Male prostitutes coming to Nevada

by Sean McLachlan on

A Nevada brothel plans to be the first in the state to offer male prostitutes.

The Shady Lady Ranch, 150 miles north of Las Vegas, is now taking applications for the position of male sex worker. Applicants must be between 21 and 40 years of age, have a good attitude, and be “service oriented”.

While male visitors to Nevada have long enjoyed the state’s legal prosititution, there hasn’t been anything for female tourists until now. I got to speak with Jim Davis, who helps run the ranch with his wife Bobbi, the owner and Madam, and ask him about the new service.

How did you decide to offer male escorts?
I had several people over the last couple of years request this service, both women AND married couples wanting a “threesome”. Economy slow, business a little slow, why not try it?

Was there any problem clearing that legally?
Legally, the State Health code had a requirement of an “endocervical” exam in their rules, otherwise they were gender neutral. We had to have the Health Department and County Licensing board address that issue. We received waivers of that requirement from both entities and they added an additional test for STD’s for the men.

What kind of men are you looking for?
The Madam is looking for sexy looking men, 21 to 40 that can provide an exciting and rewarding experience for our lady customers. Don’t ask how she’ll know, guesswork I guess, but she’ll use trial and error until she finds the right guys. She is presently starting the interviews, and we hope to have someone on staff in a couple of weeks.
Did you do any research into male escorts, such as visiting other countries where they’re legal?
We have done NO research, just going with experience and a hunch.

How will you market this to women? Won’t they be a bit reluctant to come to a place where men generally pay for companionship?
Advanced publicity has helped, Internet exposure on our website and discreet ads in appropriate newspapers is the plan.

Are you going to set up a separate building for male and female clients?
We will operate in the same house, we do have already appropriate separate facilities on site. We don’t anticipate this to be a problem.

What can female clients expect when they go to the Shady Lady?
The female client can expect an exciting and rewarding experience, all about them. We hope each individual lady gets exactly what they want to get from the experience, that’s our goal.

While men have paid for companionship since the beginning of time, women hiring men isn’t nearly as common. Do you think this is changing and why?
We think a PRIVATE, safe, healthy environment with the spotlight on HER wants and desires will work as well with the ladies as it does with the men.

Will you be offering male escorts to male clients?
Our business model is heterosexual but, the same as a gay-orientated bar lets in straight people and straight bars let in gay people, we are required by law to NOT discriminate. A man that requests an all male line-up will get one, that’s the law, however our sex workers are not required by law (or by us) to do anything in the room that they do not want to do. We intend to hire men that we think best suited to serve our female clients.

When will you be starting this service?
We will be starting this service as soon as Bobbi finds the right guys and they get the proper work cards.

Coupling couples cuffed for “close proximity” in Malaysia

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Unmarried couples were awoken to a surprise on New Year’s Day. Fifty-two coupling couples were detained by Malaysia’s Islamic morality police, according to USA Today, because they were suspected of having … get this … sex despite not being married! These 104 people could spend up to two years in prison, not to mention fines. The Selangor State Islamic Department chose this particular day of the year because it’s known to be celebrated with the offense of marriage-less sex.

The authorities — you can’t even call them the “sex police,” because they’re so much more than that — busted in before dawn, looking for people violating the rule of “khalwat,” also known as “close proximity. So, even if they weren’t caught in various back-bending and spirit-breaking positions, participating in any number of acts either common to a booze-soaked night of revelry or rich fantasy informed by adult cinema, the fact that they were in confined areas was enough to get them in hot water under Malaysia‘s Sharia Law.

So, what would have happened if this door-busting scene played out in the Hard Rock Hotel’s Provocateur Penthouse master suite? Well, if you’re flying solo with the ceiling hottie, you’re bound to have at least an uncomfortable moment.

[Photo by Mark Coggins via Flickr]

Erotic art exhibit bares all

by Sean McLachlan on

When you think of art exhibits, you probably don’t think of scenes of group sex, gigantic phalli, and barnyard animals, but the Eros exhibition ain’t your grandma’s art show.

In fact, when this art was made, your grandma wouldn’t be born for another two thousand years.

The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, Greece, has just opened “Eros: From Hesiod’s Theogony to Late Antiquity”. This exhibition is dedicated to ancient love in all its manifestations from the early years of Greek civilization to the waning of the Classical world during the decline of the Roman Empire. It includes 272 artifacts from fifty museums in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and France, and will run for six months.

Eros was the god of love, but he was also the god of lust, jealousy, and all the other good and bad emotions connected with desire. One statue shows him dragging Psyche, the goddess of the soul, by the hair and hitting her with a mallet. That sums it up nicely.

The ancient Greeks were anything but prudes. The civilization that gave us theater, literature, poetry, and the ideals of democracy liked things a bit raw. Their art was full of images of sex, from the more vanilla varieties involving husbands and wives to older men with young athletes to randy farmers doing objectionable things with the livestock.

The Romans were more prudish than the Greeks, but still made room for the randy side of life. Although they turned Eros from a lascivious young man into a cute innocent cherub, their art often expressed deeper urges.

This exhibit isn’t like what you’d see in the Amsterdam Sex Museum; it’s history with a point. It shows us that the two great Western civilizations that created the foundation for our own culture weren’t all that different from us. Sure, they didn’t have the Internet, but they made up for it with paintings, poetry, and sculpture. The things that some people get shocked by nowadays have always been around. They aren’t a sign of the decline of morality or the approaching Armageddon. They are, like it or not, part of the human condition.

South African sex workers call for decriminalization during World Cup

by Sean McLachlan on

As South Africa gears up for the 2010 World Cup, the country’s sex workers are starting a campaign to have prostitution decriminalized.

The drive is being spearheaded by the Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT), an organization that strives to protect the health and human rights of sex workers. SWEAT’s website documents numerous cases of harassment by police and the public. SWEAT fears that this harassment will only increase during the World Cup. The organization wants to have sex work permanently decriminalized, or at the very least for the duration of the World Cup.

The globe’s biggest football (soccer) event is expected to draw 450,000 visitors, some of whom will want to pay for sex. This has raised the concern not only of sex workers, but health workers as well. With South Africa being the source of an estimated 17 percent of global HIV infections, the potential for a major spread of HIV is very real. The South Africa National AIDS Council has stated that if prostitution were legal then it would be easier for the sex worker to demand safe sex. It would also make it easier for sex workers to get abusive clients arrested.

At the moment the government is not considering a change of policy. South Africa, despite its large sex trade, is socially conservative and there is resistance to even talking about these issues. And if even free-loving Amsterdam is clamping down on its red light district, sex workers in South Africa have a long fight ahead of them.

British backpackers spreading sexually transmitted diseases

by Sean McLachlan on

“No sex please, we’re British.”

That old joke has been proven wrong by a new medical study that found British backpackers in Australia are picking up more than just short-term partners; they’re picking up infections that they spread around Australia and back home.

A survey of 1,008 backpackers at youth hostels in Sydney and Cairns revealed that 24 percent of British backpackers had unprotected sex with multiple partners, meaning 24 percent of British backpackers are total idiots. About half of those interviewed reported inconsistent condom use. The report found that even those who arrived with a partner were getting in on the act, with almost 20 percent them hopping into bed with someone else.

Australia receives an influx of almost 700,000 Britons a year, many of them backpackers, and while the study did not specifically check for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (called Sexually Transmitted Infections by those randy Brits) it doesn’t take a medical expert to put two and two together. In fact, the UK government last year reported that chlamydia, genital herpes, and genital warts are at an all-time high, with the 16-24 age group being the most affected.

Please, guys, wrap your John Thomas. And ladies, make the guys wrap their John Thomas. If you’re British, why not use a Big Ben condom like the one shown here? It’s a great way to inject some of your national culture into the local population.