Your Daily Sex

Chuwit Kamonwisit came to prominence as a nightclub and soapy massage parlour owner. He then became a politician and has now produced an academic paper estimating the extent of the Thai sex industry.

Chuwit pulled no punches about his assessment of sex for sale in Thailand. He said that there were a million women in the sex trade and it was financially bigger than illegal drugs.

Sex for sale in Thailand was everywhere he said. He listed:

Pubs, bars, beer bars, karaoke, Go-Go bars, lounges, soapy massage, traditional massage, fake spas, hotels, resorts, cafes, restaurants, barbers/salons acting as fronts for the business, girls on the end of the phone. These days there were sideline girls (those engaging in sex to pay for their studies or lifestyle in other areas) and pretties (promotional models).

He apologized if any of these were legitimately working outside the sex industry rather than just offering sex. He listed others that keep the nighttime entertainment business going and live from it such as waitresses and waiters, kitchen staff, salon workers, drivers, guides, cashiers, mamasans, taxi drivers, restaurants, shops, alcohol providers and the like.

He said that poor education was no obstacle to entering the sex trade and that for a woman aged 18-25 this was their golden years with some in top end Bangkok clubs able to earn 100,000 baht a month (£2400). After 26 things started to go downhill for many women, he said. When prostitutes were over 30 they went to sell themselves in Pattaya and Phuket or other places where there was a big sex industry.

Some went abroad to work in casinos or Thai massage in Asia, Europe or the US.

In Thailand he said the sex industry continues to grow that it was a multi 100 billion baht industry that eclipsed even the trade in illegal drugs.

New York Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright has announced bill A6540 which defines consent to sex as a freely given, knowledgeable and informed agreement obtained without the use of malice such as forcible compulsion, duress, coercion, deception, fraud, concealment or artifice.

If passed, this would be the first time lawmakers formally define the meaning of consent in the state's penal law for sexual assault and all crimes.

Seawright menacingly threatened in a statement:

The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that a sex crime is committed every 73 seconds. We must stop this rising trend by clearly defining consent, thereby empowering our police and prosecutors to take action. The proper definition of consent in New York's laws will clarify lawful sexual conduct, guide behavior, and make it possible to hold sexual predators accountable.

Offsite Comment: If lying to get yourself laid is made a crime, no one will ever want to have sex again

10th April 2021. See article from rt.com by Charlie Stone

Being less than truthful to get your leg over could become a criminal offence if New York lawmakers get their way. This crazy intrusion into private lives ignores the fact everyone tells white lies to impress potential partners.

If you want to have sex with someone new these days, you'd better draw yourself up a contract... or you could end up in jail.

...See full article from rt.com

Sex toy maker Maude is attempting to generate a bit of hype by trying to impose politically correct terminology on sex toys. Maude claims that it is tired of seeing an 'outdated and gendered approach', their designers created a line up of vibrators and 'gender-neutral sex essentials'.

Dakota Johnson, who is now an investor and co-creative director, has joined the brand and spouts:

For too long sexual health has been poorly marketed, hyper-aggressive, and highly gendered. Maude is a company based on universal design making modern, body-safe, high-quality essentials for before, during, and after sex, with yourself or with another lovely human. The caliber and aesthetic of these products is excellent and elevated.

Now, Maude is taking things a step further with a new campaign denouncing supposedly outdated language that refers to vibrators as toys. Johnson added:

With our This Is Not A Toy campaign, we aim to activate hearts and minds in an effort to destigmatize sexual and intimate tools. Often the use of language surrounding sexual products is antiquated, gender-specific, and belittling.

Anti porn campaigners have been cataloguing porn titles on Pornhub, XVideos and xHamster and claim that one in eight have titles describing sexually violent acts. Their use of the term 'sexually violent' is a little bizarre though, and inevitably has been redefined to include non-violent material that the authors deem to be violent totally at odds with normal people's use of the English language.

The campaigners analysed 131,738 titles of videos that appeared on the front page of the tube websites (without specifically searching for anything nor allowing the site to build up a profile of preferences).

The campaigners claimed that

• 8,421 (6.4%) titles included terms for family relationships and 5,785 (4.4%) titles described sexual activity between family members - the most common category of 'sexually violent' material identified in the survey
• 5,389 (4.1%) titles referred to physical aggression or the depiction of forced sexual activity (acknowledging that performers had likely consented
• 2,966 (2.2%) titles described image-based sexual abuse, including hidden cams and upskirting
• 2,698 (1.7%) titles described as coercion and exploitation

The campaigners excluded BDSM material as they seemed to have gotten confused about whether the term 'violence' applies to the genre that seems to be higher more PC than other genres.

Pornhub's owner Mindgeek recently removed millions of videos that had been uploaded by users who had not been verified after claims of hosting illegal content. But it commented on the clips it has allowed to remain online:

Consenting adults are entitled to their own sexual preferences, as long as they are legal and consensual, and all kinks that meet these criteria are welcome on Pornhub.

Academic Clare McGlynn who co-authored the survey, said:

It's shocking that this is the material that the porn companies themselves are choosing to showcase to first-time users.

Collegue Fiona Vera-Gray and co-author of the survey, said:

Sexually violent material eroticised non-consent and distorted the boundary between sexual pleasure and sexual violence.

The survey, titled Sexual violence as a sexual script in mainstream online pornography, is published in the latest issue of The British Journal of Criminology. with its abstract reading:

This article examines the ways in which mainstream pornography positions sexual violence as a normative sexual script by analysing the video titles found on the landing pages of the three most popular pornography websites in the United Kingdom. The study draws on the largest research sample of online pornographic content to date and is unique in its focus on the content immediately advertised to a new user. We found that one in eight titles shown to first-time users on the first page of mainstream porn sites describe sexual activity that constitutes sexual violence. Our findings raise serious questions about the extent of criminal material easily and freely available on mainstream pornography websites and the efficacy of current regulatory mechanisms.

Offsite Comment: Academic Click Bate: The War On Porn Continues

7th April 2021. See article from reprobatepress.com by David Flint

The study makes big claims that were inevitably picked up and repeated uncritically by media outlets like the BBC. But even a cursory glance at the evidence and the conclusions might make a more open-minded person raise their eyebrows. If ever there was a study that set out in search of evidence to back up a belief already held, this is it.

See article from reprobatepress.com

Offsite Comment: British Journal of Criminology Study on Violence in Porn

10th April 2021. See article from avn.com

If you only read headlines about a new study from the British Journal of Criminology you might think that large quantities of criminal videos of sexual violence on tube sites are warping most children's minds, turning them into sexual violators.

But this isn't even close to true. The coverage of the study is misleading and exaggerated. But the study itself is extremely flawed.

First, the researchers included everything from stepmom to ploughed in the category of sexual violence. Defined that broadly, it's shocking the study found only one in eight videos depicted sexual violence.

See full article from avn.com

Many industries will have difficulty recovering from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic - and the adult entertainment industry is no exception.

Colchester's strip club Climax recently went into liquidation leaving about ten erotic dancers unemployed.

The Free Speech Coalition Europe is a group representing the adult trade. It has organised a petition to The Members of the European Parliament of the IMCO, JURI and LIBE Committees on the subject of how new EU internet censorship laws will impact sex workers. The petition reads:

10 Steps to a Safer Digital Space that Protects the Rights of Sexuality Professionals, Artists and Educators

"Online platforms have become integral parts of our daily lives, economies, societies and democracies."

Not our words but those of the European Commission. And after more than a year in the grips of a global pandemic, this statement rings truer than ever before. So why are some of society's already most marginalised people being excluded from these necessary spaces?

Sexual Expression is Being Banned Online

Sex in almost all its guises is being repressed in the public online sphere and on social media like never before. Accounts focused on sexuality -- from sexuality professionals, adult performers and sex workers to artists, activists and LGBTIQ folks, publications and organisations -- are being deleted without warning or explanation and with little regulation by private companies that are currently able to enforce discriminatory changes to their terms and conditions without explanation or accountability to those affected by these changes. Additionally, in many cases it is impossible for the users to have their accounts reinstated -- accounts that are often vitally linked to the users' ability to generate income, network, organise and share information.

Unpacking the Digital Services Act (DSA)

At the same time as sexual expression is being erased from digital spaces, new legislation is being passed in the European Union to safeguard internet users' online rights. The European Commission's Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act encompass upgraded rules governing digital services with their focus, in part, building a safer and more open digital space. These rules will apply to online intermediary services used by millions every day, including major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Amongst other things, they advocate for greater transparency from platforms, better-protected consumers and empowered users.

With the DSA promising to "shape Europe's digital future" and "to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected", it's time to demand that it's a future that includes those working, creating, organising and educating in the realm of sexuality. As we consider what a safer digital space can and should look like, it's also time to challenge the pervasive and frankly puritanical notion that sexuality -- a normal and healthy part of our lives -- is somehow harmful, shameful or hateful.

How the DSA Can Get It Right

The DSA is advocating for "effective safeguards for users, including the possibility to challenge platforms' content moderation decisions". In addition to this, the Free Speech Coalition Europe demands the following:

• Platforms need to put in place anti-discrimination policies and train their content moderators so as to avoid discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, or profession -- the same community guidelines need to apply as much to an A-list celebrity or mainstream media outlet as they do to a stripper or queer collective;

• Platforms must provide the reason to the user when a post is deleted or account is restricted or deleted. Shadowbanning is an underhanded means for suppressing users' voices. Users should have the right to be informed when they are shadowbanned and to challenge the decision;

• Platforms must allow for the user to request a revision of a content moderation's decision, platforms must ensure moderation actions take place in the users' location, rather than arbitrary jurisdictions which may have different laws or custom; e.g., a user in Germany cannot be banned by reports & moderation in the middle east, and must be reviewed by the European moderation team;

• Decision-making on notices of reported content as specified in Article 14 of the DSA should not be handled by automated software, as these have proven to delete content indiscriminately. A human should place final judgement.

• The notice of content as described in Article 14.2 of the DSA should not immediately hold a platform liable for the content as stated in Article 14.3, since such liability will entice platforms to delete indiscriminately after report for avoiding such liability, which enables organized hate groups to mass report and take down users;

• Platforms must provide for a department (or, at the very least, a dedicated contact person) within the company for complaints regarding discrimination or censorship;

• Platforms must provide a means to indicate whether you are over the age of 18 as well as providing a means for adults to hide their profiles and content from children (e.g. marking profiles as 18+); Platforms must give the option to mark certain content as "sensitive";

• Platforms must not reduce the features available to those who mark themselves as adult or adult-oriented (i.e. those who have marked their profiles as 18+ or content as "sensitive"). These profiles should then appear as 18+ or "sensitive" when accessed without a login or without set age, but should not be excluded from search results or appear as "non-existing";

• Platforms must set clear, consistent and transparent guidelines about what content is acceptable, however, these guidelines cannot outright ban users focused on adult themes; e.g., you could ban highly explicit pornography (e.g., sexual intercourse videos that show penetration), but you'd still be able to post an edited video that doesn't show penetration;

• Platforms cannot outright ban content intended for adult audiences, unless a platform is specifically for children, or >50% of their active users are children.

A Glasgow City Council committee has voted to make sexual entertainment venues (SEV) in the city subject to a licensing regime.

Rather than ban such clubs immediately, the Licensing and Regulatory Committee said a further 18 month consultation should now begin. This will consider what a licensing regime for the clubs should look like and detail how many licences are appropriate for Glasgow.

While dancers welcomed the decision to regulate SEVs they expressed dismay at a second consultation. Megara, who has helped spearhead a campaign to save Glasgow's clubs and helped dancers unionise with GMB Scotland, said:

The number of licenses was the key thing we needed to know in order to allow dancers to breathe again safely in the knowledge they have a secure job to go to when the pandemic ends.

The new licensing regime is now scheduled to come into effect on September 24, 2022. The three existing Glasgow lap dancing clubs are expected to be granted licences by the city council under a grandfather clause.

Paying for sex could become a criminal offence in England and Wales if parliament approves a new private menbers bill which has been put forward by Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North. Johnson has put the bill forward in a bid to protect women from potential sexual exploitation and trafficking, but the proposal could have the opposite effect.

The bill is opposed by sex workers and groups including the Royal College of Nursing, Amnesty International and many harm reduction and women's rights charities. It's argued that those calling for criminalisation are driven by ideology and not evidence, and sadly sex workers are often removed from the conversation in the hallowed halls of parliament.

Currently in the UK a lot of the work is already criminalised. You can sell sex, but you can't solicit it in a public place, and you essentially have to work alone because of laws against running brothels -- two prostitutes working together constitute a brothel in the eyes of the law.

Johnson's bill would impose what is known as the Nordic model. Sweden's 1999 legislation -- which decriminalises the seller of sex and criminalises the client -- is often dubbed as a 'progressive' solution to prostitution and is built on a feminist definition of prostitution as a form of male violence against women. To radical liberal feminists, what's not to like -- punish the men who buy sex in this patriarchal world. The Nordic model is legislated in Norway, Iceland, Canada, France, Sweden and Northern Ireland in a bid to reduce demand and ultimately abolish the trade.

But the idea of the model is misleading and in fact evidence shows it has led to more violence against prostitutes in all of these countries. Attacks against sex workers in Ireland alone have risen by 92%, since the introduction of the model in March 2017.

The bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 9th December 2020 and was originally given a 2nd reading date of 21st of January 2021 but this didn't occur. The wording of the bill hasn't been published and the only information published so far is the description:

A Bill to criminalise paying for sex; to decriminalise selling sex; to create offences relating to enabling or profiting from another person's sexual exploitation; to make associated provision about sexual exploitation online; to make provision for support services for victims of sexual exploitation; and for connected purposes.