The Prostitute's Mission

She feels bad and her compassion for men astounds me.  She admits she has clients that are handicapped or disabled and that providing them with the gift of sex is one of the most rewarding aspects of her job.  She makes people happy.  People who wouldn't have access to their sexuality were it not for people like her.  These are the ghouls of our society, the ones we look at sympathetically and then never think of again.  She actually helps those people.

Sex work is in the news these days.  It's a whole facet of our society that I don't understand and, as a curious person who likes to base opinions on facts and other people's feelings rather than my own biases, I like to understand things.

I learned about Sans Magazine today through a chant with a smart young entrepreneur who's written for them before.  This young lady, like me, is a social catalyst, trying to accomplish a variation on this prostitute's mission - provide otherwise disadvantaged people the ability to experience what others have without difficulty (civic engagement, a voice that gets heard, confidence to participate).

There's a growing community of virtuous schemers out there, trying to foster an open world where we are able to overcome biases and look around corners we normally wouldn't consider both to be cognizant and supportive of those who may not be able to communicate a need, but also for the opportunity for innovation and growth that may be lurking there.

At the same time, there's a growing entrenchment of the top-down, survival-of-the-toughest ABC culture that has always been an underbelly for our current social model.

These are the sorts of people who fuel the quotes on @GSElevator  - saying things like "I never give money to homeless people.  I can't reward failure in good conscience."

Sometimes these tough, hyper-confident guys use the services of prostitutes.  As a sidebar, I was surprised during my travels in South America just how common it was for male friends to lose their virginity to prostitutes, almost as if they felt the need for a safe practice zone before putting their abilities (and confidence) on trial with unpaid for women.

Which all got me thinking about another story from an escort, speaking directly to experience with those tough, unforgiving Wall Street types:

They want to talk a lot more than you think.  They want to vent about their kids' private schools, their bosses, their bonus talks, their friend beating them at squash.  I didn't even know what the hell squash was at the time.  Talking, talking, talking as if their lives were harder than mine and I wasn't the one there to have sex with them for money.  I started feeling resentful of them.

The folk at the top have a lot more in common with the folk at the bottom than they'd be ready to admit.

Sometimes you just need to be in the middle to see this.