Barns for the ladies
Awwwww nice, Nate Berg at the Guardian tells us how awesome it is for cities to provide barns for sex workers so that man can have drive-through sex:
The city [Köln] reasoned that if sex work was going to happen, it should be in a safe and clean space. It was decided that sex work would be allowed only in certain parts of the city – and in order to encourage both sex workers and their customers to abide by this rule, in one of the permitted areas the city built a facility specifically for sex.
Located on the edge of town, the result is a kind of sex drive-through. Customers drive down a one-way street, into a roughly two-acre open air-space where sex workers can offer their services. Once hired, the sex worker accompanies the customer into a semi-private parking stall. For safety, each stall allows sex workers to easily flee if necessary – the stall is designed so that the driver’s door can’t be opened, but the passenger one can – and there’s an emergency button to call for help. Social workers are present on site and offer a space to rest, stay warm and access services.
[Updating to add the alluring photo]
Henning Kaiser/AFP/Getty Images
So…the work is dangerous, the women who do it might need to flee at any moment, and if they can’t there’s an emergency button to push, plus there are social workers on site…but hooray all the same?
The attitude that if sex work is inevitable it should be safe has spread across the city.
Right. And if slavery is inevitable it should be safe. If child marriage is inevitable it should be safe. If female genital mutilation is inevitable it should be safe. If torture is inevitable it should be safe. If war is inevitable it should be safe.
And of course the men know that. So what is to prevent the men from being in a position where the woman cannot possibly get away? Like, they are on the passenger’s side, and the woman on the driver’s side?
Do I suppose they have special stalls with observation ports to accommodate the voyeur+exhibitionist trade? And, other stalls with various livestock on hand?
All could be financed with commemorative bottles of eau de cologne…
Eau de Cologne in Köln?
ISWYDT
I’d be careful dismissing the “if X is inevitable, it should be safe” rhetoric out of hand. After all: If abortion is inevitable, it should be safe.
But yeah, that barn thing is terrible and insultingly dehumanizing. Assuming arguendo the value-neutrality of prostitution, it would be reasonable to expect a professional facility to provide a whole lot more comfort, security, and professional prestige than that. It would be like a visit to a doctor’s or lawyer’s office, full of amenities, appointments, receptionists, etc. I can certainly imagine a science fiction world where that might exist.
But not in an open-air lean-to that looks better suited to holding a hog auction. That’s where you hide the things you’re ashamed of.
Iknklast, I was intrigued by that comment as I read it. When I saw the photo, way further down… FFS, the driver can easily mount the ‘sidewalk’ or reverse in. Problem solved or created, depending on whose welfare you deem important.
Jesus fuck, those things look like cattle stalls. *vomit*
In which other industry would we tolerate such a high level of danger to the worker, especially from the clientele? Can you imagine if doctors or lawyers or accountants or any other profession just had to accept escape routes from their place of work as necessary to protect them from the people they’re serving?
Back seat sex in some man’s car in an open-air cow cubicle. How empowering and self-worth-affirming is that? Or is it literally treating women like cattle?
How about let the studss hang out on straw bales in all weathers, and see if any women want to come to them?
Why is it ALWAYS one-sided?
How
Claire, that is so true. But now we do accept that level of risk for students and teachers, and just say, okay, let’s have escape routes in case a student goes rogue and starts shooting people. Because men like sex and guns, and they all too often combine them, and they all too often like violent sex and violent guns, and we can’t make the men unhappy, right? (It is an interesting side note that teaching is also a female dominated occupation these days, and that there are more female students than males in the US; still very much a matter of protecting the killer and shrugging off the killed?)
Nullius @ 4 I’m not dismissing the “if X is inevitable, it should be safe” rhetoric out of hand, I’m dismissing the “if obviously bad X is inevitable, it should be safe” rhetoric out of hand.
Spın̈al Tap called this one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ib9Jz9iydeQ
But seriously…
I think the whole thing is monitored, so if someone tries to pull in their car funny, they would be in trouble right off the bat. And there is the emergency button.
But, still…how seedy. Maybe that’s a good thing though. Maybe this activity should look seedy.
Ophelia @ 9: Oh, I smelled what you were cooking. But… That’s a little less clear-cut than I might like. The abortion thing pops up again, as those who are against abortion consider the practice obviously bad.
In some ways, even your war example makes some sense. If we are going to have war, then should we not want it to be a safe war in which no one is harmed? I don’t see that as prima facie incoherent. You might say that such a thing wouldn’t really qualify as war,and that’s a possibly interesting line of inquiry. You also might say that, as a Star Trek fan, you have fears about what people might do should the horror be stripped from war.
At least it wasn’t typo’s…
Where could they possibly have located an emergency button that is of any use? Is it like the button you press to get a ticket in a car park? Do they think if the man gets violent, the woman can say “excuse me just one second while I open the window and lean out – oh wait, would you mind switching the ignition on, my window won’t open”
Even though I’ve argued for the legality of prostitution, I think I can agree that this is a pathetic implementation.
“…the stall is designed so that the driver’s door can’t be opened, but the passenger one can” or in plain speech, the stall is kinda narrow and the driver is instructed to drive such that his door is against the wall. Wow, amazing technology, problem solved.
#1
Or even just grab the woman.
“…the stall is designed so that the driver’s door can’t be opened, but the passenger one can” or in plain speech, the stall is kinda narrow and the driver is instructed to drive such that his door is against the wall. Wow, amazing technology.
Holms, it does look sort of like there might be a white pole on one side of the stall, so the driver has to drive close to avoid hitting the pole. But, yeah, just try to get out of a car to escape a man who is larger than you (and in most cases, this is the case) and worked up into some sort of dangerous mood, and may even be lying on top of you.
The problem comes from the idea that men are somehow entitled to sex, and lingering traces of the archaic view that women don’t have a right to say no (to a husband usually, but in this case to a man who has paid for them). And this view does linger, though many would not state it outright. We see it in the obsession people have with how women dress and flirt and have a drink(s). The moment a woman ventures outside her house, the default status for most people is “yes” unless she is (1) modestly dressed; (2) sober; (3) with a man who is her personal escort; and/or (4) a nun.
This idea of the barns is a remnant of the idea that the true value of a woman is only what lies between her legs, and that men are more important than women. Also, that sex is somehow inevitable.
That sign!
RESPECT OUR SEX WORKER
They keep your women safe and your men happy
English isn’t the first language here. But could you express anything more dehumanizing?
#16
Ah! I was looking at the layout with Australian cars in mind – left hand drive therefore drivers are on the right.