The Courtesan Connection

Updates and Plans for the Week - 18 February 2008

2008-02-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

Well folks, here is what will be going on with The Courtesan Connection this week -

Posts - There will be one additional post later today (Monday) which will be commentary. While The Courtesan Connection is under my care, the goal will be for one commentary post a week, updated on Sunday nights for your Monday morning viewing pleasure. Also on Mondays, there will be a Updates and Plans post to keep you informed of where we are on link updates, format changes, and the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by a Sex Worker Organization. Other posts and commentary will be as time allows.

Updates - For the near term, my focus will be on updating the format, categories and links on the Wordpress blog. The Blogspot edition of The Courtesan Connection will be updated with the Updates and Plans posts, but for the moment, not for Commentary. Nor the links on the Blogspot post changed or updated. Again, as stated before, this is not due to any problem or deficiency on the work that went into creating the Blogspot edition. It simply is I am somewhat more comfortable with Wordpress, and with my limited time, will make that the focus of my effort for now. My hope is eventually both blogs will mirror one another in content and links.

Format - This week, I am going to be going over the Categories for the Wordpress blog to see what similar categories are used on other sites, and attempt to bring them in line with common usage. Past experience has me believe this relatively minor update actually will eat up a great deal of time and effort. However, it will pay off in keeping the blog organized, updated, and current as things progress.

Links - I hope to begin reviewing and updating all of the links starting on Monday, and coming close to having all currently listed links reviewed and updated by the end of the week. New links will be added in as identified, but will not be the primary focus until next week. In the meantime, please leave a comment or send an email with any link you may wish to point out or make me aware of.

One last note on links. While I hold the Blogger who ran The Courtesan Connection for most of the past year in very high regard, I differ with her on including blogs from non-sex-workers as part of the blog roll. This is not because those blogs are any less worthy of attention. Many of them are exceptionally well written and offer an interesting and provocative perspective on many of the issues around Sex Work. However, my belief is the Community of Sex Workers is a voice that far too often goes unheard on the discussion of Sex Work, and regularly is drowned out by the more aggressive and numerous blogs, media, review boards, and on-line groups of the Hobbyists/Clients, Academics, Anti-Sex-Work Individuals and Organizations, and others with their own political or reactionary agenda. To have one, or even a few places that focus on the ideas, opinions, needs, and stories of Sex Workers alone, seems not an unreasonable approach. Also, with the limited time I have to maintain this blog, attempting to address and keep updated those blogs would be more than I could reasonably be expected to accomplish. As such, I will not be including as part of the blogroll sites by authors who are not or who have not been providers. However, my long term intent and goal (subject to the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by an organization) is to include as providers, but with their own sub-category, phone-sex and cam-sex bloggers, exotic dancers/strippers, masseuses, models, and sexually explicit media actors and actresses. While these people may not all face the same issues nor have the same needs and goals, they are doing a type of Sex Work, and may find they have information and points of view that compliment and compare to others in the Sex Work Community.

Finally, regarding the adoption of The Courtesan Connection by a Sex Worker Organization - I will be working on a rough draft of an email I wish to send to the Organization I’ve been informed may be the right fit for this blog, and sending it to my contact today. I expect that will allow me to formally address this matter with this organization by the end of the week. Once that is done, I will post with any other updates as they occur.

For those of you that have remained loyal to this blog, keeping it on your blogroll, feed list or just checking in for updates, thank you once again. For those of you just dropping by, and finding yourself annoyed with the dead links and odd formatting, please be patient. Changes are afoot, and there is hope on the horizon!

Mergers and Updates

2008-02-13T12:29:00.000-05:00

This is not the announcement you are all awaiting, but still something significant.

The Courtesan Connection today has officially adopted and merged with The Sex Work Index, an attempt to create a collaborative index of information on the Internet of use or interest to Sex Workers, and those researching sex work issues. This means that an organization that adopts these entities will have two tools that help inform, educate, and share information through out the on-line Sex Worker Community.

In preparation for, and to facilitate adoption of both of these sites, your feedback and suggestions are encouraged. Please feel free to leave a comment, or send an email.

As currently there is but one person working on both of these projects, on a part time basis, updating will be limited. For The Courtesan Connection, the primary updates will occur on the Wordpress Blog ( courtesanconnection.wordpress.com ), as I am somewhat more comfortable with that platform. The Blogspot blog ( courtesanconnection.blogspot.com ), will have some updated posts but links there will be updated last. Those of you that have emailed requesting their blog address to be changed or to be added to the blog lists, it has been noted and will be addressed. Please be patient.

For the Sex Work Index, currently the Refinements (Categories) need revision, and the index itself needs updating. Adding links to the Sex Work Index is easily done using the Google Marker extension . Please see The Sex Work Index blog for more information.

To celebrate this Happy Marriage, I intend on spending Valentines Day, job hunting, dealing with indifferent public servants, cleaning the refrigerator, and formatting a new hard drive after going to my regular wage-slavery. Feel free to toast the screen and give your significant other a kiss for me as the occasion may allow.

Transitions

2008-02-10T14:48:00.000-05:00

Hello all!

For those of you that still keep this blog on your list of links or feeds. Some news.

This post is by the Original Blogger of The Courtesan Connection. Within the past few months, I have been presented with what I believe will lead The Courtesan Connection to be adopted as a permanent part of an established Sex Worker Organization. While this is not fully in place as of yet, mostly due to my own sluggishness, once presented with this opportunity, I contacted the person who took the blog over last spring, and she very graciously transfered it back to me.

I want to thank her very much for the work she did to try to keep The Courtesan Connection going. I know she was not able to do as much as she wanted with it, but she did try, and that matters a great deal to me.

This blog has been about the community of Sex Workers and Sex Work bloggers, and really requires more work than can be reasonably expected of a single person, working on it part time, with their own blogs and obligations that take precedence. Having this blog under the auspices and direction of an Organization may make it less personal, but it also offers the chance for it to reach out to many more than it has, and bring to light more of the writing and experiences of those in the myriad of forms that Sex Work takes.

So, for now, do not expect any major changes or updates. I will try to post information as things progress along. But I will not promise you at this point anything happening on a regular schedule.

Hang in there, and thank you for keeping this blog noted.

Yehuda on Blogging

2007-06-07T11:17:00.000-04:00

Yehuda (Gaming and Blogging in the Holy Land) has a great post on How I Became a Professional Blogger. He makes excellent points about content and technique - highly recommended! And for the more statistically-minded, his other post, Ten Lesser-Known Secrets of Blogging is also very good.

Getting Started

2007-05-23T17:01:00.000-04:00

New posts, many featuring references to old posts, about wanting to get into the business and what you might do while you're there.

The Accidental Hooker on Prostitution as The New Temp Job

...in a time of relaxed social mores and rising student loan debt, there are an increasing number of young women who see escorting as a way out of their respective situations, and perhaps even a fun and exciting temp job.

The English Courtesan has started a new series of articles on setting up shop as an escort.

‘Social escorting’ doesn’t exist...Similarly travel companions are not usually booked for either travel or companionship. That’s not to say you don’t need social or companion skills to be an escort or courtesan, and there are many clients who do want decent pillow talk and amusing conversation or who are looking for a travel companion who offers concierge services with a sexual twist. A lot of clients want a genuine and affectionate long-term rapport with an escort who is more than a cardboard cut-out and kindness and courtesy are immensely important, in this as in many things. Yet 70-80% of what you do, at least for the first few months or possibly years, will be sex. So if you don’t like sex then this isn’t the business for you.

Classic posts from Gillette on the why of courtesanship.

Being clear on why and how I want to operate is the foundation of everything I would do. I think of it as kind of like my mission statement. It determines how I operate in the relationship, advertise, set up my parameters for screening, setting rates or goals for income, etc.

And for those of us whose literary endeavors go hand in hand with time on our backs, Nia Dark and Lovely has a series of interviews with sex-worker bloggers. The latest is Caitie Mae, but scroll down for several more.

Updated Blogroll

2007-05-12T15:21:00.000-04:00

As we settle in to our new quarters here at Blogspot, we've redone the blogroll, making the categories more relevant and easy to access, as well as recategorizing dead and dying links.

Your Guide:

Cream of the Crop - these blogs are current, well-written, updated regularly and of significant interest. We'll be featuring articles and links to these blogs regularly. Most of them are double-listed in their appropriate category below.

Working Girls and Boys - separated into North America and UK/Europe, these are blogs that promote the author's sex work. Some authors are bookable through their blogs or through sites linked to their blogs. This category also includes Dommes.

Cliterati - blogs with a primarily literary focus, writing on sex, sexuality, and sex worker topics.

Sexplorers - women and men exploring their own sexuality, but who are not primarily sex workers.

Resources - websites and blogs with relevant information for sex workers and their clients.

Media - magazines, alternative papers and blogs that deal with topics of interest to sex workers and their clients.

Activists - Pro-woman and pro-sex-worker writers and sites.

Books and Articles - of interest to sex workers and their clients.

Dying Blogs - Have not been updated in 60 days.

We'll also be occasionally featuring working girl personal advertising sites that are purely self-promotional rather than having literary merit, as it can be useful and interesting to see what's going on in the field. If you have a favorite working girl ad site (independents only, please - we'll take an agency only if it's truly unique and special) that you think we'd all learn from, please submit!

The Sex Workers' Art Show

2007-05-12T17:45:00.000-04:00

A journal on a feminist blog about traveling with the Sex Workers' Art Show:

The Student by Day/ Sex Worker by Night figure is as much a stereotype as The Happy Hooker; however, for several years I led this double life. My clients knew I was a student, it seemed to ease their guilt and even excite them but as a safe measure I always lied about which campus I attended. At school, I created a false after-school job to deceive my peers. When I signed up to tour with the Sex Workers' Art Show I knew I'd be spending a month with burlesque dancer Julie Atlas Muz, homo hop artist Juba Kalamka, dancer/singer Simone De La Getto, author Michelle Tea, sex work matriarch Scarlot Harlot, performance artist Bridget Irish, the tour's founder and director Annie Oakley, and three roadies. I knew we'd live out of suitcases. I knew about the long hours in the tour van. What surprised me was that fifteen of our twenty-eight shows were on college campuses. My double life was about to merge. Could sex work and student life actually come together?

More...

Amanda Brooks on the Radio

2007-05-12T17:41:00.000-04:00

Amanda Brooks was recently interviewed on Libertarian Politics Live, an Internet radio show. You can download the show here.

Amanda writes:
"The show is a full hour and we will be discussing the DC Madam scandal, as well as the essentially victimless crime of consensual adult activity – paid or unpaid. And anything else that sounds interesting.

For some background on host Eric Dondero, you can visit his main site: http://www.mainstreamlibertarian.com/.

I hope to provide entertainment and stimulation (of the mental kind). "

Enjoy!