Audacia Ray's Blog, page 65

December 17: International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

Join us in NYC for a vigil and community speak out

When: Friday, December 17, 2010 at 7:30PM – 9:30PM

Where: Metropolitan Community Church of New York, Sanctuary (2nd floor), 446 West 36th Street, New York, NY 10018 btw 9th & 10th Aves. < http://bit.ly/dUenDt >

Who: Current & former sex workers, our allies, friends, families, and communities. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us in observing the 7th annual International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Join us in remembering those we've lost to violence, oppression and hate, whether perpetrated by clients, partners, police or the state.

We stand against the cycle of violence experienced by sex workers around the world. Recently in Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights record of the United States during their Universal Periodic Review. Uruguay's recommendation to the Obama Administration – to address "the special vulnerability of sexual workers to violence and human rights abuses" – is the moral leadership we have been waiting for!

Join us in solidarity to fight the criminalization, oppression, assault, rape and murder of sex workers – and of folks perceived as sex workers.

December 17, 2003 was our first annual day to honor the sex workers who were murdered by serial killer Gary Ridgway. In Ridgway's own words, "I also picked prostitutes as victims because they were easy to pick up without being noticed. I knew they would not be reported missing right away and might never be reported missing. I picked prostitutes because I thought I could kill as many of them as I wanted without getting caught." (BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3245301.stm)

We come together each year to show the world that the lives of marginalized people, including those of sex workers, are valuable.

Speakers:

Audacia Ray, Red Umbrella Project & Sex Work Awareness
Chelsea Johnson-Long, Safe OUTside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project
Michael J. Miller, The Counterpublic Collective and PROS Network
Andrea Ritchie, Peter Cicchino Youth Project and Streetwise & Safe (SAS)


Readings

Reading of the names of sex workers we have lost this past year
Memorial for Catherine Lique by her daughter Stephanie Thompson and read by Sarah Jenny Bleviss
Speak out: Bring poetry, writings or just speak your truth.

Light snacks, beverages, and metrocards will be provided.

The red umbrella has become an important symbol for Sex Workers' Rights and is increasingly used on December 17: "First adopted by Venetian sex workers for an anti-violence march in 2002, red umbrellas have come to symbolize resistance against discrimination for sex workers worldwide."

This event is co-sponsored by: Audre Lorde Project, Counterpublic Collective, FIERCE, MADRE, Peter Cicchino Youth Project, The Queer Commons, PONY (Prostitutes of New York), PROS Network, Red Umbrella Project, SAFER, Sex Work Awareness, Sex Workers Project, SWANK (Sex Workers Action New yorK), SWOP-NYC (Sex Workers Outreach Project), the Space at Tompkins, and Third Wave Foundation.

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110788105658599

For events outside of New York, visit: http://www.swop-usa.org/dec17

Things That Are Broken: Sex Worker Activism

I started my sex worker activism career as a writer – initially I chronicled my personal experiences here on this blog, and then I moved into using writing (mine and others') and other forms of media making to shake things up. Writing, storytelling, and speaking up are really important aspects of activism – I've built my life and projects around them via $pread magazine, the Red Umbrella Diaries, and Sex Work Awareness respectively.

This year, as my career grows and I wiggle into places where I think I can be most effective as an activist and a media maker, I have found myself struggling to find my voice. In the past, I've always assumed that more speaking out was better, always and all the time. I felt like I should comment on the state of affairs as much and often as I had the energy. In the past year, I've taken a step back from the communities I've been immersed in and talking at/about and have spent a lot more time listening.

What I've heard has been a big wake up call for me. Through my work with the Global Network of Sex Work Projects I'm understanding more and more about the international situation of sex workers, and about the chaos and harm Americans bring in that arena. But my main context is still the United States and especially New York. Particularly in the American sex worker rights movement, there are just… a lot of issues and gaps in knowledge and understanding. Among the most prominent of these issues are: class and the related entanglements of sex positive/pleasure focused folks and the sex worker rights movement; an over-emphasis on the experiences of cisgender women in the sex industry, to the serious detriment to transgender women and cis and trans men; lack of cohesive work on issues facing both indoor and outdoor sex workers; ignorance of the experiences of migrant sex workers, perhaps because of anxiety around the anti-trafficking hype but also because of a general disconnect; racial dynamics of not just the sex industry but also the sex worker movement… I really think I could just go on and on. I know I shouldn't just rattle this list off without writing a major treatise about each item, but that is yet to come. It's important to me to take this step here on Waking Vixen. I've been talking to lots of different people about these issues in lots of different places, but haven't been synthesizing my thoughts in writing. Which is what this blogging thing is about (or so I hear).

To be sure – I am not just pointing fingers about these issues. I have been complicit in maintaining the status quo of a lot of these injustices – it's not too harsh to call them that. When working with and inside communities to make change and make things better, it's not the intentions that count -I have always wanted to do good by and for my community- but actions. And a lot of actions come with collateral damage, especially actions that are meant to make change. Some of the struggle to rediscover my voice and place has been about feeling stuck, because as I've become more sharply aware of the ways my privilege intersects with my ignorance I've constantly thought, "how can I do or say anything that won't be fucked up? is it worth talking if I know it might be harmful?"

I don't think my work is all bad or useless. But I do know that I've perpetuated the harms that privilege brings. And now I have to work to understand what this is and does, and just do better.

I have been working (and failing a lot, but trying still) to figure out ways I can shift these dynamics in my own work, trying to figure out not just how to make the space but how to create stronger alliances and relationships to flesh this stuff out. It's slow going because these injustices are entrenched, as much as I want it to be fixed now. I don't have a magic, uplifting discovery about how to fix everything. But I do know that gaining a deeper understanding of the things that are broken has given me greater conviction that I am indeed in this

Red Umbrella Diaries – December 2: Family Affairs

Hosted by Audacia Ray

Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City

Thursday, July 1. Doors at 7 pm, reading from 8-10

21 and up – FREE

15% of the bar tab supports the New York City vigil for the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers on December 17

Starring: Lily Burana, Tré Xavier, Katelan V. Foisy, Fiona Helmsley, and Sydney Seifert.

Lily Burana

Lily Burana is a punk rock girl turned writer and editor. Since starting her writing life as a columnist and editor at punk and alternative 'zines, she has gone on to write for numerous publications including The Washington Post, GQ, The New York Times, Self, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Details, The Village Voice, Slate, Salon, and The New York Observer, and her reviews and cultural criticism have been picked up by magazines and newspapers around the world. She has been a Contributing Editor at SPIN and New York magazines. Her essays have been included in numerous anthologies.

Lily is the author of three books. Her first book, STRIP CITY: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America (Miramax Books, 2001) made Best Book of the Year lists in Entertainment Weekly, Salon, New York Newsday, and Rocky Mountain News, and was selected as a Barnes and Noble Discover New Writers title. Strip City was also named in the Top Six "EW Picks" in Entertainment Weekly's 2008 "So You Want to Write a Memoir" roundup, which featured a thousand recent memoirs. Her novel, TRY (St. Martins Press, 2006), an alt.Western romance, was lauded by Kirkus Reviews as "a touching winter-spring romance set amid full Western regalia." Her third book, I LOVE A MAN IN UNIFORM: A Memoir of Love, War, and Other Battles (Weinstein Books, 2009) was called "a notable historical document" by the New York Times.

Tré Xavier is a predominantly gay bisexual entertainer and author who writes about sex, life & love in his blog, Tré's X-Ray Vision. While he has retired from performing in studio-based gay porn, his continued exhibitionist displays online and telling of his sexual adventures and explorations for his blog maintains his being considered an adult entertainer.

During his time in the industry, Tré's writing skills at creating vivid pictures and expressing valid points has led to him writing blog entries for Pitbull Production's ThugPornBlog, and more recognizably, MOC Blog, which he still maintains being a contributing writer for. He has also had his opinions published in a book review for FlavaMen Magazine, and in the Feedback section of The Advocate. In the vein of his published words on MOC Blog and in The Advocate, he is an active and well-recognized voice for racial equality in gay adult entertainment by way of comments on various websites like Fleshbot, Gay Porn Times, and The Sword. And since retiring, Tré's voice fighting for that racial equality continues to be heard by the aforementioned, and even more places now as he has spread to fighting for it in gay mainstream entertainment as well, including most recently the gay cable channel, LOGO. All this while he resurrects his skills as an actor, dancer, singer, artist, poet, and songwriter. Most of which can be found on his YouTube channel.

Katelan V. Foisy is a visual artist, pin-up model, writer, and tarot reader living in NYC. Her fine art pieces have been displayed at The Worcester Art Museum, Ohio History Museum, Mae West Fest, MODA, Museum of Contemporary Art DC, as well as the A&D gallery in London. Her illustrations have graced the pages of the Grammy Awards, Scholastic Books, as well as appearing on the stage of Ensemble Studio Theater. She is the art director for Constellation, an astrology-based arts magazine, and released her memoir Blood and Pudding earlier this year. www.katelanfoisy.com

Fiona Helmsley is a thirty-something momshell, navel-gazer and recovering fun slut. Her first book, There Are A Million Stories In The Naked City When You're A Girl Who Gets Naked In The Naked City was released in June. A writer of creative non-fiction and poetry, her work can be found scattered about the print and online worlds while her irreverent fashion sense stays static at whatfionaworetoday.tumblr.com.

Sydney Seifert is a writer and photographer interested in youth led research, sexuality & social justice. Her masters thesis, "Beyond Risk: The evaded curriculum in sexuality education for marginally housed and homeless young women," has helped shape and focus her lens through which she sees the power in education and knowledge. She has been a passionate photographer since the age of 14, continually documenting her life in New York City and Beyond.

She has a BA in Sociology from St. Lawrence University and her MA in Sexuality Studies from San Francisco State University. Currently she is working with queer youth in NYC, c0-creating and building a peer sex education program with 15 amazing youth interns.

Her photography has appeared in publications by the National Sexuality Resource Center and The Center for Sex and Culture and The Richard F. Brush Art Gallery. Her writing is published in $pread magazine and the San Francisco State University Library. She is interested in Photo Journalism & Art/Erotic Photography.

This Cuban/Greek sex geek lives in New York City with her Pound Pup, Henry Marie Elizabeth and is always on the look out for a new restaurant to try.

Why Scarleteen Matters and What You Should Do About It

Good, honest sexuality education is almost impossible to find in the United States. The reasons for this are rooted in our weird system of morals, fear of arming young people with information, and deep discomfort with sexuality. This all manifests in systems of funding. Which is to say, a really good way to control information is to fund what you (which is to say, the U.S. government and funders) want people to know, and don't fund the dangerous stuff.

Scarleteen has never taken funds from the U.S. government or its agencies – to do so would make their work impossible. That's a catch-22 if there ever was one, but many of the curriculum and reporting requirements that are in place along with much of the available funding make it really hard for folks like Heather Corinna and her team to be real with the young people her organization Scarleteen serves.

Which means: Scarleteen has and will always have a money problem. But you can help to contribute to the continuation of their programs. When you donate to Scarleteen, this awesome and scrappy little org gets your money directly, and it gets fed right back into their programs.

Through November 15th, if you make a donation of $10 or more to Scarleteen and send me the receipt, I will send you a signed copy of my book Naked on the Internet.

From October 15 through November 15, Scarleteen is running a blog carnival to help raise awareness and funds for their work. This post is part of that carnival. Last week, I also did a guest advice post on the site. One of Scarleteen's major online projects is answering questions from their community. Here's the question and part of my answer; check out the full post here.

Anonymous asks:

I was just wondering…can a girl have sex if she has undergone genital mutilation? Because I know a girl who has, and she said it was a TYPE 1 circumcision and that she couldn't have sex EVER. Also, is there any way she will ever be able to reverse the mutilation? What limitations will she face, compared to a person who hasn't been mutilated? Thanks a lot for your answer!

The World Health Organization defines a type one female genital cutting as: Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals) and, in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).

Many people who have a fully intact clitoris find touching their clitoris or having someone else touch it to be a source of pleasure and a kind of stimulation that does or may play a part in orgasm. However, the clitoris is not the only key to pleasure and/or orgasm. Most of pleasure and orgasm aren't about our genitals at all, but about our brain and central nervous system. Even when it comes to the clitoris, there is much more than meets the eye: the visible hood and glans of the clitoris are attached to deeper structures. Underneath the skin, the clitoris is actually wishbone shaped, with long legs, or crura, that are underneath the labia majora. For some people, light touch or pressure on the crura is pleasurable and potentially orgasmic. In type one FGC, the crura are not harmed, so the "invisible" part of the clitoris is still intact and functional.

Red Umbrella Diaries: Bad Behavior – November 4

Hosted by Audacia Ray

Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City

Thursday, November 4. Doors open at 7 PM, reading starts at 8.

21 and up – FREE

15% of the bar tab supports The Red Umbrella Project's Storytelling Workshops

Starring:

Joanna Angel – writer, producer, director, model and AVN award-winning adult film star – is more commonly referred to as the "Queen of Punk Rock Porn" in the adult world.

A nerd by nature, Joanna holds a B.A. in English from Rutgers University and although her name and brand are synonymous with a much more risqué art, she remains a director, writer, actress, adult entrepreneur and comedian. Joanna has been published in Carly Milne's "Naked Ambition," and was a featured sex columnist for Spin Magazine in 2006. She is also a diligent blogger who captures her daily experience for fans on the BurningAngel blog.

When forming the BurningAngel empire, she drew upon her strengths as a powerful, intelligent and creative woman, added her innate sense of comedic timing, and – with a lot of chutzpah and her unique vision – created a whole new genre of adult film. http://joannaangel.com

Desiree Burch is an NYC-based comedian, emcee, writer, and New York Neo-Futurist, best-known for her acclaimed solo show "52 Man Pickup" which has played alt-theater venues in New York and London as well as the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. One of New York Magazine's "10 New Comedians that Funny People Find Funny," Desiree has supplied laughter for MTV, VH1, NBC News, The New York Post, Comedy Central, Huffington Post and more, and can also be seen in the upcoming feature-length documentary "I Heart New York." She is a Yale graduate and previously hosted/curated the reading and variety series Smut. ("Art that should carry a Parental Advisory Label" – NY Times). http://desireeburch.com

Goldschwanz is a Berlin & London based independent escort, dedicated activist, writer & visual artist. She smashed her promising academic career to become a sex worker, and has since checked out the European adult industry, starred in scat movies and fetish clubs, and has been an usherette at porn movie theatres, a party host, and sex coach. She blogs at "Hookers' Republic," a dirty, entertaining, and revealing treatise on sex worker issues, and documents her life and travel with images, print columns, comic strips, and poetry. She also performs multifaceted stand-up comedy to crack mind-mapping and stereotyping and tackle political issues with grim humor. She has performed in London & Berlin and this is her debut in NY.

Honolulu native Christine Macdonald worked the darker side of paradise as a nude exotic dancer Waikiki. Her articles, The Customer is Always Trite, Embarrassing Stripper Moments and Stripper Scoop: your top five questions answered earned her cover spots as Editor's Picks on Open Salon; she has also been featured and recognized as a rising author on the popular publishing site Scribd. An avid supporter of equal rights, Macdonald founded Another way to say it Greetings, a greeting card company that caters to her friends in the GLBT community. She plans to launch these cards following completion of her current project. Christine is currently writing a memoir about her experiences as a stripper from 1987 to 1996, and was selected as the October 2010 NAMW Member of the Month.She is a self-proclaimed stripper cliché and recovering narcissist.

Red Umbrella Diaries: Bad Behavior – November 2

Hosted by Audacia Ray

Happy Ending, 302 Broome Street between Forsyth and Eldridge, in New York City

Thursday, November 4. Doors open at 7 PM, reading starts at 8.

21 and up – FREE

15% of the bar tab supports The Red Umbrella Project's Storytelling Workshops

Starring:

Joanna Angel – writer, producer, director, model and AVN award-winning adult film star – is more commonly referred to as the "Queen of Punk Rock Porn" in the adult world.

A nerd by nature, Joanna holds a B.A. in English from Rutgers University and although her name and brand are synonymous with a much more risqué art, she remains a director, writer, actress, adult entrepreneur and comedian. Joanna has been published in Carly Milne's "Naked Ambition," and was a featured sex columnist for Spin Magazine in 2006. She is also a diligent blogger who captures her daily experience for fans on the BurningAngel blog.

When forming the BurningAngel empire, she drew upon her strengths as a powerful, intelligent and creative woman, added her innate sense of comedic timing, and – with a lot of chutzpah and her unique vision – created a whole new genre of adult film. http://joannaangel.com

Desiree Burch is an NYC-based comedian, emcee, writer, and New York Neo-Futurist, best-known for her acclaimed solo show "52 Man Pickup" which has played alt-theater venues in New York and London as well as the Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. One of New York Magazine's "10 New Comedians that Funny People Find Funny," Desiree has supplied laughter for MTV, VH1, NBC News, The New York Post, Comedy Central, Huffington Post and more, and can also be seen in the upcoming feature-length documentary "I Heart New York." She is a Yale graduate and previously hosted/curated the reading and variety series Smut. ("Art that should carry a Parental Advisory Label" – NY Times). http://desireeburch.com

Goldschwanz is a Berlin & London based independent escort, dedicated activist, writer & visual artist. She smashed her promising academic career to become a sex worker, and has since checked out the European adult industry, starred in scat movies and fetish clubs, and has been an usherette at porn movie theatres, a party host, and sex coach. She blogs at "Hookers' Republic," a dirty, entertaining, and revealing treatise on sex worker issues, and documents her life and travel with images, print columns, comic strips, and poetry. She also performs multifaceted stand-up comedy to crack mind-mapping and stereotyping and tackle political issues with grim humor. She has performed in London & Berlin and this is her debut in NY.

Honolulu native Christine Macdonald worked the darker side of paradise as a nude exotic dancer Waikiki. Her articles, The Customer is Always Trite, Embarrassing Stripper Moments and Stripper Scoop: your top five questions answered earned her cover spots as Editor's Picks on Open Salon; she has also been featured and recognized as a rising author on the popular publishing site Scribd. An avid supporter of equal rights, Macdonald founded Another way to say it Greetings, a greeting card company that caters to her friends in the GLBT community. She plans to launch these cards following completion of her current project. Christine is currently writing a memoir about her experiences as a stripper from 1987 to 1996, and was selected as the October 2010 NAMW Member of the Month.She is a self-proclaimed stripper cliché and recovering narcissist.

Best of Shaming Me Into Blogging More

This week, The Village Voice published their "Best Of" listings for 2010 – and I was thrilled to have been listed not once, but twice!

I was selected as the Best Sex Blogger of 2010 for this here blog, which I've been writing since 2004. Says The Voice, "no New Yorker scribbles about sex better than Audacia Ray, the brains and beauty behind Waking Vixen." They also say that my writing is "thoughtful and often lewd" – the latter is not so much true, and may cause me to get a solid number of emails from those who miss the good ole days of me blogging the minute details of my sex life. I don't so much miss the play-by-play writing, but I do miss writing here regularly, and I'm hoping to finish some posts I've got percolating in my drafts folder soon soon. Over the last few years, I've grown from being huddled in my room writing about things to being out in the world trying to make and do things better. Which is more useful than navel-gazing, but I do miss the writing.

Oh, and my second Best Of mention! The Red Umbrella Diaries was noted as the Best Way to Meet Sex Workers (For Free). Creepy? Yeah. But a nice bit of recognition nonetheless. My favorite line of the write-up, as the writer tries to puzzle out what the hell this thing is exactly: "It's not exactly a turn-on… but it's certainly captivating." It's always amusing-slash-frustrating to me when the Red Umbrella Diaries gets described as an erotica event, but I also know that it's hard for many people to grapple with the idea of sex and money, and especially sexual experiences that might not be all that sexy.

Thanks for the support and continued interest in my work over the years. It means a great deal to me to have a community of people rooting for me, challenging me, and giving me stuff to think about.

Little-Known Medication Offers Safe and Accessible Alternative to Surgical Abortion

I spend most of my blog time over at the International Women's Health Coalition blog, Akimbo, which I edit. This post is part of our International Access to Safe Abortion Week series of posts.

Access to safe abortion has changed over the past several decades – not just because of the ever-shifting global legal and funding landscapes, but also because of health technologies. For thousands of years, women have used herbal remedies to end unwanted pregnancies, but more recently medicines developed in labs provide a non-surgical safe abortion option.

Millions of women worldwide have safely terminated their pregnancies with medication since mifepristone -or RU 486- was first introduced in the late 1980s. Research in the past two decades has identified a highly effective regimen for early medical abortion with a success rate of 95 to 98 percent, consisting of 200 milligrams of mifepristone followed by 400 or 800 micrograms of misoprostol. Whether taken in a health center or at home by women themselves, the regimen offers an option that many women prefer to surgical procedures such as manual vacuum aspiration or dilation and curettage (D&C).

Because mifepristone is a registered abortion drug, its sale and use are not permitted in most countries with restrictive abortion laws. In contrast, misoprostol is an anti-ulcer medication that is registered under various trade names in more than 85 countries. Research has found that misoprostol used alone is about 85 percent successful in inducing abortion when used as recommended, offering a safe and accessible alternative for women who have no other option.

Not enough women know about misoprostol as an option for safe abortion, so we've collaborated with Gynuity Health Projects to release " Abortion With Self-Administered Misoprostol: A Guide For Women ," available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Gynuity has also done research about the registration of misoprostol around the world, and has produced the map below, which shows where misoprostol is registered and available for off-label use (solid purple), where it is also approved for medical abortion (stripes), and where it is not approved for any use (yellow). You can also download a PDF of the map, with English or Spanish text, here.

As with anything related to women's health, access is more complex than the legal registration of a medication. The publication "What Women Want – Meeting Global Demand for Medical Abortion" [link downloads a PDF], produced by Marie Stopes International (MSI), details the complexities of access to medical abortion. Both mifepristone and misoprostol are increasingly available in black markets in Africa and the Middle East, regions with the most restrictive laws around these drugs. Prices for the pills also vary widely from country to country; depending on legal status and local markets, pills can cost anywhere from $1 to $30 each. In 2007, the World Health Organization added misoprostol to their Essential Drugs List, and more recently it was "redefined as an essential medicine for incomplete abortion/miscarriage management," according to MSI. However, the process of registration and approval for new medications can be lengthy. In the U.S., for example, the approval of new drugs can take eight to ten years.

While it is certainly important for health care practitioners to be trained on the administration of medical abortion so that they are capable of providing comprehensive information and services to the women they work with, it is also important for women themselves to have access to life saving information. MSI puts this really well in their "What Women Want" guide (pg 21):

Within the public health community there is increasing acknowledgement of the potential afforded by demedicalising the provision of some healthcare services. The increasing shift from surgical to medical abortion is an example of demedicalisation in practice: medical abortion requires less technology, can be carried out in non-clinical settings, does not necessarily need to be delivered by high-level providers such as physicians, and users can play a more active role in the process through self-administration of medication. Furthermore, some women and men prefer less clinical environments.

Medical abortion has the potential to transform traditional relationships between reproductive healthcare providers and their clients. In contrast to surgical abortion, medical abortion is not done to women but by them, with appropriate support provided by health professionals.

Wherever unwanted pregnancies happen –which is to say, all around the world– there will be women who choose to terminate their pregnancies. It's essential that women get the information they need to make informed and safe choices about their bodies and reproductive health. The availability of misoprostol, and the distribution of multilingual information about how to use misoprostol, are both steps in that direction.

October 10: Talking About the Taboo at the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health in Providence

This Sunday, I may be breaking my New Year's Resolution. Pretty dramatic, eh? My resolution was to abstain… from attending conferences this year. So far, so good!

But I'm ruining it all on Sunday, I think. I will refer to the thing I'm participating in as an event, or a conversation, or a workshop – it is all those things. But my hosts are calling it a conference, so my resolution is broken.

"It" is the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health's second annual conference, Talking About the Taboo: Discussing Difficult Issues in Human Sexuality, which takes place this Sunday in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The event, which runs from 1 to 5 pm, brings together all aspects of sexuality, the pleasure, education, advocacy and medical worlds, and will take subjects that are traditionally "taboo" and elucidate them, showing that the taboo can be fun, interesting and educational and most importantly, able to be discussed in thoughtful, provoking ways.

I'm participating in two different pieces of the event – a panel of experts and a solo workshop.

The "Talking About the Taboo" panel, from 1:40 to 2:30, will feature many sexuality experts willing to share with you their work in the field of sexuality. From medical providers, rape crisis counselors, to dominatrixes, you are sure to find someone to teach you something new! Listen to our panel, take a small group class or chat it up with our experts throughout the event.

Our guest panelists will include: Dr. Charlie Glickman, Princess Kali, Audacia Ray, Sinclair Sexsmith, Dr. Logan Levkoff and Anita Hoffer!

My workshop "Media Tactics, or How to Do Sexuality Activism Without Looking Like a Jerk" is from 3:45-4:25. Here's my writeup: Unless you live in a totally sex positive bubble, you see news items and media representations every day that make you angry. In this session we will discuss tactics for speaking out about sexuality in our culture, with an emphasis on online media. Topics include: best practices for participating and building relationships in online communities, being right versus being effective, and when to fight and when to walk away.

Hope to see you in Rhode Island!

But if you're not there, Kink On Tap will be recording the sessions and podcasting them.

Indian Sex Workers Fight Back Against Misrepresentation

Last week, VBS TV (the video arm of Vice Magazine) debuted a 30 minute documentary called "Prostitutes of God", which features some of the members of VAMP, a group that is part of the organization SANGRAM (I visited them last fall on my trip tot India). The representation of the women and their lives in the video, however, was painted with a very broad brush – one that obscures the complexities that women in sex work face in their work, worship, and family lives.

VAMP members were very upset by how they are portrayed in the film. They have used their media savvy to speak up about the film – read their below statement and watch the video directed to the film's producers – and have channeled their rage to make sure that the filmmakers are held accountable for their work and the damage it does to sex workers. This problem of misrepresentation in the media certainly isn't one that is exclusive to sex workers, but the standard issues of representation are compounded by the fact that sex workers are the subject of the film and that the film's producers are from the global north and the subjects are from the global south. Furthermore, class inequities result in a film that doesn't delve into the root causes of poverty, just obsesses over their manifestation in the sex industry.

The VBS filmmakers got up close and personal before betraying the film's participants too – the interactions with the sex workers in the film are chummy, and frequently take place in the sex workers' homes, but in the film these relationships are twisted so that the filmmakers endanger and mock their subjects. In the second episode, the filmmakers visit with a young woman whom they later reveal is HIV positive and who they assume is spreading HIV like wildfire among the community. During the third episode of the film, the filmmakers visit with a trans woman who is a sex worker – they misgender her, mock her in the film, and don't contextualize the experience of trans women in the sex industry at all, but depict her as a freak and a transvestite.

Here's VAMP's response:

This brief (3.5) minute clip by the Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP, Prostitutes' Collective Against Injustice), encapsulates a succinct response to 'Prostitutes of God', a sensationalized and factually flawed documentary produced by Sarah Harris for VBS TV. Countering the distorted perspective in the film, women from VAMP present their incisive views about sex work; religion and faith; livelihoods; issues of consent; ethics and cross-cultural sensitivities while making documentary films.

The women in Sangli from VAMP recorded video responses to the film. In the age of the internet, women in countries far away who used to be the objects of white people's gaze with no right of reply now have access to the representations that are made of them, and the technological means to answer back. A naive westerner may seize the headlines, but there's now scope for there to be a debate and to bring those who in the past would have remained voiceless victims into that debate to represent themselves. It is a great opportunity to put the record straight.

This clip has been produced by Sangli Talkies, the newly-launched video unit of SANGRAM / VAMP.

Since this video went online last week, it's created a bit of a stir – as it should.

Bebe Loff, Associate Professor and Director of the Michael Kirby Centre for Public Health and Human Rights at Monash University in Australia, has written a piece for RH Reality Check, "Prostitutes of God:" Film Mocks, Belittles Sex Workers.

Paromita Vohra, a Mumbai-based filmmaker, writes about the ethical issues in her piece Vamps, victims, and videotapes in the Mid Day.

These writings, in cooperation with many comments and notes from sex workers and allies from around the world, has gotten at least a bit of a response – the film has been edited to remove the information about the HIV status of one of the women, which was revealed without her consent. We're all keeping the pressure on; ultimately we hope to get the film taken offline, with a public apology issued. But in the meantime, chipping away at it bit by bit is important.

Gone are the days when filmmakers from the global north could swoop in and document things they perceive without consequence. But media makers shouldn't view the act of their subjects watching the end product as a hindrance to telling the story, as it seems that these filmmakers have. "Subject" is no longer even a good word – media making, especially when it is about a community, should be collaborative in order to have a chance at reflecting even a modicum of honesty.