Why are you here?

Teacup versus the Media Narrative of Hookers

http://kingstribune.com/index.php/weekly-email/item/1789-sex-workers-facts-and-myths

I am not at all interested in pandering to the theoretical black holes of radical feminism, nor am I about to attempt to console women who feel threatened by sex workers. Intelligent people do not read the comments. Lazy referencing irritates me.

MamaMia is a reprehensible pile of trash that uses the stories of privileged sex workers in Australia to get hits for her precious online column and then throws them under the bus when she gets to sit next to her “lifetime idol” Germaine Greer on a Q and A on the ABC. If you want “ignorance, sanctimony and hostility” dispelled you are going to need to look further away than the unpalatable bolus that Mia Freedman publishes under the banner of “feminism”.

Social stigma sucks. That’s why I’m writing this, as an Honours student undertaking a critical discourse analysis of the media, and as a sex worker who is sick of reading the same tired tropes come out- and yes, being a “100% sex positive I love hookers hookers are the best why are you afraid they’re rad!” is also a narrative. It is a narrative I am not particularly fond of.  

I am going to completely overlook the paragraphs of tripe discussing why women may find sex workers intimidating. Instead, my focus will be upon the bad references. Bad referencing is lazy. Most of the references in this article are either not very relevant, what I like to refer to as Really Fucking Old, or suspiciously appearing in the first few pages of Google Scholar if you type in “Australian sex workers”.

The 2003 Australian Study of Health and Relationships is about to be superseded, more details are available here: https://apps.aifs.gov.au/acssaregister/projects/37

I’m not even going to address the bullshit that “sex workers are encouraging happily married men to cheat”, as if sex workers were doing so, it would be okay to hate them, but because they’re not, they’re non-threatening and therefore they are tolerated in society?

“Men who had paid for sex were significantly more likely than other men to report levels of alcohol consumption in excess of NHMRC guidelines, significantly more likely to have injected illicit drugs, significantly more likely to have elevated psychosocial distress, significantly more likely to have ever been diagnosed with a STD and significantly more likely to have taken an HIV/AIDS antibody test. There was a significant association between having paid for sex and the total number of sexual partners respondents reported. Men who had paid for sex reported significantly more partners over their lifetimes and in the past year. Men who had paid for sex were significantly more likely than other men to have had vaginal intercourse before the age of 16 years and were significantly more likely to have had heterosexual anal intercourse”.

The translation of putting this particular quote under a header entitled “sex workers are encouraging happily married men to cheat”? Your answer:

“Don’t worry, those men aren’t good marriage material, let the hookers fuck them instead”

 Gee, thanks.

“The same report found that sexual assault in the workplace varies significantly across the industry. Street sex-workers experience high levels of assault (46%-78%) workers in brothels and other contexts experienced far lower rates (3%-38%).”

A rate of 3-38% of workers being assaulted in a legal brothel- where management is supposed to install panic buttons, enforce condoms being used and call the police if someone is sexually assaulted- is something to be proud of?

“The Working girls : prostitutes, their life and social control” is an excellent resource to look at the sex industry in Victoria before legalisation came into effect. It is 22 years old. Using it as a legitimate reference for anything is beyond a joke.

 “Sex workers are being trafficked by “pimps”. This can only apply to street sex workers”. Really? Are you genuinely suggesting women who work in a legalised industry are not subject to abuse by brothel management or partners which may be pretty conducive to a label of “pimping”? The stereotype of the big dude wearing a purple jacket and carrying a cane may be a load of shit, but there are absolutely awful brothel managers that treat their workers badly and abuse their rights. You think sex work organisations are going to come in and bat for these women? Think again. When Consumer Affairs Victoria started an investigation into brothel receptionists not being paid correctly, RHED (www.sexworker.org.au) posted a cute little ad distancing themselves from the study and said “they were in no way involved with the investigation”. They don’t give a shit if a receptionist is underpaid, and they don’t really give a shit if a worker is being mistreated or abused. They show up every few months with free condoms and lube and needle supplies, and ask how everyone is, then leave. I got fired from a legal brothel because they were using too many condoms per booking (if you would like to see the memo I was written after this occurred, by all means, I will dig it up, because I took photos). The reason? I had convinced sex workers to use condoms for fellatio and switch them after each “change in service”, primarily because the petroleum in lipstick is damaging to the latex on a condom. Rhed’s response? Nothing.

“it would be incredibly presumptuous of me to speak on behalf of sex workers without allowing them a voice”

As you quote incredibly privileged workers with no mention of the vast majority of sex workers, their conditions, their views or their situation, either in Victoria or across Australia.

Good job. Oh, I’m sorry, am I supposed to feel privileged that the mainstream media has taken an interest in me and my job again? 

Anonymous asked: You're beautiful, you're smart and I like how you write. Do I try and work out a way to ask you out on a date? Note - that's a 'date', not a 'booking'.

Save your time and be my friend instead- I am currently not in the market for any recreational fun. sorry!

Outrage Macrophages or “why we cannot have nice things”

Do you like my drawing? I hope you fucking do. I adapted it from a drawing I found in a Physiology textbook by Vander, if you’re really interested to check my references. I’m not giving you the page number, you can pick your lazy ass up off the floor surrounded by Cheeto dust and go to the fucking library and do your own research.

How does a macrophage normally eat a pathogen?

a.       First it ingests a pathogen (1), and through phagocytosis, a phagosome (2) is created

b.      Then  lysosomes (3) combine with the phagosome, which creates a PHAGOLYSOSOME (which sounds like something Insane Clown Posse would drink), and the pathogen is broken down by enzymes

c.       After all of that is finished(4), the macrophage expels the waste product or its assimilated back into the body through the cell membrane(6).

Now. This is a simple example. Sometimes pathogens like to fuck with the macrophage. It is a hard life, being one of these creations. Each macrophage can consume about 100 pathogens before its consumed by it’s own digestive juices in the cytoplasm, which is a fancy word for “cell guts” (5). Sometimes macrophages fuck shit up themselves and cause autoimmune conditions, some forms of heart disease, and all manner of drama. Sometimes it’s their own issue, sometimes they’re hijacked by a pathogen. For the next example, you’ll hopefully see where I’m going when I say some boring fuckers on Twitter are “outrage macrophages”.

How does a macrophage get hijacked? I’m going to use this example with Tuberculosis, because I’m an epidemiology nerd and all epidemiology nerds have a “favourite infectious disease” and Tuberculosis happens to be one of mine (my other favourites are Syphilis, HIV and Cholera, for your records, though this is absolutely not an exhaustive list and I would much prefer you do not give any of them to me for Christmas).

A.      First it ingests the pathogen (1) but the process is interrupted, and

B.      The pathogen lives inside the macrophage, which is now not only useless, but is basically a host for the pathogen, as now the body can’t find it,

C.      With this cell immunity, the pathogen can replicate and send its weird little disease children out into the body.

Who figured that when they opened this blog they’d learn the basics of how Mycobacterium tuberculosis replicates?

Anyway.

An outrage macrophage is similar to this. They take the issue at hand (which may well be a very pertinent issue), twist it to suit their own stupid agenda, and spit it out into the wider community where it is rejected and makes people sick and basically ruins the immune system of society. Herd immunity has a pretty good effect on these people because most people see a person ranting about shit and immediately hide, thus not being exposed to it. This is less easy on Twitter, where even if you unfollow someone for being a raging jackhole, your seemingly normal friends retweet and reply with a stupid little “.@” technique which happens when people assume incorrectly that the rest of their twitter feed wants to see the stupid fucking shit they are arguing about with someone else you’re not following.

Steps of an outrage macrophage in ruining all of the fun:

a.       Twitter tells us of the issue. A hashtag is formed.

b.      the drama llamas catch on, and the hashtag is hijacked, turning it into a hybrid of the original issue, and the outrage macrophages own agenda, which consists of being Really Fucking Angry and Really Fucking Stupid

c.       The remains of the issue are ignored by the normal people in society because the issue has been completely blown out of proportion, thus rendering any chance of a resolution impossible.

(This is where I could blame all of Durkheim’s sociological theories on anomie on these deadshits that rant on twitter, but I know how much you all love sociology so I’ll keep this lecture to my own bastardised version of anatomy and physiology)

That example is perhaps my favourite because you can see how much derision I have for people that blow shit out of proportion. You can expect that I have a similar disdain for people who rant about shit on the internet and take no steps to either combat the issue or improve their situation within it.

“Owch! I keep stepping on bits of Lego!”

“Maybe you should pick up the shit all over your bedroom floor so you don’t keep getting foot injuries from toys?”
“STOP VICTIM BLAMING ME YOU FUCKING TOOL OF THE PATRIARCHY”

Blah blah.

Look at these fucking pictures, man! I’m the next Henry Gray.

Anonymous asked: are you going to get back together with your douchebag ex again?

I sure am

Anonymous asked: Do you interact with many/any of your clients outside of work? Either in person, or via twitter/tumblr?

Sure. Not in person because I am too busy most of the time. I’m happy to interact with people on twitter as long as they remember their manners and they also remember that I’m not obliged to reply to anything. Also, anyone that sends me unsolicited cock shots is NEVER getting a booking. Haha

Anonymous asked: Would you prefer a guy had skills with a dick or a tongue????

If I HAD to pick one? Tongue. 

Anonymous asked: What's your fav bra to wear? While I'm here do u have a lucky pair of panties ;)

I don’t like wearing bras much :P my most comfortable one ever is a Simone Perele one, no padding, no lace, just a plain black bra. I can only wear it in summer though because in winter my nipples hurt too much :( As for knickers- I try to either match to my bra at work or just go without.

Anonymous asked: What's your favourite thing to wear when at work? I love satin, and love my lady wear it.

My favourite outfit is a cute bra with an underbust corset and a satin skirt. I don’t usually wear knickers at work because I change them after every booking (obv) and they get lost and the work dryer eats them!

Anonymous asked: When was your last real orgasm??

I don’t fake orgasms, haha. There is legit nothing wrong with enjoying sex but not orgasming at the end of it. Having said that, last night. Haha

Anonymous asked: What is your justification for using drugs if you supposedly have a degree in public health?

lol if I was going to make up a degree I would have chosen something a lot more fancy than a BHSc I can assure you

also, using drugs is pretty fun. i’m not mainlining smack for breakfast daily, calm your entire farm

Anonymous asked: Why do you insist on mocking people with Arts degrees? What did they ever do to you?

Do ya want fries with that, emo kid??

Anonymous asked: BITCH how do you make that amazing iced coffee you made me in our recovery in Feb?

A shot of espresso, two teaspoons of sugar and 250ml of icy cold frothed milk. How is this rocket science? You’re just being lazy so I’ll make it for you!! hahahah

Anonymous asked: I have an admission: about a month ago I booked you at work but I was too shy to tell you at the time. After some pretty great sex we spoke about University and your Honors project. I just wanted to say you are such a lovely person and you made my day because I realised you were actually genuinely "you".

Awww that is a bit cute! Well you’re welcome and you should come back again for some more fun in the future :)

Anonymous asked: Why don't you just move back to Melbourne?

I like my sleepy little country town. It also means people don’t randomly drop in on my house and expect hospitality because it’s a 2hr+ drive and they need to speak to me first to make sure I will even be there.