Tonight's Show: Canada's Sex-Trade Laws

Last week Justice Susan Himel invalidated parts of Section 212 and 213 of the Criminal Code, which basically means Canadians can’t be charged with keeping a bawdy house, communicating for the purpose of sex and living off the avails of prostitution. This is far from being law, as appeals are promised by both provincial and federal governments. Yet the decision has stirred up massive controversy across the nation and sex-trade workers are hailing the ruling as a victory.

Tonight we chat with special guest, Farrah Alladin, about Canada's sex-trade and what this new ruling may mean for those who make their living in the sex industry.

Is Iceland the world's most feminist country?

The Guardian reports that Iceland has just banned strip clubs and is "on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry." Every strip club in the country will be shut down, and the new law will make it illegal for a business to profit from the nudity of its employees.



Iceland is the first country in the world to ban stripping for feminist reasons (it is usually banned for religious reasons). Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday, "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold." Right on, sister.



This is really quite a revolutionary new law!

Suburban Teen Sold as Sex Slave

Last week I watched a disturbing documentary on MSNBC about sex trafficking in America. Sixteen year old Shauna was your average suburban teenager when she was kidnapped by a friend’s father and sold on the internet as a sex slave for $300,000. For three days she was drugged, tortured and raped continuously. When her mother received a frantic phone call from Shauna saying “Help me, Mom!” she went to the police immediately. The police told her not to worry and that Shauna “probably just ran away.”

Luckily, Shauna was found and rescued (by community volunteers – not the police) before her captors had the chance to escape with her across the state border. To this day no one has been arrested with the kidnapping, rape and torture of Shauna. Her mother says this is because the police never believed her story.

The video below is a shortened version of the documentary.

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Lap Dancers Make More $$$ When Fertile

Something we discussed last night on our radio program was how women's menstrual cycles and our pheromones affect our sexual attraction to others, and their attraction to us. Studies have shown that when women are ovulating (fertile), men find them more attractive. Naturally, when a woman is on a hormonal contraceptive (such as the birth control pill), it suppresses ovulation and thus does not achieve the same effect.

While cruising the internet today, I came across a study from 2007 that found that lap dancers make more money in tips when they are ovulating. Here's a clip from the study abstract:

...we examined ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by professional lap dancers working in gentlemen's clubs. Eighteen dancers recorded their menstrual periods, work shifts, and tip earnings for 60 days on a study web site. A mixed-model analysis of 296 work shifts (representing about 5300 lap dances) showed an interaction between cycle phase and hormonal contraception use. Normally cycling participants earned about US$335 per 5-h shift during estrus [ovulation/fertile], US$260 per shift during the luteal phase [infertile], and US$185 per shift during menstruation. By contrast, participants using contraceptive pills showed no estrous earnings peak. These results constitute the first direct economic evidence for the existence and importance of estrus in contemporary human females, in a real-world work setting. These results have clear implications for human evolution, sexuality, and economics.

A Very Powerful, Short Doc: Carissa

I don't even know where to begin with this. I'm often curious to see how far these kinds of documentaries will go in terms of getting to the deep and unpleasantly dark core of reality, but this one has done it. This is the story of Carissa, a former youth sex-trade worker who eventually went on to graduate from UCLA and become a spokesperson for Virgin Mobile's Regeneration Campaign for the awareness of youth homelessness.

I won't speak too much about the video; my summary of it would quite simply do nothing but tarnish its beauty. So, please just take a moment to watch it and share it with any and every one whom you think may need to see it.

(Another great vid courtesy of Current)

Dad Sells Daughter for Meat, Beer & Cash

A California man is accused of selling his 14-year-old daughter into a marriage with an 18-year-old man for 100 crates of beer, several cases of meat and $16,000. The father has pleaded no contest to felony child endangerment.

Marcelino de Jesus Martinez had pleaded not guilty in February to procuring a child for lewd acts, aiding and abetting statutory rape and child endangerment. If convicted of those charges he faced 10 years in prison.

Read the full story here.

The Making of a Girl

Check out this powerful video, "The Making of a Girl":

"An intimate journey of a hypothetical preteen girl as she faces a life of sexual exploitation. Rachel Lloyd, founder of Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, takes us through the trauma and pain of a largely unremarked upon current issue facing American youth- sex trafficking, abuse and sexual exploitation."

Prostitution - to legalize or not?

Tonight on Yeah, What She Said we will have our first interactive show! We will be discussing the issue of prostitution - in particular, to legalize it or not?

New Zealand and the Netherlands are two Western countries where prostitution is currently legal. Should we follow in their footsteps?

Listeners are able to call in and share their thoughts tonight. The number to call is 403-220-3991.

Tune in on CJSW 90.9 FM (or stream it live from cjsw.com) from 8:30 to 9:00pm MST.