Hi all,

I am writing a stage play about the beginnings of a friendship between a Polish sex worker and a homeless ex-serviceman in London.  If being reading over the website and finding it very enlightening.  I'm am still researching the piece and hoped that I could ask some questions on this forum?

My knowledge of the sex trade is at this moment quite limited, so I am conscious of appearing ignorant or ill informed.

Here goes:

Would anyone be able to offer insight into a street worker's relationship with Police Officers.  i.e  Would you say that the Police would generally leave girls alone or would they be hassled and asked to move on ect.  If anyone has any examples of exchanges or banter with the Police that would be very helpful.  Any humourous comebacks to attention from the Police would be beneficial.

Would a girl who works on the streets still have a pimp in most circumstances.  If so, would the relationship be generally amicable or can it still be dangerous and one-sided.

Is there a English slang term for a "pimp".  To me that name sounds very American.  Are there any other slang terms surrounding the sex industry that would be used in daily speech.

If there are any Polish girls (or men) who use the forum could I'd greatly appreciate a few lines of dialogue translated if possible.

Any help/advice/anecdotes/suggestions would be well received and greatly appreciated.  If anyone would like to private e-mail me then I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Jack

Street work is outside the experience of the vast majority here.

A look at the Oxford Dictionary would show that the use of pimp pre-dates the USA.

I will say you're going down an appallingly stereotypical route and the best advice is probably 'stop now'.

The bit in bold is quite negative advice considering you know very little about the play's content.  The fact that the character is a prostitute is far from central to the play's plot.  I just hoped that with further research the elements/references to her profession that were dramatised could be as realistic as possible.

If street work is outside of the experience of most on this forum then I apologise for any offence caused.   

Mmm, yes, that plus the terseness that comes from replying on a phone.

Just be prepared to pay for their time if you do follow Emily's advice about doing some research. You probably won't find many Polish women doing it, mind, and 'Hello, please tell me about your pimp' is unlikely to go down well regardless of nationality.

I will say you're going down an appallingly stereotypical route and the best advice is probably 'stop now'.

My other job is as a writer: particularly writing less often heard stories in collaboration with people offering source material. It's a process that involves real listening and research, plus most often in my case inside knowledge and identification with the people I work with.

I don't see that there is anything wrong with fiction; producing work which is not about a directly lived experience....but its kind of cheap and sad to think that restating a set of tired old unexamined assumptions is 'creativity'.

'sexworker' has to be one of the most sensationalised and stereotyped identies. As others have said...unless you really have something different to add.....STOP.

I'm a soldier.  If I was as easily offended by every negative stereotype, inaccurate portrayal of military life, or the sensationalism of warfare then I'd be ready to top myself.

Like military life, surely you realise that your choice of profession places you in an position that is outside of what most of society would consider the "norm".  That creates interest within the media, literary and entertainment communities.

Like others have mentioned on other threads: The day to day life of a prostitute is probably as mundane as anyone elses, but surely the fantasy/stereotype is far more dramatic.  There wouldn't be many war movies/novels getting made if my day to day life was dramatised.  Today I'll take my son swimming, go for a jog, help my pregnant wife with the housework, watch Cars 2 with my lad then go to night shift.  Not exactly Rambo or Saving Private Ryan.

I've read through a few other threads on this subsection of your forum and noticed that a lot of the replies are either openly hostile or quite pompous in tone.  If so many of the posters feel that they are being offended or patronised by these requests wouldn't it be easier to remove the "Politics and academic/media queries" section from your forum?

A place for research requests plus discussion on the latest news/laws/debates on our industry.

The theme of this whole website is helping working girls/escorts/prostitutes, whatever you want to call us - not helping someone write a play containing ridiculous stereotypes

If you've read all the site info, you must have seen the type of work the majority of us are engaged in, and how little relation it bears to being a pimped-out street girl.

The questions you've asked are mildly offensive, IMHO, particularly the one about 'examples of banter with the police'. I imagine that working the streets and being picked up by the police is a fairly traumatic experience that no woman would go through if there was any other option. Not fodder for your script.

The impression that I get is that you're asking so that you can say you did research with actual prostitutes, how brave and daring and scandalous etc etc.

You mention the stereotypes of soldiers, but you are stereotyping us, in an extremely negative way. You admit that the real version of our lives is pretty mundane, but you want the fantasy/stereotype for your play as it will be more dramatic. Erm, go and make it up, then! You know bugger all about prostitutes, your audience will know bugger all about prostitutes. It's fairly obvious you're not looking to portray the real, boring truth, so just make it up!

But I'm not all negative - I think you should call the pimp Boris. And he should have a scar on his face. And carry a 'shooter', and be fond of giving Irina (the WG) a slap. He is also a crack dealer.

The only things I've mentioned about my character is that she is Polish and a prostitute.  I've not said she was hard-nosed, a drug abuser, a slut, a bad mother ect ect ect.   As I'm conducting research I've simply asked questions to learn more about the subject.  Doesn't mean they'll influence the character or the play.  It's only research.  It was only a politely worded request.

How is the view from your high horse by the way?

Wouldn't you therefore be better off writing a play about army-life? It's a subject you clearly know a great deal about, therefore giving you a much greater understanding of how to portray it on stage. Surely that would make more sense. I'm sure that Belle's memoirs were so captivating for the audience because of her first-hand knowledge of the industry! And before you say anything - yes, we all know they were dramatised (sometimes exaggerated and other times 'toned down') for the screen and book but at least she was able to 'pull' on her knowledge of the industry - and it most clearly worked! Something to consider - maybe!

Sapphire

I've a feeling we may have a(nother) case of "Independent women giving their opinions which may differ from yours = GROUP OF MEGA-BITCHES (hostile & pompous division)" here; not a new thing on the interwebs, unfortunately.

I actually think all the opinions of the sex workers who've written in this thread (in response to someone asking for our views, no less!) have been measured, thoughtful and written in a way that conveys both humour and depth of feeling regarding the issue at hand: the portrayal of sex workers in the media/arts. I think if the OP feels we are all a rude bunch of cows then he probably hasn't ever met a real troll! (And I'm saying that quite facetiously, and without intention to be rude - if this were real life I'd be smiling, just to make my tone here explicitly clear for those who might misread over-sensitively. I am quite serious about my point re. the high quality of responses here and elsewhere on the forum, though, mind. Those who don't like the content of our responses do often get extremely agitated, which is a shame, but that does not indicate an actual inherent problem with the responses themselves. If you come here to talk to sex workers and find it a horrible shock that we are independent, intelligent people with strong views, then I'm sorry... for you. Not necessarily meaning the OP there, that was just a general statement.)

Apologies for going somewhat off-topic here but I do, as anyone can likely tell, find it offensive when someone who might dislike what I and others have said suddenly declares this whole forum "hostile". Disagreeing with you =/= being hostile. I'm sure you'd be insulted if I added, "Perhaps you would appreciate a bit more feminine simpering with your replies?" ... so I won't.

Back on-topic! I think the reason you got so many replies (considering we're a small forum), MrX, is because you actually have a small group of sex workers here who are keen to discuss your idea! We heard your original idea (to put a Polish streetwalker character in a play) and then told you what we thought (as sex workers, we are both bored and afraid of seeing yet more stereotyping of us) and then you said that you felt that the 'fantasy' of us was much more interesting than the reality. Which just probably made us all go: because we felt that probably indicated that you'd much rather go with your original idea than actually take what we'd said into account.

If you made a character in a play who was a fleshed-out, fully-formed woman with life experience and personality, who also happened to be an indoor sex worker (cam work, incalls or selling worn pants - could be anything!) then I think that would be pretty cool. She could go on to do almost anything in the story and there would still be that little 'something different' about her life. But just having another, "OMG, this pretty young thing has to do vile things to survive!" titillation/hand-wringers's-delight caricature, you must admit, has been done a zillion times before.

Ah well. You might be too offended to come back, so that might all be rambling for nothing. I like Sapphireblue's idea, too:

Wouldn't you therefore be better off writing a play about army-life? It's a subject you clearly know a great deal about, therefore giving you a much greater understanding of how to portray it on stage. Surely that would make more sense. I'm sure that Belle's memoirs were so captivating for the audience because of her first-hand knowledge of the industry! And before you say anything - yes, we all know they were dramatised (sometimes exaggerated and other times 'toned down') for the screen and book but at least she was able to 'pull' on her knowledge of the industry - and it most clearly worked! Something to consider - maybe!

Your first-hand knowledge of the army could mean that you could write something that would teach the whole audience something they had no idea about! Bit like Belle making everyone go, "OMG" at the the idea that all prossies don't walk the street working for pimps to get drugs. To be even more shocking than Belle, I do reckon the next big book would have to talk about the sex workers who don't make ?500 per hour and wear ridiculous amounts of designer bollocks, but who go into the industry for rather common-place reasons (enjoying self-employment, wanting to pay for further education, supplementing part-time incomes, saving for a mortgage, etc etc) and don't have completely bizarre and dramatic lives (or at least, not silly drama!).