Selling sex in 2024
Unlimited hygiene products, not much red tape: Benn Bathgate takes a look at how the world’s oldest profession is operating in New Zealand today.
You might think the sex industry is high risk, violent, gang associated and awash with drugs. You’d be wrong - and that’s the biggest stigma facing the industry - at least according to one insider.
Late last year the Waikato Times reported on the surprising method used by sex start-up Auckland Waitresses to secure new staff - handing out cards to potential recruits.
Now, after correspondence with the woman behind Auckland Waitresses, who wishes to be known only as Scarlett, we can take a new look at how the world’s oldest profession operates in New Zealand.
Firstly, there’s not a lot of red tape if you want to sell sex.
“After New Zealand legalised prostitution in 2003, it requires operators to be licensed. Each council has interpreted the rules, and some councils challenged the interpretation of the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 in different ways, trying to ban prostitution in their region or allocate areas,” Scarlett said.
“Although some councils’ interpretations and allocated areas are not in line with the spirit of the act, most councils are easy to work with, town planners help identify areas zoned for prostitution/brothels, usually also requiring retail zoning, not in proximity of a church or school.”
One of the biggest challenges, Scarlett said, is stigma around the work itself.
“Some might misperceive the industry as high risk, violent, gangassociated, and drug-related,” she said.
“This is the biggest challenge and stigma we need to overcome because it’s the furthest from the truth.”
It’s a view echoed by Dame Catherine Healy, NZ Prostitutes Collective national coordinator.
“Stigma is indeed a huge issue for sex workers and venue operators of sex work businesses,” she said.
Another issue Scarlett said can prove problematic is landlords and body corporates, again down to the stigma that is attached to the work.
This is also something Dame Catherine is familiar with.
“These can range from the idea that the venues are magnets for the wrong crowd ... There can also be practical insurance related issues and this can mean people are unwilling to lease premises to sex work venue operators.”
Dame Catherine also said some body corporates can simply ban sex work, something she described as “discriminatory”.
Scarlett said their card recruitment approach was in part driven by restrictions placed on advertising around sex work by newspapers, radio and also online platforms such as Seek.
“They are very conservative and not in line with the spirit of the
Act when New Zealand legalised the industry,” she said. “The other frustration is the US tech companies Facebook, Instagram are also very lax with regional regulatory compliance adopting a very conservative position, one size fits the US legislation fits all approach”, she said.
“Any conversation about sex work can have your accounts taken down”.
As for the people who do take up this work, they’re a varied mix, according to Scarlett. “We have a really healthy range of women ranging from 18 to 54 who have worked with us, including university students, nurses, a barrister, professional athletes representing NZ for medals, mums, and the occasional Australian,” she said. She also explained that for any new recruit, there’s a twohour plus conversation to be had about the nature of the work.
“We talk about what the work entails, that legally the girls always have the right of refusal, that our policy is we 100% have the girls’ backs, no questions asked. Our policy is 100% your body, your boundaries. We actively limit clients, offer lifetime bans to clients who don’t behave appropriately, that a girl can ask not to see a client again and we respect that.”
Scarlett said they also discuss support services available via the NZPC, health screening, the value of repeat clientèle and strategies to build regular clients.
She said they’re also transparent about the costs to run and advertise a girl per day - approximately $300.
She said that for safety, no-one ever works alone and that they have CCTV in common areas, and “concealed security in place”.
Also on offer for staff - unlimited personal hygiene products, condoms, lube and sponges.
As for the clients, they’re aged from 18 upwards, “of all races, sizes and religions”. When it comes to the money sex workers can make, Scarlett said it can vary from $100 to $600 per hour.
She said the women they employ can make as much as $2000 in one day, though $600 per day is more typical.
However, she’s clear these are estimates and for one reason.
“We never touch their money.” “We are structured around a fixed agency fee they collect as an agent for us, and a guided girl fee for a standard offering. Girls can charge whatever fee they want for most additional services. We don’t negotiate that for them, they negotiate that directly with clients.”
Scarlett was clear too that where bad behaviour is present in the sector, it’s most likely with the sex worker as the victim.
“There is an alarming number of individuals that request natural, unprotected sex. There is an alarming number of individuals that attempt to offer an exchange of drugs for sex,” she said. “There is a small number of individuals that commit sexual crimes against working girls, including removing the condom, and assault.”
Scarlett also said the care they show staff is at odds with today’s culture where consenting sexual activity is available at the swipe of an app screen.
“Eighteen-year-old’s are subscribing to Tinder, Bumble, and OnlyFans. Hookup culture, including random sexual encounters, has become a normal conversation in society. It’s in movies, discussed in the office, and at cafes,” she said. “We have become a consumer society; everyone wants everything now, and most 18-year-olds are considering Sugar Daddies as a way to get what they want, or they could go viral on OnlyFans to make $40k per month.
“No-one is explaining the risks to them, and they are not mature enough to identify all the risks they are exposing themselves to.” She said this “hookup culture” was driving both unprotected sex - and an increase in sexually transmitted infections, as well as sexual assaults.