For some people, sex with strangers is no big deal, and if they are comfortable with that, they can be well adjusted.
As a younger person ('60-'70) this was commonplace in bars and nightclubs, and especially when spending weekends at the many New Jersey vacation shore points. A few too many drinkie-winkies, late into the morning hours (the Dunes-til-Dawn), with somewhere to crash together, and we would be sharing body heat and fluids with our partners of last choice -- rarely knowing their names, nor caring to know them. And our lady friends for those few mostly awkward hours often felt the same way. We were like sailors on leave -- wham, bam... thank you ma'am.
As mentioned in another thread... "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." Very few of us who naturally, and maturely, drifted from those "heady days of yore" would not be seen as anything different than well adjusted.
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.”
It's too bad we don't have someone here who might be an expert on this subject. Someone who has knowledge of many things and knows this subject based on experience working with whores, perhaps?
Big RR wrote:Datsun--this is anectdotal, through a friend who used to frequent the strip clubs, I got to know a couple of strippers I thought were pretty well adjusted. I know little of their backgrounds, but joined my friend for a couple of iate night diner suppers with each. The first was in her late 30s and, if you met her, you'd never know she was a dancer. But when she spoke, you could see she took a certain satisfaction is sticking it to some of the men--while she didn't say it outright (and I didn't ask), I do think there were one or two wealthy men with whom she carried on affairs and was taking them for all they had. She seemed happy and had a lot of money, even drove a Mercedes two seater. I heard she retired a few years later, moved, and is now a realtor in another state (I confirmed this by a search a couple of years ago).
The second was a younger girl (around 22) who worked on one of the more sleazy clubs (fully nude, nude lap dances with touching permitted, even handjobs in the private rooms). She said she was a student (I didn't check, but she said she was a chemistry major and seemed to know her science) and came in one weekend a month from Florida. She didn't seem to mind this split life, and said it was the best way for her to fund her education. My friend told me after a couple of years she said she was graduating and continuing her education, and he never heard from her again. She, too, appeared to be happy, or at least as happy as a student working a job they really didn't care for could be (i.e. no worse than if she worked for McDonalds).
Both of them liked my friend because he was pretty nonthreatening and, while I don't know the details of either relationship, I can tell you he didn't have a lot of money and they didn't appear to take him for anything. Mu guess is that sex workers can be happy and well adjusted when they feel in control. For some people, sex with strangers is no big deal, and if they are comfortable with that, they can be well adjusted. Indeed, the way they described and put down their customers is pretty much the same as we did with restaurant patrons when I worked in one.
I would think if the sex trade were made safe for the providers, there might well be a lot of persons who would be happy working in it and would remain well adjusted.
On the other hand, I wonder if there could ever be a well adjusted pimp.
My friend's wife put herself through school as a stripper...being a beautiful 6' redhead certainly helped. Finished school with no debt, a bunch of money in her IRA, and paid cash for a year-old Audi.
