Ex-Policeman running a brothel

[CritEqual]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43784251

I'm really struck by the line at the end:

"[But] if I work in a brothel where there's other women present, where there's a receptionist, it's a million times safer."

What bothers me about that is why is that the norm? I mean why is it just taken as a given that men are going to want to beat, rape and mug a prostitute?

I mean is there any other situation where that would be rendered acceptable behaviour? It's criminal, it's against the law and it SHOULD be prosecuted whenever it happens.

I read that and was horrified. Made me think of something my mum once said about the town she grew up in - that a lot of the police were on the take and accepted bribes to turn a blind eye to massage parlours/saunas. Retiring from that sort of cushy gig into actually running one seems more of a progression than a career change (speaking in entirely general terms of course, not about any specific case).

But yes, why is the fact that violence and rape should not be part of anyone's working environment not mentioned by the sex pozzie "prosititution is just a job like any other" muppets?

Yet another article focussing on the "happy hooker" rather than the men who use prostitutes.
I don't blame the police for not interfering, they have bigger fish to fry. But let's not pretend that makes prostitution ok.

The bbc are going out to bat for the pimps then. Can I demand a refund on my license fee?

Karl has a pre-tax salary of £60,000

Yes I bet he fucking does. And all on the backs of the women he is exploiting. I can’t bear this sex pozzie attitude so prevalent in the media. I’m sure lots of people think this is fine but the so-called choices these women make do not happen in a vacuum. Any “work” where men are buying your body should not be an option. I’m still aghast that a busy day for Louise is 8 or 9 clients, well she fucking earns her £900 a week doesn’t she. Horrible.

that a lot of the police were on the take and accepted bribes to turn a blind eye to massage parlours/saunas

In Edinburgh it was official Council policy to grant licences for "saunas" and turn a blind eye. No bribery was needed.

It was indeed Edinburgh, Lass but my mum was thinking of way back in the 50s and early 60s! She lived in a tenement where one of the ground floor flats was a brothel.

I read this story too, and the first thought I had was that they can dress it up and make it seem decent and different but he’s still just another man making money off women having sex. If it were a woman running it I don’t think I’d be as pissed off.

I'm still undecided on the topic one way or another, but that's totally down to my own ignorance of the subject. What I just simply cannot get past is how the idea that a certain class of women are somehow worth no protection from rape/theft/assault, and yes even murder. How the discussion even centers on mimimising that inherent risk without analysing that risk, where it comes from and putting it in perspective is supremely bizarre.

Without delving too deeply into the relative merits of pro or anti prostution arguments, surely we can all agree that society and law enforcement are asleep at the wheel when it comes to women's saftey here?

WE ARE NOT THINGS!

It almost reads like careers advice. I mean the clients are handsome and you get to pay off your student debt, Yuck!

I totally agree with you OP and this is my problem with the whole 'sex workers rights' thing: that the message seems to be that men are going to use women as fuck holes and assault/murder them and we just have to accept that, it's inevitable, it's just the way men are and there is no point in bothering ever trying to make them accountable for their actions.

So instead the focus should be on keeping these women who are nothing more than fuck holes 'safe'.

I also think that the disingenuity around the SWERF thing speaks volumes. These people know that we don't 'hate sexworkers', it's just another way to shut us up.

And if buying sex was truly about just 'not wanting to bother with dating' or whatever bollocks these people like to use to justify it, then the number of women and men paying for sex would be more equal.

‘"If we've got any doubts that they're not there under their own free will, we will call the police."

Well that could be read two different ways, couldn’t it? How very Freudian.