SAAFE forum
General Category => Politics and academic/media queries => Topic started by: Moving Forward Media on 17 November 2009, 12:34:55 am
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Hello,
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.
We are looking for women who are willing to share their stories and be featured in our short piece that looks into the true lives of educated women who choose to do compensated dating as well as contextualizing their experiences. Particularly, we are interested in finding women, some who may have successful careers by day, who are fueled to do ?compensated dating' as a means to pay for their tuition, purchase fashionable goods, etc.
Our aim is to focus on British women, particularly in London, in an honest, unbiased, and non judgemental way.
We understand the sensitivity of this job and any initial conversations we have will be confidential and off the record. We would be extremely grateful to anyone who would be willing to talk with us?over the phone, or in person, via email, which ever is most comfortable and most convenient for them.
If there is anyone who is interested in learning more about our project and potentially becoming a part of it, we would love to hear from you.
Thank you so much for checking out our post. We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Donna and Lena
Please contact us at:
MovingForwardMedia@gmail.com
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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.
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London isn't the only place we work, there are lots of other places in the UK and outside where ladies ply the trade of 'compensated dating'. I love that term.
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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?
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First of all, we appreciate the responses and have taken them into serious consideration. We sincerely apologize if we offended you and welcome the opportunity to introduce ourselves and provide further information. As Amy suggested in her post, we are American. Both Lena and I are journalists who recently moved to London and our combined professional experience spans from writing for travel journals and magazines in San Francisco to producing a reputable, investigative news program in New York City.
The angle of our news story to explore ?compensated dated? stemmed from this recent article on CNN cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/24/hongkong.teenage.prostitution/index.html and also this article which appeared in Radar Magazine jessicapilot.com/recent-work/secrets-of-a-hipster-hooker/.
Please allow me to stress that although our angle is as such, we are open to speaking with anyone who can provide complementary information that will aid us on our research. As one of the members on Saafe Forum?s profile reads ? The prostitute is not, as feminists claim, the victim of men but rather their conqueror, an outlaw who controls the sexual channel between nature and culture.? - Camille Paglia. We are interested in producing a compelling piece of work that tells a story of empowerment and yes, control (again as Amy suggested).
Please do your best not to simply write us off. We have already learned so much from this dialogue exchange and hope to continue it.
Donna and Lena
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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 ;D. Sorry.
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Hi Donna and Lena,
Can I also say that the reference to underage sex workers in Hong kong shocked me as much as it did Amy. Many of us are mothers and the idea of our work being compared to this, completely seperate and terrible issue, is horrifying to us. But unfortunately for us, what we do is generally greatly mis-understood by the general public.
I am a single mother (also not from London) and I also run my own business, one that has nothing to do with escort work as do many women on this forum. However I work on the side as an escort to make ends meet. I'm afraid the idea of just doing this job (and that is all it is, a job that I chose to do) just to buy 'fashionable items' is laughable. Or maybe I just wish I was that successful..... ;) and I think that I speak for a lot of us when I say the consequences of being 'outed' is simply too great a risk to take.
Sophie
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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.
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I couldn't have put it better than Amy just has, but wanted to add to this question, which she quoted
'why shouldn't young women at university support themselves with a well paid sideline which gives them freedom to succeed in their studies?'
We also need to ask ourselves, why is it that even when suggesting that being a prostitute is acceptable it needs to be reasoned with the implication that this is only a temporary 'sideline' to finance the studies which will enable these women to get a 'respectable' job.
For me escorting is a life choice, I did my degree and the respectable work thing and am happier now than I ever was and my only regret is having stuck it out in the 'normal working world' for so long.
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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!
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Sorry, I have spoken to various people claiming to be "researching" salacious material for so-called film projects in the past, and learned the hard way that most of them are bogus.
All we have is your word, some faceless text in a post, no website address, no phone number, so no thanks. But good luck.
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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.
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As they have not been active on the forum for almost three weeks,
Yes I had noticed that they had stopped responding to the posts..... do you think the replies from our fiesty ladies made them realise that they had bitten off more than they could chew ??? Don't think they were expecting such response from mere fashion hungry bimbos somehow ;D
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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. ;D
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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. ;D
My sentiments exactly! Hee hee ;D
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WOW!
I came across this forum while carousing through the internet trying to find a group of sex workers' union/group which could direct my research. I'm a Masters student at the LSE, London, girls and may I say that you guys are doing such a great job of making your voices heard over the din (everyone has an opinion about sex work hmmph!) of biased, dismissive, patronising and ignorant opinions. I firmly believe that you don't deserve to be 'material' or 'objects' for any research. I think that you should be setting the agenda, the questions need to be coming from you. Amy I hope you don't mind me stealing that research idea of yours. After months of soul searching and researching I couldn't have come up for a better one. Any comments girls? Any advice? Any guidelines? Anything I should pay attention to?
P.S. I was thinking of earning some money and getting experience making erotic phone calls. I don't know how to apply etc. Any pointers?
Maitrayee Basu.
tinab49@gmail.com
(Phone number available upon request)
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Moe, what are you talking about? I don't see any suggestion for a research project in Amy's posts in this thread. If you want to ask how to go about doing some research, start a thread and say what it is you're interested in, what kind of project you're doing, and what help you hope to get.
If you'd like to enter the sex industry yourself, look through the Questions and Answers forum and start a thread there if there isn't already one that answers your questions.
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I was talking about Amy's second thread where she asks why most female university students don't use sex work as a means to support themselves. I personally find it worthy of full academic analysis. And thanks so much I shall take your advice and start a new thread. Basically my methodology is to let my subjects pick their own issues and define the field the way they want it. So they have more agency. In fact I am willing to let my research subjects come up with an issue which might be more important than the ones I might want to tackle. The view from the inside should be privileged.
Maitrayee.
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I was talking about Amy's second thread where she asks why most female university students don't use sex work as a means to support themselves. I personally find it worthy of full academic analysis. And thanks so much I shall take your advice and start a new thread. Basically my methodology is to let my subjects pick their own issues and define the field the way they want it. So they have more agency. In fact I am willing to let my research subjects come up with an issue which might be more important than the ones I might want to tackle. The view from the inside should be privileged.
Maitrayee.
How dare you put words in my mouth! I said nothing of the kind - I would NEVER suggest that sex work is an obvious or easy choice for 'most' female students, or for anybody else. I believe the quote you are referring to must be this one:
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?
Where does it say that I think 'most' students ought to enter the sex industry to fund their studies? If you actually read this properly it asks more about why people like you think we are here to be studied and picked over as if we were another species, purely because of the job we do. I'll thank you not to attribute any more of this spurious cobblers to me - if you want to justify yourself, you will not be doing so off the back of misunderstanding my posts.
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With all respect Amy, I am not suggesting that anyone should pick any particular career at all. I merely wish to ask if it's an option they might consider and if not, why not. I do retain the sense that it's been said as an answer to a question such as 'why should so and so choose X as their profession?' with the logical answer 'why not?'. Given the stigma attached to sex work in most circles, the stigma operates in varied ways with people from different cultural, intellectual backgrounds. I'm not here to put words in anyone's mouth, that is not my idea of research at all. I just thought it might be an interesting idea to explore since me and a male friend were thinking we should visit gay bars and see if we can market our sexuality and some other friends found the idea ridiculous and laughable. I apologise for offending you.
Having thought about what you and BHoney said earlier about not requiring a spokesperson, that WAS silly of me, what was I thinking. But I think even understanding another person's perspective is a good motivation for a given research. Apologies.
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With all respect Amy, I am not suggesting that anyone should pick any particular career at all. I merely wish to ask if it's an option they might consider and if not, why not
I know that and that was not was I was objecting to. If you read my post again, my irritation was purely with statements and views being attributed to me that I did not make, thus misrepresenting me to others who may be reading. I particularly take issue with your use of the word 'most', which does not appear in my post at all and in this instance was sufficient to completely alter the meaning of what was being said. If you are going to reference statements people have made on this board or anywhere else in the name of serious research, please do it accurately.