"Vegas Sex Workers Demand Rights"

[delphyne]

Oh look, a man is organising them -

"Vegas Sex Workers Demand Rights, Respect
Friday, July 14, 2006
By KATHLEEN HENNESSEY, Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS — Strippers and hookers are trying to get some respect in Sin City. The so-called sex workers demonstrated yesterday on the steps of the courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. They're calling for more legal protection and decriminalization of the world's oldest profession.

Starchild, a 36-year-old former Army Reservist stood amid rallying sex workers in Las Vegas on Thursday and boasted of his bid for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

"And that ballot is going to say'escort/exotic dancer,'"he said, beaming.

Protesting prostitutes, strippers and men and women of the night said they came to the downtown courthouse steps to try enable others like Starchild _ active advocates for sex workers. The group called for more respect and stronger legal protections for legal and illegal workers in the sex industry. They complained that a series of new antihuman trafficking laws restrict their freedom and called for the decriminalization of the world's oldest profession.

"No one here would say prostitution is good for everyone,"said Elizabeth Nanas, 33, a former prostitute and sex worker advocate who organized the rally to cap off a three-day conference."We're saying the attention and money should be spent on areas where there are problems."

Organizers said the conference, sponsored by the Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA, was the largest meeting of academics, advocates and prostitutes in nearly 10 years. On the agenda were discussions on police brutality, online organizing and a lecture about journalism for sex workers.

"Overall, the biggest issue was looking at criminalization policies and asking, are they doing anything to stop prostitution? Are they protecting and empowering women? Are they making our communities safer?"said Kate Hausbeck, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociology professor and advocate."Are they improving the health, safety and well-being of prostitutes?"

The group metin a state in which 10 rural counties allow prostitution in 28 operating brothels.

But the nation's only legal bordellos aren't a model for advocates, said Priscilla Alexander, a 67-year-old activist with COYOTE, a sex workers'rights organization. Nevada brothels often hire women to work for just weeks at a time, require prostitutes to live on the premises and mandate costly STD tests too frequently, she said.

"Most sex workers don't want to work in those restrictive conditions,"she said.

Alexander said sex workers'claims of rape and violence too often are ignored by police, and some departments use scant evidence, like carrying condoms, as cause for arrests.

But she said one of the most pressing threats to sex workers were antihuman trafficking laws passed on the federal and state level that can be interpreted as applying to strippers, dancers and escorts.

"Most human trafficking is not about sex work, it's about construction,"Alexander said.

Federal officials say 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked to the United States a year; about 75 percent of federal prosecutions have involved sex trafficking.

"We just want the government off our backs,"said Starchild, adding he used the conference to link up with other sex workers interested in restoring the"spirituality and dignity"the profession enjoyed in Elizabethan England.

"We're like courtesans,"he said.

Hausbeck acknowledged that the political climate may not be ripe for a mass decriminalization movement.

But she and other advocates won the sympathy of 76-year-old Mary Ellen Hopkins, a quilting expert who held a seminar in the conference room next to the sex workers'meeting.

Hopkins said she and the quilters at first laughed at their neighbors and then listened to their arguments. She ended up outside the courthouse addressing reporters in front of a banner reading,"Support your local sex worker."

"I think it's better to legalize it,"she said."If you legalize it, maybe you'll get rid of all the ugly stuff that comes with it.""

[delphyne]

That's the first time I've heard Elizabethan England used as the model for when prostitutes ruled the world. I was watching a film about Shakespeare the other night, with a scene where a prostitute was being beaten by her clients in the street and Mr Shakespeare commenting how it was all the rage amongst young men to do this. I'd bet that the film is more historically accurate than Starchild. It's usually Ancient Greece or some civilization further back where everything was supposed to be marvellous for prostitutes and cunt was venerated - of course we'll never know for sure but that must be the whole point. Funny how women's spirituality always seems to get limited to being whores or having cunts. Inigo Musico has a lot to answer for.

[Jimmy H.]

Word, Delphyne.
People would do anything to keep living in their "sacred prostitution" fantasies rather than recognize that in any of those marvelous societies where women were excluded from any kind of significant responsability, for one of those high-class, refined "courtesans", there were at least a thousand poor, uneducated "whores" who had been raped and coerced into prostitution before they became adults. We are talking about cultures which accepted the principle of slavery and routinely deshumanized entire groups of people. What is so wonderful about that? If the pyramids and the Parthenon don't make it right to use other humans as properties, why should Chinese "teahouse culture", tango dancing and the work of Toulouse-Lautrec justify the calls for "legal brothels" all over the world?

Sorry for the off-topic rant: just two days ago, I had to switch the radio button once again when the author of a "new adaptation" of Vatsyayana's Kama sutra "explained" that what the book called "courtesans" were in fact the equivalent of "today's liberated women, people like us" (both she and the program's host were women). An Indian-American director made a movie that presented the same sickeningly sugarsweet vision.

Edit: I just checked it out: it is Mira Nair, and the movie, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, was released in 1997. Frankly, I couldn't watch it all; I saw it on Greek television, and at that time I was living in a "red light" area, so this was a bit too much to handle. Maybe my opinion would have been different if I had been more patient (I've heard very positive critics about Nair's early work).

[CoolAunt]

In the state of Nevada, prostitution is legal and regulated in all but two counties, and those counties (can't remember the names) are where the cities of Reno and Las Vegas are. The fact that prostitutes are working in Vegas and demanding that it be legalized in that city/county is proof that legalizing and regulating prostitution doesn't do the things that pro-legalization (pro-exploitation?) supporters claim. It doesn't keep prostitution out of or confined to any areas, it doesn't help women who work in prostitution, it doesn't keep supply and demand from increasing...it does nothing but send a message to men that women are, indeed, for sale and that it's "normal" for men to buy and sell women.

[Jimmy H.]

it does nothing but send a message to men that women are, indeed, for sale and that it's "normal" for men to buy and sell women.

That sums it up quite well, CoolAunt, and this is what pro-legalisation people avoid addressing (except, of course, when they are male customers defending "men's right" to women's bodies, like those who protested penalisation in Taiwan and South Korea). Actually, I tend to think that all the noise around Heidi Fleiss' "Stud Farm" was partly intended as a counter-argument: "see, we'll be even! Women will be able to play whorehouse, only this time they'll get to be the 'johns'!" (that would be one such place for how many "traditional" brothels?). It may also be a way to cash on the success of that infamous Cathouse show. A few prostituted men, and the need to understand why women are the default victims of sexual exploitation suddenly disappears.

[Army Of Me]

This may be a silly question, (sunday morning musings by a sad insomniac), and one not strictly relevant to this forum, but, why is there no male homosexual version of cathouse? Surely there must be brothels for men, for men? And if so, demand by gay men for this to be shown? Or is this illegal - wouldn't surprise me if so - female-on-female is ok cuz it's tittllating for straight men, but the male-on-male not ok as it threatens macho values.

I have come across male escort sites, not many, and have read some forum stuff by gay male escorts, but why no really obvious stuff like cathouse?

One reason is that there is no "mirror-image" situation for the reverse of male fascination with girl-on-girl, in other words, females wouldn't be interested in guys getting it on with other guys, after all, women don't consume much of the vast amounts of straight porn, and the ones who do use porn, IMO, do so for much different reasons than men, many don't do it until subtly pressured by men/culture - in other words, they could take it or leave it until a man coerces her into accepting it, or they see that all the celeb girlies are buying into it,and in an attempt to not lose their man, seem to accept it - but really, they are subtly forced to. Or not?

Let's face it, there doesn't need to be a "lesbian" cathouse, as many of those women (so I've heard - not seen the show), chop and change their "sexuality" on demand, depending on who's calling the shots. So you get it "all" under one roof.

I know in the "escort" world, there is much pseudo-bisexuality/lesbian action provided by a lot of the women who just pretend for the money. 99% I can guarantee are basically straight, many even fool themesleves that they really are sexually "liberated" and "open-minded", cuz their b/f has asked (demanded by subtle pressure), or a client has asked etc. then just try to make the best of the situation - getting drunk, taking drugs, you can handle fooling yourself and anything goes when you're high.

I have also heard of straight male actors who do gay porn for the money. Their agents hold back the lower paying jobs (less money for the agent) until the actor has to take the gay work. I read an article in a men's mag about it a few years ago.

I'm in no way associating the exploitation of females as a level playing field with males being exploited (do we ever hear of men being traffiked for sex, or being raped and humiliated by pimps, johns, or partners? no - maybe some would say it's undereported but those people are mostly trying to address their own shame at what the male sex does to the female gender, by saying it really IS a level like4like situation - outrageous claim, but I'm getting side-tracked).

It's a totally different situation, but what I'm getting at is, as porn seems to be male-demanded mostly, whether gay or straight, so why no obvious gay versions of what straight men demand? I gues it's cuz the world's media is controlled by straight men, and even if there are gay men at the top, even though the situation is more open for them, they could still not come out in a male-dominated environment - a page 3 for gay guy's? Yeah. A Woman is head of the Sun now, and they still have tittytotty on page 3 -she has inherited a male-defined paper and has to carry on running it as such.

Perhaps gay men just avoid these environments and choose to go into professions where it's "acceptable" in the context of chosen environment, such as fashion and styling, to be openly gay. And there's another confusing question that has baffled me in the past- why are most male fashion designers, who design for women, gay? Some are not, but a lot are. Not expecting answers to these thoughts, and I'm sure someone has brought up these topcis before - Don't know - just musings. Sorry if I bored anyone!