Interesting Links

[Varahi Lusch]

Found an interesting website concerning Companion style topics? Meditation, virtual world dynamics, Firefly websites, art of love? Lets share them here :)

[Beeflin Grut]

It does depend on how you set it up.

[Lysana McMillan]

An essay no longer directly available on the author's website, sadly, but it resonates so deeply with how my approach to relationships has been developing over the years, as well as what I have experienced with the Guild, I felt I should share the archive copy.

Beyond Platonic and Romantic Love: Toward Organic, Complex, Diverse, and Liberatory Love Relations

http://web.archive.org/web/20150706112345/http://treesong.org/Beyon...

[19g3xc9ffjalf]

I was reading the interwebs and found this article.  It made me think on how we are.  

Our privilege to be who we are and do what we do.

The support and skill.  

The freedom and love.  

How our roles differ from the life pimps and whores

The day of a migrant sex worker.

[DukeVan Acker]

Heartbreaking story. Human trafficking, real life slavery, child prostitution - to my mind, these realities hover like ignored, angry ghosts over the sexual fantasy lives of a lot of folks role-playing in SL, including some dear friends. I guess if you don't live in a part of the world where those things are actually occurring (like I guess I do), it's easier to exoticize them.  Or maybe the ability to rationalize a disconnect between RL atrocities and SL fantasies of the same name increases depending on the degree to which it really 'gets you off'?

[Varahi Lusch]

I think a lot of people are journeying deeply in SL in a way that explores the root emotions of times when they have felt trapped, alienated and/or ignored by people who are important to them. Roleplay often provides a vehicle for such things but, as you highlight in your comment, cannot be linked to an understanding of people really experiencing such things directly. It is more like a dream I think, and should be judged as such.. rather than be seen as people using their sexual need to 'get off' to belittle the reality of such practices in the real world.

DukeVan Acker said:

Heartbreaking story. Human trafficking, real life slavery, child prostitution - to my mind, these realities hover like ignored, angry ghosts over the sexual fantasy lives of a lot of folks role-playing in SL, including some dear friends. I guess if you don't live in a part of the world where those things are actually occurring (like I guess I do), it's easier to exoticize them.  Or maybe the ability to rationalize a disconnect between RL atrocities and SL fantasies of the same name increases depending on the degree to which it really 'gets you off'?

[Beeflin Grut]

Another perspective, on sex work as chosen profession http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/

[Lysana McMillan]

Sex work seems to me like one of those areas that winds up being like the blind men and the elephant. Aspects and areas of it are dark, demeaning, and harsh. Others are more freely chosen and worthy of respect for all involved. One's focus and beliefs can lead to grabbing its tail and deeming it a rope. Its mere existence highlights flaws in common Western ways of thinking, leading to deep rebellion against it in many minds no matter what form it takes. The fairly recent stronger focus on sex trafficking at least partially strikes at the core issues with the exploitative side of it. But so long as we as a species have a habit of tolerating the existence of slave classes so long as we don't have to look at them combined with our vastly confused beliefs about human sexuality and the necessity of sex work as part of a functioning society, any blows struck against the traffickers will be like the War on Some Drugs. You jail one major manufacturer of a drug, someone else starts using the recipe and steps up to fill the gap.

The fact that the forcibly tattooed, drug-addicted 15-year-old dressed in next to nothing on the street corner is serving a parallel purpose to the well-dressed and sober 30-year-old escort in a four-star hotel room naturally does not negate the need to get the 15-year-old out of there and her pimp in jail for exploitation of a minor. It does mean those of us who are closer to the latter in state need a deeper understanding of our sisters and brothers in the former condition. And perhaps, if able, to aid in shifting things so the former happens far less and the latter is not treated like a criminal or a victim.

[Beeflin Grut]

Yes, it seems to me that until we make a permanent distinction between actual crime against a victim, and behaviour that someone else doesn't like, we'll continue to victimise people by criminalising them.

[DukeVan Acker]

I'm afraid the Far East isn't anymore enlightened when it comes to legal prostitution (despite what you might think). This map is fascinating; I had no idea South America was so liberal in this respect...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_by_country#/media/File:P...

Hilary Querrien said:

totally. Sadly, Western culture seems unable to distinguish between the first and the second and between cause and effect.

[Lysana McMillan]

One could say re-sanctify, considering the sacred prostitute tradition in some pre-Christian faiths that led to the condemnation of an entire occupation when the world changed. May our threads join the tapestry and help guide its transformation.

[ZenMondo Wormser]

Varahi asked me to share a link to my Jedi website where I host a bunch of my writings on the applications of Jedi Philosophy.   Recent events have urged me to start writing Jedi topics that are more "socially aware" it is not there yet, but it is starting.  

The website is found at Jedi Path  I hope you enjoy it.

[Beeflin Grut]

Thanks, I'll take a look!