Selling Sex Louis Theroux

I'm watching now, I'll probably see a bit then catch up with the rest later. I'm watching the art student now, I don't feel she's truly happy with the situation, but has a' front'. But who knows.

I watched it. I was amazed at the mum with 4 kids. She had told her eldest dd what she did for a living at age 13. She seemed like an amazing mum to the children, and she was doing everything to provide for them.

All the women seemed to be damaged in one way or another.

Watched it too. I agree, can't help feeling there was a sense of cuckholding in their dynamic (perhaps at least at the beginning as neither seem happy now) which I'd have liked Louis to explore.

What struck me too was the two punters interviewed appeared to naively believe that the women enjoyed their company and that there was some mutual benefit (other than the cash) to the interaction.

Sad viewing all round.

So predictable and so sad that two of the women had been abused as children.

What channel please

2 of the girls wrote formal complaints and asked to be removed from the show which was denied. There’s a lot of uproar on Twitter and Instagram. Louis Theroux apparently was quite horrible to them off camera. The always use sex workers that fit their narrative rather than the completely sound of mind women who weren’t abused as children. It’s not a balanced view of the Industry at all

The disabled man was v sad

I'm only 5 minutes in and the first couple have a very weird dynamic. It seems quite odd the way she is telling her man that she belongs to her DP and wants him to give her away to another man for an hour.

Just watching this now. All of the women featured are so vulnerable I feel particularly the art student

As a flippant side note why do women with lip fillers gurn?

I wanted more info on the couple too, I wondered if they were swingers maybe? Or yeah if it was his fantasy.

With the woman who was a mum I felt Louis was having a bit of a saviour thing, or trying to make her a "victim". When it would have been good to look at her realistic alternative work choices, and the structural reasons for people in her position choosing sex work.

I wanted to know more of Ashleigh's background too. Her dad was mentioned but not so much her mum.

I was initially sympathetic to the disabled man but not so much when he said he'd hired a 21yo woman.

It struck me when they said something about the student they were basically saying she's sometimes horrible to friends and so the friends decide they can't deal with that and go. Well they will if she's horrible to them!

I didn't know how to feel about any of this programme..

It's easy to think along the lines of 'they know not what they do' type of thing. But all the women featured seemed quite self-aware to me, and I charge of their own destiny.

It was a shame that no male sex workers were featured in the prog.

In charge...

Watching. I do feel sorry for the children of the mum of four, does the whole world need to know their mum is a prostitute?

I feel so mixed about the sex-working industry.

Without giving away my exact job title gynae health is my job. I have treated sex workers like the ones in the programme. They prefer ‘escort’ to prostitute and advertise online, mostly working from their own home. Some tell me openly (albeit not ever proudly I must add), lots don’t admit it but I know because I have access to police, social services and mental health reports.

I’d really love to think that all women are in it because they’ve made an informed decision, weighed up their options and chosen sex work/escorting because they genuinely enjoy it and earn good money. But the sad truth is that most (almost all in my experience) have a history of being sexually abused in childhood. Many have been coerced into it by someone else or simply feel they have no choice and are living in poverty.

I’ve got just about the most liberal views on sex that anyone could have. NOTHING shocks or surprises me anymore. If you both/all consent and you both/all enjoy it, crack on! But when I meet a sex worker it just makes me feel sad really, as none of them seem very happy, even when they say they are.

(Admittedly, all the ones I meet have gynae issues of some kind so my view is probably very skewed toward the negative!!)

I know. Caroline seemed to be the only one enjoying it! The other two, despite them saying how in control they were, just had this underlying sadness.