A SPOTLIGHT on sex from those who do it for a living.
Star News has opened the door on an industry often in the headlines for drugs, human trafficking, sex slavery, underworld crime and disease.
Reporter GEORGIA WESTGARTH has penned a special five-part series from the perspective of four working girls from outer south-east Melbourne, and a brothel owner ‘at one’ with the law.
Speaking candidly, the four women open up about why they started working as prostitutes and why they still do it.
And a mum of eight and brothel owner, who started out in the industry by washing towels lays down the law on her livelihood.
These feature-length articles are the girls’ stories…
Sex in the city
SHE goes by ‘Lacey’ and she’s been a prostitute for six months – but all she wants is order back in her life. “Routine” she calls it, a sort of structure that the sex industry has thrown out of her life. “All I want is to have routine and responsibilities again,” she said. [ More… ]
Working girl’s big love
Prostitution has taught ‘Carmen’ how to love her 130 kilogram body. “Before I became a prostitute I was very jealous of thinner girls, but this industry made me really love myself,” Carmen, a working girl at Garden of Eden (GOE) in Dandenong told The Journal. “I love my body, I know I’m chubby but I’m beautiful.” [ More… ]
Let’s talk about sex
More often than not, Dandenong prostitute ‘Kati’ offers her clients companionship, not sex. The 23-year-old mother of one has been a working girl since she was 18 and told The Journal “people get lonely”. When asked what her job entails Kati said “just having a chat is more common than not … A lot of the time its more companionship. Probably 50 to 75 per cent of my job involves no sex at all,” she said. [ More… ]
Life, love and sex
DIRTY isn’t a word that is far removed from the sex industry. Dirty girls, dirty drugs and dirty corruption, are often the consensus among those far removed from the sex business. But it’s a stereotype that’s hard to find at one thoroughly modern brothel.
“Christmas day we invite the ladies and sometimes the clients that don’t have families to the brothel,” explained Tanya, owner of the Garden of Eden brothel in Dandenong. “We have this one man we call Mr Smith and I invite him every year to share Christmas with us.” [ More… ]
From Tinder to paid sex
HER online dating portfolio asked for companionship, but one-night stands was what she got time and time again. It was in ‘Hayley’s’ quest for love that she realised she could be a prostitute. [ More… ]
Your responses
Red light of outrage
STAR News Group was surprised to receive a negative backlash from some readers, after five human interest stories were published on South East sex workers and the owner of a Dandenong brothel. [ More… ]
A final word from our reporter
Surprise in the story
SOMETIMES, the story just isn’t what you expect it to be. I’d just spent four hours sitting in a brothel, interviewing in turn four working girls and the owner. “I got the full tour – dungeon and all,“ I told the newsroom on my return. You don’t often see a room full of journos rendered silent and left hanging on every word. [ More… ]
