You're a researcher at some media company and you're looking for some sex workers for some truly wonderful programme idea someone has thought up. Before you post about it here, there are some things you may want to consider, or you may not get the response you expect.

As with agencies, media companies need escorts vastly more than escorts need...

I used to work somewhere that got a media request or two a week. The general policy was to try not to laugh at the optimism of expecting people for whom time is money to schlep across London to appear on a programme made by some well-paid production company for free.

At some point, someone is going to realise that asking people who have similar hourly rates to the company's lawyers to make the company money for free is optimistic at best, and actually offer to cover the costs of not working for several hours. If you're not prepared to do this, you need a very good reason why not. ('Rules' won't do.)

In any case, you need to answer the basic question, 'What's in it for the contributors?' If the answer is just exposure / publicity, go away and think about why this might not be enough.

I didn't get where I am today by using clichés

That probably shows my age, but it does mean I have seen endless programme pitches involving...

.. street work (usually as the 'real face' of sex work - street work will always be around, but street work is outside the experience of the vast majority here and indoor sex work is very different)

.. educated escorts (particularly after the Belle de Jour 'shock', this was flavour of the month and every independent producer and their dog was trying to pitch something involving escorts with PhDs)

.. students doing sex work to make ends meet (this one in particular is where some consciences need to be examined about not wanting to pay contributors)

.. more people doing sex work because of the recession (ditto)

If the programme idea is anything like those, you're going down an appallingly stereotypical route and the best advice is 'stop now'.

(That list is not exhaustive!)

Learn more by eating more cake!

A friend came up with the brilliant idea that, when listening to people talking about the realities of their lives, you should have some cake to hand. If you ever get the urge to say something like 'No, I mean real sex work, where...', you can avoid looking like an idiot by instead sticking some yummy cake in your mouth and listening. You'll learn much more, plus you get to eat cake!

What might actually make a good programme

Clients. You won't find them posting here, but there are numerous easy to find message boards where they do. Clients are even more stigmatised than workers, yet most sex workers find that their clients are a pretty decent bunch. Plus this is one of those areas where getting people to talk isn't the problem, it's getting them to shut up once they've started! Just don't involve anyone with a guide book to plug...

Scams. There are numerous scams involving lies about people can make hundreds of pounds for not having sex with clients / be a straight male escort... once they pay several hundred quid to the scammers first. One bunch in Spain have been going for years under a variety of names. What would be interesting would be doing an expose on the fraudsters, possibly by getting someone hired by them to work on the phone lines. They'd need to be female...

Scum. There are a variety of predators looking for new escorts to prey on. Have someone set up a profile or two, or answer an 'escorts wanted for agency' ad and see for yourself. Report on the results, naming names of the baddies. As well as being good TV/radio/story, it will also help protect new people.

If you use any of those, and want to make a donation to help cover the cost of the site, I am sure something can be arranged.

Until March 14th, there's a consultation on sentencing in relation to sexual offences, including the ones relating to 'control for gain' and keeping a brothel involving prostitution.

http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/consultations-current.htm has the details. The full thing is looong and contains some stuff like examples of offending behaviour that may be triggering. The sex work bits are in the 'Exploitation' section, and it's ok to just respond to that.

From a quick look, the proposal is to increase the penalties for most categories of offending in this area. While people involved in abduction / detention / violence / abuse / coercion of prostitutes - these are all given as examples of increasing the harm caused by the offences - should not complain if they get heavier sentences, it is not immediately obvious to me that, for example, people sub-letting their working flat or running somewhere you want to work should necessarily do so (this would be a category two offence, but would be culpability B for brothels and B or C depending on circumstances for agencies = starting point of one year imprisonment for a 2B or medium level community order for 2C).

You may disagree, but in either case, if you don't say so, they'll never know what you think...

I am sure we've all had emails purporting to come from someone we know with a link to a dodgy site or a 'I need help, please send money' message. The hackers and scammers behind these have clearly been busy in the past few days, because I have had more of this type of email from Yahoo and Hotmail accounts than ever, including from people who I've never noticed it from before.

As the emails typically include half the victim's address book in their 'to' or 'cc' lines, it can result in clients / friends being outed as well as your privacy being threatened. (One of the first things you did when setting up your 'whore mail' account was email yourself to see if it was working, wasn't it?)

So, particularly if you use those two...

1. Use a decent password. Something long that you can remember.

As ever, the xkcd webcomic has nailed it:



(Just don't use 'correcthorse etc'!)

2. Don't use the same password on sites you care about. If you do online banking, that password should be different to the one used on your whore mail, which should be different from the one on your personal mail, which should be different from the one on eBay, which should be different...

Ways of generating different passwords for different sites while still remaining memorable exist

(It's a good idea to have different usernames on different websites too. At least have different ones for the sex or other stuff you might not want a future partner or employer to connect you with.)

3. Be careful about where and how you log into stuff. Is that wireless network really the one it says it is, or is it pretending? Dunno. If the url starts with a 'https://' rather than 'http://' then it's difficult for anyone to listen into the network and get your password etc. But does that internet cafe PC have a keylogger (a program or bit of hardware that captures every keystroke) installed? Dunno.

Finally, I can't remember having spam like this from a Gmail account, and while Google is far, far from perfect, it also offers 'two stage verification' where no-one can log into your account from a new device without having another code in addition to your password (it's typically sent to a phone number you nominate). Consider using Gmail instead.

This topic has been moved to Warnings & Wasters.

http://www.saafe.info/main/index.php?topic=10726.0

This topic has been moved to Touring Tips .

http://www.saafe.info/main/index.php?topic=4953.0

A couple of recent threads have reminded me of two projects which are on my 'to do' list which I'd like some assistance with.

1. One of the arguments used by the antis is that the sex industry portrays a single image of women which other women feel pressure to conform to (and which all men are expected to find only desirable) . Obviously the success of escorts who are not compliant Barbie clones shows this to be crap. Would anyone like to have their site linked to as examples of people who do not match the stereotype? I'm thinking of attitude and age as well as body shape, hair etc etc etc.

2. For those who have reviews posted somewhere public - if you can remember the booking concerned, would you be interested in having your side published? This would be done anonymously, including mixing up bits of the client's reviews to make it impossible very difficult to link who said what about who. (It is not as if many reviews are not similar!) I'm interested in good and bad experiences: the point is to show some reality, even in a Rashomon sense of different participants having different truths.

No promises that anything will happen soon!

One of the unforgettable moments of my time at SW5 was realising that several escorts reporting dud cheques were talking about the same client. Fortunately, some of the meetings happened somewhere with a clueful police force, and we got them involved.

On 15th October 2008 Michael Goldsmith pleaded guilty to ten counts of Obtaining Services by Deception. All the victims were male escorts he met via Gaydar. He was sentenced to about two and a half years.

It seems that he's now out and trying it on again. The basic pattern is to offer a significant sum, often to travel to North Wales although he's also done this in Manchester and London; to ask about bringing 'chems'; and to end up with offering a "guaranteed" cheque often after the escort is on the train.

He uses other male escort sites as well as Gaydar.

Anyone affected should contact PC Matthew Delaney, 020 7232 6011, lgbt-md@met.police.uk, Gaydar profile lgbtsouthwark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhIcxPClCms

(Programme title: "My Shags as a Whore". Camera pans over candles, champagne bottles etc. Belle is on top of a man, kissing him. She looks up.)

Belle: Being a prosta is brilliant!

(Cut to lap dancing club. John Gibson and Andrew Turner, writers, are eating while watching the dancing.)

AT: I mean it is our most serious work to date, but then that's because the story we were telling was so important to us.

JG: Yeah, I mean when you see a prostitute on the television, it's all drugs, knives, beatings, babies and Aids. And it is all of those things, but we wanted to show the positive side.. you know, how sexy it all is.

AT: I mean a lot of these women are feminists, that they feel empowered by um.. by.. hang on..

JG: By being able to earn a living!

AT: Yeah, the one I went with, for research, she had A-levels, a flat, mobile phone.. You know, she was doing it because she wanted to, she didn't want to, you know..

JG: Starve.

AT: Temp! She didn't want to temp. She loved it. She told me she really fancied me actually.

JG: Do you think she meant it?

AT: Of course she meant it! Why would she say it if she didn't mean it?

(Cut to programme: 'Episode 2 "Cum Rain, Cum Shine"'. Modern kitchen, Belle is in a basque and shawl)

Man2: I can't believe you're a prostitute, we did our degrees together at university!

Belle: Yeah, but who wants to be a doctor or a lawyer when you can be a prostitute like me?

(Adjusts stockings)

Belle: A proper one, I mean, not one of those grim ones, a nice, pretty, clean one, which in reality most of us are.

Man2: What, you mean it's like having a shish kabab rather than a döner, you're less likely to get ill?

Belle: Exactly. Those grim street corner ones are just a media myth anyway. Most working girls..

Man2: Working girls?

Belle: Oh, it's just a feminist word for prostitute. Yeah, most of us are having a brilliant time having brilliant sex with really interesting men like, um, writers or screen writers or men from London who write for TV.

(Cut back to club. They're now drinking cocktails with umbrellas etc)

JG: Yeah, some people have said all it's just male fantasy.

AT: Lesbians.

JG: Mainly lesbians, I mean some normal people as well. But what these lesbians don't realise is that the whole show comes out of real conversations with real hookers.

AT: I mean, this is real life drama, it's so real it's basically just like a documentary that we've made up.

JG: Yeah it's not just an adolescent fantasy of an ideal woman like Weird Science.

(Cut to programme - "Episode 6: A Deposit on a Penthouse". Belle is playing guitar on a bed like Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science)

Man: Belle, can I get you anything?

Belle: Oh, I'd kill for a beer.

(He gives her one.)

Belle: Cheers. Mmmm. That last one was on the house by the way!

(She winks, he gives a 'yes!' gesture.)

(Cut to club)

JG: Was your go on the house?

AT: ... No.