I Got Naked in a Moroccan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=naked cam Hammam Spa: Here’s What It Was Like Whether it was from a friend who had visited or through a simple Google search, hammam spas kept popping up when I was researching things to do in Morocco. And while I’m no spa connoisseur, going to a Moroccan hammam spa seemed like something I had to do on my trip. Here’s what it was like to get naked at one. What Is a Moroccan Hammam Spa? Moroccan hammams are part of many Moroccans’ daily life. Similar to a Turkish bath, a public hammam is a steam room where people go to clean themselves. This is usually a weekly ritual and is considered a social activity in villages and towns, with men, women, and children all participating. Baths are separated by gender and many people will spend hours here chatting with friends. While in Islamic culture women are typically covered from head to toe in public, they’re fully naked at hammams. Upon entering the hammam spa you’ll get a bucket, a mat to lie on, some black soap, and exfoliating gloves (or you can hire someone to exfoliate you) and you essentially clean and exfoliate yourself in large steam rooms among everyone else, using your bucket and water from a tap. A Moroccan hammam spa at a hotel would be much different. Treatments vary by hotel, but the general process is that you first soak in a pool or sit in a steam room, then you’re rinsed, exfoliated, and massaged. Here are all the dirty details of my experience. What to Bring to a Moroccan Hammam Spa Depending on what kind of spa you’re going to, bring a change of underwear and clothes, hairbrush, toiletries, makeup, and flip flops. Each spa is different, but it’s better to be over-prepared than under. If you’re uncomfortable going totally naked, bring a bathing suit. Some hotel spas will provide paper underwear. Ask when you’re making your reservation what is provided so you can decide beforehand what you’re most comfortable with. What to Expect at a Moroccan Hammam Spa at a Hotel The receptionist said “take everything off” when she handed over a robe, paper thong, and flip flops. Obviously, if you’re going to a Moroccan hammam spa in Morocco, your spa specialist might not speak English. It was clear this would be the case when my attendant handed me a towel, motioned that I take off my robe, and led me to a steam room after I walked out of the changing room. I was traveling with a friend, which helped ease some of the awkwardness. We had read in the treatment description that we’d be in the steam room for about 10 minutes, but after what seemed like forever, an attendant came in and gave us water bottles. Unclear if we were able to leave, we stayed in the steam room another 15 to 20 minutes, and ultimately decided to walk out when we couldn’t handle the heat anymore. The attendants didn’t seem to mind, though looking back they probably thought we were crazy for staying in there so long. They directed us to the hammam’s beautiful (but completely open) mosaic showers. My friend was directed through another opening to a more private shower, and I was asked to take off my towel and paper underwear as I was rinsed off. I was then asked to lay down on a marble slab where my attendant said “henna” (like the tattoo) and applied a thick, brown-blackish paste to my body. After letting my skin absorb this goo, it was back to the shower to be rinsed. Then came exfoliation. This part of the experience is uniquely Moroccan and taken very seriously. I was scrubbed with what seemed like sandpaper from head to toe, and think an entire layer of skin came off my body through this process, as I wondered what a normal amount of dead skin to come off was … it felt surprisingly good, but was definitely intense. I’m sure if there wasn’t a language barrier I could have asked her to scrub softer, but I endured it before heading to the shower for yet another rinse. Next came a calming clay mask. After application, the attendant covered me with a cloth and motioned for me to close my eyes. After about 30 minutes laying on the marble slab, she came back, led me to the shower to rinse off again, and pointed to some provided hair products. I fully showered this time, was (finally) handed a towel, and led to a room where I was asked if I wanted a massage. Unsure if this was included in the price, I politely said no. Instead, she quickly applied lotion over my entire body and handed my robe back. After an overwhelming but ultimately relieving experience, I followed her to the relaxation room, where a kettle full of mint tea was waiting for me. My friend soon joined and we concluded that we were happy we experienced a Moroccan hammam, but we’d probably never need to do it again. We then headed back to reality in the busy streets of Marrakech … with one less layer of skin. How to Pick a Moroccan Hammam Spa Marrakech is known for its hammams and is one of the best places to get authentic hammam spa treatments in Morocco. I received my Moroccan hammam spa treatment at La Mamounia, a luxury resort. If you’re looking for a certain level of comfort, book here or at another resort like Royal Mansour (of Instagram fame) or Selman Marrakech. You can easily call or email for a reservation ahead of time, and the spa menu at resorts will be in English. Because the exchange rate is so favorable at the moment, treatments are around $100 USD, which is a deal compared to U.S. and European spa prices. For a less expensive (under $50) Moroccan hammam spa treatment, book at a riad, a traditional Moroccan home, like Riad les Jardins Mandaline or Riad Camilia. Other traditional hammam options include the popular Hammam de La Rose and Le Bain Bleu, both located in the Marrakech medina. For the most authentic experience, consider a public hammam spa, like Hammam Dar el-Bacha. It’s the city’s largest traditional hammam with women-only hours in the afternoon and evening.
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If you’re ever wondering why porn performers never publicly http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=naked cam speak out about abuse or violence they experience on set while still in the industry, read on. This is the real account of two (and more) performers who have endured non-consensual violence at the hands of a male performer and director. The following details are graphic and triggering to those who have experienced abuse and/or struggled with porn. A couple of years ago, two up-and-coming porn performers released an hour-long YouTube confessional video (link trigger warning) that has now been taken down, graphically describing their reported mistreatment and alleged abuse on two different professional, mainstream porn sets. The performers, Leigh Raven and Riley Nixon, shared their raw and shocking experiences, which had many similarities—even the same people, director Just Dave and male performer Rico Strong—and complex questions about consent in porn. In the confessional video that has now been removed from YouTube, Raven told her story first. The shoot in question took place in March 2018, just a few days before the video was released. She described knowing Rico Strong prior to the shoot and even said they were friends. He asked her to fill in for a no-show and described the scene as “rough sex” with some “racial play.” In her video, Raven states she never would engage in racial slurs to people of color, but in this scene, the comments were to be directed at her. She agreed. Over the course of the next six hours until the shoot ended, Raven said what she endured was unlike anything else she had experienced before in her career. Her first clue was near the beginning when Strong said something about “Black payback,” entered the scene, and smacked her hard across the face. A violent scene gone extremely wrong It should be noted that the following descriptions of abuse on the porn set are triggering, and graphic. We won’t include everything that happened to Raven here, but if you’d like to know the full account, check out Jezebel’s coverage (link trigger warning) of the situation. After the initial face hit, Raven claims Strong moved into an extremely rough oral sex scene that almost suffocated her, despite repeated attempts to communicate her inability to breathe. Raven alleged that if she tried to pull back she was hit and called names, while Just Dave was increasingly frustrated that she wasn’t vomiting from the force of the act—a genre in porn called “facial abuse” that used to be more niche but is becoming more mainstream. Cover image screenshot from Nikki Hearts’ YouTube (note: the video has been made private). 12-minute read. TRIGGER WARNING The following post contains porn performer names and information, graphic descriptions of porn videos, and graphic descriptions of abusive situations. If you’re ever wondering why porn performers never publicly speak out about abuse or violence they experience on set while still in the industry, read on. This is the real account of two (and more) performers who have endured non-consensual violence at the hands of a male performer and director. The following details are graphic and triggering to those who have experienced abuse and/or struggled with porn. A couple of years ago, two up-and-coming porn performers released an hour-long YouTube confessional video (link trigger warning) that has now been taken down, graphically describing their reported mistreatment and alleged abuse on two different professional, mainstream porn sets. The performers, Leigh Raven and Riley Nixon, shared their raw and shocking experiences, which had many similarities—even the same people, director Just Dave and male performer Rico Strong—and complex questions about consent in porn. In the confessional video that has now been removed from YouTube, Raven told her story first. The shoot in question took place in March 2018, just a few days before the video was released. She described knowing Rico Strong prior to the shoot and even said they were friends. He asked her to fill in for a no-show and described the scene as “rough sex” with some “racial play.” In her video, Raven states she never would engage in racial slurs to people of color, but in this scene, the comments were to be directed at her. She agreed. Over the course of the next six hours until the shoot ended, Raven said what she endured was unlike anything else she had experienced before in her career. Her first clue was near the beginning when Strong said something about “Black payback,” entered the scene, and smacked her hard across the face. Consider Before Consuming A violent scene gone extremely wrong It should be noted that the following descriptions of abuse on the porn set are triggering, and graphic. We won’t include everything that happened to Raven here, but if you’d like to know the full account, check out Jezebel’s coverage (link trigger warning) of the situation. After the initial face hit, Raven claims Strong moved into an extremely rough oral sex scene that almost suffocated her, despite repeated attempts to communicate her inability to breathe. Raven alleged that if she tried to pull back she was hit and called names, while Just Dave was increasingly frustrated that she wasn’t vomiting from the force of the act—a genre in porn called “facial abuse” that used to be more niche but is becoming more mainstream. Related: Would Taking Away The Issue Of Performer Exploitation Make Porn More Acceptable? “Rico was then sticking his d— in my mouth as far as he could while I was giving him, you know, leg squeezes, leg nudges, to ease up, but he wasn’t easing up,” Raven said in the video. “He actually acknowledged the fact that I wanted his d— out of my mouth so I could breathe, because it was becoming unbearable at this point, because…essentially, I’m choking [on my own vomit].” All of this occurred before the intercourse scene. When it came time for that portion of filming, Raven was slapped by Strong on various parts of her body, she was forced to perform a position she had previously notified her director she could not do without pain, she was injured during penetration, and choked to near unconsciousness. In her account, her taps and signals to ease up were ignored. Just Dave had promised to call cut if there were any signs of discomfort, and yet with tears running down her face, Raven says he did not call cut. The following day Raven filed a police report and was encouraged to undergo a medical evaluation which discovered a vaginal tear and a bruised cervix. But she wasn’t the only professional performer who had this kind of experience with this performer and director. Months later, in an interview with Adult Video News after her story went public, Raven said, “I received about a dozen DMs and emails from women in the industry telling me they experienced the same thing on the same set … but didn’t want to come forward in fear of losing work. I have written proof/photos of their injuries but I will not ‘out’ a girl who doesn’t feel comfortable coming forward … and at this point, I don’t blame them.” The backlash she received for her public confessional video was intense. Raven reportedly tried to press criminal charges for the alleged assault on set, but her case was not taken seriously by the L.A. District Attorney. But why? There could be any number of reasons, but consider how issues of consent in the porn industry are often dismissed and stigmatized by those outside of the industry, and porn performers cannot reliably report abuse that happens on set without damage to their career, reputations, or without being stigmatized by law enforcement. It’s no secret that porn objectifies women. But just because porn doesn’t portray women well women doesn’t mean it’s positive for men. Consider how porn is created with entertainment in mind, not education. It isn’t produced with the intention to accurately or safely portray healthy sexuality, either. But all of these powerful images clearly affect consumers. The long-term studies paint a very different picture than what you might hear from pro-porn advocates. The preponderance of evidence from a dozen or more in-depth, longer-term studies consistently show porn consumption lowering relationship satisfaction, emotional closeness, and sexual satisfaction.1 Related: Study Finds Link Between Frequent Porn Consumption And Sexual Dysfunction For Both Men And Women Also, studies continue to show that porn can influence consumers’ sexual tastes to be more exreme and it can result in sexual health issues for men like erectile dysfunction. It also leaves consumers feeling lonely and can fuel mental health issues. But let’s rewind back to the objectification issue of porn. Yes, porn has all of these other documented harmful effects, but the objectification of people in porn is particularly harmful. But does porn reduce men to objects like it does women? Is it possible and is there research to support that? Turns out, the answer is yes. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam wanted to better understand and explore the actual content on porn sites. Their study analyzed three dimensions of gender inequality in porn, one of those being objectification. There’s no shortcut to discovering what the content contains without watching it. After examining 400 popular porn videos, the study concluded that porn does, in fact, objectify men, just in a different way than women. What’s the deal with objectification? Objectification (v): the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. Objectification is treating someone as if they are merely an object, not a person. The phrase “a means to an end” is often used when describing a woman as a sexual tool, often for a man. Examples of objectification toward women include being reduced to a body and not viewed as a whole person—some tangible actions of this are being catcalled, stared at, harrassed, or touched without consent. Women from all nationalities and backgrounds have stories very similar to Tracy Clayton, a writer and podcaster, whose first experience with being viewed as just a body was when she was in her mid-teens: “I was walking down the street on my way home when a man came up behind me. He told me I was pretty and asked how old I was, what grade I was in. I told him; I didn’t feel unsafe because I was with friends. He floated me a couple of other innocuous compliments…. Then he said, as he walked behind me, ‘and I know that p— is good, too.’ I had been catcalled before, but that was the first time a man made me so aware of my body and all of its parts, made me feel ashamed for having them, made me want to just disappear into thin air. In that moment I didn’t feel like a person; just flesh with no face, no name. I also somehow knew that it wouldn’t be the last time I would be made to feel that way.” Mediums that often objectify women are pop culture, and pornography. So what about men? Can they be objectified, too, especially by porn? industry-porn-set-shut-down-coronavirus-COVID-19-performer-star-camera-set It’s no secret that porn objectifies women. But just because porn doesn’t portray women well women doesn’t mean it’s positive for men. Consider how porn is created with entertainment in mind, not education. It isn’t produced with the intention to accurately or safely portray healthy sexuality, either. But all of these powerful images clearly affect consumers. The long-term studies paint a very different picture than what you might hear from pro-porn advocates. The preponderance of evidence from a dozen or more in-depth, longer-term studies consistently show porn consumption lowering relationship satisfaction, emotional closeness, and sexual satisfaction.1 Related: Study Finds Link Between Frequent Porn Consumption And Sexual Dysfunction For Both Men And Women Also, studies continue to show that porn can influence consumers’ sexual tastes to be more exreme and it can result in sexual health issues for men like erectile dysfunction. It also leaves consumers feeling lonely and can fuel mental health issues. But let’s rewind back to the objectification issue of porn. Yes, porn has all of these other documented harmful effects, but the objectification of people in porn is particularly harmful. But does porn reduce men to objects like it does women? Is it possible and is there research to support that? Turns out, the answer is yes. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam wanted to better understand and explore the actual content on porn sites. Their study analyzed three dimensions of gender inequality in porn, one of those being objectification. There’s no shortcut to discovering what the content contains without watching it. After examining 400 popular porn videos, the study concluded that porn does, in fact, objectify men, just in a different way than women. Related: How Early Porn Exposure Traumatizes Boys And Fuels Toxic Masculinity Store - General What’s the deal with objectification? Objectification (v): the action of degrading someone to the status of a mere object. Objectification is treating someone as if they are merely an object, not a person. The phrase “a means to an end” is often used when describing a woman as a sexual tool, often for a man. Related: How Mainstream Porn Perpetuates Racist Stereotypes Of Black Men Examples of objectification toward women include being reduced to a body and not viewed as a whole person—some tangible actions of this are being catcalled, stared at, harrassed, or touched without consent. Women from all nationalities and backgrounds have stories very similar to Tracy Clayton, a writer and podcaster, whose first experience with being viewed as just a body was when she was in her mid-teens: “I was walking down the street on my way home when a man came up behind me. He told me I was pretty and asked how old I was, what grade I was in. I told him; I didn’t feel unsafe because I was with friends. He floated me a couple of other innocuous compliments…. Then he said, as he walked behind me, ‘and I know that p— is good, too.’ I had been catcalled before, but that was the first time a man made me so aware of my body and all of its parts, made me feel ashamed for having them, made me want to just disappear into thin air. In that moment I didn’t feel like a person; just flesh with no face, no name. I also somehow knew that it wouldn’t be the last time I would be made to feel that way.” Mediums that often objectify women are pop culture, and pornography. So what about men? Can they be objectified, too, especially by porn? Related: The Porn Industry Doesn’t Just Sell Sex, It Sells Violent Abuse Of Women People Are Not Products - White How are men objectified in porn? In the study from the University of Amsterdam, the conclusion was that women were more often seen as instruments of men’s sexual pleasure in porn, and evidence of this is the amount of close-up body shots of women, but that “men were more frequently dehumanized” because their faces were rarely shown. The truth is, a lot of porn videos are made for the male experience or even filmed from their perspective. When the male character’s face is left out, the focus is clearly…elsewhere. In a YouTube satire series made by a major porn site called “PornSoup,” a female actress jokes about trying to cast a male porn performer When describing the male performers she says, “Your entire psyche sort of rests on whether you can get your d— hard, whether you have a bigger d— than everyone else.” The series is meant to be comical—making light of typical situations that occur during porn production—but it rings true to the research. According to porn, a man’s value is based on the size and stamina of his genitalia, and that’s pretty much it. The focus is below the belt, not on him as a whole person. The pressure to literally be larger than life and long-lasting leads to popping Viagra and other medications that put the performer’s health at risk. One former performer Chris Zeischegg opened up about his experiences in the porn industry, which included being treated “numerous times for painful, prolonged erections.” He was warned by doctors about possible long-term damage from his drug habits, which led him to re-think his career in such a brutal industry. “Stunt cocks” are another alternative to covering up a supposed male shortcoming, when a performer can’t perform or isn’t “big” enough for the role. These refer to either a fake prosthetic penis or another man’s real phallus used as a substitute when filming, with creative editing required in post-production. In a similar way, digital photography techniques are used to alter the appearance of the female body to an unattainable level, and these tactics for men continue to portray an exaggerated fantasy. |
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