Sacrilege - Seedy sex shop blooms next to sacred sanctuary

Nadine Wilson, Staff Reporter

It doesn't take much to get a job as a worker at one of the many sex shops disguised as massage parlours across the island. All you need is a pair of high heels and the fortitude to pander to the sexual fantasies of as many as 14 or more men each day.

A Sunday Gleaner undercover probe at one of these so-called massage parlours in the Corporate Area found that having massage skills was irrelevant, and not even proper clothes is necessary as on Mondays and Fridays, the women have to strut around naked all day and partially nude the remaining days.

A member of our news team walked into one of these sex shops located next to a prominent church in a middle-income Corporate Area community last week and pretended to be a desperate mother looking for a job as a masseuse.

It was quickly made clear that she would be employed for other skills rather than her ability to do a massage.

"This is sex-based," declared the operator of the 'massage parlour', who gave her name as Apple.

"We do get massage requests from time to time, but a nuh really massage man come here for," added Apple, a petite sex worker who looked to be in her late 20s, early 30s.

After taking the reporter past a small bar, then a dingy bathroom and into a back room with two large couches, Apple outlined how she operates her business, which employs a number of women. According to Apple, most of these women are mothers desperate to make "good money".

"We work all day, we work all night. There is
no time limit. We don't give day off and we don't give over an hour on
the road," declared Apple.

She warned that each new
girl is required to live at the facility, which was once a family
residence, for between one and two weeks. They are not paid a cent until
after this induction period is done.

A $2,000 fee is
taken out of the salary of each girl for each week of accommodation and
they are slapped with monetary fines for infractions. For example,
spending more than one hour off the job for lunch attracts a fine, and
there is a mandatory $100 fee for purchasing detergent for laundry.
However, the girls are provided with free
condoms.

"Make sure say you sort out your kids,
because mi no really run joke with the go-home, go-home thing. Mi no
take excuses, because you have to understand that it's a business and
you have a choice to stay here for a week or two
week.

"If you know you have things to do, you brush
off a week and go handle your business and come back," stressed Apple,
as she argued that she is more considerate than other sex-shop
operators.

BIG MONEY
MIRAGE

According to Apple, her girls get to take home
half of what they earn if they follow the rules, while the owners of
other facilities pay their girls only 40 per cent of what they
earn.

A boastful Apple declared that at her
establishment, a girl can make as much as $50,000 each week if she is
able to attract a lot of men.

"So if a man come and
pay for 20 minutes which is $1,600, you take off the $100 (for
detergent), split the 15 bills, and that would be $700 for the girl. If
you do half an hour, that is $2,100, and you take off the bills, split
the two grand and that is $1,000 [for the girl]," she
explained.

But social worker Shara Brown, who works
with several commercial sex workers, says this claim of big money is a
mirage.

"The usual feedback that I have gotten from
the women that we speak with concerning the parlour is that it is not
something that they can really make a lot of money from," says Brown,
who interacts with sex workers through the Joy Town Community
Development Foundation.

She said most of the girls she
sees on the streets were once working in massage
parlours.

"First of all, the proprietors usually take
half of the money they make, and if they are being accommodated at the
particular parlour in a room, they have to pay rent out of the half that
they get and [for] anything else that they need for the job, like
condoms and toiletries."

"So what they do is that they
stick it out, build a clientele, and then they move out and go on the
road or become a call girl and get to keep all the money they are
making," said Brown, who pointed out that the girls are fined if they
are seen exchanging their contacts with clients while in the
parlours.

However, Apple gave our reporter advice on
how to ensure that she collects the big bucks.

"You
just have to present yourself because men like seeing nice girls. If you
put yourself nice and always look nice, you can make whole heap of
money. I paid a girl this morning, and she made $100,000," claimed
Apple.

She declared that she does not force her girls
to do what they are uncomfortable with, but oftentimes, "men come to
fulfil their fantasies of having a threesome, for example. For the most
part, (regular) sex and blow jobs (oral sex) are in
demand".

SLEEP IS A LUXURY

"We have a
set price for everything. Everything that you do, we have a price for
it," declared Apple, as she noted that most of her clients visit in the
nights, so unless they get some rest during the day, sleep is a luxury
for these girls.

"The more work you get, the more
money you make. It's up to you. So if you don't work no money at all,
you don't get no money," she explained.

Apple charged
that the men who visit her sex shop are not those society would expect
to see there.

"You are going to be surprised the type
of men that come here. Yes, all types of men come here, but trust me,
you are going to be surprised," said Apple, as she boasted that her
regular clients include members of the security forces, who always come
back to satisfy their sexual appetite.

That is no
surprise to Dr Sandra Knight, executive director of the National Family
Planning Board (NFPB), who recently argued that although prostitution is
illegal in Jamaica, those who are tasked with curbing the growth of
this industry are also benefiting from it.

"One of the
problems we are having is that some of the lawmakers are clients," said
Knight.

The NFPB was last year given responsibility
for the National HIV/STI Unit that plans programmes targeted towards
commercial sex workers.

Knight said representatives
from her agency visit massage parlours to distribute condoms and offer
sex education to employees. Contrary to popular belief, she said, money
is not always the main reason individuals become sex workers, although
she feels the current economic climate could possibly drive several
young girls to pursue this profession.

"They will tell
me that they love it, they love what they do," she said, while adding
that most of the operators of the sex shops in Jamaica are
women.

Just last month, head of the Institute of
Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies,
Mona Campus, Dr Leith Dunn, told The Gleaner that she
was concerned about the rapid growth of sex parlours in the
country.

"Individuals think that they may be going to
work in a massage parlour and then they are trafficked … . They are
victims of sexual exploitation," charged
Dunn.