Prostitution

[M1IRONMIKE]

If you had to engage in this transaction would you rather pay someone or be paid?

If I charged I am afraid they would demand a refund!!!!!!

[haltz]

Is it that massage parlor on the east side of town, the one you pass on 70 on the way into Columbia?

It's on Rangeline close to 70. There aren't any signs for it, and I don't think you can see it from the highway.

It's kind of an urban legend, except that it really does exist. Always a joke at 3 am if you struck out at one of the bars. Anyway, depending who's telling the story you put a certain amount of money in either a bowl or a hat when you go in and then another $50-100 with the masseuse, and it's full service.

On another note, (I'll probably regret even the PG version of this) I had a friend from high school that was younger than me, and that first month she was at college we ended up hanging out. I was telling her that she was going to go nuts, and she was denying it. Both of us being kind of drunk, we made a monetary bet that she wouldn't hook up with a guy until, maybe halfway through the semester or something. Uh, so she ended up crashing at my place and we started making out before we fell asleep or passed out. Things got a little heavier and I said if it went any further I'd have to call in the bet.

To keep it short, we argued for a little while and she at one point asked if she could just pay me later. I decided that it was getting weird, but drunk logic told me that I couldn't let someone off the hook like that because we shook on it. I ended up just going to sleep.

[maddash]

I thought it was at least more than that as well, from what I've gathered. More like $500. My buddy sent me a link to an escort review site, and there's an entire section on porn stars that "provide". It's hysterical. There's no way that the girls that work for a company like Vivid make that little money.

I agree that they probably get paid good money (at least the Vivid girls), but it's probably not so much about the money with many of them, but the fact that Uncle Fred and the entire junior varsity swim team got fresh with them when they were 13... which is probably why they're in the industry to begin with.

[cpebbles]

Contract performers don't get paid by the scene. The vast majority of those who do get paid far less than you're thinking. Free internet porn has killed the margins and $200 a scene is not at all uncommon. Most girls who aren't "stars" in the industry would have to do some vile things to get $500.

[GatewaySnayke]

There was some porn chick on "Red Eye" last week who was complaining about free porn and how they are all losing a lot of money. I thought she was going to break down over it.

But it doesn't even make sense. Is it worth it to have all these pictures and videos on the Internet for eternity for a measly $200 bucks? There's seriously something you couldn't find better than engaging in porn?

You're right though, pebbles, that's a screwed up industry. Between all of the disease, the fact that 90 percent of the males are gay and the low pay, I'm surprised the suicide rate isn't higher.

[Maclowery]

True story: I know through some seedy connections a fellow who runs a strip club in the area. His girls don't just strip. This is well known. But, the guy is friendly and a good time when you're out. It's fun to be able to say "Oh, ____? Yeah, he's a pimp. No, like really. I mean it. He's a pimp."

Anyway one night out he informed me that I was a pretty attractive guy and could make some good m money, all classy, if I wanted to. This was both terrifying and a pretty awesome compliment at the same time. I hate to say it, but I was bizarrely jealous when other buddies told me he'd offered them the same, uh, business arrangement.

[Maclowery]

There was some porn chick on "Red Eye" last week who was complaining about free porn and how they are all losing a lot of money. I thought she was going to break down over it.

But it doesn't even make sense. Is it worth it to have all these pictures and videos on the Internet for eternity for a measly $200 bucks? There's seriously something you couldn't find better than engaging in porn?

You're right though, pebbles, that's a screwed up industry. Between all of the disease, the fact that 90 percent of the males are gay and the low pay, I'm surprised the suicide rate isn't higher.

Not to start anything, but how do you connect homosexuality to either the porn industry, or more insultingly, likelihood of suicidal tendencies? I totally agree that the adult entertainment industry is nutzo (having now lived with a stripper, unwillingly, on two separate occasions), but I have to contest your statement. I would strongly assert that greatly more women in the industry, for lack of a better term, get their gay on for the camera, even if it's staged. The gay porn industry is big (snicker) but it's not 90% big (snicker). And to assert that homosexuals are more prone to suicide, frankly, is so 1970s.

[cpebbles]

But it doesn't even make sense. Is it worth it to have all these pictures and videos on the Internet for eternity for a measly $200 bucks? There's seriously something you couldn't find better than engaging in porn?

Seriously, a lot of them do it because they make more money hooking if they bill themselves as a porn star.

Rampant misogyny, drugs, disease (One porn star quit after she gave a civilian herpes without even pausing to consider that he might not already have it or want it--it's that prevalent), longstanding connections to the Mafia... Porn was moving into the mainstream despite its underbelly, but it seems the internet is in the process of killing off the "industry" before it managed to get there, and I can't imagine the mainstream is willing to accept what survives.

[cpebbles]

Not to start anything, but how do you connect homosexuality to either the porn industry, or more insultingly, likelihood of suicidal tendencies? I totally agree that the adult entertainment industry is nutzo (having now lived with a stripper, unwillingly, on two separate occasions), but I have to contest your statement. I would strongly assert that greatly more women in the industry, for lack of a better term, get their gay on for the camera, even if it's staged. The gay porn industry is big (snicker) but it's not 90% big (snicker). And to assert that homosexuals are more prone to suicide, frankly, is so 1970s.

A lot of the guys in straight porn have to get there via the gay porn industry. Some who claim to be straight by preference end up in gay porn because it pays better. It's really not that hard to imagine these guys have some suicidal tendencies.

[JCShutout]

Legalize it.

People are definitely more sexually repressed here compared to Europe and part of the reason is the taboo that still surrounds sex.

There's a huge sociological theory that prostitution is good for society because it provides an outlet for sexual deviance. I wish I could elaborate more but it's been awhile since I've read it. Interested parties can learn more from Ned Polsky's "Hustlers, Beats, and Others".

That's what the robots will be for.