I was reading an article that was blaming crack cocaine for an increase in child prostitution in some foreign country.  I wondered why the need to buy food has never been used as a scrouge to blame prostitution on.  INstead of becoming a prostitute to support a drug habit,  what other good reasons can you think of?  
How about the need to drive a BMW?
The need to put your child into private school?
The need to pay for your education or house mortgage?
Perhaps anytime women don't make very much money in the normal work place, there is a good reason to consider prostitution.  

I just think it is funny how the need to buy BAD things is always blamed as the cause of prostitution,  whereas the need to buy GOOD things is never offered as a reason for entering into the profession.

Depending on the lady, I think she might have some useful purchases in mind with the money she earns.

-- Modified on 7/27/2003 3:24:58 PM

It brings to mind what the now forgotten actress Pia Zadora said in her role in the movie "Butterfly". She told Stacey Ketch that she let one of the cowboys pay her $5 to share her bed. While that might have been bad, the things she bought with that money was good, like food and shelter for her and her baby.

Yes, I think you're right in pointing out that providers must be provided for too!

sex work in all its forms.  As everyone on this board probably realizes, "society" works pretty hard to keep up the image of prostitution as an evil enterprise.  They hang all sorts of peripheral baggage on it trying to make connections that support their pre-existing conclusions, and ignore virtually all the information that runs counter to their beliefs

For example, a millionaire record executive or movie producer with a drug habit is both chic and tolerated.  While a prostitute with the same addiction is a crack whore to be arrested and reviled by society.  Similarly, a guy who works hard to pay his bills shows drive and initiative, but a woman who shows equal initiative to pay her own bills (and stay off welfare) by making the conscious decision to become a CSW is an outcast.  

The further assumption is always that a woman couldn't possibly be exercising her free will and make the choice of being a CSW- she must therefore be a "victim" of some sort- either of drugs, poverty, indentured servitude etc.  Because the one thing society can't tolerate is the belief that there could be happy and intelligent women working as escorts, or that open-minded men and women could actually exist who think there is absolutely nothing wrong with this activity and seek to bring it out of the shadows.  

If they accept this as fact, then their entire belief system collapses- and changing people's minds is the hardest thing in the world to do, as we all know.  That is why "johns" who are arrested increasingly must be "cured" as well as punished.  And of course, the women must be treated like criminals in the most humilating manner possible.

So while I'm sure there are streetwalkers in the Bronx or some foreign country working to support a drug habit, WE all know as a FACT there are  thousands (millions?) of others working to support nothing more than a responsible middle-class lifestyle for themselves and their families.  After all, isn't that the American way?


-- Modified on 7/27/2003 5:22:37 PM

Just wanted to indicate my 100% agreement.

Yowza...lots of sociological insight on that one!

You ought to get together with  Mr. Someone Else
(who bears an ironic name similarity to you) from the "Bad Provider Bahavior" post earlier and compare viewpoints. :P

Most of the media discusses the dark side of prostitution and always point to street walkers as their source of reference for their "documentaries" or talk shows.

A while back Playboy TV did a documentary on the internet escort scene... Diana of Dallas and Echo of Chicago were two ladies they spoke to.  I enjoyed how Diana mentioned that many of her clients offered to "take her away" from "the life"... her response was terrific, she reminded them she was getting paid to have sex and marrying them would make her life worse not better!

I've met providers whose escort career paid for their college tuition, another who had a vacation home in Florida and a third who wanted to pay off her new truck.  The gal with the home in Florida now has her own pay per view site and is making more many then any of the television producers.  When I asked her about her thoughts on legalizing prostitution, she said "no way"... she couldn't charge as much as she is now.

Just my opinion... I don't think this hobby exploits or victimizes the women, I think it's the men who get exploited.  We become sex addicts end up paying for all the ladies luxuries just to get our bean snapped!

and a complete disregard for the law. A weaker premise is that if one is willing to break one law, one is probably willing to break another. But the article almost certainly didn't mean to imply that people have to  rely on prostitution to put food on the table. No one really HAS to do anything.

I think you can draw a distinction between a woman who is addicted to crack and using her body out of desperation to support her habit from a cortesan who has chosen the profession because it offers her flexibility and a good source of revenue.

I think the distinction is that if you don't get your BMW your not going to becomes violently ill, I doubt if the craving for a quality vehicle compares to drug addiction.

I started escorting because I wanted to get out of debt.

Not only did I get out, I have learned how to save and curb my spending.

(I didn't go out and buy expensive things..but I do want to eventually.)

What I have have done with the bulk of my earnings was fix up my house, save, invest and donate to a LOT of organizations.

We are all not supporting bad habbits unless you consider saving a bad habbit.

Shaye

I believe the need for basics has often been adduced as causing people to engage in prostitution.

But the idea of "crack" being a a demonically invidious drug, which started in the 'eightys has convincingly been shown to be created  by political by media hysteria, much as marijuana was years earlier, epitomized by the now campy film "Reefer Madness." THe book "Synthetic Panics" is a goode read concerning this issue.

This is not to say that crack is good or even harmless, but that it's not the "zombie-creator" it was once believed to be, and in the long run, may actually be less harmful than cigarettes. (My choice for the number 1 dangeroud drug.)

It's just very interesting what people will do for money.

Back in the Great Depression ... when almost 30% of people in the work force were withouy pay .... they found some very interesting things:  Many women would not steal food to feed their families, but would steal cosmetics.   In WWII there were happily married women that wouldn't consider having sex for money ... but silk stockings would cause them to bend.

It's amazing what people will do for money.

Many years ago ... and I mean MANY years ago ... when I first came to California ... I stopped in Vegas on my way.   Thinking I might want to live there, I visited the unemployment office to see what jobs were available.

There were no openings for 'Evil Genius'  so I was out of luck, but I did notice a desk off in the corner with a very cute girl sitting there ... so ... what the heck ... I went to say "Hi"

Turns out, she was a paid employee of the Nevada Brothel Owner's Association.   They paid the State a fee so that she could have a desk there and when a pretty girl walked into the unemployment office looking for work, she'd approach them and make a sales pitch.

Seemed like a good deal to me.   But that was a long time ago, beore the church-folk came to Vegas.

I think it's an honorable profession as long as the people IN the profession are honorable people.

About the article you read:  It might be interesting to know the source because like so many other subjects, I'm sure it's one that can have have a spin put to it it all the numerous ways that's done to legitimize beliefs already held or to advance an agenda.

As to drug addictions being the cause of *SOME* prositution, I'm sure that's the case.  Maybe it's more common in some countries, I wouldn't have any personal experiences to even offer an opinion, but in the US at I'm sure the only high percentages are probably found among street-walkers.  I'd even venture to speculate that drug addiction is this country is far greater among rock muscians than independent escorts.  Yet when a rocker dies, even of an overdose, the passing is generally mourned & the lifestyle not held up to criticism.  A double-standard IMO.  If drug abuse is evil, it's equally as evil regardless of who is doing it.

... and a guy who is married and spends all his paycheck on his wife... same thing. It's the price we pay for having a penis.