MSM = MainStream Media
Thanks to Alexa’s Tweets, here are two recent articles on sex work in the UK. Well, one is technically Ireland but still — they’re all across the pond.
The first looks at a website which posts bad client info for the girls. One would think this is a great idea but no, the article manages to twist it around so that the advertising website is exploiting the women who pay to advertise on it. And oh yeah, all prostitution is bad and degrading and inherently violent too.
I advertised on one of the sister sites: Escort-Scotland.com. I found the site owner to be a very kind lady who offered a great advertising service (and then some!) for a very reasonable rate. She has a whole network of sites around the globe that I plan to utilize as I travel. I totally recommend this network of sites. Though I have no doubt this article is great publicity, it’s still so ridiculous to assume anyone offering a service to sex workers (like online advertising space or a bad client list) is automatically exploiting the consenting. Especially when the site in question discuss the local laws and the issue of sex trafficking.
Talk about the reporter not doing their homework.
The second article was more interesting. Though I’m not going to pretend this is the ideal environment in which to raise children, she didn’t stop to wonder how much the law affected the way the women’s lives were shaped (like the police raids she describes). And her lack of self-honesty is certainly her problem, not one that prostitution forced upon her. It was an interesting article but I wish she had bothered to take a much broader look around her at some point. She might’ve ended up more enlightened than troubled.
After all, she had an incredibly unique start in life. It could’ve led to something other than inwardly-directed turmoil.
Jeanette describes in the article that she never felt safe at home. I also wouldn’t feel safe if my mum had been a prostitute and men were coming in and out. But I was very happy when reading that she was first in family to get a degree.
Sexylady,
Her mother wasn’t working — she was the landlord of a house where the women worked. My point wasn’t that it was a perfect childhood (few are), only that it need not have been the shameful secret she felt it was.
XX
I thought you might find it interesting that “MSM” also stands for “Men who have Sex with Men”… it’s a term used by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) as well as many others who are doing research on sexuality and HIV to account for men who, well… have sex with with men… but who do not identify as gay or bisexual. The sex they have with men is on the “down low,” or they just have sex mostly with women and so they still consider themselves straight.
For a sec there I thought maybe you would be writing about male-male sex and escorting in the UK!
Vic,
As someone who has read a lot of material about AIDS and various other STIs, I’m fully well-aware of what MSM can also stand for, which is why I indicated which acronym I was using right underneath the title.
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