It's a job posting for "female escorts" that appeared on a Malaysian government job site managed by the Department of Works and Pensions, according to the Chronicle.
The Copywriter may not be great at English, but he or she is pretty clear about the job requirements: "go out with guys maybe for an evening or have full on sex."
Prostitution is not technically illegal in Malaysia, but soliciting sex is. After automatically posting, the ad was deemed "inappropriate" by government authorities, and promptly removed from the site.
A man speaking for the advertised company told press, "I put the advert up there because it’s a job site and it’s a job. I was a bit shocked they allowed it."
According to this source, Malaysia has one of the world's highest percentages of sex-workers, with 52 people per 10,000 in the trade. Many are trafficked foreigners, however, and the United States "Trafficking in Persons" program has the country on a watch list for human rights violations.
Having scantily clad women serve drive through coffee in the middle of winter is apparently a thing in the State of Washington. Grab-N-Go is one of these things, offering "entertainment with surprisingly superb tasting espresso".
Last Wednesday, Grab-N-Go made the local news in Everett, Washington, for the arrest of three baristas for "exhibition and exposure". According to police, the women (one of whom is only 16) were offering customers even more exposed views of their bodies for cash.
This isn't the first time women at the coffee stand chain have been accused of crossing the line between exploiting their sexuality to sell coffee and actual sex work. In 2009, five different baristas were charged with stripping, allowing customers to touch them, and "whip cream shows".
In a bizarre case, the owner of the chain, Bill Wheeler, went missing in Las Vegas a few months later. His family fought over the business and his son, Bill D. Wheeler Jr., eventually took over.
Like his father before him, Bill Jr. denies any wrongdoing. He told local media that he enforces strict policies for his six baristas, including no drug use, no flashing, and no personal visitors at the stands.
"They have to be dressed a certain way," he said. "Their crotch has to be covered up. They can't expose their areolas."
On his company Facebook page, however, he was a little more defiant:
We feel this incident is a publicity stunt by the Everett PD for unjustifiable reasons.
Our policy and procedures strictly state any employee engaging in lewd or inappropriate behavior will be terminated. We also have a zero tolerance policy for drug's as well.
As always when it comes to any government agency question everything. We also thank all of our customers for there support and the Everett policy [police?] department for the free press in yet another waste of our tax payers money.
Free press, indeed. The article went international within a couple of days. Do a Google News search for "Grab-N-Go" and you'll get a bunch of mainstream media hits with headlines like "Busty Baristas Busted" with lots and lots of pictures.
It's a sleazy business operator's dream. Nobody can resist a story about sex, especially when young women are involved. (Yes, I know I am part of the problem here, no matter what I think my intentions are.)
But you have to wonder how much the owner of the business is responsible for the actions of the employees, policy or not, when he promotes his business like this:
Via Facebook
And sells merch like this:
Via Grab-N-Go
Sleazy or not, the Grab-N-Go owner may have a point about the timing of the arrests being a bit of a conspiracy. According to the Seattle Times, the 2009 arrests came on the same day as a public hearing was scheduled on a proposed update to Everett's lewd-conduct ordinance "which would declare drive-up windows a public place, making it illegal for someone to expose their breasts and genitals." While it's understandable that citizens don't want to accidentally see live sex shows at public coffee stands, the obsessive American War On Breasts seems to be complicating the issue.
Via Facebook
The current Everett Municipal Code actually mentions drive-through windows specifically. I'm exerpting it at length because it's kind of interesting.
A. A “lewd act” is: 1. An exposure of one’s genitals, anus, or any portion of the areola or nipple of the female breast; or 2. The touching, caressing or fondling of the genitals or female breasts; or 3. Masturbation; or 4. Sexual conduct. B. “Public place” means an area generally visible to public view, and includes streets, sidewalks, bridges, alleys, plazas, parks, driveways, parking lots, automobiles (whether moving or not), and buildings open to the general public, including those which serve food or drink or provide entertainment, and the doorways and entrances to buildings or dwellings and the grounds enclosing them, and businesses contained in structures which can serve customers who remain in their vehicles, by means of a drive-up window. C. “Sexual conduct” means sexual intercourse or any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person done for the purpose of gratifying sexual desire of either party, whether such persons are the same or opposite sex. D. For purposes of this chapter, any activity is obscene: 1. Which the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, when considered as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; and 2. Which explicitly depicts or describes patently offensive representations or descriptions of: a. Ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated; or b. Masturbation, fellatio, cunnilingus, bestiality, excretory functions or lewd exhibition of the genitals or genital area; or c. Violent or destructive sexual acts including but not limited to human or animal mutilation, dismemberment, rape or torture; and 3. Which, when considered as a whole, and in the context in which it is used, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. For purposes of this chapter, an activity is dramatic if the activity is of, relating to, devoted to, or concerned specifically or professionally with current drama or the contemporary theater.
10.24.020 Lewd conduct. A. A person is guilty of lewd conduct if he or she intentionally performs any lewd act in a public place or under circumstances where such act is likely to be observed by any member of the public. The act of breastfeeding or expressing breast milk is not lewd conduct.
I'm no lawyer, but I'm assuming the parts I bolded are why the baristas are being charged under "Soliciting for a lewd act": Every person who solicits another to engage in a lewd act in a public place shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
If I had a business like this, I suppose I'd feel targeted too. (Not to mention feeling like I really needed a shower.)
But then again, considering the target market, you just can't buy this kind of publicity:
In a Hertz promotional ad apparently written by a 12-year-old boy during an Axe-scented sleepover with his bros, "Swedish models" are offered up as if they were escorts. The ad's placement on an Australian singles' site didn't help matters.
Yeah, it's all very punny. But American model Carolyn Giles took offence at her pic being used in such a suggestive manner. (No mention of whether she minded being portrayed as Swedish.) According to Business Insider, she is suing Volvo and Hertz for $10 million for making it "appear that she may be an escort, with extreme sexual and inappropriate connotations and innuendos." Her agency, Ford Models, is also named for failing to protect her best interests.
The 30-year-old model shot a web ad for Volvo back in 2007, and the picture was reused (without compensation) on a series of Hertz ads including the Volvo/a one above.
My Osocio colleague, Marc, sent me this link about a group of Polish women who got naked and posed with a giant penis to protest FEMEN's assault on the Euro 2012 soccer tournament — co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
Their statement:
Euro 2012 is unique occasion for us women to earn some extra money on sex-tourism! Many Polish women count on these profits and can't wait foreign football fans. Generally we earn less, usually we get worse job. Many of us bring up children alone, so Euro is a great opportunity for us. It is a chance to earn extra money and in many cases an opportunity to break the fall.
As female artists, whose income from the art is too low to be able to maintain itself, we look forward to this opportunity too. Therefore, we disagree with the action of Ukrainian feminists Femen who protest against prostitution during Euro - also in Poland! If they want to rebel, they can do it at home in the Ukraine! Poland is our territory!
We do not believe, moreover, that selling bodies is worse and more humiliating kind of prostitution than the one practiced every day by some artists supporting correct ideologies - in exchange for fame, and money. We prefer to be prostitutes dealing bodies then becoming artists from the first rows of the art whores system – selling their artistic freedom!
Therefore, we vote for prostitution in Reality – and against prostitution in ART! Therefore we urge all the feminists during the time of Euro 2012 to stay in the kitchen and let Polish girls earn some money!
On the occasion of EURO 2012, we also created our own Euro 2012 mascot. This is the eight-foot sculpture of an anonymous figure - "Prince X", inspired by the work of renowned sculptor Constantin Brancusi, showing substantial male genitals – the symbol of our prosperity.
Part of me really hopes this is a clever false-flag operation by FEMEN, or their allies. Or even a parody.
The manifesto goes from demanding that "All the feminists during EURO should be closed in the kitchen and not disturb Polish girls!" and moves on to:
We will establish a new order of things, law and justice. All mobile chargers will have the same input, if someone cannot afford the petrol, we will push his car. There will be no more illiterates, science and religion will become reconciled. A square wheel will be invented, testing of nuclear weapons and cream on rabbits will be stopped. Number of whales, killer whales, marsupials and other endangered species (including sturgeon) will be increased. The prices of rye on the international market will fall down. There will be no homeless and unemployed people, poaching will disappear. North America will be returned to the Indians, deforestation in the Amazon will end. The domination of the drug cartels will end. All corporations will become bankrupt. All pornographic corporations will be ruined too, because thanks to our services everybody will be satisfied. Even the Six Heads of Lenin. There will be no venereal disease, prostitution and people-trafficking will disappear. There will be yachts for everyone. You'll never run out of bananas for our youth. Everyone will get a slave, and will be someone's slave, and yet slavery will dissapear.
The group is real however, and have apparently been around since 1998. I suppose they're just having some fun, here. And I can't wait for FEMEN's response.
With their headline-grabbing tactic of demonstrating topless, the women of Ukraine's FEMEN movement can seem like a novelty act. But believe me, they are deadly serious.
And one of the main reasons they came into existence, a few years ago, was to fight against the way Ukrainian women are perceived and treated — not just in their own country, but around the world.
This year, the focus of their anger has been the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro 2012), which will be co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland. Like many other major sporting events, Euro 2012 is expected to arouse a boom in prostitution as local women offer to "service" foreign soccer fans.
“I don't know what type of people will come or how they see our country, but if they think it is a 'brothel country', how will they behave with young women on the streets? You know, our girls dress quite liberally, which is usually not accepted in a European country, and to some could seem as a sexual call . This will also influence the behaviour of the sport fans. Thus, we need drive home the message: 'Yes, Ukrainian girls usually dress like this, but they are not prostitutes.'”
Women re-appropriating their own sexuality. It's a thing now, with worldwide movements like Slutwalk and Rock The Slut Vote. But before them were these half-dressed Ukrainian women, shivering and screeching against a system that tries to keep them down. Let's all hope in never does.
Ads of the World featured this interesting guerilla campaign by O&M Buenos Aires for womwn's organization AMMAR.
Apparently, 93% of the country's sex workers are mothers trying to make ends meet. The campaign aims to raise awareness for the need to protect these women with more progressive prostitution laws.
At first blush, however, the campaign seems like more of a way to scare clients away. Argentina's callgirls advertise using business cards left in public places. O&M created surprise fold-outs that showed the maternal reality behind the sexy promotion.
I'm not sure targeting clients is the best direct strategy, but of course these days innovative campaigns are all about indirect reach through PR and social media.
"Sugar Daddy Website Celebrates Women’s Month with an Empowering 2-For-1 Sugar Baby Offer
March is the National Women’s Month in the United States and the United Kingdom. This year, the focus of the National Women’s History Month will be on “Women's Education and Women's Empowerment.” As the only Sugar Daddy dating website that encourages women’s education and women’s empowerment through their dating relationships, SeekingArrangement.com is celebrating this year’s Women’s History Month by offering all female members 2-for-1 discounts on any Sugar Baby or Sugar Mommy membership package."
Empowering indeed. Seeking Arrangement is an online dating service that helps attractive young women in need of money sell themselves as a "girlfriend experience" to wealthy older men.
This isn't prostitution, mind you, because these are nice girls. College girls.
"Since “Women’s Education” is the focus of this year’s Women’s Month, SeekingArrangement.com notes that over 40% of its Sugar Baby members are college students using the website as a means to pay for their college education."
Last I heard, the same could be said for 100% of strippers.
“Women are brought up in our country to believe they are princesses who will eventually meet their prince. In Disneyland, even the beast turned out to be a prince,” says [Brandon Wade, the website’s Founder & CEO] who holds a BS and MBA degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Most girls grow up realizing there is no fairytale ending. Instead of selling the princess fantasy, parents ought to empower their daughters by showing them how to be Sugar Babies and to demand more out of their personal relationships.”
So there you have it, sisters. It's all for women's empowerment.
Courtesy Teleflora. As shared by a Consumerist reader, who explains:
"This was not my intended message. I had said she was the best lover in the whole world. I tried calling Teleflora about it, but it seems as though their lines are all disconnected or overwhelmed. Am I the victim of mistyping by someone else, or is this more widespread and possibly a disgruntled employee making everyone pay?"
That must have been awkward.
If you've seen a better one, please post it below.
Of course it's a scam, but I wanted to know how obvious a scam it was. So I went where few non-desperate people have gone before:
Okay, that's not too scary. It even makes clear on Google that it is not an escort site.
So what is it? Well, you can't get too far into that with a major breach of privacy.
There's only so much I'm willing to give up online. This is my real name, and I have a wife, a son, and a job. But fortunately others have made the ultimate privacy sacrifice in the interest of science.
"As soon as you log in women will start sending you chat and email messages that can only be replied to if you are a paying member. I can not believe with no picture or personal information some girl would text me in seconds. I think it was set up this way so guys would sign up for their premium service."
"I've registered 8 (!) male accounts on Travelgirls.com on the same day. Without photo or any demographics info, exept country. So I suppose such account should not be interesting to any girl. All 8 my fake users got 5 messages from THE SAME 3 girls in ~30 minutes after registration. All those girls of course were very beautiful and had profiles with photos, but...one small problem :) They all were sending almost the same message to all users. For example all users got a message from a girl called Perla. My fake user from France got a message "invite me to France", fake user from Spain got message "Invite me to Spain", etc. So Perla asked all 8 fake guys to invite her to their native country, mentioned in profile. Another one girl Eva also sent message to all users: "Have you been to Kiev/Ukraine?". Also two more girls with russian names sent messages immediately to all users. I don't know what about are those messages, because premium membership is necessary to read them."
"I met a girl from Belarus on this site; her name there is Baby_MUR. Her actual name, according to what she told me is Evgeniya Serzhan. I met her and for 2 weeks she gave me the impression she was truly interested in me and wanted to travel to the USA. I offered to buy her plane ticket if she could get the visa. She told me it shouldn't be a problem, but a couple of days afterward said the cost would be 150 eur and that her parents wouldn't help her. She asked if I could help and told me maybe she could do something in return for me. I told her we would work together and figure something out. The next day she told me she would borrow the money and go to the Embassy to apply for the visa and that was the last I heard from her. She will now no longer answer any of my messages on the site, answer her phone when I call, nor will she write me back when I send her e-mails. It seems obvious to me that all she wanted was my money and when I didn't offer to send her the 150 eur she decided to drop me and look for someone she might be able to sucker. In short that makes her a romance scammer/gold digger. By the way, I looked at the site for the US Embassy in Minsk and the site shows the cost of the visa to be $140 USD--a far cry from 150 eur, which is about $200 USD. Furthermore, she told me they would process the visa for her there, but the site information shows they are no longer processing tourist visas in Minsk and persons wanting one would have to visit Embassys in other countries for processing. Beware of this site because if there is one like this there are bound to be others as well."
Sad, sad, sad. But what about the girls? Are they real? The site itself asks for a login before clickthrough, but Google seems to have no problem accessing lower level pages directly:
I have no idea if these women are real or not. I don't really want to find out. But I do hope that none of them are being trafficked, or forced into the sex trade through poverty or circumstance.
The guys, by the way, are a little more shy...
Well, some of them...)
Why should I care? I guess there are two things the internet has done to me. First of all, by bringing me news of sex work, tourism, tragedy and scams from around the world, it has made me more aware of the underbelly of human nature. And second, even if I wanted to be blissfully ignorant, these ads would continue to intrude on my world with a reminder of theirs.
By the way, the site owner (it's registered in Lithuania) denies any liability for any real people who may get involved in this particular type of travel.
"4.1. This Site is a venue. Services provided by the Company do not include the introduction of users to one another. This Site is merely a venue for members and/or viewers to learn about one another and, if they wish, arrange stays with one another. The Company is not involved in the actual contact between members and/or viewers . As a result, the Company has no control over the conduct of members and/or viewers or the truth or accuracy of the information that members and/or viewers post on the Site.
4.2. The Company cannot and do not confirm purported identity of the members and/or viewers . Although the Company provides tools intended to assist you, you are responsible for determining the identity and suitability of others with whom you may match by means of this Site. The Company does not endorse any persons who use or register for the services which are provided by the Company. The Company does not investigate reputation of the members and/or viewers , conduct, morality, criminal background, or verify the information such of the members and/or viewers may submit to the Site. You shall communicate directly with potential hosts and guests through the tools available on the Site and to take the same precautions you would normally take when meeting a stranger in person for the first time.
4.3. You shall be solely responsible for your interactions with other members and/or viewers of this Site. The Company will not be responsible for any damage or harm resulting from your interactions with other members and/or viewers of this Site. The Company reserves the right, but has no obligation, to monitor interactions between you and other members and/or viewers of this Site and to take any other action in good faith to restrict access to or the availability of any material that the Company or another members and/or viewers of this Site may consider obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable.
4.4. Because this Site is merely a venue, in the event that you have a dispute with other members and/or viewers of this Site, you release the Company and officers, directors, members, employees, agents and affiliates of the Company from claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected and unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.
4.5. In-person meetings which are held by groups of interested members and/or viewers are not sponsored or organized by the Company. Members who organize meetings should make clear in their announcements, invitations and signage that their meetings have not been organized or approved, and are not run, by the Company. The Company cannot guarantee the quality, organization or safety of any in-person meeting (whether or not sponsored by us). Members attend meetings at their own risk."
Zahia Dehar made world headlines when it was discovered she was working as a call-girl to several well-known French soccer players when she was only 17.
Now 19, she has found a way to sell her body legitimately (with help from a Hong Kong investor and Karl Lagerfeld) as the "face" of a new couture lingerie line.
As you can see from the video, however, her face is not the focus of the brand.
"Puzzled guests opened the black boxes left on their seats to discover a miniature pink chocolate rendition of Dehar’s assets, nestled in black tissue paper. Life-sized versions, rendered in metallic pink, were dotted through a pitch-dark space where waiters served Champagne after the show."
Actual product design is apparently not integral to the brand, either:
"...the money poured into the show could not disguise her lack of experience. Models stood on revolving podiums in designs ranging from a black hourglass corset festooned with pink petals to a bodysuit consisting of little more than a giant pink satin bow and matching pasties. With its Manga esthetic, the collection navigated an uncomfortable line between infantile and erotic. A scantily clad Dehar emerged for the finale, flashing come-hither looks as pink petals showered down from above. "
Femenista Inna Shevchenko told media that UEFA, the international football organisation, is "trying to influence our government" to legalize prostitution in advance of the June, 2012, kickoff to accommodate the legions of randy fans pouring in from across Europe.
In their usual modest and retiring style, the protestors went to the venue and stripped off their tops, spread their legs, and put tiny soccer balls on their crotches with the slogan "UEFA Attacked Our Gates".
The Telegraph reports that an australian escort agency has, among its various women for hire, a 19-year-old student who is offering her virginity for $15000.
Her nationality is given as Chinese, as well as these vitals:
Name : MOC Virgin
Age : 19
Body Size : 6
Cup Size : B
Height : 166
Language : English, Mandarin
Type : Student
Speciality :Virgin
Bookings : 15000/Virgin
The most disturbing part (if it can get any worse) is her "must sold by" date of 12/12.
Obviously, this is upsetting both to moralists and to human rights advocates.
The Australian Christian Lobby commented, "selling someone else's virginity takes the cause of women's liberation back centuries." And it does.
Anti-trafficking organization Brothel Busters representative Chris Seage says that he believes the woman is in it willingly. "There is a sadly recurring theme among young Asian girls who come to Australia to study and work, and get themselves into debt. It is clear she is doing this because she needs the money urgently."
Apparently Australia has no laws against the offer to sell virginity, or that an agency would profit by it.
"This is pretty common in Sydney," said an anonymous spokesman from the escort service, adding that they already have two interested pigsperverts clients. She will get to keep about half of the price on her maidenhead.
