SolaceSoul

@Latbear4blk is officially the first person to review Thermas Club 13!

I posted my remarks in the other thread. I don’t feel I need to copy and paste. Refer to them here:

Curious that you created this account only a few hours ago just to post on this thread.

You are making a false equivalence. The behaviors are not the same because one is mutually transactional / beneficial and the other is not. In the case of adult sex workers at Brazil saunas, they make well over the average wage of other young Brazilian men. Unless I am unaware, posting photos of the garotos in publicly accessible forum isn’t normally part of that transaction. I know that at least one sauna I regularly visit prohibits the taking of photographs inside the sauna. The photographer may be getting “verbal consent” to take the subject’s photo, but he isn’t exactly asking the subject, “can I take your photo and post it on a public Internet forum about sex work, where it is possible that you could later be IDd and shamed by family, friends or your government?” And, again, even if he said that, the likelihood of a Cuban boy understanding the negative fallout of a photo on the internet is minuscule — considering that Cuban citizens just gained limited internet access in 2016. You are free to believe that all sex work, no matter the circumstances or nature of the transaction, is mere exploitation. However, if so, the question arises: why are you even at this board? Slumming?

Just to be clear, almost all Cubans (outside of their various individual side hustles, which most have) make 25 CUC ($25 US) a month. So, a roll in the hay for $25 CUC gives that Cuban one month’s worth of government stipend.

This is probably a question better addressed to the Mitch McConnell and Chris Christie lookalikes who clearly wouldn’t snag someone like that without a 100 reais bill Velcroed to their foreheads. But let’s be clear: even in your scenario, that fucking is part of the transaction, presumably is in the range of fair market value, and the implied agreement is that it should be a fleeting one at that. Photos posted on the internet — of either party — are not permanent in nature and are not part of the transaction.

Again, verbal consent from someone with very little personal agency or power — and either no knowledge or no awareness of what exactly is going to happen with these photos — is just like getting no consent at all.

I didn’t make an accusation of racism. I said “medieval slave auction”. Medieval refers to The Middle Ages, not the African Slave Trade from the 15th to the 19th Centuries. Although class does intertwine with race, especially in The America’s, I used that metaphor to describe the photos because of the harsh, stark power / class dynamic between the geosocioeconomically privileged photo taker and the impoverished, uneducated, unaware, unexposed photo subject without privilege.

You can always try just posting your stories without the unnecessarily posting photos of unsuspecting young men as if they are at some medieval slave auction.

Unfortunately for you, I’ve never really known the cruising / hustler scene of Salvador, even the Barra section by the Porto da Barra beach, to be anything at all like what you are describing that you hope it to be. Meaning, if you’re passively sitting outside your restaurant hotel overlooking the beach and the pedestrian walkway, expecting young men looking for trinkets to approach you, I think you are going to be waiting a lonnnnnnnnnnng time. And looking “gayer” will not exactly make it happen any more quickly for you. The Bahia just ain’t that kind of party. I am pretty sure that I discussed this in a previous post, and that you were a part of that conversation. I do wish you luck in your pursuits. Keep us posted.

Two things before you go further: (1) You were probably better served going to Fox instead of (Planetario) Clube 11 on Sunday, as Sunday is one of Fox’s better nights (unless things have changed). (2) “Hakuna matata” is a Swahili phrase that is very popular in Kenya and almost all of East Africa. It has no Polynesian origins. In fact, Disney is now facing a major backlash by East African nations for its trademark registration of the phrase in its animated film, “The Lion King”. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4957382

Except the other guy is so not hot. At all.

I’ve witnessed this third scenario before at two other message boards involving gay-for-pay escorts. I don’t trust anonymous posters as far as I could throw them (and some of them, being very portly and corpulent, couldn’t be thrown at all!).

If you understand the history of race and racism in America, which was uniquely cruel and its impact long-lasting, it should be no mystery why this is the case.

Even though I agree with @RockHardNYC that when it comes to the internet, nothing is really private, @TotallyOz has already stated that these photos in question were posted in the public forum. There are a few posters who enjoy posting photos of garotos they met during their escapades, along with the alleged acts and prices, and a few of them are easily recognizable by their photos (face blocked or not). I believe that at least one of the young men whose photos were posted about, along with details of the alleged sexual activity and prices, is livid about this exposure. Some posters here either don’t know or conveniently shrug off the cultural differences in places like Brazil. Sure, sauna work and even prostitution are legal there, but machismo Brazilian and Latin American culture still dictates that one keeps that kind of work quiet. Just as clients, other than the outest gayest, would cringe at the thought of being exposed on a website, so would 85% - 95% of the sauna workers. Also, many (most?) garotos, due to the same cultural norms, are going to state in public that they are ativo (tops), and would be mortified to learn that not only are they being photo ID’d by name, but they are also talked about as passivo (bottoms).

I think what the poster you’re responding to probably meant was that the actual definition of “black” is different / less broad in the DR or Brazil than it is in the USA — therefore, many people that would be considered black in America would not necessarily identify or be identified as black in the DR or Brazil. This is due to several factors: different histories is one, the lasting legacy of the “one drop rule” in the USA is another, but also a longer period of cultural awareness and black pride, which is relatively new there, has existed in the USA. In the USA, a guy that looks like Shemar Moore, Jesse Williams or Michael Ealy or a woman like Vanessa Williams is black. In the DR or in Brazil, they act confused when you say that.

This should’ve said “withOUT said person’s advance knowledge or permission”. I hate not being able to edit posts after a few hours.

Oh, I can tell you’re certainly not a lawyer — and definitely not in the field of intellectual property — because you’re confusing copyright with the right of privacy / right of publicity. The former is the ownership of the creation (the photograph), while the latter is the rights of the subject in the creation (the person in the photograph). Also, oddly, you keep referring to U.S. copyright law when referring to photographs of Brazilian subjects posted on an American website with international reach, possibly taken by clients from different continents. There are several territories — and thus, several laws — whose intellectual property laws could apply here, not just those of the USA. Not even mentioning the complete lack of ethics in posting someone’s photo on the internet with said person’s advance knowledge or permission (even if said person works in the sex trade), there are other legal issues in addition to right of privacy and copyright. One major liability in the USA could be the new “revenge porn@ statutes popping up in jurisdictions everywhere — making it a criminal act to share a “non-consensual image” of someone’s private parts.

You’d have NO idea which escort / garoto posted the photo. After all, it was acquired from social media and ANYONE has access to it. So, some of these posters who are so quick to post photos of working guys without their advance permission probably could use a taste of their own medicine.

The right of privacy laws extend beyond mere facial recognition. There are posters here who are posting photos of garotos with blurred faces but their bodies are easily recognizable (unique tattoos and physical structure).

Since it’s open season on any photos posted on social media, perhaps I should just encourage my sauna worker / garoto / escort / hustler friends to post the photos of their clients.that they found on WhatsApp / Facebook / Instagram / LinkedIn. What’s good for the goose...

It’s good to know that Manny is still doing his thing. He and Freddy are like The Welcoming Committee Of The Conde.

50 euros was common (I won’t go as far as to use the term “standard”) at Sauna Thermas in Barcelona this past May and June. For the advertising guys and hotel / apartment visits, in or out, during that same period, I was quoted from 80 to 150 euros, depending on the person and whether it was in or out. Of course, all of this is by the hour / half-hour. As for the USA, twinky guys aren’t my type at all, but I have a friend who pays around that in a major USA city for guys built like that. Also, many guys on Grindr / Jackd / A4A in certain cities advertising openly or slyly are around that price. Not to even mention street trade / club trade, etc. But yes, so-called “top-shelfers” or A-listers (whether deemed that by actual demand or self-described) are going for double that amount PLUS.

David Geffen’s boyfriends always walk away with very nice parting gifts for playing horizontal “The Price Is Right”. However, most posters here are probably not Geffen or oil barons, or close to it.

That may be his list price, but I seriously doubt he’s getting that in Brazil — even in São Paulo. That’s WAY above high-end market rate, even for “stars”.