"See, the problem with raids is that you have the people who want to rescue women and children who are in prostitution, using the oppressive arms of the state - the most oppressive arm of the state, which is the police - to conduct this 'rescue operation' through a raid.  [...]  The community is never ever going to respond to anybody who is bringing in the police to rescue them, because they do not view that as a 'rescue'.  They view that as another oppressive thing that's done to them."

- Meenu Seshu, founder of SANGRAM in India, in Caught between the tiger and the crocodile on sexworkerspresent.blip.tv

"Monday and Tuesday were extremely slow.  Not only did the bell not ring a lot (I spent most of my time napping or doing my day job), but I wasn't closing the deal.  Too many Larry the Cable Guy truck-drivers who wanted the world for $100, ideally $20 if they could get it that cheap.

I wasn't being a team player, but I needed to find the balance of feeling good about myself, making money and taking care of the house.  It's not an easy spot to find, especially since the house encourages you to go ahead and have sex at what amounts to street prices.  If I wanted to be sucking dick in a car in an alley, I'd already be doing it.  Yes, this is some of the class issues I was talking about.  For an American in the US, it's easy to spot class (might not matter or be so clear-cut in another country).  And I know what sort of class of man I like best, and who appreciates me properly.

Besides, I grew up with those redneck, trailer-trash, KKK-loving bastards and I really have no intention of giving them pussy if I can help it.  Not mine, at any rate."

- Amanda Brooks, in the right to say no - days 6 and 7 on texasgoldengirl.com

I recently read and appreciated Amanda's posts about working in a legal brothel in Nevada, which answered a lot of questions I've had about that system.  I especially identified with this bit, since I also grew up amongst racist and ignorant people, and most certainly would never want to fuck any of them for the price of a meal at TGIFriday's.  Hell, if that's what I wanted, I would have stayed in flyover land and married one of those guys.

"My generation saw in The Graduate that there is one romantic strategy to use above all others: persistence.  This same strategy is at the core of every stalking case.  Men pursuing unlikely or inappropriate relationships with women and getting them in a common theme promoted in our culture.  Just recall Flashdance, Tootsie, The Heartbreak Kid, 10, Blame it on Rio, Honeymoon in Vegas, Indecent Proposal.

This Hollywood formula could be called Boy Wants Girl, Girl Doesn't Want Boy, Boy Harasses Girl, Boy Gets Girl.  Many movies teach you that if you just stay with it, even if you offend her, even if she says she wants nothing to do with you, even if you've treated her like trash (and sometimes because you've treated her like trash), you'll get the girl.

[...]

Even if men and women in America spoke the same language, they would still live by much different standards.  For example, if a man in a movie researches a woman's schedule, finds out where she lives and works, even goes to her workplace uninvited, it shows his commitment, proves his love.  When Robert Redford does this to Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, it's adorable.  But when she shows up at his work unannounced, interrupting a business lunch, it's alarming and disruptive.

If a man in the movies wants a sexual encounter or applies persistence, he's a regular, everyday guy, but if a woman does the same thing, she's a maniac or a killer.  Just recall Fatal Attraction, The King of Comedy, Single White Female, Play Misty For Me, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and Basic Instinct.  When men pursue, they usually get the girl.  When women pursue, they usually get killed."

- Gavin de Becker, in his book, The Gift of Fear.

Mistress Matisse regularly recommends this book as essential reading for sex workers.  I finally read it while I was in Mexico, and I thought it was a good light read on how to spot violent and dangerous people.

"Assigning all the inevitable but blunt or difficult or dangerous work to robots means to keep them away from the kind of activity which is perceived as human.

Faced with this state of segregation between wo/men and robots, Roboexotica is trying to get interaction with end-users back on the agenda of robotronics.  The aim is a reversal of the classic alienation process used to determine the robot-human-relationship on the basis of a capitalist logic.

So, if we were asked to come up with some of the differences between the old-school-scifi-utopia based on robots and the semi-utopia and quarter-scifi-world we're living in, we would point out:

'First, there are no robots in my household - or at least no robots with which I could have that good old slaveholder-servant-conversation my parents and grandparents were dreaming of.  Fuck, I was promised I could be a Southern Gentle(wo)man without the moral implications.  And now there are plenty of intelligent machines running my life - but they don't have a HAL-voice and they don't have feelings like Data in 'Star Trek' enabling me to poke fun at them and to experience tragic moments.  They are just tools I can trust.  And what I find most frightening: they never ever try to kill me and take over.  They are just boring automatons and AI-bullshit.  They are slaves that are no fun.  No weeping kids at night, no 'Uncle Robot Tom'-bestsellers, no liberation movement to make us middle class people feel good in supporting it half-assedly - just dull machines which never complain.  No deep, sad and touching musical expression lies within robot slavery to be enjoyed by dissident slaveholder kids.  Maybe that is just the price we pay for not giving them a soul and maybe future investigations into the resoulment of robots would bring relief.  I mean, what's the point in having slaves if they don't suffer from it.'

[...]

Thus, Roboexotica wanted to work on a collective interface to remind us of the pristine idea of robots serving us and to focus again on the full cultural meaning of robots: capitalist slaves for all tomorrow's cocktail parties."

- Frank Apunkt Schneider and Gunther Friesinger in Mixing robots with discourse by having them mix drinks, in the monochrom-published Roboexotica book.

(I realize this is off-topic for my blog, but I loved these sentiments and wanted to share them.)

"Still, it does exist, and it's going to be a very... interesting experience socially when my voice drops to some extent and I'm consistently read by strangers as male. As it is now, if I'm walking down the street near a woman who's alone, she will read me as a male and act cautious, but when I say something, I'm immediately non-threatening and everything is okay. I'm predicting that I will have to adjust to suddenly becoming a threatening person for women, to being interacted with differently and expected to conform to a slew of 'male' stereotypes, so on and so forth. And it's sad that a lot of these stereotypes are based in truth."

- Mel, in Frakking Gender! on humancomplaints.com

I like reading personal stories from trans folk.  I found this thought from Mel (yay - a fellow vegan!) on how women read him to be particularly interesting to contemplate.  (Pst - he's seeking help to pay for his top surgery, so read his blog and consider a donation.)

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