Sex work and Porn

Scotland Yard has been accused of putting prostitutes at risk with its crackdown. Photograph by Alex Segre/Rex London 2012 Olympics: Crackdown on brothels 'puts sex workers at risk' | UK news | The Observer

March 20 is Equal Pay Day in Belgium, and to draw attention to the country's 22% wage gap for women, zij-kant (a women's group organizing the equal pay efforts) has launched an awareness video and corresponding campaign starring porn actress Sasha Grey. It hinges on the fact that, according to the video, porn is one of the few industries where women are consistently paid more than their male counterparts. "Become a Porn Actress": Sasha Grey's Equal Pay Day PSA Misses the Point

James Deen won’t stop apologizing. From the moment he emerges from the garage of his sprawling, gray house and shakes my hand, he’s sorry. What Women Want: Porn and the Frontier of Female Sexuality - Lifestyle

The Dehumanising Effects of Smut The Porn Ultimatum | Cordelia Fine In a New York Times article in 1914 William T Sedgwick, a professor of biology and public health at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, warned “the militant suffragettes” that, were they to succeed in their goal of female liberation, they would “find that the knightliness and chivalry of gentlemen have vanished, and in their stead will arise a rough male power that will place women where it chooses”.

STFU Fauxminists! - Some more about porn from a feminist perspective.

The other day I saw an ad for a porn site that I found rather disturbing. Let’s Talk About Extreme Porn

Is Pornography Racist? In her new book Pornland (Beacon Press) author Gail Dines argues that our sexuality is hijacked by the multi-billion-dollar-a-year porn industry. (See my three-part interview with Gail here , here , and here .)

Yes, Pornography Is Racist

Porn: Pleasure or Profit? Ms. Interviews Gail Dines, Part II

International Union of Sex Workers

UPDATE : After posting this guest entry, it was brought to my attention that the blog from which it is cross-posted contains material that is racist, misogynist, fat-shaming and transphobic. The many types of prostitutes in ancient Rome

The women Let me preface this by saying I grew up in a well-to-do family. Why do women become sex workers, and why do men go to them? | Society

ANATOMY OF A SEX SYMBOL by Sheila O’Malley | JOAN'S DIGEST “Maybe I’m a sexless sex goddess.” - Marilyn Monroe to Life magazine journalist Richard Meryman, 1961

Never wear black stockings, Lynda Dearlove's grandmother used to warn her. "She used to say only two sorts of women wear them … nuns and prostitutes." It makes Lynda laugh to tell the story: because today she's Sister Lynda, a nun who is dedicating her life to working with sex workers in one of London 's most notorious red-light districts, King's Cross. A sanctuary for sex workers | Society

Resourcing Health & Education in the Sex Industry (RhED)

The Sex Workers Project

ontd_feminism: Canada's prostitution laws being challenged Warning: there is some mention of abuse and violence against prostitutes in this article Canadians should have realized that prostitution in Canada could never be the same after British Columbia pig farmer Robert Pickton was convicted of the horrific killing of six prostitutes and suspected of murdering dozens more. As details of the shocking case spread across the country, some prostitutes came to believe their only recourse was to fight against a legal system that put them at heightened risk. In Canada, prostitution itself is legal, but communicating for the purpose of prostitution is illegal, as is conducting business in a brothel and living off the avails of prostitution.

Criminalize Only the Buying of Sex - Room for Debate Max Waltman is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at Stockholm University who has written about sexual exploitation and pornography in Canada, Sweden and the United States. Not to be bought and sold for sex should be a human right. Sweden effectively recognized this in 1999, criminalizing buying sex and decriminalizing being in prostitution.

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Prostitution laws struck down by Ont. court - Canada Terri-Jean Bedford, left, and Valerie Scott, shown in 2009, along with a third woman, launched a constitutional challenge of Canada's anti-prostitution laws.

Vancouver - Today the Ontario Court of Appeal announced its ruling on the constitutionality of Canada's prostitution laws. Partial victory for sex workers with Ontario ruling