Mistress Midget!

I have found the perfect solution to my not being able to afford childcare so I can return to college, I'll work as a Dominatrix for a few years, evenings and weekends, and then when my youngest goes to school I can will have enough money to go to college, I'll be able to pay for the childcare required that is crippling my dreams at the moment. I could continue to dominate men in any spare time I have. Now I have to tell you that being a dominatrix isn't illegal, taking money for a man and then whipping his ass raw, or walking on his foreskin in stiletto heels (not anything I've ever done, but I'm just trying to illustrate my point) is legal, if a man (or woman) pays to have me use a cheese grater on a body part that's not illegal. It's only illegal if I have sex for money.

Now I have huge issues with this, the whole point of the domination is sexual arousal, but just because the mistress doesn't help her slave with sexual release it's not prostitution, does this make sense?

If I am paid to tie someone up in a complex system of knots that leave marks on their bodies that's OK, but consensually giving someone oral sex for money is illegal?

Now as a feminist I have issues with prostitution, it is the oldest profession in the world, women who have nothing have always had that one thing to sell, themselves. There has always been a market for sex hasn't there? Men have always needed, or wanted to pay for sex. The situations that occur that drive women into prostitution haven't really changed, poverty, drug or alcohol addictions, having to support a family, these issues still push women into the position where they feel they have no other option but to sell their bodies. Contrary to what "Belle De Jour" and the ilk suggest that some prostitutes are just women who love sex so much they have to have it, I don't think any woman ever chooses to become a hooker, I think there are often psycho sexual reasons why women think it is OK, but generally women who wind up in the position of feeling they have no other option are doing it with great cost to their own self esteem and mental health.

We all remember Julia Roberts in Pretty women, well there is a large number of young women who do choose to become hookers or escorts to support themselves through college, to better themselves, but their experience differs from Julia's doesn't it? They often find themselves in dangerous situations, we all know those on the edges of society are the most vulnerable aren't they? When a woman is attacked and she is walking home from a party we are appalled but when it's a prostitute (and we very rarely hear about it because of the fear of the girls to go to the police) we think, secretly, "well, what does she expect?"

Now here is where I face my dilemma, I think no woman (or man) should never have to sell their bodies to survive, or better themselves, or feed their babies, but I acknowledge that in our current (patriarchal, capitalist) societies it is a horrible fact of life. Another fact of life is that we often give sex away, a one night stand, is that any better cos no money is exchanged? Or if a guy brings a girl out for an expensive meal and she feels she has to give him a blow job in return cos she "owes him"? Do we all have our price? Are we all hookers in one way or another? So back to my point (I know tangent time) but I acknowledge that it is part of life as we know it, and we should acknowledge it as such, provide an area, provide support for women, medical services, legalise prostitution, eliminate the real scum, the pimps, who exploit the women, let the women be supported by the state, if that means they have to pay tax, sure the hike can be passed onto the consumer! I don't think by protecting the women who work as prostitutes you condone it, in fact you can help the women, educate them, help them to escape if that is what they want to do.

Then there are the men who "use" prostitutes, isn't there? Now I know of one friend of a friend who used to visit a girl, he went for her "Real Girlfriend experience", where you kiss and hold hands, she pretends to be in love with you I suppose, now that I find really sad, instead of just sex (perverse or otherwise) he wanted the fantasy of a relationship, so instead of a meaningless one night stand he chose to pay for pretend intimacy. How do we deal with the guys, I suppose I feel like a man who would visit a prostitute has no respect for women, and some don't, but also some are painfully shy, or have crippling emotional issues that stop them from connecting with women in the real world. I think it's in the Netherlands that disabled people get money for sex, believe it or not people with disabilities need sex too, and there it is paid for.

OK, sorry about the rant, but it's been on my mind for a while!

And in the mean time anyone looking for a bit of discipline should give me a call! I'm putting talc in my latex as we speak!