about show American Underworld: Sex Trade episode

Has anyone seen this show, specifically this episode that was just shown this week on Discovery?

I don't understand how girls can put up with pimps. One pimp said that all the money his "ho" makes is his. How can the girls put up with that when they do practically all the work?

Most of those girls might be too afraid of getting pimp slapped or worse.

Typically there is a significant amount of coersion involved--physical, emotional, drugs, or other. Not always, but very, very often. Similar to the battered wife situation in many ways.

Y'all do realize that most of such shows are fake, right? The percentage of prostitutes with abusive pimps is roughly similar to the percentage of women with abusive boyfriends, but those are the ones the American media concentrates on because we live in a sick, anti-sex culture.

Y'all do realize that most of such shows are fake, right? The percentage of prostitutes with abusive pimps is roughly similar to the percentage of women with abusive boyfriends, but those are the ones the American media concentrates on because we live in a sick, anti-sex culture. Originally Posted by AngelOK

Angel,

I will agree with you on the anti-sex culture, but not on your other two points.

I don't believe these shows are fake as much as they are very selectively edited to only show the point of view of the show's producer.

I also disagree with your point that percentage of adies with abusive pimps is the same as percentage of women with abusive boyfriends, not if you are only talking streetwalkers. I have to believe with that group of women the percentage is MUCH higher.

Streetwalkers are less than 15% of all pros, so you are correct that the percentage if one ONLY counts them is higher; roughly 10% of streetwalkers have abusive or controlling pimps. It's still nothing like the "majority" imagined by the public and featured in prohibitionist scare stories, though. Fewer than 50% of streetwalkers have pimps at all, and the number is steadily shrinking; of those who do have pimps, the majority control the pimps rather than the other way around.

The shows are indeed selectively edited, but also faked by accepting whatever interviewees say without any fact-checking whatsoever. So one might say they are "fake, but not scripted".

I can agree with something like "fake but unscripted", but I do not agree with your numbers on streetwalkers--and it may well differ a lot with location. I make no claims about Texas. I grew up in the Northeast, and there are locations where you can still see many SWs if you look in the right places. They come and go much more than the ladies who advertize/post here so they are much harder to count. And many of them still do have a pimp they hand the $ to. 50%? I don't know, but it's a lot more than a rare occurance.

I sincerely hope you are right that pimps are a dying breed but I have not seen that trend in the places I go to. As to who controlls whom, I just look at who has the welts and who has the diamonds.