urban developer

Sex Tourism February 26, 2006

In response to this post about sex slavery, what came to my memory was watching Dateline NBC within the past 2 years and the special that was aired about the child sex slave industry – especially in parts of Southest Asia.  While I cannot remember everything that happened ver batum, I remember the crew filming a middle-aged American male tourist talking about how bad the situation is there, and later on they caught him engaging in a transaction to purchase sex from a child.  These children were younger than 10 years old, some as yong as 5.  When the camera was placed on them and their madams, they actually advertised their services by opening their mouths, and saying words like boom boom.  What I found most ironic was that the same American who was calling to defeat this tragedy was actually engaging in it himself, and sadly I bet this was not his first trip there, nor his last.

Tijuana bible February 25, 2006

I think the introduction of the Tijuana bible after World War II was a pretty interesting event.  These pamphlets of popular culture being naughty i think was a dare to accept..and they did it well.  I also like the idea of the yuppie back in the day.  I don’t really see a stark contrast from today’s same; Young single people who are moving into cities and want to express themselves sexually. Its simply going out to the bars and clubs in the central bussiness district – they are not all on Chippewa. Meeting someone to go home and have sex with , or going into a 24-hour adult dvd store and finding something that can arouse yourselve.  This is sexual expression and we have plenty options now instead of the Tijuana bible’s of their day. Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler are also still around. I think porn is here to stay and its the easiest way for Americans to make a quick buck, and that is all Capitalists want.

kid rock in porn?? February 18, 2006

I signed onto AIM yesterday night, and yes I saw an article about Kid Rock and his former band member in a porn with 4 girls. My friend recently showed me a porn that she downloaded of Colin Farell and Nicole Narin. Its like people are doing it to try to be cool or something. I havent actually seen the one with Kid Rock, but I am not really phased by it. I think the more celebs that release porn of themselves or somehow get porn released that they are in are kind of trashy. That is just my opinion tho. The article is attached for everyone’s viewing pleasure.  http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/music/article.adp?id=20060216190909990010

Youngins in the industry February 11, 2006

Being young and in the porn industry is definately in demand. Reading a few people articles first before I did my own experiment on google, I realized that I was gonig to search for males rather than females. I was surprised to find all kinds of young looking guys, called “twinks”. I think the gay pornography industry seems to favor the young guys the most. It is kind of kinky how searching more I could only find guys that played the role of the college jock wearing a hat, and had no pubic hair. It was kind of surprising to notice the difference of what I found and what others mentioned about women on the net. I think young guys are the biggest target on the internet, and really are the most exposed.

response to: stnemmoc no serutcel 7 & 8 baqtlikeme February 11, 2006

I like your thoughts on the lectures, and I agree very much. I have many friends who love to post pics up on myspace and even facebook that show themselved “exposed”. I never really ask what their motives are, but I think most people do it just because they can, and they want the attention they know they are going to get by showing some skin.  People that starve for attention love to post pics of themselves places that show something “contradicting” because without comments who would they be? Just something to think about . .

Sexual Revolution February 11, 2006

My favorite part of lecture 5 was during the clip within the lecture. Most notably the part when the elderly woman says: “I liked it. I wanted to see a dirty picture and thats what I saw. I dont want somebody telling me that i cant see a dirty picture.” It started a revolution and a rebellion against the conservative governement and culture that had been in rule for so long. It was great how cheap the movie was able to be produced for, and how much it reaped in profits. I also love the technoeroticism part of the lecture towards the very end. It is nice to know I am not alone in lusting over my personal belongings.

June 1973: U.S. Supreme Court case – Miller Vs. California February 5, 2006

A Supreme Court ruling in June 1973, handed down its landmark “community standards” Miller vs. California decision on pornography. In a five-to-four decision largely dictated by the four Nixon appointees, the High Court removed from the language of the law previously written the “utterly without redeeming social value” phrase that had long been the favorite loophole for many pornographers alike. As a result of the new law, any prosecutor wishing to ban a sexual work no longer had to prove that it was “utterly without” value; it merely had to be lacking in “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” to be considered obscene. In other words, Times Square and Sunset Boulevard no longer determined censorship laws across the nation, for now “community standards,” instead of “national standards” ruled First Amendment Obscenity cases. This meant that magazines like Playboy and Penthouse or films like Last Tango in Paris might be banned in towns with conservative sexual values. A few days after the Miller ruling, police in Salt Lake City closed a theater showing Last Tango. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said that it was now impossible to determine in advance whether a film violated obscenity law because the Supreme Court’s ruling created “50 or more fragmented opinions as to what constituted obscenity.” The New York Times wrote that Miller gave “license to local censors. In the long run it will make every local community and every state the arbiter of acceptability, thereby adjusting all sex-related literary, artistic and entertainment production to the lowest common denominator of toleration. Police-court morality will have a heyday.” While America does not literally censor consensual sexual expression among adults, the implications of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Miller ruling which left communities to determine their own obscenity guidelines, effectively means that the United States has some of the toughest standards in the Western World against porn.

(I still have no idea how to put a link in my post, can someone help me out???)

Response to: Current Advertisements January 28, 2006

I worked at Abercrombie & Fitch for almost 2 years. I agree very much with what you say. The sickest thing about the company is that they do not pay virtually anything to advertise, because teenagers that sport the brand are walking advertisements on their own. Another comment I think is worth mentioning is having worked there for so long, I picked up on a lot of differerent kind of people that shopped there: 1.) beautiful girls that genuinely like the way the clothes fit that mommy & daddy have no problem swiping on their card; 2.) guys that shop their because of the girls shopping there and want to catch the fad; 3.) guys that are closeted and like being around the giant billboards of men wearing jeans down to the pelvic bone ( notice the girl posters are not nearly half as revealing as their male counterparts) – they do this for a reason; 4.) guys that like the rugged look and it fits them well. The reason they do this advertising with the males is similar to cigarette ads in the 1990s with people on the beach and wearing sunglasses, trying to make it look luxurious. They show the men like this because they want to make the average male feel inferior and that if they wear these clothes they will end up looking like the guy who’s crotch is eye level with them on the store wall. Having guys in boxer briefs is unfortunately what makes that store the highest grossing one in the mall, and whether we like it or not, every year they know by putting a guy out there exposing himself will draw quite a few inside.

Lecture 4 January 28, 2006

I found this lecture quite interesting because I am also learning in my urban social geography class how cities were thought of at first as being the place for deviance and misconduct, especially sexual.  I find it interesting though that the upper class citizens talked about by Dr. Halavais were the ones rather than the lower- class that were engaging in this sort of “new” behavior.  Today, prostitutes are usually linked to low-class individuals, but the ones who are paying are usually the wealthy individuals looking for a thrill, or an affair with absolutely no strings attached. I find it humorous also how anything sexual linked back to the mythological times of the Greeks & Romans is socially acceptable, yet all other linkages are sought after as being pervasive.

Intro January 28, 2006

Hey everyone my name is Anthony, and I am in my third year of study at UB.  I am a native of Buffalo, and I am studying to be an urban planner and make things right around here.  I live downtown in a loft, and can observe a lot of sexual scenes by walking no further than 3 blocks away onto Chippewa street on a weekend night.  I took this course because I think it shys away from the normal and yet so typical college class about history, math or the same garbage you learned throughout high school. I have been having problems setting this thing up, and look forward to reading and responding to others’ posts.