rich. Read it before your next trip to Vegas.
I talked with McGinniss recently.
GP: Most novels containing world-weariness usually feature older characters. What compelled you to write about younger natives?
JMcG: This is as much a story about the hypersexualization of young people and the rise of sex in popular culture - as it is a Vegas story. Young people had to be front and center of "The Delivery Man" because they reflect society and social mores so clearly. And the combination of young people and Las Vegas was irresistible given the fantastic glittery void and raison d'être of the city. What do the kids who grow up in the spillover from the Strip aspire to? How does living in ground zero of social and moral dysfunction - complete with adult industry annual awards shows and Latino immigrants handing out call-girl flyers offering 'girls in 20 minutes or less' t-shirts - impact kids as they come of age? So this is why I had to focus on the younger natives of Las Vegas.
GP: Like Los Angeles, the accepted wisdom about Las Vegas is its artlessness. Chase's pursuit of an art career is one of the many ominous elements of the novel, because a reader has a good idea it won't go well. Where did his half-hearted profession come from?
JMcG: There are some wonderful artists in Vegas. And some impressive efforts to develop an art community. But yes, there's a mountain of angst in that place and so few places to put it. So what better then to have Chase channel his personal pain into his art. His favorite painting 'Carly' possesses obvious emotional power for him. But like too many "victims" of a Las Vegas upbringing - Chase never quite gets his ambitions off the ground. He has a sense of what he wants, and even a track record of achieving something (gaining admission to NYU, nominated for Teacher of the Year), but like so many in his hometown, he's afflicted by a paralyzing lack of self-esteem that manifests itself in his half-hearted pursuit of an art career.
GP: Lack of self esteem leads to half-heartedness? Don't tell the porn industry.
I was happy to see via a trip through your site that there is a screenplay in progress, because Las Vegas needs the treatment Michael Mann gave to L.A. and Scorsese gave to New York and Boston. Who do you see playing the main characters?
JMcG: I'm officially an "associate producer" on this project therefore I'm under contractual obligation not to mention specific names of potential directors and talent. I take this job and that title very seriously so I'm afraid I can't offer anything. Kidding. I really haven't given it too much thought but have recently become fixated on a few excellent young actresses out there. I see Lauren London as Julia and Nikki Reed as Michele. Both of them are talented and stunning and have this intangible quality -- a certain sultriness -- that I think would really fit with a film version of this novel. There's no question that the film will give young actors an incredible opportunity to completely bust out with something so edgy and fast and tough. Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) or Paul Thomas Anderson could direct. Are they available?
GP: I'll see what I can do. Issues I have with the book (feel free to become enraged; it is your birthright as a writer):
The character Julia arrives for a conference in the middle of the year as an adult convention and awards show is going on, porn stars abound at the Hard Rock. Which convention would this be? The AVNs are in January and I can't think of another Vegas awards show.
JMcG: Two words: artistic license. And the National Black MBA isn't in the Spring -- it's held each fall as I am well aware because my wife went to that for many years during and just after she graduated "b'school" as they call it (with some of her stories making it into "TDM"). But that timing didn't work for the book. As well, in fairness, I didn't name the AVN's -- just an unidentified adult film convention.
GP: AVN's PR firm will be stoked to read this.Who is the actual model for the cover girl?
JMcG: Isn't she amazing looking? Her name is Anna Seeberg. An aspiring model who lives with her family in Wisconsin. The picture was snapped by her younger sister -- 16 at the time -- in the backseat of their mother's car. The art director for Grove/Atlantic found the photo on Anna's MySpace page and worked something out with her parents (she wasn't 18 at the time) and we got the rights to her photo. Stunning picture. Urban Outfitters must like her look too because they're selling the book hard in all of their stores. As far as characters in the book -- I don't think she's supposed to be anyone in particular. It's more about the expression on her face, the red glasses, the light finding her hair the way it does, the lolita thing, the back-seat of a car. But if she has to be someone -- I say Aubrey -- from El Cajon -- who weighs 87 pounds and whose favorite food is an Egg McMuffin without the egg.
Sex workers: Republicans provide more work, but Democrats do in a pinch
Denver's upcoming Democratic National Convention will lure not only Clinton and Obama supporters but also thousands of hookers, the people who keep track of sex workers say. But that's nothing compared to what Republicans get up to.
The following story has a similar lead paragraph to what I just wrote, but I swear I didnt copy it. I'm just that hooked into the zeitgeist.
From The Rocky Mountain News:
Political tricks may not be the only ones turned during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.
The sex and adult entertainment industries are expecting a boom in business when an estimated 35,000 visitors descend on the Mile High City for the presidential nominating bash.
At the Pepsi Center, the focus will be on a single nominee.
But outside the event, the choices available to the delegates, journalists and others are unlimited, giving new meaning to the term "conventional sex."
More than six months before the convention comes to Denver, the offerings already online range from Claudia the "she- male porn star" to Erin the "adorable college cutie," whose $300- an-hour services are guaranteed to "leave you breathless."
Surprised?
Don't be.
Denver is, after all, home to Mike Jones, the beefy male prostitute who claimed to have bedded the Rev. Ted Haggard in his Capitol Hill apartment.
Jay Watson, who promises an unforgettable milk bath and lotion massage for $125 an hour, said he's expecting to be busy during the DNC Aug. 25-28.
Why?
"Because look at me," said Watson, a 25-year-old Aurora man with a Mohawk. "I'm cute. I'm sexy and I deliver it all."
'More business' from GOP
Too bad for Watson and others like him that Denver didn't land the GOP convention instead, said Carol Leigh, a San Francisco prostitute "over 50" who has traveled to previous Democratic conventions in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
"It would be a lot better for the sex workers if it was the Republican convention," she said.
"We get a lot more business. I don't know if they're just frustrated because of the family values agenda," she said.
When the Republican convention was held in New York in 2004, some sex workers offered limited-time discounts, according to New York Magazine, which ran a feature story titled "The Girls in Their Summer Hot Pants."
Officer Ana Aguirre, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles police, which hosted the DNC in 2000, said there's "definitely a spike" in prostitution during large events like political conventions.
In Denver, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson, "We're preparing to handle a variety of issues that may come up."
Even though they attract a lot of people, political conventions aren't the most profitable for the men and women in the world's oldest profession, Leigh said.
"Computer conventions can be lucrative," she said. "There's a lot of nerds that don't get out much."
But money is money, and the Democrats are expected to inject millions of dollars into the metro area when they flock into town.
"We're preparing to be busy for that convention," said Tracy, a manager for Bare Assets, a Denver-based adult entertainment agency that does everything "from singing telegrams to novelty acts to topless to nude."
Tracy declined to give her last name or say whether the agency had any DNC-related bookings.
"Whether it be because of the convention or because it's somebody's bachelor party, it's just private (information)," she said.
Jumps in advertising
Beverly Chastain, a door girl at the Diamond Cabaret & Steakhouse, a gentleman's club downtown, said reservations should start picking up this month.
"When it comes to conventions and stuff, we do free entry for it and then we just plan on advertising our lunch buffet and stuff more," she said.
Taylor Wheeler, classified sales manager for Westword, a weekly that includes an escort and body rub section, said his staff is expecting an increase in personals as the DNC approaches.
"I can't say it didn't cross our mind with all the delegates in town that they might be kind of on their own," he said.
Advertising for escorts and other personals jumped when the NBA All-Star game was in town, he said.
As you know, I write about prostitutes as often as I can and this MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant will allow.
But I am sick of searching Google for images of "prostitutes" when I know so many of my close personal friends list that occupation on their tax returns.
So I am looking for the Official GramPonante.com Prostitute whose image can grace every 2008 post about prostitution. The requirements are as follows:
1. The prostitute must be female and over the age of eighteen 2. The image must be a full shot of the subject in one of the 23-U.N.-sanctioned "hooker poses," including self ass-slapping, alley-leaning, bending to vehicle window, and showing up at hotel room door and saying "Hey, Sweetie." 3. A little nudity is OK, even encouraged 4. The photo(s) must be submitted by the subject herself 5. The subject need not be a prostitute currently but must make a convincing case for it
The Official GramPonante.com Prostitute will receive a text link to her website each time her image is used, as well as universal admiration.
The Desiree Alliance, a volunteer foundation of sex workers and sex worker organizations based in Henderson, NV, will host its annual conference July 16-20 in Chicago.
The conference, titled "Pulling Back the Sheets: Sex, Work, and Social Justice" continues the Desiree Alliance's commitment to sex worker rights and education.
Recent conference subjects included Internet-based marketing of services, the treatment of disabled clients, and How to Handle Arrests.
A retarded man is stalking the transgendered prostitutes, or "transvestitutes", of Atlanta and posting YouTube videos of them.
Steve Gower is a director of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance (MPSA), a member-funded community policing organization that regularly tails prostitutes in this residential section of Atlanta. It is difficult to know who to root for in this video, in which an Elmer Fudd soundalike taunts bedraggled prostitutes clacking up and down the quiet streets of his neighborhood.
The attention Gower pays his quarry and the throbbing house soundtrack accompanying the video indicates an affinity for his subject.
Gower got into the neighborhood watch game when his pot smoking was interrupted by a car theft. He admits that he just wants to shift the prosties a few streets away.
Tuesday shocker: Prostitutes don't actually like you
Britain's Guardian newspaper printed an "interview with a prostitute" that contradicted what she feels is the empowering feminist myth depicted by the blog Belle du Jour and its spinoff TV show "Secret Diary of a Call Girl".
The 50-ish prostitute says that the recent trend of hookers seeming glamorous is a male invention. The reality is far more sordid, she says. At the very least the life of a prostitute is very rarely like that of Belle du Jour, played in the British show by "Doctor Who"'s Billie Piper (pictured).
This is a shocking distortion of the facts. Who hasn't looked into the vacant eyes of a person one is paying for sex and thought, "I believe she's really into me"? You are always on top in a hooker's hierarchy of priorities.
The real-life prostitute's account is here. I think she has a bad attitude. My impression is that she was probably not of the sunniest disposition when she was working as a secretary, either.
Susie Bright interviews Laura Agustin, author of Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labor Markets and the Rescue Industry.
Agustin says:
Traditional prostitution debates are theoretical, focusing on the abstract question of whether selling sex can be considered a job -- or must be defined as violence against women. Often debates seem to be a search for a single moral truth, in which the words of the subjects themselves are irrelevant.
Hungary's tax authority will allow sex workers (or Budaprosties) to apply for permits and pay taxes on their earnings, adding legitimacy to an occupation that is already quasi-legal but not part of the Hungarian tax base.
Opponents say this move will allow Hungary to capitalize on human trafficking without improving conditions for sex workers. It also doesn't address how johns might declare "Fellatio Services" on their taxes.
Read the full article after the gap.
Hungary Gives Permits to Prostitutes By PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer Monday, September 24, 2007 (09-24) 14:29 PDT BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) --
In an effort to bring prostitutes into the legal economy, officials said Monday that Hungary will allow sex workers to apply for an entrepreneur's permit ˜ a move that could generate government revenues from an industry worth an estimated $1 billion annually.
Human rights groups often have criticized European Union member Hungary for legalizing prostitution ˜ which has been fully allowed under certain conditions since 1999. Opponents say legalization does not help prostitutes.
The permits allow prostitutes to give receipts to customers and become part of the legal economy by paying taxes and making social security contributions, said Agnes Foldi, head of the Hungarian Prostitutes' Interest Protection Association.
Hungary's sex industry ˜ including prostitution and the production of pornographic materials ˜ generates an estimated $1 billion annually, said Agnes Bakonyi, the spokeswoman of Hungary's tax authority APEH.
"It is one of the leading sectors of the shadow economy," Bakonyi said. "With this project, APEH is trying to help a group of professionals, in what is called the world's oldest profession, who have never paid taxes in their life."
Prostitutes in Hungary, can work legally only within certain zones ˜ distant from schools and churches ˜ and must get regular medical checkups. Pimping and bordellos are banned.
Prostitution is legal in most of the EU with a few exceptions such as Ireland, where it is banned. The Netherlands has legislation comparable to Hungary's, where prostitution has a similar status to other jobs.
Foldi said about 20 prostitutes already had been issued permits and more than 500 had applied to attend counseling sessions organized around the country with the help of APEH on issues such as financial planning and accounting, as well as legal matters.
"Our aim is to make sex work become accepted as any other job," Foldi said. "Prostitutes come from the poorest sectors of society ... and it's very hard for them to, for example, get a loan to buy their own home."
Foldi's group received a grant of $86,000 from the government's National Development Plan, which includes EU funds, to advise prostitutes on the licenses.
"It is important for us to have as many participants as possible," Foldi said, adding that there are about 7,000-9,000 full-time prostitutes in Hungary, rising to as many as 20,000 during the summer tourist season.
One of the prostitutes who already has been granted a permit said she applied for it in an effort to improve her future and self-image.
"From now on, no one will be able to ask me where I got the money to buy my house or my car," said Rebeka, who would not give her last name. "Now we are also part of a taxpaying group and we too are making a contribution to society."
Hungary is a signatory of the 1950 United Nations convention for the suppression of human trafficking and prostitution. But officials claimed the program did not go against the spirit of the convention because even though prostitutes would now be able to get licenses, the government would not keep a separate registry of them.
Critics say many prostitutes in western Europe are foreigners often lured there under false pretenses. They link prostitution to human trafficking.
Human Rights groups have said legalization and decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry does nothing to address the violence of prostitution and does not help prostitutes.
Janice Raymond of the U.S.-based Coalition Against Trafficking in Women said by issuing entrepreneurial permits to prostitutes, Hungary is violating its international treaty obligations under the U.N. convention. She said countries such as Hungary that have ratified the convention agree not to regulate prostitution or subject women to any administrative controls such as registration and taxation.
"Hungary is not issuing entrepreneurial permits to aid the women in prostitution but rather to increase the state coffers with the additional taxes to be gained," Raymond told The Associated Press by e-mail.
It is one of life's great ironies that something that should be so much fun - sex for money - is taken so goddamn seriously.
Recently I interviewed the organizer of San Francisco's Back Alley Cat Bike Ride, an event scheduled for next Saturday that in her words will "build connections between communities."
In this case, the communities being linked are Erotic Services Providers and San Francisco's Bike Messengers Union.
Read about the disappointing outcome after the gap.
The Back Alley Cat Bike Ride is a short fundraising cycle that will begin at noon on September 22. Interested parties should meet at the feet of Gandhi's statue at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. The ride will be followed by a barbecue and entertainment at The Eagle on 12th Street.
"Gandhi symbolizes community building and spirituality," said Maxine Doogan, aka Mistress Max, organizer of the ride and founder of The Erotic Services Providers Union (ESPU). "Like Cesar Chavez, Gandhi embodies community building."
The ESPU was established to address the safety issues, legal hurdles, and double standards sex workers face. To that end Doogan has created an organization that has raised not only awareness but also the funds to send "two prostitutes, a webcam girl, and a dominatrix" to labor organizing school, which is no mean feat.
Unionization has long been a pipe dream among Porn Valley's performers, but it never catches hold because people stay too short a time in the business to make the idea feasible. The money is too good to offset the occasional (but inevitable) pitfalls, such as non-payment, undesirable conditions, and broken contracts. It seems to me that by the time performers have achieved a certain longevity enough to care about the so-called performer community, it is already too late for them to make the living that characterized their early careers.
But prostitutes have a longer life span, and San Francisco (and Las Vegas) are hotbeds of sex worker union activity. {Many people point out that porn performers, because they trade sex for money, are prostitutes. One key element differentiating the two professions is the presence of a recording device. So next time you're with a hooker, make it legal by bringing a stenographer.)
Anyway, Ms. Doogan devised the Back Alley Cat Bike Ride because, she said, "bike messengers and sex workers are always using the back alleys" for their work.
This sounds like a fabulous idea, so naturally I wanted to know if, based on the success of next weekend's ride, bike messengers would turn tricks or provide erotic massage for future fundraising events.
"I don't know what you mean," Doogan said.
"Well, if you've got prostitutes riding bikes this year," I said, "maybe next year bike messengers could, you know, give handjobs."
"We're not having prostitutes become bike messengers, if that's what you mean," she said.
"No, that's not what I mean," I said. "I mean, you've got the prostitutes - sex workers - employing the trappings of the bike messengers for the purpose of this fundraiser. Maybe next time the bike messengers can take on the tools of the sex workers, a quid pro quo role reversal."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"Forget it."
Don't get me wrong; I love hookers. But even though an actual streetwalker will be obtained for the occasional Ghetto Booty, and even though porn performers will often escort, their attitudes on the (w)hole are very different. When one is forced to dodge bike messengers all day in a back alley, whimsy is the first casualty.
While Shy Love does not set pen to paper or address the camera in Sinsation's Memoirs of a Madame, thus making the title misleading, the movie does reveal little-known truths about upscale escort services previously possessed only by viewers of late-night Skinemax:
1. Bordellos comprise a rigid hierarchy presided over by an icy and absolute ruler, so possessed of sexual self-confidence that her attendants stand at attention, slack-jawed, around her.
2. It is every street hooker's dream to manage a brothel for someone else.
3. No one has a conversation in the breakroom, like every other corporate environment in America; the business gets done in sparse offices and well-lit bedrooms.
This movie made me think, if these are hookers, who were all those people in Mexico? Shudder.
An international group of sex workers attended the recently-concluded 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Warsaw. Below is the group's statement.
STATEMENT FROM SEX WORKER HEALTH AND RIGHTS ADVOCATES
The statement is based on materials developed by Stella, a Canadian sex worker rights organization, for the 2006 International Conference on HIV/AIDS. A working group of sex workers and sex worker rights advocates committed to increasing the participation of sex workers and their organizations at the International Conference on Reduction of Drug Related Harm adapted Stella’s statement in consultation with our communities and networks. We are pleased to present the following key messages about sex workers rights and harm reduction issues to delegates and participants in Warsaw:
n Human rights for sex workers: Recognizing and ensuring the protection of sex workers’ human rights is essential to promoting health and safety. By ensuring that sex workers have full enjoyment of their human rights, the discrimination and abuse that sex workers are often subject to can be reduced or eliminated and access to health and social services can be improved.
n Sex workers are part of the solution: Sex worker leadership and empowerment are essential in fighting HIV and discrimination. Sex workers are their own best resource—they should be at the forefront of developing and implementing the programs and policies that impact their lives. It is only by empowering sex workers to speak for themselves and developing sex worker leadership that stigma and rights violations will be stopped.
n Sex work is work, not “harm”: Sex work (itself) is not inherently harmful. The reasons why people engage in sex work vary widely, as do the reasons why people chose a variety of other jobs. Many sex worker health and rights organizations incorporate a harm reduction framework when they address the needs of sex workers who use drugs. Other sex worker health and rights organizations have a less comfortable relationship with a harm reduction because “harm” is sometimes defined as sex work or sex workers (themselves). For sex worker rights advocates, the “harm” associated with sex work results from repressive environments in which sex work is not recognized as work and sex workers lack basic human rights and access to appropriate health services.
n Workers’ rights for sex workers: Sex work should be recognized as work in order to ensure safe and appropriate working conditions. The lack of workers’ rights leaves sex workers vulnerable to abuse and poor working conditions.
In addition, following consultation during the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm, we would like to affirm that sex workers are key players in promoting human rights and harm reduction, and are pleased to do so in conjunction with allies who share our philosophies and commitment to justice.
Bringing new meaning to the term "oral interpretation"*, Sex on Wheels, a bike tour that will feature dramatic portrayals of San Francisco's legendary sex workers and smut purveyors, is seeking actors to illuminate the roles of the Mitchell Brothers, hooker/Sausalito Mayor Valerie Solanas, Chinese prostitute Ah Toy, and many others.
The tour will take place on July 22 from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. People interested in playing a part should contact Jenny Worley at jgworley@usfca.edu (I hope she wrote a big fat grant for this).
Organizer Shanti Rieber describes the event as "Think Colonial Williamsburg, but with whores."
It occurs to me that Frisconians, as they prefer to be called, spend so much time being sex activists that I wonder if they're actually getting any.
San Francisco celebrates hookers as "least deviant by comparison"
Considering what else goes on up there, San Francisco officials say, this weekend's Courtesan Carnival, a benefit to send sex workers to classes where they will study labor organizing, will be like a "wholesome church spaghetti dinner."
"I walk three steps out of my office and there's some poly-gendered juice straining PVC-clad Kucinich supporter fisting God-knows-what in the alley and asking for healthcare and a BART discount," didn't say San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom. "The prostitutes seem like Cub Scouts by comparison."
The Erotic Service Providers' Union is throwing the first annual Courtesan Carnival, a two-part event that begins this Sunday with a Porn Star Karaoke Rock and Roll Show and Auction, co-sponsored with the Harvey Milk Democratic Club (www.milkclub.org), at Annie’s Social Club from 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Funds acquired during these events will go to Summer Institute for Union Women training that will educate erotic service providers about their occupational, health, safety, social, civil and economic rights. In addition, erotic service providers will learn how to negotiate for improved wages and work conditions, organizing and how to stay organized, as well as how to wield the power of collective bargaining.
Eyeing the poster depicting a couple of pairs of shaved white legs, Newsom didn't add, "Compared to what I just saw at the ATM on Market Street, this looks downright wholesome."
An affiliation of "erotic service providers" ("an Erotic Service Provider is anyone who is compensated for his or her erotic services or compensated for their support of someone else’s erotic service" - thus making yours truly an Erotic Service Provider) in San Francisco is gearing up for a season of fundraisers and awareness-building events in anticipation of the latest attempt at unionizing the skin trade.
The 'San Francisco Courtesan Carnival' series of charity events and parties will support labor rights and education funding for erotic service providers. Funds raised will provide tuition so 50 erotic service providers can attend intensive labor skills training organized by the United Association for Labor Education during the summer of 2007.
See? If we ESPs had been unionized, I could have called my shop steward on March 1 rather than bringing in The Man.
It is not lost on me that, using the loose definition of what constitutes an erotic service, all the waitresses at Sardo's should get in the union based solely on the way they bring me my copious amounts of alcohol.
Kiki D'aire, Kami Andrews, and Anastasia Blue are three former porn performers (one of whom allegedly is returning and two of whom I've met) who have large and eclectic fan bases that are different from those of the standard-issue porn star. They also have ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands (and, in one case, ex-families) who will take every opportunity to trash them.
" and the Ted Kennedy biography "
," among other books), tells the story of Chase, a half-hearted artist who takes a driving job for a Las Vegas escort agency.
