Up Front: Eat Up Your Brothelly
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The section related to entering and leaving the industry (which includes figures on drug addiction) is here, but the table formatting is borked and it's giving me headaches.
It also gives me a headache when the go for "reasons" rather than "main reason". I mean who isn't going to use their prostitution money for household expenses? Only people who have no household, right? And the 8% who didn't do it for money, not even as a minor reason? WTF? Why didn't they do it for free then?
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How about huge quoting the summary then?
Entry into sex work
Entry into sex work was predominantly for financial reasons:
* 73% of participants needed money to pay for household expenses.
* Financial incentives were more important to female sex workers than to male or transgender sex workers.
* Nearly half of street-based, male and transgender sex workers had no other source of income.
* Flexibility of working hours and financial benefits were advantageous in terms of child care arrangements.Entry into sex work was also influenced by social factors, especially for street-based and transgender sex workers:
* More than half of street-based and transgender sex workers had friends in the industry prior to starting work in the sex industry
* Many participants were influenced by friends and family into entering the sex industryEntry into sex work was also influenced by identity factors:
* Many street-based and transgender sex workers thought sex workers looked like they were fun to be with and that the work looked exciting and glamorous.
* Sex work was also identified by male and transgender sex workers as a way of exploring their sexuality.The decriminalisation of the sex industry did not play a great role in reports of entry into the sex industry.
Information at entry into sex work* 62% of all survey participants reported sufficient information on starting sex work to keep themselves safe
* Nearly half (47%) of surveyed street-based workers reported that they did not have enough information
* 33% of surveyed street-based workers did not get any information when starting sex work
* Co-workers were the most often cited source of information on starting sex work
* Most managed workers received information from the manager or reception at their place of workExpected length of stay in the industry
* There was uncertainty in how long participants expected to stay in the industry.
* Sex workers who had only been in the industry for a short period of time, were more likely than long-term sex workers to report that they intended to stay in the industry for less than one year.Reasons for staying in the sex industry
Financial motives were key to staying in the sex industry.
* 82% of survey participants remained in the industry to pay their household expenses.
* 83% of survey participants valued the flexible working hours.
* 42% of survey participants liked the company of other sex workers.
* 43% of surveyed street-based workers said that all their friends were in sex work.
* 39% of survey participants enjoyed the sex.Payment for work, other than money
* Street-based workers were more likely than workers in other sectors to accept alternative forms of payment for sex.
* Street-based workers who had been in the industry for some time stressed that they would only accept money for their services.Benefits of working
Few participants reported no benefits of working in the sex industry.
The key benefits reported by participants were:
* They had more money.
* They had made new friends.
* They had survived.
* They enjoyed contact with the clients.
* They valued their independence, the flexibility of the work and the camaraderie with other workers.Some disadvantages reported in the qualitative interviews included:
* The continuing stigma of sex work and harassment by the general public.
* Many participants talked of the physical and mental stress of the work.Movement between sectors
* There was little movement between sectors reported in the survey for street-based and managed workers, but half of the private workers reported starting out working in the managed sector.
* Private workers reported moving into private work because it provided a safer working environment, where they could earn more and attract better clients.Exit from the sex industry
* 51% of all survey participants had stopped working in the sex industry at least once and then returned.
* The main reasons for returning to the industry were financial, but participants also reported missing workplace friendships and wanting time-out from their families. -
There is a always a lot of strong opinion about prostitution regardless of which position the argument is supporting. It is always quite extreme and usually from people who have no personal involvement as buyer or seller.
Does anyone have any data on the number of users of prostitution services in this country? (Preferably ignoring repeat business - I'd rather know how many individuals have indulged)
My guess would be a fairly low percentage of the population, but I am only basing that on those that I know.
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But if you can't make an argument that it should be bigger, then perhaps you are obliged to conclude that it should be smaller.
I'm back to why does size matter. Shouldn't we want to improve it, rather than shrink it or enlarge it? I'd say the way to make it smaller would be to improve the socioeconomic lot of the people who are sex workers but would rather not be. It's a non-minimum wage job that you can do without major qualifications - provide more training and different and better working opportunities, it might shrink by itself.
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* 39% of survey participants enjoyed the sex.
Boy, wouldn't it be nice to ask that question to all workers across all industries and compare the results.
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JoJo,
Not sure of the relevance, but there were times (fairly recently. in the scheme of things) when doctors digitally massaged women to treat hysteria... and I'm sure the clients paid a fee. So, if we consider sexual release or contact as a postive, healthy, (even necessary) part of being human, then delivery of such a service seems perfectly acceptable to me.
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I can't help but think that most of the problems of prostitution are really problems of an unequal society. It's not exactly the only industry where the less privileged are exploited by the more privileged even if the intimate and stigmatised nature of the work seem to mark prostitution as a 'special case'.
In my utopia I'm pretty sure there would be a sex industry but it would probably look very different to the one we have today.
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Which I suppose would lead us into a debate on what we mean by "work"...
Hmmm....Ok.... maybe we could have a discussion on what "work satisfaction" might mean then.
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My guess would be a fairly low percentage of the population, but I am only basing that on those that I know.
Well we know what rest home operators think don't we. Remember the bloke who wanted a bit on the side and the operators tut tutted and (I think) stopped him getting it.
He won't be counted then.
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* 39% of survey participants enjoyed the sex.
Boy, wouldn't it be nice to ask that question to all workers across all industries and compare the results.
There are surveys for that. Statistics New Zealand 2008 Survey of Working Life:
Satisfaction with main job:
Of all employed people, 84.1 percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their main job. At the other end of the scale, 4.8 percent reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their main job, while 10.8 percent were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their main job.
Those employed people who reported that they had often or always found work stressful over the last 12 months were more likely to be dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their main job (13.7 percent), compared with 2.3 percent of those who were hardly ever or never stressed.
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Enjoying and being satisfied with it are subtly different though. You can enjoy a job and yet not be satisfied with it, or vice versa. Point taken however.
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Given that there is (an alternative) a significant welfare system in New Zealand, I prefer Gio's take on things.
is it actually something you'd be proud to tell you family that your (grown up) kids were doing? Why not? What's inherently wrong with finding out your son is sucking cocks for a living?....There's something very different about actually fucking people. Sure that's a societal prejudice, but it colors everything about the game.
There's no value in perpetuating society's irrational fear of sex. Sex is an art form.
What's inherently wrong with finding out your son is busking on a roadside for a living?
Don't fear the genital.
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The sex worker survey didn't ask whether or not they enjoyed or were satisfied with their work, they asked what the good bits and the bad bits were.
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The sex worker survey didn't ask whether or not they enjoyed or were satisfied with their work, they asked what the good bits and the bad bits were.
Good - because honestly who always enjoys or is "satisfied" with what they do for a living. I supported prostitution law reform not because I think hooking is a really cool career option I'd love any child of mine to take up (know too many sex workers who had the rough as well as the smooth to be that naive), but because I want to know that sex workers can report abuse to Police and know they're not going to be arrested for their pains. Also, I don't think it's a bad thing that the "oldest profession" is subject to labour laws (including health and safety standards); as well as the tender mercies of OSH and the IRD. :)
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Is there is a health check required when becoming a sex worker in New Zealand? Are annual health checks for sex workers required? Just curious.
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Good - because honestly who always enjoys or is "satisfied" with what they do for a living.
About 84.1% of people if you believe the survey Russell quote above (and if you drop the always). But yes, anyone will have parts of their job they don't enjoy.
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the opiates of the masses...
And I guess one difference between dentistry, banking and prostitution is that only one of those professions would be likely to be chosen by someone who was looking to support a P-habit
I understood that bankers have an abiding interest in taking LSD...
...or is it as the old (adapted) saw has it
"only usurers lose drugs..."Dear Johns and belle amis du jour ...!
...as I recall from my days in Wellington in the '80s there were places where the rising sons and the great and good could go to be "entertained" by bright and accommodating young ladies, not a stones throw from Oriental Parade...
I'm sure these needs are still catered for today... -
I understood that bankers have an abiding interest in taking LSD...
Shorthand for Pounds, Shillings and Pence.
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beyond the imperial fiscal drug...
Shorthand for Pounds, Shillings and Pence.
well ok, I'm sure they got up to speed with the dexies-mal system, too...
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I'm sure they got up to speed with the dexies-mal system
come on, I loan?
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Or is that "Come on iLoan"
Where the future is Apples but rapidly going pear shaped.
As we look at the World through Rose Tinted Eye Pads.
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