or: IF THERE WAS NO MARKET, WOULD THERE BE A SERVICE?
by BJ Beauchamp
News item: WARSAW (Reuters) – A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees. Polish tabloid Super Express said the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town. "I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper Wednesday. The couple, married for 14 years, is now divorcing, the newspaper reported.
That is the entire article that ran in January of 2008. It’s not the most tragic news story, yet it just begged for more information, and as they say, the devil’s in the details, so I wonder… Is the couple divorcing because the husband frequented brothels, or because the wife was found working in one? Was the wife bored with her life, or just with the husband? Was it the only job available to the woman? Had the wife worked in this capacity before? Since the wife was good enough in the servicing department to get a job in a brothel, why did her husband still need to seek out other services there? If the wife was working for extra money, why was the husband foolishly spending it? How is it more acceptable to be the john verses the prostitute? It’s the world’s oldest profession, and next to a marriage between a man and woman, maybe one of the oldest partnerships as well.
People say we send mixed messages out to young girls about body image, well then what message do we send regarding the these types of partnerships? One is a sacred union while the other is distasteful and dirty. It’s so dirty that in Australia this last year the store Santa Clauses were told not to use “ho, ho, ho” as it scared children, and was too close to the American gangster noun of “Ho” which means, you got it, hooker, lady of the evening, prostitute, and of course it’s simply a derogatory term for women in general. I’m sure if I were a child I’d be more afraid of some fat old man in a red suit shouting at me, “ha, ha, ha.”
Sex is big business. It’s everywhere, so there must be a market for it or paying for it simply wouldn't exist… would it? While it’s fine for boys and men to ogle the female form in Penthouse, Playboy or Hustler, or down at the brothel, what about the object of that desire? Aren't they human, too? Don't they deserve the same respect you would give to any other working human being? Whether it be posing or prostituting — why the double standard?
The message given muddies the water further when you look at what men with money and position marry – a trophy wife, including a wife the age of the man’s daughter. That’s okay, but why is it okay? Why can men do as they please and have a double standard? They enjoy looking at women but they don’t like it when they feel women use what they have to get ahead. Like men don’t do this as well? Pshaw.
Please tell me Victoria’s Secret will hire plain and plump females to model their line of products. They don’t, and we know the models are not there for women – they're for the men. Don’t patronize, fess up: it's the man who wants to have his cake and eat it too. And he does get what he wants most of the time. Be honest. Who would actually think any female would ever willingly want to be a prostitute? It’s one of the most subservient and debasing jobs in existence.
Since I couldn't get any more information on the Polish couple, I don't know what really happened. It could very well be the wife initiated the divorce just because she didn’t like being married to her husband. Maybe life as a prostitute was better than life as a wife to that particular man. Or maybe it was just due to her discovering her husband spending the needed money on other women, and he subsequently sports seven stitches where she took a large piece of lumber and smacked him upside the head.
No matter who initiated what, the man’s wife is gone, along with the free sex and extra income, and now he still has to pay down at the brothel. Maybe there is a little justice in the world.