Newsflash: Canadian Court Strikes Down Anti-Sex-Work Laws
September 29, 2010 by Stephanie Hallett · 8 Comments
The provincial court of Ontario, Canada, struck down several key provisions that limit sex workers’ ability to work safely, a victory being hailed by sex workers’ rights activists. On September 28, three anti-sex-work laws were deemed “unconstitutional” and a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Justice Susan Himel, a high-level Ontario court [...]
How To Respect Sex Workers
September 2, 2010 by Monica Shores · 240 Comments
Most women have strong feelings about the sex industry, be they for or against. (And many, of course, remain undecided.) When dealing with such an emotionally volatile topic, it’s easy to inadvertently silence or even insult sex workers themselves. (As a participant in sex worker activism for the past four years, I’ve seen that in [...]
Like Cattle: Cow Steroid Addiction Among Bangladeshi Prostitutes
August 5, 2010 by Anushay Hossain · 5 Comments
Why is a steroid meant for cows so popular among prostitutes in Bangladesh? The use of Oradexon, a steroid commonly used to make cows fatter, is so widespread that the UK charity ActionAid reports approximately 90 percent of the commercial sex workers in Bangladesh are addicted to the drug. Oradexon is favored by many brothel madams [...]
Newsflash: No New Trial For Serial Woman-Killer Robert Pickton
July 31, 2010 by Stephanie Hallett · 1 Comment
Canada’s highest court announced today that Robert Pickton, the country’s infamous serial killer, will not get a retrial for the murders of six women in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Supreme Court upheld his original sentence, Canada’s maximum for murder–life with no chance of parole for 25 years. Pickton was also charged with the murder of [...]
A Feminist Focus at the International AIDS Conference
July 23, 2010 by Anna Kelner · 2 Comments
The six-day International AIDS Conference, ended today. At the annual conference, people working to stop the pandemic as well as persons living with HIV gather to assess progress, evaluate scientific discoveries and plan more efforts. Coverage has ranged from condemnation of the U.S. War on Drugs to researchers’ efforts to develop a safe, effective vaccine [...]
Porn: Pleasure or Profit? Ms. Interviews Gail Dines, Part II
July 7, 2010 by Shira Tarrant · 64 Comments
In Part I of my interview with Gail Dines, the self-described anti-porn feminist discussed sexual freedom, coercion, safety and harm. Part II continues the conversation. And this time, porn actors respond. Shira Tarrant/Ms.: Your new book, PORNLAND: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality (Beacon Press), is out this month. When readers pick up this book, [...]
Porn: Pleasure or Profit? An Interview With Gail Dines, Part I
June 29, 2010 by Shira Tarrant · 64 Comments
Move over dot-com, dot-org, and dot-gov. There’s a new domain on the block: dot-xxx. With 370 million sites and $3,000 spent for online porn every second, the industry’s revenues surpass earnings by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined. This is author Gail Dines’s point: Porn is about profit, not pleasure. Some people [...]
Babes in Scandal-land
May 11, 2010 by Juliet Williams · 8 Comments
Terrorist Plot Foiled! European Economy Collapsing! Environmental Disaster Raging! Even in ordinary times, headlines like these struggle to hold the notoriously fickle attention of the American people-—but they don’t stand a chance against reports that a rabidly anti-gay, self-righteous Christian crusader spent a 10-day European vacation with a paid companion he found on rentboy.com. Sex-scandal [...]
