I’m a journalist preparing a report about the increasing use of AirBNB by prostitutes. Do you know if this is something common ?
I’m not sure why people are surprised that sex workers use AirBnB. See, sex workers are people, so any time something becomes more common for people in general, you can bet it will also become more common for sex workers. As smartphones became more popular, they also became more popular for whores. As Uber became more popular, we used it more, too. And since AirBnB has become increasingly popular, Surprise! We’re using it more as well. I don’t see any stories headlined “Medical Professionals Increasingly Use Computers for Research”, or “Small Businesses Turn To Square for Credit Card Processing”, but for some reason when perfectly ordinary sex workers (and yeah, we’re pretty ordinary; there’s no city in the world where we can’t be found) use a perfectly ordinary technology or product, it becomes a story. If sex workers are using AirBnB to a disproportionate degree than other people who rent hotel rooms (and that’s a mighty big “if”), it’s probably because cops and other professional busybodies are lying to hotel owners, managers and employees about imaginary “sex trafficking” in an effort to get them to spy on sex workers and report them to said cops, so the cops can then arrest the workers, steal everything they own as “proceeds of crime” and then plaster their names and faces all over the news. If you want a real story instead of a ridiculous excuse to titillate the bourgeois, try investigating how the War on Whores is becoming the replacement for the increasingly-unpopular War on Drugs.
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In fairness to the journalist, this could be an interesting article. If, as you said it is framed in the light of whether or not sex workers use AirBnB disproportionately compared to hotels. Coming soon to the AirBnB host guide: “How to spot signs of sex trafficking amongst your guests.”
I’m guessing it won’t be, because if Maggie thought this particular journalist had any inclination to actually write the truth about sex workers instead of the typical ‘traficking’ garbage, she wouldn’t have put this takedown up for all to see.
Further, I’m also guessing said journalist will include in their final product some nasty words about Maggie (maybe with direct identification, maybe not) and her “unreasonable” refusal to play along with their little exercise.
I hasten to add, this is purely speculation. I do not claim to actually know what Maggie was thinking when she wrote this.
If it were used against the rare but real situation on sex trafficking, I would agree. But most journalists are predisposed to think of prostitutes as drugged out victims, not independent women and men, just as they thought of pot smokers occupying the same niche as heroin or meth addicts in the 1960’s. Oh for some independent journalism without preconceptions.
Think of the shock when they realize sex-workers use the Internet!
Interesting point. In Sweden, there is one big important reason why you would want to know if your AirBnB-spot is being rented by sex workers for work reasons: by definition in law, you act as a pimp if you rent your apartment to a SW who uses it as a place of business. This could throw you in jail for a couple of years at least. (It is illegal to buy, but not to sell, sex here. The Nordic model. Yeah, it sucks.)
It’s the same bin most of the world. But since there’s no way for the AirBnB host to know what a sex worker will do with the property, that’d be an awfully hard charge to make stick.
Maggie, since the authorities appear to have abandoned the concept of “burden of proof”, and that of “probable cause” too, what would STOP them making it stick, when they are perfectly willing to use arguments as flimsy as “she smelled like a hooker” to make said charge, coupled with “Ignorance is no excuse”?
I can easily see that renting your property to a sex worker, either knowingly or unknowingly, would be labelled as “living off the avails” and subject one’s goods to “asset forfeiture” as a result.
Honestly Maggie, why arent the US Citizens exercising their rights to throw off a Tyrannical government yet?
> that’d be an awfully hard charge to make stick
“strict liability” crimes (which most sex-related crimes are) are the other way around. You’re liable by default, and it’s extremely hard to make some sort of “good faith” defense.
I had to Google AirBnB to even find out what it was.