World Sex Sells News

  Jamaican Porn

From  Jamaica Gleaner

Athrong of hedonists crowds the stage at a popular nightclub in the Corporate Area to watch live sex onstage. This is one of several exotic clubs that have mushroomed across the island in recent years. Patrons go to witness the production of pornography. Tonight is one of those nights.

However, this is nothing new, as for almost two decades now strip clubs have been morphing into cafés of pornography. But the question for many is, what has caused this increase?

For Dr. Glenda Simms, former executive director of the Bureau of Women's Affairs, the high unemployment rate is the primary cause of the growing pornographic industry.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica reveals that the unemployment rate for women in Jamaica is two times greater than their male counterparts. In 2005, the unemployment rate for men was almost eight per cent, while for women was near 16 per cent.

Hilary Nicholson, programme coordinator at Women's Media Watch, points to this high unemployment rate among the nation's females, coupled with the meagre pay from dead-end jobs, as a significant factor in their getting involved in pornography.

But what started as a trickle has now morphed into a thriving underground industry. It is not certain how many pornographic movies have been made in Jamaica, However it seems that the industry is growing rapidly

  An Extreme Divide

Based on an article from  Wired

Obscenity prosecutions are taking a toll on the US porn industry as publishers embrace an every-man-for-himself approach under relentless Bush administration attacks.

The annual Cybernet Expo on Sunday here was overshadowed by a big question: Whether to stand united with producers of "extreme" material bearing the brunt of the assault in order to preempt attacks on milder content, or get some distance and hope to avoid being targeted?

Tara, webmaster of freepornstarpix.com, prefers the latter approach. It would be better to sacrifice some people … so everybody else can get on with it, said Tara, who declined to give her last name because her family doesn't know about her job. Extreme content producers, she said, need to cool it, pull back a little bit.

The focus of the debate is the 2003 obscenity prosecution of production company Extreme Associates for videos that feature urination, adults portrayed as children and simulated rape. The case, which has been bouncing around the court system for three years, is expected to go to trial in Pittsburgh next year.

Extreme Associates owner Rob Black blasted the porn industry this weekend for breaking ranks, rather than standing united. You hear all this solidarity. Bullshit. This industry except for about five people has hung me out to dry. Everybody wants to make a fucking compromise.

Pressure against the industry increased last month with a landmark lawsuit that appears to target a somewhat milder grade of porn. The Justice Department issued an obscenity indictment against JM Productions and Five Star Video over four porn DVDs, one featuring bukkake and another that reportedly simulates torturous oral sex to satirize the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The defendants face a maximum sentence of five years for each of several obscenity counts.

In the new prosecution, the government is getting closer to the center and moving away from the most extreme content, said Connor Young, president of the porn webmaster resource site YNOT.com. He thinks all porn should be allowed except material that features children or involuntary violence.

Porn industry attorney Greg Piccionelli believes in the solidarity approach. If we don't defend the people they start with, sooner or later they'll work their way down, he told the webmasters.

Piccionelli acknowledged that industry attorneys have developed a reputation as "Chicken Littles" who always say the sky is falling. Even so, he predicted that if another Republican enters the White House: the whole industry will be in the same position as Extreme Associates four years from now.

Update: Charges Dropped

20th October 2007

All obscenity charges against JM Productions and owner Jeff Steward have been dropped in federal court. The charges were dropped by the government because of lack of evidence and that officials didn't feel there was enough of a case to pursue.

  Sing a Song of Repression

From Canada.com

Vietnam's popular karaoke bars, renowned for hard drinking and prostitution, face harsh new restrictions starting in July, according to a government decree.

The decree, issued this month by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai bans karaoke bar patrons from drinking spirits, imposes fines for public drunkenness and limits the number of servers to one person per room to discourage prostitution.

From July 1, drinking spirits in karaoke lounges is subject to a fine of up to 1.5 million dong (US$94), equivalent to a monthly salary of a government official.

Public drunkenness in any place out of the home including in clubs and restaurants, is punishable by up to 500,000 dong (US$31), the decree said.

Lounge owners would also be fined up to 4 million dong ($250) if they use more than one person per room.

  Swiss Bonk Account

From SwissInfo

Prostitution is legal in Switzerland but prostitutes have to register with city authorities and health authorities and get regular health checks.

Pimping is illegal and uncommon: most prostitutes operate independently from small studios via mobile phones. They cannot display their wares.

Human trafficking in persons can carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years and coercing a person into prostitution is punishable with up to ten years in prison.

The number of prostitutes and sex clubs has risen over the past few years, but the industry has become more violent, says a federal police internal security report.

Prostitution in Switzerland generates an annual turnover of SFr3.2 billion ($2.65 billion). This upsurge in activity is also reflected in the parallel rise in prostitution-related human trafficking cases.

The number of prostitutes in Zurich has increased by 20% since 2003, according to the 2005 annual report. In canton Basel, a new brothel opened every two weeks while the number of prostitutes went up in Geneva by 50% from 700 to over 1,000. Around 14,000 prostitutes worked in Switzerland in 2005, the majority of whom were immigrants.

Brigitte Honauer, a former dancer and cabaret manager from canton Solothurn, is critical of the recent growth, blaming the bars and saunas that employ illegal sex workers.

The girls who work in those kind of places are not there legally, said Honauer. The police carry out raids, but the very next day they are replaced by a whole new set of girls. We have been on about it for years but seemingly nothing can be done.

Prostitution is legal in Switzerland but heavily regulated to try to control and reduce the more undesirable consequences, such as forced prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, the locations of brothels and links with criminal organisations.

In their annual report, the police highlight the rise in human trafficking cases, the majority of which are linked to prostitution. The police estimate that there could be between 1,500 and 3,000 victims of human trafficking in Switzerland at present.

Sex can be a very lucrative business. Clubs and massage parlours tend to attract criminal elements from Switzerland and abroad, say the police. And with such huge profits up for grabs, criminals take higher risks, " said Jorg Bohler, from the Federal Police Office.

The authorities say that the rise in the supply, with more girls and clubs, is destabilising the industry.

There are turf wars going on over each group's share of the cake. New gangs are moving in and pushing the old ones out, resulting in shootings and arson attacks on rivals' clubs and bars, " said Bohler.

  Politicians Hate Love

From Mainichi Daily News

Short time rooms are poised to disappear from Shibuya's renowned Love Hotel Hill as politicians move toward cleaning up one of the favorite spots for young Tokyoites.

Love Hotel Hill, or the Maruyamacho district of Shibuya as it is more formally known, is one of the most prominent and best-known gatherings of love hotels across Japan.

Love hotels, which rent out rooms for sex on an hourly or overnight basis, have served a vital role in space-poor Japan, where many adults still live with their parents and lack a place where they can enjoy life.

But now the Shibuya Municipal Government is tightening ordinances to stop any new love hotels from being built in the area in the hope that getting rid of these institutions of horizontal activity research will make their part of town look more pristine.

Prostitution is taking place in love hotels. The hotels are also a source of income for organized crime, which in turn threatens safety and has prompted many residents to complain, Hiroshi Matsui, a spokesman for the Shibuya Municipal Government said: There are also places that pretend to be reputable business hotels, but are actually love hotels. Existing ordinances do not allow us to combat them. Shibuya Municipal Government does not intend to newly regulate existing business operators, but we are going to create legislation that strictly limits anybody trying to build anew.

From www.insidejapantours.com

Love hotels are another uniquely Japanese phenomenon and provide a haven where Japanese couples young and old, can escape the confines and flimsy walls of the family home. They come in all shapes and sizes with some of the out of town complexes being a true sight to behold with their flashing neon lights and bright exteriors. Many offer 5 star luxury (extra big beds!) for a relatively cheap price and there is plenty of in-room entertainment on offer with your very own karaoke, wide-screen TV, games console, toys of one description or another, and luxury bathrooms (check-out the jacuzzi with built in TV!).

Discretion is the key; often you do not actually have to see anyone to be able to book in and once you're in your room, that's it. The car parks even provide covers for your car number plate to further protect your anonymity.

Perhaps the most famous area for love hotels is the infamous 'love hotel hill' in Shibuya in Tokyo. On one side of the main through road is a concentration of love hotels like nowhere else in Japan. If you want to experience a night of passion Japanese style or just want to have a look out of curiosity this is the place to come. There are hotels here to suit every taste. The garish neon exteriors and enticing room pictures are two of the things that mark love hotels out from their more sober cousins, business hotels. Other things to look for are rates by the hour and by the night ('rest' and 'stay' respectively) although many business hotels also offer this facility!

If you want to spend a night in a love hotel you should aim to arrive around 10pm. There is always a fixed rate from 10pm until 10am the following morning and prices are usually much cheaper than an equivalent standard room in a regular hotel. And of course you get all the fun extras! Standard love hotel procedure is to choose your room by selecting from the lit up pictures on a screen and then follow the directions to the nearest lift. Many hotels offer themed rooms such as jungle, Christmas, or Hollywood to spice up your evening. You can usually order drinks and food to your room with the hotel staff issuing a polite knock on the door before leaving a tray outside your door.

When you wish to leave, just insert payment in the machine by the door, and off you go.

  We Need a Museum for Defunct Museums

From AVN

Declining attendance and an apparent drop in local tourism is forcing the Erotic Museum in LA to close for good.

We never received any public money and we never asked for it, said Boris Smorodinsky, the privately owned museum's chief executive: We had to count on the tourists and visitors who came into the museum, but it was always insufficient. It never covered the costs.

So when attendance dropped this year, the museum's days were numbered. Despite attempts to find investors and even a buyer for the fledgling venue, it all came for naught.

The museum housed classic original photos of Marilyn Monroe, a set of 7-foot tall Russian dolls made up in bondage gear along with a display outlining the San Fernando Valley porn industry.

Not so much a result of economics, but because of a lack of cultural acceptance, Smorodinsky said: I don't think people were comfortable with a museum that dealt with sexuality. They either didn't get our message or we just couldn't deliver the message that this place is educational.

Among its permanent exhibits are nude etchings by Pablo Picasso which were only revealed years after his death. The museum also owns a 1948 porn movie said to be of Marilyn Monroe by some experts, but Monroe's estate has repeatedly denied this. The museum itself touts the film to be that of a woman who may be the late actress.

  Cold Hearted Ideas

Based on an article from the Nordic Council

Efforts to restrict trafficking and prostitution has been one of the main themes of the Nordic Council meeting in Stockholm 25- 26 April. The Citizens and Consumer Rights Committee passed a motion calling on Nordic political meetings to be held in hotels that explicitly reject prostitution.

The Citizens and Consumer Rights Committee proposes that the Nordic Council adopts internal guidelines:

• that it only uses hotels that issue a guarantee stipulating that they do not help aid and abet the sale of sexual services and that their staff have been issued with written guidelines to that effect.
• that it sets up a website with a positive list, registering in a legal manner those hotels that issue such guarantees and agree to have their names published on the website. The website should cover the Nordic Region and neighbouring countries where Nordic organisations are active.

Unanimous agreement could not reached about the final point, however, and two of the members voted against this part of the statement.

  Arbitrary Entertainment Tax

From AVN

The owners of eight strip clubs have asked a federal judge to throw out Nevada's live entertainment tax, claiming it's a violation of their First Amendment rights.

Last Tuesday, the owners of the Déjà vu Showgirls, Little Darlings, Spearmint Rhino, Olympic Garden, Sapphire, Crazy Horse Too, Treasures and Scores strip clubs filed the complaint which also seeks the return of millions already paid the clubs.

The club owners argued that the implementation of the levy has been "arbitrary and capricious" and with exemptions for various kinds of businesses except for those with adult entertainment.

The tax on live entertainment, approved in 2003 and adjusted in 2005, requires strip club owners to pay up to 10% of ticket sales or admission fees to the state. Eliades complained that the state tax targets adult businesses while others which provide live entertainment are given exemptions.

But state Sen. Dina Titus, a Las Vegas Democrat who helped push the legislation, said she was confident the tax could overcome this latest legal challenge. She said the tax is needed because strip clubs don't generally pay payroll taxes or pay for workers' compensation insurance, since strippers are independent contractors who also don't receive health insurance. She argued such businesses are also a drain on social services and police.

  Anal Probes in South Carolina Legislature

From Independent Mail

South Carolina's Legislature is considering outlawing sex toys. The banning the sale of sex toys is actually quite common in some Southern states.

The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.

Ms. Gillespie, an employee at an Anderson shop said: We are supposed to be in a free country, and we're supposed to be adults who can decide what want to do and don't want to do in the privacy of our own homes.

The measure would add sex toys to the state's obscenity laws, which already prohibit the dissemination and advertisement of obscene materials. People convicted under obscenity laws face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

South Carolina law borrows from a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling to define obscene as something "contemporary community standards" determine as "patently offensive" sexual conduct, which "lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value."

Other states that ban the sell of sex toys include Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas, said Mark Lopez, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Alabama's law banning the sale of sex toys has been circulating through the courts since its passage in 1998. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith Jr. twice ruled against the law, holding that it violated the constitutional right to privacy, but the state won both times on appeal. In February 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, which is back in the lower courts.

The ACLU got involved in the case, he said, to "keep the government out of the bedroom."

  Dancing Girls in Court

Based on an article from India Times

Eight months after the Maharashtra government shut down dance bars, the Bombay high court on Wednesday will hand out its verdict on the state's ban. A division bench of Justices F I Rebello and Roshan Dalvi will decide on a bunch of petitions by bar owners, bar dancers, women's activists and NGOs challenging the ban.

Dance bars were banned from August 15, 2005, by an amendment introduced by the state in the Mumbai Police (Amendment) Act. The newly-introduced provision banned the holding of a dance performance, of any kind, in an eating house, permit room or beer bar. Punishment for violators of the provision is imprisonment of up to three years or a fine up to Rs 2 lakh.

Following the state's ban, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) claimed in the court that it had affected 2,500 establishments in the state and left around 75,000 bar dancers unemployed.

The state government justified the ban on the grounds of immorality and that most dance bars had become pick-up joints and fronts for a thriving prostitution business.

  Update: Dancing For Joy

From The Times

A ban on dancing in Bombay's famous dance bars has been lifted by the High Court. Dancing in the bars — a longtime feature of the city's nightlife — was banned in August by the state government of Maharashtra, of which Bombay is the capital. However, the court ruled that it amounted to discrimination against the dancers.

The state government has eight weeks in which it can appeal to the Supreme Court, India's highest court.

Over the past several months, police raids were commonplace in bars that continued to feature dancing girls. Hundreds of dancers have been arrested.

  Update: Government Appeals for a Return to Repression

From the Calcutta Telegraph

The Maharashtra government today claimed the ban on dance bars had lowered crime figures and said it would appeal in the Supreme Court against yesterday's Bombay High Court judgment lifting the ban.

Deputy chief minister R.R. Patil's announcement, however, failed to discourage the thousands of bar dancers here who continued their celebrations late into the night, distributing sweets and doing little jigs to Bollywood beats.

The verdict has given hope to the dance bar industry that employs about 2 lakh people, including 75,000 dancers. The court has said the process of renewing the bars' dance performance licences — withdrawn after the ban kicked in on August 15 last year — must begin in eight weeks.

The high court struck down the ban because it prohibited dance performances at beer bars and restaurants while allowing them at high-end hotels, theatres, pubs and sports clubs. The court found this discrimination unconstitutional.

  Update: No Dancing in Court

From the Indian Express

For Mumbai bar girls, the wait for reopening of dance bars just got longer. Today, amid claims by the Maharashtra government that the dance bars were encouraging prostitution, the Supreme Court ordered continuation of the interim stay on processing their licences.

The eight-week stay granted by the High Court on renewal of licences will continue till further orders, a bench of Justices PP Naolekar and BN Agrawal said. They allowed the state government's petition challenging the Bombay High Court order striking down amendments to the Bombay Police Act, by which the ban was imposed, as unconstitutional.

The matter will now be heard in July after the court's summer recess.

  Update: Some Germans Reconsider Legal Prostitution

Surely that even if problems are still the same as before then the legalisation is a massive success, ie nobody has suffered imprisonment and persecution whilst the status quo is maintained.

From Centre Daily

Luna, who uses only one name professionally, is one of an estimated 400,000 female sex workers in a country that legalized prostitution in 2002. Another 40,000 are expected to come from outside Germany during the month-long tournament, at least some of whom, advocates worry, will have been forced into the sex trade against their will.

Stopping human trafficking was one of the reasons that Germany legalized prostitution. The logic was that by legitimizing the trade, it would become safer and healthier. But a United Nations report on human trafficking released last month still rated Germany "very high" as a destination for women forced into sex work, and some of those who supported legalization are reconsidering.

I was with my party, the Greens, when we pushed for legalization, said Hiltrud Breyer, a German member of the European Parliament. We really believed it would bring the profession out of the shadows and improve lives. I'm rethinking that position.

In Germany, as in the rest of the world, prostitution is big business, with annual revenues estimated at 14.5 billion euro, or $18 billion.

Under German law, prostitutes must be at least 18 years old, but registration isn't mandatory and the official government service-workers union, which represents them, says only a few have signed up. There's no health screening because prostitutes are eligible for the national health system. Some cities have limited where they can work, but Berlin allows them to work anywhere.

German officials hope to persuade more prostitutes to register by pointing out that it makes them eligible for state pensions, unemployment payments when they aren't working and even career-retraining benefits. But those benefits may be outweighed by costs such as paying taxes on their earnings, one possible reason that the number of registered prostitutes is so low.

Breyer said that when she checked national statistics recently only 300 to 600 taxpayers listed their jobs as prostitute. But union officials say they work with tens of thousands of prostitutes and that they think the government estimate of 400,000 is about right.

It's not just missing tax revenue that's worrisome, Breyer said. Because prostitution is legal, police don't investigate it as aggressively as they once did, and that's allowed forced prostitution to thrive, she thinks.

Anne Fitzgerald, who works with Solidarity With Women in Distress, agrees. That's why her group began preparing an information campaign last year. The idea behind the change in legislation was, I believe, that prostitutes should be able to leave the `gray zone' of semi-illegality and be registered and have social insurance like other professions, Fitzgerald said. Reality has since shown that very few prostitutes are officially registered and the police have practically no way of justifying brothel raids, so that now fewer victims of trafficking are actually discovered.

Standing, nude and out of her work outfit only because she's removed her stiletto heels, Luna can't imagine why anyone would think she'd been forced into her job. The job only got better when prostitution was legalized. Now she works at Artemis, Berlin's newest high-profile brothel.

Like the other women at Artemis, she pays rent for her space: 50 euros, about $70, for every 24 hours. For that, she gets two meals and a place to sleep. It's better now, she said. It's safer, and I'm able to control my finances, instead of relying on a pimp.

  Update: Exploitation of Football Fans

I somehow think that the authorities are jumping at the opportunity of imposing their nutter morality on the back of a the unlikely occurrence of meeting a trafficked girl. I suggest that fans should simply enjoy life, and use there nounce should they come across serious crime of any description.

From Turkish Daily News

British police are urging soccer fans heading for the World Cup to think twice before visiting prostitutes in Germany as many of the women may have been forced into sex slavery.

Grahame Maxwell, the head of a UK-wide operation against people-trafficking, said police had written to soccer club magazines to warn fans the prostitutes could have been coerced or kidnapped.

His officers were sharing information with German police on sex traffickers, who they expect will try to cash in on a rise in demand for prostitutes during next month's tournament.

We feel there might be 100,000 fans going from the UK to Germany and it's for us to raise awareness among them that there could be trafficked women there , said Maxwell, Deputy Chief Constable of South Yorkshire police.

German police are worried that the huge inflow of fans -- most of them young men -- will increase demand for prostitution. If the supply of sex workers in Germany, where prostitution is legal, cannot meet World Cup demand, traffickers will smuggle more women into the country to meet the shortfall, he added.

Youth television channel MTV, which has enlisted the support of Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie in its own anti-trafficking campaign, is working with British police on information leaflets to be distributed at UK and German airports and hotels.

Human rights and religious groups have also raised concerns about forced prostitution during the tournament.

Amnesty International has called on European countries to ratify the European convention against human trafficking, which sets out a legal framework for the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of victims.