Oct. 4: Seattle Police Target Sex Workers, Tina Horn's 'SFSX' Is Out
Also: a lewd cyberpunk anime dating sim.
Welcome to our first NSFW News Roundup! Today we’re talking about Seattle’s relationship with sex workers, Tina Horn’s new comic, and a cyberpunk game that combines tactical gameplay with dating anime girls.
Here’s what you need to know this week.
Disclaimer
Before we get started, this newsletter may contain suggestive or
adult images.
Seattle Drops ‘Nordic Model’, Starts Arresting Sex Workers (Again)
Seattleye/Flickr (CC-BY 2.0)
In recent years, Seattle generally avoided arresting sex workers. That's since changed, with the Seattle Police Department making approximately 120 arrests related to sex work since July. Crosscut reports some arrests are Johns, but "the large majority are the mostly women workers.”
Arrests seem to be concentrated on Aurora Avenue in North Seattle. Police are reportedly arresting sex workers to "remove the women from the area for several days or weeks." Why? The unit's captain claims Backpage's shut down increased full-service work on the streets.
It should go without saying, but throwing sex workers in jail is institutional violence. It reinforces carceral feminism, comes from a place of misogyny, robs sex workers of their autonomy, and further challenges their labor rights. As Melissa Gira Grant tweeted: "Seattle police just admitted they arrest women they regard as victims... and to justify it say they are doing it to... keep them safe."
The so-called "Nordic Model" still harms sex workers because it targets clients who purchase sexual services. Thus, it still keeps the transaction criminalized, marginalizing sex workers and barring them from legal labor protections. That said, arresting sex workers is a further step backwards for the reasons listed above.
A Comic Series ‘Where Queer Sex Workers Are Heroes’
Image Comics (Fair Use)
Tina Horn’s phenomenal comic series SFSX (pronounced “Safe Sex”) launched Sept. 25. Part dystopian sci-fi, part satire, SFSX follows a group of queer sex workers fighting back against a puritanical, SWERF-based American government.
Horn’s writing is phenomenal (unsurprisingly so if you’re familiar with her podcast, “Why Are People Into That?!”), and she’s unafraid to shoot straight at feminism’s problems with whorephobia alongside American Christianity’s moral panic over sex.
Horn sat down with Jezebel's Chingy L. Gay to chat about the series, Horn's background as a sex worker, and how the series references both the past and our potential future. From Horn:
There’s a reason that the series starts with a party. It starts with the best kinky queer sex worker appreciation night you could ever dream of. Even though it’s immediately rudely interrupted by an incredibly traumatic event that is something that a lot of queers and sex workers, including me, have experienced, which is a police raid on their space, but I did want to start with a moment of queer joy. That joy is what The Party is bureaucratizing out of existence. The right to self-identification and the right to being recognized and appreciated for how you identify. There’s a reason that is a part of what our protagonists are fighting for.
SFSX’s first two issues are illustrated by Michael Dowling, although future illustrations come from both genderqueer artist Jen Hickman and trans illustrator and sex worker of color Alejandra Gutierrez.
Rest in Peace, Kik
Before there was Signal or Telegram, there was Kik. Launched in October 2010, Kik was an immensely popular messaging app that let users quickly create accounts and chat anonymously. While Kik wasn’t anywhere close to being as secure as Signal, Wire, or VSee, the platform was incredibly popular with sex workers during the 2010s. Cam models in particular would let their fans access their Kik for a pre-determined fee, not unlike paying to receive a cam performer’s phone number for texting or paying to access Snapchat.
As Sextechguide's Oli Lipski warns, Kik's closure hits sex workers particularly hard, given the platform provided much more income compared to Twitter and other sites. Sex workers are now considering MeWe, Telegram, Discord, and Wickr, among other places.
‘What Is Somatic Sex Education?’
Allure kicked off its "Let's Talk Therapy" series by resharing Amanda Scriver's fantastic piece on somatic sex education. If you’re unfamiliar, somatic sex ed is a "cognitive-behavioral method for reliving sexual dysfunction." Given that therapy is already incredibly stigmatized, and sex therapy even more so, Scriver’s take on somatic sex education is riveting.
Here’s an excerpt:
Sessions with somatic sex educators can explore subjects such as body awareness (which helps teach people how to actually be present in their bodies and notice sensations in their bodies), boundary setting (which includes learning Betty Martin’s Wheel of Consent and learning how to say no), massage, and basic communication.
Adult Cyberpunk Game Merges Dating and Tactical Combat
Uragon Games (Fair Use)
Closing things out, here’s a piece I worked on for The Daily Dot. Uragoner is part side-scrolling strategy combat game, part lewd dating sim, and 100% anime cyberpunk game. Players manage a group of mercenaries as they lead them into turn-based combat that mirrors Darkest Dungeons. As it turns out, your mercenaries are attractive anime women eager to date you (!). They can also permanently die in combat. Yikes!
Anyway. Uragoner’s gameplay and aesthetic look amazing. I got the chance to sit down with the devs, and they told me they’re open to exploring things like genital augmentations, gender in a cyberpunk future, additional gender options for the player character, and more love interests beyond the three current cis women offered.
To quote developer Bantam:
“We’ve been working to make the dating sim elements integrated into the gameplay, who you decided to send out or not send out affects their relationship with you, if they get hurt, do well on the mission, how you interact with them before and after a mission makes a lot of difference. All this is before you even begin to get intimate with them. You continue to build your relationship after also. One of the aspects of our game is that your characters can die permanently in-game and we’ve found that you really want to maintain and protect your relationship with them because of that.”
Ruby Rapture (Fair Use)
Some additional news:
Ruby Rapture and Kiwi Couli are a cis and trans lesbian couple that shoot porn together. The two are sick with the flu, which is causing financial strain, and so they’re asking fans to tip via Indiebill or Chaturbate while they recover. Check out their ManyVids here.
It's October, which means Yuri Game Jam 2019 is officially underway. Developers have from now until Nov. 30 to develop a game. Create some sapphic smut please!
Someone hacked a billboard on I-75 and played porn for nearly a half hour. Nice.
Liara Roux and Mistress Iris shared a viral kiss in front of clergy at the Vatican. My ex-Christian heart swoons.