London charity x:talk is promoting a campaign for a moratorium on sex work-related arrests during the Olympics. The whys and wherefores are on their briefing paper here. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter here. If you are someone committed to decriminalisation, harm reduction - even if we disagree on the ethics of sex work - please lend your public support to this important campaign.
If you've been following the recent online porn and sexualisation discussion, you'll be pleased to know excellent resources for parents to talk to their teens about pornography do indeed exist. Check out Planet Porn by the good folks at Bish Training, and get the conversation started! (For a free sample of the material in the pack, see this Bish page).
Dr Marty Klein's seminal book America's War on Sex is rereleased soon, his interview over at Salon. As he says, look out, the prudes are winning:
In terms of sexuality, I think people are so afraid of their own sexual impulses, people feel so guilty, and people are so wigged out by the complete failure of monogamy to deliver what they desperately need emotionally that they’re open to demagoguery. When it comes to sexuality we’re looking at the Weimar Republic here, we’re looking at 1933 in Germany.
I'm a guest on Radio Litopia's The Naked Book this Wednesday night. Also featured will be Friday Project supremo Scott Pack and we'll be chatting about self-publishing, bloggers, erotica, and "mommy porn". In other words: the discussion Newsnight didn't want you to hear!
Maggie McNeill writes about how groups of sex workers organising in developing countries are an example to Western groups:
Banks recognizing sex work as a profession? Schools and sports teams for the children of openly-declared prostitutes? That’s like science fiction in the United States, where fanatical prudes pretend escorts are incapable of charity and government agencies steal their children (a tradition “trafficking” fetishists are trying to export to India). The industry, ambition, courage and teamwork of Indian sex workers put the weak, diffuse and toothless efforts of their American sisters to shame.(via Swaay)
Issue one of Howard Hardiman's The Lengths, a gripping graphic novelisation of the life and times of a male escort, is now free to view online. You can order the other issues here.
