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On being approached by 'ladies (or gentlemen) of the night.'

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14:16 / 10.12.05

Ok, increasingly I'm finding this is happening to me a lot. There you are, on your way back from the all-night petrol station or related, when a complete stranger comes up to you and asks you if you 'want business.' Similarly, I can't seem to walk past a clip joint these days without being invited in. I suspect that this doesn't reflect particularly well on me, but is it any experience that other Barbelith posters are familiar with? Or am I just starting to look like 'one of those guys'?

14:50 / 10.12.05

I wouldn't say it's a regular occurence, but it's happened to me once or twice. I've just assumed it's because I've been walking in the wrong area, but now you've got me paranoid.
Look on the bright side, it's better than than being approached by a kerb crawler looking for a member of the world's oldest profession, which also happened to me once. I guess I should probably find a new way to walk home.

16:24 / 10.12.05

Or a new way to walk...

19:32 / 10.12.05

How long is it that you've lived in London? I used to get propositioned while still in school uniform.

20:30 / 10.12.05

What's a "clip joint?"

21:45 / 10.12.05

It's the same as a roach clip but the other way round.

Or maybe not.

clip joint: noun, slang a bar, restaurant or nightclub charging excessively high prices.

All Acting Regiment

00:02 / 11.12.05

Oh yeah, this used to happen all the time in a kebab shop near me. "Salad with that?" "Blowjob?" "Eh?"

00:12 / 11.12.05

With me, it's travel agents. Every time I book a beach holiday, I'm asked if I'm interested in watersports. Disgusting.

Brigade du jour

13:29 / 11.12.05

I was propositioned after my birthday party. Mind you, I was walking through Soho at 3am on a Sunday. I was initially kind of flattered, until I started thinking about it.

13:50 / 11.12.05

Boy, what does a girl have to do to get approached by a prostitute? This never happens to me. Am I walking down the wrong dark alleys in Soho?

Brigade du jour

13:59 / 11.12.05

Cherie, it was Old Compton Street. More like 4am, now I come to think about it.

14:21 / 11.12.05

An aquantence that became a flat mate of mine once got drunk and told me that he had been with a prostitute local to where we were drinking. I thought I was being unjudgemental by just saying that, you know, it's the oldest professional etc, he took it to mean that I'd be up to hunting the streets that night with him. I protested, but he was off. He approached two la femme dargent's, being told by both that he should move on as 'youngsters were bad for business' before he gave up and went home.

Brigade du jour

14:23 / 11.12.05

Aww bless!

16:25 / 11.12.05

I have a general problem with being accosted by salespeople. It's not specific to prostitutes.

16:38 / 11.12.05

Has anyone ever been mistaken for a prostitute?
I have, although just the once and about seven years ago, I guess that is what I got for standing around street corners smoking in the early hours.

18:15 / 11.12.05

I am a handsome homosexual-about-town. Nobody actually approaches me for sex but I can tell that they're all thinking of it as I sashay past, whether they require some or have some to give.

18:43 / 11.12.05

Me! At least, I'm told that's what must have been the situation.

I was in Las Vegas for work, and was walking back to my hotel along a busy road. There were very few other pedestrians, because people seem to drive everywhere there.

But then an open-top car pulled up beside me, and the guy in it kind of jerked his head at the seat beside him.

"You want a ride?"

To which I replied, "Oh yeah, right! Piss off," and kept walking.

Talking about it to American colleagues later, they all agreed that he'd thought I was looking for business. Just by walking there. Weeeird. And peculiar - perhaps there's a whole market for small Scottish journalists with big rucksacks and maps.

*

18:55 / 11.12.05

A friend of mine in college was mistaken for a prostitute by a cop while walking home after midnight. While this is not really an unusual occurence, upon reflection, we considered it unusual for the following reasons:

a) the incident occurred near enough to campus that it should have been the campus police on the beat, not the city police, as in fact it was

b) my friend, although having long hair at the time, is a 6'5" bearded male of Scottish/Neanderthalensis extraction, and was wearing his usual punk clothing— long shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt (he cannot wear shirts with sleeves unless they are custom-tailored, as his shoulders and biceps are too big) and big fuckoff combat boots.

c) Neither male nor female prostitutes in the area in question are prone to dressing in this fashion, nor to hanging out so close to campus (because our cops deal with them more effectively— i.e. by reminding them that our college students cannot afford their rates, and suggesting better alternatives).

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:36 / 12.12.05

I used to work in an office on William St, which is the home, pretty much, to Sydney's street prostitution scene (or was - the council is cracking down on streetwalkers and rerouting (tee-hee) streets so that people can't kerb-crawl). For about three months, I'd get propositioned at lunch, when I went out to buy food in Kings Cross (a veritable den of sleaze, wherein I was asked if I wanted to split a cap with either the world's stupidest junkie or the world's lamest sting operation) or when I left at night.

Then, they all figured I was a local, so I got lovely conversation instead. Especially from the Samoan transvestite sexworkers, who all were built like a brick shithouse, but had the smallest voices I've ever heard, and who all blushed when you said you hoped they had a good night.

06:54 / 12.12.05

It is illegal to sell alcohol to prostitutes in the UK. Just learned that at a littlle liscencing lecture...but how do you know??? and isn't it a bit rude to ask?

07:02 / 12.12.05

I was offered a handjob on my way back to my hotel after the August Glasgae barbemeet.

I told Loomis he was pissed and should just go home to Ariadne, though.

07:37 / 12.12.05

It is illegal to sell alcohol to prostitutes in the UK. Just learned that at a littlle liscencing lecture...but how do you know??? and isn't it a bit rude to ask?

That's not strictly true. Prostitutes are one of four groups which public houses are not allowed to serve. This is to stop bars becoming brothels, or brothels flourishing with a veneer of honest-guv-we're-not-a-brothel-but-a-normal-pub.

The Return Of Rothkoid

09:54 / 12.12.05

I told Loomis he was pissed and should just go home to Ariadne, though.

And here was I thinking I was special. Loomis, you two-timing bastard!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:37 / 12.12.05

Many years ago, I was offered twenty quid for the charms of "my girlfriend"... he wasn't impressed. I never got the twenty quid. (He's another 'lither, and has never struck me as feminine...)

It is illegal to sell alcohol to prostitutes in the UK. Just learned that at a littlle liscencing lecture...but how do you know??? and isn't it a bit rude to ask?

Can you, like, give them booze...? Any country that makes giving booze to people illegal isn't one I want to live in, quite frankly...

15:32 / 12.12.05

Wasn't me was it? Seem to have a (very) vague memory of this...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:42 / 12.12.05

It wasn't you... although I have very fuzzy memories of a similar situation which DID involve you...

maybe it's just me.

Kids, don't hang out with Stoatie! Everyone'll just make you for a john!

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:43 / 12.12.05

Or the other way round. I'm pissed.

17:23 / 12.12.05

one of four groups

Who are the other pub refuseniks then, Jub?

07:26 / 13.12.05

I know you can't sell booze to a uniformed policeman, what the others are I don't know.

07:49 / 13.12.05

Well you'll certainly have a hard time getting a uniformed police officer to pay for their booze anyway.

08:34 / 13.12.05

Who are the other pub refuseniks then, Jub?

1) Underage (or anyone who appears to be underage)
2) Known prostitues.
3) Officers in uniform (goes for the army etc as well as police, I think)
4) Anyone who is drunk or appears to be drunk. (ha ha!)

Technically you can lose you're licence if you are found flouting any of the above, but only the underage one is really applicable. The magistrate expects you to know all of this though!

09:35 / 13.12.05

I've never been refused in uniform. Everyone knows where I've just come in from, and I just wear a jumper over the epaulets.

20:06 / 13.12.05

An ex-girlfriend of mine was walking home from work in a sweatshirt and jeans, and a young, executive-looking woman in a nice car pulled over, rolled down the window, and asked, "How much just to make out?" My ex just gave her the eye, but found it highly amusing later.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:48 / 13.12.05

The house where I lived after I left home was in the red light district and I got curb-crawled all the time. Persistant sods they were too, and some seemed to take it as a personal insult when I didn't sort of suddenly decide to become a prostitute on the spot after one glimpse of their shiny cars. I took to dressing in baggy jeans, a flannel shirt and a baseball cap (this was back in the days of grunge, you understand) in the assumption that I'd make myself look unattractive; instead I just ensured that I looked young and poor, and got exactly as much hassle as before.

Fuck being eighteen. Encroaching middle age has its comforts.

Goodness Gracious Meme

13:21 / 14.12.05

A few years ago, ex-g and I went to an after-hours pub in Bton which we *thought* was a gay club. There's us, sitting happily with beer and fags, slowly noticing that it's not looking very gay in here....

Cue lots of annoying male attention culminating in an offer of a thousand pounds from a guy 'to watch us have sex, no touching, getting involved, honestly, just to watch'.

Reader, we refused him.

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