EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY. – T.H. White, The Once and Future King (notice posted in an ant colony)
No job is right for everyone, and as I‘ve often said sex work is no exception; some people love it, some hate it, some tolerate it, and nearly everyone who does it feels it’s the best available option. The same rule applies within the sphere of sex work; one woman may prefer stripping, another phone sex work, still another prostitution. And even within prostitution there are many, many ways to work, no one of which is right for every whore. For me and many others, one of the most important advantages of harlotry is the freedom it gives; one can work as much or as little as one wants, at whatever day or time one wants, in one’s own home or some specific place, or only at clients’ places, or some mixture. One can set a very high price and do few calls, or a lower price and do more; one can be a GFE, PSE or plain vanilla, specialize in short calls or long, and pretty much arrange things as one pleases. If one decides she’s had enough for a given day she can sign off, if she decides to work a little longer she can, and if she decides to break or change her personal rules there’s nobody to say she can’t. Of course, the more freedom a hooker wants the less security she has; working with others requires keeping one’s bargains, paying any agreed-upon fees, adhering to arranged schedules, etc.
All of this drives “authorities” crazy; the mind of a control freak craves being able to cram everything and everyone into neat little boxes, and to adopt a “one size fits all” approach to everyone forced into a given box. Listen to the stupid rhetoric cops and politicians spew about hookers: we’re “all” criminals, or victims, or psychologically dysfunctional, or slutty, or whatever. And even those who recognize that using words like “all” makes them sound moronic insist that exceptions are few and rare, while in reality it’s exactly the opposite: the most consistent statement one can make about whores is that it’s really difficult to make consistent statements about whores. American policies tend to pretend we’re all streetwalkers, and many of the “legalized” or “tolerated” European regimes of the recent past (as late as the 1980s) usually dramatically overestimated the number of dates contracted by any given girl, mostly to squeeze them for as much tax revenue as possible but also to reinforce their own myths about our “dirtiness”, “sluttiness”, “degradation”, etc (hence the common “15 clients a day” myth).
This masculine obsession with control and “regulation” is the reason cops and bureaucrats are so consistently fond of red-light districts and licensed brothels; they concentrate all the uppity, chaotic, disobedient floozies into one place where they can be more easily monitored and more conveniently harassed, robbed and raped. This is not to say that such places don’t have their advantages; as pointed out in Wednesday’s column they allow the creation of female-dominated subcultures where women can support and defend one another, and they certainly make it easier for the clients to locate women to hire. But once “authorities” recognize the huge amount of money to be made, corrupt licensing systems favoring the wealthy and politically-connected usually develop, turning the walls that keep danger out into pens keeping whores in. Some women still prefer the safety, the regimentation and the advantage of having a basic idea of whose arse has to be kissed and when, but others would rather gamble with cops and bad clients than work for a state-approved pimp. This is, of course, the problem with the Nevada system, a model virtually no sex worker rights advocate or advocacy group recommends: a very small number of licenses are held by a very small group of wealthy cronies, prostitutes are virtual prisoners who must be constantly on call and submit to humiliating “lineups” like animals to be judged at a county fair, and cannot refuse clients without severe penalties. As explained in my column of one year ago today, these onerous requirements cause most women of “high opportunity cost” to avoid working in Nevada brothels; 70% of all Nevada prostitutes prefer to work illegally than to live under such a regime. Of course, some men and virtually all politicians love it for the same reason so many whores hate it: the system reduces sexually powerful, often haughty harlots to mere employees working in a different kind of cubicle.
The arbitrary character of laws imposed on prostitutes becomes obvious when one compares various legalization regimes; brothels, for example, are banned in the UK but required in Nevada. The judicial process in Canada may soon result in decriminalization of brothels there, which would be a good thing if whores can choose to work in them or not as they please, and if the licensing procedure is sufficiently liberal and reasonable that it does not result in a corrupt cartel controlling a small number of brothels with virtually-identical conditions, thus negating real choice of work arrangements. But apparently, that oppressive scenario is exactly what some control freaks envision for Ontario:
…Ailing Toronto strip clubs have bold plans to become glitzy high-security bordellos that feature both prostitutes and exotic dancers now that the Ontario Court of Appeal has thrown out a ban on hookers. The bordello option is gaining steam with support from some Toronto city councillors who say it will bring millions of dollars into the cash-starved city…some advocates call for a downtown red light district. Others want sex to be sold and packaged like the Nevada-based Moonlite Bunny Ranch…whose officials will travel here in June on a fact-finding tour…Advocates for brothels claim rooms for sex romps can be constructed to existing Toronto strip clubs, which are already zoned for sex use. Nurses will be on site to conduct medical checks on sex workers and there will be security cameras in common areas and emergency alarms in the sex stalls to protect women. Club owners said the prostitutes will undergo training and must pass a police background security check before they’re hired. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, chairman of the community development and recreation committee, said the city stands to gain millions of dollars in taxes if licensed adult clubs expand into legal brothels…Mammoliti claims brothels can curb the trafficking of women for the sex trade, clean up the shady massage and sex parlour industry, place health workers in clubs, force pimps out and make it safer for prostitutes and their customers…
Leave it to politicians to figure out a way to turn a victory for sex workers into a two-tiered scheme which will exclude everyone who cannot pass a background check or won’t submit to police registration, or who won’t work in “sex stalls”, or who refuse to endure the invasive and degrading “health inspections” many countries have discarded as useless and unnecessary. If these brothels are but one option for working girls and don’t result in stigmatization or persecution of the (probably) 70% who prefer to work alone or in private groups, I’m all for them. But dragging in that “sex trafficking” nonsense bodes otherwise; “authorities” hate choice, and all too often yesterday’s forbidden activity becomes tomorrow’s compulsory one.
This demonstrates how little the authorities know about actual sex work. The several sex workers I know well would never subject themselves to such restrictive oversight. It is the freedom to set one’s own schedule and structure a business model that works for her that is a primary reason they chose to do this.
>Of course, some men and virtually all politicians love it for the same reason so many whores hate it: the system reduces sexually powerful, often haughty harlots to mere employees working in a different kind of cubicle.
If this could be more easily done, if corporations and capitalists could turn sex work easily into retail businesses dominated by themselves, you can bet it would be legal.
But at it’s core, sex work deals with those primal, chaotic, not easily regulated animals urges, and so it’s evolved to deal with all that. These very urges, so primal, make the regulators uncomfortable, and they blame us, rather than themselves. That’s world wide, and especially common in patriarchal religions like Christianity and Islam. Blame the women for the men’s desires, which distract them from servicing the church and it’s power structure.
You ever think that the Nevada model was a subtle act of double think on behalf of American lawheads? On one hand they’ve proved that “good” whores exist once they’ve been properly tamed by the firm hand of the law, but on the other hand they’ve also “proved” to the neo fems how nasty the whole business is by treating the hookers as subservient workers. Thus giving the anti hoe mob more ammo for their morality crusade.
You can throw governments into that mix too.
You ladies may have all the sexual power – but, at the end of the day – it’s the PHYSICAL power of males that governments really cherish. This is because governmental power is maintained through the threat of force.
Soooo, what’s required here is a loyal supply of healthy men who are dedicated to the cause. This requires a breeding population and whores kind of inject a bit of entropy into that system. The sexual power of women also has to be subjugated to the men in order to keep the men happy. The men realize it’s the government that keeps them happy and go along with the plan – and invade any country government commands them to.
To allow women to have sexual freedom would put them on an equal par with men – and both men and women would then begin to rely on each other rather than the government. We can’t have this!! The government has to have it’s share.
One of the most “genius” systems I ever studied was the early Mormon church. Pious and devoted MEN could have as many wives as they wanted – they could even take wives from other Mormon men who were lower in stature in the church. This caused all the men to scratch like mountain goats for the top of the hill. The higher you climbed on the hill – the greater the sexual reward. This was an AWESOME incentive that served the church well.
And the motivation for women? Well, hell – they COULDN’T GET IN to Heaven unless they were attached to a pious man. And since they shared in the afterlife “spoils” of the man they were attached to (like their own celestial kingdoms as a “GOD” themselves) – they competed for the tippy top of the pious males in the church.
And if a man was excommunicated – he couldn’t receive the blessings of a celestial kingdom – and without that – he had no coat tails for his wives to hold on to – so they left him!!!
Genius. 😀
You’re speaking in the past tense, love. As warfare and industry have become increasingly mechanized, governments have realized that they prefer the generally-more-tractable women, hence the increasing numbers of women in every workforce and the laws designed to please female voters at male expense. Another advantage of women is that, as a population, we vary less in our needs and wants than do men, and it’s easier to placate larger numbers of us with a bullshit “one size fits all” solution than it is to do that with men. And that’s yet another reason it’s so damned important for those of us who don’t fit that mold to speak up.
Damn – and what I said made so much sense to my tiny mind as I thought of Ceaușescu and Hitler! 😛
And yeah I was thinking in the past – like back to medieval times too. I was also thinking about for when I invade and conquer Sweden, and I guess this shows how primitive my mind works because I was planning that to be a totally masculine physical thing too, although the liberation of the Swedish Bikini Team is the first major goal of the operation. Fuck Stockholm – whoever controls the Swedish Bikini Team controls Sweden.
I don’t know, I’m thinking maybe now I should hire a real tactician, because I think in the past. I think my strength is just running around, looking mean, and yelling a lot – but it’s going to take a lot more than that! (Sigh).
It’s no less humiliating for some men. I’ve only been involved in this like, twice. The first the “lineup” consisted of two girls (LOL) … and the stuff that went through my mind was … “Well they both are ‘okay’ … hmmm, at least ten years older than me … neither one smiling … heh … don’t want to pick the one that doesn’t like her work … don’t want to pick the one that doesn’t like me … does either of them even like me? … probably not … shit … eeeny, meeenie, miny, mo …”
Second time – same place, and I think three girls all older than me … and I just looked at the lady in charge and told her … “I’m 21 – do you have ANYONE close to my age?” She said yeah – that she had one girl my age who was with a client and I could come back in 30 minutes for her. I said … “Cool” and came back later and that’s when I met Michelle and became her regular for about 2 years – she was awesome but I didn’t pull her out of a lineup.
1) We can thank and blame the ancient Greeks for the “little boxes” concepts; compartmentalization is a very useful method of classification and taxonomy, useful in rhetoric and argument, but it simultaneously blinds us to the idea that not all things are binary (either/or); there are “shades of grey”.
2) Have there been any studies of the psychological profiles of harlots? Who’s going to be successful and who shouldn’t enter the profession?
‘… submit to humiliating “lineups” like animals to be judged at a county fair, and cannot refuse clients without severe penalties.’
I agree about the lineups. I do find them humiliating.
I can speak only about The Moon Lite Bunny Ranch (MLBR) and The Love Ranch (TLR) which are both owned by the same person. At these two places one can decline a lineup and go straight to the bar, request a particular lady, or simply hangout.
I have been told by several ladies at both MLBR and TLR that lineups are not mandatory.
I have been told that at one particular brothel near Las Vegas there is a fine for missing a lineup. I have no personal information about this place, so I cannot say for sure.
I have seen potential clients refused in various ways.
Also, there is nothing to stop them from leaving the site for shopping and the like. Of course, long, frequent absences are frowned upon and can result in a heart to heart conversation, and if that behavior persists, they will find themselves not invited back. This makes sense because if they are gone, nobody is making money and there is the suspicion of “freelancing”.
I thought some form of decriminalisation, and even a little regulation might be a more empowering thing for the women who voluntarily engage in sex work? Though nothing like the Nevada brothel model or Amsterdam model, because as you rightly point out, it’s requiring a person to trade off their independence and relative freedom and be put into (shocked exclamation) much decried organised prostitution!
Certainly I do like the sound of any idea which provides increased security for the women, but it could easily be a case of paraphrasing Ben Franklin when he said that “he [she] who sacrifices freedom for temporary security deserves neither”. So while it sounds like a positive idea, which would be easy to sell politically to the majority of people, the current operations seem to be too much angled from a “controlling” or “nanny state” intention rather than the best interests of the women involved.
Possibly a bit of the “good hooker, bad hooker” thing going on as well, it’s actually shameful to see the Nevada brothel model of choice-less, enforced prostitution for what are most likely legally pimped/cartel operated brothels receiving legal approval. So much for equality before the law for “good hookers” vs “bad hookers.
What is PSE?
“Porn Star Experience”.
I know Maggie has an index on this site but this is the only one I could find and it doesn’t have “PSE” on it …
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/more-terminology/
I never quite “got” the “PSE” fad. What? I wanna pay a girl to overact with obviously faked moans of pleasure? Porn is such a bad influence – especially on young men. You see all these positions in the movies and the women just LOVING them so you figure that it’s a good idea to try with your girlfriend. Rongo Reindeer – BEWARE! I did that one time, in a position that’s fairly common, but usually accomplished by a man on his knees and when I hiked up onto my feet (as I had seen in a movie) my girlfriend turned around and shot me a fierce “stink eye” and said … “What the FUCK are you doing??!!”
And then a few weeks ago, Maggie mentioned how she always laughed at men (usually of a certain ethnicity) who used some kind of “gyro” motion to hit every angle. Well, I’m not of that ethnicity – but that move had been a part of my “love repertoire” for over 30 years and now I feel pretty ridiculous. So I gave that up. 🙁
Then again – maybe she was describing something else but whatever she was really talking about – it’s too similar to what I was doing so into the trash heap of broken porn-influenced sex techniques it goes!!
You were almost there; it was in the first one rather than the sequel. 🙂
That’s because you are a Jedi and I am but a “Padawan” Librarian!!
http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2010/09/07/830/
Thanks all.
Whatever technique, however strange, there is some lady out there who likes it. I doubt not but there are women who like the gyro-action. Then again, how many do you meet who do not before you meet one who does?
Legalization could be a good thing if it was one temporary bump on the road to decriminalization, but sadly that is often not the case.
Austria has had the same legalization regime for almost 140 years now, and since the issue has supposedly been “solved”, it is very difficult to generate the critical mass for change. Each state in the country can issue licenses on arbitrary criteria, and one state doesn’t issue licenses at all; hence most legalization regimes look like a slightly milder form of criminalization.
Why the bleeding hell does a hooker need to pass a security check? To make sure the bordello doesn’t hire Natasha, and Boris is her pimp?
Seems to me they don’t need to check anything but her age (age of consent in Canada recently raised to sixteen). Sure, check her health, but I’ve been at this blog long enough to know it’s not really needed. After all, she doesn’t want to get any diseases any more than her clients do, and she knows how to be careful. If you have to have a health check, let her just sign a paper that gives her doctor permission to share relevant information with the Whore Corps, which is the name I made up on the spot for the agency which would conduct checks and provide licenses.
I wouldn’t mind brothels having a bouncer or two, but then I suspect that they’d hire one required or not. Alarm bell? That’s a great idea! But again, wouldn’t she be likely to have it unless strictly prohibited? Make it a tax break if you install them, if they feel the need to encourage it. And really, I’d hope that it would be “bedrooms” instead of “sex stalls.” The idea of having sex in a stall makes me think of Equus.
I do believe that any brothel should meet building codes. Don’t want it burning to the ground because of bad wiring or collapsing under a snow load.
Isn’t the point behind “Sex work is work” that sex workers are just “employees working in a different kind of cubicle” and the sex industry is no different from any other field?
Most sex workers are independent contractors, not employees; many women choose this form of work because they are unable (for whatever reason) to work a “straight” 9-5 job. That does not change the fact that it’s work, just as any small single-owner business is.
That escorts are independent contractors was news to me, a year and more ago. I honestly thought they worked for the agency, like taxi drivers working for Yellow Cab or something.
Hold on, let me check something…
Turns out at least some taxi drivers are also independent contractors. I wonder if the independent contractor model is getting more popular, with more kinds of workers?
“15 customers a day”.
Unless I was working a party or doing a gang-bang, no.
MY work style was the “PSE”, with rough sex allowed. Sailor, I define it more as a very physical, energetic session, less talking more action. More willing to do different things. Also, I’d done some porn, so…
Since for some reason, it seemed like most of my competition was the GFE style, that specialty worked for me, and kept me constantly busy.The rough thing, well, the men who liked that really liked it and provided me a steady supply of regulars. (Also provided the benefit of always making my money and still being able to turn away bad clients or those who wouldn’t allow proper screening.)
(BTW, GFE and PSE Seemed to be American things. Wasn’t the same in Europe, maybe it is now.)
Since what I did took a lot of energy, and sometimes left bruises, I can’t imagine routinely doing that 15 times a day. My busiest Non-party day was 12 sessions, some multiple “cups of coffee” as they used to say, and that was crazy. (auto show was in town) I only did that once.
Most of the guys who wanted all those different positions couldn’t manage them. An example, one of my regulars was a short, chubby man who always wanted a new, exotic position. I was constantly having to come up with something he could do. This became more of a challenge towards the end, as my arthritis got worse. (No, I wasn’t that old then, just had early onset arthritis.)
I think the important thing is that most every whore adopts the work style that suits her best, and that she’s comfortable with. That’s also something the Nevada Brothel destroys.
Not sure why you addressed it to me, but yeah, I could see me wanting a PSE sometime. Some of the things Heather Hunter used to do looked pretty exciting, even if they did bolt the lawn chair down. I don’t know that they did, I’m just throwing it out as a possibility.
OMG… I had to come out of hiding to comment on background checking prostitutes. REALLY??? Why not just shoot someone when they are convicted of a crime because there is no possible way for them to ever secure any type of employment in the future. Not even as a whore once whoring is “legalized”. I’ve seen it all now.