No need to insert SAIT joke here
January 24, 2011 5:17 AM Subscribe
$20, SAIT? Truly? Possibly NSFW question about sex workers.
It's stinking hot, I can't sleep, I've just watched an episode of Cops, filmed in Palm Beach.
There's a sting operation, a tall attractive undercover police woman is standing on the footpath, drivers pull over, she says "do you want a date", they say "yes", she says "well, what do you want", they say "whatever". They ask how much, she says $20 and tells them she has a room. When they enter the room, he is busted by male officers (and a Cops film crew).
Firstly, the female officer isn't dressed in a stereotypical fishnets/high heels/latex streetwalker outfit. She's wearing pants, flat heels and a jacket and she has short neat natural blonde hair. She looks less like a sex worker than I do (and I don't think I look like one).
Secondly, $20? Twenty bucks for intercourse?
Is this normal? I would have thought a staggering drug addict would have done the deed for $20, assuming he/she could score with $20. But a well-dressed, well-groomed woman? Standing on the footpath? Charging $20 for full sex? How does that not ring alarm bells with the 'customers'?
No, I'm not considering a career change. I'm just perplexed as to why this sting worked on so many blokes, unless $20 is a standard.
I guess my question is, is $20 average/normal?
It's stinking hot, I can't sleep, I've just watched an episode of Cops, filmed in Palm Beach.
There's a sting operation, a tall attractive undercover police woman is standing on the footpath, drivers pull over, she says "do you want a date", they say "yes", she says "well, what do you want", they say "whatever". They ask how much, she says $20 and tells them she has a room. When they enter the room, he is busted by male officers (and a Cops film crew).
Firstly, the female officer isn't dressed in a stereotypical fishnets/high heels/latex streetwalker outfit. She's wearing pants, flat heels and a jacket and she has short neat natural blonde hair. She looks less like a sex worker than I do (and I don't think I look like one).
Secondly, $20? Twenty bucks for intercourse?
Is this normal? I would have thought a staggering drug addict would have done the deed for $20, assuming he/she could score with $20. But a well-dressed, well-groomed woman? Standing on the footpath? Charging $20 for full sex? How does that not ring alarm bells with the 'customers'?
No, I'm not considering a career change. I'm just perplexed as to why this sting worked on so many blokes, unless $20 is a standard.
I guess my question is, is $20 average/normal?
According to the newspaper ads in various areas I've lived, 20$ is not normal. 160$ is normal. Of course, renting someone on the street might have difference prices than renting someone through a service. My suspicion is that 20$ works because people will believe anything as long as there's hope of getting what they want. Those ridiculous bank scam emails work on the same principle.
posted by yeolcoatl at 5:35 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by yeolcoatl at 5:35 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
Maybe it's the price for just a blow job? Or maybe it's just a part of the sting, that the john thinks he's getting an incredible deal so he goes for it? (One would think that people would be especially wary of bargain-priced sex, but I'm guessing the average client isn't especially endowed with smarts.)
posted by rhartong at 5:37 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by rhartong at 5:37 AM on January 24, 2011
Response by poster: Woah. Thanks for that link, decathecting, that is incredible reading.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 5:56 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by malibustacey9999 at 5:56 AM on January 24, 2011
In the Netherlands, the price is 50 euros for 20 minutes. The woman or man is able to sustain a business with that -- storefront, union dues, taxes, and so on. Considering that the US worker on a footpath does not have those expenses (or benefits), it seems a believable price.
posted by Houstonian at 5:57 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by Houstonian at 5:57 AM on January 24, 2011
I'm guessing the $20 was probably just for a BJ or handjob, or some lesser act.
Could that be considered entrapment? $160+, no thanks. What's that, you say? $20, and you're smoking hot? That's quite an inducement.
posted by Grither at 5:59 AM on January 24, 2011
Could that be considered entrapment? $160+, no thanks. What's that, you say? $20, and you're smoking hot? That's quite an inducement.
posted by Grither at 5:59 AM on January 24, 2011
Best answer: That customer was an amateur and didn't do his internet homework.
The general rule for picking up streetwalkers- if they are remotely attractive they are cops. The desperation that causes a person to become a street hooker usually shows up in their appearance. Heroin and Meth aren't wrinkle reducing drugs.
Also- never discuss anything until the girl is in the car. For safety reasons cops won't get in a car. A person can't be arrested for offering a ride.
Finally- $20.00? Seems too low, especially for everything with an attractive woman.
For a boring suburban guy I know way too much about this stuff. I curse my first name!
posted by JohntheContrarian at 7:09 AM on January 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
The general rule for picking up streetwalkers- if they are remotely attractive they are cops. The desperation that causes a person to become a street hooker usually shows up in their appearance. Heroin and Meth aren't wrinkle reducing drugs.
Also- never discuss anything until the girl is in the car. For safety reasons cops won't get in a car. A person can't be arrested for offering a ride.
Finally- $20.00? Seems too low, especially for everything with an attractive woman.
For a boring suburban guy I know way too much about this stuff. I curse my first name!
posted by JohntheContrarian at 7:09 AM on January 24, 2011 [3 favorites]
Could that be considered entrapment?
No. There was already intent to commit an illegal act.
posted by valkyryn at 7:38 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
No. There was already intent to commit an illegal act.
posted by valkyryn at 7:38 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
According to the newspaper ads in various areas I've lived,
The newspaper ads are for callgirls and escorts; streetwalkers don't have the resources for an advertising budget. Seconding decathecting's link: if the average is $27 an hour, you've got as much below that number as you do above; $20 is probably a little on the low side, to avoid the guy driving off ("$30? Let's see what's on the next block") but not crazy low to cause suspicion.
In the Netherlands, the price is 50 euros for 20 minutes.
That's what you get when you have a country supportive of sex workers; the level of safety and security for both prostitutes and johns at the streetwalker-$20-for-sex-another-$5-without-a-condom level in the US is atrocious. But, the OP was watching Cops, which is not a show known for busting the rich, affluent, educated, or connected in society. You're only going to see the $20 prostitutes.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:47 AM on January 24, 2011
The newspaper ads are for callgirls and escorts; streetwalkers don't have the resources for an advertising budget. Seconding decathecting's link: if the average is $27 an hour, you've got as much below that number as you do above; $20 is probably a little on the low side, to avoid the guy driving off ("$30? Let's see what's on the next block") but not crazy low to cause suspicion.
In the Netherlands, the price is 50 euros for 20 minutes.
That's what you get when you have a country supportive of sex workers; the level of safety and security for both prostitutes and johns at the streetwalker-$20-for-sex-another-$5-without-a-condom level in the US is atrocious. But, the OP was watching Cops, which is not a show known for busting the rich, affluent, educated, or connected in society. You're only going to see the $20 prostitutes.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:47 AM on January 24, 2011
Best answer: Only an anecdote, but I have been mistaken for a sex worker in the past (I was walking along the side of the road on a Friday afternoon, but apparently some women work all hours). I also don't think I look like a prostitute; on the day in question, I was wearing a loose, knee length skirt and a white t-shirt. Many guys in cars pulled up next to me and offered me "rides," which at first I didn't realize was code for sex acts.
As for price, I was offered $20 bucks by some guy who wanted to "party with me." Upon seeing my incredulous look, he upped the offer to $25. I'm not sure what sex act he was requesting, but probably a blowjob.
So, in my experience, $20 is a normal price range for streetwalkers, and even streetwalkers don't necessarily look like stereotypical prostitutes.
posted by mesha steele at 8:18 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
As for price, I was offered $20 bucks by some guy who wanted to "party with me." Upon seeing my incredulous look, he upped the offer to $25. I'm not sure what sex act he was requesting, but probably a blowjob.
So, in my experience, $20 is a normal price range for streetwalkers, and even streetwalkers don't necessarily look like stereotypical prostitutes.
posted by mesha steele at 8:18 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: As someone who moved from an area where the cities had all turned into crumbling ghettos, $20 sounds high.
In my experience, the areas with streetwalkers were all so down and out that the girls who hung out outside carried milk crates and charged $5 per blowjob. Sex was $10, but you had like a 15 minute time limit.
There were also higher classes of prostitute to the west, the stripper demographic, who charged a lot more and were strung out coke instead of crack or meth. Lots of "Oriental Massage Parlors" that started out at $25 for half an hour. The non-drugged girls were all through Canadian services, since sex work is legal across the border.
So, yeah, $20. Pretty Woman it ain't.
posted by Leta at 9:46 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
In my experience, the areas with streetwalkers were all so down and out that the girls who hung out outside carried milk crates and charged $5 per blowjob. Sex was $10, but you had like a 15 minute time limit.
There were also higher classes of prostitute to the west, the stripper demographic, who charged a lot more and were strung out coke instead of crack or meth. Lots of "Oriental Massage Parlors" that started out at $25 for half an hour. The non-drugged girls were all through Canadian services, since sex work is legal across the border.
So, yeah, $20. Pretty Woman it ain't.
posted by Leta at 9:46 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
IAmBroom, I can assure you this is all theory. I saw someone I know in the local paper caught in a sweep and I can't imagine how embarrassing that was for him and his family.
Mesha- don't feel bad. Clark University in Worcester, MA is on the edge of the city's red light district and college girls there are constantly mistaken for streetwalkers. I don't think Clark puts this information in its shiny catalogs for prospective students.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 9:56 AM on January 24, 2011
Mesha- don't feel bad. Clark University in Worcester, MA is on the edge of the city's red light district and college girls there are constantly mistaken for streetwalkers. I don't think Clark puts this information in its shiny catalogs for prospective students.
posted by JohntheContrarian at 9:56 AM on January 24, 2011
Many guys in cars pulled up next to me and offered me "rides,"
20-ish years ago my dad stopped offering rides to women on the side of the road because he picked up a couple of hookers. He said they were walking there, looking distressed that no one was stopping, one even getting kind of angry. He thought they must be trying to get somewhere from one of the myriad broken-down cars along the road. Neither looked to him like a hooker, just like someone in distress on the side of the road.
posted by galadriel at 10:06 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
20-ish years ago my dad stopped offering rides to women on the side of the road because he picked up a couple of hookers. He said they were walking there, looking distressed that no one was stopping, one even getting kind of angry. He thought they must be trying to get somewhere from one of the myriad broken-down cars along the road. Neither looked to him like a hooker, just like someone in distress on the side of the road.
posted by galadriel at 10:06 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
I thought they probably sat on them to give the BJ while the guy stands.
posted by galadriel at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by galadriel at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2011 [1 favorite]
I have been offered sexual intercourse for $20 on the street more than once (while sitting on the front steps of my apartment once, my that was a great neighborhood). Never by someone who wasn't clearly in a self-evidently bad way though.
posted by nanojath at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2011
posted by nanojath at 10:27 AM on January 24, 2011
More NaiveFilter: SAIT? Google didn't enlighten me.
posted by Bruce H. at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Bruce H. at 11:08 AM on January 24, 2011 [2 favorites]
When was that ep of Cops shot? I see some Google listings for a prostitution/ Palm Beach ep from 1998 or 1999, and possibly some later on.
The economics might change depending on the time period.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2011
The economics might change depending on the time period.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 12:22 PM on January 24, 2011
There was a recent thread about sex for sale in Vegas, about how passers-by there are handed small advertisements for working girls. If a price is listed on these cards, it's $35, but what that buys you, I wouldn't know.
posted by Rash at 2:04 PM on January 24, 2011
posted by Rash at 2:04 PM on January 24, 2011
Yes, the milk crates are for sitting. Lightweight, sturdy, easy to find for free.
posted by Leta at 6:20 PM on January 25, 2011
posted by Leta at 6:20 PM on January 25, 2011
I was approached by a prostitute in midtown Manhattan about 5 years ago, maybe around 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night. I would not have guessed she was a prostitute from her appearance alone: middle-aged, not particularly attractive, not wearing excessive makeup, clothes and grooming not too much out of the ordinary for that area, if slightly on the shabby side. Certainly nothing like the stereotypical appearance that TV and movies suggest. It was only when she spoke to me and offered her services that I realized she was a prostitute.
(I declined her offer without inquiring about the fee, so I can't speak to your main question, but I thought I'd address the appearance issue.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:43 PM on January 30, 2011
(I declined her offer without inquiring about the fee, so I can't speak to your main question, but I thought I'd address the appearance issue.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:43 PM on January 30, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by decathecting at 5:34 AM on January 24, 2011 [24 favorites]