Adult World News

The eternal fairy story of thousands of itinerate sex workers travelling the globe from sports competition to sports competition has got its first mention for the 2016 Tokyo Olympics.

The source of the first rumour is a totally unauthoritative figure used by a tabloid sports editor, but no doubt there will be a few gender extremists who will use the quoted figure and the rumour will commence.

In fact the Tokyo Sports tabloid spoke to Akira Ikoma, the editor of a guide to men's entertainment called Ore no Tabi (My Journey). He says that Korean prostitutes from around the world will arrive in Tokyo, especially the Uguisudani area, which is known for its delivery health out-call establishments.

It could be more than 100,000 women. They will be eyeing the economic possibilities that go with the event. There is no doubt about it.

The basis of the claims is that in 2004, the Korean government passed an anti-prostitution law and shuttered a number of sex shops. As a result, the editor says, Korea has exported 100,000 prostitutes to worldwide, primarily to the United States, Japan and Australia. It is this band of travelling sex workers that will supposedly converge on Tokyo for the Olympics.

Six pornography traders in western Japan have been arrested after mailing their catalogues to the head of Osaka Police Department by mistake, according to local media.

Police last week arrested Toshiharu Hidaka and five other men on suspicion of possessing supposedly obscene material with the intent to sell it in Osaka.

The suspects had been sending catalogues of illegal porn DVDs to random male customers by mail.

Police then raided Hidaka's office in Osaka. The six men have admitted the allegations.

UglyMugs.ie invited Irish indoor sex workers to take part in the research, which aimed to learn more about escorts in Ireland and particularly about their experiences of crime and abuse. This is the first ever survey of indoor sex workers in Ireland and 195 female, male and trans* escorts took part. Although the survey cannot be considered representative of all persons selling sex in Ireland, 195 participants is a very significant proportion of the Irish sex worker population.

The escorts who took part in the survey were from 29 different countries. Most were aged in their 20s or 30s and highly educated. Just over half had worked in sex work in another country prior to becoming an escort in Ireland. 97.3% were self-employed independent escorts, though 33.3% had experience of working for a third party, e.g. an escort agency, in Ireland or elsewhere in the past.

Despite it being popularly reported in the media that children are involved in prostitution, there was no evidence of the involvement of any under 16s and only one participant was aged under 18.

Participants reported low alcohol and drug use, high condom use, and taking a number of security measures whilst working as an escort, the top ones being not getting in cars with clients (65.3%), taking more precautions when it is a new client (58.1%) and not working alone (41.1%) despite the laws in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland that force escorts to work alone if they want to work legally.

Ireland's sex worker population overwhelmingly works indoors with access to phones and the Internet, which is safe conditions, in comparison to outdoor sex working. However, many of the participants reported experiences of a wide range of crime and abuses. It is also clear that a wide range of persons commit crime against sex workers in Ireland, not only clients.

66.7% of participants who had been a victim of crime whilst working as an escort in Ireland did not report to the police. The high level of stigma associated with being an escort being the primary barrier to engaging with police.

Participants said that other escorts were the biggest source of help to them after experiencing crime. The research confirmed that currently there are no useful support services for escorts in Ireland, but escorts would welcome the establishment of a variety of sex worker support services.

Fear of media exposure amongst escorts in Ireland is very high, even higher than fear of crime, with 74.6% of participants worried or very worried about being exposed as an escort in the newspapers or other media.

Recommendations include further research, a review of laws and policies that put sex workers at risk, tackling media abuse of sex workers and the provision of police sex worker liaison services and general advice, legal advice, health services and exiting services for sex workers.

The full report outlines that a number of factors put escort at risk of violence and abuse. The lack of support services and good relations with police, mean offenders specifically target escorts, in the belief that they are people in society without any help, who offenders can abuse with a very low risk of facing any consequences as a result. The media portrayal of escorts as people with no rights, no choices, helpless victims who can't say no to anything or anybody, is also sending a very dangerous message to offenders.

UglyMugs.ie is a scheme that aims to improve the safety of sex workers in Ireland and reduce crimes committed against them, by bringing sex workers together to share information about potential dangers.

Commenting on the research, UglyMugs.ie said:

There has never been any independent research into indoor sex work in Ireland. Instead of asking sex workers about their lives, we ask anti-prostitution campaigners. As our initial research here has shown, the Irish public are being grossly misled. Proper independent research must now be carried out now to establish the reality of indoor sex work in Ireland, so sensible legislation can be put in place.

Paying for sex in France may soon become a criminal offence, according to a forthcoming bill whose details were made public this week.

The proposed legislation would also overturn a 2003 law that penalises prostitutes overtly offering their services, rules that were intended to reduce the presence of sex workers in the streets but instead led prostitutes to dress down while plying their trade.

We are going to turn the law on its head, said gender extremist MP, Maud Olivier, who authored a report that will be the basis of the bill:

Prostitutes are victims and should not be treated like criminals. The law is intended to reduce violence towards prostitutes and to get it into the general mindset that paying for sexual services is not acceptable. We need to destroy the idea that prostitution is a happy trade.

The bill, which is due to be debated by the National Assembly (lower house) and the Senate starting in November, sets out progressive fines of up to 1,500 euros for a first offence, to 7,500 euros and six months' imprisonment for repeat offenders.

The proposal does not have universal support, however, and organisations representing sex workers claim it would push prostitution further underground and subject women to increased risks. AIDS advocacy group Act Up and French NGO Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) were among around 100 organisations who signed a petition against the proposition, arguing that it would make prostitutes more vulnerable .

Manon , a Paris sex worker who is spokeswoman for the STRASS sex workers union , told FRANCE 24 the bill would do exactly the opposite of what it is designed to achieve :

Prostitutes will have to work more clandestinely to protect their clients, putting them at greater danger of violence and further away from sexual health services, she said.

It also means a drop in the number of clients, making it harder for us to make a living. This in turn means that punters will be in a stronger position to pressure prostitutes into doing things they don't want to do, including having unprotected sex.

Should women receive preferential treatment in the workplace? Newly published research suggests attitudes toward this issue may correlate in part to whether people are porn viewers.

Writing in the Psychology of Women Quarterly , Indiana University researchers Paul Wright and Michelle Funk report people who admitted to watching pornography were less likely to support affirmative action for women in a subsequent interview.

That equation held true once a variety of factors that could shape one's view of the issue (including political ideology and religiosity) were removed from the equation. Furthermore, it applied to women as well as men.

The researchers claim: these results suggest that pornography may be a social influence that undermines support for affirmative action programs for women. ( But on the other hand it may just mean that if feminists were a little less strident in wanting to ban adult entertainment, they may get a little more support in more fundamental issues).

In interviews in 2008, nearly 24% of the men and 13% of the women said they had watched a pornographic film during the previous year. Two years later, as part of a follow-up session, the same people were asked, Are you for or against preferential hiring and promotion of women?

The results: Prior pornographic viewing predicted subsequent opposition to affirmative action for women. While women in the study (like those in previous research) were more supportive of such programs than men, they, too, were less likely to express approval if they had watched porn.

According to the researchers, this suggests sexual media activate abstract social scripts, which may then be used to inform opinions about social issues ---particularly issues dealing with gender equality. But really it just means that porn viewers aren't awfully keen on those who want to take their fun away.

The Swiss parliament has voted to raise the legal prostitution age from 16 to 18 bringing Swiss law into line with European neighbours.

The lower house of parliament voted to change the Swiss penal code to make it illegal to pay for sex with a minor, following suit after the upper house adopted the bill.

With the law change, sex workers between the ages of 16 and 18 will not face penalties, but clients who pay for sex with minors will face up to three years behind bars. Anyone encouraging prostitution by minors, including pimps, and people running brothels or escort services, will face up to 10 years in prison.

The law change also raises the legal age to participate in pornography, making it a crime punishable by up to five years in jail to produce, import, promote, screen or possess pornography featuring minors.

Finland's Minister of 'Justice' Anna-Maja Henriksson is asking the government to consider revising laws on prostitution to completely ban the purchase of sex.

A report published by her ministry criticises the current legislation for being too difficult to understand and claims not doing enough is being done to protect victims of human trafficking and procurement.

The anti-prostitution report says that the present ban on purchasing sex from victims of human trafficking is unworkable -- as it obliges authorities to prove after the fact that the customer should have known about human trafficking or pimping. The law has been on the books since 2006.

The Public Law and Order Act, meanwhile, forbids the offering or buying of sexual services in public places. The report claims that this ban has basically only been applied to the sale of sex.

The report inevitable argues that men should be criminalised just for the convenience of the authorities. And to confirm the man hating basis for the proposal, the panel also recommends completely removing bans on the sale of sex and clarifying the definition of procurement or pimping.

As she announced the results of the study, Henriksson reiterated her previous stance that the buying of sex should be made illegal in all circumstances. She said she plans to bring the matter before the cabinet soon.

The Palazzo hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip is trying to evict a 10-month-old nightclub for shows it claims are so raunchy that they violate obscenity laws. It says actors, some nearly naked, toss condoms into the crowd and simulate sex acts and bestiality on stage. The casino giant wants to terminate the club's 10-year lease.

The club is opposing the action and is seeking a restraining order to halt the closure, arguing that simulated sex acts don't constitute obscenity.

Sean Dunn, special events director at The Act said that representatives of the hotel-casino have frequently attended shows and did not complain.

The Act remains open for business while a district judge considers its fate.

The Nordic Choice hotel chain is in the process of converting to Bring Your Own Porn (BYOP). It is in the process of replacing in room porn channels with contemporary art.

The chain's owner, Petter Stordalen has made ludicrous and defamatory claims that the porn industry contributes to trafficking. He said:

The porn industry contributes to trafficking, so I see it as a natural part of having a social responsibility to send out a clear signal that Nordic Hotels doesn't support or condone this.

Starting with his flagship hotel in Norway's capital, Stordalen has now replaced porn with interactive TVs in each room offering "art on demand" with a choice of nine works of contemporary video art, including Sam Taylor-Wood's Still Life from 2001" -- a film showing a bowl of fruit slowly decomposing.

Stordalen plans to roll out video art to other hotels, with Copenhagen next on the list.

Times Square was full of bare-chested women today, as equality campaigners descended on the New York landmark to celebrate Go Topless Day.

The annual event, which takes place in a range of cities around the U.S., was established in 2007 by Go Topless, an organization founded by a spiritual group called the Raelian Movement.

The day sees women walk together to challenge laws that allow only men to walk around shirtless.

In New York it is legal for women to go shirtless in public, as it is in Ohio, Texas and Colorado to name a few. But others including Kansas, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia it is outlawed for women to go topless in public

Managers at Club Rouge in Edinburgh has said that efforts are under way to create an independent dance censor which would cooperate with licensing officers and police to ensure elf 'n' safety in strip clubs and adult entertainment venues across the Capital and Scotland.

They said the body would issue certificates of good practice to businesses only after they introduced measures to clamp down on abusive customers, unhygienic working environments and unfair charges imposed on dancers when clubs are busy or when they phone in sick.

Day-to-day monitoring and enforcement would still be carried out by police and licensing officers though.

Alex Smith, manager of Club Rouge, said:

This is an opportunity for the clubs to say that from now on, they're going to work together for a better environment.

He said meetings would soon take place with senior councillors to move the process forward, with the new dance censor on a voluntary basis and financed through a mixture of public money and contributions from the industry.

Licensing staff said they were receptive to the idea. A spokeswoman said:

The council would welcome any initiative to encourage industry good practice, however we would need more information on this specific proposal to be able to comment further.

Lap dancers at a Bristol club have been giving customers more fun than the miserable council allowed.

One performer has been suspended and two have been reprimanded by bosses for kissing and other physical contact.

Magistrates fined the venue around £16,500 for five licensing breaches. Temptations' manager Valerie Hoare was also ordered to pay £1,550 for two breaches.

Bristol Magistrates Court heard how CCTV from Temptations examined after an unannounced visit from licensing staff in January showed three dancers getting closer than the council allowed in the private booths .

Bristol's Sexual Entertainment Venue licence states that customers and performers are not allowed to touch each other during a performance. But the prosecution said: The footage from all three cameras showed extensive and repeated contact between customers and performers. The court heard this included one stripper holding a customer's face and giving him a kiss while he had his hands on her buttocks. Other footage showed a dancer sitting on a customer's lap, while in another booth a performer touched a man's leg with hers.

Recommended by Nutters

A handful of Bristol miserablists have raised a petition calling for the closure of Bristol's two table dancing clubs and its only lap dancing club at Temptations.

The petitioners are recommending:

• Central Chambers 9 St Stephen's St, Bristol BS1 1EE
• Urban Tiger 4 Broad Quay, Bristol BS1 4DA
• Temptations T3 46 West St, Bristol BS2 0BH

Offsite: Counter petition

7th September 2013. See  article from  southwestbusiness.co.uk

Update: Counter petition outstrips nutter petition

11th September 2013. See  article from  southwestbusiness.co.uk

As of yesterday afternoon, the nutter petition had 166 signatures, but in only four days the pro lap dancing one had already garnered support from 271 people.

Carrie Hale's online petition went live on Friday in response to one started last month. It reads:

This petition calls that Bristol City Council allow lap dancing clubs, gentlemen's clubs, strip clubs and pole dancing clubs, otherwise known as SEVs, to operate in Bristol.

The licensing policy has already been implemented and decided that the suitable number of SEVs in Bristol was three, with two other venues being forced to close to reduce numbers.

There is huge demand for these venues, otherwise they would not exist and they do not only cater for men.

The women and men that work in these venues are not exploited, neither are they forced to work in such venues.

The people of Bristol should have a choice to visit such establishments and by having a nil cap this choice will be taken away.

The petition runs until January 22 and can be signed at epetitions.bristol.gov.uk/epetition_core/community/petition/2386 .

Update: Licence Granted

18th September 2013. See  article from  sevlicensing.wordpress.com

9 objections from the public were received about the renewal of a licence of Central Chambers. It has been reported that this was renewed yesterday (16th Sept) with some fairly colourful language apparently used by a campaigner to describe the head of the three-strong licensing committee.

Feminist campaigner Bristol_Jane was live tweeting yesterday's hearing at City Hall, during which she called Conservative group leader Peter Abraham a sexist, misogynistic fuckface . The offending tweet has now been removed.

Miserable Westminster Council is trying to hide Soho's colourful heritage after ordering a restaurant to remove neon signs harking back to its former glory as London's red light district.

The signs, which read peep show and adult video , were installed outside the fashionable restaurant, La Bodega Negra, early last year as a homage to the area's history.

But after a nine-month fight with Westminster City Council, the restaurant, in Old Compton Street, has been issued with a discontinuance notice to remove the signs, claiming they cause substantial injury to the area. The council noted that Soho is a conservation area.

Westminster council claims:

The continued display of the neon advertisement is considered to constitute a substantial injury to the amenity of the area.

The restaurant argues that the signs, designed by Serge Becker, the creative director of La Esquina in New York and The Box in London, are a work of art and have become a landmark in their own right. Restaurant owner Will Ricker vowed to fight council bosses by keeping the signs in place. He said:

They have completely failed to mention that it was the centre of the capital's sex industry, which made Soho famous globally and a tourist attraction.

And now as it slowly changes away from that, we wanted to make a statement that paid homage to the cultural importance of that epoch. Particularly as its remnants are being eradicated by landlords, the council and technology, the neons are a remnant of a vanishing, golden era that should be celebrated, not forgotten.

Street prostitution is to be banned in large areas of Vienna's Prater district from September.

It is thought that as a result many of the prostitutes will move to the industrial zone in Liesing.

Gerald Bischof from the SPO said:

I don't think 300 new prostitutes will come, there simply isn't enough space, but there will definitely be an increase.

He hopes to get prostitution banned in Liesing. Over the past few months there has been 150 fines given out in the area - mainly due to prostitutes not having the correct identification and control cards on them.

Goa, the once popular Indian holiday state, has announced a ban on dance bars, further repressing the party scene in a destination once famous as a dance paradise.

The state has progressively restricted nightclubs and outdoor parties over the last few years.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has made sanitising Goa's palm tree-lined beaches a priority to make them more 'family-friendly'. He has now announced:

Dance bars will not be allowed in Goa. There has been a lot of image-beating for the state due to the existence of drugs and prostitution on the beaches.

His administration has also ordered police to remain present on the beaches until midnight. Previously police would withdraw after sunset.

Previous measures against nightclubs and parties, have forced many to close or finish early. Silent discos , in which party-goers wear headphones to listen to the music, have developed as a way to work around the restrictions on outdoor noise.

The Swiss city of Zurich has unveiled a sex drive-in which local authorities say will enable them to keep closer tabs on prostitution.

The facility consisting of nine so-called sex boxes is located in a former industrial zone in the west of the city. The site will be open daily from 7:00 pm to 5:00 am, and only to drivers, who must be alone in their vehicle if they want to pass the gate. They will follow a marked route along which up to 40 prostitutes will be stationed. Once they have negotiated a rate, they will drive to one of the nine car-wash style boxes to have sex.

The boxes will be equipped with alarms, allowing the prostitutes to make rapid contact with police if they are in danger.

Zurich has spared no effort to encourage the prostitutes and their clients to leave the area currently used in city centre and to use the new site, making it as pleasant as possible, with grassy areas and decorative lights. It will be marked clearly with signposts sporting a red umbrella, a well-known symbol for the sex trade..

To avoid putting off clients, city authorities said they had no plans to install video surveillance or deploy police at the site permanently. Social workers and security guards will be on hand, however.

Since January, sex workers have been required to obtain a permit to ply their trade. To receive one, they must have a Swiss work permit and health insurance. In addition, they must pay a tax of five Swiss francs per night of work.

Customers, meanwhile, can only seek sex in three designated areas of Zurich, the new sex-box site, a zone near a highway, and, for those on foot, in part of the old town district.

The owner of French firm Divinextases has seen sales triple after offering erotic products that appeal to the eco-conscious.

Frederic Donnat saw a gap in the market that was more interesting than the usual organic beauty products . He refocused his online business to eco-erotic products.

From balms for buttocks left sore by a spanking session to intimate perfumes, all Donnat's products are made in France with sustainable materials from reputable sources. They use beeswax and shea butter rather than palm oil and all are wrapped in recyclable packaging.

Divinextases , whose pills are sold in pharmacies, organic stores and sex shops, now wants to diversify into aphrodisiac-laced tea and sugar, company director Fleur Phelipeau told AFP.

Meanwhile British company French Letter sells carbon-neutral condoms made from natural latex produced in sustainably-run forests. A French website arbredesplaisirs.com (Forest of pleasure) promises to plant a tree in the Amazon rainforest for every sex toy purchased.

But some are cynical about the rise of the organic sex shop. Easy Love, a network of lingerie and erotic accessory retailers, claimed eco-erotic products have sold very badly and dismissed the concept as a publicity stunt .