A Hong Kong student has written her thesis about the world's oldest profession,

October 8, 2001 2:58 PM

A Hong Kong student has written her thesis about the world's oldest profession, and found that the ten 'subjects' she chose to follow are real people too, and ultimately befriended them, offering financial and legal assistance. Apart from the actual story, of interest in the tone of the writing of the piece which underlines that the 'class' structure still exists almost everywhere . . .
posted by feelinglistless (8 comments total)

prostitutes. It always amazes me that a lot of people either view them as totally nasty scum, or the flipside... Julia Roberts. However, sometimes this just isn't the case.
Ladies and Gentleman, I present..... Prostitutes. a slide show.
posted by bradth27 at 3:24 PM on October 8, 2001

For those at work (like me), a warning: bradth27's link contains nudity.
posted by pnevares at 3:53 PM on October 8, 2001

She really was running a risk helping financially. Why was she bailing them out? Prostitution was legal in Hong Kong as she stated in the article. They were working illegally. They were working illegally because they were addicts and general low-lifes. If she truely cared about them she would have tried to get them out of the profession or at the very least find them a way to be prostitutes legally.

I'd also doubt the validity of her thesis. She claims that she interviewed them by paying them money. Later she goes onto say that they shot up before they went to work. She's paying to talk to drugged up prostitutes? They'd tell her anything she wants to hear.
posted by geoff. at 3:57 PM on October 8, 2001

bradth: The photo essay, which hardly features arousing nudity (I know, subjective, but c'mon) although it does contain a smidgen of nudity, seems to argue in favor of the nasty side of prostitution. Based on your argument, I was expecting something in-between. What about escorts and "high-class" call girls? Guess it's not quite as easy to get photos of them.

Julia Roberts, in any case, is OK to play a hooker because she's not really playing a hooker - no matter whether one out there actually looks like her - but a conventional movie figure. It's the prostitute with a heart of gold. They only exist onscreen. Gosh knows who started it.
posted by raysmj at 4:24 PM on October 8, 2001

Actually, its actually more like www.TSMTravel.com. Which is a more realistic assessment of the industry overseas.

Not a porn site but a subscriber message board community site.
posted by AsiaInsider at 7:23 PM on October 8, 2001

Prostitution was legal in Hong Kong as she stated in the article. They were working illegally... low-lifes....If she truely cared about them she would have tried to get them out of the profession or at the very least find them a way to be prostitutes legally.


they were working illegally probably because they don't have enough confidence to work legally in a legitimate club.
if they had any ambition at all they wouldn't even be prostitutes, legal or otherwise. these are damaged people; it takes a lot of work to polish people down to barely having any humanity in the first place, and it's many times harder to get it back.

you're right about her not really caring about them, though, but it's because she can't even begin to empathize with what they are; she's a student in a prestigeous university-- straight edge, sheltered life and so on-- how the fuck would she know.

in leaving las vegas, lizzy shue's character mistakes lack of abuse for love and doesn't know what her man needs to not kill himself, and so she can't stop him, because she is a prostitute, understanding nothing about non-physical necessities people need in order to live. they should have went with someone like juliette lewis, though.
posted by elle at 11:13 PM on October 8, 2001

Wha? Somebody bring me my damn drugs, already!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:06 AM on October 9, 2001