Un-Drunk

Since June 16th
I have not had a drink
I have not had a drink (okay, one)
But even just one
Made me so fucking sick
That being un-drunk is more fun.

The Naked Truth People's Choice Awards

NakedTruth.ca is proud to present the People's Choice Awards for our members. This initiative will encourage industry members and associates to recognize our favourite aspects of the industry. We have lots to be proud of. Let's celebrate what we love about adult entertainment around the world.

There are no limits on location. Because TNT is a global community, we wanted to be sure no one in our membership is excluded.

The nomination process is very easy! All you have to do is send your nomination to annie@nakedtruth.ca.

1. Put the category you’re nominating for in your subject line.
2. Write a paragraph (max. 500 words) explaining why your nominee should win.
3. Email it to annie@nakedtruth.ca.
4. Your paragraph will be posted on NakedTruth.ca to help others decide who to vote for in that category. Your name will not be included with the paragraph.
5. Deadline for nominations is November 15, 2009.

All nominations are anonymous and confidential. I will not share your name with anyone in relation to your nomination or otherwise.

Unlimited Nominations!

You may nominate more than one nominee per category and you may nominate for as many categories as you’d like.

To check out other nominations - go to the NakedTruth.ca Community Forums.

Awards Categories

Please let us know if there are any categories we're missing!

Adult Film:

Favourite Adult Film Company – Performers’ Choice
Favourite Adult Film Company – Customers’ Choice
Favourite Male Performer
Favourite Female Performer
Favourite Transgender Performer
Hottest Sex Scene
Favourite Male Cum Shot
Favourite Pussy Squirting Shot
Favourite G/G Film
Favourite B/B Film
Favourite B/G Film
Favourite Gang Bang Scene
Favourite Trans Film
Favourite Porn Bloopers (Scene or Film)
Favourite Fetish Film
Favourite Sex Ed. Film
Favourite Gonzo
Favourite POV
Favourite Amateur
Favourite MILF
Favourite Feature Film
Favourite BDSM Film
Favourite Adult Home-Made Movie
Dirtiest Adult Film Star

Favourite Retired Film Performer

BDSM and Fetish Workers:

Favourite Dungeon – BDSM / Fetish Workers’ Choice
Favourite Dungeon – Clients’ Choice
Favourite Domme/Dom Service Provider
Favourite Submissive Service Provider
Favourite Switch Service Provider

Favourite Retired BDSM or Fetish Worker

Exotic Dance:

Favourite Strip Club – Dancers’ Choice
Favourite Strip Club – Customers’ Choice
Favourite Male Striptease Artist
Favourite Female Striptease Artist
Favourite Transgender Striptease Artist
Favourite Strip Club Changeroom
Favourite Exotic Dance Competition
Favourite Strip Club Stage
Favourite Exotic Dancer Accommodations
Favourite Theme Show
Favourite Floor Show Performer
Favourite Pole Work Performer
Favourite Funny Stripper
Favourite Burlesque Artist
Favourite Retired Exotic Dancer

Service Providers (Escort / Massage Parlours)

Favourite Venue – Service Providers’ Choice
Favourite Venue – Clients’ Choice
Favourite Out-Call Location – Service Providers’ Choice
Favourite Out-Call Location – Clients’ Choice
Favourite Male Service Provider
Favourite Female Service Provider
Favourite Transgender Service Provider

Favourite Retired Service Provider

Web Cam:

Favourite Webcam Site – Performers’ Choice
Favourite Webcam Site – Customers’ Choice
Favourite Webcam Male Performer
Favourite Webcam Female Performer
Favourite Webcam Trans Performer

Favourite Retired Web Cam Performer

Adult Industry Coworkers:

Favourite Adult Film Agent / Agency
Favourite Exotic Dance Agent / Agency
Favourite Escort Agent / Agency
Favourite Strip Club DJ
Favourite Costume Designer
Favourite Booking Person
Favourite Fluffer
Favourite Photographer
Favourite Cinematographer
Favourite Security
Favourite Driver
Favourite Hair Stylist
Favourite Make-up Artist
Favourite Strip Club Server
Favourite Strip Club Bartender

Adult Media:

Favourite Escort Review Board
Favourite Online Resource
Favourite Adult Website
Favourite Adult Magazine
Favourite Sex Industry News Source
Favourite Sex Industry Magazine
Favourite Adult Journalist
Favourite Sex Worker Blog
Favourite Mainstream Media (Sex Industry Friendly)
Favourite Erotic Romance Writer
Favourite Adult Entertainer Turned Author

Advocates and Support Workers of the Sex Industry:

Favourite Sex Worker Advocate
Favourite Media Spokesperson
Favourite Industry Innovator
Favourite Academic Advocate
Favourite Feminist Advocate
Favourite Support Worker
Favourite Support / Advocacy Organization

Adult Entertainment Supplies:

Favourite Condoms
Favourite Lube
Favourite Sex Toy
Favourite Sexy Footwear Company
Favourite Adult Supplies Business
Favourite Lingerie Company

Clients:

Use aliases unless you have written authorization from nominee.

Favourite Exotic Dance Patron
Favourite Strip Club Crowd (Audience)
Favourite Web Cam Client
Favourite Adult Film Fan
Favourite Escort/Massage Client
Favourite BDSM/Fetish Client

Winners will receive trophies at an awards ceremony in Vancouver, BC, Canada in the new year - date to be announced. We will send trophies to those winners who cannot make it to the ceremony. Please nominate for as many categories as you want. And in case there is more than one favourite of yours, you are allowed unlimited nominations in each category. You can even nominate yourself! Nominators are confidential, so you can nominate whomever you want.

There will only be one winner per category. Members of Naked Truth will vote (using the polls section) for their favourites once the nominations deadline is here (November 15th). At that time, any categories that do not have any nominees will be put aside until next year's awards, when they will be opened up again for nominations.

Please invite friends to tnt to nominate and vote for their favourites too. We do a lot of great work in this industry. Let's celebrate the positive! And give recognition to the best of the best.

We're on Stripclubnation.com!

Unity

What’s the difference between a female exotic dancer and a transgender sex worker? “Nothing,” says founder of NakedTruth.ca, Annie Temple. “We’re both people earning a living in the sex industry.”

Eight years ago, Annie created the site to be a safe space where she and her exotic dancer colleagues around the world could turn for support, camaraderie, and information. With a little promotion and the addition of a discussion forum- exotic dancers, agents, club owners, dj’s, and customers became regular members of the budding online community.

In 2004, Annie began coordinating stripathon fundraisers, including the annual Exotic Dancers for Cancer, put on by a group of charitable strippers and friends who gained international notoriety in 2007 when the Breast Cancer Society of Canada refused to accept their donation.

As the site grew in popularity, many adult entertainers from other areas of the sex industry started lurking but not participating on NakedTruth.ca.

In the meantime, Annie was making friends. Susan Davis, 2007 Ho of the Year, has long advocated for unity and tolerance among industry members. Sue’s friendship and example inspired Annie. And when the opportunity presented itself a few short months ago, NakedTruth.ca, for the entire adult entertainment industry was born.

Escorts. Strippers. ProDommes. Nude models. Adult film performers. Agents. Drivers. Security professionals. DJ’s. Madames. Erotic Massage Artists. Peep-show performers. Former. Current. Male. Female. Trans. The list goes on.

Family members, event supporters, patrons, and advocates of the sex industry – including academics, lawyers, health professionals, and feminist activists – are signing up.

Although the changed site is only a couple of months old, membership is diverse and growing rapidly. The discussion forums are buzzing with intelligent conversation and fluffy but fun, off-topic stuff too.

“NakedTruth.ca is what a classy naked facebook would look like if fantasy for money wasn’t so taboo,” says Annie. “Instead we have vulnerable, young girls mis-using their power for free, and those of us getting paid are shamed.”

But not anymore. Annie hopes to encourage a new era in adult entertainment using the Internet to connect industry members and friends, educate newcomers, and give business owners the information and tools they need to be ethical employers. However, entertainers are her first priority…because, well, she used to be one.

“First the Internet exploited us. Now it will unite us,” says Annie, referring to entertainers who’ve commonly been paid a pittance for their work on the Web now finding ways to use the World Wide Web to their advantage. “We are a crafty lot, us harlots, and we’ve learned a few things on the way.”

Among other things, entertainers are using NakedTruth.ca to share information with each other, teach patrons how to engage with them respectfully, and decrease the isolation that naturally occurs within stigmatized groups.

In the future, Annie hopes NakedTruth.ca will be the preferred resource for adult entertainers, with lots of money-making opportunities from ethical employers, a strong support system of like-minded colleagues, and a large membership of polite, well-paying patrons.

National Post Editorial

Despite some rather tasteless references to the missing women of the Downtown Eastside, this article is full of the common sense the world seems to be lacking about sex. Now if we could just get it straight for everyone - it's "decriminalization," not "legalization" we need.

National Post editorial board: Legalize the sex trade

Posted: October 07, 2009, 8:30 AM by NP Editor

The three sex-trade workers trying to pursue a Charter argument against Canada’s prostitution laws in an Ontario court this week have a very simple message. Whatever your moral principles, whatever you think of prostitution, whatever you think an “ideal” sex trade would look like or whether there would be one at all, we cannot possibly do worse at protecting vulnerable women than we are now.

Is it possible to disagree? One man of pretty modest intelligence and means, Robert Pickton, is said to have admitted to killing 49 prostitutes in British Columbia before the police descended on him. That’s not just a crime; it’s an epidemic — practically a public-health issue.

It was only possible because every Canadian metropolis, at any moment, has a large collection of “missing” women who live in a precarious demi-monde of disconnectedness and invisibility. They make easy prey for sociopaths, since the furtive, illegal nature of their work requires that they jump into the cars of strangers after a few seconds of commercial negotiation. If they don’t show up at “work” the next morning, they aren’t missed — except perhaps by their pimps (who must surely rank among the biggest supporters of the current legal regime). In regards the larger society, they get noticed only when their remains pile up high enough to attract statistical attention.

In the past, our weird Criminal Code approach to prostitution — the thing itself being lawful, but its practitioners being forbidden to advertise, do business collectively, or hire help — has been found to pass Charter muster because minimizing the nuisance of prostitution is considered a pressing legislative objective, and because the “economic rights” of sex workers to solicit business and seek certain efficiencies and economies of scale are not the sort of core entitlements the Charter is meant to protect.

But what we’re left with is a combination of incentives that serve to isolate women. That some will sell their bodies is guaranteed, on the demand side, by eternal human nature; there has never been even a medium-sized social grouping where somebody wasn’t peddling sex to somebody else. The effect of our existing laws is to practically require that the business be practiced alone, outside the law, without regulatory oversight or a permanent health and security infrastructure.

And what do we gain from it? Have the nuisance effects of street prostitution vanished from our cities? Have young runaways stopped being cajoled or impressed into the business? Do they not get, and spread, HIV and other sexually-transmitted pathogens? The one certain thing, supported by indisputable evidence available to every legislator, is that a lot of them are being murdered.

What progress has been made is mostly attributable to careful overlooking of the strange text of the Criminal Code within certain environmental niches. In many Canadian cities, rub-and-tug shops are now slightly more visible than they were even a decade or two ago; the police and the municipal authorities have allowed them to flourish, in an understated manner, in industrial neighbourhoods where their presence is less likely to raise objections. The women who work behind those doors may be miserable, but they’re not being fed to pigs by the dozen.

In light of this, the arguments being made by government lawyers in the Ontario Charter case seem ridiculous: Their essential claim is that all prostitution is equally dangerous. Every adult knows perfectly well it’s not so, and the sooner we start making laws and regulations consciously on the basis of the truth, the better for everyone.

National Post

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/10/07/national-post-editorial-board-legalize-the-sex-trade.aspx#ixzz0TIfFmEBy

Abolition Coalition

The Abolition Coalition

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Rights Not Rescue

The Salvation Army Saga continues. When my dad told me the other day that if we didn't want the dishes he was offering, he'd just drop them off at the Sally Ann, I scoffed. "Don't support the Salvation Army!" I said. He looked at me incredulously. Obviously he must like the Salvation Army.

"Why not?" he asked through slightly clenched teeth.

So I launched into my diatribe of how the Salvation army is using scare tactics to drive up funding for a program they have no reason to create, considering there are many, more qualified groups already tackling this issue. And that despite many sex workers' letters explaining the offense of their campaign, rather than listening to us, they say we are "threatening them."

I waited for my dad's reaction. Would he try to defend the SA? Would he agree with me. I wasn't sure. While my parents profess to love me dearly, they quietly tolerate my passion for sex industry activism.

But my dad came through for me. He said the Salvation Army has a mandate to not get political. He expressed extreme disappointment in the news of their change of philosophy. And he thanked me for letting him know because he would not support SA again until they stopped this idiocy. He said to me, "It's probably just one main guy in the organization who's destroying it."

I love my dad. (And he's probably right.)

The latest in a series of disturbing articles was particularly alarming to me. For it focused on a woman who claims to have been trafficked through brothels posing as strip clubs. Here is the article from the Globe and Mail:

Salvation Army in Battle Over Prostitution
By Jane Armstrong

Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009 03:56AM EDT

Timea Nagy was 20 when she answered a help-wanted listing in her native Hungary seeking nannies to work in Canada. The flight and travel arrangements were all paid and it seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime.

It turned into an unthinkable nightmare. The arrangement was, in fact, a human trafficking operation. There was no happy family at the Toronto airport to greet Ms. Nagy. Instead, three men – one Canadian and two Hungarians – whisked her to an Etobicoke motel, handed her some skimpy lingerie and drove her to a strip club, where she was forced to dance and perform sexual favours for male customers.

Over the next two months, Ms. Nagy was sexually attacked by her agent and verbally threatened by his associates, who forced her to work day and night in strip clubs and massage parlours, which were fronts for brothels. All her earnings – more than $2,000 a week – were confiscated by her captors.

She and four other Hungarian women were moved from motel to motel, and the men warned them that they would hurt or kill family members back home if they tried to escape.

“It's not like they chained you up,” Ms. Nagy, 32, said in a recent interview. “They didn't have to. They threatened us every single day. They said, ‘We'll burn your mother's house down. We have her address.'”

Eventually, Ms. Nagy overcame her fears and escaped, and was able to turn her life around. Today, she works for the Salvation Army as a counsellor helping trafficking victims.

Her story will soon be featured in an aggressive – and controversial – awareness campaign launched by the Christian church and social services agency against human trafficking. The campaign features graphic photos of young women being abused and degraded. Some of these posters have been draped in men's bathrooms in Vancouver bars.

The Salvation Army has also announced plans to set up a Vancouver shelter – the first of its kind in Canada – for trafficking victims. The 10-bed facility, which will open this fall, will be staffed 24 hours a day. The church says the shelter is needed in part because it believes the Olympics will cause a spike in human trafficking. It doesn't have hard data but notes that, in the past, large sporting events have prompted such an increase.

“I know we don't have numbers, but my gut tells me this is happening, probably a lot more than we even know,” said the Salvation Army's Major Winn Blackman.

Human trafficking experts, sexual assault centres and aboriginal groups have applauded the new shelter, saying it's badly needed and overdue.

But the Salvation Army's campaign has drawn scorn from some prostitutes, and reopened the angry debate between those who want to legalize all aspects of prostitution, and abolitionists, who say it degrades and endangers vulnerable women. Critics say the Salvation Army, which wants to end all forms of prostitution, is fear mongering when it asserts the Olympics will increase the demand.

They say there is no evidence that large sporting events necessarily lead to more prostitution. And they have accused the Salvation Army of exaggerating the scope of human trafficking in Canada to advance its abolitionist agenda. Prostitution is legal in Canada, but it's a crime to solicit for the purposes of prostitution.

“It's one of those shock-and-awe campaigns,” said lawyer Karen Mirsky of the Pivot Legal Society, which advocates for Vancouver's poor and marginalized.

Ms. Mirsky said the awareness campaign was designed to “generate an emotional response.” She cited a recent study, paid for by the provincial government, which suggested there will be no surge in prostitution during the 2010 Winter Games. From strictly a business perspective, it said, the prospect of bringing women to the Vancouver area for a two-week sporting event isn't cost effective.

“What is far more likely is you will have women in the sex trade voluntarily coming here because they perceive more business,” Ms. Mirsky said. “That's mobility. That's not trafficking.”

One Vancouver sex worker, Sue Davis, said the Salvation Army campaign demonizes prostitution and encourages police raids, which drive sex workers underground. Ms. Davis, 41, said abolitionists are attempting to create panic by suggesting that hordes of prostitutes will descend on Vancouver for the Games. She said legalizing all aspects of prostitution – including licensing safe brothels – would make life safer for sex workers.

But the Salvation Army and many women's groups disagree. Lee Lakeman, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres, said she's seen an increase in the last five years of trafficked women who flee to shelters to escape captors.

Meanwhile, Maj. Blackman said the church has received reports in the Vancouver area that attempts have already begun to lure women and girls into prostitution. “We can only assume that this is [related] to the Olympics,” she said.

Ms. Nagy said her harrowing story is proof that human trafficking exists and that victims are terrorized into silence. She escaped her captors a decade ago with the help of a sympathetic bouncer at a strip club where she worked. Ms. Nagy took her story to the police and was eventually granted permanent residency in Canada.

She believes the Salvation Army shelter will save lives and that its awareness campaign will set the tone in Vancouver by telling visitors it's not okay to sexually exploit women and children.

Ms. Nagy said she hopes her story will persuade the public that human trafficking is widespread. “The reason why there is no data,” she said, “is because it's designed from beginning to end to make sure the women are always in a state of fear.”

______________________________________________

There are many problems with this article, although it is written well and I can hardly blame the journalist, since she likely does not know the politics behind this particular issue. But I will address the issues one at a time.

Issue #1: Trafficking Houses Disguised as Strip Clubs

I have never worked in a strip club that was trafficking women or forcing them to work there using threats and abuse. Nor have I ever met an exotic dancer who was in this predicament. (I'm very outgoing and talked at length with most of the dancers I worked with over 7 years, especially about stripping and stigma.)

Nor have I ever received an email in the last almost ten years of running nakedtruth.ca from a dancer who was forced into the industry. If there are strip clubs that are doing this, then why aren't those strip clubs being targeted by enforcement and closed down? Honestly, I'm completely confused.

Many strip clubs in BC have been targeted and closed down, but none of them have been involved in trafficking women. They are legitimately booked by exotic dance agencies that are licensed and can be easily tracked and investigated. I know many of the agents personally and although some of them are jerks, they are not human traffickers.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen. Maybe it does. And I believe due to the structure of the industry in Ontario, as compared to British Columbia, there is probably a higher chance of this happening there. However, I cannot understand how strip clubs could be involved in something like this without getting closed down.

If Rape Relief has had an increase in housing trafficked women, I'd like to know which businesses they are reporting to police as alleged traffickers. I'd like to know which strip clubs are involved, so that I can be sure not to promote them on my website. Why haven't any of these strip clubs been closed down and exposed for being human traffickers?

If trafficking is as big a problem in the sex industry in Canada, as they say, then you'd think the workers would have an inkling about it. Afterall, we're the ones working in the strip clubs and massage parlours.

We circulated the Trade Secrets questionairres far and wide across Canada and 60 respondents answered a question about how they got into the sex industry. Not one was trafficked. Like I said before, I'm not saying it does not happen. But it's not a freaking epidemic, like they suggest. At least, not from my experience.

Issue #2: Lack of "Hard Data"

When people lack "hard data" aka "credible evidence," but proceed to launch an expensive, fear-mongering campaign like the one SA is launching, there are only three possible motives: RELIGIOUS FANATICISM. HATRED. and MONEY. I would venture to say that this particular campaign combines all three motives. I can feel the hatred from the religious fanatics by the fact that they never answered my email. I am not even worthy of their time. Although I am presumably one of the abused, trafficked souls they seek to rescue.

Issue #3: Duplicating Services

SA is barging in on an issue they have no experience with. This in itself is an insult to the sex worker rights movement, where there are in-depth, ongoing efforts to reduce and eliminate unsafe workspaces and exploitation. It is condescending, judgemental, and overall very un-Christian-like.

Issue #4: Sex Industry Human Trafficking Experts

This article says: "Human trafficking experts, sexual assault centres and aboriginal groups have applauded the new shelter, saying it's badly needed and overdue." Exactly how to does one become a "human trafficking expert," I wonder. Would you need to be someone who has actually worked in the sex industry and studied trafficking in the industry extensively resulting in "hard data"?

Or does a loud man-hating man who's written a book (Victor Malarek) or a UBC Professor who wrote a report twisting evidence from previous reports to support his case (Benjamin Perrin) make a human trafficking expert?

Ben Perrin is the one who said this: "This a pro-brothel lobby group whose business is threatened by individuals who try to help people exit the sex trade and who try to confront exploitive pimps and traffickers." Hmmm, I guess he's just ignoring all the work we've done to help people exit the sex industry and escape exploitive pimps and traffickers. That's not very nice. (Or maybe the "expert" isn't an "expert" afterall.)

How about those who have been trafficked. Wouldn't they be the ones who are really the experts? Where are they? I've heard of one (in the above article) who was trafficked through a criminal network in Ontario. But where are the threats in BC, where the campaign is targeted?

"Sexual Assault Centres" actually refers to just one in particular - Rape Relief Vancouver. How pathetic that they've created this "group" called the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres. If this group really exists and is not a figment of her imagination made up to create the illusion that they have more support than they do, they're probably pissed off at her for speaking as their spokesperson. Lee Lakeman and Rape Relief Vancouver are known abolitionist activists - known not only for their hatred of sex industry workers and men, but for transgendered persons as well. What a credible source, eh? A bunch of radical, feminazi's who exclude sex workers from their forums on "prostitution." Well, why don't a bunch of us white girls hold a forum on racism and not invite anyone black to the table. Then we could be just like Rape Relief Vancouver - a bunch of bitchy hypocrites.

"Aboriginal groups" likewise refers to one group in particular. AWAN. A known ally of Rape Relief Vancouver and another full-of-hate and discrimination abolitionist group. For readers who are not aware, there are MANY MORE sexual assault centres and aboriginal groups who either don't get involved in politics and / or DO NOT support the SA campaign. Many of us actually have been sex workers too. But I guess that's not a qualification in the straight world.

Apparently if you don't agree with the abolitionists and you have sex industry experience, you are automatically a pimp and trafficker.

To a lesser extent, there are other problems with this article. It says that sex work advocates want legalization. We actually want decriminalization - and there is a difference. Maj. Blackman receiving "reports" of women and children being lured into the sex industry (assumably because of 2010) is interesting. Why exactly is he the one receiving the reports rather than the VPD (who by the way are part of an action group to address trafficking in the sex industry in Vancouver)?

And may I venture a hypothesis, that women and children are being lured into the sex industry by a major pimp called POVERTY and by targeting and shaming the johns, SA is chasing the good customers away and giving free rein to the violent criminals who don't give a shit about their fear-mongering campaign anyway? Let's use some common sense here, people.

Let me re-iterate a quote by Karen Mirsky of PIVOT Legal Society from the article: “What is far more likely is you will have women in the sex trade voluntarily coming here because they perceive more business,” Ms. Mirsky said. “That's mobility. That's not trafficking.”

Kudos to the "sympathetic bouncer" who helped Ms. Nagy escape. Shocking! A compassionate move from the "pro-prostitution" league.

"This is a bold step for the Salvation Army," says Brian Venables, a Salvation Army spokesperson and chief architect of the campaign.

(Thanks for the wise assessment, Dad. I think we found our "main guy.")

Now, I wonder if he'll agree to a sit-down to hear our demands. Because we certainly have a few. We want rights, not rescue, asshole. If you want to be a white knight, get your ass in front row and buy a $6 beer like the rest of them.

Book Review – 7 Step Strip Success: How to Make $1000+ Every Night From Stripping

Jessica Simmonds’ e-book is a worthwhile read for anyone who is currently stripping or plans to get into the art. It offers practical advice on how to understand and meet the needs of customers so they keep wanting more and coming back; outlines countless usable scenarios and openings for different situations; shares psychologically-based techniques to improve communications skills; and teaches you how to treat your work like a business without losing the personal touch.

This book tells you everything you need to know to get into stripping and maximize your earning potential. It is written by an exotic dancer with tons of valuable experience. You recognize immediately that she has used the techniques she’s teaching. I recommend reading it and would even go so far as to call it the ‘Stripping Bible.’ Great job, Jessica! And thank you for sharing what you’ve learned with us by creating this book! - Annie Temple

Strippers Honour Male Customers With Prostate Cancer Fundraiser

SURREY, BC: If you’re heading towards Patullo Bridge on Sunday, August 23rd between noon and midnight and you’re 19 years or older – the sight of classic cars, rows of motorcycles, and bikini-clad women wielding hoses, may compel you to pull off at the last exit and head down to Mugs & Jugs at the Turf Hotel.

For the sixth year in a row, Exotic Dancers for Cancer, a fundraiser that gained international notoriety when the Breast Cancer Society of Canada declined their donation, will raise more than just money. For the first time, the stripathon will be combined with an outdoor Show and Shine in support of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of BC.

“We wanted to show our male customers that we appreciate their business, value their contributions to our lives, and care about what happens to them,” says founder and South Surrey resident Annie Temple, who doesn’t strip anymore but runs a social community for adult entertainers at NakedTruth.ca. “Prostate Cancer is a deadly and widespread disease that impacts so many but gets talked about so little.”

The fundraiser features continuous exotic entertainment and a silent auction inside; and live music, a dunk tank, bikini carwash, and mud wrestling outside. Entrance is by donation. There will also be a motorcycle competition. Competitors must sign up for $25 (includes a shirt) between 10 am and 1 pm. A maximum of 100 bikes will be entered. Winners will be announced at 3 pm. For more information, www.nakedtruth.ca

-30-

annie@nakedtruth.ca

The Porn Conundrum

So I got all aroused reading this Oprah article that I posted about women watching porn. And I've been telling hubby to rent an adult film for us for a long time. I told him again - why don't you go rent us a porn? And he said: "why don't you? You're the big adult business advocate and you won't even rent your own porn."

And it's true. I get a little nervous going into the adult section of the video store and then trying to pick a movie from the multitudes of breasts and cocks. The sign that tells you the room is being videotaped at all times always makes me giggle, because I imagine horny men standing in the closet-sized room wacking off while they look at movie case covers.

After getting my bearings in the wall-to-wall skin, I realize there is a top rentals wall. I look through the rentals and pick one that looks like there are some good looking men and women, and maybe a fun, little storyline too.

I won't say which movie, because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But the movie did NOT turn me on at all! The sex scenes were so fake! The women were finger fucking each other like they were connected to some kind of machine that makes you go really fast (and look and sound ridiculous).

The main guy, while decent looking, seemed like his dick was never hard. Every time the camera showed the women trying to get his ugly, soft, cock hard - I had to cover my eyes. It was gross! I spent the whole movie (with hubby fast forwarding through the acting scenes and stopping only at the sex scenes - which is too bad because I thought the acting scenes were at least funny) hoping to witness some sex that looked like it would be enjoyable. But it didn't happen.

I wonder. Am I just jaded? When I watch a porn flick, even though I've never done adult film, I can't help but spend the whole time imagining what they're REALLY thinking. Like holy shit, would this guys dick please get hard already?!

Am I jaded because of being in this industry or was it just a terrible terrible movie?



I'll have to try more porn to find out. Cause if I'm jaded, then I don't fit into the group of women in the article who became aroused by all sorts of porn. And apparently that group represents ALL women. Hmmm, must have been the shitty movie.

Women Watch Porn - Article from Oprah.com

Are more women OK with watching porn?
By Violet Blue

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200707_omag_porn

Personally, I like my pizza deliveryman to do one thing: bring me my dinner. But mention this guy to a group of women, and, while most of us will think of cheesy pies with tomato sauce, a good number of us will conjure up that hilariously bad porn cliché, the randy fellow who's always ready to accept sex in exchange for a medium sausage and mushroom.

Some pornographers are marketing to women.

Notwithstanding how lame the cliché is, or how simply bad most porn is (and after ten years as a professional reviewer of the stuff, I can report that much of it is very bad), the fact is, millions of women use and enjoy "explicit sexual imagery."

What's perhaps more surprising, given the latest scientific research, is that more of us don't.
In the first three months of 2007, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, approximately one in three visitors to adult entertainment Web sites was female; during the same period, nearly 13 million American women were checking out porn online at least once each month.

Theresa Flynt, vice president of marketing for Hustler video, says that women account for 56 percent of business at her company's video stores. "And the female audience is increasing," she adds. "Women are buying more porn." (They're creating more of it, too: Female director Candida Royalle's hard-core erotic videos, made expressly for women viewers, sell at the rate of approximately 10,000 copies a month.)

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Meanwhile, science is finally buying into the idea that women are at least as stimulated by porn as men.

In a 2006 study at McGill University, researchers monitored genital temperature changes to measure sexual arousal and found that, when shown porn clips, men and women alike began displaying arousal within 30 seconds; men reached maximum arousal in about 11 minutes, women in about 12 (a statistically negligible difference, according to the study).

Even more compelling were the results of a 2004 study at Northwestern University that also assessed the effect of porn on genital arousal. Mind you, a copy of "Buffy the Vampire Layer" and a lubed-up feedback device isn't most girls' idea of a hot night in. But when the researchers showed gay, lesbian, and straight porn to heterosexual and homosexual women and men, they found that while the men responded more intensely to porn that mirrored their particular gender orientation, the women tended to like it all. Or at least their bodies did.

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But that's the hitch: Even when our bodies respond to what we're seeing, not every woman feels empowered to enjoy the show. For years we've been told that we won't -- or shouldn't -- be turned on by porn, end of story, sleep tight.

The message has come from all sides -- from conservative Christian organizations ("Traditionally, women are far more likely to engage in wistful, romantic fantasies than crude scenes of people engaging in sexual acts," Kathy Gallagher, cofounder of Pure Life Ministries, has written) to the radical feminist Catharine MacKinnon (who says porn exploits and discriminates against women, and encourages rape).

When everyone tells you that what you might be curious about, or even secretly like, is wrong, bad, sleazy, and shameful, you don't have to cast a line very far to land a set of inhibitions.
And, indeed, many a smart, strong, sexually self-reliant girl has popped in a porn DVD and ejected it just as quickly because she saw something that offended her or made her uncomfortable.

I've heard from many women that they don't like the sense of being "out of control" they get from watching porn -- that disconnect between how their body is feeling and what their brain is telling them is acceptable. I like to remind these women that porn won't make you do anything you didn't already want to do before you pressed Play on the "Edward Penishands" DVD.

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I've also heard, plenty of times, that porn degrades women. That argument always makes me wonder about gay male porn, which lots of women appreciate for all its hunky hotties in flagrante. If heterosexual porn degrades women, does gay porn degrade men? What about porn made by women -- is that degrading, too?

For me, the real problem with most porn is its hokeyness -- the ridiculous costumes, the awful cinematography, the ludicrous story lines, the terrible acting (not to mention how scary the close-ups sometimes look, how fake the boobs are, how some starlets really sound like injured animals...).

And yet in my research and experience, the biggest roadblock for women (and men) to enjoying explicit imagery is the fear that they don't "stack up" to the bodies and abilities of the people onscreen. Erotic models and actresses bring up a whole range of adequacy issues, from breast size to weight, from what you look like "down there" to the adult acne we all periodically fight.

But it's worth remembering that if porn performers looked like you and me, they'd be out of a job. They're abnormally thin, they get cosmetic surgery literally (and sometimes frightfully) from head to toe, they have makeup in places you'd be surprised makeup can be applied, they shave and wax everything imaginable, and they're weirdly flexible. They occupy a tiny end of the gene pool, and that's why they're capable of acting out fantasy sex.

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Though I've sometimes felt that my job as a porn reviewer (for Web sites like FleshBot.com) is akin to being a canary in a bad-taste boys' club mine shaft, I've seen a change in quality in the past few years that I think is a direct reflection of the growing female audience. As more discriminating viewers, we've demanded better porn -- and lo, it is being made.

Women are changing the market. Director Maria Beatty's gorgeously shot movies (all of which feature strictly lesbian action) look like 1920s noir films with sex, but not explicit sex -- just a lot of tease and dreamy outfits and music. And Comstock Films, maker of high-quality, documentary-style, real-couples videos, aggressively markets to women with the simple tagline "Women love real sex."

So just what do we love about it? First, the way it lets us satisfy our very normal, very human sexual curiosity. If you're like me, you're the kind of woman who'll peep at Pam Anderson's new boob job just to see the latest installations. But it's not just what the bodies look like, it's what they look like aroused -- and what they can do. Watching people have sex can be fascinating.

Porn is also a fun and versatile toy. Sure, I sometimes feel like I need Google Earth to show me where the good porn is, but once I find it, I can figure out what to do with it faster than you can click Zoom In.

Explicit sexual imagery is an aphrodisiac; it sends a direct current buzzing from our brains to our groins. Like a reliable vibrator, it can be a great tool. With porn, women like me get to experiment with making adult choices and trying on new fantasy ideas, just as we might try a different brand of condom for a change.

We don't have to think of rationality and animalistic urges as mutually exclusive. If we desire, we can let them play together like tennis doubles. Porn is one more pleasure to add to life's sexual buffet, one that can be enjoyed with a partner or alone. And if "Shaving Ryan's Privates" winds up giving you more giggles than orgasms, then the only casualty is...Ryan's privates.