| Tonight (05/05/09): Frontline on PBS: "Sex Slaves" |
[05 May 2009|07:01am] |
Tonight on Frontline on PBS, they will re-broadcast a documentary about the sexual trafficking of women:
"An undercover journey deep into the world of sex trafficking, following one man determined to rescue his wife -- kidnapped and sold into the global sex trade."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
An exerpt:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/slaves/
"This week on FRONTLINE, an undercover journey deep into the world of sex trafficking, as one man attempts to rescue his wife --kidnapped and sold into the global sex trade."
"...In "Sex Slaves," Tuesday night's rebroadcast of one of our more popular programs, producer Ric Esther Bienstock explores the widening problem of sex trafficking through the extraordinary story of Viorel, Katia, and a trafficker named "Vlad," who sells Katia into the hands of one of the Black Sea region's most notorious pimps. Vlad then pushes Viorel, Katia's husband, to pose as a trafficker himself to get her back."
"I didn't want to make a 'victim' film that told someone's story in retrospect," producer Bienstock explains. "We all know that trafficking is really terrible. What we don't know is how it really works, how do people numbering in the hundreds of thousands end up literally enslaved by their 'owners'? I wanted to talk to traffickers, I wanted to see them in action..."
|
(4 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| Be careful: prostitutes are victims of serial killers who are long-haul truckers |
[05 Apr 2009|06:35pm] |
Those of us ladies-of-the-evening who work the streets - myself included - are particularly vulnerable to violent tricks. An article in today's Los Angeles Times details the concerns of the FBI and their special task force, the Highway Serial Killings Initiative, which states that prostitutes, hitchhikers, and others who frequent truck stops have been victims of serial killers employed as long-haul truckers.
According to the article, the FBI has a database which keeps track of:
"...more than 500 female crime victims, most of whom were killed and their bodies discarded at truck stops, motels and other locations along popular trucking routes crisscrossing the U.S.
The database also has information on scores of truckers who've been charged with killings or rapes committed near highways or who are suspects in such crimes, officials said. Authorities said they do not have statistics on whether driving trucks ranks high on the list of occupations of known serial killers.
But the pattern in roadside body dumps and other evidence has prompted many investigators to speculate that the mobility, lack of supervision and access to potential victims that come with the job make it a good cover for someone inclined to kill..."
You can read the entire article here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-serialkillers5-2009apr05,0,2434292.story?page=1
To all my sisters of the street: PLEASE be careful. Use the "buddy system" whenever possible.
|
(3 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| 15yr old high class sexworker in uk. |
[27 Feb 2009|05:39pm] |
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1155502/Suspicious-teacher-exposes-double-life-girl-15-earning-100-000-year-upmarket-prostitute.html
A 15yr old girl was found out to be a prostitute..not only that, a high class one, & earning £100,000 pa.
See link.
Though the issues that this girl is under-age is not under despute.
They have confiscated £8,000 they found..but why? Who gets that? It makes you wonder doesn`t it? Maybe though they are using it in evidence in some way, if thats the case they should say so. minor or not, she obviously worked for the money & deserves it back.
The stance because she is legally a minor, is that she is a victim...but what if she wasn`t? She probably is now, because she will see it as a way of getting away from the blame & social stigma created when such things like this happen.
So back to what I was saying, what if she wasn`t a victim? What if she wanted to make money & make it fast? What if she was using the youthful advange within the sex industry to harvest while the goings good!
There can be few jobs in this world where the possibility to make more money as a young, fresh person than your older counterparts.
As you get older in the sex industry you tend to re-define yourself in a futile catch-up process that you lose as the years pass by.
I am quite angry at the response to this girl, because as usual, huge assumptions are made.
|
(20 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| Escort websites |
[09 Feb 2009|02:29pm] |
|
I'm thinking about setting up a website. I haven't built a web page since the '90s, and I know next to nothing about how to get it found by search engines, so I'm thinking it would probably be best if I have it professionally done. Any suggestions for website designers I could use for this?
|
(1 breath | Slip through the ether)
|
| are we in a recession ?? |
[30 Jan 2009|05:40pm] |
HOW TO WORK AS A TRANSEXUAL SEX WORKER WHO IS 33 YEARS OLD AND CANT DO INCALLS AND HAS $0 TO START OFF WITH.
fOR starters I have a cellphone and a lap top. Those tools give me sumthing to do all day while i wait arround for something to happen.
I get work off of CL but I cant even afford the $5 thing right now. I gonna borrow a credit card as soon as i make $5.
Right now I got adds up on
Red boook gender impaired section
sexyescort adds
Sex CIA
On Bay area classifieds I have an erotic add about to disapear in to the " 30days and its gone" status.
I also just put up a sex housecleaning add in household svc.
All theese adds link to my personal site
sybillamb.webs.com
were i have a some ok pics and Its a free site I assembled in a few hours.
My personal site has key words like "shemale escorts of oakland" and "naked housecleaner"
hopefully over the next few weeks I can convince google to move me up higher in the search returns.
( How to advertise yourself and hang out your shingle )
|
(Slip through the ether)
|
| Online adverts.. |
[28 Jan 2009|03:49pm] |
2 bay are questions
HI, I'm a trans-gedert erotic service provider in oakland-sanfag and I'm taking a hit from the craigslist $5 fee thing.
question 1. I got a personal site, add on redbook, gonna try to readvert on craigs in regular personals. a few other sating sites.
what are good sites to fish for clients in the bay area ??
and yeh, I'm trans and cant do incalls, so you can see i like chalenges.
2. What are the sex work support resources like in the bay ??? cus i like little baskets of free lube and pamphlets ?? is STELLA hiring ??
|
(2 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| Desivio |
[28 Nov 2008|10:25pm] |
I learned about this via The Stranger: someone in Seattle has created a Craig's list clone called Desivio. It's not very active as yet but it has categories for several cities. Erotic Service ads are free.
I'm not sure how it will work out but thought it would be good to throw out here.
|
(2 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| Spread magazine in desperate need of staff! |
[10 Oct 2008|08:58pm] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 anxious |
] |
Spread magazine are in desperate need of staff, if you offer any help, please do!
DESPERATE CALL FOR NEW STAFF Calling $pread fans: If you want to see us keep publishing, now is the time to step up and help! Most of our core staff have left in the past year, including three out of four editors (the last one is leaving in a few months), our art director, financial director, ad director, and new media director. A few very dedicated staffers are holding the magazine together but they desperately need help. People are always telling us that $pread is important but now we need you to put your time where your mouth is and get on board so we can keep it going. We currently don’t have the resources to coordinate with long distance volunteers so we’re looking for people in the NYC area who can attend weekly Sunday meetings and dedicate at least ten hours a week to $pread (although you don’t need to be able to work during regular office hours). Volunteers MUST be reliable, self-motivated, and willing to jump in at the deep end and pitch in with whatever needs to be done. We are specifically looking for people with design skills, but we need general volunteers too. We also ask that you make a commitment to $pread for at least a year. We know this is a lot to ask of unpaid staff but $pread has always relied on such dedicated volunteers. The original team who have kept $pread going over the past few years are thoroughly burned out and can’t do it anymore so we need an enthusiastic new team to take over. So, if you live in New York and care about $pread, please put your life on hold and step up to help us get through the next year. Email info@spreadmagazine.org if you can help.
|
(Slip through the ether)
|
| Getting Together |
[03 Sep 2008|11:57am] |
So if two Sex Industry Workers get together, and there is no camera crew, no video crew, no audience...
Who Pays Who?
Does it count as getting paid?
or is it just a wash?
just a thought I have been pondering
|
(8 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
|
[27 Aug 2008|08:58pm] |
How do you handle it when a client asks if you have a partner? Sometimes they ask and I am never sure how I should handle it... it seems like an awkward question. Up to this point I've been honest- I say that no, I am not single, but then I change the subject. Sometimes they want to know more, like if my partner minds me working, etc. I say no, he doesn't... then I change the subject. Or shove my foot in their mouths... whatever works. :)
I wonder if I should tell them that I am single, though- if that might make me more appealing and them more comfortable.
|
(3 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| bad call list for Western Mass |
[17 Aug 2008|02:01pm] |
I've been trying to create a universal bad call list for Western Mass, and I just now thought of asking this community for input, help, ideas, experiences, etc. I'm doing this with the help of my trainee escort, Iris, a graduate student at the Smith School of Social Work who also used to work at a dominatrix house that cheated it's girls out of most of their cut, and the Assistant Supervisor of the Harm Reduction Clinic at Tapestry in Northampton---who says she'll put it up in the Harm Reduction Clinic for escorts and streetworkers/walkers to see once it's done.
( All about Tapestry org )
So, basically, it's the perfect place to put up a bad call list.
After that, I'll try to find other places to put up the bad call list. I'll also send people the list in an e-mail network, like I have so far, and I'll ask newspaper ad girls like me for their home addresses so I can send them copies. I'll try to hand out copies on the street.
I want the bad call list to cover the Valley Advocate (the weekly newspaper that puts up ads for escorts, where I advertise), craigslist for our area, and the street. So far I've finished sending an invitation to participate to all the women, transsexual women, and call boys offering erotic services on craigslist, and I'm playing phone tag with most of the Advocate girls. I've gotten some great responses, and I have a sizable list building already, a draft of which I sent over e-mail to all the people who indicated they were interested in either contributing numbers, physical descriptions, e-mail addresses, home addresses and names of bad clients; or just wanted to see the list.
( On the other hand, I've gotten some odd negative responses, like these: )
I blame the last generation of criminals; most of all I blame the cops, and the "justice" system. "Don't put your business out on the street," the old criminal adage said. But that's b/c usually they've succeeded so well at alienating us from each other that sometimes we use each other. They've divided and conquered, all right. Dog eat dog---but what if we hunted as a pack (and what if I took the metaphor so far it started to stink?) What if we worked as a community? The possibilities would be endless, and I don't care how banal THAT sounds, that's true.
Do you guys have any ideas about how to counter these responses and how to convince these very individualist girls that we're better off working as a team? At least when it comes to avoiding clients who are violent or volatile, scam us or steal from us, don't have the money or miss appointments without notifying us so we have to waste gas money getting there or turn away other callers for the phantom appointment, or otherwise waste our time---even clients who are law enforcement posing as clients (though cops usually call from a motel room phone during a sting and even if it's one of those very rare situations when they use a cell phone, they'd never use the same number twice--still, you never know...)
And then there's a larger problem--the final frontier, the street.
( My meager experience working politically or personally with streetworkers )
The question is--how do I reach the street? The streetworkers/walkers are most at risk of violence b/c they bear the brunt of the stigma and the poorer you are, the more disposable you seem to some assholes. So they're the most important part of this project, really--the physical descriptions, license plate numbers, car descriptions and names of undesirable tricks they might remember are invaluable. Maybe Arise for Social Justice has some connections to them in Springfield? I know I'll need a fund of stipends, b/c in the street, time is money acquires even more meaning. Besides that, I don't know how I'll go about it. Input?
One girl, Sky, a provider who's worked for 30 years, everywhere from incall houses to independent outcall work to the street, in all different places across the country, was very pessimistic about any attempt to talk to streetworkers as an escort: "They'll look at you like you're crazy. They'll be annoyed b/c you'll be disrupting their business, or taking it away b/c tricks might think you're working. A lot of them won't even bother with you. And how do you know what they say will be true?"
I asked, "Why would they lie?" (Given that they've all had bad calls of some kind, probably, and I wouldn't give them more money for more names, it didn't seem to make sense.)
She just laughed.
So given all that, how *do* I reach the street? Do any of you work the street? Do/have any of you work/ed the streets in Western Mass? I really need help here.
And, in general, have any of you made bad call lists? Seen a list you were impressed with? Have any ideas/input/comments on making bad call lists?
( Here's the e-mail I sent providers on craigslist to ask them to participate (I would also call them if they left a number on their craigslist ad) )
Thank you so much for your help in advance.
|
(3 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
| Positions Vacant - Scarlet Alliance Australian Sex Workers Association |
[29 Jul 2008|02:37pm] |
Hurry, applications close this Thursday July 31 2008!
Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association, has three positions vacant -
International Project Manager (full time) 1.0
International Project Officer (full time) 1.0
Administration Officer (part time) 0.2 - 1 day per week
All applicants must read and follow the instructions provided in the Application Kit for the particular position. All applications must be received by 31st July, 2008. If you require more information see our website for contact details.
Note: Sex work experience is an essential criterion for all of these positions.
Positions are based at the Sydney Scarlet Alliance office.
( More information this way... )
|
(1 breath | Slip through the ether)
|
| programme on the sex industry. |
[18 Jul 2008|10:34am] |
| [ |
mood |
| |
 cynical |
] |
I have just been asked to take part in a sky-virgin tv programme about `sex & money`(UK).
Its on current tv...but sadly have had to decline.
I mused this invite over in my mind, weighing out the pro`s & con`s. Though I was assured that this programme would be a balanced view of the sex industry, I have my doubts.
Here was my `assurance`:
`The show is a serious and hard hitting look at various aspects of the Sex Industry aimed at 18 – 34 year olds. The show will comprise of a number of short films made by our producers which we will show to the audience and ask for comment and debate upon afterwards. We in no way aim to ridicule any aspect of this subject. There may be some lighter comment as some of the films deal with subjects such as sex toys for which the debate will be lighter than after the films which talk about prostitution etc. But the show as a whole is of a serious tone and aims to provide a balanced view of the sex and money industry in the UK.
I am in negotiations with various people at the moment but the studio audience is likely to be made up of some of the producers of the films we will watch, people who work in the sex industry, including some of those who appear in the films, and also those who campaign against or have strong views opposing the industry. A balanced audience to provoke conscious and informed debate`.
So taking in mind the above, I was concerned that this was yet another `seek the whore` campaign..or `seek the victim` campaign..rather than an intelligent look at the sex industry & its pro`s & con`s. I just felt that I would be spending most of my time..with others maybe..fending off the ignorant & niave. Wasting worthwhile air time explaining myself & justifying my rights in my choice of being a sex wroker. This tires me now..spent too many years doing that. would instead like to spend some time tackling any real issues at hand & discussing the positives & worth of sex work..we all know the shit..but until we stop talking about the shit, we`ll never recognise the good things & the value we as sexworkers have had to offer societies. Any opinions?
|
(4 breaths | Slip through the ether)
|
|
[15 Jul 2008|11:18am] |
I've been doing sex/fetish work for the past 3 months and am truly enjoying it but also hoping for some more sources for which to find clients. Craigslist and word of mouth from former sex/fetish workers have been my main source as of lately, but I'm truly hoping for more. Perhaps some other websites, venues? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance,
-El
|
(1 breath | Slip through the ether)
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
sexworkers