The Naked Anthropologist

Tag Archives: demand

Business strategies brought to campaign to ‘End Demand’ for commercial sex

Pornography is characterised as a training manual for men to buy sex in the campaign described here. Sound odd? Developments confirm that industry was a good term to describe the burgeoning phenomenon I used in the title of my book (Sex at the Margins: Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry), and I now see it as logical that business strategies should be brought to the cause. This campaign aims to eliminate demand for commercial sex (elsewhere in the report called the demand for trafficking, which they should scrap as it makes no sense). Organisations subscribing include ngos, public services like police, FBI and hospitals, business corporations, foundations, journalists, nuns et cetera. Are government employees permitted to use their titles in such privately-funded campaigns?

From the Executive Summary of the National Planning Meeting to Eliminate Demand for Commercial Sex, Cambridge, Massachusetts, May 8–May 10, 2010, Sponsored by the Embrey Family Foundation and Hunt Alternatives Fund:

Most public and private resources dedicated to human trafficking in the past decade have been crisis oriented, understandably geared toward rescuing and rehabilitating victims and, to some extent, prosecuting the perpetrators. However, policymakers, academics, and activists increasingly recognize that the endless supply of victims won’t abate unless we combat the demand for trafficking. A growing number of countries and cities worldwide have designed policies and programs to end this demand. We are not starting from scratch.

Inspired by the work of others worldwide, and in collaboration with a team of top-level advisers, Hunt Alternatives Fund is launching a multi-year, multi-stakeholder campaign to eradicate demand for commercial sexual exploitation in the United States.

As a first step, Abt Associates Inc., a consultancy in Cambridge, MA, was contracted to review practice, policy, law, and research related to demand reduction. The Abt consultants were asked to suggest three to four frameworks for developing a national strategy.

The planning meeting was a chance to develop a common understanding of demand and create a national campaign focused on effectiveness and devoid of partisanship and ideology. Recommendations included the following (also called Landscape Assessment for the National Campaign).

1. Conduct ongoing research, especially as a tool to unlock public (thus, official) support.
2. Leverage survivors’ knowledge and experiences to put the research in a human context and to cultivate political will by making an undeniable case for addressing demand.
3. Lobby Congress to pass, strengthen, and fund laws.
4. Build coalitions to unify the movement’s work. Dr. Shively cited mental health as an example of how a movement can use procedures.

A selection of suggestions from the meeting:

We need to attack prostitution as “a business like any other corporation,” and we must convert profit-making practices into liabilities, as was done to the tobacco industry.

We should seize large marketing opportunities, such as the upcoming World Cup matches in South Africa, to “create controversy on a world level” and use it to draw attention to prostitution.

Hotels that are sites of exploitation should train employees to recognize the signs of sex trafficking and require that they sign a Code of Conduct sponsored by ECPAT, but many refuse to do so.

We need to harness the power of technology, specifically e-advertising, to raise awareness and increase public engagement.

We should tap “celebrity power” to use major stars’ influence to encourage public engagement.

Read the report’s Executive Summary or the whole long thing. Here’s the list of participants in the planning meeting:

• David Abramowitz, Director of Policy and Government Relations, Humanity United
• Christopher Adams, Polaris Project, Director Of Operations
• Annjanette Alejano-Steele, Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, Research and Training Director
• Kayrita Anderson, Harold & Kayrita Anderson Family Foundation, CEO
• Hilary Axam, DOJ Civil Rights, Acting Director Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit
• Luis cdeBaca, Ambassador at Large, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. Department of State
• Christina Bain, Program Administrator for the Initiative to Stop Human Trafficking, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Kennedy School, Harvard University
• Kevin Bales, Free the Slaves, President
• Julie Bindel, Journalist, Researcher and Feminist Campaigner
• Katherine Blakeslee, U.S. Agency for International Development Director, Office of Women in Development
• Rachel Boisselle, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent
• Theodore Bunch, A CALL TO MEN, Co-Director
• Cathy Boisvert, YWCA of Central Massachusetts Daybreak Coordinator of Special Projects
• Francine Braae, SAGE Project, Co-Executive Director
• John Chris Bray, Phoenix Police Department, Vice Enforcement Unit Sergeant
• Jimmie Briggs Jr., Man Up, Founder/Executive Director
• Elizabeth, Cafferty. Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Director, Division of Global Health and Human Rights
• Brigitte Cazalis-Collins, Friends of Maiti Nepal, Executive Director
• Kristy Childs, Veronica’s Voice, Executive Director
• Katherine Chon, Polaris Project, President and Co-Founder
• Adam Cohen, NoPornNorthampton, Co-Founder
• Joseph Collins, Friends of Maiti Nepal
• Dawn Conway, LexisNexis, Sr. Vice President of Corporate Responsibility
• Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., Concerned Women for America, Director and Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute
• Linda Daniels, Department of Defense, Program Manager, Trafficking in Persons Program
• Stephanie Davis, Georgia Women for a Change, Executive Director
• Gail Dines, Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies, Wheelock College in Boston
• Rachel Durchslag, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Executive Director
• Jesse Eaves, Children in Crisis
• Carol Edgar, Carol Edgar Communications, Media Consultant
• Gayle Embrey, Embrey Family Foundation, Executive Vice President
• Heather Faris, Air Change, Co-Executive Director
• Melissa Farley, Prostitution Research & Education, Director
• Amanda Finger, Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, Executive Director
• Ken Franzblau, Equality Now
• Eleanor Gaetan, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Senior Policy Advisor
• Donna Gavin, Boston Police Department, Family Justice Center, Human Trafficking Unit, Sergeant Detective
• Susan Goldfarb, Children’s Advocacy Center of Suffolk County, Executive Director
• Samir Goswami, Chicago Community Trust, 2010 Fellow
• Deena Graves, Traffick911, Executive Director
• Florence Graves, Brandeis University, Founding Director, Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism
• Ruchira Gupta, Apne Aap Women Worldwide, Founder/President
• Marian Hatcher, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Administrative Assistant to the Executive Director
• Kaethe Morris Hoffer, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, Legal Director
• Wiveca Holst, Swedish Women’s Lobby
• Michael Horowitz, Hudson Institute
• Donna Hughes, University of Rhode Island, Professor and Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson Endowed Chair; Co-Founder of Citizens Against Trafficking
• Kathryn Infanger, Marion County Prosecutor’s Office, Deputy Prosecutor
• Guy Jacobson, RedLight Children, Executive Director
• Cherie Jimenez, Kim’s Project, Coordinator
• Celiné Justice, Peace is Loud, Program Director
• Jackson Katz, Anti-sexist male activist and Co-founder of the Mentors In Violence Prevention
• Nan Kennelly, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. State Department, Deputy Director
• Amanda Kimball, Children at Risk, Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs
• Beth Klein, Esq., Klein-Frank P.C., Founder & Managing Shareholder; Fellow of the Colorado Bar Foundation
• Mark Lagon, Consultant on Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Trafficking (an independent consultancy); former Ambassador at Large to Combat Trafficking in Persons at U.S. State Department
• Carole Lombard, Sisters of St. Joseph Boston, Director of Justice and Peace
• Victor Malarek, Investigative Journalist
• Mohamed Mattar, Johns Hopkins University, Director of the Protection Project
• Katherine McCullough, A Future. Not A Past./Juvenile Justice Fund, Campaign Director
• Terrie McDermott, Cook County Sheriff’s Office, Executive Director of the Department of Women’s Justice Services
• Karen McLaughlin, International Organization for Victim Assistance, Director of Public Policy
• John Miller, former Ambassador at Large to Combat Trafficking in Persons, U.S. State Department
• Martin Monto, Professor of Sociology, Portland State University,
• Bradley Myles, Polaris Project, Executive Director and CEO
• Maria-Isabel Nieto, BAVARIA S.A., Director of Government Affairs
• Audrey Porter, My Life My Choice, Assistant Director
• Norma Ramos, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Executive Director
• Jendi Reiter, NoPornNorthampton, Co-Founder
• Deborah Richardson, Women’s Funding Network, Chief Program Officer
• Mary Robertson, Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, Research Assistant; University of Colorado at Boulder, graduate student of sociology
• Beth Schapiro, Beth Schapiro and Associates, Executive Director
• Jeff Sedgwick, Keswick Associates, President; former Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
• Jane Nady Sigmon, Ph.D., Senior Coordinator for International Programs in the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Global Affairs
• Carol Smolenski, ECPAT-USA, Executive Director
• Melysa Sperber, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Senior Program Officer for Human Rights
• Dorothy Stafford, Middle Georgia Alliance to End Regional Trafficking, Board of Directors
• Guðrún Jónsdóttir Stígamot, Counseling and Information Center on Sexual Violence, Spokesperson
• Karen Strauss, Polaris Project
• Lisa Thompson, The Salvation Army National Headquarters, Liaison for the Abolition of Sexual Trafficking
• Samantha Vardaman, Shared Hope International, Senior Director
• Steve Vienneau, FBI Boston, Agent
• Mary Rita Weschler, The Women’s Table, Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, Director
• Alan White, SAGE Project, Co-Executive Director
• Linda Williams, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Professor
• Brian Willis, Global Health Promise, Director
• Alicia Foley Winn, The Boston Initiative to Advance Human Rights, Executive Director
• Thirteen police officers and sheriff’s deputies whose identities are withheld
• An additional 10 people who were interviewed but requested anonymity
• Relevant discussions were held with an additional 15 people during conferences and events convened by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of State

Buying sex abroad causes trafficking at home? Flawed reasoning about the sex industry from Scotland

The women in this kind of drawing are often described as prostitutes (or loose women, with the same moral value), which would make all the men potential clients. Is that a useful way to think about this sort of socialising? At the time, patriarchy was an overwhelming determining reality in the Europe pictured. But even so, I think it’s wrong to reduce such a social scene to a one-dimensional story: Men Exploit Women. In the following story, an obviously impressive person (described as ‘one of the world’s most respected legal brains’) talks about trafficking in a similarly unuseful way. My comments in italics interlaced with excerpts from the story, with the emphasis on her implausible assumptions.

Inquiry into sex trafficking in Scotland wants to hear from men who use prostitutes

Annie Brown, 30 June 2010, DailyRecord

An inquiry into sex trafficking in Scotland is asking punters who use prostitutes to talk to them – in secret. Baroness Helena Kennedy, who is heading the probe, said men who buy sex can help build a realistic picture of the extent of the trade.

How, exactly? Does Kennedy imagine they will have more than what is called anecdotal evidence? Or is this about guys who surf escort sites, so she thinks clients will be able to provide numbers of how many sites or escorts or what?

Kennedy said: “I want to hear from these men. I need to hear directly from people who have experiences of trafficking. I think if you want to have a proper sense of the problem, it is better to hear from witnesses themselves directly. It might be they are men who have used prostitutes and they have had an experience where they have been with a woman who was clearly coerced into prostitution. We need help to understand the scope of the problem but those who can do that are often the very people who, through shame or fear, don’t want to step forward. We will guarantee them absolute anonymity.”

The inquiry is into ‘sex trafficking’, so why does Kennedy want to talk with clients? As someone who understands legal language she must know that sloppy talk like this is confusing. Or does she think that clients meet people who’ve facilitated migrants travel? And why will talking to a few clients give her an idea of ‘the scope’ of the overall problem? On the contrary it will give her some anecdotes, a few new ideas about how it all works, a couple of leads.

She said: “Senior police officers do think that there has been a shift. Perhaps because men are travelling much more, certainly on stag weekends and buying sex abroad. They are experiencing sex in a more exotic way, activities that they don’t participate in with their wives and partners. It becomes something that they want here.”

This is irresponsible claptrap, castles in the air. Everyone is travelling more, yes. What does experiencing sex in a ‘more exotic way’ mean? Having it with foreigners in a foreign country? What ‘activities’ is she imagining they engage in that they never do in Scotland? And she’s totally guessing that then they ‘want it’ at home – there’s no evidence for that. I’m sure she thinks it’s common sense but it’s just imagination.

The demand for so many different nationalities is perpetuating the horrific trade in human beings. Kennedy said: “This is the underbelly of globalisation. The same things that make global markets work, make black markets work too. You get international crime now in a way that we didn’t have before. Everything is marketable and sadly that includes human beings.”

If Kennedy is doing research, why is she telling us the results beforehand? There is no huge body of evidence proving that men are ‘demanding different nationalities’. Liking the idea of having sex with different sorts of people, maybe?

The size of Scotland is one of the reasons for holding the inquiry here. It will be easier to get a country-wide picture because there are fewer police forces, social work departments and agencies which deal with trafficking. Kennedy said that, contrary to speculation, the inquiry wasn’t rooted in Scotland because we have a disproportionate scale of trafficking. . .

She realises a truly accurate picture is virtually impossible because trafficking is a covert criminal business. She said: “This kind of human rights abuse is like a poison. Trafficking leeches into our society as a whole. We want to identify ways in which it is happening and ensure that weaker members of society aren’t abused in this way.” . .

What does it mean for ‘trafficking’ to leach (not leech!) into society? Again, the results seem preordained.

What do sex-buying statistics mean? More anti-trafficking efforts, that’s what

Before anyone claims these statistics on arrests of traffickers and clients actually mean something, read this, published at The Other Swedish Model the other day.

Swedish sex-buying statistics: What do they mean?

We live in times where crime statistics are often used to try to prove some social theory or another. Swedish police have just announced that lots more people were caught buying sex in Sweden this year. Those who dislike Sweden’s law against buying sexual services might be tempted to say that these statistics somehow prove that the law is dysfunctional (which might suggest it should be scrapped, for instance). Alternatively, those who like the Swedish law might say that these statistics prove that the problem of men buying sex is much huger and scarier than anyone knew before (which might lead to the conclusion that the law should be strengthened, for example). Both guesses would like to correlate two facts but do not prove any cause-effect relationship.

Does the increase mean more people are buying or selling sex? No. It means the government has injected a large amount of money into trying to find customers, pimps, networks, websites and traffickers involved in sex markets. The same happens with any social phenomenon when there’s an influx of money to investigate: investigators find more, which is often interpreted as uncovering a new, more sinister reality.

Swedish police themselves reject any such interpretation. Note, too, that the Skånian statistics are ascribed to surveillance of the Internet that police hadn’t carried out before. Note these numbers describe cases reported, nothing else. We don’t know how many cases had to be thrown out, were completely unfounded, etc etc.

Big increase in prostitution reports

27 Jul 10, The Local

During the first half of 2009 a total of 148 people were reported for paying prostitutes for sex. The number for the same period this year was 770. A large part of the rise – 430 cases – was due to the discovery of a major prostitution ring in Jämtland county, north-western Sweden. But even when these cases are discounted, the figures had more than doubled.

But police said the dramatic increase was probably not due to a sudden rise in the number of men visiting prostitutes. Rather, they credit increased measures to tackle prostitution and human trafficking. An extra 40 million kronor has been allocated this year to pay for training and strengthening of the police’s operations against the sex trade. “The figures are absolutely a result of the fact that the police have been given the means to dive deep into this,” said Chief Inspector Kajsa Wahlberg, who advises the government on human trafficking issues.

The national pattern was reflected in Sweden’s major cities. In Skåne, which includes Malmö, some 20 cases of paying for sex were reported during the whole of 2009. So far this year, 50 cases have been reported. There, the extra money has been used to increase internet monitoring of the sex trade, which has resulted both in more reports of people paying for sex and in a fall in street prostitution.

Västra Götaland, which includes Gothenburg, also saw a big increase in reports: “I wouldn’t say that everything is hunky-dory. But it’s a big increase and it’s clear that we can be pleased with the good results,” said Mats Palmgren, deputy head of the police in greater Gothenburg.

Smoke gets in your eyes: Evaluation of Swedish anti-prostitution law offers ideology, not methodology

Louise Persson and I have published a piece in Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden’s major national newspapers. The topic was the government’s report evaluating the law against buying sex, sexköpslagen, issued recently and unsettlingly uncommented and uncritiqued in the mainstream media. There were ‘news’ stories, of course, reproducing the government’s line – publicity claiming the law has been proved successful. Given the very lively culture of debate in these same media on every other topic, the silence is noticeable. And given the unquestionable existence of a liberal/libertarian movement that hates the law and its ideas about sexuality and gender equality, one wonders what’s at work here: A genuine taboo? Gender equality such a sacred cow that everyone chooses to keep quiet about the report’s mediocrity? Sweden isn’t a police state and surveillance is low compared with the UK, for example. Critical blogging has been brisk, so what makes mainstream media commentators avoid criticising this evaluation, not on ideological grounds but because it is so badly done that it proves nothing at all?

That’s what we wrote about, the embarrassing lack of evidence to prove the law has had any impact at all on the buying and selling of sex. This is not an ideological argument; it doesn’t prove that the law is no good; it proves that the evaluation is no good. Significant because the world’s peabrained media have picked up the claim – Swedish Law Giant Success – without reading even the English summary of points that make it crystal-clear that evaluators couldn’t find any evidence of anything. That’s the story, and it’s one any researcher will appreciate!

The original is Tvivelaktig rapport om sexköp, Laura Agustín och Louise Persson, Svenska Dagbladet, 15 July 2010. Our own title was better, but it’ll be a cold day in hell when editors don’t think they can improve titles. Here’s the English translation Given a very small word limit, we could only mention key issues in a barebones fashion.

Doubtful report on sex-purchase law

Laura Agustín and Louise Persson, 15 July 2010, Svenska Dagbladet

Sex crimes go down in Sweden: The new evaluation of the law against buying sex is spreading the message round the world, but the report suffers from too many scientific errors to justify any such claim.

The report was delayed. It is hard to find evidence to explain why one can’t see sex workers where one saw them before: Have they stopped selling sex, or are they doing it somewhere else? Stigmatised and criminalised people avoid contact with police, social workers and researchers.

Street prostitution receives exaggerated attention in the inquiry, despite the fact that it represents a small, diminishing type of commercial sex that cannot be extrapolated to all. The inquiry mentions the difficulty of researching ‘prostitution on the internet’ but appears not to know that the sex industry comes in many different shapes being researched in depth elsewhere (escorts without websites, sex parties, strip clubs, massage parlours, students who sell sex, among others).

The report’s conclusion that the law has decreased prostitution is based on police reports, government-funded groups working on prostitution in three cities, a few small academic studies and comparisons with other Nordic countries. But police only encounter sex workers in the context of criminal inquiries, the funded groups mostly meet sex workers seeking help, small studies can only indicate possible trends and the Danish statistics on the number of ‘active’ street workers – used to show that Sweden’s prostitution is less – were publicly shown to be very wrong eight months ago.

The law is claimed to have a dampening effect on sex trafficking, but no proof is offered. Trafficking statistics have long been disputed outside Sweden, because of definitional confusion and refusals to accept the UN Convention on Organised Crime’s distinction between human trafficking and human smuggling linked to informal labour migration. The report claims the law diminishes ‘organised crime’ without analysing how crimes were identified and resolved or how they are related to the sex-purchase law.

All social research must explain its methodology. An evaluation like this one needs to provide details on the sample of people consulted, since even in a field as small as Sweden’s no study can pretend to speak to everyone. Methodological research norms require explaining how informants were consulted, under what conditions, what questions they were asked and how, what ethical apparatus was in place to help guarantee they gave their true opinions, how a balance of different stakeholders was achieved, how many people refused to participate, and so on. In this report, however, the methodology section is practically non-existent. We know nothing about how it the evaluation was actually carried out.

On the other hand, the report brims with irrelevant material: background on how the law came about, Sweden’s history with gender equality, why prostitution is bad, why international audiences are interested in the evaluation and how many Swedes are said to currently support the law. One single sex worker’s sad personal story takes up three pages, while the account of sex workers’ opinions is limited to the results of a survey of only 14 people of which only seven were current sex workers.

Research must try for some kind of objectivity, but the government’s remit to the evaluation team said that ‘the buying of sexual services shall continue to be criminalised’ no matter what the evaluators found. The bias was inherent.

The Swedish government understands that the law is of interest internationally as a form of crime prevention. What they don’t realise is how, when the report is translated and reviewed, the methodological errors and crude bias will cause researchers in the field to dismiss this evaluation.

The international trafficking debate has moved beyond the simplistic position presented in this report. More humility is needed from a small country with little experience of, and research about, undocumented migration and the sex industry. If one wants to present oneself as occupying a higher moral ground than other countries, one needs to do better work to understand complex questions. This evalution tells us nothing about the effects of the sex-purchase law.

We offered sources on the topic of flawed research not supporting extravagant claims in this field, but editors omitted them.

Socialstyrelsen. 2007. Kännedom om Prostitution. Another Swedish government report from just a few years ago that concludes little can be known about prostitution in Sweden:

Folketingets Socialudvalg, 20 november 2009. Socialministerens endelige svar påspørgsmål nr. 37 (SOU Alm. del). Question in Danish parliament about incorrect figures claimed for street prostitution.

IOM-SIDA. 2006. Trafficking in Human Beings and the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Swedish-funded research finding trafficking claims unsubstantiated.

BBC News Magazine. Is the number of trafficked call girls a myth? 9 January 2009.

United States Government Accountability Office. July 2006. Human Trafficking: Better Data, Strategy, and Reporting Needed to Enhance U.S. Antitrafficking Efforts Abroad.

Les Carpenter. 2010. Debunking World Cup’s biggest myth. Yahoo News, 10 June.

Svenska utdrag från Tvivelaktig rapport om sexköp

Laura Agustín och Louise Persson, Svenska Dagbladet, 15 July 2010

Den nysläppta utvärderingen av sexköpslagen sprider budskapet att sexbrotten minskar, men utredningen är behäftad med alltför allvarliga vetenskapliga fel för att man ska kunna hävda att lagen är framgångsrik.

Rapporten om sexköpslagen försenades. Det var svårt att hitta bevis som demonstrerar anledningarna bakom varför man inte ser sexarbetare där man sett dem förut: har de slutat sälja, eller har de flyttat någon annanstans? Stigmatiserade och kriminaliserade aktörer undviker kontakt med polis, socialarbetare och forskare.

. . . En grundprincip för forskning är att sträva efter objektivitet, men regeringens direktiv var: ”En utgångspunkt för vårt arbete har varit att köp av sexuell tjänst fortfarande ska vara kriminaliserat.” Det skapar läge för en partisk inlaga. . .

Vill man presentera sig med en högre moralisk nivå på den internationella arenan, krävs bättre underlag och förståelse för komplexa frågor. Den här utvärderingen säger oss ingenting om lagens effekter.

Swedish evaluation of law banning purchase of sex: unsupported claims

On 2 July 2010 I published excerpts from the English summary of the Swedish government’s evaluation of its law banning the buying of sex, just to make the material available. I’ve now removed those excerpts to avoid any impression that I accept the evaluation report at face value. On the contrary, I have published extensive criticism of the evaluation:

Big claims, little evidence: Sweden’s law against buying sex

Irresponsible use of trafficking data, or: Garbage in, garbage out

Doubtful report on sex-purchase law, Laura’s article from Svenska Dagbladet

Smoke gets in your eyes: Evaluation of Swedish anti-prostitution law offers ideology, not methodology

Swedish report based on wrong Danish numbers for street prostitution

Behind the happy face of the Swedish anti-prostitution law

Agency and prostitution: Sex workers target rich male victims

Agency: what is it? Simply put it describes the condition of acting, exerting power, being in action. What helps us know the extent to which people do things because they intend to? How do we know whether they are passive victims? A lot of our ideas come through other people’s descriptions. So the principal narrative about prostitutes says they aren’t in a position to elect sex work over other jobs because they are too disadvantaged by poverty, don’t understand how bad selling sex is or do it because they have been damaged by abuse or are coerced or hijacked into it. As I’ve pointed out in a story about sex-hungry babes in Angola, news sources in Africa sometimes use the opposite sort of language. Here, women who sell sex are described as definitely being in action, targeting their rich tobacco-farmer victims. My point in publishing such against-the-current commentaries is to illustrate that what the West says isn’t the only way to talk, and since I don’t believe that Europe is always ‘ahead’ of Rest of World, I don’t say that this characterisation is by definition wrong or unprogressive. There are some tough, man-eating hussies out there . . .

Sex workers target tobacco farmers

Fungi Kwaramba, The Zimbabwean, 31 May 2010

Harare: Commercial sex workers are making a killing by targeting tobacco farmers at the Boka Tobacco Auction floors, with some travelling from as far as South Africa, says the Population Service International (PSI). Speaking at a media briefing in Harare last week, PSI Interpersonal Communications Manager, Patience Kunaka, said that prices of sex per act have gone up to US$25 a session from US$5 due to the recent targeting of rich tobacco farmers. . .

Women are not children – remember? Flawed ideas about improving Sweden’s sex-purchase law

I wrote the following piece after some welcomed a parliamentarian’s suggestion that Sweden change to a regulatory regime that looks more like the 19th century than any progressive proposal for better Gender Equality. It was published at The Other Swedish Model. Note: sexköpslagen is the name for the Swedish law, meaning sex-purchase law or law on buying sex. Also note that the evaluation of the law, originally expected at the end of April, has been delayed.

Women are not children – remember? Flawed ideas about improving the sex-purchase law

Photo of Arhus brothel by Claus Petersen

Laura Agustín, 17 June 2010, The Other Swedish Model

Does sexköpslagen, the law against buying sex, work or not? Everyone wants to know. Camilla Lindberg is right that talking about the possibility that the law does not work is taboo in Sweden. The government’s official evaluation of the law has been delayed, probably because it has not been easy to find evidence to demonstrate the reasons behind an absence. That is, you may look around and not see sex workers and their customers where you did before. But you cannot know whether they have stopped buying and selling sex or, if they have not stopped, where they have gone.

Evaluators will question police and social workers, and maybe get to speak to a few sex workers, but none of these can give an overview of sex markets that operate via private telephones and the Internet, in the privacy of homes and hotel rooms. And evaluators certainly cannot say how many people are doing what. Street prostitutes are estimated in some countries to constitute less than ten per cent of all sex workers, so, even if there are few left to see, 90% are unaccounted for. When businesses that sell sex are outlawed, they hide, so government accountants are unlikely to find them – and, after all, many are just individuals working alone.

But if we want to discuss the whole sex industry more openly, we should not focus on the concept of brothels, as Lindberg suggests – particularly not on the idea of health checks for workers. This 19^th-century French idea could not be more patriarchal and thus the very opposite of jämställdhet, sexköpslagens guiding principle. Basic common sense tells us that, if disease-transmission is a concern, all parties exchanging fluids have to practice safer sex – not ‘be checked’. And although laws in the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, Nevada and parts of Australia allow and regulate brothels as one form of commercial sex, many people who sell sex in those countries prefer to work on their own, in small groups in flats or – yes – on the street. In France, organised sex workers vociferously oppose a proposed return to the old system of maisons closes with health controls that stigmatise prostitutes as (female) carriers of sexually-transmitted diseases.

Draconian legislation does not make sense because no single law can do justice to everyone who sells and buys sex, whether they are Swedish, other European citizens or migrants, and whether they are women, men or transgendered. The enormous variety of jobs and personal histories involved cannot ethically be reduced to ideological categories: neither free nor forced describes the complicated life histories of most people who sell sex. Neither exploiter nor violent describes those of all people who buy it.

After 15 years of studying the variety and multiplicity of the sex industry and the social conflicts surrounding it, I do understand the utopic vision behind sexköpslagen: a desire that commercial sex would simply go away, that men and women would have equal opportunities, power, money and everything else – and that everyone would have good sex. Whether such a utopia can be achieved through legislation I personally doubt; sexual markets have shown themselves to be extremely tenacious over history and efforts to prohibit particular sexual behaviours have not prospered.

Debates about legislative models focus on a simplified idea of prostitution and date from times when women were seen as subordinate, when men were allowed to control their destinies and when disease was conceived as someone’s fault. All such ideas are now passé. Women are understood to be autonomous actors, with responsibility for their actions. Sexköpslagen conceives of one group of women as inferior and needing protection. Lindbergs brothels conceive of them as needing to be specially controlled. But neither are adequate ways to think about the diversity of people involved – and when it comes to safety not everyone wants to be protected the same way.

Sexköpslagen was envisioned as a way to legislate jämställdhet – ’send a signal’ about what is right and wrong in sexual relationships. The problem is it requires all women to feel the same way about sex. Nowadays, arguments about sexual behaviour revolve around rights, the idea that people can choose for themselves what activities they want to engage in and with whom. As we come to understand the enormous diversity of sexual desire, so we need to accept that, for some, money has no special ability to ruin the experience. Everyone doesn’t feel the same way about sex: it’s an anthropologist’s truism but nonetheless true.

For those interested in women’s rights, the question is how to promote the autonomy of as many women as possible, not the achievement of laws that embody some correct ideological stance.

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

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 sexual practices associated with otaku, a Japanese word referring to people devoted to or obsessed by anime, (animation) manga (comics) and video games – geeks of a particular type. Fantastic worlds peopled with fabulous characters, but here entrepreneurs have evolved dating-entertainment business opportunities to appeal to this group often sidelined in stories about sex – the social prejudice being that people without conventional attractive looks and personalities can’t expect to find partners. Jobs entertaining these customers involve informed conversation about their subcultures. The traditional sex-industry image of the erotic maid is used, too – the service they provide being, in the first place, ‘soul care’, performed interest in customers’ concerns. Temporary girlfriends, virtual girlfriends, maid escorts – this is a real hybrid phenomenon. Note: 1000 yen = 8 euros

The Otaku Sex Industry: sometimes, the real thing is better?

Benjamin Boas, 11 March 2010, Japan Subculture Research Center

. . . Otaku have been booming in the popular consciousness since 2005, when Fuji TV aired its prime time drama Densha Otoko, a beauty and the beast romance starring an otaku. Women’s magazines raved about how the show championed otaku as new potential partners for middle-aged career women, but otaku remained incredulous. That same year, Toru Honda wrote Dempa Otoko, a manifesto calling for otaku to abandon “love” for human females and embrace moe for two-dimensional characters. His book sold 33,000 copies in three months, and fans planted signs in Akihabara reading, “Real Otaku Don’t Desire Real Women.”

But Honda is the voice of an extreme minority. “We may have sworn off dating, but that does not mean we don’t have sex,” says Hiroyuki Egami, 23, a prominent voice among himote, a catchall for otaku types unpopular with the ladies. By Egami’s estimation, paying for sex is easier and more honest than wining and dining women to prove oneself a worthy mate.

Those who share Egami’s assessment may head to one of dozens of cosplay cabaret or image clubs found in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro. While many just use the terms of otaku culture such as moe to make a splash, some take pains to attract a demographic deeply involved with media images of the opposite sex.

“Pure-cos” in Shibuya caters to all of the fantasy wishes of its customers by offering close to one hundred costumes based on famous anime heroines. Employees are expected to talk the talk as well; on its hiring page, Pure-cos warns potential employees that customers will expect them to talk and converse about their favorite anime and manga. Staff are rewarded with all the manga they can read during breaks and coupons for the local Mandarake store.

The shift to more physical pleasures is also apparent in Akihabara. The omnipresent maids used to just pour tea, but the boom surrounding Densha Otoko has put cafes in fierce competition and encouraged a diversification of services. Royal Milk, for example, offers its customers “soul care,” 60 minutes of one-on-one talk time with a maid for 9,000 yen. With a market of lonely men that ripe it was only a matter of time before talk shifted to sex.

The area in front of The Radio Kaikan used to be called Maid Row for all the costumed girls passing out fliers there. However, adverts for maid escorts—costumed girls who play the part of a temporary girlfriend–began to outnumber those for cafes, and authorities chased the maids off the street in June 2007. Today, many men shopping in Akihabara have one or even two maids escorts by their side. They pay 1,000 yen per 10 minutes for the company and compliments on computer-buying skills. Maid escorts ostensibly work between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., the operating hours of most stores in the area, but local authorities warn of “maid enjo” prostitution after dark.

It remains to be seen how purely “otaku” any of this is. Even as clubs using the otaku vernacular are on the rise, the major buzz in the community surrounds games such as Love Plus and Dream C Club. In the former, players can use their Nintendo DS to interact in real-time with a virtual girlfriend. The latter is a virtual hostess club, which simulates an ultra-real experience down to the overpriced drinks. Real money is exchanged for virtual currency to enjoy an array of services. While otaku imagery in the mizu shoubai world may be on the rise, it seems that otaku still prefer to pay for the not so real thing.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

Male prostitutes, Russia

Male escort, Kitagawa Utamaro

Russian Male Prostitutes Considered Valuable Assets

Bogdan Velichkin, 15 January 2010, Pravda.Ru

Male prostitution in Russia is flourishing, and the prices for the services in this sector continue to rise due to high demand and lack of resources. It is not surprising that male prostitutes are considered valuable assets. In case of disobedience they are at times deprived of their genitalia.

Male prostitution business is experiencing especially high growth in the Rostov region, where a minimum pay for an hour of service is $70. Most of the clients are mature wealthy ladies who can easily pay pretty penny for a night of love a couple of times a week. Lately, there are increasingly more clients among businesswomen in 30-35 year old bracket. They order boys like they order pizza or sushi with delivery. They have no time to build relationships, plus it is not that easy to find a good guy for a serious relationship. With prostitutes, they can pay and have no obligations.

Not all men trading their bodies have ignoble purposes. Sometimes, undercover police agents pretend to be prostitutes. In December, an undercover agent pretended to be a sucker for easy money. Thanks to his efforts, the police managed to arrest a pimp and an entire brothel in Rostov-on-Don. Later, the pimp handed in his brother who was offering young guys for prostitution over the Internet.

In December of last year, the police arrested a man in Moscow who came from the Rostov region. The criminal organized an entire network of male prostitutes in Moscow. A Master of Sports in karate, an employee of a Moscow agency working with youth, and a trainer of martial arts, the criminal would find clients online. The pimp would also recruit young men at train stations who would be ready to have sex with men for pay. Most of the recruits were homeless, and the client list included foreigners who would come to Moscow for a sex-tour.

When the sportsman was arrested for human trafficking and pimping, his business has not ceased its existence. The pimp’s nephew took over the business and continued looking for clients on line. When the police received information about new trafficker, it was decided to take him with bait. A policeman had to pretend to be a sex-tourist fond of young guys. Article in original Russian

UNAIDS People on the Move, including mobile sex workers and their clients

Last year I contributed comments and resources to a UNAIDS paper written to support discussion for their Thematic Segment on People on the Move—Forced Displacement and Migrant Populations. The paper gives basic information on types of movement and links between mobility and HIV vulnerability, including how to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. ‘The paper points out that mobile people and international migrants are diverse, ranging from highly educated and high-earning professionals, to low-earning unskilled and exploited labourers. Although very different circumstances may drive migration and mobility, it is not mobility per se, but the conditions under which people move—and the ways they are treated throughout the migration cycle—pre-departure, in transit, at destinations and upon return—that most determine their vulnerabilities, which in turn affect their risks of acquiring HIV.’

This language and tone are to be celebrated, departing as they do from the usual crude separation assumed to exist between a freely-choosing middle class that always travels happily versus a downtrodden, forced poor that ‘migrates’, often unhappily. The paper is available as People on the move – forced displacement and migrant populations

I’m pleased that a boxed highlight in the report called Mobile sex workers reads pretty straightforwardly (no heavy emphasis on victimhood) and refers to clients without demonising them.

Sex workers are highly mobile both within and across national borders. Documented and undocumented migration for sex work often occurs between neighbouring countries, but there is also considerable inter-regional movement. The migration and mobility of sex workers can significantly increase their vulnerability to HIV and sexually transmitted infections. Many migrant and mobile sex workers, especially those who are undocumented, are excluded from basic education, legal and public health-care systems, and are vulnerable to violence and other forms of abuse from customers, criminal gangs and corrupt law enforcement officials, with little or no social or legal support and protection. In addition, migrant sex workers face additional cultural and linguistic barriers that adversely impact upon their ability to access local services and support networks. To reduce HIV risk and vulnerability for mobile and migrant sex workers there are key actions that need to be funded and implemented for all sex workers irrespective of their gender (women, men, transgender) or legal status. These include access to HIV prevention and treatment services, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, legal information and advice and necessary social services. To support these services, training of healthservice providers and law enforcement agencies addressing stigma, discrimination and violence needs to be developed along with occupational health and safety standards to make sex work safer.

Clients of sex workers are also highly mobile and their behaviour determines epidemic speed and severity (Commission on AIDS in Asia, 2008). Currently, few programmes target clients directly to promote safer sexual behaviour. Such programmes should: be provided in the workplace (where appropriate); be based on the different settings where sex work occurs; provide clients with information to protect sex workers, their regular sexual partners and themselves from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections; emphasize client responsibility to treat sex workers with dignity and respect; and incorporate approaches to eliminate genderbased violence in the context of sex work.

Swedish film about German brothel: Why do men buy sex?

Many people would like to see sex-industry businesses normalised as a way to improve the situation for workers. This rights movement is opposed by another that wants to rid the world of prostitution by criminalising the purchase of sex. Sweden and Norway currently have such a law; Finland and the UK have a diluted version and other countries are debating it (Denmark, Israel). The theory of such laws is an over-simplified idea of supply and demand: If there were no men willing to pay for sexual services, there would be no market and commercial sex would go away. The idea that prohibiting an activity can make it disappear ignores the complexity of culture and social life and is not supported by what we know about laws that have attempted to prohibit alcohol and drugs, on the one hand (in more than one western country) and laws that criminalise specific sexual activities like sodomy or oral sex). Some people may well feel discouraged or afraid enough of being caught that they stop participating, but a lot of other people continue despite laws. Nevertheless, those who believe that Gender Equality can be legislated – imposed by laws – are in favour of laws prohibiting the purchase of sex.

Pascha is an 11-storey brothel in Köln, where prostitution is legal. The below interview in Swedish describes the experience of a Swedish filmmaker, a man, who spent time at Pascha making a documentary in order to understand why men buy sex. In the interview published in ECT, Svante Tidholm reveals both his assumption that buying sex is wrong and a certain comprehension of the male employees and punters. The title, Jag blev en av dem (I became one of them), refers to the ease (insidious, to Tidholm) with which people, including himself, can become accustomed to the normalising influence of the brothel. Normalisation can be seen as a way to improve sex workers’ lot people’s lot and, simultaneously as a way of continuing women’s oppression.

Jag blev en av dem

8 januari 2010, ECT

För dem som driver bordellen är det bara business, och de är inga onda människor. De gör sitt jobb. Precis som lägervakter. De är aktörer i ett samhälle som kollektivt tillåter att det här sker,’ säger filmaren Svante Tidholm som gjort en dokumetär om livet på Europas största bordell, Pascha

Svante Tidholm flyttade in på Europas största bordell, Pascha i Köln, för att försöka begripa: Hur tänker den som köper sex?

– Det handlar om ett manlighetens problem.

Första bilderna: Ett betongtak mot regntung himmel och Kölns alla kyrkor och katedraler, men senare i Svante Tidholms dokumentär är presenningen undandragen och män – putmagar och masker á la Eyes wide shut, fast billiga – porrligger med influgna kvinnor från Brasilien.

Pascha, bordellen som varken är stilettförsedda hallickar eller limousinlevererade eskorter, utan tysk prostitution som den är mest, euro mot en gnutta extas, 365 dagar om året, inte som på film.

Det var förresten här hiphop-stjärnan 50 cent hade sin konsert när han senast var i Tyskland.

– När jag berättar om Pascha är det många som nästan tror att jag hittar på. De kan inte föreställa sig, säger Tidholm.

Första gången han besökte bordellen var under fotbolls-VM, i samband med en av Sveriges matcher. Han hade läst om den och var nyfiken. När han frågade ledningen om han fick filma, var svaret oväntat positivt.

– Då hade jag egentligen ingen aning om vad jag ville göra. Continue reading →

Red-light raids said to promote ‘online brothels’, Singapore

Calling escort websites online brothels is silly, a typical editor’s attempt to make a mildly interesting story sensational. Police raids are a widespread tactic for suppressing prostitution, but are often said only to move the business from one place to another (see, for example, a story about Goa and another about Italy and Switzerland. Here, the place is online, and some of the sex workers were mobile anyway, not originating in a red-light district. But referring to mobile businesspeople or vendors as ‘gypsies’ is also dumb. I also don’t care for the implication that mobile workers are inherently vulnerable just because they move! Still, it is plausible that, as policing increases, more sex-industry headquarters move online. The non-online, red-light kind in Singapore look like this.

Online brothels becoming more popular with Singapore youth

2 January 2010, The Temasek Review

Singapore: Online brothels offering girls from various nationalities are becoming increasingly popular among Singapore men looking for a quickie, especially the youth. Frequent raids on the red-light district of Geylang had forced the freelance prostitutes to retreat to cyberspace to solicit for customers. As many as five new websites have appeared in the last few months alone offering a myriad of “services” from sexy massage to discreet sexual encounters from freelance prostitutes. Some appear to be websites set up by organized syndicates while others are hosted by independent freelance prostitutes themselves who are here in Singapore to make a quick buck.

Online prostitution is not new in Singapore. Famous sex forum Sammyboy has a dedicated “freelance” section to allow prostitutes and pimps alike to post their services and contacts. One owner of such a site claimed he is a “landlord” who is helping his PRC tenants to earn some “extra cash”.

The photos of the girls are listed on the site including their “statistics”, prices, types of services offered and “field reports” from previous patrons. Propsective clients have to contact the pimp directly using the handphone number provided who will inform him of the time and venue for the “transaction” to take place. Such online brothels are seeing an increase in business lately as they offer customers the flexibility to choose their time and girl as well as a place outside the usual red-light district to pursue their pleasures.

When interviewed by the Straits Times, Dr Carol Balhetchet, director of youth services at the Singapore Children’s Society, said: “The scary part is prostitution has come to your doorstep – and it’s not just available to adults…..the scary part about the young is, they want to experiment. Now, they don’t need to go to Geylang…Prostitution can be more gypsy-like…In that sense, it’s risky.”

Unlike licenced prostitutes working in designated brothels, freelance prostitutes who ply their trade online do not have to go for monthly medical examation and blood tests to detect sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. With the two Integrated Resorts set to open this year, the demand for such online sexual services is likely to increase especially with Singapore’s lax immigration and travel restrictions.

Foreign prostitutes, especially those from China, often come to Singapore to “work” on a one-month tourist visa. Others come on a two-year student visa ostensibly to study in private institutions, but end up working in KTV lounges. Asked about the online brothels by the Straits Times, the police would only say: ‘Police will investigate reports made and take action if any offence is disclosed.’ The police did not say whether anyone has been arrested in connection with the online brothels which have been in existence for Singapore for a very long time already.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

Sex industry diversifies, Pakistan

I take the view that we know little about the sex industry. Most of what we hear is polemical, rhetorical or simply abstract. The laws that governments of all kinds debate and impose nowadays are mostly lame: primitive prohibitions with little chance of success. Until we know a lot more about what’s going on, it will be impossible to make laws or regulations that actually function fairly. In the case of Pakistan’s sex industry, information is so scarce that I am posting excerpts from an article whose sources appear to be anecdotal: blogs and youtube, but the information is suggestive. The author’s disapproval and moral bias come through too clearly for my taste in the original; if you want to hear it all, go to the source. If you’re interested in more about the cultural study of commercial sex, read the original conception and then what came later. Note: 1000 Pakistan rupees = 8.28 euros.

In Pakistan, a dark trade comes to light

William Sparrow, 17 May 2008, Asian Times Online

. . . quickly after his arrival in the capital, he realized the house next to his own was a Chinese brothel.

. . . The local sex industry comprised of Pakistani prostitutes has also grown in recent years. . . . videos show unabashed red-light areas of Lahore. . . house after house with colorfully lit entranceways always with a mamasan and at least one Pakistani woman in traditional dress. The women are available for in-house services for as little as 400 rupees (US$6) to take-away prices ranging 1,000 to 2,000 rupees. These districts are mostly for locals, but foreigners can indulge at higher prices.

. . . More upscale areas like Lahore’s Heera Mundi or “Diamond Market”, cater to well-heeled locals and foreigners. At these places prettier, younger girls push their services for 5,000 to 10,000 rupees for an all-night visit, and the most exceptional can command 20,000 to 40,000 rupees for just short time.

. . . “The Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi sex scenes are totally changing and it’s easier and easier to get a girl for [sex],” another blogger wrote. “Most of the hotels provide you the girls upon request.” Bloggers also reported that it is easy to find girls prowling the streets after 6 pm, and foreigners can find young women hanging out near Western franchises like McDonald’s and KFC. Such women, the bloggers claim, can lead the customer to a nearby short-time accommodation.

. . . Pakistan can also accommodate the gay community with prostitution. . . A Pakistani blogger wrote, “. . . [In Pakistan] the wives are only [had sex with] once or twice a year. There are lot of gay brothels in Peshawar – the famous among them is at Ramdas Bazaar. [One can] go to any Afghan restaurant and find young waiters selling sex.”

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

Moral duty to raid brothels, Edinburgh: Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus

Ian Rankin’s crime novels are sometimes sympathetic to sex workers and occasionally reveal how police think about the sex industry. In Strip Jack (1992) Inspector Rebus and other police participate in a raid on an upscale Edinburgh brothel at the instigation of a senior officer with a sense of moral duty. Note no mention of need to rescue workers.

. . . an invisible somebody had whispered in his ear the word ‘brothel’. Sin and debauchery! Watson’s hard Presbyterian heart had been stirred to righteous indignation. He was the kind of Highland Christian who found sex within marriage just about acceptable – his son and daughter were proof – but who baulked at anything and everything else. If there was an active brothel in Edinburgh, Watson wanted it shut down with prejudice.

But then the informer had provided an address, and this caused a certain hesitation. The brothel was in one of the better streets of the New Town, quiet Georgian terraces, lined with trees and Saabs and Volvos, the houses filled with professional people: lawyers, surgeons, university professors. This was no seaman’s bawdy-house, no series of damp, dark rooms above a dockside pub. . .

Watch had been kept for several days and nights, courtesy of unmarked cars and unremarkable plainclothes men. Until there could be little doubt: whatever was happening inside the shuttered rooms, it was happening after midnight and it was happening briskly. Interestingly, few of the many men arrived by car. But a watchful detective constable, taking a leak in the dead of night, discovered why. The men were parking their cars in side streets and walking the hundred yards or so to the front door of the four-storey house. Perhaps this was house policy: the slamming of after-hours car doors would arouse suspicion in the street. Or perhaps it was in the visitors’ own interests not to leave their cars in broad streetlight, where they might be recognised . . .

Registration numbers were taken and checked, as were photographs of visitors to the house. The owner of the house itself was traced. He owned half a French vineyard as well as several properties in Edinburgh, and lived in Bordeaux the year through. His solicitor had been responsible for letting the house to a Mrs Croft, a very genteel lady in her fifties. According to the solicitor, she paid her rent promply and in cash. Was there any problem . . . ?

Meantime, the car owners had turned out to be businessmen, some local, but the majority visiting the city from south of the border. Heartened by this, Watson had started planning the raid. . .

The house, it was reckoned, would be doing good business by midnight. One o’clock Saturday morning was chosen as the time of the raid. The warrants were ready. Every man in the team knew his place. And the solicitor had even come up with plans of the house, which had been memorized by the officers. ‘It’s a bloody warren.’ Watson had said. ‘No problem, sir, so long as we’ve got enough ferrets.’

In truth, Rebus wasn’t looking forward to this evening’s work. Brothels might be illegal, but they fulfilled a need and if they veered towards respectability, as this one certainly did, then what was the problem? He could see some of this doubt reflected in Watson’s eyes. But Watson had been enthusiastic from the first, and to pull back now was unthinkable, would seem a sign of weakness. . . pp 2-3, Strip Jack, 1998

Lawrence Block’s Matt Scudder is another fictional detective (private, not police) with more than a little sympathy for sex workers.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

Mobile sex workers spend holidays working in Sonagachi

Photo Jon Gresham

Sex workers leave home to work during the holidays: at least, according to one old tradition. It’s a way to enjoy a journey without spending too much money: take advantage of travellers and partygoers whose way of celebrating is to open their pocketbooks. Mobility is associated with many sectors of the sex industry; here, workers from around India converge on Kolkata. Another story, about changing prices in Sonagachi, the city’s enormous red-light district, receives hundreds of visits every day and numerous comments (some of which I prune.)

Sex workers major gainers this festive season
31 December 2009, Daily Times of India

Kolkata: The euphoric mood in the city over Christmas and the New Year has rubbed off on the world’s oldest profession. Sex workers from different states and West Bengal’s small towns and villages have descended in Kolkata to make a quick buck, while the locals are also minting more money.

North Kolkata’s red light area Sonagachi, considered Asia’s largest, has become the temporary residence of a large number of outstation sex workers. Every year from Christmas to New Year’s Eve, there is a sharp rise in number of sex workers coming from outside.

“Every year during Christmas and New Year, hundreds of sex workers from different parts of the country come to Sonagachi to earn more as during the festive season, there is a sharp rise in the number of customers. The sex workers from Sonagachi also move to other metros and cities,” said an official of Durbar Mahila Samannay Committee, one of the largest NGOs working in the city’s red light areas.

During the season, the income of a sex worker in Kolkata goes up by 50 percent.

Anju (name changed), a commercial sex worker, has come from a remote district in West Bengal to earn more so that she can bring up her three children who are back home in the safe custody of their grandmother. “Every year during New Year’s Eve I come to Kolkata with a hope to earn more so that I can bring up my children in a better way. The city has never deserted me,” she said.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

Dans la camionnette: Money-sex exchange inside vans: Italy, France

Commentators and laws make a crude distinction between indoor and outdoor prostitution, as though there were something essentially different in their natures. The photo below comes from Lyons, France; the short description from Paola Tabet is about an experience in northern Italy. In both countries, street prostitution is allowed whilst indoor sex businesses are prohibited and ‘street prostitution’ sometimes means money and sex exchanged inside vans. So which is sex in cars, inside or outside? Here Tabet reports the silent efficiency of one kind of sex-money exchange. [English translation below]

La banalité de l’échange. Entretien avec Paola Tabet pour Mathieu Trachman, Genre, sexualité et societé, n°2, 2009

Tabet: J’ai été dans la camionnette quand elles travaillaient, c’était assez marrant et parfois même lumineux. Là j’ai eu en effet l’illustration de ce qu’elles veulent dire quand elles déclarent : « Nous, au client, nous ne donnons rien ». Donc à un moment un client habituel, un homme d’un certain âge, arrive : « Bonjour !» « Bonjour, ça va ? » Il monte dans la camionnette. Moi j’étais assise devant, j’entendais tout. Au début, la fille lui dit: « T’as vendu ta vieille voiture ? », il lui répond « oui ». Elle lui demande de baisser ou d’ouvrir son pantalon et lui donne le préservatif, on entend le camion bouger pendant un moment, puis elle reprend : « et combien on t’a donné pour la voiture ? » C’étaient pratiquement les seuls mots échangés.

I have been in the van when they were working, it was rather funny and sometimes even brilliant. There I actually had the illustration of what [sex workers] mean when they say ‘We give nothing to the client.’ Then at one point an habitual client, a man of a certain age, arrives. ‘Hello.’ ‘Hello, how are you?’ He gets in the van. I was seated in the front, I could hear everything. At the beginning, the girl says to him ‘Have you sold your old car?’ He replies ‘yes’. She asks him to lower or open his trousers and she gives him the condom, you could feel the truck move for a moment, then she continues ‘and how much did they give you for the car?’ They were practically the only words exchanged.

Ordenanza anti-prostitución enfrentada en Granada: Civil society confronts Granada’s attempt to control street prostitution

Es cada vez más común que las munici- palidades intentan controlar la prostitución callejera sin recurrir a los debates parlamentarios. Resulta perfectamente lógico, porque los últimos nunca llegan a ningún acuerdo puntual sino se estancan en conflictos ideológicos. Hace no tanto tiempo Granada impuso una ordenanza cívica del tipo que se ha comentado mucho en Barcelona (ver comentario e imágenes de los controles). En Granada una alianza de organizaciones que no quiere ver este tipo de control policial en su ciudad se enfrenta con el ayuntamiento y cuestionan la idea de la ‘convivencia ciudadana’ usada como justificación de la ordenanza. Cuando mucha gente oye tal frase le parece benévola, como si dijera que todos queremos vivir en paz. Pero así no es, sino, como los juristas objetan: un nuevo modelo de control de la ciudad que criminaliza a las marginalidades, oposiciones o disidencias político-culturales. En la foto se ve una calle desde arriba donde hay personas de pié, sentadas y que caminan. ¿Tiene un grupo más derecho de estar allí que otros? ¿Qué pasa si una mujer en minifalda se siente ofendida por un hombre en camiseta roja?

Llevan a los tribunales la ordenanza contra la prostitución de Granada

José A. Cano, 18 diciembre 2009, El Mundo.es

Granada: Recogiendo las quejas de las asociaciones y plataformas “antiordenanza” y añadiendo su propia consideración de que resulta “contraria” a la Carta europa de salvaguarda de los Derechos Humanos, la asociación Grupo de Juristas 17 de marzo ha presentado un recurso contencioso-administrativo ante el Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía (TSJA) contra la “ordenanza para la convivencia” aprobada el pasado septiembre por el Ayuntamiento de Granada y célebre por perseguir la prostitución callejera.

Los juristas consideran que la norma “excede de las competencias municipales” al no estar “amparada en ninguna Ley estatal o autonómica” y la califican de “un nuevo modelo de control de la ciudad que criminaliza a las marginalidades, oposiciones o disidencias político-culturales, inherentes a la conflictividad urbana”. Añaden que “puede vulnerar derechos fundamentales como el de reunión, manifestación y libertad de expresión”.

En la explicación de sus motivaciones, los juristas afirman que el texto “hace una protección aparente y no real de los bienes jurídico presuntamente protegidos”, esto es, la convivencia ciudadana. Llegan a afirmar que la norma “puede desencadenar situaciones de crispación conflictividad e incluso alarma social”. También argumentan que con esta se amplían “peligrosamente” los poderes de la Policía Local, de manera que “recuerda una tradición propia de otras épocas”.

Finalmente, el grupo incide igualmente en los “déficits democráticos” de la elaboración de la norma, opinando que “la base de cualquier normativa municipal debe ser el derecho a la participación política en su elaboración. Actualmente hay un gran movimiento ciudadano de oposición”.

Otras historias relevantes
Por qué no se puede sacar a las prostitutas migrantes
Por qué trabajar en la calle

Otros enlaces sobre la ola de ordenanzas cívicas en otras ciudades españolas, contribuido por Cliente X
· En Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz) y Getafe (Madrid)
· En Guadalajara
· En Sevilla

扫黄 Sweeping the yellow in China’s sex-industry-standardised capital

黄(huang2) (yellow) means pornography and prostitution. 扫黄 (sao3huang2) means sweeping the yellow, referring to police crackdowns, also known as cleanup campaigns and rooting out ‘vice’ and consisting of general harassment of sex workers. Such a sweep is underway in Dongguan, a manufacturing centre in Guangdong province known as China’s sex capital. What’s more interesting is how this city’s sex industry uses modern business techniques. Southern Metropolis Weekly’s new cover shows a typical sms message advertising sex services received by visitors and explains how Dongguan’s manufacturing practices have seeped over into the sex industry in the form of standardised services. Complaints aboutt the uncertain nature of services provided by ordinary sex establishments go like this: ‘Whether you pay 300 or 1,500 yuan, what you pay for isn’t what you end up getting. Say there’s a girl who claims to be skilled in a particular service. She’ll actually be rough and clumsy. And because it’s all grey-market, if they overcharge you, you just have to accept that you’re getting screwed.’ The following excerpts explain how standardisation works, including how sex workers train themselves. Note: 100 yuan = 10 euros

Dongguan’s ISO Sex Industry

4 December 2009, Southern Metropolis Weekly

. . . The catchy phrases manage, in the space of a few dozen characters, to clearly lay out an establishment’s offerings — usually “Dongguan-style service” — price, and contact person. The goal is clear: practically all men of means across the Pearl River Delta will receive these messages. Mai, the manager of a mass SMS distribution company in Houjiezhen said, “For just 200 yuan, you can have a company send a text message to 7,000 car owners in the Pearl River Delta.”

. . . The saunas of Dongguan and its surroundings are known for the following: for 400 to 600 yuan, sex workers will provide 15 to 30 different types of services over the course of two hours. These sex services are standardized, from the opening strip tease and the sex worker’s expression to the number of times the customer can climax. The rise of the manufacturing industry in recent years has brought ideas about standardized production along with it. Workers in local manufacturing who frequent Dongguan’s sex industry jokingly call the sex standards the industry’s “ISO,” which even has its own ex-post evaluation system. Practically all of Dongguan’s hotels and saunas will ask customers for an itemized assessment, and if any girl is thought to be slacking off or is no longer attractive to customers, her wages will be cut.

To keep up turnover rates, saunas in Dongguan are set up with many rooms on multiple floors, all of which are furnished with the waterbeds and dance floors needed for services, but the steam rooms and lounge areas found in ordinary saunas are not found. Reporters found that because of “ISO,” competition revolves around the opulence of furnishings, and the size or particular characteristics of its group of sex workers . . .

Reporters found that no one in that line of work could say with certainty where these services originated. Some described them as coming from the “Thai baths” (aka body massage) that are familiar to men in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but in training centers, sex workers typically used adult videos from Japan as their source for new techniques. The training process is more intense than the technical training given to factory workers, and its contents include the use of fruit to increase sex workers’ mouth strength. “A dozen days of training is enough to take the skin off your knees,” one sex worker who recently entered the profession told this reporter.

Another aspect of the crackdown is translated at China Hush.

What does sex work have to do with climate change? Anti-prostitution campaign at Climate Conference, Copenhagen

Susanne Møller, SIO

Sex workers in Denmark are protesting a campaign against prostitution during the UN Climate Change Conference. The city of Copenhagen wants to discourage delegates from buying sex, despite the fact that it is perfectly legal there and has nothing to do with climate change. The sex workers’ interest group, SIO (Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation), was not consulted and so, annoyed, they are offering free sex to any conference delegate who turns in his ridiculous postcard (see below), which also went to 160 hotels.

This is sheer discrimination. Ritt Bjerregaard is abusing her position as Lord Mayor in using her power to prevent us carrying out our perfectly legal job. I don’t understand how she can be allowed to contact people in this way. – SIO Spokeswoman Susanne Møller

The unfounded idea at the bottom of the city’s campaign is that prostitution increases enormously when big events come to town and therefore trafficking and exploitation must. Meanwhile, legal businesses are punished. The below Norwegian story focuses on SIO’s ideas.

Derfor tilbyr Susanne gratis sex

Pål Nordseth, 7 december 2009, Dagbladet.no

Susanne Møller, prostituert i København og talskvinne for Sexarbejdernes Interesseorganisation (SIO), sier deres kampanje under det kommende klimatoppmøtet er et svar på det de oppfatter som årelang hets fra kommunens side. Ved å framvise offisielt akkrediteringskort for FN-møtet, samt et postkort fra kommunenes anti-prostitusjonskampanje, vil delegatene kunne benytte seg av 79 organiserte sexarbeidere helt gratis.

Vi gjør dette for å skape oppmerksomhet om et problem: At København kommune under toppmøtet profilerer seg selv på bekostning av en helt lovlig bransje. Dette rammer sexarbeiderne, som ikke er blitt rådspurt på forhånd, sier Møller til Dagbladet.

Nekter for toppmøte-oppsving
Mens både Norge og Sverige har kriminalisert sexkjøp, er det fortsatt legalt å betale prostituerte for sex i Danmark. Susanne Møller avviser blankt at sexmarkedet i København får et oppsving under store internasjonale hendelser i byen, slik det hevdes i kommunens behandling av anti- prostitusjonskampanjen.

Dette er helt udokumenterte påstander. Vi lever av våre faste kunder, og kommer det noen ekstra til under slike møter, er det ikke noe vi legger merke til. . . Selv om det var slik, er det feil å se på det som et problem. Om delegatene har sex eller ikke under toppmøtet, er det en privat sak. Det vi gjør er helt legalt og skader ingen, og som alle andre forretningsdrivende ønsker vi selvfølgelig flere kunder og bedre omsetning. Jeg synes det er forkastelig, det kommunen gjør. De innfører sin helt egen kriminalisering, legger hun til.

Talskvinna sier så drastiske tiltak som å tilby gratis sex er nødvendig for at de prostituerte skal kunne nå fram med sitt budskap.

Kommunens mål er å få en prostitusjonsfri by. Toppmøtekampanjen er bare et ledd i det som har vært en årelang hets av sexarbeidere. Vi går gjerne i dialog med kommunen, men har så langt ikke hørt fra dem. Heller ikke at vi gikk ut med vår motkampanje. – Susanne Møller

Sex workers and researchers defend clients in Vancouver

Sex worker Susan Davis advocates the decriminalization of prostitution

Clients as monsters and misfits, exploiters and rapists, dysfunctional or weird: that’s how many who hate prostitution and the sex industry generalise all men who buy sex (they skim over women who buy sex because that’s not the gender-equality road they want to follow.) If you attend meetings where sex workers are present, you will hear another story, in which all sorts of guys buy sex for all sorts of reasons, most of them quite ordinary. In these excerpts a researcher amongst clients also speaks up.

Sex workers defend buyers

Shadi Elien, Straight.com, 26 November 2009

Veteran sex worker Susan Davis wants people to know that her “clients aren’t the bogeymen they are made out to be. I love what I do,” Davis told the Georgia Straight in an interview at the Vancouver Public Library’s central branch. “I think the guys are the best; a lot of them are my friends. Some I’ve known for 18 years. How do you not become emotionally attached?”

Davis, who has been in the business for 23 years, insisted that stability and security for sex workers can only come with decriminalization of prostitution. FIRST, a national coalition of feminists who support sex workers’ rights, hosted a lively forum on the subject at the library on November 23. Davis, who was on the panel, suggested that men who buy sex can actually help enhance the safety of those in the trade. “I think that clients are our biggest resource in trying to combat exploitation, trafficking, and exploitation of youth within the sex industry,” declared Davis, a member of the West Coast Cooperative of Sex Industry Professionals, in the interview.

Another panellist, SFU sociology instructor and researcher Chris Atchison, echoed Davis’s sentiments. He revealed the results of an extensive three-year study—called “Johns’ Voice”—that documents the relationship between buyers and sellers of sex in Canada. “I wanted to understand how these men engage in purchasing behaviour and what their relationships with sex-trade workers are about,” Atchison told the audience. “I wanted to know whether social and legal intervention such as the Swedish model is warranted by any empirical evidence.”. .

. . . The men he spoke to were seeking companionship and a connection with the sex workers they patronized, he said, adding that they wanted to engage in a safe and respectful relationship. He also reported that many customers saw the same sex worker for months or years, and that 79 percent said they wished to see prostitution decriminalized and regulated.

“I’m not here to present a picture of the sex buyer as some wonderful guy or say that they are all great, salt-of-the-earth people,” he said. The “Johns’ Voice” project showed that between one and two percent of clients have been brutally violent toward a sex worker. Those are the people the law must address, according to Atchison. . .

%d bloggers like this: