Sex show

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Live sex show at Eros Pyramide, Austria, 2009 Femdom at Eros Pyramide.jpg
Live sex show at Eros Pyramide, Austria, 2009

A sex show is a form of live performance that features one or more performers engaging in some form of sexual activity on stage for the entertainment or sexual gratification of spectators. Performers are paid either by the spectators or by the organisers of the show. [1] [2]

Contents

Content

A performance can include actual or simulated autoerotic acts and/or sexual activity with another performer. The performance can be in a theater style, or it can be in a peep show style. An increasingly popular form of sex show is a webcam performance in which the viewer is able to view and interact with webcam models in real time.

Sex shows are distinguished from entertainment such as striptease, pole dancing and lap dance, which do not involve sexual activity other than undressing and dancing nude or semi-nude. Sexual activity at sex shows is also distinguished from regular prostitution in that the performers usually engage in sex acts only with other performers and not with spectators or paying customers. Sex shows can overlap with other sectors of the sex industry. For example, a strip club may also offer live sex performances, and a prostitute may offer to perform sex acts with another prostitute for the gratification of a patron.

Locations

Casa Rosso Sex Show Amsterdam, September 2015 Casa Rosso Sex Show Amsterdam Daniel D. Teoli Jr..jpg
Casa Rosso Sex Show Amsterdam, September 2015

In Havana, Cuba, in the 1950s, during the second presidency of Fulgencio Batista, there were semi-legal sex shows and live pornographic theaters, such as the Shanghai Theater and the Tokyo Cabaret. [3] The English novelist Graham Greene, writing in his autobiography Ways of Escape , described "the Shanghai Theatre where for one dollar and twenty-five cents one could see a nude cabaret of extreme obscenity with the bluest of blue films in the intervals". [4]

During the 1960s and 1970s the Laotian capital Vientiane was famous for sex shows at ping pong show bars during the Vietnam War. [5] Travel writer Paul Theroux described a bar in 1973 Vientiane thus: “Your eyes get accustomed to the dark and you see the waitress is naked. Without warning she jumps on the chair, pokes a cigarette into her vagina and lights it, puffing it by contracting her uterine lungs." [6] British journalist Christopher Robbins wrote that The White Rose, a famous Vientiane bar during the war, featured floor shows in which women used their vaginas to smoke cigarettes and fling ping pong balls. [7]

Around the Reeperbahn, the red-light district of Hamburg, several sex theatres (Salambo, Regina, Colibri, Safari) were once located in the Große Freiheit ("Great Freedom") street. They showed live sex acts on stage, but by 2007 the Safari was the only live sex theatre left in Germany, [8] and that closed in 2013. [9]

In the red light district of De Wallen in Amsterdam there are three main venues for sex shows: a hostess bar called the Bananen Bar, and the Moulin Rouge and Casa Rosso theatres, which feature on-stage sex acts and variations on the ping-pong show. [10] [11] Casa Rosso puts on 90-minute sex shows which are made up of nine different performances. The acts include a woman smoking a cigar using her vagina, a dominatrix who humiliates a volunteer from the audience, and a couple having sex on a rotating stage. [12]

In Thailand, locations like Patpong in Bangkok, Walking Street, Pattaya, Bangla Road in Phuket and Ta Pae Gate in Chiang Mai have numerous venues hosting ping-pong shows. [13] The expression "going to Bangkok" sometimes serves as a euphemism in the West for "going to a live sex show". [14]

Legality

Sex shows are subject to varying laws such as licensing requirements and locations are subject to local zoning regulations. [15] Some jurisdictions regard a sex show as prostitution. [16] The content of a sex show may also be subject to national and local obscenity and other laws. Some areas allow striptease, but no sexual activity, others may allow only simulated sexual activity or autoerotic activity, while others allow anything that is legal in recorded pornography to be performed live.[ citation needed ] Generally, as of 2010, autoerotic activity is the most common legally-available kind of live sexual activity.[ citation needed ] In some cities and countries throughout the world, live sexual activity between multiple performers is legal. Webcam performances are largely unregulated.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Striptease</span> Erotic dance

A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "exotic" or "burlesque" dancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pornographic film</span> Films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer

Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, 18+ films, or also known as blue movie or blue film, are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stripper</span> Striptease performer

A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reeperbahn</span> Street in Hamburgs St. Pauli district

The Reeperbahn is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nicknamed die sündige Meile and Kiez. The Reeperbahn Festival is among the largest club festivals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Softcore pornography</span> Erotic still photography or film that is less sexually explicit than hardcore pornography

Softcore pornography or softcore porn is commercial still photography, film, or art that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. Softcore pornography includes stripteases, lingerie modeling, simulated sex, and emphasis on the sensual appreciation of the human form. It typically contains nude or semi-nude actors involved in love scenes and is intended to be sexually arousing and aesthetically beautiful. The distinction between softcore pornography and erotic photography or art, such as Vargas girl pin-ups, is largely a matter of debate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peep show</span> Erotic entertainment viewed through a viewing slot

A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strip club</span> Sexual entertainment venue

A strip club is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease or other erotic dances. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, and can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style. American-style strip clubs began to appear outside North America after World War II, arriving in Asia in the late 1980s and Europe in 1978, where they competed against the local English and French styles of striptease and erotic performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Go-go bar</span> Type of nightclub

A go-go bar is a type of business establishment where alcoholic drink is sold and dancers provide entertainment. The term go-go bar originally referred to a nightclub, bar, or similar establishment that featured go-go dancers; while some go-go bars in that original sense still exist, the link between its present uses and that original meaning is often more tenuous and regional. Speaking broadly, the term has been used by venues that cover a wide range of businesses, from nightclubs or discotheques, where dancers are essentially there to set the mood, to what are in essence burlesque theaters or strip clubs, where dancers are part of a show and the primary focus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Getai</span> Form of live stage performance

Getai refers to boisterous live stage performances typically held during the Ghost Festival in the seventh lunar month and on the birthdays of Chinese deities. These shows typically last from 7.30pm to after 10pm and are commonly organised in Singapore, Malaysia and some parts of Indonesia. Additionally, stage setups are usually composed of temporary structures like tents situated in the suburbs of the city- namely, in empty fields, parking spaces or housing estates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neo-Burlesque</span> Performing arts genre

Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque can include anything ranging from classic striptease to modern dance to theatrical mini-dramas to comedic mayhem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ping pong show</span> Stage entertainment in south-east Asia

A ping pong show is a form of stage entertainment that takes place in strip clubs. It is a type of sex show in which women use their pelvic muscles to either hold, eject, or blow objects from their vaginal cavity. Ping pong balls are the most iconic objects used. The show has been popular in Southeast Asia for several decades, and is primarily performed for foreign tourists. The show is in many cases associated with sex tourism and human rights concerns have been raised regarding the performers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bargirl</span> Female worker in bars and brothels

A bargirl is a woman who is paid to entertain patrons in a bar, either individually or, in some cases, as a performer. The exact nature of the entertainment varies widely from place to place; depending on the venue this can be individual entertainment ranging from light conversation to sexual services, or more public entertainment in the form of go-go dancing or striptease. Variants on the term include "B-girl", "hostess", and "juicy girl".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Webcam model</span> Livestream video performer

A webcam model is a video performer who streams on the Internet with a live webcam broadcast. A webcam model often performs erotic acts online, such as stripping, masturbation, or sex acts in exchange for money, goods, or attention. They may also sell videos of their performances. Once viewed as a small niche in the world of adult entertainment, camming became "the engine of the porn industry," according to Alec Helmy, the publisher of XBIZ, a sex-trade industry journal.

The legal status of striptease varies considerably among different countries and the various jurisdictions of the United States. Striptease is considered a form of public nudity and subject to changing legal and cultural attitudes on moral and decency grounds. Some countries do not have any restrictions on performances of striptease. In some countries, public nudity is outlawed directly, while in other countries it may be suppressed or regulated indirectly through devices such as restrictions on venues through planning laws, or licensing regulations, or liquor licensing and other restrictions.

Sextortion employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MyFreeCams</span> American adult camming website

MyFreeCams (MFC) is an American website providing live webcam performances by models, typically featuring nudity and sexual activity often ranging from striptease and erotic talk to masturbation with sex toys.

Chaturbate is a pornographic website providing live webcam performances by individual webcam models and couples, typically featuring nudity and sexual activity ranging from striptease and erotic talk to more explicit sexual acts such as masturbation with sex toys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sticky Vicky</span> Spanish magician (1943–2023)

Victoria María Aragüés Gadea, also known as Vicky Leyton and professionally as Sticky Vicky, was a Spanish ballet dancer and illusionist known for her vaginal magic show. Her career spanned almost 50 years, with her final performance taking place in autumn 2015.

Cybersex trafficking, live streaming sexual abuse, webcam sex tourism/abuse or ICTs -facilitated sexual exploitation is a cybercrime involving sex trafficking and the live streaming of coerced sexual acts and/or rape on webcam.

Nudity in live performance, such as dance, theatre, and performance art, include the unclothed body either for realism or symbolic meaning. Nudity on stage has become generally accepted in Western cultures beginning in the 20th century.

References

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  2. "UK parliament hosts erotica event". The Australian . 2 October 2010. Retrieved 2012-09-10.
  3. Miller, John; Kenedi, Aaron (2003). Inside Cuba: The History, Culture, and Politics of an Outlaw Nation. Da Capo Press. p. 129. ISBN   9781569244845.
  4. Kurlansky, Mark (2017). Havana: A Subtropical Delirium. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN   9781632863935.
  5. Hays, Jeffrey (2008). "Sex in Laos". Facts and Details. Retrieved 21 September 2015.
  6. Theroux, Paul (1975). The Great Railway Bazaar . Houghton Mifflin. ISBN   978-0141189147.
  7. Robbins, Christopher (1978). Air America. ISBN   978-1908059017.
  8. "Death of the Reeperbahn: Hamburg's streets of shame". The Independent . 21 March 2008.
  9. Schaefer, Daniel (5 February 2014). "Kiezclub Safari schließt nach 50 Jahren seine Türen" [Neighborhood Club Safari Closes its Doors after 50 Years]. Hamburger Abendblatt (in German).
  10. Sanders-McDonagh, Erin (2016). Women and Sex Tourism Landscapes. Taylor & Francis. pp. 9–10. ISBN   9781317601159.
  11. "Bangkok Nightlife 2018 (UPDATED!)". Bangkok-Nightlife.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  12. Pringels, Djanlissa (2 September 2019). "A Night with the Couple Who've Been Having Sex on Stage for the Past 16 Years". Vice.
  13. Sanders-McDonagh (2016), pp. 9–10.
  14. Pinkerton, Steven D. (1995). Sexual Nature/Sexual Culture. University of Chicago Press. p. 309. ISBN   9780226001814.
  15. E.g., in the United Kingdom, sex establishments require a Sex Establishment Licence Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine from the City Council under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, and a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003.
  16. news.com.au: Coffee shop girls face charges over sex shows February 08, 2010