Not all sex workers were victims of trafficking or under the control of a pimp

While their clients move on, few second chances for former sex workers
Eliot Spitzer's impressive return to public life is not the norm for many women on the other side of such scandals
BY KATIE MCDONOUGH

Whether or not Eliot Spitzer’s strong showing in recent polls will translate to votes come November, the former governor’s success following his prostitution scandal ― as a cable news pundit and, today, as a candidate for New York City comptroller ― mark a pretty impressive return to public life. But Melissa Petro, a former sex worker who lost a tenured teaching position after she wrote publicly about her past line of work, doesn’t see that many second chances for women who, like herself, are on the other end of such scandals.

In fact, she says it can be nearly impossible for some women to transition from sex work to other careers, thanks to the stigma against sex workers and a societal double standard that judges men who pay women for sex less harshly than the women who get paid for sex.

In fall of 2010, after I published an op-ed on The Huffington Post under my real name arguing that not all sex workers were victims of trafficking or under the control of a pimp (I certainly wasn’t), I was abruptly sent to the “rubber room,” an administrative office turned holding cell for New York City’s unwanted educators. Four years after transitioning out of prostitution, winning a coveted position as a New York City Teaching Fellow, earning my master’s degree in education, and giving lessons on art and creative writing at a struggling elementary school in the South Bronx, I sat in that drab room until the City could find a way to fire me…

After I was fired, I couldn’t pay my rent......

エリオット・スピッツァー

売春疑惑[編集]

2008年3月12日、ニューヨークの高級売春クラブを利用し、数万ドルを支払ったという疑惑を指摘されたことから、辞任を表明した[1][2][3][4]。同日、ニューヨーク・タイムズは、相手の売春婦の実名と、会見内容を報道した[

　男性が買春していたと暴露されても、非難はされるものの、社会復帰はできるが、女性が売春していたことを暴露される、あるいは自ら暴露すると、社会は受け入れてくれないことが多い。売春婦という汚名を着せられると、社会は男性と女性とで二重基準を使って、女性に不公平に評価しているのだ、と。

　因みに、人身売買されて売春しているとは限らない、というのは、慰安婦でも同じでしょうね。