All right, it's not what you're thinking. I kept everything on a professional level.
I didn't meet them in a brothel, or standing in front of a seedy bar. We met at an outdoor caf? in a district just a few minutes from the heart of downtown Sydney.
Kylie was an attractive blond dressed in very casual clothes. Her colleague Debbie was a bit more flamboyant, with multi-colored hair and a nose ring. We sat at a table, and they ordered some tea and a couple of dishes from the menu. I got out my recorder and flipped on the switch.
In the audio excerpt above, you can hear part of my interview with Debbie.
I was struck by how dispassionately they talked about their business. And in terms of eroticism, forget about it. I mean, it was about as titillating as talking to a couple of accountants.
But it was fascinating at the same time. Here I was, thinking that their business was degrading and exploitive, and how women who are involved in it must have been grade school dropouts who had no other options but to sell their bodies on the street.
Kylie and Debbie didn't fit those stereotypes at all. They were college graduates. They swore they chose to go into the business, in part because it afforded them the opportunity to make a good living and to be their own bosses.
And they weren't ashamed of being commercial sex workers, not at all. In fact, they were proud of what they did.
My experience with Kylie and Debbie was an eye-opener, to be sure. It's amazing how commercial sex work, which we denounce, abhor and criminalize in this country, can be seen so differently in another culture.
