The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #126? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you’re all set.
This Week’s Picks
Filling Myself
“We too want, need, conversations in which someone listens to us and considers our needs, not just their own.”
Sex Worker Solidarity: Amanda Brooks
“There’s a lot of love among activists, even those who disagree with one another.”
Need
“These images that come from the artistic workings of your inner soul speak to me, as mine do to you.”
Mr. Sugasm Himself (one from the vaults)
10 Lies Pornographers Tell
Editor’s Choice
Though We’ve Never Met
More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm
See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.
All-Nekkid Thursday courtesy of Tara Tainton.
Posted by Vixen as Sugasm at 11:23 PM CDT
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Found via What Really Happened:
Brit spies confirm Dalai Lama’s report of staged violence
“Britain’s GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.
GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.”
(snip)
“The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation the Chinese used agent provocateurs to start riots, which gave the PLA the excuse to move on Lhasa to kill and wound over the past week.
What the Beijing regime had not expected was how the riots would spread, not only across Tibet, but also to Sichuan, Quighai and Gansu provinces, turning a large area of western China into a battle zone.”
If you’re on Digg, you can digg the story here.
Posted by Vixen as News at 5:24 PM CDT
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“I’ve never told a real person this.”
-a client who calls me maybe once a year
This particular client was molested as a boy. His calls consist of me mostly listening. He has a hard time having a normal sex life as an adult and just wants a sympathetic someone to tell his troubles to. It took him a long time to tell me the details of his abuse because he had great difficulty verbalizing them. When he told me the above quote I got a little teary.
It’s clients like him that remind me how valuable and vital sex work is in this world.
Posted by Vixen as PSO Confessions, Quote Book at 10:54 PM CDT
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Found via Poe News:
Woman claims airport security agents in L.A. forced her to remove nipple ring with pliers
“A woman said Thursday she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane in Texas, and demanded a civil rights investigation as well as an apology from federal security agents.”
(snip)
“Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin’s chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman that she was wearing nipple piercings. The women then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings, Hamlin claimed.”
(snip)
“Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.”
—
I’m surprised the detector beeped. Both Mr. Radical and I have body piercings and have never had a metal detector go off. Mind you we’ve never been scanned by the handheld ones. I understand Hamlin’s difficulty. Piercings can sometimes be hard to take piercings out and can often be painful. And that’s just in a calm state. Being nervous and under the eyes of TSA agents must have made it ten times worse.
Posted by Vixen as News at 11:06 PM CDT
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Sex Worker profile
I’m a native Texan who is currently a little out of water in California (the foggy part, not the sunny part). I’m someone who has been interested in sex work since 10 years old and I feel very at home within the adult industry. I’m creating a reference series for Internet escorts and am becoming involved in activism. It’s a way to try and right a lot of wrongs I’ve noticed since I was a kid.
What kind of sex work are you currently doing?
I spent my 20s as a stripper and independent Internet escort. I’m currently not engaged in sex work.
Are you active in sex worker activism? If so, what are you doing?
I’d always been curious about it, but it didn’t seem to be for me. A few months after my first book was out Jill Brenneman contacted me through MySpace and we started corresponding. She described my book (and series) as “harm reduction.” It’s an appropriate description and that got my interest. She invited me to join SWOP-East as a board member.
In July 2007 I attended (and presented at) the Desiree Alliance conference. It was a moving experience. There is no way I can let these passionate people down. Though everyone has a slightly different area of focus, the overwhelming impression is of motivated, informed people who are trying to make a difference in a positive way. There’s a lot of love among activists, even those who disagree with one another. Looking forward to the 2008 conference in Chicago!
Through SWOP-East I’ve gotten to start Pledging Action – a condom donation program for sex workers in Chile. I’ve recently joined the Desiree Alliance board. My focus there is as a liaison for SWOP-East and working to create a Media Center for sex workers through DA. (This is in the thought/planning stages, so don’t ask for specifics yet!)
My books are very much an activist statement even though they’re not overt. The idea of producing information for escorts so they can choose their work, determine their work environment and control their destiny in the safest manner is activism at a broad level. I’m all for empowering escorts as women and as sex workers.
What do you think is the best way to promote solidarity with fellow sex workers?
Since every sex worker has their own pet issues, it’s important for all of us to step back and view the big picture. The truth is, every sex worker faces the same basic social issues - only the degree and intensity changes. Those who work in criminalized fields face additional legal and social issues which are essentially the same regardless of what “class” the sex worker belongs to.
Promoting solidarity isn’t hard with blogs, discussion forums and real-live groups. When you start to feel a sense of belonging with others who understand your obstacles, it’s easy to present a united front in public even if you have disagreements in private.
Sometimes the distance of the Internet backfires and we splinter into arguments over things that matter only to us. Then it’s important to remember what I said above: we all face the same basic issues.
Promoting solidarity comes from every sex worker reaching out to another on an individual level. We’re all people-persons; otherwise we wouldn’t be sex workers. But feeling involved requires that we learn the individual. Sex workers aren’t going to feel loyalty to someone whom they only know from a mass e-mail (like current mainstream-marketing wisdom suggests). Meeting the individual sex worker isn’t hard to do and it isn’t difficult. But since there are so many sex workers it’s going to take a long time to reach everyone!
I have to add, this series is a great starting point for introducing an audience to sex workers we haven’t met before. I’ve contacted a couple of your interview subjects because of their interview here.
What project(s) are you working on now?
Too many!
Working on Book #2. The manuscript is back from the typographer and I’m proofing it before sending it to the printer. Yay! Also, working on fleshing out the outline for Book #3 and doing preliminary research (the basic outline has been in place for a couple years but this is detail-work).
Trying to promote Pledging Action and solicit condom donations. I’m not the best at this but I don’t consider it a closed issue.
Working with SWOP-East on whatever issues we have on the table. We have many things in the planning stages and hope to move forward on a lot of projects. Fundraising is a big issue right now.
Working with DA in whatever capacity I can.
Trying to promote Book#1 and myself
Writing a monthly column for EscortSupport.com
Blogging
The Notebook (the book’s blog)
After Hours (personal blog)
Bound, not Gagged (moderator and contributor)
SWOP-East (news blogging)
Amazon and MySpace blogs (my stepchildren locked in the basement)
Working on my Squidoo lenses …and a million other little things that all connect to everything above and eat my time – but you don’t want me to list everything!
—
Amanda’s comment “There’s a lot of love among activists, even those who disagree with one another.” really struck a chord with me. Since the Spitzer scandal first broke I’ve been seeing a lot of the “love among activists” that Amanda mentions. While the many stories in the mainstream press focused on portraying Kristen as a “good girl gone bad” sex worker activists were not only supporting her but creating solidarity with each other as well.
Whenever I would get enraged or depressed with the Spitzer coverage I would turn to the sex worker community online. Writer after writer was bringing up important issues, using the scandal to shine a light on our many causes. Scandals like these seem to come as regularly as the seasons but this one really brought home to me just how much solidarity and activism is really out there.
Amanda’s makes an excellent point about the online community. It does create more solidarity and bring us closer. Just like she says, we sometimes “splinter into arguments” amongst ourselves. But again and again we return to support each other because “we all face the same basic issues”. Focusing on our common grounds makes us closer and our movement stronger.
Sex Worker Solidarity Series
Sex Worker Solidarity: Introduction
Sex Worker Solidarity: Audacia Ray
Sex Worker Solidarity: Dallas From Babeland
Sex Worker Solidarity: Secondhand Rose
Sex Worker Solidarity: Rachel Kramer Bussel
Sex Worker Solidarity: Libertine
Sex Worker Solidarity: Jesse Cox
Posted by Vixen as PSO Confessions, Interviews, Sex Workers at 11:39 PM CDT
5 Comments »
The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #125? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you’re all set.
This Week’s Picks
In Which Penny Enjoys Her Bath
“In the bathroom, I flipped on the heater and shed my clothes.”
Just passing through
“I twitched under her stare.”
Kegal exercises on wet Monday afternoon
“Do you know what it’s like, to be buggered?”
Mr. Sugasm Himself
WP/PHP Guru?
Editor’s Choice
More Traveling…
More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm
See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.
Kimberly Kane courtesy of Pornsaints.
Posted by Vixen as Sugasm at 11:17 PM CDT
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Libertine emailed me about this the other day. I think it’s pretty groovy!
Red Light District Chicago
“Sex workers making media so the media doesn’t make us.
Red Light District Chicago is a new webpage featuring real sex worker made media including podcasts and videos made by the members of Sex Workers Outreach Project-Chicago.”
With reporters like Diane Sawyer doing such a disservice to sex workers, projects like Red Light District Chicago are definitely needed.
Posted by Vixen as Activism, Sex Workers at 11:16 PM CDT
2 Comments »
From this gallery.
Posted by Vixen as Sexy Sensations at 11:36 PM CDT
3 Comments »
“Female pee is like a woman’s magical power”
-client with a golden shower fetish
Posted by Vixen as Quote Book at 11:55 PM CDT
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Three years ago I started this blog not entirely sure what shape it would take. Today I find I’m really happy where it’s at now. Through this blog I’ve met so many interesting people. Thank you to all my readers. It fills me with such gratitude to know you like my little corner of the net.
Now onto the contest. Winners are listed below their prize. I will be emailing you shortly to ask for mailing addresses.
Thanks to everyone for entering and for reading my blog!
Babeland prizes:
ShowerBabes
Melanie
Misty Kaye (Miss K)
Babeland Silver Bullets
Rori
Evil Bender
Jamye Waxman’s book Getting Off: A Woman’s Guide To Masturbation
Selena Kitt
Lickable Body Dust
Dirty Girl
JT’s Stockroom prize:
$50 gift certificate
Dances With Books
Love Honey prizes:
Waterproof Rabbit Vibrator Aquagasm
Heather
PowerWand Mini Vibrator
Amethyst
Remote Control Dream Egg
Bad Bad Girl
Posted by Vixen as Musings, Sex Toys at 3:51 PM CDT
3 Comments »
For the Iraq War Anniversary I looked for different stories to blog about. The numbers of dead, of wounded have just grown more depressing. The scandals of the war-from Abu Ghraib to Walter Reed-are seemingly endless. Bummed out I skipped writing anything.
Today though I was on the Common Dreams website and found two stories that really uplifted me. Yes the war is still going on but more and more people want it to end. The resistance movement is growing. Change is happening. Sure it’s slower than I’d like but things are changing. If you were bummed out by yesterday perhaps these two articles will lift your spirits as well.
Resistance is Futile - Or Is It?
“It was a time without precedent in American history. The commander-in-chief voiced his intention to take the country to war - a voluntary, preemptive war with no clear catalyst, no faraway invasion or Pearl Harbor or sinking of the Maine - and millions of people shouted their opposition. With plenty of time to avert war, the protesters warned the invasion would be a costly disaster.0319 08
They were right. And it didn’t matter.
The war in Iraq was a test of our democratic ideals. It was a test that this country failed, a failure that has been felt by the people of the United States, Iraq, and elsewhere for the last five years. For many, the refusal of the US government to heed the demands of its citizens left them disillusioned and disempowered.
But others say it sparked a political change that woke up an apathetic citizenry, pulled the Democratic Party back to the left, and may have averted war with Iran.”
Five Years Later
“Five years ago and more, many of us vehemently, passionately opposed the war in Iraq. We opposed it by marching in the streets on February 16, 2003, in one of the biggest marches in this city’s history, part of the biggest demonstration in world history with people standing up on February 15, 2003, against war on every continent-including the scientists in Antarctica, small towns in Inuit Canada, South Africa, New Mexico, Turkey, Bolivia…. We were right, and now sheepishly, fudging their change of heart, everyone from Hillary Clinton on is busy erasing the memory of being for the war, of buying lies, of dismissing deaths, terrible deaths, the deaths of so many children, so many mothers, so many brothers, the deaths long ago of far more Americans than died on September 11, 2001, the unrelated event used to justify these five long years of slaughter and destruction, the destruction of the fragile psyches of the young, the ancient landscape of Iraq, the bodies that survived this war mutilated and disabled and shaken to need our care for decades to come. Five years ago we opposed this war, and we were right that it would be ugly, a quagmire, an international disaster, that it would make nothing safer, that it was about oil and geopolitics and never ever about justice and utterly unrelated to September 11, 2001. Five years ago here in San Francisco we shut down this business district to show how passionately against the war we were as it began.”
Posted by Vixen as News, Activism at 12:26 PM CDT
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With the Spitzer scandal I’ve read a lot of news stories portraying sex workers negatively. So when I came across the following Reuters story it felt like a breath of fresh air. This story is an update on the Lusty Lady co-op and the sex workers are portrayed in a positive light.
From Reuters:
When strippers take over the club
“When dancers at San Francisco’s Lusty Lady turned the exotic club into an egalitarian co-op, they found it tough to reconcile their lofty ideals with the aesthetic realities of the sex trade.”
(snip)
“The Lusties, as they call themselves, enlisted the help of other local co-ops such as Rainbow Grocery and Good Vibrations, a local female-run sex-toy shop.
They learned the ins and outs of running a collective business and hammered out articles of incorporation within days.
Seven committees were created to oversee mundane but necessary business items such as insurance and licensing, finance, incorporation, bylaws and media relations.
All new proposals, from bylaw modifications down to buying new carpets, would need approval from general co-op membership and the board of directors. Every worker, whether support staff or performer, had the right to submit a proposal, and decisions would be made by majority vote via paper ballot.”
Posted by Vixen as News, Sex Workers at 2:43 PM CDT
4 Comments »
The best of this week’s blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #124? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the link list within a week and you’re all set.
This Week’s Picks
A Seven Letter Word for Flowers
“I breathed into your neck, brushing my lips against your skin.”
Breakfast In Bed
“I rolled her over onto her back and she spread her legs willingly.”
Inked
“How quaint to be wooed with a soft brushing of lips over my fingers.”
Mr. Sugasm Himself
L.A. Bondage
Editor’s Choice
Male spankees and the female gaze
More Sugasm
Join the Sugasm
See also: Fleshbot’s Sex Blog Roundup each Tuesday and Friday.
Mz. Berlin courtesy of Corset & Collar.
Posted by Vixen as Musings, Sugasm at 11:41 AM CDT
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Kelli finished The Straight Girl’s Guide to Sleeping with Chicks by Jen Sincero and sent me in this review:
I picked up this book as a Professional Escort to give my techniques a boost when working with couples. It was recommended to me by a fellow escort who also bought the book for guidance in pleasuring women.
Jen Sincero writes in a blunt, straightforward, well detailed, and hysterically funny style. Getting through the first three chapters was difficult for me. They deal mainly with sensitive issues on accepting the fact you want to have lesbian sex, where and how to pick up a woman, and how to tactfully enter into the lesbian community. None of this information was pertinent to what I was looking for, but I can see how it would be really useful to someone who is looking to come out of the proverbial closet.
The illustrations are to die for!!! Sexual positions are all demonstrated by Barbie dolls! Literally! Malibu Barbie gets her muff eaten by friend Barbie Teresa doll. No Ken needed. In one shot she even wears a tiny strap on!! It’s the best Barbie porn ever!
Jen fully addresses STD safety, a range of lubes and their uses, and the full gamut of toys and the how to’s. She gives a great lesson on modern lesbian sex lingo; defining vocabulary terms like: “double-clicking the mouse”, “auditioning the finger puppets”, and “paddling the pink canoe”. She has even constructed a wonderful Pussy Eating Pie Chart, giving the acceptable percentages for each tongue move.
Interjected frequently throughout the chapters are short quotes of personal experiences from the real people she interviewed for the book. Straight girls who’ve slept with lesbians, straight girls who’ve slept with straight girls, lesbians who’ve slept with straight girls, and girls who’ve done both or neither.
Over all I give this book a two thumbs up, or as the author might say, a double fingering!!
It has been an infinitely valuable guide that I have picked up repeatedly for some quick reminders and sexy entertainment. She has thoroughly covered every issue I could think of. I would recommend it to any girl looking to have sex with a chick!!
Posted by Vixen as Reviews at 8:53 PM CDT
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