Discuss...

[whotheheckami]

I'm not sure what my feelings are about this article from the Daily Telegraph


Spotted in j_v_lynch's journal.

Comments

[countb.livejournal.com]

Seems like madness forcing people into prostitution. OTOH at 23 she could be seriously rich by 30!

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Forcing people into prostitution is the basis on which most young people end up in the meat trade. The only difference about this situation (if there is anything resembling truth in the article) is that it is the state overtly doing it. The sex workers I know have been forced into it by financial circumstances.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I think she should take the job, then not sleep with anyone, then sue them for sexual harassment when they sack her for refusing to sleep with the clients.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

I like it!

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

I liek the way your mind works. I'll have to let you organise my defence the next time I need to weasel out of something ;@)

[del-c.livejournal.com]

All joking aside—this, at root, is exactly and precisely what the Thatcherites are looking for when they propose to cut benefits for people who turn down degrading and underpaid work. They want personal services from an available working class at a cheap rate, and nothing makes them angrier than the thought that someone is getting their tax money to be able turn down a cruddy job until the tight bastards pay a decent wage.

So this is hardly an unexpected consequence of unemployment "reform". It's just a starker picture of "degrading and underpaid" than the usual options.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify something: "Thatcherites" = Blair and cronies?

[del-c.livejournal.com]

Thatcherites never went away; actually they didn't spring into existence with Thatcher. And yes, as Blair said (falsely) "we're all Thatcherites now", so he qualifies by self-identification.

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

That's hideous! especially the phrase about it being technically indistinguishable from bar work.
Buying ones time and labout is a very different matter to buying ones body, by the same logic they could force people into being subjects for medical testing. Unpleasant echoes there eh?

No means NO, it shouldn't mean No State Support.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

In this case it seems that Fiction sells more papers than Truth

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

That's apalling.

Some things -- sex, sales -- one just shouldn't be forced into.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

how about marketing? ;@)

[sarah-mum.livejournal.com]

Worst of all, it's Sales + Sex.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

*g*

You've gone over to the Dark Side, haven't you!

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that you appear not to have noticed that some years ago!

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

*looks innocent*

*hopes you appreciate the effort!*

Who, me?

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Don't try too hard to be innocent :@)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't want to sprain anything, after all ...

;-)

[maneatingtigger.livejournal.com]

Can't they label it as high-risk work and therefore exempt from the usual "it's a job - if you don't take it we'll penalise you" ?
Personal choice, moral convictions, etc?
It's like asking a vegetarian to work in an abbatoir!
I know that Germay doesn't have the culture blend of the UK, but please - Muslim or other religious minorities?
(please note - this is logical. My brain, on first reading went WTF!!)

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the truth of the story lies some distance from the Telegraph's Anti-German and Anti-European stance. oedipamaas49 cast some considerable doubt on the standard of reporting.

My reaction on first reading the article was, similar to yours. However, my second thought was, "This is not correct"

[oedipamaas49.livejournal.com]

Euch! That's incredible, and awful. I'm praying it's just one of the Telegraph's usual over-excited, misleading articles on Europe. I can't find anywhere else covering it independently, and Reuters contradicts parts of the Telegraph article:

"A spokesman for the Federal Labour Office said that if job seekers said they were prepared to work as, for example, dancers in strip bars, advisers could put them in touch with any suitable employers, but vacancies would not be displayed in job centres.

He also stressed job centres would not look for prostitutes on behalf of brothels, nor offer sex industry jobs to people who hadn't specifically mentioned it as an area of interest."

But even if it turns out not to be true, even the possibility is really, really terrible.

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing the research and for bringing in some balance. YOur point about the Telegraph was extremely well made. I am a committed European and despair when looking for unbiased reporting of European news. I used to take the European, but that went the way of many non-reactionary neswpapers.