Sex work

Friday

Britt McHenry

The US Open OnlyFans star

Sachia Vickery, a 559th-ranked player, lost her qualifying match yesterday, but likely gained new followers from her activity off the court: OnlyFans. That’s right, Vickery charges $12.99 a month for any fan or sexually-charged viewer to subscribe to exclusive content. During an Instagram Q&A this week, she said, “I’m very open-minded and I don’t care what people think of me. It’s also the easiest money I’ve ever made and enjoy doing it.”Clutch your pearls and breathe. Your first thought might be: Does she need money? Why else would an athlete of her stature resort to OnlyFans. Vickery is hardly broke. She made a reported $2 million in 14 years of professional tennis and even cracked the top 100 in 2018.

Sachia Vickery

Thursday

Ben Sixsmith

My day as a real man

Today, I woke up and felt hungry. In the past I would have eaten breakfast. Cereal perhaps. Some toast. A boiled egg. Not today. What am I? A pussy? My stomach rumbles and I have to feed it right away like I’m some sort of woman? “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Oh, yeah? Says who? I’ll be the judge of that. Besides, I’m not going to make my own sandwiches. I’ve been watching a lot of videos on YouTube. I’ve been watching a lot of videos featuring Andrew Tate. Andrew Tate is a British-American kickboxer (odd mid-Atlantic accent included) who made a lot of money managing a Romanian studio for camgirls and now teaches people how to be real men.

Wednesday

Cockburn

The Lauren Boebert ‘escort-abortion’ hitjob stinks

Cockburn is no stranger to scandal — if anything he’s an expert in the field. With that cap on, he’s approaching the latest shocking allegations against gun-totin’, Biden-hecklin’ Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert with caution, as they don’t seem to pass the smell test. A website, neutrally dubbed “FIRE BOEBERT,” published a document on Tuesday evening containing the audacious claims that Boebert was an “unlicensed paid escort with sugardaddymeet.com” and that she “had two abortions.” If those allegations weren’t egregious enough, the site, which is run by a PAC called American Muckrakers, declares that Boebert was “hired by a wealthy male client in Aspen, Colorado, who was a Koch family member,” who then “introduced” her to Ted Cruz.

boebert

Friday

Phillip Nieto

The extortion plot against Matt Gaetz

Federal authorities indicted a man on Tuesday who stands accused of extorting Rep. Matt Gaetz’s father for $25 million. For months, Gaetz has claimed Stephen Alford, the indicted man, conspired with a former Air Force intelligence officer and a retired DoJ prosecutor to extort his family, amid an ongoing FBI investigation into the lawmaker for sex trafficking. At the center of the alleged plot was an attempt by the group to free an ex-American spy, Bob Levinson, who was captured in Iran over a decade ago and believed to be dead. The development raises more questions than answers in the Matt Gaetz sex trafficking saga.

gaetz

Friday

Katherine Dee

Why is OnlyFans really banning porn?

You’ve probably heard by now that effective October 1, 2021, OnlyFans will be banning sexually explicit content on its site that is all but exclusively known for hosting sexually explicitly content. OnlyFans has done what every start-up aspires to, at least in one sense. Both consumers and creators of content on OnlyFans have transcended mere ‘user profile’-status and have penetrated the mainstream, becoming infinitely stereotyped, talked about and joked about archetypes. When someone quips that a woman ‘probably has an OnlyFans’, it doesn’t matter if she actually has one or not. That kind of signifier means something. OnlyFans has left a real mark on Western culture; something that few tech companies are able to achieve.

onlyfans

Friday

Cockburn

Is there anything ‘new’ or ‘shocking’ about the latest Hunter Biden scandal?

The prodigal son returns without his pants. Hunter Biden, the male heir of the 46th president, was caught hanging brain with a prostitute, again. The creeps over at the Daily Mail obtained the video which was recorded in January 2019. In a chyron, Fox News described the footage of Hunter as ‘new’ and ‘shocking’ — but frankly it’s neither. In the clip, Hunter recounts how he lost a laptop filled with his raunchy sex tapes while passed out in a pool. According to the Daily Mail, the conversation occurred after Biden and the unidentified woman had sex. So romantic. And you thought your pillow talk was awkward. 'They have videos of me doing this. They have videos of me doing like fucking crazy [expletive] sex [expletive],' Biden said in the video.

hunter biden

Monday

Elizabeth Nolan Brown

The regressiveness of Officer Kamala

Sen. Kamala Harris has been positioning herself as a supporter of sex worker rights lately. But listen closely when she talks about the issue and a different story emerges. It's a disconnect that highlights Harris's larger pattern of obscuring her positions, plans, and past. Twice when asked outright about the decriminalization of prostitution — first by Terrell J. Starr of The Root and then during a televised CNN townhall — Harris has answered in a way that's been characterized as supportive. But both times she has described her preferred system as one in which ‘johns’ would still be arrested. That is not decriminalization. Decriminalizing prostitution means neither paying for nor selling sex is illegal so long as it takes place between consenting adults.

kamala harris

Friday

Libby Emmons

Sex work with Teen Vogue

Sex work is real work, says Teen Vogue, that bastion of female-forward journalism — and apparently a valid career move. Calling prostitution ‘sex work’ and approving of sex work are part of the progressive political platform. The push back against reactionaries who believe women should not be sell their bodies is swift and fierce. Teen Vogue is spearheading a change in how girls see themselves, their sexuality, and their bodies. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the doctor who wrote ‘Why Sex Work is Real Work’, argues for countries to adopt a system where it's illegal to buy sex, but not to sell it. Prostitution is not in decline, and until sex-doll brothels really take off, it's unlikely to be.

teen vogue

Wednesday

Libby Emmons

How tech oppresses women in developing nations

Tech liberates Western women, but it oppresses women in developing nations – not that the tech giants care. Across the globe, tools that empower American women are being reconfigured to cage and degrade women. From the recent innovation that can ‘out’ women in porn, to Saudi Arabia’s use of women-tracking apps, to the surveillance potential of China’s Uighur-tracking systems, women are being colonized by tech. From the washing machine to the smart phone, technology has allowed women to be in control of their own time and space. If we’re walking home late at night, being able to reach out and let a friend know where we are gives a sense of security.

tech oppresses women