Superheroes, Sex Workers, and Spoils

I woke up today with a pounding headache, nausea, and low grade fever. Since I’m supposed to work all day tomorrow, I’m going to try to take it easy today and postpone my next post about the intricacies of showing consent in porn (a deeper look at the options), in favor of passing on these two INCREDIBLE stories:

1) The New York Initiative is a group of real-life “superheroes” trained in martial arts who are offering their services as vigilantes to sex workers in the New York/Long Island area as a response to the crappy protection the police force here has offered them from The Long Island Serial Killer! This is fucking amazing! I don’t want to get too excited here, because I know it’s bad form to support a gang of more-or-less thugs taking the law into their own hands… but the Long Island Serial Killer, aka the Craigslist Killer, (seriously? dude needs a better name–or I just have watched too much Dexter and expect “Bay Harbor Butcher” type witticisms now) has mangled far too many sex workers already, and the red tape around sex workers claiming police protection in this state is out of control. So I say more power to the NYI!

They’re offering martial arts and improvised weapons training to any and all sex workers who want them, free of charge, as well as their confidential and balls-out protective services. And they’re spreading the word: they want everyone to know they’re out there protecting the safety and rights of sex workers, insisting, “We respect you as human beings, we believe in personal freedoms and think that you’re doing something that is absolutely your choice to do.” Hopefully the message will be spread far and wide and cow the LISK into submission… Or kick the living crap out of him and drag him to a police station. That would be pretty cool, too.

2) Speaking of balls-out-ness and superheroism, I can’t even imagine the courage it must have taken to post this blog about how to get through an unpleasant day at work with the least pleasant mental imagery ever. I don’t think I could ever admit this kind of thing to anyone, much less the anonymous fathoms of the internet. But Danny Wylde isn’t your average porn performer, and he went ahead and said it. Much respect for revealing a side of the industry and of humanity that gets pushed under the rug far too often, Danny. Let’s talk.