Selling the Girl Next Door

[redqueen]

Pay special attention to the part where they ask a bunch of adult sex workers at what age they got into the life.

That's the part that apologists for the multi-billion dollar sex-indstury don't want to admit is reality.

[Vodid]

1. A commercial for back(whatever)...the sex site.

They mention the so-called "offending site" throughout the video (I'm posting this before making it to the end, however), so it seems to me these folks are part of the problem, pretending to be part of the solution. Sex is one of those things that's pretty hard to regulate, even if it's underage, and everyone matures at their own rate. Not an easy issue to discuss, for sure.

[LanternWaste]

20. The imaginative and creative ways we rationalize the irrational is often more an illustration of the

"Sex is one of those things that's pretty hard to regulate, even if it's underage, and everyone matures at their own rate..."

The imaginative and creative ways we rationalize and enable the continuation of a problem is often more illustrative of the speaker than of the subject itself.

[seabeyond]

22. i always love when i am able to follow

all of your big words, lol lol. sometimes i have to just feel what you are saying. sometimes i actually know.

[LanternWaste]

25. lol I tend to get formal when reacting to stupid.

I tend to get very formal and precise when reacting to "the stupid" to prevent anyone from misreading my posts on purpose. Most of the time, I'm as relaxed and informal as the next person.

Verbal t-shirt and jeans is my normal standard in the real world, the formal tux comes on only when I respond to "some girls mature at different rates..." or some other nonsense.

[seabeyond]

26. hmmm. i tend to tourettes. each their own, huh? lol.

thanks.

always fun.

[boston bean]

2. ^ blocked

The "everyone matures at their own rate" comment was beyond the pale in light of the subject being underage age girls being sold for sex via internet ads.

No, the maturity of underage girls or boys in this crime and abuse, does not come into play, not one fucking iota.

[seabeyond]

3. thank you BB. just the same ole excuse for men to mess around with kids. nt

[boston bean]

4. Welcome.

I am around, and try to read most things here in the.

My apologies for not linking up a GD thread with someone who posts here, but I'm not clairvoyant.

If someone has an issue I am very open to PM's. I can't catch everything and every nuance.

It is true I haven't been posting much, but I don't think I've been derelict in my duties. If anyone, and I say this sincerely has questions, or concerns with anything that effects the group, please contact me.

My life has been a bit hectic and I just haven't had much time to post, but that doesn't mean I'm missing or awol.

[seabeyond]

7. i know very well you are accessible and

and think it is all about you deciding how much and how long you are on du. i do not have any issue. i saw no reason to mention the GD thread. and i would not have done anything about this poster. so, meh... you guys have done excellent with this group

[boston bean]

8. Thanks Sea!

You know the deal and I know you understand it all!

[seabeyond]

5. 103 posts, 9 yrs. who are these people with years of du and few posts,

that are coming in here to talk about sex with kids or whatever? that is odd. this is the third poster with very few posts yet years on du. i know some obsess with sock. i do not pay much attention to it cause who can know. but that is odd to me.

[boston bean]

9. You got me, but it's the fucking creepiest thing I've run across on DU

And to have people coming in here being so open about sex with minors is freaking me out.

They aren't welcome here, in this group, I can tell you that.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

11. BB, I like that notation and right under the offending post shows why and how the

offense is treated ... also the time stamps show how quickly Hosts are dealing with the offensive poster who needs to read and learn and get educated about the issues. We can not fix stupid but, we have a chance to educate the ignorant.

Kudos for all that you are doing here.

[boston bean]

17. Thanks Tuesday!

[boston bean]

6. PS RQ, thanks for posting I hadn't seen this.

I thought it was extremely well done for the time CNN gave this special.

It's horrifying.

[redqueen]

15. It really is ...

eventually enough people will notice.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. DU Rec

[ismnotwasm]

12. Assholes

And the solution? Put the girls in jail and slap the tricks on the hands--maybe embarrass them. They're the ones that need to go to jail.

Backstage.com is currently being sued by three teens in my area in a class action law suit, but it's not the first time for a lawsuit; It's one fucked up organization.

This could have been me. It was very close, I didn't turn to street walking because I hung out with Gay male prostitutes when I was 14 and 15 And even then I understood the unequal sexual dynamics, was angry at it, furious really that my sexuality didn't belong to myself. It was the kernel of my feminism and by the time I was 18, and after my first child, I self-identified as a feminist, even though at that time I would have been described as "sex positive" if there had been such a term. That didn't last.

And those young men that protected me? Dead from AIDS, this was the late 70's and early '80's. But they're still dead, and a big hole exists where they should be.

And it wasn't just young men, it was female friends;I lost a friend to a serial killer, one survived her throat being slashed, there were OD deaths, beatings, rapes, car wrecks, alcoholism and more. It's so fucked up, that when I start telling stories, it sounds like bullshit to people. And I offer that disbelief back; I absolutely and unequivocally DO NOT believe anyone who says they've been around the business and have never seen harm, have never seen or experienced some of the things I have.

And money? Sure some women made tons of money. But then, so do crack dealers.

And that motherfucker running the "Cathouse" *is* a motherfucking pimp.

[seabeyond]

13. another... i wish, people would read your post and take it to heart. standing right beside you

That anyone even on the peripheral doesn't know this shit. I heard the applause of portlands sex environment and driving thru knowing the runaway/prostitution issue, it is not so innocent.

[redqueen]

14. " anyone who says they've been around the business and have never seen harm..."

Was lucky, and only knows the privileged side. Or was lied to, cause a lot of people don't open up for whatever reason - don't want to be lectured, pitied, who knows - but reality is what it is, and those with privilege need to check themselves.

[ismnotwasm]

16. Yeah, there is that

Standing on the backs of my dead in their pricy Stiletto heels.

[boston bean]

18. The johns had their faces covered by a mask.

What's that tell you?

[redqueen]

19. We must cater to men! We must take care not to embarrass or shame those

who would buy and sell children!

This is a patriarchy, young lady!

And don't you forget it!

[duffyduff]

21. I personally detest the term "sex workers" to describe prostitutes

What it tends to do is treat prostitution like it is just "another job" by lumping them in with real workers rather than the human rights victims they really are.

That term, though popular these days, should be scrapped.

By that logic, johns should be called "sex consumers" and pimps "sex entrepreneurs."

Sugarcoating what this really is doesn't change the reality of it.

[ismnotwasm]

23. You know I was thinking about that

I took me a long time to come to accept the term in any capacity; but see before anything I want women to be safe, somehow, I know they are not, and I thought if some bolster themselves with semi-legitimacy by using the term, or even make attempts to unionize--although those attempts have been object failures--I was ok with it.


But looking at this video, and reading the bullshit they try to pass off as "everyday" sex work, say at a legal brothel on TV, there's no escaping the fact it's abject exploitation that causes harm every single hour of every single day, and words matter, they carry our cultural freight and I think you're right, there is nothing good that comes out of prostitution in the aggregate. I'm one of those that places everyone from nude baristas to swim-suit models in a broad category of prostitution; anyone who uses their sexuality to sell anything from products to bolster movie sales to actual sex is a prostituted person.

Our society is so sick in this way, to objectify and use women's bodies with a constant bombardment of messages until it's internalized as 'normal'; it give the illusion of 'choice' in the sex trade. It's never a choice to be objectified, women may have a point of decision, or a point of force or whatever starts it, but we are born objectified. We are born potential prostituted people, every last one of us.

And the point isn't how much money you make--sure money's great--but there are a number of ways to make money that actively causes harm. Certain Wall Street practices for instance. Selling heroin. Cutting corners on materials for buildings creating shoddy and dangerous product.

And here we look at a prostituted woman and and say--look at all the money she's making and in the next breath decry sex trafficking as though the two were unrelated.

[seabeyond]

24. i agree with duffy and for the reason you state. nt