- How to Get Your Name on the Bathroom Wall 4-EVER
- What’s More Important to Baby Boomers Than Money
- Is America Ready for a Bacon Milkshake?
- ‘Goodnight iPad’ — A Bedtime Story for Adults
- How to Save an Unproductive Work Day
- Can't Get in on the Facebook IPO, How About a Real Gamble?
- Funny Businesses For Ex-Lovers and Office Meetings
- Guess What? Time to Change Your Password—and Buy Flowers
- Super Bowl Party Food Inflation
- Pop! Pop! Pop! A Great Day to Pop Some Bubble Wrap
CONTRIBUTORS
#PONYBLOG ON TWITTER
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Why a Pony? To be clear, there were no ponies harmed in the making of this blog. The blog’s name, “There Must Be a Pony In Here Somewhere,” comes from an old joke, a favorite of Ronald Reagan’s, that essentially means, with a pile of you-know-what this big, there MUST be a pony—a bright side—in here somewhere!
There Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere
Text Size 
Prostitutes in Canada Get Training for the Olympics
As the prostitution industry grapples with the recession, prostitutes in Canada are gearing up for the next big thing: The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
 |
Can we offer you a copy of our brochure? |
No, they’re not honing those skills, they’re refining their media-savvy skills.
A Canadian agency that provides support for Vancouver’s sex workers (Remember, prostitution is quasi-legal in Canada) is working up a brochure — hey, I read it for the articles — to prep them on how to handle requests for photographs and interviews, Canadian media are reporting.
"We just want our members to feel safe,” Kerry Porth, a spokeswoman for the Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education Society (PACE) told the Canadian Press. “Media attention to the area can be a little less than compassionate and we don't want them to feel like animals in a zoo."
Tracy Quan, a former call girl and author of "Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl," said there's a tendency for people to get really excited when the press pays attention to them. Particularly for sex workers, who thrive on attention.
"This is one of the fatal flaws of being a sex worker: We tend to be very narcissistic people. We're used to the idea that, if someone pays attention to us, it's fun. It's nice," Quan explained.
"We need to realize that when the media is paying attention to you, it's different than when a person with a sexual appetite pays attention to you," the former being a more honest form of attention, she said. With media, they run the risk of being manipulated.
Quan says women working in the industry should really think twice about doing a media interview. They need to go in knowing what they want from the interview, and be ready to bail if it's not going the way they want it to.
"I'm not even sure why someone working in the sex industry would want to talk to the press. What would be their incentive?" Quan asked. It's not like they're selling cars or running a bank, where they need the press.
The PACE brochure will inform the Canadian sex workers of their rights, such as where they can be photographed, and provide them with some tips on how to deal with aggressive media types, including letting them know that it’s OK to refuse an interview.
If you’ve ever seen a pack of wild paparazzi on the hunt, you know this will be an invaluable resource — They’re the real wild animals in this story.
Ladies, don’t forget to bring your whips!
Pony Treats (Seriously, they're legal):
A Nice, Warm Bed. While exchanging sex for money is legal in Canada, operating a brothel is not. (That's the quasi part.) A group of prostitute activists is trying to get that changed so they can open a brothel in time for the Olympics, offering the ladies a safe place to conduct business during the games, the Canadian Press reports.
The Ultimate Recession-Buster: As the bloom starts to come off the economic-recovery rose, Nick Gillespie of Reason.com has an idea: Why not legalize (and tax) drugs, prostitution and gambling to dig us out of this recession?
More From CNBC.com:
- Craigslist Sues Over Erotic-Services Threat
- German Sex Industry Feeling Pinch of Recession
- Dominatrix Work Forces Recesion to Its Knees
- Recession Drives Moms to Drink, Do Drugs, Gamble
- Biggest Prostitution Scandals
- Best-Selling Adult DVDs
- Notable Sex Scandals
- Get Rich Cheating
- Get Rich Cheating-The Commercial
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
