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Women Rule the Roost in China’s Mosuo Tribe
by Cristen Conger | December 20, 2010
A new photo essay in the Guardian documents life in the Mosuo tribe, which it describes as “one of the last matriarchal societies in the world.” Located in southwestern China, the Mosuo tribe is known as the “Kingdom of Women” where traditional gender roles are flip-flopped, for the most part.
A little over a year ago, I wrote a blog post about how officials had targeted Craigslist. They claimed the site was perpetuating (and profiting from) online prostitution. Craigslist responded to the charges by dropping the Erotic Services section of their personals and replacing it with an Adult section. CEO Jeff Buckmaster also said that the company would monitor posts in those sections closely to look for ads that violated Craigslist’s policies.
The drama just keeps on coming from the Craigslist erotic services saga. For years, Craigslist has defended itself against accusations that its erotic services section is illegal and is full of ads for prostitutes. Earlier this spring, the battle became more serious when Illinois sheriff Tom Dart led a public attack on the site, claiming it constituted the largest prostitution ring in the United States.
Eventually, attorney generals from several states joined the movement to get Craigslist to shut down the erotic services section. And as I reported last week, Craigslist complied — eliminating the erotic services section and replacing it with a section called the adult section. Company executives said that an employee would read each ad placed in the adult section before it could go live on the site. While questions remained regarding how an organization of 28 people could manually review such an enormous volume of ads, the gesture was recognized by most of the attorneys general.
Way back in March, I wrote a blog post about Tom Dart, a sheriff in Cook County, Ill., who referred to Craigslist as the largest source of prostitution in the United States. Sheriff Dart held a press conference and laid out his argument, citing Craigslist’s “erotic services” section as the main culprit.
Craigslist required a nominal fee from a valid credit card from anyone who wished to post an ad in erotic services. This not only helped cut down on spam, it also created a trail that Craigslist could trace if lawmakers protested over a particular ad. But that wasn’t enough to stop the tide from turning against Craigslist.
Jenn Abelson of The Boston Globe reports that the erotic services section is no more. In its place is a new “adult” section. Craigslist promises that a human being will review each and every ad placed within that section to ensure that the ads aren’t violating any laws.
The sheriff of Cook County, Illinois says Craigslist has some explaining to do. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, sheriff Tom Dart is suing the online classifieds site is the largest source of prostitution in the United States. For those of you playing at home, prostitution is illegal in most of the U.S.
This isn’t the first time Craigslist has come under fire for hosting ads for prostitutes. In November 2008, Craigslist Chief Executive Jeff Buckmaster pledged that the site would take steps to stop people from posting ads for prostitution and other illegal services. According to the Los Angeles Times, Buckmaster made the pledge after Connecticut District Attorney Richard Blumenthal led a campaign to pressure Craigslist into action.
Craigslist has filed several lawsuits against individuals and companies that violated the sites terms of service (ToS). It has also changed its policy for erotic service ads.
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