Prostitution
shake-up: one
sex worker's
view
BMJ 2006;332:245 (28 January),
doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7535.245
reviews
My
name is Juliet,
and I'm a
prostitute and
dominatrix based
in London
(zone 2—not
central, not
suburbs). I'm in
my
late 30s, white,
and well
educated, and my
background is
borderline
working/middle
class. I operate
at the medium
price bracket
(from £120
($214;
174)
an hour) as
opposed to the
£30-40
for 30
minutes in a
massage parlour
or £250 plus
charged
by most
outcall
agencies. I use
an appointment
system (as
opposed
to
spending the
whole day at my
"office" and
seeing people at
short
notice). All
these details
alter the kind
of experience
one has of
working in the
sex industry—how
much of your
time it
takes up, how
flexible you
have to be, how
much you
can plan,
and the
overheads it
takes to stay in
business.
I love
my job. I work
for myself, at a
wage I set, and
I get
to make people
happy—very
happy—for a
living. One
of the
many good things
about
prostitution is
that there's
very
little bullshit,
at least from my
clients, who are
placed in
a
situation where
there is a clear
incentive for
them to be
open about
their needs and
respectful in
their treatment
of
me—they get a
better
experience if
I'm trying to
make
it so. In the
five years I've
been working
I've seen about
5000
clients, and I
have never
experienced an
untoward
physical action
from a
client, or even
outright
rudeness (though
nervous
brusqueness
or plain
lack of social
skills are not
uncommon). When
people
ask me
about my work, I
say that the
general
conditions are
similar to
freelance work
in any
field—uncertainty
of
income,
reluctance to
turn down work
as you can't
guarantee
when the
next client will
come along,
needing to offer
a better
service
than the next
person to
maintain a
regular
clientele.
The
conditions
specific to the
sex industry are
the social
opprobrium
and bikini
waxing, and to
be honest I tend
to skip the
bikini
waxing.
|
The
problem
is
coercion,
drug
dependency,
lack of
choices,
not
prostitution
itself
|
The
government just
had a chance to
do something
about the social
opprobrium,
though, and they
failed
enormously.
Actually, some
of the
planned changes
are
beneficial—allowing
more than
one woman
to work in the
same premises,
for instance—
but the
overwhelming
media storm of
"prostitution is
the most
common
form of child
abuse," "by
giving money to
prostitution
you're
giving money to
drug dealers"—
has done no
prostitute
any
favours. The law
is an ass, says
Dickens, whose
tome-like
novels
were in part an
attempt to draw
attention to the
conditions
of the
poor and the
complexity
attached to
their situation;
he
provides a
soundbite to
rebut the lurid
imaginings of
Home
Officer minister
Fiona McTaggart.
Prostitution is
having sex
for money,
and neither
having sex nor
getting paid is
inherently
degrading,
abusive,
exploitative, or
harmful. Yes,
there are
women
working in
prostitution who
are coerced or
drug dependent
or
homeless or
whose
backgrounds have
otherwise
limited their
choices—but the
problem is
coercion, drug
dependency,
lack of
choices, not
prostitution
itself.
For the
relatively lucky
like myself, the
law's reluctance
to
doff its donkey
ears will do
little damage.
Thanks to the
legislation
that
sexual health
services be
available
anonymously, the
establishment
of the NHS
so they are free
at the point of
delivery, and
the
enlightened and
non-judgmental
attitudes that
have developed
in
consequence of
the HIV and drug
use strategies
of harm
reduction,
I shall
continue to
visit the
specialist
clinics I use
for my
regular
sexual health
checks and low
cost condom and
lubricant
purchase,
and enjoy the
benefits of my
general
practitioner
without
having to raise
his
consciousness or
deal with his
assumptions.
For
migrants, their
dependence on
those who have
arranged their
journey or
who employ or
house them is
enormously
increased
by the
unclear legal
situation that
can be
misrepresented
to
them. Street
prostitutes have
been put firmly
in their place
as the
lowest of the
low among our
demonised
underclasses,
and
simultaneously
entrenched as
the ultimate
downtrodden
victim,
in a kind
of ultra-toxic
cartoon version
of "you don't
have
to be mad to
work here, but
it helps."
And all this
brouhaha does
have an effect.
The morning I
woke
listening to
Fiona
McTaggart's ill
informed and
cliché
ridden
scaremongering
on the radio, I
was aware all
day of my
slumped
shoulders and
gloomy outlook.
Studies show
that school
pupils who
are told they
are stupid
underperform;
how the world
thinks of
us is
internalised.
The constant
abuse of
prostitutes
and street
prostitutes in
particular
contributes to
the low
self
esteem and
emotional
degradation we
have to face not
from
our clients but
from society
itself. The
framers of this
legislation
and those
who want to
"rescue" us
while
determinedly
ignoring
the voice
of the sex
workers' rights
movement and the
complexity
of our
experiences are
part of creating
the very
problems they
say they
wish to solve.
Editorials
p 190
The author
of this article
wishes to remain
anonymous, but
correspondence
can be
sent c/o
linda.cusick@paisley.ac.uk
