Web Log Archives: August 18, 2002 - August 24, 2002
Friday, August 23, 2002
The Independent talks to Irvine Welsh about his new novel Porno, in which the four main characters from Trainspotting converge ten years later in a Leith sex club.
Burning Angel has an interview with filmmaker Becky Goldberg about Hot and Bothered, a documentry about female sexuality and feminist pornography.
Miss Germany, aka former dental technician Katrin Wrobel, has broken her contract and could lose her crown because she objects to beauty contest rules banning her from marrying or posing in the nude.
Art of nude photography emerges in China. A nude photography exhibition and competition in the city of Shunde, Guangdong province, drew 2000 entrants and thousands of visitors. "In a country where nudity has been traditionally regarded as taboo, a nude model has to summon all her courage to allow herself to come out into the public gaze. When a national exhibition of the same kind was held 18 months ago in Guangzhou, capital city of Guangdong province, Tian Jing, the winning model, did appear at the awarding ceremony, but with half her face hidden by huge dark glasses." (Link snagged from World Sex News.)
ICv2, a trade site for pop culture retailers, reports on a disturbing obscenity case in Texas. "The lawyer for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has filed an appeal to the highest criminal court in Texas in the obscenity conviction of Jesus Castillo, manager of a Dallas comic store. Castillo was convicted by a jury in August 2000 of 'display of obscenity' for selling [the comic book] Demon Beast Invasion #2 to an adult. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail, a year's probation, and a $4,000 fine." Castillo was actually arrested twice for selling Demon Beast Invasion comics on different occasions, but the second charge was dropped. In early 2001, the Dallas Observer covered the stings that snared the comic store clerk and subsequent legal maneuvering. "The arrests of Castillo, a high school graduate who never worked anywhere else, fit the city's pattern of vice squad enforcement typically aimed at adult stores. The vice cops come in, purchase a product to build an obscenity case around, and arrest whichever hapless clerk or manager rings up the sale." There are discussion threads about the case at 8bit Joystick, Comicon.com and Metafilter.
Thursday, August 22, 2002
More St. Patrick's Cathedral public sex radio prank fallout. FCC chairman Michael Powell has ordered a "thorough investigation" of the incident. FCC commissioner Michael Copps thinks the agency should consider revoking the station's license. Probably not coincidentally, the radio station today fired the two shock jocks behind the stunt. And Yahoo has a photo of the vestibule sex couple leaving the courthouse.
Newsweek looks at Western Europe’s new wave of immigrant prostitution.
Not long ago, Europe’s prostitutes tended to be native-born. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the breakup of Yugoslavia and the advent of a borderless European Union, they’re increasingly from elsewhere. In Rome, as in most major European cities, most prostitutes are foreign-born. In some cities, such as Vienna, the figure approaches 90 percent. Like any industry reeling from the effects of the global economy, the influx of immigrants has shaken up the European sex business. Competition has grown tougher, prices lower and solicitation bolder. “At the end of 1999, Western Europeans began witnessing a new, very visible form of prostitution,” says French feminist author Elisabeth Badinter. Traditionally, she explains, European prostitutes more or less chose their trade, even if for unsavory reasons. Today, prostitution is vastly more coercive, dominated by mafia syndicates trafficking in younger and younger women imported often against their will from Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.
Who says Britney has no talent?
Fallout from the St. Patrick's Cathedral public sex radio station prank. The radio station's corporate ownership has suspended the station's general manager and program director. The two DJs behind the stunt haven't been punished, but the station is currently playing reruns of their old programs. Meanwhile, the couple accused of having sex inside St. Patrick's Cathedral must return to court in October to find out if a grand jury has indicted them. The couple's lawyer says they were not actually having sex in the St. Patrick's vestibule, only pretending to have sex in order to win the radio contest.
From the Salt Lake Tribune: "A young Salt Lake City entrepreneur is working to take the 'cow' out of cower and make bondage play safe for vegans with a line of animal-friendly, cruelty-free human restraints, collars, harnesses, whips and belts. Eric Ward, who runs the online shop veganerotica.com, crafts custom-made gear on request out of a 'sinthetic' microfiber called Lorica that looks, feels and acts like leather." (Link snagged from La Di Da.)
Noah Shachtman investigates a bizarre rash of threatening emails to pornstars. "In recent months, blue-movie luminaries have received dozens of e-mails, from aliases like 'zodiac_killer' and 'pornhater2002,' filled with racial epithets and grisly descriptions of murder and torture." The FBI has gotten involved. The prime suspect appears to be one Bryan Sullivan, but there's no direct evidence linking him to the emails. Fascinating story.
Wednesday, August 21, 2002
Trevor Hennig, editor of Banana Guide, writes an impassioned, on-target editorial on the need for ethical business standards in the Internet porn industry.
Kythryne Aisling writes movingly about the murder of two transgendered teens in Washington, DC. . . . UPDATE: Hanne Blank also discusses this crime.
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
Margaret Berry offers witty, sound advice on dating and relationship etiquette. (Also check out her wonderful blog Mighty Girl sometime.)
The Smoking Gun uncovers the shocking sordid past of an upcoming Survivor contestant. CBS's official cast announcement calls Brian Heidik a "top used car salesman" who previously worked as a stockbroker, motorcycle salesman, writer, and actor.
What CBS failed to mention, however, was Heidik's more recent cinematic work. He has appeared in a variety of soft-core porn movies where he can be seen cavorting naked with a variety of chesty partners. Heidik, credited in the soft-core titles as Dave Roth, appears in such productions as "Virgins of Sherwood Forest," "Passions Obsession," "Sinful Obsession," and "The Pleasure Zone." Heidik's soft-core work--most of which was released in the last couple of years--can be occasionally seen on Cinemax or Playboy TV.
The TSG exposé includes a hilarious compilation of video captures from Heidik's screen adventures. CBS insists it knew about Heidik's softcore credits and doesn't consider it a big deal.
Monday, August 19, 2002
Erotic literature has become less taboo and more readily available as mainstream bookstores, publishers and book clubs embrace the genre. (Link snagged from Pursed Lips.)
From Steven Levy's article about weblogs in the current Newsweek: "There are blogs devoted to cats, blogs about knitting, blogs about 802.11 wireless standards, blogs about 'The Golden Girls' TV show, blogs about baseball, blogs about sex (hey, it is the Internet)."
An 18-year-old girl from Burton, South Carolina, has been arrested for distributing sexually explicit pictures of her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend. Tiffany Noel Newsome posted the pictures on the Internet and put up posters in the ex-girlfriend's neighborhood. This article includes a mugshot photo of Newsome. (Link snagged from Obscure Store.)
Joelle Diderich surveys the debate over prostitution policy in France and the various proposals put forth by politicians recently.
Centre-right parliamentarian Francoise de Panafieu started a political debate on prostitution when she suggested France follow in the footsteps of Germany and the Netherlands and reopen its famed brothels after more than 50 years. [...]
Hardline Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy outlined proposals to deport the scores of illegal immigrants, many in the grip of organised crime, who ply their trade on the busy boulevards that ring the French capital. [...]
Socialist leaders at Paris City Hall hope to eradicate prostitution completely with plans for heavy fines and prison sentences for clients similar to those introduced in Sweden.
In cities including Lyon, Orleans, Strasbourg and Metz, mayors have issued local decrees banning prostitution on the grounds that it blocks traffic and disturbs residents.
Diderich devotes much of the article to responses from prostitute support workers. "Gabrielle Partenza, a former prostitute who works with the Bus des Femmes (Women's Bus), a mobile centre which scours the streets of Paris dispensing free condoms and health advice . . . said the problem with all the proposals voiced so far is that they make no distinction between self-employed prostitutes and women from Albania or Sierra Leone, for example, who are effectively sex slaves controlled by criminal gangs."
South Korean prosecutors hope to shut down a highly institutionalized casting-couch system in the country's entertainment industry. "Recently, a 38-year-old woman was questioned for 13 hours by the prosecutor's office for reportedly securing female entertainers for influential figures, reported the local English paper JoongAng Ilbo. She told investigators that an entertainment agency had provided her four women, including two popular actresses, who gave sexual services to a high-ranking political figure and the son of a conglomerate official. The prosecution said several high-profile political and business figures had paid three million won to 10 million won (S$4,000 to S$15,000) [US$2500 to $8000] to spend a night with famous actresses."
Chu Mei-Feng has dropped her lawsuit against Scoop Weekly, the tabloid that distributed hidden camera videos of her having sex in her apartment. "Her lawyer said the civil lawsuit was dropped on two conditions, one of which was that the magazine would support her in all her future career endeavours. The other condition was that the magazine's owner, Mr Shen Yeh, should help to mediate her dispute with Kaohsiung mayor Frank Hsieh, reported United Daily News. Ms Chu, who alleged in 1996 while still being Taipei City councillor that Mr Hsieh received NT$20 million in political donations from a notorious cult figure, is facing a defamation suit from the mayor." (Full coverage of the Chu Mei-Feng sex scandal.)
Sunday, August 18, 2002
Naked actors having their penises painted by a prostitute in the town square sparked a riot in La Paz, Bolivia.
A controversial strip club in Nicollet, Minnesota, has closed after eleven months. Two college students opened the club last September "under cover of night and without notifying the city or nearby residents and businesses."
