Times are difficult at Berlin’s Pussy Club. The club has introduced a new offer: 70 euros for girls, drinks and food.
Like many of its counterparts, the brothel has been hit by the credit crunch and has had to come up with its own stimulus package for a trade that was legalised in Germany seven years ago. The Belle Escort, another Berlin brothel, has never before faced problems, but the current financial crisis has triggered a sharp decline in clientele, said its owner Isabelle, without giving her surname. Isabelle rejected the idea of “special deal prostitution” as offered by the Pussy Club but admitted: “We’re in trouble. I’d estimate that we have at least 20 per cent less people coming here,” she said.
Monika Heitmann works for a support network for prostitutes in Bremen and can confirm the problems the industry is facing.
“If customers can’t even afford to spend money on housing, food and cars, then how can we expect them to spend money on sex?” she asked.
Heitmann has worked with prostitutes for more than 20 years and says that business has been going downhill over that time.
“Thirty years ago prostitutes were really dedicated to their work,” she said, adding that desperation was now forcing women into the sex trade.
At the beginning of this year, the owner of Frankfurt’s oldest brothel, the FKK Sudfass, was forced to sell up after 37 years.
The building will be converted into a hotel over the next year.
Since 2001, prostitution in Germany has been legal and is relatively widespread, especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Hamburg, where women tout for business in the show windows of the infamous St Pauli district.
But social stigmatisation persists and Heitmann is concerned that prostitutes’ trials and tribulations are not being taken seriously.
“There are a lot of women who come here and just don’t know how to get on,” Heitmann said. “The crisis means that customers want more service for less money. They’re becoming pushy and even blackmailing the ladies.”
Hoping for more success, many women are driven from the clubs to the kerbs to sell their bodies on their own terms.
An increasing number of men on a tight budget are also picking up prostitutes on street corners rather than in pricey brothels or “eros centres”.
Some places have been forced to shut their doors and in January, sex shop owners and pornography producers pushed for state aid, taking their lead from the crisis-hit auto and banking industries.
Erotic trade federation official Uwe Kaltenberg said that “economic aid would be judicious.”Heitmann is now afraid that waning turnover could damage the industry’s reputation even more and that back-street prostitution could escalate.
Barbara Kavemann, professor at the Berlin Research Institute for Social Science and Women Studies, said the full impact of the financial crisis could not be determined because there was no concrete data.
“Firstly, prostitutes don’t legally have to be registered, and secondly who defines who is a prostitute?” said Kavemann.
But Isabelle and other brothel owners do not need empirical data or definitions to confirm the impact of the credit crunch on the sex industry has been hard.
“The only thing we can do now is keep our fingers crossed and hope for better times,” she said, “and obviously I wouldn’t say no to a state-funded cash injection.”

Tana Goldsmith  <!– document.write( ” ); //–>writes dark fiction and erotica for fun and pleasure. Exit,Stage-Left is taken from her collection of weird erotic tales.Â

Showcasing a personal collection of never seen before photographs as well as iconic fashion images, the exhibition offers insight into the lives of influential figures in the world of fashion, featured personalities include Cate Blanchett, Eva Mendes, Miranda Kerr and a never before seen image of Anna Nicole Smith.

Ideal for fashion enthusiasts, the exhibition will run from 30 March to 29 April and is free to attend. For more information, visit the Westfield page.

For those of you in other parts of the globe, enjoy the (small) selection of photographs on this page.

Anna Nicole Smith images: Daniella Federici

Additional images:

Photographic credits (left to right, from Eva Mendes):

Simon Lekias,Justin Cooper,Stephen Chee and Jonathan Bookalil

http://lucreziamagazine.com

As a bartender and trainer at a national restaurant chain, Rebecca Brown earned a couple thousand dollars in a really good week. Now, as a dancer at Chicago’s Pink Monkey gentleman’s club, she makes almost that much in one good night.

The tough job market is prompting a growing number of women across the country to dance in strip clubs, appear in adult movies or pose for adult magazines like Hustler.

Employers across the adult entertainment industry say they’re seeing an influx of applications from women who, like Brown, are attracted by the promise of flexible schedules and fast cash. Many have college degrees and held white-collar jobs until the economy soured.

“You’re seeing a lot more beautiful women who are eligible to do so many other things,” said Gus Poulos, general manager of New York City’s Sin City gentleman’s club. He said he got 85 responses in just one day to a recent job posting on Craigslist.

The transition to the nightclub scene isn’t always a smooth one – from learning to dance in 12-centimetre heels to dealing with the jeers of some customers.

Some performers said they were initially so nervous that only alcohol could calm their nerves.

“It is like giving a speech, but instead of imagining everyone naked, you’re the one who’s naked,” Brown, 29, said.

Eva Stone, a 25-year-old dancer at the Pink Monkey, said dealing with occasional verbal abuse from patrons requires “a thick skin.”

Makers of adult films cautioned that women shouldn’t rush into the decision to make adult movies without considering the effect on their lives.

“Once you decide to be an adult actress, it impacts your relationship with everyone,” said Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of adult film giant Vivid Entertainment Group. “Once you make an adult film, it never goes away.”

The women at the Pink Monkey say dancing at a strip club might not have been their first career choice, but they entered the business with their eyes wide open. The job gives them more control and flexibility than sitting in a cubicle, and “it’s easy, it’s fun and all of us girls … look out for each other,” Brown said.

In this economy, “desperate measures are becoming far more acceptable,” said Jonathan Alpert, a New York City-based psychotherapist who’s had clients who worked in adult entertainment.

For some, dancing is temporary, a way to pay for college loans or other bills. Others say they’ve found their niche.

Dancers at the upmarket Rick’s Caberet clubs in New York City and Miami can make $US100,000 to $US300,000 a year – in cash – even with the economic downturn, club spokesman Allan Priaulx said.

Priaulx said 20 to 30 women a week are applying for jobs at the New York club, double the number of a year ago.

Rhode Island’s Foxy Lady held a job fair on a recent Saturday, seeking to fill about 35 positions for dancers, masseuses, bartenders and bouncers. The Providence Journal reported that more than 150 job seekers showed up to apply for work at the strip club. Foxy Lady co-owner Tom Tsoumas said a recent promotion to cut prices helped the club regain business lost due to the bad economy, forcing it to hire more employees.

Still, analysts say, the industry isn’t immune to the economic recession. Business is down an estimated 30 per cent across all segments, including adult films, gentleman’s clubs, magazines and novelty shops, said Paul Fishbein, president of AVN Media Network, an adult entertainment company that has a widely distributed trade publication and an award show.

“In the past, people have said this industry is recession-proof,” said Eric Wold, director of research for financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. “I definitely don’t see that; maybe recession-resistant.”

Strip club dancers and managers said they’re drawing in the same number of customers, but fewer high rollers.

“They’re not getting the big spenders,” said Angelina Spencer, executive director of the Association of Club Executives, a trade group for adult nightclubs. “They’re not getting the guys who come in and drop $3,000 to $4,000 a night anymore.”

Still, the clubs’ operating structure leaves them with low overhead and profit margins of up to 50 per cent, Wold said.

Dancers are independent contractors, paying clubs a nightly flat fee depending on how long they work. At the Pink Monkey, for example, dancers who arrive at 7 pm Sunday through Thursday pay a $US40 “house fee,” while women who don’t arrive until midnight pay $US90. And they keep their tips.

Wold and others say it’s almost impossible to estimate the size of the adult entertainment industry because few companies are publicly traded. He does pay close attention to three that are: Lakewood, Colorado-based VCG Holding and Houston-based Rick’s Caberet, which own clubs, and New Frontier Media, a Boulder, Colorado-based adult film producer and distributor.

All three are profitable.

Rick’s Caberet had $US60 million in revenue in its 2008 fiscal year, up from $US32 million the year before, Wold said, and he estimates VCG will have $US57 million for last year, compared with $US40.5 million in 2007. New Frontier Media generates more than $US400 million in consumer buying a year.

Larry Flynt, whose half-billion dollar Hustler empire publishes magazines, produces and distributes films and operates a casino, said he’s continued to do well. But he doesn’t expect those who are solely in the film business to survive.

“A lot of the small studios are out of business now, there’s no doubt about that,” Flynt said.

Adult magazines also are struggling along with the larger publishing industry, and have to cut pages like everyone else.

But the economic realities aren’t keeping jobseekers away.

Vivid Entertainment’s Hirsch said the number of women in his business has doubled in the last couple years, with roughly 800 working as adult actresses. “It is more competitive than I’ve seen it in 25 years,” he said.

That doesn’t mean all the newcomers are planning on lengthy careers in the industry.

Stone, who has a bachelor’s degree in graphic design, took up dancing four years ago to help pay her student loans. She plans to go to graduate school this year to pursue a master’s in education.

Brown, meanwhile, has a ready answer for those critical of her career choice.

“I have job security,” she said.

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FETISH FANTASY LEATHER STUDDED FLAPPER

Spanking during sex might be stressful at first but it helps bring couples closer together, according to a study.

London, Mar 31 : Spanking during sex might be stressful at first but it helps bring couples closer together, according to a study.

According to scientists from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, sadomasochistic (S and M) activities like spanking, bondage, and flogging increase relationship closeness.

During the study, lead researcher Brad Sagarin looked at 13 men and women at an S and M party in Arizona, and measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol during and after participating in activities.

The researcher found a significant increase in cortisol levels in those receiving stimulation, but dropped back to normal within 40 minutes if the scene went well.

However, there was no change in those inflicting the activity.

For further analysis, the scientists again studied an S and M event in Colorado, and found that testosterone was measured in 45 men and women.

There was a significant increase in receiving women only.

Donatella Marazziti of the University of Pisa, Italy, said that the boost might help women cope with the aggressive nature of S and M activities, or that it could be another sign of stress.

The researchers found that couples who said that the party went well also reported increases in relationship closeness.

“When sexual intercourse is consensual it is not stressful – even if it is extreme sex,” New Scientist magazine quoted Marazziti as saying.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK, also said that any shared activity was likely to promote interpersonal closeness.

ANI

Structured Settlement Companies

Could Spears be embarrassed by a raunchy video a mystery lover filmed

Things could get worse for Britney Spears after a magazine revealed there is a new sex tape of the star.

A mystery man told In Touch Weekly he had filmed himself making love to the Gimme More singer- who this week had her kids taken away from her.

He claims back in June he had sex with Britney in Hawaii though she didnt know he was videoing the action!

It was just normal sex, we didnt do anything crazy, the guy told In Touch. It was a little disappointing. It lasted for about 25 minutes and then we passed out.

WOW- what an experience! Pundits in the US are suggesting Brits mystery lover is only revealing these details to find a buyer for the tape.

So even though Spears is all over the news at the moment, we could literally be seeing a lot more of the star in the near future! WATCH THIS SPACE

By

Tom Thorogood