Brothels

Some years ago in the most excellent Sydney suburb of Marrickville I had an accidental and unusual encounter with a sex worker.

There goes the neighbourhood. Photo: Bill Hearne

It was late on a Friday afternoon and I was queuing up an ATM so I could buy a mountain of Greek takeaway from the Corinthian Tavern. There was a woman in front of me who looked like she’d been around the block a few times. She was stick-thin, wearing black heels, a sequined skirt, a boob tube, and long black gloves which went up to her elbows.

She tried repeatedly to withdraw money from her account, inserting and re-inserting her card. She started sobbing and cursing. I asked her if she needed cash for a cab or something. No, she said, but asked if she could borrow my mobile.

Latest 2 of 190 comments

View all comments
 
  • Angry_Of_Mayfair says:

    08:49pm | 20/05/12

    “Yet in the middle of it all, stuck between two family-run pizza restaurants and about 100m from a Catholic school, there’s a brothel where old pervs come and pay for sex and skulk off down the footpath after their tawdry commercial encounters.” Wow! THAT’S not judgemental at all! Who the… Read more »

  • Carl says:

    07:15am | 20/05/12

    Actually there are a number of brothels in inhabited Canberra suburbs - they are just more discrete - particularly as their clientele is generally senior public servants, Ministerial advisers and the odd MP (not that many MPs as they can generally get what they need at the office). It’s not… Read more »

 

It’s tough getting off a slippery slope. But we need our politicians to build an off ramp, quick smart, on the slippery slope known as legal prostitution.

Cartoon: Michael Atchison

Even the hard-nosed readers of The Australian business section must have felt some moral disquiet when they read over the holiday break that the Sydney brothel, Stiletto, could be on the stock market in 2011.

There is something dystopian about a society where mum and dad investors and Super Fund bosses could monitor the stock market on their iPhones to see if their CEO has been working prostitutes productively enough. We will know what kind of society we have become if the stock is reported in the market round-up at the end of the 6pm news each night.

Latest 2 of 150 comments

View all comments
 
  • Chris Tony Clabour says:

    01:14am | 17/07/11

    @ Grow Up, Whilst the country might not be run soley on the basis of things that Chris Gardiner approves of, you could always pop into any PCYC in the state of NSW where you will be sure to be told that, that organisation is in-fact run solely by Chris… Read more »

  • True Believer says:

    06:11pm | 14/01/11

    @Dianne: I never said people who say they are Christians are perfect. Any true Christian knows they are just forgiven sinners.  If some turn back to sin that is sad, but their choice. I too have listened non-judgmentally to many, many people’s problems, but I never had to involve myself… Read more »

 

Facebook Recommendations

Read all about it

Punch live

Up to the minute Twitter chatter

ToryShepherd

Cheeky beers with morning papers in unexpected sunshine http://t.co/MD7VPRne

Anthony Sharwood

http://t.co/Zq0nGxkf nice pic of Thredbo this morning

Paul Colgan

@seamus yeah it's now called Smooth or Soft or Douchey Dad FM or something

Paul Colgan

It's a Sydney thing, but 95.3FM... Why? It used to be all Bohemian Rhapsody and Walk this Way; now it's Father to Son and Country Road. Wah.

Recent posts

The latest and greatest

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project

We don’t deserve this huge, exciting scientific project

I’d like to be able to say that sharing the world’s largest radio telescope with South Africa…

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics

Mining money talks the loudest in Australian politics

When North Queensland Liberal MP George Christensen got the idea of launching a new political organisation…

Please enter your password

Please enter your password

Help! I’ve succumbed to a crippling modern illness that can strike at any moment. Symptoms include:…

Nosebleed Section

choice ringside rantings

From: They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

Michael S says:

"A teacher at Geelong Grammar had criticised her for using words that were too long, which had left her confused and had made her doubt her ability to write essays. She became ''quite distressed'' when her English marks began to fall." I can sympathise. My scholastic mentors conveyed to me a causal relationship… [read more]

From: Welfare for breeders is a bonus for everyone

Change Up! says:

I have no problem paying my taxes. As a single, childless person on a very decent income, I can afford it and not have my life severely altered. Plus I understand that my taxes paying for things like schools, childcare and infrastructure is ultimately a good thing. A better community is better for me… [read more]

Gentle jabs to the ribs

They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments

A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more

243 comments

Newsletter

Read all about it

Sign up to the free daily Punch newsletter