For many people, the traditional picture of a prostitute would be a woman at a roadside, touting for business and climbing into a car or truck. But in actual fact, this is just one of the many faces of the sex industry, and across the US, sexual services are bought and sold under a variety seemingly legitimate guises. One of the most common fronts is that of a massage parlour and it is estimated that there are well over 9, brothels operating in the US under this facade right now.
But with so many about, how to know which one to visit? Allow us introduce you to Rubmaps. Credit: MapRubs. Listing "massage parlours" all over the US, Rubmaps. Enter, the reviewers. Many reviews offer comments on the age and appearance of the masseuse, and an assessment of their general disposition. And it gets even more graphic. Typing specific sexual acts into the search bar will bring up a list of parlours where they have been mentioned in the reviews.
Many reviews detail in explicit terms the kind of sex they could buy at the establishments, using codes for the ins-and-outs of each sexual service, so to speak. Some go on to describe how far you can push your luck with the workers; others take this to extremes, detailing the kind of abuse that they had inflicted. Needless to say, they are too graphic to be reproduced here. Some Redditors are even generous enough to look up parlours for each other, summarising the reviews.
Donna Gavin, head of the human trafficking unit for the Boston Police Department, told PRI that police use the review boards to their benefit when conducting investigations, particularly when they get tips about specific addresses. And with a large proportion of the women involved being victims of trafficking, many do not speak English and are reluctant to testify in court. After being questioned, many flee to other states. Realistically, your opinion on this website is likely to depend on whether you're a customer or not, and those determined to spend their money on sexual services will likely to see it as a little different to reading an Amazon review or a TripAdvisor rating.
But for the rest of us, it's hard to see it as anything but exploitative. After all, we're not talking about a new pair of headphones or a newly-opened pizza joint, but about thousands upon thousands of women, many stuck in a country where they don't speak the language, being forced and coerced into selling their bodies - and then being judged for their shape, size and lack of enthusiasm afterwards.
