16 Men Explain Why They See Sex Workers
“I don’t condone treating sex workers as objects, but I do treat their services as a commodity.”
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“I don’t condone treating sex workers as objects, but I do treat their services as a commodity.”
I answer calls at my own discretion; if I feel uncomfortable, I have the right to say “no” and hang up.
You don’t have to be a prostitute or a porn star to earn money from sex.
How many people can say they play with sex toys during their morning meetings?
She touched me with the same familiarity that I touch myself.
In a post #MeToo era, how does sexual consent work, when the people involved have been paid to perform?
It’s sad people react negatively to women who choose sex work.
Mistress Natalie is just like any other woman. Except she has a very impressive whip collection.
I am not denying that some strippers may find their jobs empowering, but in my experience, stripping is no more or less empowering than any other job I’ve had.
This is the naked truth.
Welcome to the ancient art of the Qadishtu …
I know this isn’t what you pictured for me at 26, but it’s a job, and it’s the best job for me.
There are an eerie number of similarities.
We have enough women hating in this world already. Do you really want to add to it?
You may not like what you’re about to read, but you need to hear it.
People don’t have a clue how to distinguish voluntary sex workers from exploited trafficking victims.
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There’s A Bear In There (And He Wants Swedish) is an intriguing peek behind the red velvet curtain and into the seamy and steamy taboo world of sex-for-hire. A funny and insightful sojourn through the secret life of the world’s oldest profession garnished with delightfully honest snapshots of those gainfully employed in it?
SheSaid was swept up in the media feeding frenzy surrounding this wonderful book and had a nice chat with Merridy…
Writing There’s A Bear In There (And He Wants Swedish) is a big departure from acting. How’s it all going?
The interest is pretty huge which is great, I guess if you say Play School meets brothel’ to people they become interested immediately. The Play School reference is also there to illustrate how out of place I felt in that environment.
What would you say in the most important lesson you learned through your time in the brothel?
Definitely just to leave behind preconceived ideas of sex workers being ‘damaged victims’ who have no choice in that career path. They’re not all drug abused, or sexually abused women ? the bunch that I worked with ? generally speaking, were quite a bright, funny bunch of girls.
Do you think there is any truth to the stereotype of the ‘hooker with the heart of gold?’
Not really. There was some great girls with big hearts and very tough exteriors, but they came in all shades, colours, sizes? They were complex people just like the rest of us, and very real people, just like the rest of us. I feel ashamed of my unconscious prejudice that I did walk in there with. I didn’t realise that until I was there for a couple of weeks and I was shocked at my misconception as much as anything else.
Do you think that working in that industry will affect your ability to get work in children?s television again?
Yes, I think it will. I don?t think Play School will ever have me back. Not that they would have anyway, I mean, they got rid of me in ’89 or so. They were terrific, they were wonderful people to work for but I think I’ve probably stuffed that now, I’ll have to give that up. Say goodbye to that forever, which is a pity, because I wasn’t a sex worker, I was only a receptionist. But I’m sure the label will stick.
Did you manage to maintain friendships with the women outside of the working environment?
Towards the end there we tried, Sapphire and I, but what generally happened, was that they had an obstacle to overcome. When I bumped into them in the street, they would ignore me, most of the time, I think out of consideration for me. They wanted to protect me from having to make up some lie to my friend when I introduced them. The Marilyn character, she lived in Coogee (Sydney) for a while and I used to see her all the time. At night at the brothel we?d be great mates, but in the street, she?d pretend that we hadn’t seen each other. So as far as keeping in touch goes, they didn’t really return calls in the end, so I let it go.
When I was working with them, I didn’t know I was writing a book, I thought I was collecting material. I had to write it down, what was happening to me. Everyone I talked to said ‘You’ve got to write this down!’ It’s great stuff, it was very interesting, very funny. And it’s illuminating.
Buy a copy of There’s A Bear In There (And He Wants Swedish) from the SheSaid bookshop.