Nearly three years ago, Ashley Fires was at home in New Hampshire making breakfast on a Sunday morning. While waiting with a spatula in hand to flip a pancake, she decided to quickly check Twitter on her phone. That’s when she saw a tweet accusing porn star James Deen of rape. “I just felt this compelling urge to say…
Jon Ronson, the British journalist best known for writing a recent book about online bullying, is launching a Serial-esque podcast about the death of porn performer August Ames. The 23-year-old performer committed suicide in December of last year following a social media controversy.
CHATSWORTH, CALIFORNIA—Bree Mills is crouched in the darkened hallway of an adobe ranch house, her face illuminated by a high-resolution monitor. She’s clutching a pair of bulky headphones to her ears and watching as a family falls apart.
The Toronto-based company KinkySdollS has announced plans to open an “Adult Love Dolls Brothel” in Houston, Texas—and, holy shit, are people losing their goddamn minds over it.
Rooster was preparing to shoot a sex scene for Erika Lust Films—a Barcelona-based porn production company that markets itself as an ethical, feminist alternative to the mainstream adult industry—when they allegedly asked for a break. The then-26-year-old performer, who uses they/them pronouns, says they told the…
Last week, Kanye West announced that his Yeezy clothing line will be selling $75 sweatshirts featuring artistic renderings of several porn performers. The sweatshirts are part of West’s surprise turn as creative director of Thursday’s Pornhub Awards—an Oscars-like event for the adult industry, thrown by one of the…
Over the weekend, Lily Allen announced in an Instagram post, “I slept with female escorts when I was on tour, cause I was lost and lonely and looking for something.” She continued, “I’m not proud, but I’m not ashamed. I don’t do it anymore.” The singer explained that someone had leaked portions of her upcoming…
The future of some of Nevada’s most well-known brothels is in voters’ hands, according to the Associated Press. A November ballot initiative seeks to shut down the four legal brothels in Lyon County, all of which are owned by Dennis Hof, who is currently running as a Trump-loving Republican candidate for the Nevada…
The first lawsuit challenging the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (H.R. 1865), otherwise known as SESTA/FOSTA, was filed in federal court last week, claiming that the legislation violates the First and Fifth Amendments, Melissa Gira Grant reports at The Appeal. As anticipated by opponents…
Condoms are now “instruments of crime,” according to the Allegheny County, PA police, which has been using them to charge sex workers with first-degree misdemeanors, ostensibly toward the broader goal of cracking down on human trafficking. The news, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review earlier this month,…
Catherine Healy, a longtime sex work activist, has been made a dame by the goddamn Queen of New Zealand. On Monday, the 62-year-old who successfully fought for the decriminalization of sex work in the country, was recognized with an Order of Merit “for services to the rights of sex workers.”
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA—“STIGMA KILLS,” “MY BODY, NOT YOUR CHOICE,” “SEX WORK ≠ TRAFFICKING”—those were just a few of the signs pumped in the air as over 300 sex workers and allies gathered Saturday in downtown Oakland for International Whores Day, a global celebration of sex workers’ rights. This long-standing annual…
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article on the potentially negative impact of our country’s new “anti-trafficking” law—not on sex workers, mind you, but on the big business of online dating.
A new report has found that women are increasingly being sexually exploited in the United Kingdom in so-called “pop-up brothels.” The nonpartisan group of UK politicians behind the study is using the alarming findings to call for the criminalization of the purchase of sex and a crackdown on classified-style websites…
Sex workers in Colombia have started a newspaper that is “flying off the shelves”—a rare distinction for any newspaper these days. La Esquina—which means “The Corner,” in English—is made by and for sex workers in Bogotá’s red light district, according to the Guardian. It’s both distributed as a regular newspaper and,…
The Sacramento chapter of the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP), an organization that provides critical resources to both sex workers and trafficking victims, is suspending its direct outreach programs amid a sense of growing legal risk. The group will be shuttering its safe-house, ceasing distribution of both…
For Women’s History Month, Jezebel and The Root are partnering for JezeRoot, a series that focuses on women of color, domestic workers, and sex workers.
Craigslist personals are gone. No more “w4m” or “m4m” or even “strictly platonic.” This famous little corner of the internet shut down in response to the Senate voting to pass the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), a law ostensibly meant to prevent sex trafficking but that puts sex workers in danger and, as…
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