Libby Sez
“It’s time for the sex industry to be run by women!”
For those of you who think that sex work is degrading, whether it be stripping, domination, prostitution, or phone sex, the most degrading part is NOT the work itself, but handing over half (or whatever percentage) of your profits to the male business owner (or pimp) who does nothing for it but sit on his fat ass in the name of “protection”. As far as I’m concerned, the male has only one place in the sex industry-as a customer. It is a clear fact that women will always make more money that men in the sex industry, which is why women should be the ones running it and reaping the profits.
As someone who has worked in various areas of the sex industry (domination, massage, escort), I can tell you that I have come upon almost no instances where I needed protection from a man. I have always worked on my own, driving myself to calls, with my only backup being an agency or friend. Most clients don’t want things to get out of hand, as they have families and reputations to protect. If a situation seems dangerous or undesirable, I leave before it gets out of hand. I don’t go into high crime neighborhoods or service clients who sound like trouble. It’s just common sense. My problem with men in this industry has almost always been the service owner. It’s a little different than a pimp, but essentially the same thing-an opportunistic, usually misogynist male trying to make a quick buck off women’s work. They lose their temper when things don’t go their way or try to get “freebies” from the girls. Sure, it’s to be expected in this line of work, but it’s time for the tables to be turned.
The first “owner” I ever came across was a dungeon owner who I’ll call “Tim” because of his resemblance to “Tiptoe thru the Tulips” Tiny Tim. He ran a dungeon out of a basement apartment that was filthy, as was he (rarely bathed and wore the same clothes every day). I had a roommate who worked for him at the time and had become annoyed by his incessant phone calls to her at all hours of the day. One day, I found myself without a job and decided to give him a call. Bad idea. It turns out Tim had a serious foot fetish and constantly “interviewed” girls to work for him even though he had no work to give. Tim would continually talk about his “video project” that he wanted to do and audition girls by making them put on pantyhose and step on little GI Joe figurines. Turns out there was no video project and he was making these audition tapes for his own personal use. The women who did work for his dungeon would have to submit to him licking their feet and sucking their toes on the downtime. Without pay. This same slob later harassed my roommate by phone over and over after she quit working for him. She had to call the police and take him to court to make him stop.
Next up was “Tony” the white-trash Mafioso who runs what is known here as the “McDonald’s of Domination.” He hires young women with no knowledge of domination, gives them 2 days of training, and lets them call themselves dominatrixes, but only if they submit to him. He gives the girls less than half of the service charge and trains them as sales people, forcing them to always be begging the clients for more money. More money that they’ll never see. He is the typical “quantity over quality” business owner that doesn’t deserve to succeed. The monthly staff meetings where Tony and his fiancee Leona would yell at us and call us stupid and unmotivated were always fun.
Then there’s always the disappointing “man behind the woman” situation that pops up. Mistress Jewel seemed very cool at first-she was very bitchy, but knowledgeable and has an awesome dungeon set up that rivaled any other I’d seen before. Then I met her boyfriend/business partner Mike. Blond, Aryan-looking and a former lawyer, Mike was really the one running the show and every mistress who worked for Jewel quit because they couldn’t deal with his temper tantrums and just plain assholeness. Even after splitting the service fee 50/50, he wanted us to split our tips 50/50 with the house. After he suggested I become “Helga-the Nazi Mistress”, I refused, and wasn’t given many sessions after that.
One of the most notorious escort service owners was “Jeff”, a fast-talker who seemed really nice, but very fucked up. He tries to get freebies from the women who work for him and reportedly doesn’t want to use a condom if they oblige. He’s been accused of raping women, having AIDS, and being beat up and left for dead in a cornfield. It’s too bad his perpetrators didn’t succeed because he still continues to run his business to this day.
These are just a few examples of the shady characters I’ve come across in this business, but almost always (with a few exceptions) the male service owners I come across in this business have hot tempers and are money hungry to the point where they don’t care about the safety of their workers. The women owners can be just as worse with their bitchiness and attitudes, but are almost always more sympathetic to our situation, as they have probably worked in the industry before. Men can’t know what it’s like to be alone on a call or strip in front of hundreds of leering men and they don’t deserve to make money off of those who do.
Call it male bashing or whatever you like, but this is an industry that relies almost solely on women’s work and only women should be profiting from it. It is highly lucrative and will never go away and in order to change to “victim” image of the sex worker, we need to stop being victims to the men who steal our profits and give nothing in return. If you are working for an agency, club, dungeon, or phone line, find one that is woman-owned. If that person disrespects you, leave and find somewhere else to go. If someone doesn’t value the service you provide for THEIR profits, they don’t deserve them. (Why do you think Libby here knows so much?) The idea of a pimp is ridiculous to me. Even streetwalkers are usually tough enough to take care of themselves so what exactly is the purpose of that scumbag in the fur coat and tacky suit? NONE. If he wants some pussy, he can pay the piper just like everyone else. ‘Nuff said.
Ladies, the sex industry is one of the few industries where women make more money that the men do (modeling being the other). As sexist as it may be, it is here to stay. So why then are we handing our hard-earned dollars over to people who treat us so badly? Run your own agency, dungeon, website, strip club, whatever and put the men back in their place. As paying customers.
Email Article
Print Article
Discuss This (0 Comments)
Del.icio.us
Furl
Technorati
Yahoo! My Web
Reddit
Column Archives
Column RSS Subscription
