Sex News: Luxury sex work, more porn racism, Feminist Porn Awards, taser lingerie

• In the last five years prostitution in Brazil’s largest and richest city has had a makeover. A new type of brothel has proliferated – aimed at a younger, more funky, less reticent customer. Forget dirty old man, think guy-about-town. There are about 20 of these “luxury houses” in the city. It is no longer enough just to offer girls and a threadbare room in a sleazy backstreeet – these superbrothels are not even in red light areas; some have a restaurant, live bands perform and even the rooms are fancier, with saunas and flat screen TVs.
  Inside Brazil’s Upmarket Brothel Hotel Clubs (Sabotage Times)

• Porn star Aurora Snow surprised many with her candid confession to the Daily Beast regarding one of the last remaining taboos in the adult entertainment industry – specifically about porn industry racism (I covered this for the SF Chronicle in 2009 in Racist Porn and the Recession). The Root talked with black male performer Lexington Steele, and what he had to say is both eye-opening and awful.
  Porn-Industry Racism: What’s Behind It? (The Root)

• The trend of suing “John Does” over allegedly downloading porn movies began a few years ago, and Prenda Law has become perhaps the most vigorous—and certainly the most controversial—enforcer of such copyrights. Prenda’s strategy has been to file lawsuits naming thousands of “John Does,” push ISPs for subscriber information as fast as they can, and then push subscribers for quick settlements. This week, Prenda lawyers took the Fifth. And now, a federal judge will assume the worst.
  Judge smash: Prenda’s porn-trolling days are over (Ars Technica)

• Amid a rising tide of rapes and sexual assaults in India, three engineering students devise an electrified slip they hope will help protect women from attack called SHE (Society Harnessing Equipment).
  Electric undergarment fights sexual assault with shocks (CNET)

• Warning: news item may upset survivors of sexual abuse. A man has been apprehended in possession of one million images of children between the ages of six and 12 years old. Authorities believe the man to be “the number one person” distributing child pornography throughout the world.
  Cops nab king of kiddie porn (NY POST)

• This company emailed me to let me know they’ve launched; I don’t know them and I do not endorse them (I haven’t had time to investigate them or ask questions) but it’s a very unusual service: Sextingo claims it is a place to “Safely store your sexting pictures.”
  SEXTINGO (sextingo.com)

• As I’ve said before, it’s only a sex scandal if you’re scandalized by sex. Daily Beast writes, “The disgraced former governor of South Carolina is back on top, with his former mistress by his side. Here, a new road map to redemption for politicians caught in the act.”
  How to Survive a Sex Scandal: Mark Sanford Edition (The Daily Beast)

• Two sexuality conferences just announced: SwellCon, a conference devoted to critical conversations about erotic media (Minneapolis, MN, August 2-4, 2013). Looks fun! So does the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit (Washington, D.C., September 19-22).
  SwellCon and Woodhull’s Sexual Freedom Summit (The Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health)

• The Feminist Porn Awards 2013 held its award ceremonies last night, and coverage hasn’t hit yet – but in the meantime, you can skim the results in the FPA2013 Twitter hashtag. In tweets I’ve seen that Madison Young had the quote of the night, Best Kink film went to 50 Shades of Dylan Ryan; Jiz Lee won Heartthrob Of The Year; Forbidden Lovers won Steamiest Romantic Movie; Nan Kinney (Fatale Media) won the Trailblazer Award.
  #FPA2013 (Twitter)

• Pals over at Future of Sex have launched their Bizarre Bazaar, “Welcome to our “Bizaare Bazaar”, which showcases the products and services that represent various intriguing aspects of the future of sex.” Includes their listing of sex robots.
  Bizarre Bazaar (Future of Sex)

• Well worth a read, wherein New Yorker looks at the alarming, growing invisibility of transgender people in our national marriage equality discussion: “There is a question, however, in the language Clinton used, the particular lip service she chose to pay. The United States moves inexorably toward granting equality to the L.G.B., but in the process—while still pronouncing that satisfying final consonant—we often, in practice, drop the “T.”
  Transgender Rights in the Era of Same-Sex Marriage: Are We Forgetting the “T” in “L.G.B.T.”? (The New Yorker)

• That a former Bikram yoga teacher is accusing the infamous guru of sexual misconduct should surprise no one. We’ve been down this shameful road before, writes Benjamin Lorr.
  Shocking Bikram Sex Scandal Should Shock No One (The Daily Beast)

• Impending firestorm on the birth control front lines… A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after birth control pill available to people of any age without a prescription.
  Judge orders morning-after pill available without prescription (CNN)

• FEMEN strikes again: Topless protesters staged demonstrations near mosques and Tunisian embassies across Europe on Thursday to express support for embattled FEMEN activist Amina Tyler.
  International Topless Jihad Day: FEMEN Activists Stage Protests Across Europe (HuffPo World)

• When TechCrunch founder turned venture capitalist Mike Arrington was accused last week of rape and abuse by an ex-girlfriend, many in Silicon Valley were shocked, but not entirely surprised. This is because rumors that Arrington abused women have circulated almost from the time he started his career in the tech industry.
  TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington’s History of Abuse Allegations Includes an Assault Investigation (Gawker)

• USA based AT&T has been noticed having a rather unusual clause in its website password rules. While most websites make some requirements on password length or a minimum combination of letters and numbers, as the AT&T one also does… they also have a ban on “obscene language” in a users password.
  AT&T Bans Obscene Passwords (Cellular News)

• A strip club dancer (who has little tolerance for surgical augmentation) gives her view on strip club plastic surgery trends in her workplace. “When I started dancing fifteen years ago surgery was a rarity, now it’s the rule. Around eighty percent of the girls I see now have had some kind of conspicuous cosmetic procedure – lips (both sets), breasts, buttocks, Botox. (…)”
  The Psychology Of Strip Club Plastic Surgery (Sabotage Times)

Main post images via: Karo Mrozkova & Maritza Veer by by MIchael Donovan for Vision China