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• Otaku sex, virtual girlfriends, cosplay: is paid sex with real people best?

  18 March 2010 in sex work

  If we want having sex with all sorts of people to be accepted, whether money is exchanged or not, can we accept those who prefer having sex with virtual characters? Last year I wrote about cosplay, in which dressing up has a big role in erotic scenes. Now here’s an article that explores erotic and [...]

• Women must be allowed to massage soldiers of all sexes: Swedish gender-equality policy on the ground

  15 March 2010 in sex work

  Afghan voters

  Masseuse is sometimes a euphemism for prostitute or sex worker: an annoyance for many massage therapists who offer no sexual contact. But given the common misuse, and given the social context of mostly male military personnel, it’s interestingly odd to see a Swedish official advocating that women must be allowed to perform massages on soldiers - as a logical [...]

• Migrant sex workers, medieval Japanese

  11 March 2010 in migration, sex work

  A scholar of medieval Japan, Janet Goodwin, reveals how sexual mores changed from liberal and accepting to disapproving a thousand years ago. The above picture depicts sexual entertainers in a small boat - nomadic sex workers - soliciting passengers in a larger boat. Note how positive perceptions changed to negative, and how the disapproving attitude towards [...]

• Trafficking: Framing the questions, Providing the proofs

  10 March 2010 in migration, sex work, trafficking

  If you’re in New York, try to come to tonight’s event at 66th Street and York Avenue - a lot of fantastic people will be in attendance.
  I’m giving a talk at a good evening hour on 10 March, on the East Side in the 60s, and welcome anyone interested to come along. The lecture is [...]

• Kamathipura red lights give way to skyscrapers: Mumbai

  8 March 2010 in sex work

  Gentrification always tries to make street life more orderly, less messy, more suited to middle-class tastes. Recently I published stories about city ordinances in Spain and Italy that name specific activities to be banned in public places: bathing in fountains, eating sandwiches, selling sex. This story about Mumbai describes how a traditional red-light (and slum) [...]