I recently read an article on male prostitution in Australia,
these men are known as ‘rent boys.’ The young
man (26 yrs.) being interviewed pointed out people’s misconception that all sex
workers were strung out on drugs or forced into the line of work. Instead he said being a sex worker was something
he chose to do and he found it both satisfying and lucrative. He believed men were not stereotyped as badly
as women and thought as a male he was less likely to be taken advantage
of. This young man catered to both men and women.
In another article, young women discuss their decisions to
be sex workers and how they thought the imagery from sex trafficking “depicted
all prostitution as harmful.” Other
young women said they have very different experiences from women who were sex trafficked. These women are also posting their faces to
twitter as one women notes, people talks about our bodies but never put a face
to it.
In Australia most states accepted licensed prostitution
however there are different rule for each state. Some allow brothels, some do not, all, criminalize
street walking. The alliance for sex
workers in Australia is called the Scarlet Alliance. This group supports the reporting of and
prosecuting of people who traffic or use people in sex slavery and is active in
providing assistance to those in need. The also advocate for their rights as workers and to have mea-
sures in place to prevent violence in the workplace. (Please note that many countries have sex worker alliances who are advocating for similar things.)
Another article I
read focused on young women, college students, who looked for older men to be
involved in “mutually beneficial, trans-actional dating” (Kirby) this really is
just another word for being a sex worker.
She does admit being a prostitute to the reporter and reiterates the work
is very lucrative and is paying for her college. There was an article a couple of years ago,
which spoke to this exact same issue occurring here in Florida. So we know, this is not only related to young
women, young men also participate in sex work to pay their way through college
too.
Many of us look at sex work as being aberrant however, there
are many people throughout history and currently in the world who have made
conscious choices to follow this line of work for various reasons. In one of my previous classes, there was a woman who identified as being a sex worker.
What is interesting in my reading on this subject, is a
growing number of women who are seeking the services of a sex worker. Sometimes it is for an escort, sometimes, it
is because the woman has become so busy, they do not have time to seek out
relationships. There is also a booming business in female sex tourism, where
women travel to other countries and meet up with men. It
appears as far as being a john or johnette, women may be heading the way of our
male counterparts on this matter.
BBC Trending. 3 April
2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-32165949
Kirby, Emma Jane 17 June 2015. The women seeking rich older
men to pay their university fees.
BBC:Magazine
No comments:
Post a Comment