"The New Prostitutes" (NYT)

Interesting take on providing in the age of the Internet:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com...w-prostitutes/

In 2010, Maureen Brainard-Barnes’s body was one of four uncovered close by one another in the sand dunes of Gilgo Beach, Long Island, wrapped in burlap. Three years later, the Long Island serial killer case remains unsolved, even as six more sets of remains have been discovered nearby along Ocean Parkway and farther east. The first four bodies were identified as women in their 20s — just like another woman, Shannan Gilbert, who had disappeared three miles from where the four bodies in burlap were found. These five women clearly had much in common. Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Shannan Gilbert, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello all grew up in struggling towns a long distance from Long Island. And they all were escorts who discovered an easy entree into prostitution online.

It had seemed enough, at first, for some to say that the victims were all prostitutes, practically interchangeable — lost souls who were gone, in a sense, long before they actually disappeared. That is a story our culture tells about people like them, a conventional way of thinking about how young girls fall into a life of prostitution: unstable family lives, addiction, neglect.

But in the two years I’ve spent learning about the lives of all five women, I have found that they all defied expectations. They were not human-trafficking victims in the classic sense. They stayed close to their families. They all came to New York to take advantage of a growing black market — an underground economy that offered them life-changing money, and with a remarkably low barrier to entry. The real temptation wasn’t drugs or alcohol, but the promise of social mobility.

Cheers,

bcg

I have no problems believing that this hobby includes may sad tales. I am certain that this is a fact and it is one of the issues I attend to when I make decisions on who I call. I try hard (and I think have been successful) to avoid situations that might involve trafficking or abuse of underage women forced into the business.

That said, there is some mistaken logic in this storyline. To create a parallel, lets think about NBA players. We use to think that great NBA players begin in poor urban neighborhoods, develop their skills playing street ball, and refine these skills playing in high school and college. There were and lots of examples of this in the league over the decades.

However, recent years has revealed that there are other paths to the NBA. There are players with who do not come from poor intercity neighborhoods, who grow up in places like Spain and France, who sometimes gets introduced to the game at 14 or so, and who really learn skills in AAU programs. Bottomline - just because you find some who fit the stereotype does not mean that the stereotype applies to all.

I agree with you Idigress. That is one of the reasons that screening is very important. We all want to know that we are safe with the individual that we are spending time with.

Stay safe everyone,
Scarlet