I haven't been around long enough to comment on the difference between providing in the 80's vs the Internet age, but I am curious if anyone here can enlighten me.  I read this article on The Boston Globe's website this morning and kind of feel like they are missing the target by a long shot.  The article is titled "Internet has driven sex industry deep into shadows"  With the eye-catching first line reading "This hardly seems possible, but being a prostitute now is even more awful than it used to be."  What do you think?

they definately missed the boat and I would guess unless the person writing the story was a hooker how the fuck do they know?????
rediculous

that girl was a streetwalker
there is a huge difference from what she did and what we do
she was equivalent to a now a days crack whore thats not what we are doing
that might be what the girl who was killed was up to but thats not what we are doing here. very different

The writer makes it sound like all providers have pimps or external "oppressors" (trafficking, drug problems) that force them to work under dangerous conditions and somehow ties that to the internet... which is the part that doesn't make sense to me.  The author claims, use of the internet = more dangerous for providers?  Maybe it's not a bad thing that girls that typically use the internet for screening purposes are not on the Boston Globe's radar.  The comments that people left below the article are even more interesting to me.

The internet has made sex workers safer by allowing them the tools to screen and avoid physical contact until they are satisfied.

Journalism at its best .. Prostitution is soooo taboo. Politicians will never legalize it because of there fat ugly wife's would kill them . It cracks me up when you get guys like Elliot Spitzer (ny) trying to clean up NYC by ridding the sex industry and he's hiring ho's for himself . Barney frank, jerry springer, Weiner and do many more . A provider told me she got caught in a sting and as she was going to the station th cop was trying to set up a date with her.. Hate these hypocrites..

This reads like a badly written college writing assignment.  Almost nothing to support her allegations of fact. No consideration of counterarguments. The author has an agenda but this writing effort does not help it.

Now this I think is much more representative of the profession:

I haven't read any of the books you mentioned, but this one:

When he was a State Rep in Mass back in the 1970s he introduced legislation to legalize, or at least allow under some form of regulation sex for pay.  It didn't go anywhere, but to bring this up back in those days took some guts

I have contacted TER to ask if it's possible to move this post to General Discussion, so hopefully that's possible for them to do behind the scenes.  If not, I may just have to copy/paste into a new thread.  I didn't realize this topic would get such great responses!

Oh you know who between the two had a better quality of life Ms. French was enjoying hers while judging by the tone of her verse Ms. Boston Globe author is probably maxing out on her visits to the psychiatrist and is embittered about more things then you can think of.

Once upon a time a hooker getting herself in the course of her business was so common it was hardly newsworthy, about as newsworthy as a crack dealer getting shot on the corner where he was slinging. Now stories of prostitutes getting killed, at least non street walker hookers, are so rare that they get front page coverage from the anti 'consenting adults" crowd.

With the technology available today, I can't even imagine that the Globe would even suggest that writing down a John's license plate and giving it to a friend is better than the tools we use on the internet these days.  Granted, it seems the author is one-sidedly oblivious to these tools in the first place.  

..this article is nonsense. The internet has, in fact, brought it all out into the open, not driven it into the shadows. Being a prostitute of the sort described in this article always was and always will be horrible. The escorts I see don't live that life. Not to mention they have chosen to escort.

This is not the politics and religion board but I'm not mad at any politician really who wavers from the rhetoric they speak versus what they choose to do in their own lives. I blame the electorate and the religious rite because that is why they choose to say and push for such things. If we as a people, as a nation, were more open to sexual things in law, in discussions, in the reality of our collective minds.....you would not find those hypocrites in politics or fame or whatever high profile position there is. Yes, you can blame them up to a point but IMO, you have to blame We The People a great deal more. I'm sorry but it's my truth on that!!

Just like most things in life in this day and age. Since now is the Internet age and infos travel far and wide... and fast it just seems a lot of things are worse than before.

Yo, it usually depends on where you start.  

Using the technology that she deems a threat.