April 2014

Don’t get hacked. Make safe online profiles. Fight back against harassment. Learn how in The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy (also on iTunes).

• Rent a Gent offers hot guys for hire, but no one seems to understand exactly what that means. Especially the company. I mean, what’s the point of renting a man if it’s not for sex?
  We Hired A Male Escort And All We Got Was A Lousy Lecture On Dismantling Capitalism (Buzzfeed)

• A website called Personal Dating Assistants (whose press release went out three days ago and is now being repurposed as news) helps would-be casanovas with their online dating game by taking over profiles on services like Tinder, OkCupid, and Plentyoffish, offering different levels of involvement depending on how much their game-challenged clients can pay. If the platonic ideal of a pick-up artist fedoradouche got his soul uploaded onto a computer and made into a website, this would be that website.
  You can hire a professional pick-up artist to run your Tinder profile (The Daily Dot)

• Louisa County prosecutor Rusty McGuire of Virginia has decided against charging young people for sexting and instead do a bit of education. Louisa schools are expanding programs to teach teenagers “the dangers of social media and how to make smart choices” and are launching a program for parents to help discuss the issue with their kids.
  Virginia Prosecutor Educates Sexting Teens Rather Than Prosecuting Them (Techdirt)

• Science, like an old pay-per-minute fortune teller, believes it can predict the state of your sex life based upon a few arbitrary personal facts. One of those facts is, of course, the natural shape of your body. Big hips, well endowed, long legs? You may not agree with it, but science knows what your sex life is really like.
  What Your Body Type Says About Your Sex Life, According to Science (Nerve)

• WREAL, LLC, makers of the FyreTV box, recently filed a complaint in a Florida court against Amazon alleging five counts of unauthorized use and infringement upon Wreal’s FyreTV and FyreTV.com trademarks, reminding the courts that the two trademarks were registered six years prior to the Amazon Fire TV’s announcements. The court documents reveal Wreal’s contention that “Amazon’s continued use of the “Fire TV” moniker has caused, and will continue to cause, serious irreparable harm to Wreal’s established business, necessitating this action.” (FWIW I was first contacted by FyreTV in 2010, they’re really nice guys.)
  The FyreTV Porn Streamer Maker Is Suing Amazon For Trademark Infringement (TechCrunch)

• Courtney Trouble’s been performing in feminist and queer porn for 12 years and running the production company Trouble Films for three; now, Smash Pictures is set to release the director’s first mainstream lesbian offering (I can’t wait!) The Cut spoke with Trouble about the new gig and giving viewers “what they want, and what they don’t know that they want yet.”
  Q&A: A Queer Porn Director Takes on Mainstream ‘Lesbian’ Porn (NY Mag)

• While administrative agencies such as the FDA, CPSC, and FTC regulate thousands of other consumer products for dangers such as toxic chemicals, harmful design flaws, and inaccurate or misleading packaging, sex-toy manufacturers remain free to engage in all three practices.
  Getting The Government In Bed: How To Regulate The Sex-Toy Industry (Tantus)

• Linkbait, presented in case you missed it on your lamer friends’ Facebook feed.
  Naked porn star tossed off roof of Hollywood mansion, breaks foot before splashing into pool (NY Mag)

• “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I attended New York’s branch of Naked Girls Reading, a monthly literary event during which there are, yup, naked women reading. The event started in Chicago five years ago, and now has branches in over 20 cities.”
  Are Naked Reading Events Going Mainstream? (ELLE)

• Super massive trigger warning – and I think we have one answer to the question “where do guys [who say sick shit to women about raping them online] come from?” A series of emails thought to be culled from a listserv of an unofficial fraternity at American University shows just how depraved some all-male campus groups can be—and that protecting students from assault will take more than just yanking frat charters.
  The Dark History of EI, the Latest Frat Accused of Rapey Emails (The Atlantic)

• Sina Corp, one of China’s top Internet companies, has been caught in a government crackdown on pornography. Official state media reported that authorities will strip Sina.com of its video and audio publication licenses after finding lewd images on the website. It was not immediately clear how Sina’s operations would be affected, but the company’s social media platforms and websites appeared to be functioning on Friday. Still, the news prompted shares to drop more than 3% Thursday in New York trading.
  Internet giant Sina caught in China porn crackdown (CNN Money)

• Scenes described in a Rolling Stone article detailing Anonymous’s vigilante efforts to expose the Steubenville rapists, may soon be heading to a movie theater near you thanks to Brad Pitt and his production company, Plan B, which bought the rights to the story earlier this month.
  Brad Pitt’s New Movie About the Steubenville Rape Has a Strong Message For Men (PolicyMic)

• “The Stupidest Things Straight Guys Say to Lesbians” is a hilarious video in which a handful of lesbians make a mockery of some of the most repeated, trite comments ladies who love ladies hear on a daily basis. Gems like “Are you sure you’re gay?” and a personal favorite, “Well, how does scissoring work?” are included — all accompanied by just the appropriate amount of snark.
  The Stupidest Things Straight Guys Say to Lesbians (PolicyMic)

• When a startup centers on sex, it will meet a host of roadblocks from funding to advertising. Here’s a look at how sex- centric startups find ways to pay the bills – without compromising their missions.
  The Difficulties of Running A Sex-Inspired Startup (Fast Company)

• Older article, but still interesting: Strippers at a Taiwanese funeral are simply doing their job of entertaining the dead and helping loved ones overcome their grief. They are integral to the healing process for bereaved families and their performance is part of a larger cultural trend that places an emphasis on happiness and celebration, even in death.
  If You Die in Taiwan, There Will Be Strippers At Your Funeral (PolicyMic)

• In another crowdfunding first, a former lawyer has decided to go the Adam & Eve route and create what one would euphemistically call an onahole. The product, called the Autoblow 2, is designed to allow the ingress of the male member and, with the help of a judicious drubbing, bring the male to issue. The team is crowdfunding and has been making sex toys in China for many years. They’ve raised $35,000 of their $45,000 goal.
  A Word With The Creator Of The Autoblow 2 (TechCrunch)

• Three sex abuse lawsuits against the man who once voiced “Sesame Street’s” Elmo character have been dismissed by a federal appeals court. A district judge had dismissed the New York suits last July, ruling that the statute of limitations — which requires a filing within six years of the alleged crime or three years after the now-adult male plaintiffs turned 18 — had run out.
  3 sex abuse lawsuits against Elmo actor dismissed (CNN)

• “Almost nine months ago, I was told I might never be able to have intercourse. Now I’m trying to make peace with my medical condition — and hoping my partners will as well.” Note: let’s hope she finds out what another woman with her condition did – see Botox Saved My Life (DAME Magazine).
  Learning To Love Life Without Sex (Buzzfeed)

• Le ragazze del porno is an Italian collective of 11 women who create female-friendly porn. They include journalists, filmmakers, writers and actresses who have launched an online fundraising campaign to finance their first 10 erotic short films.
  Is female-friendly porn the next feminist frontier? (West/Welfare, Society, Territory – via Ms. Naughty)

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• People in the UK who want to watch pornography will have to prove they are 18 under new Government proposals to stem children’s exposure to online sex. New laws are being drawn up that will force adults to prove their age with credit card details or other documents before they can access porn sites. The UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport is also looking at ways to force overseas providers, such as the popular Luxembourg-based site Pornhub, to adopt similar controls.
  Children will be blocked from watching online porn under new laws forcing websites to get proof users are aged 18 (DailyMail)

• Rachel Kramer Bussel writes, “I’ve rarely read a book that chilled and scared me the way writer Violet Blue’s The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy did. In this must-read for anyone who uses their laptop or phone to go online, Blue details the numerous ways women and LGBT people especially face security risks every time we go online, including identity theft, revenge porn, stalking, and all manner of scams.”
  We Know What You Did On the Internet (DAME Magazine)

• John Danaher, a Keele University law school lecturer with an interest in the ways human life may be enhanced by robots and the ethics problems that stem from that, published a paper that examines whether sex work might one day be dominated by robots rather than human sex workers.
  This Law School Professor Believes Robots May Lead To An Increase In Prostitution (Business Insider)

• New York-based comics Adam Lash and Kevin Gilligan have written 12 episodes of their yet to be produced mockumentary “Gighahoes.” To get the project off the ground and into production, they’ve started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $5,000. Set in the 2030s, the web series will follow the escapades of robots from an escort agency called Artificial Intercourse. In this fictional future, the business is the first to switch from using humans to androids for providing sexual services to clients.
  ‘Gigahoes’ Web Series Wants to Create Laughs with Sexbots (Future of Sex)

• Sex and real estate: Both are plenty complicated on their own; combine them, and you’re in for a messy situation. Still, city living drives some people to textbook-bad plans. Enduring vague sexual harassment to hold onto a rent-stabilized dream apartment? A tenant-with-benefits arrangement that satisfies both you and your super? In a rental market like New York’s, we understand that things can get kind of crazy. Here are 15 stories from the intersection of sex and rent.
  15 People on Sex and Rent (NY Mag)

• “After each dating failure, I felt a mixture of sadness and relief. A failed date meant I didn’t have to worry about physical intimacy. It meant I didn’t have to worry about taking my clothes off in front of another person. It meant I didn’t have to face the chance of, at best, another Teachable Moment regarding transphobia, or at worst, mortal danger.”
  Fumbling Towards Humanity: How Trans Grrrls Helped Me Open Up to My Partner (PinkLabel)

• Cognac faces pressure from China’s latest “anti-vice” campaign, targeting prostitution. In February, Chinese authorities launched a sweep of brothels across Dongguan, a southern metropolis known for its thriving erotic entertainment sector. In addition to boasting the “sex capital” of China, southern China is also the region with the country’s highest cognac consumption, according to the research consultancy Bernstein. Since February, over 2,400 hostess bars and the private-room karaoke clubs notorious for prostitution and known as “KTV houses” have been closed.
  Global cognac sales depend on the health of China’s “erotic sector” (Quartz)

• When you read this post, you’ll start to understand why some porn performers are pissed that working-my-way-through-college stereotype Belle Knox is the media’s newly-anointed voice of porn stars.
  Porn Stars R Stupid (Huffington Post)

• “The attendees were far from what “porn awards” may call to mind. The event was packed wall-to-wall, with every race, body type, minority and majority accounted for. “I get people calling me asking if they can come to the FPAs if they’re a guy, or if they could come with their wives,” FPAs creator Jansen told me. “Or I get people stopping me at the awards who say, ‘We’re just a nice couple that lives in North Toronto and we have kids and we heard about the event and we thought we’d come, and you know what? We had a really good time! This was really fun!’ and they come back year after year.”
  Partying At The 9th Annual Feminist Porn Awards (Playboy.com)

Terry Richardson is such a special snowflake, and his enablers such pictures of unbridled fuckery, that this topic gets its own section today.

• It began as we’d expect. Yet another model came forward with yet another story about Creepy Uncle Terry, and his spokesdouche was on it like a mustache ride. “[Emma] Appleton’s tweet — the contents of which a spokeswoman for Richardson immediately dismissed to BuzzFeed as fake — again raises questions about whether leading fashion magazines and brands will continue to work with a photographer who has been accused repeatedly of demanding sex from models. “We have no plans to work with him in the future,” said the communications director for U.S. Vogue, Hildy Kuryk. The model who posted the Sunday’s allegation, Emma Appleton, told BuzzFeed that the message came from Terry Richardson’s Facebook account.” Appleton has since deleted her entire Twitter account.
  Terry Richardson Spokeswoman Denies New Allegation (Buzzfeed)

• Next, Creepy Uncle Terry vaguely denied he pulled out the Pedobear clownsuit on models Emma Appleton, Jamie Peck, Liskula Cohen, Charlotte Waters and Rie Rasmussen – who have each come forward with separate allegations. He defended his artwork and omitted discussion of his behavior saying, “I collaborated with consenting adult women who were fully aware of the nature of the work, and as is typical with any project, everyone signed releases. I have never used an offer of work or a threat of rebuke to coerce someone into something that they did not want to do. I give everyone that I work with enough respect to view them as having ownership of their free will and making their decisions accordingly, and as such, it has been difficult to see myself as a target of revisionist history.”
  Correcting the Rumors (Huffington Post)

• And then, while Vogue knew she’d stepped a Louboutin in something shitty but decided not to track it all the way back to the office, other magazines were like, look there’s BELLE KNOX.
  Rolling Stone, GQ, And Other Magazines Silent On Terry Richardson Allegations (NAME)

• And then… Creepy Uncle Terry got a fixer. A whole lot of outlets started regurgitating this press release as news, saying that Emma Appleton is now kinda recanting, but also kinda not. Weirder, the PR says: “”Terry Richardson did not reach out to this woman. It was sent from a Facebook page that is fake. Terry has no knowledge of who sent this,” a spokesperson said. “Mr. Richardson has retained online forensic expert Theo Yedinsky to determine the actual origin of the faked posting.”" Right. Add the bizarre “fake Facebook page” claim to the addition of a “foresnics expert” and it’s *almost* the I Got Hacked claim, but not as obvious. But who is this magical forensics expert? If it’s this Mr. Yedinsky, Uncle Terry’s got a slick social media crisis campaign advisor on his team. (But sadly, not a forensics expert.)
  Model regrets sharing sexual message she believed came from Terry Richardson (FOX 411)

• In new film Fading Gigolo, John Turturro plays Fioravante, a gentle bookstore employee who loses his part-time job when his boss Murray (Woody Allen) is forced to close down. Serendipitously, Murray learns that his dermatologist Dr Parker (Sharon Stone) is looking to arrange a ménage à trois with her friend (Sofia Vergara). Murray suggests that Fioravante is the perfect man for the job. After a little coaxing, Fioravante agrees to let Murray pimp him out.
  John Turturro: ‘There are positive things about what sex workers do’ (Guardian UK)

• “Chase Bank has apparently decided to close quite a few bank accounts…and they all belong to people in the adult film industry! If you’ll recall, around this time last year, a lawsuit was filed against JPMorgan Chase claiming the bank violated fair lending laws and its policy for refusing to underwrite a loan for ‘moral reasons.’
  And now, the bank is apparently hitting the porn industry again as we’ve been EXCLUSIVELY told hundreds of letters went out to those in the adult film industry saying their accounts would be closed on May 11, 2014.”
  Porn Stars Are Getting The Shaft From Chase Bank! AGAIN!! Accounts Closed For 100s In The Biz?! (Perez Hilton)

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