Why Do People Watch Livestreams?

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Luke Ford

I suspect the number one reason people watch is to connect. People don’t watch me because they care about me, they watch because they care about themselves and my livestream helps them better enjoy and understand their own lives. When I tell a story, nobody cares about my story except to the extent it helps them to better understand their own stories.

When you join a livestreaming community, you join a tribe. According to my video analytics, my audience is 98% male, 80% 25-44yo (about 15% are 44-54yo), 50% American and they also watch Keith Woods, Edward Dutton, and JF Gariepy.

According to this Quora thread:

* Live streaming clone is the evolution of live television. The reasons why live television made such a big impact was because it brought viewers up-to-date, informative and accessible content. Though it’s still popular, since online streaming, Television subscriptions have been in decline.

While on television, the content and accessibility are limited, on online streaming there is endless content accessible for free and with mobile devices. Even though viewers still have the time constraint on live streaming, it’s more flexible than on television. They can watch on their mobile phones and, most of the times, they can also watch the recorded of the live video later.

Beyond Live Television

One of the important reasons why live streaming is so important, for brands and individuals, is because of the level of interaction and engagement it offers. There is no other platform or marketing strategy allows for such an extent of interaction. Live streaming also has the highest rate of engagement for all types of contents.

The face to face live interaction brings your audience closer to you and opens a great communication channel. You can ask them questions to get to know them better and they can do the same. What’s more, when they interact with each other, it creates a sense of community and they will associate you with it.

3. The human aspect of Live Streaming

The genuine interaction that live streaming app clone allows and builds a relationship with viewers. Videos on demand simply can’t create the same feeling because there’s less room for viewers to identify with the presenters.

The fact of a live stream is actually live brings a human element to it. Anything can go wrong, at any time. If presenters make a mistake about something, viewers see the authenticity and identify with them. Unlike Live television News, where anchors seem stiff and emotionless. Why do you think people love to see them make mistakes on live TV? It humanizes them and it’s relatable.

4. Expand your reach as a brand or individual

One of the reasons why live tv streaming Php Script can help you reach more people is because platforms will favour live content. For example, if you go live on FB, the chance of your followers seeing it on their newsfeed is higher than if you share an image or a video on demand. YouTube will also favour live video on its searches, as will many other platforms.

5. Fastest growing industry

Online streaming is one of the fastest-growing industries. In fact, the live video streaming market is worth more than 30 billion dollars. It’s expected to be worth more than 70 billion dollars by 2021. More importantly, live video streaming is outgrowing video on demand. The year over year growth of live video is 113 per cent, while long videos on demand have grown 30% and short formats have grown only 9 per cent.

* Live Streaming is a real-time event. Whether it is a training session, a panel discussion, an interview or a product launch you become a participant of this show staying on your own location. You communicate with the presenter through Q&A and you can also take part in polling. You can watch live video streaming everywhere – on any location and on any device. There are no costs on venues and travels but you do attend this live event. So these compelling benefits of live streaming make people watch it and become a part of a live show.

FROM FINDAPSYCHOLOGIST.ORG:

Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. Parasocial relationships are most common with celebrities, organizations (such as sports teams) or television stars.

Parasocial relationships expand the social network in a way that negates the chance of rejection and empowers individuals to model and identify with individuals of their choosing who naturally elicit an empathic response. For some, the one sided nature of the relationship is a relief from strained complementary relationships in their real life. Parasocial relationships are cultivated by the media to resemble face-to-face relationships. Over time, so many experiences are shared with John Daily or Justin Beiber or Jay-Z that we develop an intimacy and friendship with the ‘media user’ and feel that they know and understand us.

In the past, parasocial relationships occurred predominantly with television personas. Now, these relationships also occur between individuals and their favorite bloggers, social media users, and gamers. The nature and intimacy of parasocial relationships has also matured. Reality television allows viewers to share the most intimate and personal lives of television personas, and celebrities openly share their opinions and activities through various social media outlets such as twitter and Facebook.

Additionally, the Internet allows for 24-hour access to media users, and increased internet dependency may lead to increased parasocial interactions. While parasocial relationships still remain one-sided, they have transformed into more interactive environments, allowing individuals to communicate with their media personas, and increasing the intimacy and strength of the parasocial relationship.

Despite the one-sided nature of parasocial relationships, there are numerous similarities between these relationships and more traditional social relationships. Studies show parasocial relationships are voluntary, provide companionship, and are influenced by social attraction. Furthermore, viewers experience a connection with the media user and express feelings of affection, gratitude, longing, encouragement, and loyalty towards them.

Just as relational maintenance is important in sustaining a relationship with our real life friends and family, relational maintenance also occurs in parasocial relationships through events such as weekly viewings of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Blogs and social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, increase the ease with which viewers can express their feelings. Parasocial relationships are popular within these online communities, and this may be due to the increased sense of “knowing” the personas, or the perception of parasocial interactions as having a high reward and no chance of rejection.

Historically, parasocial relationships were viewed as pathological and a symptom of loneliness, isolation and social anxieties. However, one study found there was no correlation between loneliness and the intensity of viewers’ parasocial relationship with onscreen characters. Other research has decreased the stigma of such relationships and led clinicians to believe that such relationships can broaden one’s social network rather than restrict it.

Parasocial relationships are important to viewers, and in many ways advantageous because of the support that the viewer gains from the relationship. Many seriously ill people find afternoons with Oprah or Ellen the one chance in the day to see a friend without stress and gain strength from their relationship with the hostess.

Individuals with parasocial relationships often express appreciation towards their favorite personas for helping them to get through tough times. Additionally, some viewers perceive the personas as helping to significantly shape their own identity. The support that parasocial relationships provide is of substantial value to the viewers that engage in them, and with new social media techniques, these relationships are a viable way to expand individuals’ social networks.

NEIL PATEL BLOGS that online live viewers are more likely to feel excitement, immediacy and connection.

This 2017 paper from China says:

Proposed by Tajfel and Turner (1979), social identity theory posits that people hold various social identities along with their individual identities. It is assumed that our self-concepts are partially defined by certain social groups where we obtain the sense of oneness or belongingness, as well as involving values (Ashforth & Mael, 1989).

Hence, people tend to classify themselves into various social categories that they identify with, and develop social identifications which depict the oneness or belongingness to certain social categories (Ashforth & Mael, 1989). This social identification process is mainly served as a self-defining way to achieve self-consistency, selfesteem, and self-enhancement (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003). In consequence, to maintain their favored social identities, people’s
deep identifications with groups, organizations or other human aggregates lead to in-group favoritism and corresponding results such as enhanced commitment, intragroup cohesion, product and service preference, and group support behaviors…

H1. Identification with an audience group is positively related to continuous watching intention.

we construct the audience group identification as psychological attachment, emotional and social bonds a member shares within an audience group (Algesheimer et al., 2005; Füller, Matzler, & Hoppe, 2008; Hall-Phillips et al., 2016). Users from the same audience group interact with each other mainly via text-based dialogues (Hamilton et al., 2014). During their communication, audiences can exchange their ideas and thoughts about streams, broadcasters, and even issues unrelated to stream contents. Meanwhile, audiences will subtly deliver their identity-related information and perceive others’ identities in a form of collective group identity. In consequence, a member may identify with other audiences if he/she perceives the fit of values and beliefs between the group and him/herself. According to Keh and Xie (2009), identification is effective in promoting commitment to long-term relationship maintenances. Badrinarayanan et al. (2015) also indicate that identification with other members will lead to sustained participation and interaction on virtual
communities. Therefore, we infer that, with the increased identification of audience group, a member will feel stronger attachment to the group and choose to maintain their intragroup connections by continuous watching.

H1. Identification with an audience group is positively related to continuous watching intention…

Live video streaming service distinguishes itself from other social media forms via the existence of broadcasters/streamers (Smith et al., 2013). Accordingly, the individual-based identification aspect is manifested as identification with broadcasters on live streaming platforms. Kelman (1961) defines this kind of identification with an
individual as “classical identification” which means a person “attempts to be like or actually to be the other person”, and desires to “appease, emulate, and vicariously gain the qualities of others”.

Identification with a person is similar to identification with a group (Ashforth & Mael, 1989). However, personal identification incorporates other essences including liking and admiration, perceived similarity, attitudes and beliefs adoption (Basil, 1996; Brown & de Matviuk, 2010; Brown, 2015; Katz & Liebes, 1990). Accordingly, a viewer’s identification with a broadcaster takes place when a viewer takes a broadcaster as self-referential in belief, personality, competence, and other aspects.

According to recent studies on personal identifications, people tend to regard identified individuals as role model, and incline to maintain reciprocal relationships…

* Identification with a broadcaster is positively related to continuous watching intention.

…parasocial interaction is described as an illusive sense of mutual awareness and intimacy with media personas (e.g. celebrities, news hosts, characters). People believe they are engaged in a face-to-face interaction without technical possibility of reciprocal communication (Houlberg, 1984). People in parasocial relationship often report the feeling of
intimacy and closeness and define media personas as “real friends” (Stern, Russell, & Russell, 2007; Xiang, Zheng, Lee, & Zhao, 2016). In turn, this friendship-like relationship will increase personal attachment, relationship investment, and loyalty toward media figures (Labrecque, 2014; Xiang et al., 2016). Recently, studies have expand the scope of parasocial interaction from mass media into online context (e.g. Labrecque, 2014; Powell, Richmond, & Williams, 2011), especially in social media practices such as micro-blogs and Social Network Sites (e.g. Cohen & Tyler, 2016; Lee & Oh, 2012).

Interactions on live streaming platforms may possess the characteristic of parasocial interaction. The nature of social media implies viewers can follow another’s statues without reciprocal responsibility (Hargittai & Litt, 2011). However, the sense of parasocial interaction can be triggered if media performers perceive the existence of audiences, and adapt the conversational style or body gestures to create an illusion of two-sided communication (Dibble, Hartmann, & Rosaen, 2016). Broadcasters can adopt an interactive style in terms of addressing questions, show gratitude to praises, and self-disclosure in practice. Consequently, viewers who experience parasocial interactions may regard streamers as intimate
friends because they pay attention to viewers’ suggestions and care for the viewers’ feelings. Studies have suggested that viewers are inclined to be more emotionally attached to and identified with media personas that provide richer experience of parasocial interaction (Brown & Basil, 2010; Brown, 2015; Frederick, Lim, Clavio, & Walsh, 2012). In the same vein, we infer that experience of parasocial interaction a viewer perceived may increase the identification with the broadcaster

* H3. Experience of parasocial interaction is positively related to broadcaster identification.

Self-congruity is another factor that may influence broadcaster identification. Introduced by Sirgy (1982), self-congruity is defined as the extent to which the images of an object and a person are perceived as matching. People prefer to consume brands possessing the personalities which are compatible with their own self-concepts.

On one hand, a person tries to behave in a way which is consistent with his/her actual self-image and for self-expression; on the other hand, he/she also expect to build up ideal self-image that potentially extend and enhance his/her real self (Kressmann et al., 2006). These dual aspects of self-congruity are defined as actual self-congruity and ideal self-congruity (Sirgy, 1982). In marketing domain, recent studies have widely applied self-congruity concept to explain customer-brand relationship, brand attitudes, brand loyalty, and consequent purchase intention (Aguirre-Rodriguez, Boveda-Lambie, & Miniard, 2015; Koo, Cho, & Kim, 2014; Roy & Rabbanee, 2015).

Meanwhile, the application of self-congruity has been extended from brand research to more general referents such as media personas (e.g. celebrities, bloggers) (Boon & Lomore, 2001; Thomson, 2006; Wang, Hsu, Huang, & Chen, 2015).

Live streaming activities provide immediate opportunities and solid technical support for self-expression (Tang et al., 2016). Broadcasters can manage their own self-images directly in various ways such as articulating their interests and attitudes to life, showing talents or skills. According to social identity theory, identification processes as a two step self-defining way to first preserve integrity of self image, and later to reach selfenhancement and self-esteem (Bhattacharya & Sen, 2003; Tajfel & Turner, 1979). On one hand, the aspiration for self-consistency of viewers can be satisfied if they perceive attitude similarity and like-mindedness of streamers, thus creating the sense of actual selfcongruity. On the other hand, the need for self-esteem can be possibly appeased when viewers reflect their ideal selves. Viewers may worship broadcasters and regard them as role models, if the broadcasters possess special skills and abilities, or have achieved goals that the viewers are pursuing. Several studies also imply that self-congruity affects relationship persistence, and leads to identification with referents (Tuskej et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2015).
Drawing on these findings, we infer that a viewer’s perceptions of actual and ideal self-congruity toward a broadcaster on live streaming platforms will increase his/her identification with the broadcaster.

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What Happens To Your Face As You Age?

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Luke Ford

I notice my face sagging. So what’s ahead?

Google says:

The appearance of the face and neck typically changes with age. Loss of muscle tone and thinning skin gives the face a flabby or drooping appearance. In some people, sagging jowls may create the look of a double chin.

Your skin also dries out and the underlying layer of fat shrinks so that your face no longer has a plump, smooth surface. To some extent, wrinkles cannot be avoided. However, sun exposure and cigarette smoking are likely to make them develop more quickly. The number and size of blotches and dark spots on the face increase as well. These pigment changes are largely due to sun exposure.

Missing teeth and receding gums change the appearance of the mouth, so your lips may look shrunken. Loss of bone mass in the jaw reduces the size of the lower face and makes your forehead, nose, and mouth more pronounced. Your nose may also lengthen slightly.

The ears may lengthen in some people (probably caused by cartilage growth). Men may develop hair in their ears that becomes longer, coarser, and more noticeable as they age. Ear wax becomes drier because there are fewer wax glands in the ears and they produce less oil. The hardened ear wax can block the ear canal and affect your ability to hear.

Eyebrows and eyelashes turn gray. As in other parts of the face, the skin around the eyes gets wrinkles, creating crow’s feet at the side of the eyes.

Fat from the eyelids settles into the eye sockets. This can make your eyes look sunken. The lower eyelids can slacken and bags can develop under your eyes. Weakening of the muscle that supports the upper eyelid can make the eyelids droop. This may limit vision.

The outer surface of the eye (cornea) may develop a grayish-white ring. The colored portion of the eye (iris) loses pigment, making most very elderly people appear to have gray or light blue eyes.

From Facial aging trajectories: A common shape pattern in male and female faces is disrupted after menopause: “Age‐related facial shape change was similar in both sexes until around age 50, at which time the female aging trajectory turned sharply. The overall magnitude of facial shape change (aging rate) was higher in women than men, especially in early postmenopause. Aging was generally associated with a flatter face, sagged soft tissue (“broken” jawline), deeper nasolabial folds, smaller visible areas of the eyes, thinner lips, and longer nose and ears. In postmenopausal women, facial aging was best predicted by the years since last menstruation and mainly attributable to bone resorption in the mandible.”

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Coast of Dreams: California on the Edge, 1990-2003

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Luke Ford

Kevin Starr writes in this 2004 book:

* Equally insulting was the parallel notion that Latino immigrants, especially those coming from Mexico, were not only burdening American society, but also were lowering its tone. Worse, the argument ran, they were most likely unassimilable, nor not worth the social cost of bringing up to speed. …California…had no need for the continuing influx of low-skilled, poorly educated immigrants from Mexico…

* As early as 2020, the population of California would reach 47.5 million… [In 2019, the population reached 39.5 million.]

* The white people who in D.J. Waldie’s memoir were dressing in the 1950s in coat and tie on Sundays, their children in starched pinafores or short pants and flat caps, were by the 1990s covered in tattoos, wearing T-shirts and jeans, the men in long hair and earrings, the young people tending to slobdom or punk.

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I Remember When Asian Massage Parlors Were Considered A Social Blight

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Luke Ford

I am so old that I remember when sexual trafficking was considered a bad thing.

Vice reported in 2014:

… “happy-ending” massages have long been the worst-kept secret of the sex trade. Operating as legitimate businesses, Asian erotic massage parlors—most of which are run by Chinese or Korean operators—charge a house fee for a massage, and customers then pay an extra tip for whatever sex acts are performed. Intercourse isn’t usually on the menu, although some of the seedier establishments do offer “full-service” options and blow jobs.

And evidently, there is no shortage of men willing to fork over $80 for a 30-minute massage and a hand job. Asian erotic massage parlors, or AMPs, have proliferated across the US in recent years and now make up a significant share of the sex industry in several major American cities, according to a massive government-sponsored study on the underground sex economy released last week by the Urban Institute. The landmark report, which examined the size and structure of the commercial sex trade in eight metro areas, found that the number of parlors in the US jumped to 4,790 in 2013, up from 4,197 in 2011. Once concentrated in coastal cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, the report also found that massage parlors are rapidly expanding into the Midwest and the South, facilitated by highly organized networks that transport Asian women—many of them brought to the US illegally—through a “circuit” of massage parlors around the US.

Here is a 2019 report on Human-Trafficking-in-Illicit-Massage-Businesses:

Illicit massage businesses (IMBs) that
front for commercial sex operations have been ubiquitous in the American landscape for decades, with an estimate of more than 9,000 operating today.

Commonly called “massage parlors,” these businesses dot the sides of highways and are tucked into suburban strip malls between fast food restaurants and dollar stores and behind darkened windows in storefronts in some of America’s biggest cities. While some keep a low profile, many others blatantly advertise “Asian gals,” or bear sexualized names like “Good Girl Spa.” Anyone looking to purchase commercial sex is just a few clicks away from any number of review sites that offer extremely detailed information about both the businesses themselves and the individual women exploited within them.
The sheer number of fake massage businesses, coupled with the impunity with which they operate, has over time fostered widespread — if tacit — cultural acceptance of the industry. The frequent wink, wink, nudge, nudge references to “happy endings,” in popular culture is just one manifestation of perception that while commercial sex is illegal, in this context, it is essentially harmless.

That perception is wrong. There may be women who choose to sell sex either along with or under the guise of massage therapy, but evidence suggests that many of the thousands of women engaging in commercial sex in IMBs or “massage parlors” are victims of human trafficking.

To those women, the term “happy ending,” with its faint whiff of fairy tale, is cruelly ironic. Most of them are immigrants, chasing a dream of financial stability in a faraway land, seeking not a prince but a steady job with decent wages. So they answer an ad for a massage therapist and discover, too late, that “massage” is a euphemism and that they are expected to provide services for which they will be paid some portion of the tips they earn, if they are lucky, or less, if they are not. They live in substandard conditions, work illegal hours “on call,” and many feel they have no choice but to comply with the mandate to perform sex acts. They are told they will be deported by immigration, or their families will be hurt; that they owe the owner money and that if they leave, police will arrest them for prostitution.
Every story is a little different but they all share a common pattern that combines fraud, threats and lies with poverty, fear and the potential for violence.

…The vast majority of women reported to have been trafficked in IMBs are from China, with a relatively high number coming from the Fujian province. The next highest group are women from South Korea. There is a notable minority of IMBs that have victims from Thailand or Vietnam.22 The average age of victims in IMBs is 35-55…

From the Los Angeles Times Oct. 25, 2018:

San Gabriel Valley massage parlor owner accused of sex trafficking

A woman who ran two massage parlors in the San Gabriel Valley was arrested this week on suspicion of trafficking her employees and forcing them into commercial sex work, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Mei Xing, 57, of San Gabriel allegedly ran two massage businesses and a residence as illegal brothels, authorities said…

Evidence “consistent with commercial sex work” was found at each location, and several women were interviewed as potential trafficking victims who were referred to victims’ services providers, authorities said.

Detectives from the multiagency Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force began investigating Xing in July. Authorities said financial crimes, including money laundering, also were suspected.

From the Los Angeles Times Nov. 21, 2017:

L.A. County to inspect massage parlors in fight to end human trafficking

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to require routine inspections of massage parlors by health officials looking for signs of human trafficking.

Supervisor Janice Hahn recommended an ordinance that would apply to businesses in unincorporated areas of the county.

“Some of the massage parlors in our communities have actually become safe havens for sex trafficking, for human trafficking,” Hahn said.

Supervisor Hilda Solis, who co-authored the motion, said she had seen such businesses opening in areas dominated by heavy industry, where they didn’t seem to fit.

“In the City of El Monte, where I live, there are many massage parlors popping up in obscure places,” Solis said.

Hahn mentioned signs offering massages for as low as $15. “I’m afraid that it’s because they’re coercing people to work there for little or no money,” she said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Chris Marks of the department’s Human Trafficking Bureau cited “a massive increase” in the number of massage businesses and told the board that nearly every complaint that comes in to the bureau results in an arrest.

The Sheriff’s Department has partnered with Polaris, a nonprofit group working to combat human trafficking. Researchers with the group found that of 1,500 separate ads for women in the massage industry, roughly 25% used telephone numbers that matched those used by websites offering a variety of sexual services.

A representative of another advocacy group said California leads the nation in cases of human trafficking, which includes both sex and labor trafficking, based on data collected by the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

“Our clients are recruited under the guise of a massage business and endure violence and severe threats and, of course, no pay and the inability to leave,” said Kay Buck, chief executive officer of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking. “All of these women, very young women, are living in slave-like conditions.”

The Los Angeles Times reports Feb. 10, 2016:

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office is trying to ban a group of massage parlor owners from operating within the city, accusing them of running fronts for prostitution in Eagle Rock and other areas, officials said Wednesday.

In a lawsuit citing the state’s Red Light Abatement Law, City Atty. Mike Feuer alleges that the owners of four massage parlors have, for years, operated the businesses as brothels and advertised their services on Craigslist.

The Los Angeles Times reports July 6, 2015:

An athlete with sore muscles or an office worker with a stiff neck could not browse long online without running into websites offering Yelp-style reviews of sexually oriented massage parlors. Posters swap information, using abbreviations and acronyms to throw authorities off the trail. One site shows 44 erotic massage establishments in San Gabriel alone.

…Many Chinese massage businesses, he says, operate like loose collectives. Property owners charge fees to masseuses but rarely show up to manage the business themselves. Masseuses hop between businesses depending on where the foot traffic is best — so they’re often able to stay a step ahead of the police, he says.

A study by the Urban Institute, a think tank, described a highly organized sex trafficking ring revolving around a chain of massage parlors in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In January, the San Gabriel Valley city of Montebello closed U-Spa, a massage business, after police made a prostitution arrest there. Local authorities never charged its owner, Estella Xu, with any crime, but she and two relatives are facing prostitution and human trafficking charges in Delaware.

Among the people most upset with the San Gabriel Valley’s influx of massage establishment are the practitioners, who complain that the glut has driven their hourly rates below $20 an hour.

“This is the cheapest place to get a massage in America,” says Xiao Chen, a masseuse at the Shangri-La Day Spa on Valley Boulevard.

Chen became a masseuse seven years ago to make money. She paid about $3,800 for courses at a Chinese-run school of massage, then a few years ago, changes in state law made her certification invalid, she says. She invested two months and an additional $3,800 on courses at a council-approved school…

Manny Serrano, the owner of the Edible Arrangements store, says he doesn’t doubt that some massage businesses are legitimate. But at the massage parlor next door, he said he had seen the women touch their genitals to solicit bystanders, he says.

“I understand there are therapeutic reasons for massage, but when you have eight or 10 on the same block, you have to think there’s something going on,” Serrano said. “My customers always comment on it.”

The Los Angeles Times reports March 16, 2014:

SACRAMENTO — Cities, counties and law enforcement officials across California are bristling at a 6-year-old law that they contend prevents regulation of massage parlors they suspect offer more than therapeutic bodywork.

A profusion of massage parlors, often near schools and neighborhoods, creates blight, they complained at a legislative hearing.

Local government officials told lawmakers last week that they’re frustrated by a 2008 law that sought to regulate illicit massage parlors and support legitimate spas and other businesses…

The statute may be well intended, but it prevents cities and counties from using zoning and other laws to control illicit massage parlors, whose workers sometimes are victims of human trafficking, mayors and police chiefs said.

The legislation “created loopholes that have left our city unequipped to regulate massage establishments,” said Capt. Kelly Mulldorfer, a vice commander at the Los Angeles Police Department. She estimated that the city has more than 400 storefront massage businesses suspected of engaging in prostitution at the same time they pose as legitimate council-certified massage therapy operations.

The hearing convinced one panel member, Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), that “the law is not working” and has led to an increase in prostitution and human trafficking.

The Los Angeles Times reports April 25, 2014:

Reporting from Sacramento — — State lawmakers have come up with a way to help California cities deal with a proliferation of massage parlors with suspected links to prostitution and human trafficking.
New legislation is aimed at fixing an inadvertent loophole created by a 2008 law that created a state-sponsored council to oversee the regulation of legitimate massage therapy businesses, such as spas and clinics.

The loophole led to an explosion of massage parlors in many cities. For example, their number grew by nearly 500% to 75 in the city of Huntington Beach between 2009 and 2013.

The Los Angeles Times reports March 23, 2011:

First it was pot shops. Now it’s erotic massage parlors.

In the last two years, they’ve proliferated in the city — just as dispensaries did, and for a familiar reason.

In both cases, Los Angeles failed to quickly assess and act upon the ramifications of a new state law.

Police say they’ve seen numerous illicit massage parlors open in Hollywood, Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley. But the biggest explosion has been in Eagle Rock, which is a community that was also inundated with medical marijuana dispensaries.

An online directory of erotic massage establishments lists nearly 30 in Eagle Rock and Glassell Park, including 15 on a two-mile stretch of Eagle Rock Boulevard. One of them, Surprise Massage, advertises “Fairytale Oriental Massage” with “Sexy Pretty Asian Girls NOW.”

“You can drive down the street and see one on every block,” said Michael Larsen, the president of the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. “Our community is being inundated with prostitution.”

The problem is connected to a 2009 state law that created voluntary state certification for massage therapists. The intent was to make it easier for legitimate massage therapists to work anywhere in the state.

The law said therapists with state certification could no longer be subjected to stringent local vetting. In Los Angeles, for instance, where city code classifies all parlors as “adult entertainment,” licensed therapists would no longer have to apply for police permits, which require fingerprinting and background checks.

Many cities — including Culver City, West Hollywood and Glendale — promptly began requiring those applying to open massage parlors to show their state certification.

But Los Angeles failed to do so, instead asking applicants only to state if they were certified, not to show proof, according to Officer William Jones, who is in charge of the Los Angeles Police Commission’s permit processing section.

As a result, it became an easy place for erotic massage parlors to set up shop.

Ahmos Netanel, who heads the California Massage Therapy Council, a nonprofit set up by the state in the massage certification bill, said L.A. should rewrite its code.

“My understanding is that the city has basically stopped regulating,” Netanel said. “We have shared with them that this is unusual.”

In Eagle Rock, patience is wearing thin.

Businessman Rudy Martinez said the proliferation of massage parlors was one of the reasons he ran for City Council against Councilman Jose Huizar.

Martinez owns a restaurant, Mia Sushi, on Eagle Rock Boulevard. The street is lined with banks and grocery stores, karate studios and churches.

But in the last year and a half, he said, one massage parlor opened up next to his restaurant and another popped up across the street. Both establishments advertise with blinking neon lights and are listed on adult websites, where clients post reviews of sexual services.

“If you sit on our patio, you can see about 30 to 40 men coming in and out of there,” Martinez said. “They stay for 15 to 20 minutes. I’ve never seen one woman walk in.”

Once, he said, he saw a man run out of one of the parlors barefoot, wearing no pants.

“It’s sickening. It’s ridiculous,” Martinez said. “It takes away from that community environment that you want where you live.”

Martinez said he’s frustrated by how massage businesses are developing “the same way as the dispensaries.”

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It’s Time to Admit That Massage Parlors Have an Asianness Problem

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Luke Ford

Jim Goad writes:

If there’s anything to be learned from the shooting sprees at three Atlanta-area massage parlors on Tuesday afternoon that left eight people dead, it’s that the massage-parlor industry is disproportionately Asian to a degree that would be comical if, you know, it hadn’t led to this unacceptable tragedy.

Since the shooter is white, WHITE SUPREMACY became the immediate narrative. Almost immediately, people were spreading an obviously forged Facebook post from the killer where he blames China for “the COVID coverup” and calls China “THE GREATEST EVIL OF OUR TIME.”

To be fair, six of his eight murder victims were Asian women. Then again, he also killed a white woman and a white man. He also injured a Hispanic man who survived.

To be even more fair — to the point of pathological and possibly even suicidal fairness in a climate where the Guilt War matters and the Fact War doesn’t — a 2019 study of massage parlors in Palm Beach County, FL “whose services were described as erotic on two X-rated websites monitored by police” found that 70 of the 95 erotic-massage locations “list corporate officers with Asian surnames.”

So the only statistic I was able to dredge up while toiling away on deadline about ethnic ownership of “erotic” massage parlors claims that 73.6% of them were owned by people with “Asian surnames,” which doesn’t even account for Asian owners who may have Americanized their surnames in order to pass. Anecdotal evidence suggests that perhaps a majority of these Asian-owned erotic massage parlors are owned by Asian women.

Tuesday’s shooting spree left eight dead bodies, 75% of them Asian.

So with Asian “erotic” massage-parlor ownership at 73.6% and Asian fatalities at 75% of the total, clearly the culprit is white supremacy.

A Google search for “Asian massage” yields over 32 million results, far surpassing the next closest type of massage that can be linked to an ethnicity, which was “Swedish massage” at just over five million results. But when you search for “types of massage,” the Swedish method shows up on every list, but “Asian massage” never does. Every so often, they might list shiatsu or “Thai massage,” but that’s it.

There appears to be no such thing as a generic “Asian massage.” It almost always seems like a euphemism for “massage with handjob at the end.” And even though this national industry essentially forces countless Asian women into sexual slavery, their lives don’t matter here — not unless their deaths can be blamed on “white supremacy.”

Therefore, you can forget about the fact that 87.5% of Tuesday’s massage-parlor murder victims were women. Even as women-compliant as mainstream culture is these days, they ignored this fact and instead fixated on race.

It’s a statistical fact that the shooter killed more women than he killed Asians. It’s also a statistical fact that men who blame their killing sprees on “women problems” are killing far more people than self-described “white supremacists” are.

The assailant didn’t shoot up any sushi bars or karate dojos. Instead of an attack on the “Asian community,” this seems like more of an attack on the “massage-parlor community,” which just so happens to be disproportionately Asian to a wild degree.

Posted in Asians, Massage | Comments Off on It’s Time to Admit That Massage Parlors Have an Asianness Problem