Legalizing Prostitution: From Illicit Vice to Lawful Business (6 page)

Some comparative data are presented in
table 2.1
. The figures are drawn from a selection of studies that illustrate the general pattern that “street workers are significantly more at risk of more violence and more serious violence than indoor workers.”
¹⁴
Although random sampling was not possible in the studies that have documented these differences, the fact that they consistently find significant street-indoor disparities lends credence to the general conclusion.
¹⁵

Each type of setting has advantages and disadvantages for the actors involved. Those who work in group settings—in brothels, massage parlors, saunas, and bars—benefit from the presence of gatekeepers and colleagues from whom they can learn the trade and who also can intervene in the event of an unruly customer. Brothels and massage parlors often have screening mechanisms, video surveillance, and alarm systems. In bars and dance clubs, workers have time to screen prospective customers; conversing over drinks allows them to assess the client’s temperament. The presence of co-workers not only increases safety but can also increase job satisfaction, because workers can share experiences and support one another. This is especially likely when the workers hail from similar backgrounds. For example, many of those who work at a particular bar in Thailand have chain migrated from the same cluster of rural villages and have similar experiences prior to moving to the cities. At the same time, the presence of co-workers can foster competition and altercations—to be expected when people work in close proximity and perhaps live on the premises as well.

Call girls and escorts are vulnerable because they work in isolation at their own residence or at the client’s hotel or residence. A greater proportion
of their clients are low-risk regulars, however.
¹⁶
And these workers employ their own safeguards. Call girls blacklist and alert other providers about abusive clients. If one works for an agency, it is now common practice for the gatekeepers to conduct a background check on every first-time client (including his place of work, phone numbers, home address, Social Security number), verifying this information with a Google search and return phone calls. Independents use the same screening methods and may also require a reference from another provider and proof of employment (to thwart police stings). A study of call girls noted that they develop “a sensitivity to detecting potential danger in the caller’s attitudes, manners, tone of voice, or nature of the conversation.”
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And they routinely check in by phone with the agent or a friend at a designated time before and after a visit, using code words if they sense trouble.
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“The girls call to check in when they first get to an appointment,” one agency booker stated. “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.”
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These procedures are not infallible, but they do help to decrease risks. As one escort writes, “It’s a good idea to stay suspicious, in my experience. … No one has ever taken advantage and I want to ensure it never does happen. That’s part of why I work through an agency.”
²⁰

Many indoor sex workers in developed countries are similar to nonprostitutes in measures of mental health and self-esteem. One study of the mental health of 187 prostitutes found that those who worked independently and at the high end of the pay scale were most likely to score in the top quartile on measures of emotional well-being, whereas those whose work was low paying, on the street, or in brothels with poor working conditions scored in the lowest quartile on well-being.
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Other research, comparing indoor prostitutes with an age-matched sample of nonprostitute women, found no differences in their physical and mental health, self-esteem, or the quality of their social networks.
²²
This contrasts with street workers, who face ongoing danger and stress at work, contributing to psychological problems that are only exacerbated by drug addiction, health problems, and social isolation. A third study reported that streetwalkers exhibited significant psychological problems, whereas call girls and brothel workers generally were “handling themselves well, manifesting good emotional controls, being well aware of conventionality, and doing well in the occupation of their choice.”
²³
Similarly, research on call girls conducted by Ann Lucas concluded that they tended 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.”
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Having engaged in other kinds of work in the past, the call girls interviewed by Lucas “expressed a clear preference for prostitution. … [They] entered their vocation voluntarily and valued the independence, autonomy, and control it offered.”
²⁵

Indoor workers generally report more job satisfaction than street workers do. 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, and seven out of ten said they would “definitely choose” this work if they had it to do over again.
²⁶
A prostitute working 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.”
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Another Nevada provider elaborated: “Prostitution doesn’t need to be demeaning, done without self-respect. It’s a very intimate, service-oriented, people-oriented profession. I feel what I do, I do good.”
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A majority of indoor workers in several 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.
²⁹
Again, these findings hardly apply to all indoor workers; instead, what these studies tell us is that positive outcomes are
more prevalent
in the indoor arena than on the streets.

Surprising as it may seem, indoor prostitutes’ self-image can
improve
over time as a result of their work experiences. Diana Prince’s comparative study of 75 streetwalkers and 75 call girls in California and 150 legal brothel workers in Nevada found that almost all of the call girls (97 percent) reported an increase in self-esteem after they began working in prostitution, compared with 50 percent of the brothel workers but only 8 percent of the streetwalkers.
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Similarly, in another study, three-quarters of indoor prostitutes (most of whom worked in bars) felt that their life had improved after entering prostitution (the remainder reported no change; none said it was worse than before).
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Male sex workers can experience the same ego enhancement over time. Interviews with 46 male escorts found that they felt desired, attractive, empowered, and important as a result of being generously paid for sex; they also experienced increased self-confidence and more favorable body images over time.
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Their work experiences conditioned them to become more assertive and self-assured. Similarly, bar prostitutes in Thailand can be “immediately recognized … [by] the way they interacted with others—more forthright and confident, more demanding and outgoing” than typical Thai women.
³³
And their counterparts in Cambodia “knew they were physically
and sexually desirable and they flaunted their ability of possessing degrees of control over the men they met. They felt empowered by their linguistic ability, their sexuality, and their interpersonal talents.”
³⁴

Why would self-esteem be high or increase among those who work in the upper echelons? Psychosocial well-being is associated with a range of structural factors, including education, income, control over working conditions, relations with third parties, and client base. The following features stand out:

• Income is a major source of self-esteem. While middle-range call girls earn $200–$500 per hour, top-tier workers charge much more ($1,000–$10,000 per hour or per session), and they are also lavished with fringe benefits, such as expensive gifts and paid travel to meet clients.
³⁵
Escort agency, brothel, and massage parlor employees make considerably less because a large share (30–50 percent) goes to the business owner.

• Indoor workers, and especially those at the high end, develop a professional skill set over time. The skills include techniques for managing customers during intimate, hands-on activities; displaying self-confidence in setting terms and negotiating boundaries; adoption of safety precautions; and becoming “savvy businesswomen.”
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• Acquiring new cultural capital is another benefit for many upscale sex workers. By associating with highly educated, cosmopolitan, jet-setting, or foreign clients, they are able to expand their cognitive horizons in valuable ways. Many in this echelon enjoy intangible rewards in addition to the income: adventure, excitement, mystery, fine dining, entertainment, and sightseeing.

• Another source of 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.”
³⁷
A large study of call girls reported that they “were proud of their bodies, of the way in which their bodies aroused men.”
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Former sex worker Dolores French captures this feeling eloquently: “If you take care of your body, and if men are constantly telling you how beautiful and desirable you are, you begin to love yourself deeply, even if you didn’t to start with. Being a courtesan, for me, brought about a whole new feeling of self-esteem and self-worth.”
³⁹
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-image. Some derive pleasure from the sex itself, at least some of the time. As one brothel worker remarked, “With as much sex as we have, how could a woman not enjoy it occasionally?”
⁴⁰
For some, getting paid
for sex is an added turn-on, magnifying the physical pleasure. And the same applies to male and transgender prostitutes who report frequently enjoying sex with their clients.
⁴¹

High self-esteem is hardly universal, even in the top echelon, but the evidence just cited certainly contradicts the oppression paradigm’s claim that sex workers at all levels are psychologically traumatized and suffer long-term emotional damage because of their work.
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At the same time, it is important to recognize that social stigma colors all sex work. Stigma is reflected in opinion polls, testimony from the workers themselves, and the inevitable censure of public figures who become involved in sex scandals. The intensity of stigma appears to be less for workers in the upper echelons and for male workers than for women, but it remains an occupational hazard for all sex workers, one that they grapple with in different ways.
⁴³
A study of male and female escorts found that some of them “rejected the stigma attached to prostitution” and “expressed pride in the services they provided to clients”; the researchers characterized these escorts as embracing a “positive marginality” that redefined the meanings typically associated with their marginalized status.
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For other escorts, the stigma is harder to overcome, resulting in certain protective strategies, for example, compartmentalizing their deviant work persona from their “real identity”; concealing their work from family, friends, neighbors, and strangers; 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 deep-rooted “whore stigma” is an ongoing source of stress in sex workers’ lives and leads them to engage in coping strategies that are themselves stressful or socially isolating.

In sum, each type of indoor sex work can be distinguished from the others along various axes, but indoor work also has some important general dimensions that differentiate it from street prostitution. This point is developed further in the remainder of this chapter.

Chapter 1
noted that the customers of sex workers vary tremendously and cannot be lumped into a single category. It is equally the case that clients of indoor prostitutes differ from those who buy sex on the street: Let us explore in more depth the experiential dimensions of indoor prostitution.

• First, they differ demographically. Street clients come from all walks of life—ranging from poor to upper-class men.
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By contrast, clients of indoor workers and especially upscale providers are less diverse—typically more affluent, white collar, and well educated.

• Second, many indoor clients seek a different kind of experience than what they would have on the street. As discussed later in this chapter, indoor clients typically spend much more time with a provider, almost guaranteeing that social as well as sexual intercourse will take place. These men are attracted to indoor providers precisely because they offer a range of services in addition to sex. (Of course, not all indoor settings are the same. In the window prostitution districts in Europe, the encounters typically take 15–20 minutes, allowing for only truncated conversation and nonsexual intimacy. The indoor patterns described in this chapter are more characteristic of settings where the encounter is longer and thus potentially variegated.)