The Sex Worker Chronicles

[lesbiaphrodite]

Below is a link to an article appearing currently on former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown's The Daily Beast. The article discusses a new book about the real lives of sex workers. It gives you a bird's-eye view, as it were, into what they think and feel and how they view sex from their end of the stick.

The article got me thinking about the whole issue of sex work and how people end up doing it for a living. I've known a few working girls in my life, and none of them were what most people would imagine. Some of them were nothing more than hustlers, but more often, they were women who were down on their luck and fell into the job.

I wonder what others think about sex work. If you were way down on your luck, lost your job, had nothing and were hungry as hell and had no one to help you, would you do it?

I like to think that I would definitely NOT do so. But, my luck has (as yet) not been that far down, and I pray it never is.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-...ex-worker-chronicles/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsR1

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Yanno, I suspect that if you polled the entire country, an amazing number of people work all their lives at a job or jobs that they just fell into because they were hungry and needed to work. Except for the possibility of VD, how is sex work different?

 

[lesbiaphrodite]

Yanno, I suspect that if you polled the entire country, an amazing number of people work all their lives at a job or jobs that they just fell into because they were hungry and needed to work. Except for the possibility of VD, how is sex work different?

Very well said, my friend. So true.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I'm of the mindset sex work should be legal, and the people who do it should be seen as every other service provider. Too often crimes and violence agaisnt sex workers is dismissed or over looked because "she was asking for it". No, she was doing her job.

We have people who clean, do laundry, garden, fix cars, build houses, every service under the sun because we can't or won't do the work ourselves. Sex work should be approached in the same way. the american view of sex is really starting to irritate me, in that we at once mystify it and denigrate it, making it dirty and yet sacred. Its sex! Its the most common and natural human instinct up there with hunger and thirst. Should restaurant workers be vilified because they cook my food? Is the girl at the Smoothie King less than human because she provides the service that slates my thirst?

Lesbia, you know I adore you, the rant is not aimed at you. I just too easily get riled that america can't think beyond 1950.

 

[Darkniciad]

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=541113

Easier than trying to summarize it. I'm lazy.

 

[Handley_Page]

Prostitution of the female is as old as humanity, although the ancient Egyptian temple 'hesets' (1400 bc) might be classed differently.

Why do we have to call the hookers and so on as "sex workers"? That implies that it is a recognised 'trade', and as such accepted as such in modern law, and subject to Taxes the same as the rest of us.

I don't know about the USA, but the UK has a crime called "Living off immoral earnings" (not seen too much these days). As that law has not been repealed, the Tax man cannot charge income tax on a prostitute's earnings because it is defined as 'immoral'.

Until the day dawns that prostitution is no longer illegal or immoral, (and the sooner the better, IMO), I don't agree with the definition.

 

[Austin8]

Sex Work I like the way that sounds.

Think I'll add it to my business card.

 

[Handley_Page]

Sex Work I like the way that sounds.

Think I'll add it to my business card.

Now you're getting greedy !

 

[R. Richard]

Prostitution is legal, in the State of Nevada. They have legal brothels there and the girls and their customers meet and work in a safe environment.

There are call girls, who mostly ply their trade in hotel/motel rooms and they take some risks, although most of their clients take more of a risk.

There are street hookers. Any woman who works as a street 'ho' is either insane or truly desperate.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Yanno, I suspect that if you polled the entire country, an amazing number of people work all their lives at a job or jobs that they just fell into because they were hungry and needed to work. Except for the possibility of VD, how is sex work different?

Um... when it comes to a sex worker did you really mean to say, "FELL INTO?"

 

[voluptuary_manque]

One does not 'leap upon' a job that one takes just because it was there and it paid when you needed it. One 'falls into' such a position. I know, I've held a few. One of them might have become a 'career', God forbid! Fortunately, I heard a call and heeded it. Others, many others, are not so lucky.

 

[Bianca_Sommerland]

Personally I don't think I'd do a job like that unless my kids were starving and it was the only alternative. That said I don't judge anyone who finds themselves in that situation. I do think it should be legalized, mostly for the safety of the woman (and sometimes men) involved, but even if it isn't I think no less of them.

Here in Montreal we have sexclubs where dancing is very...hands on, and behind the curtains you can get just about anything. The better clubs are very clean, but the girls are still often mistreated or give most of their money to the owners to pay for coke. The girls that try and play it straight (one of my friends stripped until she met her man, got married and moved away to get a good job) paying taxes on tips and doing no more then legal, get slighted for the girls making extra doing more.

If it was legalized there would be more protection, less chance of spreading stds and also less chance of pimps taking girls...ummm...hard earned cash.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Personally I don't think I'd do a job like that unless my kids were starving and it was the only alternative. That said I don't judge anyone who finds themselves in that situation. I do think it should be legalized, mostly for the safety of the woman (and sometimes men) involved, but even if it isn't I think no less of them.

Here in Montreal we have sexclubs where dancing is very...hands on, and behind the curtains you can get just about anything. The better clubs are very clean, but the girls are still often mistreated or give most of their money to the owners to pay for coke. The girls that try and play it straight (one of my friends stripped until she met her man, got married and moved away to get a good job) paying taxes on tips and doing no more then legal, get slighted for the girls making extra doing more.

If it was legalized there would be more protection, less chance of spreading stds and also less chance of pimps taking girls...ummm...hard earned cash.

Bianca,
There have been whores around since...forever. I suspect when CroMagnon ruled the earth there were women putting out for a better piece of the Mastadon or a fine Leopard pelt (or whatever was running around at the time).

But these days there is real danger of incurable infection, death at the hands of competitors and pimps, as well as, abuse by the customers.

It's a new world and not really a better one.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I've been involved with prostitutes in many ways, for many years.

I recall a few who used their talent to bankroll prosperity; many sucked the money up their noses or supported assholes. A very few were murdered. Some were armed robbers.

I never made problems for any woman who kept the business away from her kids.

Hell, I even knew one pimp who treated the women right. The ladies lived in a large home with spacious bedrooms; they were fed, clothes, chauffered, had daycare, maid service, etc. No drugs, no guys, no bullshit in the house, and the business was done at a better sort of motel. He did background checks, too.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Bianca,
There have been whores around since...forever. I suspect when CroMagnon ruled the earth there were women putting out for a better piece of the Mastadon or a fine Leopard pelt (or whatever was running around at the time).

But these days there is real danger of incurable infection, death at the hands of competitors and pimps, as well as, abuse by the customers.

It's a new world and not really a better one.

Uh, primatological research shows that prostitution actually predates humans. Female baboons 'assume the position' to distract dominant males from particularly succulent morsels and eat while getting mounted. What we have here is that purpose of government that even Social Conservatives (the one's with birdies coming out their ears) would agree is proper, 'provide for the common defense' and 'insure domestic tranquility'. Regulated prostitution protects both the providers and the customers. Unregulated prostitution supports illegal drug use, assault and battery, theft, venereal disease and a whole range of ills.

The 'city parents' of San Francisco grew frustrated with their street walker problem and sent a delegation to Nevada to explore the legal brothels there. The results astonished. Those sex workers who avoided illegal drugs and saved their money were often able to retire in their mid-thirties with an income for life. They would leave the state, settle in a small-to-medium-sized town and become eminently respectable. Of course, California law forbids such things but the model is obvious. Regulated prostitution is good for everyone involved and in no way damages those who are not involved. QED

 

[R. Richard]

In Italy, they had illegal, but regulated brothels for a long time. There were rules and protection for the girls and the customers. It was a win-win situation.

A woman got elected to the Italian equivalent of Congress and created a bill outlawing the brothels. Italy is a conservative, Catholic country and those 'Congresssmen' who hoped to get re-elected voted for the bill, which passed.

Suddenly the girls were frocd into the street to earn the living that was usually the only work they knew. They froze in the winter and baked in the summer. They got raped and beat up. They went to the 'Congresswoman' and told her that they wanted their brothels back.

The 'Congresswoman' created another bill to legalize the brothels. Those 'Congresssmen' who hoped to get re-elected voted against the bill, which failed.

Be careful of what you wish for, you may get it.

 

[Liar]

I wonder what others think about sex work. If you were way down on your luck, lost your job, had nothing and were hungry as hell and had no one to help you, would you do it?

I doubt I'd find any buyers.

 

[Bianca_Sommerland]

Bianca,
There have been whores around since...forever. I suspect when CroMagnon ruled the earth there were women putting out for a better piece of the Mastadon or a fine Leopard pelt (or whatever was running around at the time).

But these days there is real danger of incurable infection, death at the hands of competitors and pimps, as well as, abuse by the customers.

It's a new world and not really a better one.

Agreed, but at one point, or several, depending how far you look back, it was a proffession that carried some dignity. The courtisans, for one, were treated better then many wives. The Geisha were elite and though many were mistreated it was a better life then they came from.

I don't know of any other time where it was so looked down on as it is now.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

During the Westward movement, it was a summer job for Eastern school teachers. Really, it was!