# What Happens to Over-the-Hill Sex Workers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195 "2009-08-12T17:24:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/1 "2009-08-12T17:24:54Z")
Strippers, porn stars, prostitutes of various types etc. You can’t keep that up forever. I imagine some of these tend to lead dissolute lifestyles, especially at the lower end of the scale, and these may not tend to last long. But what of the ones who do? Do they move into management roles in the industry, settle into middle-class lives, end up on welfare, go to special sex worker retirement centers or what? It’s odd to think that you may speak to some typical-seeming elderly grandmother-type who may have been a hard-core hooker as a youth, but you never know. Obviously individual experiences will vary. But I’m wondering if anyone has ever gathered group data on this cohort. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/2 "2009-08-12T17:38:07Z")
I imagine if they stay in the “industry”, they end up as mama-sans, street hawkers (“you like nice girl?”) or entrepreneurs ala Heidi Fleiss. Otherwise, perhaps they find a long term sugar daddy or just end up in an ordinary job and/or ordinary marriage. ETA: Paging Siam Sam, making an appearance in three . . . two . . . one . . . ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/3 "2009-08-12T17:43:00Z")
Funny you should mention this, I was with an older hooker the other night. She told me that although she had winter in hair, she had summer in her heart. I told her that if she didn’t get some spring in her ass, we’d be here till fall. ( Insert rimshot here) Thanks, I’ll be here all week! Sorry, I tried to resist. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/4 "2009-08-12T18:13:33Z")
Maybe they do the same thing regular actors do when they can no longer get roles, they have to find other work. Some were smart enough to put away money so they don’t have to work. Radio tends to be a business for younger people as DJs and some of the guys move into ad sales when they are no longer on the air, others move into station management. You don’t see too many 50 year old guys still playing Britney Spears tunes. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/5 "2009-08-12T18:26:19Z")
Phone sex operators. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/6 "2009-08-12T18:30:03Z")
I’d imagine that life for most hookers goes nowhere but down as they age - maybe you start out with an escort service when you’re young and hot, but by the time you’re 40 you look 75 and you’re down on the really shitty corners hooking for crack, and then you die. Something tells me there aren’t a lot of hookers with retirement plans. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/7 "2009-08-12T18:33:26Z")
[Traci Lords](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traci_Lords) ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/8 "2009-08-12T18:46:07Z")
I knew a legal prostitute in Central Nevada who bought the brothel. She died a few years ago at about 75 - from cigarettes. ---
**Author:** ![Teacake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Teacake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teacake)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/9 "2009-08-12T18:46:26Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Strippers, porn stars, prostitutes of various types etc. You can’t keep that up forever. Everyone seems to be focusing on what happens to older women in the industry, but… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/10 "2009-08-12T19:02:29Z")
I’m obviously not going to google for it here at work, but I believe some of the video stars go on to manage the next generation and some go on to produce or direct. And, of course, some end up out on the street and have to make a new life for themselves after the second butt lift starts to sag. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/11 "2009-08-12T20:05:12Z")
Well if you’re [Jenna Jameson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenna_Jameson), you become a millionaire producer/business owner. Not sure she qualifies for the OP though. Saw her in [Zombie Strippers (2008)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960890/) and she’s a long way from ‘over the hill’. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/12 "2009-08-12T20:11:22Z")
Then too, there is also a nonzero market for older sex workers. It’s a small niche, to be sure, but with the Internet, folks with such a preference can now find each other easily. So at least some of them (though obviously not all) just keep on doing what they’d always done. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/13 "2009-08-12T20:20:42Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Well if you’re [Jenna Jameson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenna_Jameson), you become a millionaire producer/business owner. > > Not sure she qualifies for the OP though. Saw her in [Zombie Strippers (2008)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960890/) and she’s a long way from ‘over the hill’. Please cf. post 7. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/14 "2009-08-12T20:22:09Z")
I used to work with a secretary who I really suspected had been something in that trade when she was younger (judging from her clothes, makeup, way of talking, way of life, etc.). Not sure. But it’s certainly possible that people change professions just like anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/15 "2009-08-12T20:39:51Z")
Would porn be different than any other job that’s hard to get up to in the morning? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/16 "2009-08-12T20:54:52Z")
One of my fellow teachers, now in her 60s and wrinkly as all hell, stripped her way through college. Gross, but there you go- they teach preschool. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/17 "2009-08-12T21:09:25Z")
Strippers can move to waiting tables in the clubs. Porn actresses tour selling their old DVDs and merchandise, and signing autographs. Hookers either cater to a less choosy crowd, or move into management. Or die. Or retire, and let their kids take care of them (assuming they have kids that actually go on to do something). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/18 "2009-08-12T21:16:12Z")
Some of them fill another niche in the same industry . . . politics. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/19 "2009-08-12T22:11:28Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Some of them fill another niche in the same industry . . . politics. Doesn’t Italy have an ex-porn actress MP? ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195/20 "2009-08-12T23:41:01Z")
I think the question assumes that for most people in porn, its a long time career. For 90% of the people you see in porn movies and websites its a temp job or even a one time gig. I just read a blog about a young lady who made 20 or 30 grand by being in the porn industry for a couple months and promptly left it and never talked about it again. I would think thats a common scenario. As far as the 10% go, well, I imagine they end up with “respectable” jobs as they are quite aware that eventually their looks will go. I also imagine their pay rate is pegged to their looks, so the ones near the end of their careers probably are already working at moving on because of the lack of cash. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-over-the-hill-sex-workers/506195.md?page=2)