Megan'sTouch

do NOT ..... lol, minor difference. :P

I just did exactly that, and I'm very happy. I'm always used PC/Windows and I just got a MacBook Pro. So far, everything is great. It's very intuitive and I can google "How to do X on a Mac" and come up with an answer pretty quickly. My only complaints are: 1) I can no longer use wildgames.com which was one of my favourite places to play games because they are not compatible with Mac. 2) I'm not used to the Mac Office Suite yet. They offered me Microsoft Office for $100 more than the Mac software. I figured I should get used to the new Mac, but this old dinosaur here doesn't like adjusting to new things LOL! EDIT: one thing I forgot, I still haven't figured out how to get a Mac-compatible mouse! It's on the to-do list.

There are so massage providers, like myself, where the fee includes everything and no tips are expected. Rates in Ottawa would be around $160/hour. There are other massage providers or parlours where you pay a basic room fee that goes to the house, and then you tip on that of that for the services you want. For example, the room fee may be $60 and then you pay $20 if you want a clothed release, $40 for topless, $60 for nude, $80 for body slides, and $100 for all of the above and company in the shower. Prices generally work out to about the same. Sometimes guys can get duped (OMG only $60/hour for as massage??) without realizing the surchages. Some prefer the set price, others prefer the option to "create your own" massage experience and tip for the exact services you want. The best thing to do is to ask what is included in the basic rate. If the hourly fee is low, expect to tip for anything above and beyond a basic massage.

I could be wrong, but I find agency ladies tend to work short-term, occasionally, part-time, etc. and ladies who work like this tend to be reviewed less often.

I realize your heart is in the right place, but I would strongly caution against this. Let's respect her privacy at this time.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101202/ontario-appeal-court-prostitution-ruling-101202/

Loralee, While it's a nice thought, I'm not sure it's practical. Is anyone in contact with this SP? Is there someone we can trust enough with the funds to pass it on to her? Does she even need the money? To be honest, if I were assaulted, money would be the last thing on my mind. Maybe a donation to a sex-worker friendly women's shelter or rape crisis centre would be a more practical idea? Megan

Well, I wrote about my friend who does work with street women. She has tried getting them set up with email addresses, showing them the internet, etc. It's very challenging, but I admire her for all she does.

I believe many people who work on the streets don't see working indoors as a viable option. To work as an escort, you basically need to be able to get hired by an agency, to be reasonably internet-fluent, or you need to have money to put an ad in the paper. These are not options for many underprivileged people. If you're poor and don't know how to use the internet, working as an escort is not really an option. Nor is getting hired by an agency. One of my friends works with women on the streets and it's amazing to listen to her describe the challenged faced by these women. I don't support zoning or licensing and I find it insulting that I should somehow be zoned out of the greater community. The laws pretty much work for me. I'm able to conduct my work safely and with very little fear of arrest. However, they don't work for everyone and it's important to consider the entire industry, not just the privileged ones, when discussing the laws. It is abundantly clear from Pickton, the POWER report, and other research that these laws put women in great danger.

JoyfulC, I think that the experiences of the law are very different between "privileged" workers and "less privileged" workers. More on this in the POWER report!

I'd like to see existing laws used to regulate behaviours and social issues that concern people about sex workers. We already have laws against drugs, obstructing traffic, disturbing the peace, abuse, human trafficking, etc. Why do we need laws that are sex-work specific? If some guy is abusing his girlfriend, does it really matter if she is a sex worker or not? If a person is obstructing traffic, does it really matter if she's a sex worker or a religious person handing out flyers? If a person is disrupting an apartment by being excessively loud and having lots of traffic, does it really matter if the occupant is a sex worker or just some university partying slut doing it for free?

I thought for sure this was going to be about sex toys. Thanks for the link, PistolPete. I just joined the group.

Ottawa police are facing new allegations of misconduct, this time toward the city's sex workers. A report to be released today by Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate and Resist (POWER) claims that city police officers regularly assault, abuse and harass prostitutes and other sex workers. A few of the sex workers interviewed said they'd even been strip-searched by officers in public areas. The findings have prompted POWER, a sex-worker-led advocacy organization, to ask the Ontario Human Rights Commission to conduct a public inquiry into the Ottawa police's "systemic discrimination" against sex workers. In an 11-page letter to the rights commission, POWER says the Ottawa Police Service discriminates against sex workers on three prohibited grounds -- sex, ethnicity and "perceived disability." This conduct, it asserts, "creates tremendous physical and emotional harm" to individual sex workers and fosters "prejudicial and harmful stereotypes" within the community at large. The release of the report and the call for a public inquiry comes as city police are facing heavy criticism for the abuse and unlawful strip search of Stacy Bonds as well as other incidents of alleged misconduct. Chris Bruckert, a criminologist at the University of Ottawa who co-authored the report, said Bonds' experience "sounds a lot like what we've been hearing from streetbased sex workers." The report is based on interviews with 43 sex workers -- 34 women, seven men and two transgender females -- done between April 2009 and February 2010. Twenty-seven were streetbased workers. The rest mostly worked as escorts or in massage parlours. The report conceals their identities, making their accounts of police mistreatment impossible to verify. But Bruckert said she was "absolutely confident" their stories were reliable. While a few sex workers said their experience with police was positive, street-based workers overwhelmingly reported negative encounters. In fact, 15 identified the police as their main challenge, an assessment based not on their law enforcement activities, but on their abuse of power, the report says. "What stood out here was the violence from police," Bruckert said. "That's what they're scared of." The report says 16 of the street-based workers said they'd experienced police violence. One was allegedly beaten so badly by four officers that she lost sight in one eye. Another said police broke her arm. Others accused the police of sexual misconduct. One said an undercover officer grabbed her hand and "forcefully put it on his crotch." Another spoke of an officer who had sex with a number of prostitutes. Three of the workers said they'd been strip-searched on public streets, including by male officers. A number said they'd been sexually assaulted while under arrest. One said she was left to sit, naked, in a cell for 24 hours. The report also reports incidences of illegal confinement, confiscation of property such as sleeping bags and condoms, and "starlight tours" -- where police detain people, drive them to the country or suburbs and leave them there. Insp. Tyrus Cameron, who oversees policing and prostitution enforcement in the downtown core, said the Ottawa Police Service would not consider any of this conduct appropriate. Asked about public strip searches, Cameron replied: "It's certainly not any practice that we would conduct." Similarly, violence against sex workers is unacceptable, he said. He encouraged sex workers who believe they've been abused by officers to file complaints. "We will take any complaints about our officers' conduct seriously," he said. But most workers don't see that as a viable option, according to the report. It says sex workers' most common complaint is harassment by police when they are clearly not soliciting clients. All the street-based workers spoke of police disrespect, and more than two-thirds recounted incidents of verbal misconduct, the report says. Many complained about uniformed officers "calling them out" in public, something the report describes as "public shaming rituals." Cameron said the force doesn't condone rude behaviour. But most street prostitutes are addicts, he said. "People under the influence don't always behave rationally. When we're arresting people who are high, things don't always go according to Hoyle. But our expectation is our officers will treat everybody with respect." He agreed that officers routinely approach known prostitutes on the street to ask what they are doing. "We're stopping them, talking to them," Cameron said. "Are we trying to dissuade people from going to them? Absolutely. We make no apologies for that." The report says discrimination against sex workers by the police and public is a product of "whore-phobia," which casts them as dirty, immoral and hyper-sexualized people forced into sex work by addictions or mental illness. The police, the report notes, are in a position of power. "When they abuse that power and operate in relation to their own or societal biases and prejudices, the consequences for sex workers can be severe." But in targeting street prostitutes, Cameron said, police are only responding to demands from communities affected by prostitution, such as Hintonburg and Vanier. Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Abuse+standard+treatment+workers/3909121/story.html#ixzz16rnvlhpU

At least from my understanding, the laws will still be actively on the books until the appeal is heard. Of this, this doesn't mean they will be enforced. Everything I've seen from the Ottawa police is that they will only being going after bawdy houses that involve human trafficking.

Same here, but I'm going to try really hard to at least make a short appearance and meet everyone.

Just google her name if you want to know more about her and her experiences. I'm not going to post anything here that isn't already publicly available.

Oh okay, I get it. If you want to watch porn, why not just watch it at home? I think I'm confused.

The only thing I can think of is Seduction Lounge at CMJ and I don't even know how it works.

I have to admit this post creeps me out a bit, as do all posts looking for personal information about SP's. Perhaps the question could be rephrased 'seeking SP near Sandy Hill area'. I also know that many providers, myself included, specifically try to screen out clients that may be within their social or professional circle outside of sex work so you may be doing yourself a disservice by claiming to be a Prof at U of O. On another note, if you really are a prof at U of O, wouldn't you want to, you know, be discreet and avoid SPs who are students at your university?

Angela - I agree there is no problem with ending the call. I just disagreed that it's okay to be nasty. Also, almost all call centers listen in on the calls. The one I worked at gave you guidelines and if you didn't follow the guidelines you got an infraction. These infractions could lead to termination of employment. One of them was converting refusals. If we didn't push people, we got an infraction and would eventually get fired. It's hard choosing between being a nice person and having food in your tummy. Again, I'm not saying you have to talk with them or anything. Just don't be nasty or judge them. Most call centre people are just nice normal people trying to make ends meet. Posted via Mobile Device

No, I would never stop for someone else. If someone wants to love me and be a part of my life, then they need to accept that I run an erotic massage business. To give it up would be to give up control over my body, my sexuality, my independence, and my financial freedom. Those are very important things to me.

whiteman - She is a friend of mine and yes she's a former sex worker who is now a professor. Posted via Mobile Device

I guess you all know me by now, I love starting controversial threads! There has been a lot of debate around "sex addiction," especially with Tiger Woods. Some people think it's just an excuse for men to cheat and not take responsibility for their actions. Others think that sex can be a real addiction just like a drug or gambling and it needs to be recognized as such. What do you think?

I couldn't disagree with this more. It's not the calling themselves who is deciding to keep calling back, it's the calling system. Often these people are very young, physically disabled, immigrants to Canada. They have few options and not doing this work is not a realistic option to them. I've also worked as supervisor at a call centre. When I worked at a call centre at 18, I was forced to call back "refusals" meaning people who asked us not to call back. This was humiliating, degrading, and something I was strongly against. However, if I were to just leave, refuse, or quit, I wouldn't have been able to afford to eat. To say I deserved it when people were nasty to me is downright insensitive. I don't believe in judging people, especially without any information. To say you can somehow judge a human being from a 15 second phone call or two, and say they are deserving to nastyness or cruelty is completely unacceptable in my mind. I know what it's liked to be judged as a sex worker, and I try not to do it to others.

I have little sympathy for the people who choose such businesses. However, the individual on the phone is more than likely not the monster behind the scam, but an individual with few employment opportunities. There is no reason to be rude and make their job worse than it already is. Posted via Mobile Device