Spanish prostitutes hit by recession
Associated Press
Monday, October 13, 2008, (Valencia)
The financial crisis sweeping the globe is making itself felt everywhere, apparently leaving no country, institution or profession untouched.
Even the so-called "oldest profession", prostitution, is feeling the pinch, at least that is the case
in Spain where trade is reportedly down by between 30 and 40 per cent in many places.
Although official figures are hard to come by, it is estimated that
300,000 women work as prostitutes in Spain.
In a Spanish Parliament study it was suggested that 6,000 women worked the streets whilst another estimated 96,000 work in brothels that front as night clubs.
According to figures from
Spain's National Association of Brothel Owners ANELA, Spaniards spend around 50 million euros a day on prostitutes.
But 2008, according to ANELA, has seen a reduction of 30 percent to 40 percent in the number of clients using their clubs.
The financial woes hitting the country, they believe, means men are visiting prostitutes less.
The Romani Club, 20 kilometres outside Valencia, is one of the region's biggest and most famous brothels, and one which has seen a fall in trade.
It has over 20 rooms, a bar, a nightclub and a shop, all done out in glitzy style.
The facilities also boast a gym, a hairdresser and a canteen for its women,
most of whom live at the club.
The cost per hour to hire one of Romani's luxurious suites is upwards of 200 euros (266 US dollars).
Like most brothels in Spain, the Romani hires out the rooms to the prostitute, who then charge their own fee to the client, but makes its money on entrance fees, food and drink.
For the services offered by the girls in its rooms the club does not get involved or take a cut.
Laura (not her real name) works at another Valencia brothel, Club Majestic, which is run by women.
She used to be a prostitute but now works at Majestic as a receptionist.
Laura takes issue with ANELA's findings, and has not noticed a downturn in trade at Club Majestic.
"Hey, men are men!" she said. "Men are different and, you know, when they feel like it? Also, I don't know why but people always have money for this. As I always say, when it comes to vice, we always find the money!"
One change she has noticed though is that straitened economic circumstances in Spain has meant that
more native Spanish women are turning to prostitution to top up their incomes, reversing the trend for mainly foreign women from poorer countries to be involved in the trade.
With increased prosperity, many Spanish women were leaving the profession, their places taken by women from eastern Europe and elsewhere.
"Spanish women are starting to show up again," Laura said.
"Spanish women on the game had practically stopped and now they seem to be going back to it, especially those who had left and now they want to go back to it because, of course, mortgages and other expenses are still the same. If incomes are not the same that's when women who already know this choose to get into it again."
Jose Luis Roberto works as a lawyer for ANELA, Spain's National Association of Brothel Owners, who reported the decrease in trade in 2008 at the brothels of its members.
He was concerned about the effect that was having on the women's incomes.
"When a brothel whose earnings come from room rentals and drinks has a 30 percent or 40 percent decrease in income, it means that the number of customers has also decreased 30 percent or 40 percent," Roberto said.
"That means that demand for the services that the girls offer has also decreased by a similar proportion. So we can say that the women are being affected by the crisis to the tune of 30 percent or 40 percent of their incomes."
Like Laura, Roberto has seen a rise in the number of women turning to prostitution because it offers them a good income.
"Prostitution is not a nice job to do, but women are in most cases free to decide if they want to do it, and they do it because it gives them a good level of income," he said.
"So since the crisis begun, many women who were not prostitutes before are now working as prostitutes."
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/st ... 37:00%20PM
England:
The City crisis and the sex industry
By Emma Jacobs
Published: October 9 2008 19:45 | Last updated: October 9 2008 19:45
Whatever next? As today turns into the most unprecedented day since yesterday and pillars of business fall like ancient trees in the 1987 freak storm, what will be the next financial certainty to crumble?
Could the oldest profession collapse in the wake of market meltdown? Jacqui Smith hopes so. In contrast to her government peers who are bailing out failing businesses, the home secretary wants to hasten the demise of one industry: sex. At the Labour conference, Ms Smith announced her proposals to crack down on prostitution and give local authorities greater powers over lap-dancing clubs. (In contrast to the Conservatives who offered a £10 reduction on entry to Birmingham’s Rocket Club in their conference pack.) The deadline for comments on the home secretary’s proposals ended this week.
[Banx Caroon]
As people cut down on spending, could the recession do the home secretary’s job for her by putting sex workers out of business? Not quite yet, according to Bob, an IT consultant who is “between jobs in financial services” and currently doing website design for male escorts. “Regulars – and most people who use escorts are repeat customers – are more likely to buy discount bacon at a supermarket rather than cut back on their use of prostitutes in the current climate.”
Chris Student, branch secretary of the International Union of Sex Workers www.iusw.org, says the strippers, phone line workers and escorts who are members of his union have reported business is steady so far. They hope that “while some turn to God in times of crisis, others might turn to sex”. But he says: “Ultimately no one knows for sure what will happen in stripping or escorting. Just as no one seems to know what will happen in housing or banking.”
Bob is not confident of the longer-term future. “Once the recession starts to be felt by people beyond the City then it is bound to hurt the sex trade.”
Solitaire, a journalist-turned-stripper, described a recent event at a club in Shoreditch, east London, which has in the past profited from its proximity to the City but is now deathly. Last week, a City boy arrived causing a frenzy of excitement as he foisted wads of cash on the dancers. The next day, he told one stripper, was make-or-break: if all went well he was returning to celebrate. He has not been back since.
Keeping faith
Tabloid reports this week that the
Rev Peter Mullen was chaplain of the London Stock Exchange came as news to the LSE. As share prices plunged, the stock exchange was unsurprisingly keen to distance itself from the rants of the vicar who has a parish in the City of London but no formal links to the LSE.
And who can blame them? Would traders in meltdown want their spiritual matters overseen by
a man who opines online that homosexuals should have their backsides tattooed with the slogan “sodomy can seriously damage your health” and their chins with “fellatio kills”. Albeit one who has since issued an apology explaining that some of “his dear friends” are “of that persuasion”.
In fact very few City institutions have a chaplain any more. One that does is Canary Wharf, whose employees are served by Fiona Stewart-Darling. Unlike Pope Benedict XVI, who earlier this week said the global financial crisis showed the futility of money and ambition, she takes a kinder view of financiers. The reverend finds a number of chief executives are Christians and “feel this is where God has called them to live out their faith”.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a0764d6-9630 ... 07658.html
U.S.A.
Prostitution Still a Safe Bet in New Depression
Like the drug trade, booze, and motion pictures, prostitution can muster through any economy. Although New York City's ladies of the evening say that the $1000-an-hour sex workers that Eliot Spitzer favors are having a hard time of it, for the middle-range pros business is pretty much as good as ever.
"The market is down, business is down, but we feel it less," said Dylan, 24, a promotional model-turned-Manhattan prostitute. "We're still busy. If men are horny, they're going to come in here."
Dylan works for a madam who runs a pair of brothels just north of Wall Street, where the going rate is $260 an hour, $160 for half. The madam says that that's all the market will bear right now: "The $1,000-an-hour girls are just not making it."
While the woman say their clients are still showing up, they're spending less time and money. "He used to spend at least an hour or two," Sienna says of a banker who's a regular. "Lately he's down to a half-hour, and he's no longer a big tipper."
Just when the story couldn't get any drearier, two of the madam's newest recruits turned to selling sex after the shit economy drove them out of more mainstream work.
"Shana, 42, lost her $45,000-a-year job as a secretary last year. Sienna [who's working on her graduate degree in English Lit] was laid off in July from her job as an executive assistant with a travel agency. Shana, who worked briefly as a waitress before hooking up with her current gig, is putting her son through college. 'He's trying to get an engineering degree,' she explained. 'With the economy the way it is, how is my son going to get a loan? And he's going to finish college.'" [NYDN]
http://gawker.com/5062375/prostitution- ... depression
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