[Ben Lahnger]

Saya, most everyone was pretty clear except the OP's initial statement ... just clarifying that point.

I was once roommates with a woman who worked as both an escort and madame of her own agency. The words prostitute (or "pro") and escort are used pretty interchangeably in those circles. I got a pretty good look at the business from her perspective, and I got to know a number of those ladies (I never saw any of them professionally, just became friends with a few of them.) More time was spent making sure she and her girls would be safe (from harassment or abuse by both the johns and law enforcement agents) than was actually spent having sex. For those women, it wasn't the only job they could choose or even a financially pressed decision. It WAS an informed choice.

I know, that's not what anyone is talking about.

Once I thought that being a prostitute or escort would make one become jaded to sex and see men as nothing but objects. My frame of reference was what appeared to be the endlessly bored looks I had seen in strippers eyes when they danced on stage. I assumed it would be the same or worse for women who had sex with men for money.

But I was also roommates at another time with a woman who did phone sex. She never met her clients (with one exception) and she was much more jaded about men and sex than any of the escorts I met. Sex with her was always colored or shaded a bit by the negative and degrading things she had heard from men over the phone for all those years. Whereas, sex with the girls who had worked as escorts was generally free and lighthearted fun ... not jaded at all.