Did Most Prostitutes & Female Porn Stars Get Molested As Children?

[Tethered_Kite]

@Exapno_Mapcase

A sociologist whose studies indicate that the sex trade has changed dramatically in recent years just wrote an op ed for the Washington Post.

[Myth]3. Most prostitutes are addicted to drugs or were abused as children.

This was once the case, as a host of research on prostitution long ago confirmed. But the population of women choosing sex work has changed dramatically over the past decade. High-end prostitutes of the sort Eliot Spitzer frequented account for a greater share of the sex business than they once did. And as Barnard College’s Elizabeth Bernstein has shown, sex workers today tend to make a conscious decision to enter the trade – not as a reaction to suffering but to earn some quick cash. Among these women, Bernstein’s research suggests, prostitution is viewed as a part-time job, one that grants autonomy and flexibility.

These women have little in common with the shrinking number of sex workers who still work on the streets. In a 2001 study of British prostitutes, Stephanie Church of Glasgow University found that those working outdoors “were younger, involved in prostitution at an earlier age, reported more illegal drug use, and experienced significantly more violence from their clients than those working indoors.”

I’ve encountered a few of these studies. They are echoes of our increasingly liberal (to use the word in its extreme) society and the valid feminist viewpoint that a woman owns her body and should be able to chose what she does with it.

The problem with it is that a prostitute enters dangerous emotional and physical territory in the practice of her vocation. Even well-screened clients can be unpredictable under the influence of desire and the sense of freedom that he’s paid for what he wants.

Remember that high class patron, Patrick Bates? Remember that violence knows no economic boundaries.