The year is new. It is a time when any need for change becomes clearer. When desire to manifest power moves surface. Power moves like becoming a sex worker. Are you thinking about it? Circling back, but not quite taking the leap?
Feeling curious and drawn to sex work can nonetheless go hand in glove with of fear around what it means to be a sex worker, even for those confident and abundant in sexuality. Even for those of us lucky enough to have out sex worker friends to talk it through before we started ourselves.
To some extent, sex work will never be fully knowable until you do it, and there is little way around that. But if you are one of the people who have been standing at the edge of sex work for a while, wanting to, but unsure of how to even test the waters, read on. This one is for you.
If you asked a hundred sex workers why they started sex work, you would get a hundred different answers. Deeper into the conversations a common thread of financial benefit would emerge, because sex work is work after all. That means you can have you own reasons and you don’t have to justify them. You can do it because you want to.
I am not claiming sex work as work to minimise pleasure associated with it. As I’ve said in earlier blog posts, professional sex is hot sex, and is as meaningful as those involved make it. I emphasise the work aspect here because with work comes work conditions, and the impact of work conditions cannot be understated, especially in an industry that was criminalised for so long.
Work conditions in the sex industry greatly determine safety, as well as levels of personal decision making, autonomy, health and happiness. Because historically sex work conditions have been more dangerous, fear around conditions are rightly an obstacle for many people thinking about starting sex work.
There are plenty of labour regulations and decent worker protections around sex work in New Zealand, and breaches are taken seriously, but conditions can even now be obscure in practice. Like other industries, some brothels may not be up to code, and signs of that can be hard to figure out from the outside.
In this context, it can be hard for a sex worker novice to research work places and practices. I implore you though, not to get your information from television comedies or non-sex workers in general. Please go direct to the source, which is the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective (NZPC). Their website is excellent, but for local and detailed information pop into an NZPC office, or pick up the phone and call them.
WORKING AT FUNHOUSE
If you live in Wellington and fancy working at an ethical brothel, Funhouse is the ultimate example of work conditions that prioritise sex workers. We have a whole website dedicated to working here, including testimonials, so you can get to know us and our way of doing things a little, and decide if we might be a good fit.
The Funhouse model is not the only way to do sex work, because different ways of working suit different people. Funhouse does not do shifts for example, but some other brothels do. We instead run on an appointment only, on-call system, where individual availability is discussed in advance.
It is not unlike working as an independent escort, but without the added work of finding work spaces, client communications, or sorting out advertising and photos. This means a clear separation between work and personal life is much easier to achieve and maintain.
Funhouse has the added bonus of support systems, an in-house photographer who takes gorgeous photos, on-going learning and skill elevation, and colleagues to easily hang with.
We describe ourselves as an ethical brothel for good reason. It is not just that we take security seriously, or that we are here for sex workers to thrive and be happy, that our clients pay well, or that our premise is discreet and cosy. We look each after each other here.
So if you are feeling closer to taking that dive, read through our Work4Fun site, and get in touch.