An agency by any other name

[lovingboth]

I met an escort recently who was working for an agency that, in general, was treating her very well. What made us both laugh was its.. 'upfront' name.

It made me think:

[Poll #282784]

[names invented]

Comments

[pavlos.livejournal.com]

Well, I do buy sex on occasion, but I treat it more like "strictly-for-sex" dating than like a consumer service. In other words paying some money is a good way to meet a stranger who's in fact usually happy to have some form of sex, touch, smell, talk, exchange back rubs, etc. It's a way to give as well as receive affection, and so long as we manage to see each other as real people, I come away with a positive experience and at least it seems to me that nobody should feel used or inferior.

I find this more honest than feigning interest in drunken strangers in the pub for the sole reason of sleeping with them, which seems to be the social norm. Of course it helps that I'm a young and OK looking guy, and I have enough genuine intimate relationships with people. If I were old and lonely and thought that nobody would desire me in general, then I don't think I'd be so cool about buying sex, or that I'd do it.

The sort of approach to sex work that I object to is where the men treat it like a visit to the restaurant: An entirely passive affair where they do nothing and someone else has to make them horny, make them come, or whatever, while they guard their emotions or bond with each other against the women. It's even worse if each kind of sex act (rather than time) has a price. It seems pathetic and disrespectful. If I were a male sex worker and had to serve women customers who behaved like that I would feel both hostile and drained.

Unfortunately, this type of sex "product" seems to be getting more common. Form the words of older people (in a mediterranean culture) at least some men used to treat prostitutes as friendly strangers. Nowadays it's a case of "fuck the Russians", so much so that all Russian women immigrants are seen as a sort of non-human sexual product. Eeek!