Sex industry is not uniform!
Escort girls in Haifa offer one or more services, including sexual favors, in exchange for money or goods. However, the sex industry as a whole is not uniform. Street sex workers are typically undocumented workers who meet customers on the street and provide them with sexual services in alleys or the clients’ cars, unlike indoor sex workers who are contracted to work in brothels, massage parlors, or as escort women. Previous research has revealed that both street and indoor sex workers commonly experience high levels of maltreatment as children and adults. Despite being subjected to less abuse and trauma than street prostitutes, indoor sex workers nevertheless endure higher rates of abuse and trauma than the general population.
Because of their perceived gendered norm violations, such as engaging in multiple partners and stranger sex, exercising sexual initiative and control, stimulating male fantasies, and receiving payment for having sex, escort girls usually confront major stigma-related difficulties wherever they work. Sometimes, stigma, which can be internalized or externalized through the prejudice of others, goes hand in hand with an acute anxiety that others “find out” about their occupation because of the stigma linked to it.
While there are some similarities between people who perform sex on the streets and those who do it inside, there are generally significantly different issues and conditions that accompany each line of work. Indoor sex workers are far less likely to admit to using inject-able drugs or having health issues than their outdoor counterparts. They are also less likely than outside employees to voice concerns about their personal safety or to experience workplace violence because of rules and restrictions in the legal sex business. Indoor sex workers are also more likely to consider their work a profession rather than a temporary job, to remain in the industry for a long time, and to express a variety of difficulties about their work, such as problems with their personal lives.
