How is it possible to be a feminist and support the sex industry?

When I'm introduced to other working girls, I don't ask them how they got into this line of work. Maybe that's the sort of thing that only non sex workers ask. I don't know. Do you know how long everyone in your line of work has been doing it and how they got into it?

I didn't say that I was under constant attack, I was talking about the girls who work with the IUSW and other similar organisations

Mandamumu, I am amazed that with all your experience in the industry you haven't met any women who were pimped, tricked or enticed into it. I knew a prostitute once and I asked her how she got into it. She said that her boyfriend took her to a party and one of her female friends went into a room to have sex with a man at the party, for which she was paid. The boyfriend and her female friend then urged her to do the same with another man, telling her she would get paid. In the atmosphere of the party and the pressure, she did it and that was how she started in the industry. After that contacts in the industry got her a place working out of flat, so she wasn't a streetwalker.

yes ..I can see quite clearly why most dont tend to
I see quite a few doing my job and most are quite normal well rounded girls, I mean you wouldnt know they were sex workers if you saw them in the street, non have whore tattoed on their forheads,
lets face it they make money from men and I make money from them ...does that make me a pimp?..lol mind you not many pimps can spray tan and manicure like I can

"most prostitues tend to keep themselves to themselves ...mind you with some of the comments on here i dont blame them !"

It is very difficult to stick one's head over the parapet, only a few girls ever dare to do it, so unfortunately those few are constantly under attack.

I had a grand old time actually.
I look back now and I know that I was very naive and that I was also incredibly lucky, but there it is, I have no regrets.

"Did you never have any other ambitions Mandamumu?"

Yes, I fulfilled most of them and my time is no over yet, so I intend to achieve much more before I retire, however I'm not here to discuss my day job. Just the sex industry.

oh and before i get asked if i am one myself ..I am not but I do come into contact with some whilst doing my job

most prostitues tend to keep themselves to themselves ...mind you with some of the comments on here i dont blame them !

No, but I have met several girls who needed to be talked out of it before they did something they may later regret. That's the biggest problem, that young girls assume they can do this, when in fact not everyone can.

in that case I expect you have met women who were pimped, enticed or tricked into the industry. Is that the case?

webdude, with respect, if you want to interject with smart comments, it is prudent to have read the thread first

or you just run the risk of looking silly

like you did...just then

< speaks from much experience, now reads all the thread before making smart comments >

"Are you another late entrant into the profession like MissHoneyMoon?"

18 years... I started when I was 20.

oh, pardon me for breathing, dittany - I had other things to be doing than read every word of over 200 comments - though I had read quite a few dozen earlier today.

Of course I might have skipped accidentally past wherever that aspect had been explained...

Mandamumu, don't you think that some women are pimped, enticed and tricked into it? Are you another late entrant into the profession like MissHoneyMoon? Are you not aware of younger women and how they got into it? Were you doing embroidery while they were getting involved in the industry?

Hang on dittany, surely the closures in Amsterdam are a sign that legalisation is working? The fact that they actually know what is going on and have the power to target and close certain joints down specifically because abuse is going on - this is GOOD!

Do we see similar raids going on over here in the UK? No we do not, the police haven't a clue what's going on, and lack the mandate to target abuse specifically (instead they close down places for drug dealing or pimping). Plus criminalisation makes it much harder to give women an escape route, because their illegal status keeps them hidden from those who could help.

Just look at the difference between our laws on smoking and heroin, for example. Smoking is legal but strongly controlled. Over the years, increasing regulation has reduced levels of smoking and made it less and less socially acceptable. Taxes on fags pay for our health service. Everyone understands the risks, because in a controlled environment it is possible to carry out scientific research. It's quite conceivable that some day, smoking will become a thing of the past.

Heroin, on the other hand, is adulterated with substances that cause even more harm, and sold to you by criminals who may draw you into other harmful activities. The profits go into the pockets of people-traffickers, pimps, criminal warlords and the rest. It's hard to treat the illnesses of heavy users, because no-one has a clue what chemicals they've been ingesting and there is hardly any good scientific research. Reaching addicts to treat their addiction is hard too because criminalised addiction forces them underground, keeping them in the hands of the scum who are in complete control of the drugs scene.

I can understand your anger - but these problems have been around a long time, we need less emotion and more new ideas if we have a hope in hell of making the situation better.

"sex industry is entrenched in our society"

indeed - there was a TV programme about how much investment from pension funds (BT, BBC) happens to be in firms which get profits from porn (chains of hotels, mobile phone services, TV channels).

Came as a shock to a bunch of BT pensioners and embarrassing for the reporter to show one of the BBC buildings with it own 'guilty secret'.

Just that the amounts involved are not identified in a transparent manner - so some hotel chain doesn't distinguish between pay-per-view TV income from family movies vs PPV income from a porn film... and many porn films push terms like slut, whore, and so on, or appear to show coercion - taking advantage of petite young women with 30-40yo powerfully built men, doing things I won't describe, but find disgusting.

Bottom line is that if you have funds in a pension, some of that may be invested in companies which themselves make money from porn - not from brothels and prostitution or controlled by criminal gangs, but the 'corporate' end centred in Hollywood, Germany, Amsterdam, etc.

No most tend to use their initative , get a wedsite build or advertise in the papers (or not so much nowadays) there are specialist wedmasters (and mistresses) who only do escort and agency web pages
or they may do the website themselves
if they work in a brothel many will call and ask if they are any vacancies and then off they go
if someone wants to do something they will, they will find a way of doing it !

Claig, do you imagine that all women are sat at home doing embroidery and are oblivious to the workings and goings on of the outside world?

There are a myriad of ways in which women find out about prostitution and enter the industry by choice.

I didn't say that prostitution wasn't a problem for her, I said it wasn't where her problems began.

I've already said that I don't believe anyone should be prostituted against their will, but I defend my right (and anyone else's) to choose to be a prostitute.