Comments on: Village Voice: Hysterical Sex Trafficking “Study” Is Mostly Made Up

By: albatross

albatross — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:42:22 +0000

These things work because media sources want a good story, and aren’t terribly concerned with truth getting in the way. Also, most reporters are utterly innumerate, no more capable of understanding the statistical claims of some interest group than they are of performing successful brain surgery.

By: noseeum

noseeum — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:41:09 +0000

@Stick: Because there’s a constituency that eats it up, and there’s no large or well funded enough constituency that’s willing to publicly support them.

If every guy who ever hired a prostitute was for legalization, I’m sure it would be legal already. Unfortunately, too many Americans love to be puritan in their politics and “hell bound sinners” behind closed doors.

By: Stick

Stick — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:09:00 +0000

Why are the ruling ‘elite’ of America so rabidly
anti-sex/porn/prostitution/homosexuality?

By: Steamed McQueen

Steamed McQueen — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:48:48 +0000

I always knew those tales of human trafficking and underage prostitution were pure bullshit. But some people never let pesky things like facts get in the way of funding.

Seriously: Women’s Funding Network? They couldn’t come up with a better name than that? Something that might at least imply an illusion of legitimacy?

Can’t anyone tell the truth about anything in this country?

By: noseeum

noseeum — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 01:16:28 +0000

I need to know the model in the pic’s name so I can Google her and make sure she’s not underage.

By: Big A

Big A — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:56:01 +0000

How’d they get an error rate of .38? I’m consistently told that I “don’t look a day over 16″. I’m 25. But I’m guilty of the same thing. Go to a high school or even college and see how many students look years younger than you know they must be. I think it has something to do with being proud that you’re older than them. (Remember in 3rd grade when all the 2nd graders were “babies”?) Or maybe something to do with older actors playing younger people on TV.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:38:25 +0000

#6 Dana Gower

http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/numerology/

This column debunked the numbers a couple of months ago.

I also blogged about Schapiro’s so-called scientific methods in a couple posts back in September of last year.

Knowing the rescue industry, they will continue to tout the numbers in those studies regardless debunking. The anti-prostitution crusaders know that a lot more people will hear their side than the other because the mainstream media eats it up and repeats it daily.

By: Reginod

Reginod — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:10:44 +0000

Charlie O – except, of course, that never happened. Neither Dworkin nor MacKinnon, who is usually the one accused of saying all sex is rape, said that all sex is rape (or even that all heterosexual sex is rape). They also never said all pornography is rape. (They did say that all pornography violates the civil-rights of women, but that’s a different story, and they did say that some pornography is recorded rape, but that is also a different claim).

I love how meta it is to respond to a story about people making up facts and how bad that is by repeating made-up facts as if they were true.

P.S. Good well-sourced and extensive articles on this, written by a libritarian even, can be found at:
http://radgeek.com/gt/2005/01/10/andrea_dworkin/
and
http://radgeek.com/gt/2006/02/19/misquotation_in/

By: derfel cadarn

derfel cadarn — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:05:32 +0000

Exponentially is quite misleading, it leads to VERY large numbers very quickly. Another hysterical falsehood to promote a specific agenda. Who gets to decide what is underage?Most of our elected do not have the maturity to responsibly lead this nation regardless of their ages. Why do they get to determine who can have sex and behave as adults?

By: J.S.

J.S. — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 22:26:13 +0000

The wonders of photoshop…

They can’t control porn anymore thanks to the internet so they gotta stop any prostitution.

By: Maggie McNeill

Maggie McNeill — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:57:05 +0000

#6: Thanks for the mention, Dana! I also looked at two of these bogus Schapiro Group studies in depth; if anyone’s interested the links are http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/as-young-as-possible/ and http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/wild-guessing-part-one/, and both columns contain links to PDFs of the studies so you can read them yourselves. Unlike real scientific papers they’re quite short so as not to exceed the attention span of the target audience.

By: Ariel

Ariel — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:20:55 +0000

And this is but one vector among many to make bad and unnecessary laws. Never let hysteria go to waste…

By: JT

JT — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 21:19:10 +0000

This adds a new twist to the story on Consumerist about Abercrombie & Fitch marketing and selling padded bras for 7-year old girls.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:54:52 +0000

On the other hand, Selena Gomez is 18 and looks like she’s 12.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:53:48 +0000

These days, the age of any young-ish woman, based on her appearance alone, has an error factor of at least +-5 years, maybe even 10.

Danica Patrick (the race car driver) is 29 and she could pass for 19.

By: J

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:49:07 +0000

#13: IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN!

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:40:27 +0000

While very attractive, the photo lacks the charm of lobster girl. Also, that lobster looks underage.

By: Charlie O

Charlie O — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:28:21 +0000

This stuff is no different than the days of Andrea Dworkin shrieking that all pornography is rape. All intercourse is rape, etc. etc. etc. Hyperbole and bullshit.

By: Mario

Mario — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:17:01 +0000

Backpages (and before that, Craigslist) allows these women to operate independently. They can screen their clients, choose their hours, set their fees, and so forth. How can driving them further underground be a good thing?

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:16:48 +0000

Self righteousness makes everything ok