The market for (ethical) pornography

 Will regulation, lawsuits and competition for creators increase the supply of ethical porn?

Wired has the story:

The Sticky Dilemmas of Pornhub’s Next Chapter
Videos of minors. Illegal data collection. Lack of oversight. Lawsuits. Problems have dogged the popular porn site for years. Is its promise of transparency enough for a reset? By Jason Parham

"Kekesi empathized with the performers. It’s part of her job. As vice president of brand and community at Pornhub, the monstrously popular adult entertainment site, she puts in plenty of face time with creators, as well as fans of the platform, the press, and critics. 

...

"She was thrust into the role in 2023, following a particularly turbulent period for the company. On some level, Pornhub has always been controversial—it comes with the territory—but the problems of the platform in recent years represented an existential threat.

"Rumblings began in 2019, when the owners of the GirlsDoPorn and GirlsDoToys websites were charged in a sex trafficking conspiracy for deceiving and forcing women to perform in adult films, which they then uploaded online, including to platforms like Pornhub. In March 2020, Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska urged the US Department of Justice to open an investigation into Pornhub, citing incidents from “the past year,” including the GirlsDoPorn case. A New York Times column by Nicholas Kristoff that December brought even more attention to accusations that Pornhub hosted videos depicting sexual abuse, including of children. At first Pornhub denied any wrongdoing, but reaction swiftly snowballed.

"In Canada, where Pornhub is based, a parliamentary committee launched an investigation into the allegations. Visa and Mastercard suspended payment processing. Dozens of women sued Pornhub’s parent company, then called MindGeek and since renamed Aylo Holdings, alleging it had created and profited from a “bustling marketplace for child pornography, rape videos, trafficked videos, and every other form of nonconsensual content.”

...

"Pornhub has taken steps to address at least some of these problems. Following the Times article, it scrubbed the site of all “unverified content,” Kekesi said. Now anyone who wants to upload content to Pornhub has to not only verify their own identity; they also must supply proof of consent for everyone who appears in the scene, including documentation, IDs, and other paperwork. Pornhub also started issuing annual “transparency reports,” which it now does twice a year, publishing its content moderation practices. 

...

"Already, 12 US states have instituted age-verification laws around porn consumption. Because PornHub doesn’t want to open itself to litigation under these new laws, it went on the offensive, blocking all access to its site in those states regardless of age.

...

"In general, though, porn is more accessible than ever. Platforms like OnlyFans customize desire for a small fee. The riskier side of the social media site X operates in the vein of the former Backpage.com, where creators use the app to promote their work, engage with fans, and find gigs. That has also meant more competition for Pornhub. Kekesi never says it outright, but this is likely why the company has made a noticeable effort to appease the concerns of adult creators. “We are catching up and trying to be more visible and more present with the creator community,” she said."

Nash, music and OnlyFans (not John Nash, but maybe other johns:)

 Most musicians can't make much of a living from either recordings or live performances.  But there are other kinds of performances.

Kate Nash is flashing her arse to save the music industry
‘Major labels make billions while musicians are getting poorer,’ she tells Grazia.   by Georgia Aspinall 

"When Kate Nash announced she had started an OnlyFans to help fund her music tour, she all but broke the internet. ‘Don’t be sad,’ she wrote on Instagram. ‘It’s very empowering and selling pics of my arse is fun and funny, sex is fun and funny.’

"The response was unsurprisingly divisive. While industry friends like Self-Esteem and Alison Brie praised Nash’s decision, others questioned how ‘empowering’ it is. And while much of the resulting debate was thoughtful and inquisitive, some was undoubtedly steeped in sexism.

"Shame around sex work was prevalent, as though Nash choosing to start an OnlyFans is any different to her having a second job down the pub or in her local supermarket. When you look at it that way the question goes from ‘why OnlyFans?’ to ‘Why at all?’. The fact someone at Nash’s level of success even needs a side hustle is surely concerning. There is, Nash explains, something fundamentally broken in the music industry that artists are routinely forced to fund their careers in other ways.

...

"She refuses to diminish the quality of her show by lowering the budget any further – not when she could just, as she puts it, flash her arse online instead. ‘I need extra income to take the stress out of [touring],’ she says. ‘And to pay my band and crew fairly, to put on high quality shows for my fans. I like flashing my arse and I know a few people that run their own adult film companies or work on OnlyFans, and I thought it was a fun way to start the tour “Butts 4 tour buses”’

"She was surprised by the attention she received with her announcement, not least because many musicians have OnlyFans now. Earlier this year, Lily Allen claimed that she’s earned more selling feet pictures on OnlyFans than she ever has from Spotify streams. Rapper Cardi B reportedly made more than £45million during her short stint on the site and Iggy Azalea is said to make more than £13million a month.

"For Nash, it’s about more than just money – she wants to make a statement about the state of the music industry. ‘The music industry is corrupt, broken and has failed artists completely,’ she explains. ‘The level of success that is required to make profit has become so inaccessible for most people. The major labels have set it up so that themselves and a bunch of tech bros can profit in the millions and even billions and musicians are getting poorer."

Adultery is no longer a crime in New York State.

 Not only is jaywalking no longer a crime in New York City, the seldom-enforced criminal law against adultery in New York State has now been repealed. 

My sense is that the jaywalking ban was rolled back in part because it was inequitably enforced, while the ban on adultery was so rarely brought to trial that it was simply obsolete.

NPR has the story:

Adultery is no longer illegal in New York, By Ayana Archie 

"Adultery is no longer a crime in New York.

"Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed off on repealing a 1907 law prohibiting the act.

"New York's penal law previously said that "a person is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse."

"It was considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a jail sentence of up to three months.

"The New York State Senate called the law "outdated."

#########

Interestingly, surveys indicate  both that most Americans disapprove of adultery, but that the frequency of adultery is quite high. So it's the law that is outdated, not the act.

Also interesting is that adultery is still forbidden under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  This comes up in discussions about President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense (where he will preside over servicemen and women who are forbidden to follow the examples of their Secretary and their Commander in Chief...)

Here's the NYT on that:

Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years  by Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate

"Reports of his infidelity have focused attention on his character and leadership, particularly for a civilian overseeing the military, where active-duty service members can be subject to prosecution for adultery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

Workers' rights for sex workers in Belgium

 Sex work isn't merely legal in Belgium, it's now recognized as work.

The BBC has the story:

 Belgium's sex workers get maternity leave and pensions under world-first law by Sofia Bettiza

"Under a new law in Belgium - the first of its kind in the world ... Sex workers will be entitled to official employment contracts, health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick days. Essentially, it will be treated like any other job.

...

“There are tens of millions of sex workers worldwide. Sex work was decriminalised in Belgium in 2022 and is legal in several countries including Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Turkey. But establishing employment rights and contracts is a global first.

“This is radical, and it’s the best step we have seen anywhere in the world so far,” says Erin Kilbride, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “We need every country to be moving in that direction.” 

...

"Pimps who control sex work will be allowed to operate legally under the new law - provided they follow strict rules. Anyone who has been convicted of a serious crime will not be allowed to employ sex workers.

...

"Under Belgium’s new law, each room where sexual services take place must be equipped with an alarm button that will connect a sex worker with their “reference person”.

"But Julia believes there is no way to make sex work safe.

“In what other job would you need a panic button? It’s not the oldest profession in the world, it’s the oldest exploitation in the world.”

"How to regulate the sex industry remains a divisive issue globally. But for Mel, bringing it out of the shadows can only help women. "

HT: Vincent Jappah

The labor market for OnlyFans chatters

 Here's a story by a professional writer and journalist, who appears to be a middle-aged dad, about his efforts to find and then master a job impersonating a 20-something female sex performer chatting with her fans on the website OnlyFans.

Wired has the story:

.I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty. Your online influencer girlfriend is actually a rotating cast of low-wage workers. I became one of them. by BRENDAN I. KOERNER

"Like many of OnlyFans’ top earners, she had hired a management agency to help keep up with her customers’ demands for personal attention. “The chat specialists they give you, that was a huge deal for me,” she said. The agency provided a team of contractors whose sole job is to masquerade as the creator while swapping DMs with her subscribers. These textual conversations are meant to be the main way that OnlyFans users can interact with the models they adore.

"The existence of professional OnlyFans chatters wouldn’t have surprised me so much if I’d given just a few moments’ thought to the mathematical realities of the platform. OnlyFans has thrived by promising its reported 190 million users that they can have direct access to an estimated 2.1 million creators. It’s impossible for even a modestly popular creator to cope with the avalanche of messages they receive each day. The $5.6 billion industry has solved this logistical conundrum by entrusting its chat duties to a hidden proletariat, a mass of freelancers who sustain the illusion that OnlyFans’ creators are always eager to engage—sexually and otherwise—with paying customers.

...

"Gradually I realized that my best shot at understanding how chatters operate would be to join their ranks. As an English major who’s been fortunate enough to make a living with words for more than 20 years, I naively assumed I was qualified to land a gig. And as a writer, I was curious to learn what kind of artistry the job would require—what it takes to ensure that OnlyFans users never doubt they’re really interacting with the objects of their desire.

"AS I EMBARKED on my job hunt, I asked the owner of a top-tier OnlyFans agency for tips on how to make myself an appealing candidate. He was pessimistic about my odds of getting hired, mainly because I’m American. He said agencies tend to favor contractors who reside in lower-wage countries. That insight was borne out as I poked around the online communities where chatters find help-wanted ads; though the vast majority of OnlyFans users live in the US, the bulk of my competitors were based in places like the Philippines and Venezuela. Judging by their posts on the r/OnlyFansChatter subreddit and in an invite-only Facebook group, these workers are relatively well-educated, with university-level English and ace typing skills that some developed in high-pressure call centers. They also put up with all manner of abuses: OnlyFans agencies are notorious for stiffing their freelancers, forcing them to work 70-hour weeks, and summarily firing them if they miss a shift due to a power outage."

IVF for sex selection: legal in the U.S

Slate has the story:

The Parents Who Want Daughters—and Daughters Only. Sex selection with IVF is banned in much of the world. Not in the U.S. by Emi Nietfeld

"Sex selection was once controversial in the U.S. and is banned in almost every other country. Many Americans unaware of the process still assume that it’s that way. In reality, it has now become a standard part of IVF here. For some, the option to sex select is a perk of an otherwise exacting process. For others, it’s the whole point of doing IVF in the first place.

...

"Still, “the very act of sex selection is sexist,” argues Arianne Shahvisi, a professor of philosophy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the U.K., where elective sex selection is illegal.

...

"It’s not just the U.K. Virtually all the industrialized world—including Canada, Australia, and every European country besides Cyprus—bans sex selection except in rare medical cases. Most nations prohibit the practice on the grounds that it promotes sexism and that the children born from it may be harmed by gendered expectations. Widespread preference for a certain sex can also skew the population—as in India and China, where abortion and infanticide of girls have resulted in tens of millions more men than women. 

...

"In 1994 the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the nonprofit that provides the industry’s professional guidelines, condemned sex selection for nonmedical reasons. Yet with no enforcement power, the guidelines remained just that. Unlike in most peer nations, IVF in America is mostly privately paid and weakly regulated. Instead, market forces dominate. By 2018, despite the ASRM’s recommendation that they not offer sex selection, 75 percent of clinics continued to provide the service. Since then, the ASRM’s ethics committee has updated its position to a neutral stance."

New York is about to end its legal ban on adultery

A 1907 New York state law criminalizing adultery (as a misdemeanor) looks likely to be repealed.

New York adulterers could get tossed out of house but not thrown in jail under newly passed bill  by MAYSOON KHAN, Associated Press/

"A little-known and rarely enforced law from 1907 that makes adultery a crime in the state of New York could soon be a thing of the past, after lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday to repeal it.

"The state Senate approved the bill almost unanimously. It's now up to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is in the midst of budget negotiations, to make the ultimate decision. Her office said she'd review the legislation. The state Assembly passed the measure last month.

"Laws banning adultery still exist in several states throughout the country, but they are seldom enforced. The New York law was initially implemented to bring down the number of divorces at a time when adultery was the only way to secure a legal split.

Adultery, classified as a misdemeanor in state penal code and punishable by up to three months behind bars, is defined in New York as when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”

...

"Adultery is still a crime in several other U.S. states, mostly as a misdemeanor, though Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Michigan treat it as a felony offense."

##########

Here's the bill that is awaiting the Governor's signature. 

Vatican statement on gender-affirming surgery and human dignity

 A new statement from the Vatican has been widely covered in the press.

Here's the story from the National Catholic Reporter:

Vatican condemns surrogacy, gender-affirming surgery, gender theory in new doctrinal note. Vatican doctrinal chief calls it 'painful' that some Catholics support gay criminalization  BY CHRISTOPHER WHITE, April 8, 2024

"Sex change operations, gender theory and surrogate motherhood pose grave threats to human dignity, according to a major new Vatican document released on April 8. 

While the highly anticipated treatise, "Dignitas Infinita: on Human Dignity," which has been the source of much speculation for months, offers a broadside against the creation of new rights motivated by sex and gender, it is largely a reiteration of long-held Catholic teaching on a number of social and moral concerns. 

The new document, however, seeks to elevate a number of social themes emphasized by Pope Francis during his decadelong papacy — such as poverty, migration and human trafficking — as being equally a part of the full panoply of potential threats to human dignity as bioethical concerns, such as abortion and euthanasia.   

...

"Among the newly identified threats to human dignity are poverty; war; the travail of migrants; human trafficking; sexual abuse; violence against women; abortion; child surrogacy; euthanasia and assisted suicide; the marginalization of people with disabilities; gender theory; sex change; and digital violence.

Gender theory, according to the document, is a subject of considerable debate among scientific experts, and risks denying "the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference."  

The document repeats a frequent warning of Francis against "ideological colonization," where the pope has sharply criticized western governments for allegedly imposing their sexual values on the developing world. All efforts to eliminate sexual differences between men and women must be rejected, says the document. 

At the same time, the document also begins with a caveat that all persons, regardless of their sexual orientation, must be respected, and "every sign of unjust discrimination is to be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence."

"For this reason," the document continues, "it should be denounced as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation."  

Last year, Francis became the first pope to specifically condemn the criminalization of homosexuality and said that the Catholic Church must work towards an end to what he described as "unjust" laws that criminalize being gay. At present, at least 67 countries have laws criminalizing same-sex relations. 

In its brief section on gender-affirming surgeries, the document avoids using the term "transgender" and instead offers a muted prohibition against medical interventions for such purposes.

...

"Catholic LGBTQ groups criticized the new Vatican document within hours of its publication, saying it failed to acknowledge the concrete experience of transgender and nonbinary individuals.

New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group that had an historic meeting with Francis at the Vatican last October, said in a statement that the text "fails terribly" and shows the limits of the church's understand of human dignity.

...

"The new document also goes on to repeat the pope's recent call for an international ban on the rising practice of surrogate motherhood, declaring that the "legitimate desire to have a child cannot be transformed into a 'right to a child' that fails to respect the dignity of that child as the recipient of the gift of life."  

In January, Francis used his annual "State of the World" address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See to push for a global ban on surrogacy. 

While the pope had previously condemned the practice, the pope's sweeping remarks on the topic — where he called it a "grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child" — marked the first time he had made such a specific policy proposal. Last month, the Vatican's ambassador to the United Nations, Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, also pressed for an international prohibition against the practice. "

Lysistrata in Kiryat Joel

 Kiryas Joel is a Hasidic community in New York State, in which ancient religious traditions can come into conflict with modern customs.   

Haaretz has the story, about religious activist Adina Sash:

'Call Your Rabbi, Husband': Why These ultra-Orthodox New York Women Are on a 'Sex Strike'.  After hiring a plane to fly a "Free Malky" banner over the Hasidic enclave of Kiryas Joel, the ultra-Orthodox feminist activist Adina Sash decided a sex strike by the community's women would be the next step in pressuring a local man to give his wife a religious divorce.  by Rachel Fink

"Sash, who goes by the handle flatbushgirl, is singularly focused on using her platform to call attention to women in the ultra-Orthodox community, of which she considers herself a full-fledged member, whose husbands refuse to give them the Jewish bill of divorce known as a get. According to Jewish law, it is the man who gives the get and the woman who receives it, never the other way around.

"Last week, Sash aimed her sights on the place where, according to her, Jewish women yield the most power: The bedroom. Sash called for Orthodox women to go on a "mikveh strike." According to Jewish law, following menstruation, married women must immerse in a mikveh, or ritual bath, before they can have sex with their husbands – which many do later that night.

...

"She also advocates that the sex strike take place on "mitzvah night," by which she means Friday night. Like engaging in sexual relations directly after the mikveh, many observant Jews give special status to sex on the Sabbath, which relates to the rabbinic obligation to delight in the Sabbath.

...

"According to an Instagram story she posted on the day she announced the current strike, "When your husband says, 'Why?' say, '... Please call your rabbi and figure out a way to help free Malky,'" she wrote.

...

"How is it possible that the rabbis have compassion for men, giving them a way out but not women?" Sash continued. She is referring to a rabbinic loophole called a heter meah rabbanim (literally, permission of 100 rabbis) which allows men to remarry in the rare instance that a wife refuses to receive a get. While this could theoretically result in an "agun," or chained man, the rabbis came up with a solution allowing the man to remarry based on the biblical law that states that a man can have more than one wife. However, since a woman cannot be married to two men, both ancient and modern rabbinical courts are unwilling to apply this exemption to women."

Banks boycott sex workers even for legal kinds of sex work

 Repugnance isn't erased by legality. Workers in morally contested, repugnant markets may be boycotted by banks even when their work is legal.  Marijuana sellers in states where marijuana sales are legal run into this problem because Federal law still prohibits such sales, but sex workers in legal industries (video sex, porn) and even prostitution in Nevada often can't keep bank accounts, even personal (i.e. non-buisiness) accounts.

The NYT has the story:

Sex Workers Have Been Shunned by Banks, Even When Their Work Is Legal. Financial service companies often avoid what they deem high-risk industries like adult entertainment. When workers lose their accounts, they are left with few options.  By Tara Siegel Bernard

“Despite being a legal establishment, there is, of course, still a stigma attached to the work,” Ms. Cummins, 74, said from Wells, Nev., the only state where prostitution is legal in certain counties. “There is no bank in Nevada that will lend money to a brothel."

...

"Workers in sex-related industries — whether in a brothel or a strip club or selling sexually explicit videos online — often risk their safety and face social and employment discrimination. But a lesser-known struggle is that it’s often difficult to maintain a basic bank account and other financial relationships that most people take for granted.

...

"Financial institutions are responsible for monitoring the nation’s cash flow for potential criminal activities, including human trafficking and money laundering. In the process they’ve also become quasi-law enforcement, making life-altering calls on who can keep banking and who cannot, based on their own calculus about what kind of risk is worth taking.

But without bank accounts, people are unable to accomplish the most basic of financial tasks: collecting, spending and saving their earnings. Once banished from mainstream bank accounts and everyday financial apps Americans have come to rely on, sex workers are left with fewer, and often less attractive, options — turning to crypto, for example, or being forced to rely on others to hold their cash, opening them up to exploitation. 

Blood donor questions, revamped.

 One of the curious things about donating blood is that you are asked about your sex life. Last Thursday the Stanford Blood Center  implemented the updated FDA blood donation guidelines known as the Individual Donor Assessment, emphasizing a more equitable and inclusive donor assessment process.  

"As of Thursday, October 19, Stanford Blood Center (SBC) has implemented the updated FDA blood donation guidelines, which eliminate questions based on sexual orientation. 

....

About the Individual Donor Assessment (IDA)
"The new process focuses on assessing all donors equally, regardless of gender, reflecting a data-driven approach to maintaining blood safety. This ensures fairness and recognizes that infectious diseases can affect anyone. Ultimately, a thorough donor history questionnaire and extensive testing remain in place to ensure the safety of our blood supply.

The Changes
"Previously, a man who had sex with another man within the last three months was deferred for three months following their last sexual encounter. Additionally, a woman was deferred in the past three months if she had sex with a man who had sex with another man in the past three months. Individuals were assessed based on the gender they identified with, and nonbinary individuals were evaluated using both criteria.

Under the new guidance, the FDA recommends an “individual donor risk assessment” approach that does not depend on gender or sexual orientation, and all donors will be asked the same questions about high-risk sexual behavior. More specifically, any donor who reports having a new partner or more than one partner in the past three months will be asked a follow-up question about anal sex. If anal sex with a new partner or multiple partners is reported in the past three months, the donor will be deferred for three months following the sexual encounter.

The new guidance also requires a three-month deferral for anyone who has taken an oral PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) or PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) medication to prevent HIV transmission. A two-year deferral is required if an injectable, long-acting PrEP or PEP medication is taken. A permanent deferral remains for anyone with a history of HIV infection."

More anti-gay legislation in Uganda

 The NY Times has the story about new anti-gay legislation awaiting signature by Uganda's president:

We Will Hunt You’: Ugandans Flee Ahead of Harsh Anti-Gay Law. The bill, passed last month, calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations. President Yoweri Museveni congratulated lawmakers for their “strong stand” against L.G.B.T.Q. people.  By Abdi Latif Dahir

"Uganda’s Parliament passed a sweeping anti-gay bill in late March that threatens punishment as severe as death for some perceived offenses, and calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations.

...

"The bill, which passed 387 to 2, punishes anyone who leases property to gay people and calls for the “rehabilitation” of those convicted of being gay. President Yoweri Museveni, who has commended the bill, sent it back to Parliament on Thursday for “improvement,” his party said in a statement.

"The president congratulated lawmakers and religious leaders on what he called their “strong stand” against L.G.B.T.Q. people. “It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperials,” he said, a reference to Western countries, in footage released by the public broadcaster. He spoke hours after the European Parliament denounced the bill.

"The legislation follows a groundswell of anti-gay rhetoric that has swept African countries in recent years, including in Ghana, Zambia and Kenya. Last month, lawmakers from more than a dozen African countries gathered in Uganda and promised to introduce or pass measures in their own countries that they said would protect the sanctity of the family and children against “the sin of homosexuality.”

...

"The latest move to target L.G.B.T.Q. people in Uganda has drawn support from local Christian and Muslim groups, and for years the financial and logistical backing o"f some conservative evangelical groups in the United States." 

Michigan Senate seeks to repeal 1931 ban on unmarried cohabitation

 Michigan now has a more liberal senate than in 1931.  The Guardian has the story, about how even fossil repugnance dies hard:

Michigan Republicans fight effort to repeal ban on unmarried cohabitation. Law signed in 1931 is rarely enforced but carries penalty of prison time and $1,000 fine. by Erum Salam

"An attempt to repeal a Michigan law that punishes unmarried couples who live together is being thwarted by Republicans in the state legislature.

"The law, which dates to 1931, targets “any man or woman, not being married to each other, who lewdly and lasciviously associates and cohabits together”.

"It is rarely enforced but violations carry a penalty of up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

"Senate Bill 56, which seeks to repeal the law, attracted support from all state senate Democrats and half of Republicans. But nine Republicans voted against.

...

"The bill now moves to the statehouse."

*********

Michigan Senate Bill 56: "Crimes: other; lewd and lascivious cohabitation; repeal prohibition. Amends sec. 335 of 1931 PA 328 (MCL 750.335)."

Insulting the president, in Indonesia

 Sex outside of marriage, and insulting the president are to become more serious crimes in Indonesia.  (The law has a foolproof way of determining if the president has been insulted.)

The Guardian has the story:

Indonesia set to make sex outside marriage punishable by jail. MPs expected to pass new criminal code that will also make insulting the president a crime

"Indonesia’s parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that would criminalise sex outside marriage and outlaw insults against the president or state institutions, prompting alarm from human rights campaigners.

"The deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, said in an interview with Reuters that the new criminal code was expected to be passed on 15 December. “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he said.

...

"Sex outside marriage, which under the code could be reported only by limited parties such as close relatives, could lead to up to a year in prison, while unmarried couples would be banned from living together.

...

"Insulting the president, which under the code could be reported only by the president, would carry a maximum of three years. Insulting state institutions and expressing any views counter to Indonesia’s state ideology would also be forbidden."

Research on pedophilia presents career hazards

 It's not always easy to investigate repugnant things, let alone crimes.  Old Dominion University has parted ways with an assistant professor, Allyn Walker, who uses the pronoun "they."  They studied people who are sexually attracted to children, but don't act on their attraction, i.e. who aren't child molesters.  Walker's book on the subject drew unwanted attention and accusations that it promoted child molesting.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has the story:

An Unacceptable Idea. A university says it supports free inquiry. So why does this pedophilia researcher no longer work there? By Emma Pettit

"Walker’s book, A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity, examines adults who are sexually attracted to children but say they refrain from acting on that attraction. The scholar avoids the term “pedophiles,” even though its literal meaning describes only desire, not behavior, in part because it has come to be synonymous in the public mind with “child molester.” 

...

“Allow me to be clear: This book does not promote sexual contact between adults and minors,” Walker writes in the introduction. Knowing some readers might see it that way, though, Walker prepared. Before the book’s publication in June 2021, the scholar, then an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, wrote a memo for university leaders with talking points to respond to that misconception, should objections to the research arise.

...

"When Tucker Carlson covered the story, he referred to Walker as “a self-described ‘nonbinary assistant professor,’” adding, “we have no idea what that means, by the way, but that’s what this person calls him or herself.” Beside Carlson was a graphic that announced: “The Left’s Depraved New Low.”

"Students at Old Dominion also objected. They mounted a protest and urged the university to fire Walker. 

...

"Walker was placed on indefinite administrative leave.

...

"Walker’s leave notice, obtained by The Chronicle, said that the action was being taken “due to concerns over your safety and that of the campus, and to address the immediate effects of the reaction to your research and book which has impacted the University’s mission of teaching and learning.”

...

“Research into sensitive topics and the expression of new or controversial views lie at the heart of academic research. … At the same time,” Hemphill wrote, “this freedom carries with it the obligation to speak and write with care and precision, particularly on a subject that has caused pain in so many lives.”

...

"on November 24, Walker and the university jointly announced that the assistant professor had “decided to step down.”

...

"Though the wave of reactions was mighty, leaders at Old Dominion could have done more “to resist the power of the misreading of Dr. Walker’s work” and to protect the scholar’s reputation in the institution’s messaging, the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in an open letter. Old Dominion’s response “essentially indicated that if a conflict emerges between academic freedom and hateful political groups that threaten violence, then the politics of hate will win,” Kent Sandstrom, a professor in Walker’s department and a former dean of the college, said in an email. “I can’t think of a more troubling precedent.”

...

"Walker’s Old Dominion contract ends this month. For the time being, at least, they have found an academic home. They’ll be a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins’s Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse."

Singapore court rules that only Parliament can approve gay sex

 The NY Times has the story, about a colonial era Singapore law that isn't presently leading to prosecutions, but remains on the books:

Singapore’s Latest Ruling on Gay Sex Is ‘Cold Comfort,’ Activists Say. Plaintiffs had hoped the Court of Appeal would overturn the colonial-era law. Instead, the top court said it was not “an architect of social policy” and that any change was up to Parliament.  By Richard C. Paddock

"The Singapore Court of Appeal, the country’s top court, declined Monday to overturn a law criminalizing gay sex, ruling that three men who brought challenges did not have legal standing because the government has pledged not to enforce the colonial-era law.

"Gay rights advocates had sought to overturn the law, known as Section 377A, arguing that it stigmatizes gay men and promotes discrimination. The law, enacted in 1938 during British rule, does not apply to women."

Sex Work: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Laughing through the tears about the plight of sex workers, and the complicated and often ridiculous legal environment. (He notes that there are no Hallmark cards with which a sex worker can thank her arresting officer.)

 

Erotic movies versus porn -- times and terms are changing

In a 1964 case, Jacobellis v. Ohio, Supreme Court Justice  Potter Stewart famously declared that it was difficult to define pornography, but that "I know it when I see it " (Less well known is how he continued that sentence: "I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.”

But "porn" has now become such a big category that it isn't even clear that the word retains its original repugnance.  A New York Times story that considers its redeeming features is about a film director whose website characterizes her this way: "Female provocateur and porn film director Erika Lust is creating a new world of indie adult cinema" (It turns out that Lust isn't her original family name...)

 Here's the story from the NY Times:

‘There’s Not Just One Type of Porn’: Erika Lust’s Alternative Vision. The Swedish moviemaker thinks pornography can create a society that sees sexuality as myriad and joyful, and where women’s pleasure matters.  By Mary Katharine Tramontana

*******

And here's another story, which features the megasite Pornhub, in Vanity Fair:

XXX-Files: Who Torched the Pornhub Palace?  BY ADAM GOLLNER

"Pornhub, with its undulating ocean of explicit content, is often ranked among the 10 most viewed websites in the world. More Americans use it than use Twitter, Netflix, or Instagram.

...

"starting in December, a series of legal and P.R. scandals slammed the company. First, a New York Times exposé accused the firm of knowingly hosting child sex abuse materials (CSAM). Antoon denied the charges: “Any suggestion that we allow or encourage illegal content is completely untrue and defies rational reason, from both a moral and business standpoint,” he told me. Still, Canadian senators and MPs called for a criminal investigation. In the uproar, credit card processors suspended payments on the site.

...

"Forty years ago, debates about porn focused on the idea that the sex industry was inherently dehumanizing and rife with abuse. Activist Andrea Dworkin famously argued that porn was detrimental to women, full stop. But not all second-wave feminists agreed. A vocal faction argued for an erotic-positive approach to rejecting sexual repression. The phrase “pornography is violence against women,” wrote Ellen Willis, an influential pro-sex feminist, “was code for the neo-Victorian idea that men want sex and women endure it.”

"The argument remains as contentious as it is unresolved. This fall, the Times published an op-ed by Michelle Goldberg—“Why Sex-Positive Feminism Is Falling Out of Fashion”—citing a TikTok-based “Cancel Porn” movement. Then again, Cosmo contended that “As we all know, women enjoy porn just as much as guys do.” In fact, an estimated one third of Pornhub’s users are women. And the current feminist perspective on the porn debate might best be summarized by Oxford philosopher Amia Srinivasan in her new book, The Right to Sex: Feminism in the 21st Century: “If a woman says she enjoys working in porn, or being paid to have sex with men, or engaging in rape fantasies, or wearing stilettos—and even that she doesn’t just enjoy these things but finds them emancipatory, part of her feminist praxis—then we are required, many feminists think, to trust her. 

...

"The most seismic attack on the company came a year ago—in the form of a Nicholas Kristof New York Times op-ed stating that Pornhub was “infested with rape videos. 

...

"Soon, a merry-go-round of lawsuits started being filed on behalf of underage or nonconsenting victims: an Alabama case invoked the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act

...

"When Pornhub released an app last summer directing museumgoers to classic nude paintings, legal action was threatened by the Louvre and the Uffizi. As one Montreal source put it: “They’re in trouble all over the world.”

...

"The new crusaders aim to outlaw the commercial sex industry altogether, regardless of how that might affect sex workers, already a marginalized group. The main outcome of credit card bans on Pornhub—which Mickelwait considers an important victory—was that content creators stopped getting paid. The fallout extended to OnlyFans, the booming subscription-based platform that connects users directly with content creators. In August, OnlyFans threatened to remove all “sexually explicit” content, which would have had a chilling effect on free speech, open expression, and private digital commerce. Under pressure, the company reversed that decision

...

"While the internet continues its Wild West resistance to law and order, porn keeps getting ever more mainstream. (When Facebook and Instagram both went down one day last fall, for instance, Pornhub saw a 10.5 percent traffic spike.) Meanwhile, making porn has become America’s “side hustle,” Ruby told me, describing an expanding movement of makers selling their sexuality online. “People figured out that they could just document that part of their lives and earn an extra two or three thousand dollars a month and feed their families.” Pornhub, OnlyFans, and other digital portals played an integral part in that phenomenon."

NYC to stop prosecuting prostitutes (but will continue to prosecute their customers)

 NYC will stop prosecuting prostitution, but will continue to prosecute the customers of prostitutes, and pimps.

The NY Times has the story:

Manhattan to Stop Prosecuting Prostitution, Part of Nationwide Shift.    By Jonah E. Bromwich

"The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced Wednesday that it would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage, putting the weight of one of the most high-profile law enforcement offices in the United States behind the growing movement to change the criminal justice system’s approach to sex work.

"The district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., asked a judge on Wednesday morning to dismiss 914 open cases involving prostitution and unlicensed massage, along with 5,080 cases in which the charge was loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

"The law that made the latter charge a crime, which had become known as the “walking while trans” law, was repealed by New York State in February.

...

"Criminally prosecuting prostitution does not make us safer, and too often, achieves the opposite result by further marginalizing vulnerable New Yorkers,” Mr. Vance said in a statement.

"The office will continue to prosecute other crimes related to prostitution, including patronizing sex workers, promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, and said that its policy would not stop it from bringing other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests.

"That means, in effect, that the office will continue to prosecute pimps and sex traffickers, as well as people who pay for sex, continuing to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without punishing the people who for decades have borne the brunt of law enforcement’s attention."

More essential services, from the lockdown in New Zealand

The Guardian has the breaking news from New Zealand (and the sub-headline makes you glad for experts..):

Sex toy sales triple during New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown
Speculation rife about an impending baby boom, but experts say uncertain times mean this is unlikely

"New Zealanders are permitted to leave their homes only to access essential services or take walks during the national shutdown, which began a fortnight ago and will remain in place for at least a further two weeks.
...
"The restrictions also prompted a tripling of sex toy sales in the 48 hours before the lockdown was imposed on 25 March
...
"“We’re selling a lot of beginner toys ... all our beginner ranges are very popular,” said Emily Writes, a spokesperson for the business. “It definitely looks like people are saying: ‘I’ve got time, I might try something new.’”

"Sales of condoms, lubricant, and menstrual cups were among the other purchases that spiked after Ardern announced the lockdown, as well as adult board games and – perhaps reflecting a wider trend towards disinfecting behaviour – sex toy cleaner.
...
"Adult Toy Megastore was deemed an essential service by New Zealand’s government and was allowed to continue operating during the shutdown because it sells condoms and medical items."