to help them weather an unexpected loss of income. Many cannot afford to stop working for weeks to self-quarantine.
All of these factors combined are making sex work significantly more dangerous. “When there’s more girls outside and less demand, people start doing things they wouldn’t normally do and end up in situations that are very unsafe,” Myers said. “It’s the same guys abusing sex workers over and over,” she said. “They’re waiting for new girls to show up and be terrible to them. If someone comes after spending the winter inside or they’re desperate to make up their lost income, we don’t have ways of warning them,” Lascelles said.
Sex workers at the lower end of the market don’t have the same options. Many street workers lack the professional photographs, webcams and desktop computers necessary to move into online sex work. Due to a history of domestic violence or their own day jobs, many can’t risk uploading pictures of their faces. On North Aurora, a significant percentage of sex workers sleep in the hotel rooms paid for by their clients every night.
“Business is down to the point where workers are saying they simply don’t have any right now,” said Kate Zen, the co-founder of Red Canary Song, which works with migrant sex workers. “They’re scraping by with what they have saved up and trying their best to hold out for as long as they can.”“Customers are using the six-foot rule and social distancing as an excuse not to buy lap dances, but they’re still going to the clubs and exposing dancers to the virus,” Lascelles said.
mac_verstandig