Audacia Ray's Blog, page 37

Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture...

Best Sex Writing 2012: The State of Today's Sexual Culture by Rachel Kramer Bussel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If I were allowed to retitle this book, I would call it "Best Sex Writing 2012: Essays for People Who Don't Read Everything on the Internet About Sexual Culture." Spoiler: I read Everything on the Internet.

I appreciate seeing authors I know and admire, who frequently publish online (or at least, that's where I read them), anthologized in this dead tree way. It lends a sense of permanence to the conversations that happened about sexual culture over the past year, which is a good thing.

However, as a Reader of the Internet, I know that many of these essays were part of much larger conversations, conversations which are pretty impossible to capture between two covers, on pages without hotlinks. I love books, but representing the best sex writing in this way feels flat to me. The best and worst parts of the state of today's sexual culture is that it plays out complexly, through links and online bitchery and critique, and that just wasn't happening here. For example: an essay about SlutWalk without a lot of dialogue, quotes, and argument with other sources of thought and rage is just not right-sized.

That said, the book is worth picking up for the pieces by Joan Price, Amber Dawn, and Lydia Yuknavitch, which are shiveringly good and make my skin tingle with sadness.

Thomas Roche and Tracy Quan's pieces on sex work totally have my heart. However, I was not so impressed with Marty Klein's piece on circumcision (thesis: getting cut is no big deal!) and the lack of regard for the concepts of consent and bodily autonomy, and Rachel Rabbit White's piece about trans latinas was a mess, mixing the LGB with the T in a bad and clunky way.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

"Workshops in 2012 In the winter and spring of 2012 we are collaborating with several New..."

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Workshops in 2012 

In the winter and spring of 2012 we are collaborating with several New York-based organizations to offer our Legislative Advocacy trainings for community members who are interested in doing advocacy around the No Condoms As Evidence legislation as well as Stop and Frisk policies. We will offer two trainings.

Though we usually do our weekend-long Speak Up! training in New York in April, in 2012 we will be offering a half-day training in Washington, DC prior to the International AIDS Conference, and then a full weekend-long training in the fall of 2012. We've got other workshops up our sleeves, too. Join our mailing list to get more information about future trainings!

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Red Umbrella Project Workshops

Getting close to having workshop dates sorted out for Red Umbrella Project legislative advocacy trainings! Exciting stuff.

"Reasons abound to be turned off by the New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof. He is too pleased..."

"Reasons abound to be turned off by the New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof. He is too pleased with himself and demonstrates no capacity for self-reflection. He is too earnest. He claims to be in the vanguard of journalism because he tweets. He is said to be Doing Something about human suffering while the rest of us don't care; he is smarmy. He doesn't write particularly well. But most important, he is an apologist for a soft form of imperialism."

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The Soft Side of Imperialism » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

LAURA AGUSTÍN BRINGS IT.

rentboyblog:Rent University returns February 21 and 28 in New...

rentboyblog:

Rent University returns February 21 and 28 in New York City!

Get tips on managing clients! Find out how you can transform your time in the trade to skills for the job market! Experienced escorts along with career professionals will guide you during each information packed 2-hour session. On February 21, porn performer and escort Tony Bishop will guide a session on "Client Management" where participants are encouraged to share ideas for how to deal with the best and worst clients. On February 28, an experienced career counselor will give you insight into turning skills from sexwork into a job. Rent University (Rent U.) is a project of HOOKONLINE and is sponsored by Rentboy.com and the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition with grant funding by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Learn more and register now for classes at http://www.rent-u.com

WHO:  
Rent U. seeks men in the sex industry who are looking for advice or assistance and a place to help out other men in the sex industry.  

WHAT:
Rent U. will offer two 2-hour workshops with up to 20 participants on different topics relevant to men actively working in the sex industry.

$10-20 donation encouraged per class, but participants will not be turned away (scholarships are available).

WHEN:

Tuesday, February 21, 2-4 pm

"Client Management."
Facilitated by Tony Bishop and a PONY member. Get tips from industry professionals (each with over a decade of experience) and share ideas for how to deal with the best and worst of clients.

Tuesday, February 28, 2-4:00 pm

"Turning Sex Work Skills into A Job"

Facilitated by Clory Loaiza, a top career professional who will explain how your experience in the sex industry can translate to job skills that will find acceptance in today's job market.

WHERE:
Safe, discrete, undisclosed meeting space in downtown Manhattan. Once your reservation has been confirmed you will receive a confirmation email with the address. Light refreshments will be provided.

MISSION:
Rent U. is a project of HOOK Online. HOOK Online (hookonline.org) is a national, grass roots program that seeks to support men who are or were part of the sex industry. By creating positive relationships among men in the sex industry for communication and support, HOOK educates men in the sex industry, clients, and the public about sex work to reduce harm and to develop a network of service providers and nonprofit programs.

Today there is a hearing in DC about the possibility of...

Today there is a hearing in DC about the possibility of implementation of a city-wide Prostitution Free Zone. Follow @amyloudermilk and @djbent for live tweets.

The film above was produced by my friend PJ Starr, in collaboration with sex workers in DC.

Here's some more background info:

From DCist post in December:

Under current D.C. law, prostitution is illegal. Simple enough, right? Well, no.

Prostitution still happens, so, in 2006, the D.C. Council gave the Metropolitan Police Department the power to designate "prostitution-free zones," areas in which any two people gathering for allegedly engaging in prostitution-related activities can be asked to disperse and, if they don't, face arrest. The zones can be designated for up to 240 hours, or 10 days. The most recent zone was designated for an area near 59th Street and Eastern Avenue NE from October 27-31; another zone was famously declared during President Obama's inauguration.

Now the one member of the Council is seeking to extend that policy: on Tuesday, Councilmember Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) introduced legislation which would allow police to add a new category of prostitution free zone: permanent. Alexander told DCist that the change has come in response to what she called an "epidemic" of prostitution in her ward, primarily along Eastern Avenue and Minnesota Avenue.

From a post on RH Reality Check in January 2010:

Prostitution Free Zone laws, like most punitive approaches to commercial sex work, do further damage by disproportionately affecting the health and safety of the District's most vulnerable sex workers - those who work on the street. Sex workers are already marginalized and discriminated against by both the larger community and the police due to their race, ethnicity, and/or gender. The District of Columbia currently has an HIV AND AIDS rate of epidemic proportions, affecting people of color and sexual minorities at shockingly disproportionate rates. The Prostitution Free Zones law increases the difficulty of survival and decreases the safety of street based sex workers by pushing sex workers into darker and more isolated areas where they feel unsafe and more vulnerable to harassment, assault, and robbery.

SWOP NYC member doing study on sex workers in college

I don't usually post about calls for participation in research studies on the sex industry, because I think most academic studies serve the researcher and do nothing for the population being studied. Plus, students tend to look at the same dumb questions over and over, and frankly, I have better things to do than provide 101s for other people's gain.

That said, here's a research study that I actually recommend participating in. Hopefully it will result in some awareness raising work around the issues that people face when they are both college students and sex workers. It's being conducted by Sarah Patterson, who was a staffer at $pread and is currently a member of the Sex Workers Outreach Project NYC chapter. She's good people, I've known her for many years. She is working on "a study of college students who are doing work that could be described as 'erotic labor.' [The study] also explores the degree to which they are out about their erotic labor to their peers, family members and partners."

You do not have to identify as a sex worker to complete the survey, however you must be a student, 18 years or older (full-time or part-time, undergraduate or graduate) who has done erotic labor that might include, but not be limited to: professional phone sex, escort work in a house, independent escort work, street-based work, stripping, burlesque, go-go dancing, professional domination, fetish work, webcam work, erotic modeling, pornographic performance, pornographic production, running a house, running a porn site, working as a phone girl, working in a club, managing other workers or another form of work the individual considers erotic labor. You are still eligible if you are not currently working, yet have engaged in erotic labor during the course of your studies. You also do not have to be a member of an organization, so feel free to post this on FACEBOOK, TUMBLR, OR TWITTER for others to respond to (in fact, it would be greatly appreciated!)

Completing the survey should take about 10 minutes. Here is the link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/R6B7LQ9

To opt out: https://www.surveymonkey.com/optout.aspx

Hopefully, these findings will increase understanding of college students who are engaged in erotic labor. 

Five Reasons Sex Workers in the US Should Care About the...

Five Reasons Sex Workers in the US Should Care About the International AIDS Conference

1. Because this is the first time in more than 20 years that the U.S. has hosted the event. The IAC will take place in Washington, DC from July 22 to 27. The conference will feature both formal meetings and presentations (with a registration fee) and a Global Village with cultural and activist events (free admission). Interested in pitching an abstract for the conference or a cultural event for the Global Village? Learn more here. The main deadline for abstracts is February 15.

2. Because although Obama lifted travel restrictions against HIV positive people in 2009, there are still travel bans against sex workers and drug users. This means that people who have sold sex or used drugs, even if doing so is legal where they live, are not allowed to enter the United States.

3.Because the sex workers who won't be allowed into the U.S. are counting on us to make some noise in DC. There will be an international gathering of sex workers happening at a hub conference in India, and we'll be able to connect with them digitally before and during the conference to share resources and strategies.

4. Because sex workers are flagged as one of the key populations at higher risk for HIV transmission. The other populations in this group are intravenous drug users and men who have sex with men (MSM) – global health groups often problematically include trans women in the category of MSM. Some of our lives intersect with more than one of these categories.

5. Because on top of having our own problems the U.S. exports terrible policies and strings-attached funding that harms sex workers. For example the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which funds international organizations, include an anti-prostitution clause in contracts with grantees. American sex workers must stand up to our government and denounce PEPFAR and similar policies that harm our brothers and sisters around the world. The IAC is an important forum for us to make our voices heard.

There is some organizing happening already around the conference, but the more the merrier. If you're interested in submitting a proposal for either a presentation at the conference or a cultural event at the Global Village, be sure to do so before February 15. If you want to show up, demonstrate, and represent sex workers, start planning, and start talking to other sex workers who might be interested in going. If you're never done activism beyond your city, state, or the U.S., the IAC is a great opportunity to learn from and interact with sex workers from around the world.

Evidence flags and a cross marking the place Shannan...

Evidence flags and a cross marking the place Shannan Gilbert's body was found.

I'm at Gilgo Beach, Long Island. 11 bodies have been found here sine December 2010. Six have been id'd. They were sex workers.

Me reading my piece "The Johns" (from the Coming...

Me reading my piece "The Johns" (from the Coming & Crying anthology) during Titillating Tongues at the Inspired Word on Monday night.

I am trying really hard to professionalize the Red Umbrella...

I am trying really hard to professionalize the Red Umbrella Project - we've built a board, we have a lawyer and have been going through the process of formalizing RedUP in the eyes of the state, and I have been researching and applying for grants. But in the meantime, it's business as usual, raising money the way I know how. Every month at the Red Umbrella Diaries I "pass the boot" and collect donations. As a former sex worker, I think there will just always be something deeply satisfying about counting up cash.