Do you remember how a few months ago everyone was discussing the lead role of Pavel Priluchny and Sarik Andreasyan’s TV series “The Market of Skins”? During this time, the project changed its name to “Life on Call” and aired only on KION the other day. And while the story of the escort market is as old as the world, it should definitely surprise you. At least for the filming, the authors conducted several dozen interviews with industry representatives, whose “non-ceremonial” life is far from exhibition pictures on social networks – this is not about romanticization, as Sarik Andreasyan said in our interview. about prostitution, but it can have consequences. Some come to the escort market out of sexual services and need, others – in search of easy money, others admit that they are looking for “a certain type of relationship.” Where does it end? We collected five true stories.
Catherine
I was 17 when I left home and moved in with a man – he was under 30. I survived by small part-time jobs: I bought the books and went to the offices and factories to bid. Sometimes she would take pictures of men in a cafe. There was almost no money, I felt like a real freeloader. I tried to get a job through advertisements in the local newspaper but got rejected everywhere and turned to pimps. I had to deceive everyone, because not everyone is involved in the sale of underage girls, even if they wanted to. For pimps, only age matters, the girl herself can be anyone, even a drug addict, an alcoholic, a top model or a disabled person.
As the saying goes: “Every product has a buyer.”
There is no salary in sex work. The more you complete – the more you get, the more meetings you have, it includes additional services – the more income. For good earnings, you need to order advertising on various sources, retain as many regular customers as possible. Now it has become very popular to create your own channels in Telegram and to sell photos and videos on private channels with erotic content. There are schools for erotic massage, but not for escorts – only YouTube with instructional videos. The pandemic contributed to my development in the field, I discovered virtual services, changed the price, took new photos, showed my face (previously hidden). Since the beginning of the special operation, the problems have increased – customers have gone abroad, maintenance procedures have become more expensive, I spend about 50 thousand per month. In addition to the gynecologist, I go to the usual scheduled examinations, pass all the tests, and if there are any symptoms, I immediately go to the doctor. I don’t remember how much I got initially when I got 350 rubles per hour. Now I make over half a million a month.
There is a lot to be prepared for in the sex industry: I have experienced violence and harassment.
My friend worked in Bahrain and fell into sexual slavery – they were kept in a hotel, forced to have sex, not paid. Luckily we managed to escape.
When I worked at the helpline in Pyaterochka, old people called me and complained about life. It seems like someone urges you to complain about an expired product and then starts telling you that he’s a WWII veteran, a small pension – that’s hard. Similarly, prostitution is a difficult psychological job that requires a lot of energy.
Anna
Now working as a dominatrix and developing in the direction of counseling, I love helping girls bring out their sexuality, attractiveness and self-confidence. But if I had been offered a content manager position and a salary of 250 to 300,000 in the past, I would have accepted without hesitation. For less, no.
I’m used to a certain lifestyle now and I don’t want to give up on it, but escorts are not sweets either. I entered out of necessity: after moving to Moscow in 2017, I worked in an office and, by my own stupidity, got into debt. First it was a loan, then another, then the micro-credits I told my family about stepped in and they just shrugged: “You yourself are to blame. Don’t show up on your doorstep until you’ve paid off all your debts to the penny. We haven’t sat at the same table since then.
It was necessary to earn more and faster, so she began to engage in prostitution. When you take out a micro loan and delay payment, you immediately start to be terrorized by calls and the debt is growing every day – That’s why I was worried that my parents and younger sister would get in trouble.
I guess I just wanted to punish myself and put everything aside, no matter how traumatic the experience.
When I paid my bills, I left the globe and realized that I shouldn’t continue relationships with parents who got you in trouble.
I have a higher technical education, grew up in a prosperous family, and I absolutely did not expect that one day I would start having sex for money.
Now it’s over, I’m undergoing treatment with a psychiatrist and visiting a psychotherapist. I receive congratulations with parents only on holidays. Of course they don’t approve of my work but they can’t say anything, they just know everything and the issue of my income has never been discussed in detail. We live in different cities. I am not afraid of persecution. Moreover, I will not “take root” in Russia. I don’t care what people say, I’m already too thick skinned for that.
Angelina Robigud
I started working as an escort at the age of 21. Prior to that, he was in a sponsorship relationship for 2.5 years, did not live in Moscow and was professionally involved in tennis.
I needed a certain form of relationship with men, without the bureaucracy and waste of time, where everything was clear, concrete, in correspondence.
I didn’t want a relationship back then, and one night stands are unclear with whom.
I immediately went to work for myself, there are no pimps and middlemen – it is much safer and more convenient, because I choose clients myself, dictate the rules, I can call, chat and refuse in advance. For example, if we are talking about services that I do not implement.
I have my own client pool, many regular clients. All good-natured and generous men, half married, all avoiding advertising. Divided by type of activity, 40% – IT sector, 30% – construction, 10% – financiers, lawyers, 10% – miscellaneous businesses, 10% – medicine, science, sports and other fields, less than 5% is bound neither illegally with the thing.
By age, the division is as follows: 30 to 45 years old – 50%, up to 30 years old – 30%, over 45 years – 20%. My clients often give gifts, the most expensive are a fur coat or a trip to the Maldives, but I do not know which is more expensive.
In an escort, cars and apartments are given far less than jewelry and clothes, it’s more about relationships.
As an escort, I was making several hundred thousand a month when I started sex work – the figure was well over seven. My monthly income consists of hourly wages, the usual scenario is classic sex, oral, massage on demand. You will have to pay extra for the rest.
I do not like plastic surgeries, so I spend money only on cosmetic procedures and cosmetics – from 50 to 100 thousand per month.
After the start of special operations, many rich men went abroad and the overall purchasing power fell. Therefore, many escorts went to Dubai for big bucks. Abroad, they work mainly through managers: the girls are chosen by the client and go to the order, and then they give a percentage to the manager. There are also club systems where girls work with smaller budgets, but this is dangerous.
At worst – they can be deported for life or put into sexual slavery. This happens when the girls go on “tours” and give their passports to the organizers.
I do not want to change my profession in the near future, but I cannot say that sex work is easy money. It’s fast but not easy. A successful girl should have a number of necessary qualities, and most importantly, sincere excitement from work, the ability to have sex with strangers. If this is not the case, hellish violence will unfold on the soul.
Catherine
I was 17 years old, I came to the “firm” through a friend. After that, I worked with various pimps for several years and had the most negative experience of my life with them. They don’t care what kind of customer or what happens to their employees – they lie, take advantage of girls, don’t protect them, manipulate, threaten, often won’t let them leave. Therefore, it is calmer to work individually to filter customers on my own: if the tone of the conversation bothers me, I refuse to meet.
My clients are ordinary people, everyone wants theirs.
Someone needs communication, others need sex, some just want to relieve stress. They are poor and very rich, generous and stingy, cold and affectionate. Someone does not have time to meet and start a relationship, and someone wants to realize their sexual desires secretly from his wife. The target audience is middle-aged customers, an individual entrepreneur, mostly unmarried, hardworking. Lots of adults, about 20%, lots of teenagers who like to be humiliated, and mouth caresses in my direction.
I am afraid of legalization in our state, I am sure there will be harassment, humiliation, tax extortion. First of all, it is necessary to solve the problem of sexual education, to introduce psychology into school education at a basic level, to allow only qualified teachers to work. It is necessary to educate people, because the subject of prostitution is very stigmatized, I constantly feel xenophobic.
Olesya
The first experience was a visit to an intimate salon about 20 years ago: after college I came to an apartment with several girls, but men rarely chose me, I was modest. However, the first specialist of inexperienced intelligent students saw me in the crowd and at the second meeting made an offer that I could not refuse: to be his mistress and only meet her (as it seemed to me at the time) for a huge amount every month. We talked for a few hours twice a week for about five years. I graduated from college, got a job in the office, but continued to meet generous men everywhere, and not always like that, “for gifts”. I was fired from the office in 2014 (new management was clearing the ranks) and nothing stopped me from completely immersing myself in prostitution, I showed my face, took a nude photo. I thought about taking a break after a stressful job, but I earned so much in the first months that there was no going back.
I have many clients, all different. I noticed only one pattern: the younger the girl, the more adult men are attracted to her, and vice versa – the older the lady, the younger clients she has.
I had no experience of collaborating with a pimp, only a few days in the hall as a student.
Since the Internet and intimate sites have appeared, I see no reason to pay part of the profit to some intermediary – I can do everything myself.
When I started about nine years ago, I wanted legalization: so as not to be afraid of the police, not to get into “acquisitions” (fake customers. – Note. ed.) and that girls should not be afraid to contact the authorities when disturbed by the customer. I was surprised then that all experienced prostitutes were against it, but now I realize they were right: legalization does not give us any protection, but it allows us to pay taxes.
Moreover, my situation is very atypical – I have no parents and children, I am out of society and not afraid to advertise my profession, I have no one to blush in front of me.
But many of our girls have families, friends who are unaware of what they are doing, and the shame and condemnation of others cannot be avoided if this information is made public.
Therefore, such girls will not want to be legalized and will continue to work illegally, which can lead to more serious consequences.
According to rough estimates (it is impossible to calculate precisely – at the official level this “business” is prohibited), from 1.5 to 4 million girls are associated with the sex services market in Russia. That’s almost five times more than in the early 2000s – at that time, around 350,000 women were providing paid sexual services a year, according to the Home Office. Moral collapse? Hunting for big money? On the contrary, in pursuit of a beautiful life found through a post on social networks – the same free cheese is in a mousetrap. In fact, dirty and spooky stories are often hidden behind bright pictures, which are not customary to speak publicly, but a profession that in 99% of cases uses imitation of relationships is unthinkable. And while you can think of thousands and millions of reasons “against”, zeros near the dollar sign are unfortunately getting more and more damaging. One – zero, common sense.
Source: People Talk
