Holdin' Down The Culture
As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread globally, sex workers who deal in body-to-body contact are feeling the impact as business has taken a strong, immediate decline. This is the result of Coronavirus but for several reasons. A new report from Vice suggests that sex workers are having to deal with people seeking less intimacy due to fears of contagion from the little-understood virus however there are also secondary effects such as limited tourism. More specifically, business men are traveling less and they’re usually amongst the biggest consumers of sex worker services.
Andrea Werhun, a 30-year-old stripper based in Toronto, told Vice, “A lot of sex workers are freaking out right now…I feel like my career as a dancer is in jeopardy as it becomes increasingly less viable to hang out in crowds, which is kind of what I do every Friday and Saturday night in order to make money..”
Werhun continued, “I’m not screening my clients at the club for whether they’ve been to epidemic hotspots around the world….I don’t know if they’ve been to Iran, China, or Italy.” Werhun should perhaps consider asking their clients if they’ve been to Ohio, specifically Northeast Ohio which is the most impacted region in the state in terms of Coronavirus cases and Cleveland is situated south of the Ontario border only separated by Lake Erie. Toronto is situated in the Canadien province of Ontario. As alarm begins to ensue, it was only yesterday (3/12) that State of Ohio officials estimated that 100,000 Ohioans may have caught COVID-19 (see here).
Werhun goes on to state that she intends on being “extra militant” when it comes to her clients washing their hands and using hand sanitizer.
Another sex worker, Monica Forrester, explained to Vice how, “We see multiple people, so our risk factors do get higher, but for some people, giving up a client is something they can’t do because they have bills to pay,…So it’s about still making your money, but being safe about it.”
There lies the catch-22. Bills still must be paid. Imagine being a single parent and being a sex worker. What do you do in this instance? Stop working and risk being unable to pay your bills at a time when there’s a heightened risk for all business activity to decrease (sex work and otherwise) or continuing to seek out sex-work and risk contracting Coronavirus?
Follow us on Instagram & Facebook & YouTube.
Source: www.vice.com
