Bramblethorn
Sleep-deprived
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2012
- Posts
- 18,761
Disclosure: AwkwardMD and Omenainen asked me for a third opinion on some aspects of Emily's story, and I can see some of that made it into the review.
This isn't to say that my reaction aligns perfectly with theirs. I found more to like in this story than they did. In particular:
Literotica is a heterogenous site. Every story comes with its own expectations about "realism" and the right level depends on the story. Rather than "more realism good, less realism bad" or vice versa, I'd focus on consistency: decide what level of realism you're aiming for, then stick to that.
The opening of Emily's story suggests she's aiming for relatively high realism, "warts and all":
Many stories on this site would skip the douching. But this story characterises her as somebody who prepares for such things. The intro repeatedly spotlights the contrast between the fantasy of Mimi and the reality of Lauren. Problem is, it then contradicts itself in several areas.
Lauren is a 32-year-old woman "subject to the dictates of biological function", starting to age out of the business, and we learn later that she's also raising a small child. She's still recovering from a tough client the night before. But then she pulls off a night's work that would've been too much for most 18-year-olds, both physically and emotionally - the BDSM scene alone should have been a whole night's work - and still has enough energy afterwards to drive herself home and get it on with her husband. Essentially, we're told how close her tank is to empty, and then told how she drives a long long way on that tank, without knowing how she makes it last.
(This could've been resolved by not requiring the whole story to happen in one night, even if that means changing the title.)
At various points, she is presented as an experienced escort who's prepared for her work. She douches in advance, she's on the books for three different agencies, she brings her own restraints. But other points show her to be dangerously unprepared.
One of Em's recent comments in reply to a reader says: "Mimi is kinda expensive. So less dangerous than for many working girls." This is something that can be true, but safety isn't achieved simply by charging more money. It's achieved by selecting safe clients and by taking control of the work to avoid unsafe situations.
Walking into a frat house alone? Letting a new client go straight into a BDSM scene she wasn't expecting, restraining her so she can't get away, without discussing what they're going to do or establishing that he knows how to do it right? Extremely unsafe.
Part of that "selecting safe clients" bit is screening and vetting. An independent sex worker who's been contacted by a new prospective client is going to do a lot of research on that client to get an idea of who they are, whether they're likely to get violent, and so on. They might ask for other SWs who've seen that client before and can vouch for them. All of this ten times over for BDSM play, something that can get dangerous even between lovers if they don't know what they're doing.
In Lauren/Mimi's case, she's working through agencies, and they may handle some of that on her behalf. But she's still going to want to know that it has been done. Her agency shouldn't be agreeing to a BDSM scene without it, they shouldn't be sending her to a BDSM scene without telling her what's been agreed on (and what the guy has agreed to pay for), and if he goes outside what she was told to expect, at very minimum that should be time-out to renegotiate the deal. Some SWs may not be in a position to say no to clients overstepping boundaries, but if Mimi's at the safer end of the industry, then she has to be.
This is not a trivial thing. Lauren/Mimi is the mother of a young child, doing sex work in a state where sex work is illegal. If those photos get online, and somebody recognises her and sends the picture on to her grandparents, that's unlikely to work out well for her.
Guys who do this kind of thing aren't likely to find escorts willing to vouch for them, and if her agency is letting guys like this through, without warning her, they are not a safe agency to work with.
Leaving aside safety and emotional/physical fatigue, the scene described there would leave marks on her. Literal, visible marks. She's wearing nipple clamps tight enough to be immediately "excruciating", for long enough to lose track of time; the ropes on her wrists have been pulled tight by her body weight; plus whatever bruising and reddening arise from the flogging.
Most clients don't want an escort who shows up looking like used goods. A SW who does a scene like this will likely be pricing on the assumption that she's not taking more jobs until the marks have faded. A $100 tip doesn't come close to covering it. Instead, she's right on to the next job.
Somewhere between 6:30 and 8:45 PM, Client #2 flogs her pussy, to the point where she loses track of time and dissociates. She goes straight on to the frat boys, where she reveals "her immaculately waxed vulva", the one that just took a heavy flogging. Then somewhere around midnight, maybe five hours? after the flogging, "she reflected that her sore pussy had had a whole day to recover. It actually felt pretty good right now." Again, the story undermines itself, turning that intense BDSM scene into something that's virtually forgotten the moment she walks out the door. One brief mention of sore areolae in the next scene, that's it.
Again, this wouldn't be an issue if this was intended as a stroke story. When the sex is the whole point of the story, sure, skip any parts of "realism" that get in the way of the sex: STIs, accidental pregnancy, serial killers. But it felt to me the hard bits of the job were intended to be a major focus in this story - it's right there in the title - and if that's the intention, then it's important to follow through on those hard parts.
This isn't to say that my reaction aligns perfectly with theirs. I found more to like in this story than they did. In particular:
- It presented Mimi/Lauren as a human being who's making choices, without stigmatising her for those choices and without casting her as a hapless victim.
- It considered sex work as a complicated prospect, a job that has a lot of negatives but also has positives.
- It showed something of the range of that work, with several different kinds of jobs and clients.
Literotica is a heterogenous site. Every story comes with its own expectations about "realism" and the right level depends on the story. Rather than "more realism good, less realism bad" or vice versa, I'd focus on consistency: decide what level of realism you're aiming for, then stick to that.
The opening of Emily's story suggests she's aiming for relatively high realism, "warts and all":
Many stories on this site would skip the douching. But this story characterises her as somebody who prepares for such things. The intro repeatedly spotlights the contrast between the fantasy of Mimi and the reality of Lauren. Problem is, it then contradicts itself in several areas.
Lauren is a 32-year-old woman "subject to the dictates of biological function", starting to age out of the business, and we learn later that she's also raising a small child. She's still recovering from a tough client the night before. But then she pulls off a night's work that would've been too much for most 18-year-olds, both physically and emotionally - the BDSM scene alone should have been a whole night's work - and still has enough energy afterwards to drive herself home and get it on with her husband. Essentially, we're told how close her tank is to empty, and then told how she drives a long long way on that tank, without knowing how she makes it last.
(This could've been resolved by not requiring the whole story to happen in one night, even if that means changing the title.)
At various points, she is presented as an experienced escort who's prepared for her work. She douches in advance, she's on the books for three different agencies, she brings her own restraints. But other points show her to be dangerously unprepared.
One of Em's recent comments in reply to a reader says: "Mimi is kinda expensive. So less dangerous than for many working girls." This is something that can be true, but safety isn't achieved simply by charging more money. It's achieved by selecting safe clients and by taking control of the work to avoid unsafe situations.
Walking into a frat house alone? Letting a new client go straight into a BDSM scene she wasn't expecting, restraining her so she can't get away, without discussing what they're going to do or establishing that he knows how to do it right? Extremely unsafe.
Part of that "selecting safe clients" bit is screening and vetting. An independent sex worker who's been contacted by a new prospective client is going to do a lot of research on that client to get an idea of who they are, whether they're likely to get violent, and so on. They might ask for other SWs who've seen that client before and can vouch for them. All of this ten times over for BDSM play, something that can get dangerous even between lovers if they don't know what they're doing.
In Lauren/Mimi's case, she's working through agencies, and they may handle some of that on her behalf. But she's still going to want to know that it has been done. Her agency shouldn't be agreeing to a BDSM scene without it, they shouldn't be sending her to a BDSM scene without telling her what's been agreed on (and what the guy has agreed to pay for), and if he goes outside what she was told to expect, at very minimum that should be time-out to renegotiate the deal. Some SWs may not be in a position to say no to clients overstepping boundaries, but if Mimi's at the safer end of the industry, then she has to be.
This is not a trivial thing. Lauren/Mimi is the mother of a young child, doing sex work in a state where sex work is illegal. If those photos get online, and somebody recognises her and sends the picture on to her grandparents, that's unlikely to work out well for her.
Guys who do this kind of thing aren't likely to find escorts willing to vouch for them, and if her agency is letting guys like this through, without warning her, they are not a safe agency to work with.
Leaving aside safety and emotional/physical fatigue, the scene described there would leave marks on her. Literal, visible marks. She's wearing nipple clamps tight enough to be immediately "excruciating", for long enough to lose track of time; the ropes on her wrists have been pulled tight by her body weight; plus whatever bruising and reddening arise from the flogging.
Most clients don't want an escort who shows up looking like used goods. A SW who does a scene like this will likely be pricing on the assumption that she's not taking more jobs until the marks have faded. A $100 tip doesn't come close to covering it. Instead, she's right on to the next job.
Somewhere between 6:30 and 8:45 PM, Client #2 flogs her pussy, to the point where she loses track of time and dissociates. She goes straight on to the frat boys, where she reveals "her immaculately waxed vulva", the one that just took a heavy flogging. Then somewhere around midnight, maybe five hours? after the flogging, "she reflected that her sore pussy had had a whole day to recover. It actually felt pretty good right now." Again, the story undermines itself, turning that intense BDSM scene into something that's virtually forgotten the moment she walks out the door. One brief mention of sore areolae in the next scene, that's it.
Again, this wouldn't be an issue if this was intended as a stroke story. When the sex is the whole point of the story, sure, skip any parts of "realism" that get in the way of the sex: STIs, accidental pregnancy, serial killers. But it felt to me the hard bits of the job were intended to be a major focus in this story - it's right there in the title - and if that's the intention, then it's important to follow through on those hard parts.
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It is all perfectly understandable.
thanks!!
