After a wonderful relaxing break over the Holidays, which was mostly spent with friends and relaxing or both, with only the occasional regular slave or sissy to divert me, I came back to San Francisco and started catching up...
One of the first things on my plate was to renew my Backpage auto post, which brings my post to the top of the listings every two days or so. Over the last year or so, the credit card companies have been under pressure from the Government and various District Attorneys to not process payments for “adult” services on Backpage. There appears to be no legal or constitutional basis for this, but the credit card companies caved in. So we have been forced to pay for Backpage services like reposts using Bitcoin.
I am something of a geek, having spent the majority of my adult life in the software industry – before switching to a different kind of software ;-) But Bitcoin is a pain. Not because there’s anything difficult about it, but rather because it’s entirely unregulated – a kind of digital wild west. So my Bitcoin balance had nearly ran out, and I headed over to one of the Bitcoin exchanges (Paxful – one of the more credible ones) to buy some more Bitcoin – and immediately ran into all sorts of irritating obstacles. Sellers I had bought from before were not selling, and sellers I had not bought from who were selling had extremely onerous ID requirements. Not insuperable but certainly irritating. So I left it for a day or two…
And then on January 9th, Backpage voluntarily censored its adult sections. And my post disappeared.
I can understand their position. They have faced years of Government bullying - lawsuits, criminal charges, economic bullying, and Congressional hearings – and they have fought the good fight – winning every single court case brought against them. But at some point it’s just too much. So they self-censored.
If you are interested in the history and the legal proceedings, Elizabeth Nolan Brown at reason.com has done a great job of following the whole mess. See https://reason.com/blog/2017/01/10/backpage-shutters-adult-ad-section and https://reason.com/blog/2017/01/13/congressional-backpage-inquiry amongst others.
This whole thing is a textbook example of a false narrative. The Government claims that Backpage’s adult sections should be shut down because they encourage “trafficking” – despite virtually no evidence to that effect. But the real agenda is to shut down Backpage’s adult sections, simply because they provide a convenient and safe space for consenting adults to find other consenting adults to enter into “contracts” for BDSM or sexual services. The Government is remarkably misinformed here, by an unholy alliance of fundamentalists and prohibitionists, who want to deny us our fundamental human right to engage in sex.
At one level, I am angry about this. And I encourage you to check out ESPLERP v Gascon, where the Erotic Service Providers Legal and Education Research Project (ESPLERP) is well advanced with a court case in the Ninth Circuit of Appeals challenging California’s statute 647(b) criminalizing prostitution. The legal documents are pretty heavy going, but I love the point where they quote George Carlin: “I don’t understand why prostitution is illegal. Selling is legal, sex is legal. So, why isn’t it legal to sell sex? Why should it be illegal to sell something that’s legal to give away?” Indeed.
At another level, I am wondering what to do about my postings on Backpage. As John Wanamaker, considered the father of both the modern department store and modern advertising, allegedly said: “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted … I just don’t know which half.”
I still have a post on Eros Guide I know that I have met some rather wonderful slaves and sissies through that post. And at some level, I am very happy with my established slaves and sissies, so perhaps I do not need any more. But despite all the Government’s pressure and Backpage’s self-censoring of the “adult services” section, it really does look like everybody has just moved over to the “dating” section, so perhaps I will also post in the “dating” sections. Am I looking for a "date"? Perhaps a rather special one?
The irony is that the Government is expending huge amounts of energy to shut down online sex work advertising. It will not stop sex work. It just moves it around. But as there are less and less safe spaces, it does make sex workers less safe and vulnerable to violence and extortion.
Well… What do my slaves and sissies think…?
Ms Emilie