We are two female journalists in the process of developing a short documentary to be aired on a major TV news station about young, educated women who are sex workers.

Only "young" educated women?  I think you'll find there are plenty of "not so young" educated women in our profession who would be able to make a valid contribution.

Quote from: Moving Forward Media on 17 November 2009, 12:34:55 am

We are two female journalists in the process of developing a short documentary to be aired on a major TV news station about young, educated women who are sex workers.

Only "young" educated women?  I think you'll find there are lots of "not so young" educated women in our profession who would be able to make a valid contribution.

There are also a good few not-so-young and completely uneducated prossies like me, who have come from nothing and built very successful businesses scattered about the land but we don't count either. I suppose the total lack of anything remarkable about us seals our fate, but it's also what affords us our anonymity and keeps clients coming back to some extent at least.

To be fair to the OP, they have made it clear which demographic they are looking for (I'm sure the timing is but a coincidence  ) and it's obvious why; there are still a staggering number of people who are unable to understand why smart young women would choose a job where they can earn a great deal of money in return for working relatively few hours and remaining in complete control of their affairs. And don't be silly, we all know that London is the centre of the universe...

I would imagine that most of the women within the target group are far too media savvy to have anything to do with this, particularly since the OP is not giving away any useful information regarding the TV channel this documentary is intended for, their personal or their production company's credentials (Google isn't finding them either) and the language in the post is odd and very American - surely no British individual wishing to be taken seriously would use a trite and ridiculous euphemism like 'compensated dating'? I'm an old cynic, but this looks deeply dubious to me.

Perhaps the OP would like to furnish us with a little more helpful information?

Hi again Donna and Lena, and thank you for your response.

Firstly, I feel that the most important thing to make absolutely clear is that underage prostitution (in Hong Kong or anywhere else) is a completely separate issue and has nothing whatsoever to do with what we as legal and responsible working adults do for a living. Of course it does exist in the UK, but is mostly confined to the street scene, which as far as I know the vast majority of us on here have little or no experience of. The legitimate non-trafficked indoor sex industry we are part of, either independently or as parlour or agency workers abhors any suggestion of this, and virtually every punter and lady alike would have no hesitation in reporting a suspected underage worker to the proper authorities - it is repugnant to us all (and I remember this vile story coming up on a punting board a few weeks ago).

Therefore, to say that your 'angle' is starting from this is way off the mark. Likewise your story from New York; unlike the UK, prostitution there is illegal and thus the two things cannot possibly be usefully compared. We work within the law, pay tax and National Insurance and are generally fairly dull, I'm afraid (in the nicest possible way ). Few of us swan around London with Gucci handbags full of ?50 notes, although there are some fabulous ladies on here who I do think would fit your bill nicely but whether they will want to be involved is a different matter, I suspect. A few of us have been stung before, thanks to good old editorial control, or the lack of it.

One of the single most irritating things we have to put up with from the people outside the industry is the constant and total inability to compare like with like and therefore tar us all with the same brush; for example, the classic statistical survey figures usually thrown about by the abolitionists and used to refer to sex workers en masse is a survey taken by Melissa Farley (a notorious anti-prostitution activist with no academic credibility whatsoever) of San Francisco street prostitutes in the 1970s - hardly a surprise that virtually all reported high levels of violence, drug use and so on. You can make statistics show whatever you like provided you are extremely careful about who you ask, and again this tends to make people suspicious of your motives when you arrive with a clearly defined starting point which is of no relevance to your chosen audience.

We are being singled out once again to justify our choices as society undermines our decision to earn our living as we see fit - we would not be subject to the same questioning had we decided to be plumbers or firefighters. Prostitution is a job like any other. Yes, we do our job for the money, but so does everyone else - do you know anyone who would work for free? The question IMO, should not be 'why shouldn't young women at university support themselves with a well paid sideline which gives them freedom to succeed in their studies?', but why we are even asking the question in the first place? In other words, why are a group of people doing a particular job newsworthy purely by virtue of doing that job, and what then does the prurient and pervading interest in anything which involves sex say about us as a nation?

PS. I've been blogging  . Sorry.

I have been doing this job for the last 10 years, and I have to say I have had my 'Belle de Jour' moments, and the 'oh fuck how am I going to pay the rent' moments. It is a job just like any other freelance job. There are good times,  there are bad times, and there are in between time, which is the place most of us are at. It isn't a choice that is lightly made on our parts, but that being said, the rewards of freedom, versus return are worth the social hassle we have to suffer, and now with the the dawn of technology and mobility, and the fact that a great deal more people are entrepreneurs, the ability to formulate a good cover story is easier than ever.

True story, my daughter goes to a private school, and I was petrified about people finding out about what I did, until I discovered that two of her new best friends fathers were, let's just say less that above board in their business dealings. What they did made me look like a cashier at the local grocery store in comparison. It did make me smile. Even the local 'personalities' want their children to have a a good education.

Ditto Cassie ? well said!
 
To be honest, I really resent some of the assumptions this moneymentary seeks to prove by two media people who are trying to earn on the backs of us ladies after all.  I always feel mildly resentful when I get approached as the assumption is always that I should be giving up my time for free while whoever is putting the program together is either a fully paid up member of a production team or at least hoping to pitch the program and earn from it eventually.  The whole point of our job is to earn relative good money for working relative few hours.  So why on earth would we want to give up our precious time for free?   

And why do any of us need to offer any validation aside of being successful harlots?  Actually, I am based in London but am older than the typical Belle de Jour (that said the original film alluded to a more mature bored housewife) but hold 2 Degrees as well as a post graduate qualification and speak 4 languages.  Thanks to extensive and wide ranging job experience I could walk into a number of well paid jobs.  But recently I left a high powered job at director?s level to do become a floozy. Why?  Because essentially I am lazy lol and love the idea of earning a decent income while not working 12 hours plus a day.  I like being in charge of my own brand and business and really cherish the real luxury of having a lot of time to pursue arts and design interests.  I also enjoy the whole lifestyle and actually to disprove some media stereotypes decided to embark on this career in spite of being able to hold down any number of respectable jobs!     

I had a brief email exchange with the OP(s) following this thread, whereupon they admitted they hadn't really thought properly about what a huge and diverse subject they were tackling, and definitely needed more research.

As they have not been active on the forum for almost three weeks, I think it's safe to say they have either found their sample group and are doing said research, or have binned off the whole thing as a bad job. Whichever it is, I think it's fairly safe to say they are no longer looking for material on here.

In my "fly off the handle" calm manner, I didn't even notice they'd not been on for 3 weeks.

  I also didn't really see the links they'd posted.  However, I am still sceptical, as anyone can post links.  Am I being paranoid?  Or sensible?  All I know is I have been approached by bogus people before.

I blame any mistakes on the total focus I have for going out and buying tons of designer crap with all this amazing money I've earned from my "compensated dating".  It tends to distract  me.