Yep. Apparently he's copied/traced/stolen/etc. art from quite a few artists (and made money from it).

Please read about it here and here.

Current Mood: Angry

(FYI, I'm a teenager - so I'm on the Teen Grid, or TG.)

I've noticed that on the TG, graduation (when a teen becomes old enough to move to the MG, or Main Grid) is often seen as a kind of death.

Sure, many TG members look forward to their graduation... but once someone has graduated, people say that they are "gone." They don't say, "oh, he/she graduated" or "they're on the MG now." People in the TG just say that their friends that have graduated are gone, as if those people have died.

In a way, I suppose this makes sense. After one of your friends has graduated, you are no longer able to communicate with that friend via SL. Sure, you can contact them outside of SL if you have their contact info for that, but it just isn't the same as it was before. They're gone.

She passed away on Thursday.

She was about a year older than me, and had been with me all of my life.

She'll always be my Queen Shelley-cat.

"Its need a private place to get information about teens health, growth, and emotions. Where I can get doctor-approved info I need to understand? WBR LeoP"

I am not sure what you mean by "its," but I do know of a couple of excellent sex-ed websites:

• Scarleteen: sex education for the real world
• teenwire.com: Sexuality and relationship info you can trust from Planned Parenthood

(I also link to these two sites on my Links page.)

---------

On the Dehumanization of Sex Workers

by Katie Armistead

Dehumanization is happening in the world today. An example of this is the dehumanization of sex workers.

“Whore” is often used as a derogatory term; this is common knowledge. This seems just as dehumanizing to sex workers as using “gay” as a derogatory term is to homosexual people. This is also proof that sex workers are often considered lowly creatures in many cultures today.

Many people seem to think that a person who is a sex worker cannot be raped. Because of this unfortunate, but commonly held belief, sex workers are very rarely able to prosecute rapists (Karen 145-146, Lockett 39-40, Gardener). An example of this from 2003 is a case mentioned in a publication by the Human Rights Watch. According to their publication, “one police officer suggested that because a woman who had been abducted was a prostitute, her case was not rape, despite the fact that the woman reported it as rape and there was evidence of significant bruising and other injuries.” Not only do many police officers not protect sex workers, but sometimes they are the people who rape or otherwise harm the sex workers (Lockett 39-40).

Sex workers are often harmed in other ways as well (Frundt, Times Reporter, Tjaronda, Gardener). Sometimes a customer will become rough with a sex worker and abuse a sex worker, refuse to pay a sex worker, or pay with a check that bounces. Sex workers are often afraid to go to the police in these cases as well because they fear what the police will do to them (Lockett 39-40, Gardener).

The issue of the dehumanization of sex workers is not simply a sex workers’ rights issue, but is a women’s rights and human rights issue as well.

"The only solution to the oppression of women exploited as prostitutes is a political elimination of the very notion of female sexual/economic transgression (chosen or forced) by granting all women the same rights, liberties and protections against violation as those to which human beings in general, i.e. men, are entitled. All women’s rights are attached to prostitutes’ rights because the whore stigma can disqualify any woman’s claim to legitimacy and throw suspicion on any woman accused of economic and/or sexual initiative” (Pheterson 105).

If sex workers have no rights, then women do not truly have the same rights as men. Men’s rights are also endangered, as some sex workers are male. Thus, denying sex workers their rights is endangering human rights as a whole. According to Tutu, such is the way with all forms of dehumanization; “Injustice [and] oppression dehumanize the oppressor as much as – if not more than – the oppressed.”

Ann Gardener learned quite a bit about the problems sex workers have to face when a sex worker hired her as a computer consultant. One of these problems is money. Because of the risks involved in being in a sex worker’s business place, the sex worker had to pay four times the normal price to have Gardener teach her to set up and use her new computer. This is because Gardener could have been arrested simply for being in the sex worker’s business place. If any police officers had caught Gardener doing business with the sex worker, she would have been dehumanized as well.

Another problem that sex workers face is a lack of healthcare (Gardener). Sex work does not have benefits; sex workers cannot acquire health insurance through their jobs. This is a very serious issue, as there are many sexually transmitted diseases.

Apparently President Bush has not only started a war on terror, but has also started a war on sex work. According to Audacia Ray of $pread magazine, in 2005, Bush “put forth a requirement that all United States HIV/AIDS organizations seeking funding to provide services in other countries must pledge to oppose commercial sex work” (24-25). The organizations that did not sign a written pledge lost funding. This is an example of more recent attacks on sex workers.

Works Cited

French, Dolores, and Linda Lee. Working: My Life as a

Prostitute. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1989.

Frundt, Tina. “Life with an Abusive Pimp.” Prostitution.

Tamara L. Roleff, Ed. Contemporary Issues Companion Series. Greenhaven Press, 2006. Tina Frundt, testimony before the House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology, Committee on Financial Services, April 28, 2005. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Dekalb County Public Lib., Decatur, GA. 12 Nov. 2006 < http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?locID=dkpl>.

Gardener, Ann. Personal Interview. 15 Nov. 2006.

Human Rights Watch. “Climate of Fear: Sexual Violence and

Abduction of Women and Girls in Baghdad.” Human Rights Watch July 2003. 11 Nov. 2006 < http://hrw.org/reports/2003/iraq0703/index.htm>.

Karen. “The Right to Protection from Rape.” Sex Work:

Writings by Women in the Sex Industry Eds. Frédérique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander. First Edition. Pittsburgh and San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1987. 145-146.

Lockett, Gloria. “What Happens When You Are Arrested.” Sex Work:

Writings by Women in the Sex Industry Eds. Frédérique Delacoste and Priscilla Alexander. First Edition. Pittsburgh and San Francisco: Cleis Press, 1987. 39-40.

Pheterson, G. The Prostitution Prism. Amsterdam:

Amsterdam University Press. 1996. P. 105

Ray, Audacia. “Global Sex Worker News.” $pread. Summer 2005:

24-25.

Sex Workers Outreach Project. 15 Nov. 2006

< http://www.swop.org.au/>.

The Sex Workers Project. 2006. Urban Justice Center.

15 Nov. 2006 < http://www.sexworkersproject.org/>.

Times Reporter. “Call-Boys Pounce On Suspected Sex Worker.”

Africa News Service. March 26, 2004. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Dekalb County Public Lib., Decatur, GA. 12 Nov. 2006 < http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?locID=dkpl>.

Tjaronda, Wezi. “Ex-Sex Worker Tells of Life On the Streets.”

Africa News Service. Jan. 11, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Dekalb County Public Lib., Decatur, GA. 12 Nov. 2006 < http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/OVRC?locID=dkpl>.

Tutu, Desmond. “Just call me Arch.” New Internationalist

July 1992. < http://www.newint.org/issue233/endpiece.htm>.

I don't know what mine is. Maybe I just won't have one. I dunno. We'll see...

So, what is/are your resolution(s), if you have any?

Any suggestions for me, for my resolution(s)?

Most of y'all have probably already stumbled upon this, but for anyone who hasn't...

PostSecret

Something neat that Xerox is doing... If you go to http://www.letssaythanks.com/, you can send a thank you card to someone in the armed services. You don't get to pick the person that it goes to, but I still think it's very neat. Even if you don't agree with the war, it's still a lovely thing to do that'll definately brighten someone's day.

EC can safely and effectively prevent pregnancy if started within five days of unprotected sex. Everyone, regardless of age, can get EC at Planned Parenthood - and now, for people 18 and older, EC is available over the counter. Stop by one of our five Georgia health centers on December 6, 2006, and receive FREE EC (one per person) to keep at home - just in case.

Atlanta ~ Lilburn ~ Marietta ~ Augusta ~ Savannah

1-800-230-PLAN

————————————————–

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.ppaction.org/join-forward.html?domain=ppga&r=x11er3n1SSQw

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
Planned Parenthood of Georgia Action Center at:

http://www.ppaction.org/ppga/join.html?r=x11er3n1SSQwE

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