(2) Sex Work
Real Street Prostitutes of Medellin, Red Light
100 Countries and Their Prostitution Policies
TYPES OF SEX WORK
A brief discussion of different types of sex work will illustrate the polymorphous approach.
Prostitution
Prostitutes vary tremendously in their reasons for entry, risk of violence, freedom to refuse clients and particular sex acts, dependence on and exploitation by third parties, experiences with the authorities, public visibility, number and type of clients, relationships with coworkers, and impact on the surrounding community.
Before proceeding to a description of the different types of prostitution, it is important to note that individual workers may cross one or more categories. For instance, independent call girls may also accept regular or occasional appointments from an escort agency, and massage parlor or brothel workers sometimes moonlight by meeting customers in private and keeping the earnings for themselves. It is rare, however, for workers to experience substantial upward or downward mobility. As a general rule “the level at which the woman begins work in the prostitution world determines her general position in the occupation for much of her career as a prostitute.
Changing levels requires contacts and a new set of work techniques and attitudes.”Occasionally, an upper or middle-tier worker whose life situation changes (e.g., because of aging, drug addiction) is no longer able to work in that stratum and gravitates to the street. But transitioning from street work to the escort or call girl echelon is quite rare, because most street workers lack the education and skill set required for upscale indoor work. Likewise, very few call girls and brothel workers have previously worked on the streets. If a move takes place, it is usually lateral and of limited mobility, such as from the streets to a down-market peep show or from a massage parlor to an escort agency or from an escort agency to independent work.
The most consequential is that between street prostitution and the various indoor types. In street prostitution, the initial transaction occurs in a public place (a sidewalk, park, truck stop), while the sex act takes place in either a public or private setting (alley, park, vehicle, hotel, etc.). Many street prostitutes are runaways who end up in a new locale with no resources and little recourse but to engage in some kind of criminal activity-whether theft, drug dealing, or selling sex. Many street workers, both runaways and others, experience abysmal working conditions and are involved in “survival sex.” They sell sex out of dire necessity or to support a drug habit. Many use addictive drugs; work and live in crime-ridden areas; are socially isolated and disconnected from support services; risk contracting and transmitting sexual diseases; are exploited and abused by pimps; and are vulnerable to being assaulted, robbed, raped, or killed on the streets. This is the population best characterized by the oppression paradigm. Other street prostitutes, especially those free of drugs and pimps, are in less desperate straits but still confront a range of occupational hazards..
When most people think of prostitution, they are thinking of street prostitution, but off-street sexual transactions are just as important and, in many countries, far more common than street work even though we lack data on the exact numbers in each sphere. (In Thailand, for example, an estimated 0.7% of prostitutes work the streets, while the figures for the United States, Holland, and Britain are reportedly closer to 20%.). We do know that ads for escort agencies and for independent call girls on the Internet are abundant and ever increasing.
Indoor prostitution takes place in brothels, massage parlors, bars, hotels, and private premises. Compared to street prostitutes, indoor workers are much less likely to have a background of childhood abuse (neglect, violence, incest), to enter sex work at a young age, to engage in risky behavior (e.g., to use addictive drugs and to engage in unprotected sex), and to be victimized by others. Off-street workers who have not been coerced into prostitution are much less likely to experience assault, robbery, and rape. A British study of 115 prostitutes who worked on the streets and 125 who worked in saunas or as call girls found that the street prostitutes were much more likely than the indoor workers to report that they had ever been robbed (37 vs. 10%), beaten (27 vs. 1%), slapped/punched/kicked (47 vs. 14%), raped (22 vs. 2%), threatened with a weapon (24 vs. 6%), or kidnapped (20 vs. 2%). Other studies similarly find disparities in victimization between street and off-street workers, with some reporting high percentages of indoor providers who have never experienced violence on the job. Although random sampling was not possible in these studies, the fact that they consistently document significant street–indoor differences lends credence to the general conclusion. In addition to differences in ever being victimized, street workers are more likely to experience more frequent and more severe victimization.
This does not mean that indoor work is risk free: structural conditions are a key predictor of vulnerability-conditions that include workers’ immigration status, drug dependency, third-party involvement (as protectors vs. exploiters), etc. Moreover, indoor work in the Third World usually exists under harsher conditions than in developed countries, even when it is legal. Having said that, there is no doubt that indoor settings are generally safer than the streets. Overall, “street workers are significantly more at risk of more violence and more serious violence than indoor workers.” Moreover, it appears that legal context makes a difference: that is, the safety of indoor work increases where prostitution is legal. Those who work collectively indoors-in brothels, massage parlors, saunas, clubs-have the advantage of the presence of gatekeepers and coworkers, who can intervene in the event of an unruly customer. Indoor venues often have some screening mechanisms, video surveillance, and alarm systems. Call girls and escorts are more vulnerable given their isolation when doing outcalls at hotels or clients’ residences. But they also have a greater proportion of low-risk; regular clients and they have their own methods of vetting potentially dangerous customers (though these methods are not foolproof). They share with other workers stories of bad clients who are then blacklisted, and they routinely check in by phone with the agency or a friend at a designated time before and after a visit. As one agency booker stated: “The girls call to check in when they first get to an appointment. We had code words, like ‘Red Bull.’ If I heard her say she needed a Red Bull, I’d try to distract the guy on the phone so she could get out of there.” The autobiography of former prostitute Dolores French describes her unique ways of alerting her agent (Sarah) that she was in danger in a man’s hotel room: Sarah told me certain code names that were to be used for cops and crazies. . . .
“Judy” meant a cop; “Phyllis” meant a crazy. ... So I called Sarah and said: “Everything is fine here. By the way, has Judy been in the office lately? Well, if Judy comes by, tell her I’d like to meet her for coffee.” [Sarah said] “Did he ask you to have sex?” “Oh yes, he’s lots of fun.” Any positive answer I gave meant yes, any negative answer . . . meant no. It was amazing how wonderfully this all worked. As soon as Sarah understood there was danger, she was on full alert . . . She knew I was in a bad situation, and she knew it was up to her to help get me out of it.
Such providers learn ways of screening their clients before they meet as well. A study of independent call girls noted that they develop sensitivity to detecting potential danger in the caller’s attitudes, manners, tone of voice, or nature of the conversation.”
It is not widely known that indoor and street prostitutes differ in the services they provide. Because street workers spend little time with customers, their social interaction is fleeting. As one street worker remarked, “Usually, they’re not even interested in talking to you. What they want is quick sex.” Indoor interactions are typically longer, multifaceted, and more reciprocal. Diana Prince, who interviewed 75 call girls in California and 150 brothel workers in Nevada, found that most of them believed that “the average customer wants affection or love as well as sex.”Consequently, indoor workers are much more likely to counsel and befriend clients, and their encounters often include a semblance of romance, dating, friendship, or companionship-what has become known as a “girlfriend experience” and the counterpart “boyfriend experience” offered by male escorts. As one study of call girls discovered, “for many men, sex is the pretext for the visit, and the real need is emotional.”48 Indeed, escort agencies and independent call girls increasingly advertise their expertise in providing nonsexual benefits to clients. The Emperor’s Club escort agency, for instance, billed itself (on its website) as offering an experience that would make life “more peaceful, balanced, beautiful, and meaningful.” In a sense, the customer buys a kind of “relationship” with an escort rather than just sex. Some customers who become “regulars” have long-term relationships with providers and develop a real emotional connection, albeit one that is paid for.
The nature of physical contact also differs, in the sense that it is more varied and more “romantic” than what a client and provider experience on the street. Indoor workers are more likely than street workers to be caressed, kissed, massaged, or hugged by, and to receive oral sex or manual stimulation from, a client. Indeed, in at least some indoor venues, the workers expect and request such sensual and sexual behavior from clients as a routine part of the encounter.
Indoor workers tend to be more adjusted and satisfied with their work than street workers, and the former differ little from non-prostitutes in mental health and self-esteem. The stress and danger associated with street work contribute to psychological problems. By contrast, escorts and call girls tend to have the “financial, social, and emotional wherewithal to structure their work largely in ways that suited them and provided . . . the ability to maintain healthy self-images.” Although call girls generally express greater job satisfaction than do those employed by third parties (brothels, massage parlors, escort agencies) and are subject to employer demands, the latter are nevertheless more satisfied than street workers. An Australian study found that half of call girls and brothel workers felt that their work was a “major source of satisfaction” in their lives, while seven out of 10 said they would “definitely choose” this work if they had it to do over again. And a worker in one of Nevada’s legal brothels remarked: “I’ve always been a sexual person. I enjoy doing it. I mean, the money’s wonderful but, hey, I enjoy what I do for a living too. I love the people, it’s safe, it’s clean.” A majority of indoor workers in other studies similarly report that they enjoy the job, feel that their work has at least some positive effect on their lives, or believe that they provide a valuable service.
Prince’s comparative study of streetwalkers and call girls in California and legal brothel workers in Nevada found that almost all of the call girls (97%) reported an increase in self-esteem after they began working in prostitution, compared with 50% of the brothel workers but only 8% of the streetwalkers. Similarly, a study of indoor prostitutes (most of whom worked in bars) in a Midwestern city in the United States found that three-fourths of them felt that their life had improved after entering prostitution (the remainder reported no change; none said it was worse than before); more than half said that they generally enjoy their work. Why would self-esteem be high or increase among those working in the upper echelons? Psychological well-being is associated with a range of structural factors, including education, income, control over working conditions, relations with third parties, and client base. Income is a major source of self-esteem among call girls. While middle range call girls earn $200–$500 an hour, top-tier workers charge between $1000–$6000 an hour (or a session) and they are also lavished with fringe benefits, such as expensive gifts and paid travel to meet clients. Escort agency, brothel, and massage parlor employees make considerably less because a large share (30–50%) goes to the agency. Another reason for an increase in job satisfaction is revealed by indoor workers who describe “feeling ‘sexy,’ ‘beautiful,’ and ‘powerful’ only after they had begun to engage in sexual labor and were receiving consistent praise from their clients.” In other words, in addition to the material rewards of high-end sex work, positive reinforcement and other good experiences may help enhance workers’ self-images.
At the same time, prostitutes of all types experience stigma from the wider society, as shown by opinion polls and by public condemnation during sex scandals involving public figures. This disapproval compels sex workers to engage in various normalization strategies, including: compartmentalizing their deviant work persona from their “real identity”; concealing their work from family and friends; distancing themselves from clients; using neutral or professional terms to describe their jobs (“working woman,” “provider”); and viewing their work as a valuable service (providing pleasure or sex therapy, comforting lonely men, keeping marriages intact).
The studies reviewed here and by other scholars provide strong evidence contradicting some popular myths and the central tenets of the oppression paradigm. While certain experiences are generic to prostitution (coping with stigma, managing client behavior, avoiding risks), the literature indicates that other work-related experiences, as well as the harms typically associated with prostitution, vary greatly. The prostitution market is segmented between the indoor and street sectors-marked by major differences in working conditions, risk of victimizatihn, and job satisfaction and self-esteem.
Characteristics of Types of Prostitution
Types – Business Location – Prices Charged – Exploitation by Third Parties – Risk of Violent Victimization – Public Visibility – Impact on Community
Call Girl – Independent operator; private premises/hotels – High – Low to none – Low- None – None
Escort – Escort agency; private premises/hotels – High – Moderate – Low to Moderate – Very low – None
Brothel Worker – Brothel – Moderate – Moderate – Very low- Low – None, if discreet
Massage Parlor Worker – Massage parlor – Moderate – Moderate – Very low – Low – Little, if discreet
Bar or Casino Worker – Bar/casino contract; sex elsewhere – Low to moderate – Low to moderate – Low to moderate – Moderate – Equivalent to impact of bar/casino
Street Walker – Street contact; sex in cars, alleys, parks, etc. – Low – High – Very high – High - Adverse
We need to consider more types like models and dancers work in night clubs.
The brothel and massage parlor workers depicted here do not include those who have been trafficked against their will or otherwise forced into prostitution, whose experiences differ from those who have entered this work consensually.
Exploitation by third parties means third party receipt of at least some of the profits. Risk of violent victimization refers here to victimization of prostitute, not of customer.
Impact on community refers to effects on the surrounding neighborhood`s quality of life.
