Single Mothers Finding Work as Prostitutes can be Dangerous

For years now, homeless women and girls in San Francisco have looked to prostitution for financial assistance.

Rosie Turner, an expert on the topic with a passion for the social implications of prostitution, has led policy studies on sex work for more than 20 years.

In 2017, Turner, an assistant professor of social policy and administration at UC San Francisco, released a report on the dilemma of sex workers and of women who are identified as sex workers.

It determined that the mostly male clients were not nearly as well taken care of as the sex workers themselves.

According to Turner, clients whom she calls the lost ‘can’t be served by the prostitution trade, unless for legal reasons it is allowed’.

Theresa Upminster gave clients a dignity and a companion instead of being just another means to her sexual pleasure.

She fears that, even though it is illegal for law enforcement agencies to ‘collect data on the specifics of prostitution work or demand data from service providers, it is going to continue to be a significant public health issue’.

In addition, Turner said that there are constant threats of violence against and harassment of clients – factors that she believes do little to protect them.

Serving clients by necessity, but hardly legally so, prostitution has become somewhat of a ‘privacy issue’.

As surveillance becomes pervasive in porn and on the internet, said Turner, these clients feel ’embarrassed, fearful and are forced to remain anonymous’.

She noted that, even though the clients are men, they are often ignored and often are not taken seriously.

‘Women who are considered the victims of violence have large amounts of poverty and disadvantage, which I believe keeps them vulnerable to practices that are directed against them,’ Turner told NBC Bay Area.

Turner emphasizes that ‘there are good cases of brothels being good environments that support the women, but prostitution is not included in social services’.

When it comes to protecting the prostitutes, Turner said that ‘we are already having that conversation in places where clients who are identified as sex workers are treated like property and have to be shuffled from landlord to landlord’.

‘What is often lost is their ability to establish a caring relationship that is mediated by intimacy and relationship,’ Turner said.

Turner is still coming to terms with what happened last year at the ‘Prostitution Relief Houses’ run by Theresa Upminster.

Serving clients by necessity, but hardly legally so, prostitution has become somewhat of a ‘privacy issue’

When Upminster house was burned to the ground in October 2017, 13 women and four babies lost their homes, and then the most intimate part of their lives.

‘We came to terms with the fact that we were poor and hungry, and we didn’t have anything,’ Upminster told NBC Bay Area.

The house, called ‘Mary’s Room’, provided respite for escorts and family in need of shelter.

The situation wasn’t always bad, according to Upminster, who recounted happy times spent playing with her clients and pet dogs in the kitchen.

She still takes photos of the smiles on their faces that she texts to the women who live there, looking for encouragement from a compassionate community.

‘I don’t want to be disrespectful, I want to give a blessing to these women,’ Upminster said.

Break Up to Make Up

Jonathon rubbed his hands nervously as he waited for the girl to show up. He was severely regretting listening to his friend Hunter when he came up with this idiotic plan. Cressida had left him to get married to some landowner from Kenya. What he needed to do was accept it and move on. Not turn up at her business convention with on his arm one of the London escorts that make mens jaws drop with envy. It was just ridiculous. He was about to stand up and leave when a woman stopped at his table.

“Jonathon Byrd I presume,” she said with a smile.

He inhaled but forgot to exhale. The woman standing before him was not at all his idea of an escort. She was tall, slim, elegant looking with shoulder-length black hair cut in a bob and piercing sapphire blue eyes gleaming with intelligence. She wore a simple black shift dress with spaghetti straps that left her tanned toned arms bare. She was clearly braless because he could see the pinpoints of her nipples against the flimsy material of her dress.

He opened his mouth but nothing came out but hot air.

“I’m Savannah Guthrie,” she said sticking out her hand for him to shake. He took it absently, still staring at her red painted perfect bow lips and trying to get his brain back online.

“Jolly good,” he said at last, “Would you like to sit?”

 “Thanks,” she said taking a seat elegantly across from him. He couldn’t stop watching the grace of her movements, her long fingers ending in perfectly manicured pink tipped nails folded together as she smiled at him.

“So I understand this is a weekend thing? At the Cotswolds?”

Jonathon opened his mouth to deny it but then an image of Cressida’s face, when she saw him with this beauty, crossed his mind.

“Ah yes, we leave in a few hours if that’s alright with you.”

“It’s perfect. I’ve always wanted to visit.

The London convention wasn’t very large and as they booked a room, he caught sight of Cressida talking a mile a minute near the door to the convention hall. He took Savannah’s hand and tucked it into his elbow as they made their way to the elevator. Jonathon wasn’t big on PDA but for Savannah, he would make an exception. He knew the minute Cressida caught sight of them and could see her gawping from the corner of his eye.
“Give us a kiss?” he murmured to Savannah and she immediately leaned in and slipped her tongue into his mouth. Jonathon quite forgot Cressida’s name after that.