Escorts & SL - Voicing & Camming..Virtual prostitution?

When you consider that classic prostitution is just sex to get off on, and classic escorting is companionship, someone to talk to, a date for an event, or an evening... with or without sex, it's pretty easy to see these "SL Escorts" have it all backwards. I think if anything, what's offered in SL as "escorting" is indeed prostitution, or it's virtual variant. Their focus is definately NOT about providing someone with a charming, educated, elegant conversationalist to join them for dinner, theatre, or that political fundraiser. It's solely about sex, and the many flavors and fetishes that go with it. I think when you add in voice and/or cam it becomes prostitution even moreso, because now the stimulus and connection is almost totally focused on RL. Any hint of helping someone to better enjoy their environment like a true escort does is gone when those kind of RL connections are made, because the "environment" is SL.

I tend to shudder every time someone uses the word "demeaning" when talking about "escorting" in SL. There is no "settling for something thats beneath you" or "falling into such a degrading career" here... this is SL and everyone who's ever done anything like that has made that conscious choice under zero duress, probably because they enjoy the thrill of it all. When you throw out the RL reactions to the RL equivalent and really think about it, the so-called "cheap and dirty" aspect really only refers to how those things are marketed and presented in SL, not the act or profession itself.
One may think that accepting payment for said service rendered well is wrong, and that is their choice.. but they should remember that doing the nasty with their SL partner, whom they "totally love forever and ever" and "would never accept any money for it", is still selling sex and companionship to someone else when they do. The only difference is the "payment", or what you get out it, comes in emotional form instead of monetary. I don't ever remember meeting a person qualified enough to say that one form of "personal return" is better than the other, or that it wouldn't be hypocritical to do so without using some sort of religious stance as justification. Obviously, this doesn't apply in the real world because it's the lack of physical presence in SL that actually creates the SL similarities in the first place.
If referring to the SL global view of women in general and escortings effect on that, then the one word to remember is "contrast". Speaking bluntly.. without the sluts and whores, the prigs and prudes wouldn't stand out. Without such "demeaning" activities actually "elevating" those who don't partake in it, all would be flatline middle ground and nothing else. There can be no high without a low to compare it to.

For the record, I don't support prostitution or escorting in SL or RL. Mine is a neutral "to each their own" stance. I DO, however, support ones right to make that choice for themselves without bias or discrimination.

Voice sex on SL is no different than phone sex. You can have web cam sex anywhere on the internet. Well not technically but you know. . . . . . Of course pepole are going to make money doing it. . . Sex sells!!

LOL! HelloOOooo you gorgeous creature I never dun anyfink like that - honest

Just don't ban the slave girls.

Like all forms of postitution voice in sl and Skype and web-camming, emails and any depth of reality is a very dangerous thing to do. There will always be girls who are willing to do it, and men who want it. But DONT do it! A bloke who sneers and says "you're a bloke prove you aren't" is just a bloke you can walk away from. But a bloke who says "I know you're a girl now and so do all my mates" is something you cant erase.

Given the average age range of an SL user (30+)... Unless she's really HAWT... there's not a chance I'd want to see her on webcam.

Besides, Whats the difference between SL & Masturbation and watching Porn & Masturbation? Same thing. Masturbation with pics & sound.

Well for the sake of shallow commentary- I imagine there are a few ladies who feel the same way.

Mmmmm SL & masturbation is o.k. (oh heck yes)

The issue is doing it on cam and voice for $$

At least with quote-escorts-unquote the customer is getting something for their money.

There are people who knowingly sell products that don't work to play off people's fears. Some of them leave the buyer worse off if they then proceed to actually USE the product. They bug me more than the sex acts.

So I'll reserve my anger for the crooks.

so when are they supose to add that damn sense of touch option anyways?
oops!

Umm ya that would really be good for...................ummmmm.....SneakingUpBehind Someone and doing the guess who game...

omg that one fails too!!

what else would it be good for besides SLex?

Ceka, I would LOVE to have fine touch- and force- feedback when building. The scene in "The Diamond Age" where John Hackworth is talking to one of his colleagues about the design of the Book's energy store and he uses force-feedback gloves to position the nanomolecules he's designing was evocative as all hell.

interesting example of how camming and sex can still lead to abuse and blackmail even if its done over the "safe internet"

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14177

i would like to have that and i know there are a lot of uses that would be neat..

To each their own but if your silly enough to spend real money (yes real cause it can be converted ) on it so be it. What i think though is do these girls realize that their pic can be taken from them cammin and placed on the net on many sites ? Same with women who sell RL pics of themselves in SL even though they have it non transfer non copy it can be copied then transfered and you have no control what is then done with it.
Remember once its out there you loose control and who knows where it can end up

i think if they are going as far as getting on a cam they could care less about the aftermath of it all..at least for now..
i'm sure later they will hope they fade away..
it's not a good feeling having pictures floating around the internet that's for sure..
not if you don't want them out there..it's a constant worry of someone seeing them and walking up to you having something to hang over your head..

As a contract photographer for 2 of the more busy escort based businesses (about 30% of my studios total income is from escort/model portfolios) i've met probably more than 100 escorts so far.

Out of all of the different "types" of people I have photographed over the past 6 months of mornington photography being opened i have to say that the escorts/models or whatever ya wanna call them are the most level headed people I have came across...and trust me, i photgraph and meet a LOT of people every week in SL.

They also happen to be in the most wealthy range of people I photograph. Just 2 days ago i done a full 20 picture portfolio who does voice chat while escorting. We got into a convo as i was running her pics through a light sepia tone and she casually said that her escorting job is basically paying for the teirs on her full 15,000 prim island. Now my own photography business brgins in a fair amount of cash, enough to pay for almost 3/4ths of a sim, but i gotta work my rear end off each week...she "works" an average of....wait for it...

SIX TO EIGHT HOURS A WEEK....

I have to triple that work rate in SL per week before i get the teirs payed and cash left over to spend on TARDIS consoles.

Now sure i have met some escorts who are new, and really dont have a clue what they are doing but they either leave within 2 weeks or their "boss" who is usually also a female takes them to one side and suggests they the escory business is not for them. They look after each other like one big family...not a lot of work types in SL can say the same thing.

It may be "demeaning" to the bra burning, politically correct types in here...but BOY does escorting get the cash in...

i worked with them for more than two years..
you might be able to believe half of what they say lol
i could never get them to keep up with their adds that were 100L a week lol

Island tier $295/month
Per week $73.75/week
Earn $73.75 in 8 hours work, $9.21/hour
Burger flipping, $5-$7/hour
Added value of selling yourself on webcam to strangers, $2.21/hour

If that is really their choice, then they have a right to make it, but by no measure is it wise.

Ceka i agree with you. I hear many say they make alot but look at where they hang out free areas, many have free skins and items, and many buy L$m Also many of the escorts who dont cam or voice are rl men.

One vote for it being prostitution.

Then again, I'd support legalizing prostitution.

So I guess it's just a business.

Albeit, a distasteful one.

an escorts job is to make themselves wanted..the only ones that say it sucks are the ones that got out of it..if they are in it they are gonna brag themselves up like they are the best thing since sliced bread hehehehehe
the more PR the better..
i know some that did make some good money at it but had to build a clientele list to make that happen otherwise they were out hounding clubs and spamming for customers..
we used to have to tell the escorts they could not come over by the stage because they were bugging the customers that came for the dancers..

my first club we had to have escort adds..it was just part of working at the club..
we didn't have to do escorting if we didn't want to..
i could probably count how many times i had done that on less than two hands and probably gave the money back more than half the time and actually ended up dating the ones that asked me..i just never felt good about that kind of money and most times it was dropped on me as a gift more than a service thing..tried my best not to get attached but was terrible at that part of it so it was short lived..the dancing paid better and was more fun by far..
i never did a cam or voice escort..back then everyone pretty much did text..

it seemed a lot less cut throat back then..
then when all these add places started to pop up everywhere and the second boom hit sl it really got bad and escorts were just everywhere undercutting each other and stealing each others clients and walking into clubs that were not theirs..

then voice came out and it only got worse..
still after all that a dancer could still blow an escort out of the water with income..
i know plenty of dancers that were easily pulling more than 200 to 300 usd a day if not more..
some doing that in a couple of hours consistently..we would work a few hours then leave and go shopping for a bit then go back dance some more rinse and repeat hahaha

it's not like that now from what i see though..if it was i would still be doing it myself hahahaha

Why do we focus mainly on the escorts? What does the rise in voice/cam prostitution mean in terms of introducing this pay-for-sex oriented male into SL? Or converting your standard SL exploring male into a pay-for-sex John? Do we really want more of this type on the grid to interact with the regular population? Do you want to interact with them? Maybe that's why we get so many people walking around naked and asking for sex, or pervs who sit near your house and focus their cam at you, or the ones that ask if you have MSN chat. Are we seeing an increase in deviant behavior with the rise of voice/cam escorts? At the very least escorting doesn't discourage it.

Could be worse. Could be bankers.

About prostitution being "demeaning": No particular opinion about whether it "should" be demeaning, but if it weren't, we'd surely find a way to ascribe shame to some other sexual activity. It's just so useful, both for the shamer and the shamed.

That's ten bucks an hour. So you could make a living "escorting" in SL. Not a great living, but it could be a full time job.

What "we" want is irrelevant. It isn't our grid/world. Each user makes his/her part of it what s/he wants it to be, and it's none of our business how other people use it, as long as it doesn't cause problems for people.