Curious about sex work? Participate in SexWork101.com

Re-posting from Audacia Ray's blog...

Sex Work 101 was inspired by conversations that happened during the Women, Action and the Media 2008 conference held in Cambridge, MA from March 28-30, 2008.

I gave a talk at WAM called Sex Workers and Media Representation (click to see notes for the workshop), and questions during and after the talk made me realize that many people are curious about the sex industry and want to support sex workers in their struggle for rights, but they have no idea where to start. This site is an attempt to fill that gap in public education in an approachable, easy to understand, and engaging way - it’s also the first public education project from Sex Work Awareness, a new non-profit in NYC founded by four $pread staff members. Sex Work 101 is meant to add to public knowledge about sex work and to encourage discussion about the issues sex workers face.

Participate in Sex Work 101! I’m looking for questions non-sex working people want answered and their perceptions of/thoughts about the industry, as well as posts from sex workers who want to share stories about their work (a day in the life, how I got into the industry, reposts from personal blogs, etc)

The official email for the site is ask[at]sexwork101.com but people can also email me at dacia[at]wakingvixen.com. I’d also love to hear from people who want to help with the site - writing posts, answering questions, etc.

Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy #1

The first Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy went up today. It includes contributions from BPPA contributors Ernest Green, Ren, Anthony K, Amber, Trinity, and myself (both here and, mostly, on our own blogs), plus many others in the blogosphere 'sex-poz posse', both well-known and less so, and including some interesting new voices in the sex-poz/sexual autonomy/whatever scene. This carnival will be an ongoing monthly thing, so if you're interested in submitting a post, keep your eye on the FCSFA website, where calls for submissions should be posted.

2008 Sex-Positive Journalism Awards Now Seeking Entries

Nationally known journalists and sex-positive advocates to judge "Sexies"

Contact: Susan Wright, 917-848-6544 or Miriam Axel-Lute

To hear some people tell it, all of "the media" is a degenerate, sex-drenched affair. But although there's plenty of talk about the sex lives of celebrities and a willingness to use a scandal to sell a paper, when you get into the content of actual news stories, things often take a turn for the Puritanical: Soccer moms' fabricated allegations about kids being exposed to nudity in a hotel hosting a swingers conference get printed as fact and never retracted. Religious minorities are assumed to speak for all religious Americans, or even all Americans, when it comes to whether "abstinence" should be the teen sex-ed gold standard. Usual standards of fairness and objectivity fall prey to reporters and editors' squeamishness.

In response to this state of affairs, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, the Center for Sex and Culture, Babeland, and journalist Miriam Axel-Lute are launching the 2008 Sex-Positive Journalism Awards (the "Sexies") to promote fair, accurate, and non-sensationalized coverage of sexual topics. The awards are currently accepting entries that meet both high journalistic standards and the Sexies award criteria.

"For the past decade, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom has dealt with media reports that include sensationalized and false information about sexual issues," says Susan Wright, NCSF spokesperson. "These articles cause harm by encouraging discrimination and persecution of adults who engage in consensual sexual expression. NCSF is proud to support the Sexies and sex-positive journalism in America."

"The media's frequent failure to apply balanced journalistic standards to sex-related topics affects real people's lives," says Carol Queen, PhD, co-founder of the Center for Sex and Culture. "A sensationalistic perspective can turn neighbors against each other or make it hard for someone accused of a sex-related offense to get a fair trial. It also means that too many of us worry about whether we're 'normal,' and don't realize there are sex-positive communities, sources of information, and professionals out there. Just as in the political arena, when the press does not do its job, there is real fallout."

The winners of the Sex-Positive Journalism Awards will be chosen by an outstanding panel of judges, who have expertise in both journalism and sex-positive advocacy: Dan Savage, author of the popular sex-advice column “Savage Love”; Carol Queen, PhD, writer, speaker, educator, and activist with a doctorate in sexology; Liza Featherstone, journalist and author of “Sex, Lies, and Women’s Magazines” (Columbia Journalism Review); Jack Hafferkamp, a former journalist and journalism professor and co-editor/publisher of LIBIDO: The Journal of Sex and Sensibility; Judith Levine, journalist and author of the award-winning Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex, Doug Henwood, contributing editor to The Nation; Marty Klein, PhD, certified sex therapist, therapist trainer, and author of America’s War on Sex; and Claire Cavanah, an activist, writer, speaker, and educator in the field of human sexuality and a founder of babeland.com.

"All but the most confident and self-assured among us are affected by the messages we receive about sex," says Claire Cavanah, co-founder of Babeland.com, a founding sponsor of the Sexies. "It's freeing to read an article that assumes that most people want a pleasurable, vibrant sex life. Sex-positive media creates space for readers to think about sex in a way that goes against some of the damaging messages that our culture perpetuates."

"There are journalism awards rewarding good coverage of everything from private aviation to colon cancer," says Axel-Lute, "but there was nothing out there to reward writers who went the extra mile to be fair and accurate about something as essential to human identity as sexual expression. The Sexies fill that gap."

The Sexies will be given in four categories: news, feature, opinion, and "unsexy" (the most egregious violation of the Sexies' criteria). The first three categories have three divisions each: daily general-audience newspaper, weekly or biweekly general-audience newspaper, and online general-audience news publication. [Divisions updated Nov. 7. See press release or criteria page.] The Unsexy award has no divisions. Articles must have been published in 2007. Article series must have started or ended in 2007. Submissions are due by March 23, 2008. Both writers and readers can submit articles for consideration. For full guidelines and a submissions form are available on the website. Winners will receive a cash prize and a plaque. The Sexies are seeking corporate sponsors and individual donations to support our mission. Donations can be made at www.sexies.org/support.html.

Right ON

I linked to Dacia’s latest post about “feminist porn” in my del.cio.us links yesterday, but I had such a “yes yes YES that’s IT!” reaction to it that I feel compelled to quote liberally here…

To me, making feminist porn is not about what is actually shown on screen and much more about what is happening on the production end of things. This is very clearly an expression of my years working in the sex industry and working for sex workers’ rights, but like Petra says in the beginning of this paragraph, “our tastes on what we find sexy in the bedroom or on film differ.” We can have a whole argument about the nurture and nature of “taste” - but I don’t think liking or not liking specific acts can make or break a feminist.

I don’t care if porn shows a woman masturbating by herself (like in many of the Abby Winters photo sets and videos), a woman fucking a guy with a strap-on (like in The Bi Apple, a woman enthusiastically sucking cock (like in Erika’s films), or a pregnant woman getting fucked up the ass with a baseball bat (like in Belladonna’s Fucking Girls Again). What I do care about is: does that performer want to be there? Is the director/producer respecting her needs and paying her appropriately? Did she get blindsided by requests for acts she doesn’t want to do?

The answers to those questions determine whether or not the porn is feminist, sex-positive, and ethical for me, not what is happening on screen.

Do you get it now, people? Do you? I still do not know why this is a difficult concept, but clearly it is. And so these things must continue to be said, emphatically.

I might write more about this later. I need to crawl into bed now, though, because I got up at 6:00 a.m. on a Saturday.

[Cross-posted at Being Amber Rhea]

Greta Christina on Hard Porn, Sex Work, and Consent

Greta Christina had an excellent post the other day on the above-mentioned issues:

See, in any kind of job, and in any kind of relationship, there are things you like and things you don't. Even if it's a job or a relationship that you're basically happy with, there are going to be parts that are hard to deal with. What makes a job or relationship a healthy one is that the good parts make the bad parts worth putting up with -- and that you're free to make that decision.

And that's true for porn -- all porn, not just spanking porn -- as much as it is for any job. I think some people have a tendency to think that if every single thing on a porn shoot isn't a perfect erotic dream for every performer, it's therefore exploitation at best and coercion at worst....But if you look at making porn as (a) a job and (b) a sexual relationship, you realize that porn doesn't have to make all its performers perfectly happy in order to be a healthy job. It just has to make them happy enough. There has to be enough about it that they like, sexually and professionally, for the stuff they don't like to be worth putting up with.

[more]

She also links to another excellent post on this topic on ErosBlog, "Evil Porn Werewolf Enslavers Debunked". I liked it so much, I thought I'd throw in a direct plug here. ErosBlog is a new one to me, but its on my regular reading list now.

Yeah, that's right, I'm pro-porn

For the longest time (am I the only one singing along to Billy Joel in my head now?), the term "pro-porn" really rankled me. And I mean up until about two days ago. As a matter of fact, on a certain level it still rankles me, because, like Trinity, I see it as a nasty, reactionary label slapped onto those of us who don't toe the anti-porn hardline, by certain smug internet denizens who do.

But when I saw Ren had started this blog, I decided, "Fuck it. It's time to take the label that was used to hurt and dismiss, and make it our own."

Because, really, I am pro-porn - but, again, as Trinity has shown, one of the problems with that term is that it can mean so many different things, and if the people having a conversation are all operating from different definitions, there can be some pretty big misunderstandings. So, when I say I'm pro-porn, here's exactly what I mean...

I think the free, open, uninhibited, joyful expression of sexuality, in whatever form makes people happy and gets them off, is a good thing. What you like might not be what I like and none of it may be what that person over there likes; but that's beside the point. We all should feel the freedom from shame (or more severe, tangible punishment) to express whatever it is that gets us off. We should not feel that we have to "rein in" our sexuality because it makes someone uncomfortable, or because it's seen as dirty, or sinful, or silly, or unimportant, or offensive, or whatever else. As women, we get all of this and more from the society around us, every day. And frankly I am sick of it. I am a highly sexual woman, and I am NOT going to apologize for it, or "tone it down," or anything else. I am going to be ME.

So where does porn fit into all that? Well, I truly believe that porn can be an expression of these things for women. Note the word can. I shouldn't even have to say it, but obviously this does not mean all porn is awesome. Most porn, in my opinion, isn't awesome; but that doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater. To go back to my music analogy, if I were to say I'm "pro-music," I seriously doubt many people would immediately jump to "So, you support all the drug and alcohol abuse in the music industry?? So, you want to run independent artists out of business??"

And, too, there's the very basic, fundamental concept that many people have already mentioned here: consenting adults should be able to do whatever the fuck they want. None of us get to be the morality police for other adults.

I'm pro-porn as part and parcel of being sex-positive. And I'm sex-positive because, well, I just can't imagine being any other way. It just feels right. This society is sex-negative, no two ways about it. And what's bizarre is that sex is either dirty, nasty, base, shallow, frivolous, scorn-worthy; or it's sacred, holy, extraordinary, on a pedestal above the rest of the world.

Neither of those are right. And it saddens me that those are our options (and astounds me at how often the two polar opposites are conflated). So how could I not be sex positive?

Annie Sprinkle and Mae Tyme talk porn

Believe it or not, folks, it is possible for an anti-porn feminist and a sex-positive feminist to have a civil, respectful conversation.

I encourage everyone to read this conversation between sex-positive activist Annie Sprinkle and anti-porn radical feminist Mae Tyme. Here's an excerpt, but seriously, read the whole thing.

Annie Sprinkle: To me pornography is any photo, film or drawing that shows hard-core explicit sex. How exactly do you view pornography?

Mae Tyme: As something that is overwhelmingly by, about and for men. It is a world wide industry that generates gazillions of dollars every year from which women do not benefit.

A: In porn films female performers get paid a whole heck of a lot more than the male performers.

M: I didn’t know that. I’ve always viewed pornography as an aspect of oppression of women, not of our liberation. And I view the nuclear family pretty much that too. So I’ve tried to develop a sexuality that isn’t about men or what they want, but is entirely about women and how we relate to each other.

A: Presently I’m actually interested in trying to do the same thing. Would a typical sex magazine just totally turn you off?

M: Yes. I am trying to learn what sex is about for a free and voluntarily participating woman. My view has been that all women that do pornography are either terribly misinformed, or they’ve been enslaved. You tell me that’s not true at all. That being in porn can be liberating and profitable.

A: I agree that we all have a lot of programmed ideas about what is sexy. I get irked. Oh God, not another white teddy. There is plenty of room for porn to be more creative, experimental, feminist, and more erotic for women. But it’s harder to create that than you might think. That’s the challenge I love.