Can you imagine paying for a sexual service?

 

“My goal is that a client is not booking me again.”

If this question appals you, please don’t run away just yet. Sex work is an edgy topic and people tend to have strong opinions about it. As always with this podcast, you are invited to explore your (dis)comfort zone and respectfully meet perspectives different from your own.

In this episode, you’ll meet Ben Nordmann. Ben is passionate about creating positive, inclusive, and empowering spaces for people – in his job as a designer… and as a “supportive” escort. Typical job combination, right? The latter profession takes Ben on international travel to meet with his female “hosts” and explore their desires…

Why Ben chose this path, what the motives of his clients are, and how it all works – learn that and more from this rare and very open account of a male “callboy”.

Contrasting Ben’s happy and self-determined situation, we also spoke about the darker sides of sex work – and why the current political push in Germany to criminalize “consumers” in general might not solve the issues after all while punishing an entire industry.

In short, we talk about this in the episode:

• Why do women pay for sex? And is it a bad thing?
• How does one become a callboy… and why?
• Why does a sex worker say, “my aim is that no woman calls twice”?
• Is this even legal? Germany’s Prostitution Protection Act and what introducing the “Nordic Modell” would mean for consumers.
• Why might it feel safer for someone to book an escort than to go on a dating site?

Mentioned in this episode:

• Ben is a member of the Germany-based Professional Association for Erotic and Sexual Services (BesD e.V.): www.berufsverband-sexarbeit.de (English translation available) 
• Currently, the “Prostitute Protection Act” / “Prostituiertenschutzgesetz” is the legal foundation for sex work in Germany.
• There is a political push in Germany to introduce the „Nordic Model” which would penalize the clients of sex workers. 
• Ben offers a “Trusted Guest Program” on his website www.justnotbed.com – potential clients can contact Ben’s former hosts to learn what the experience was like.