What is an 'escort' exactly?

Sex is one of life's most ancient pleasures, and it's no wonder there is a huge business around it. One of these businesses is prostitution, considered one of the oldest professions in the world, basically because the work tool does not have to go through a technological refinement: it is the Body.

Even if prostitution is legal in many countriesSome of the practices are not, for example, attracting customers on the street. This profession does not enjoy great social acceptance and is often discredited, of course, more to the people who trade with their bodies than to the mafias that are often behind them. The stigmatization that these people carry is part of the business and the type of product offered.

As a result of this stigmatization, in recent times The term escort or luxury prostitute has become popular (or high standing) that enjoys a better reputation than the classic prostitutes. What exactly does this "label" change mean?

• Related article: "The 20 types of sex and their characteristics"

Prostitution is an ancient practice

Prostitution is exchanging "sexual favors" for goods generally money, and it has been practiced since ancient times. In ancient Mesopotamia, priests had sex with prostitutes. In ancient Greece, brothels were legal and used to cater to political leaders and men who enjoyed privilege. Prostitution was also common in ancient Rome, and generally consisted of the trade in women.

During the Middle Ages and during the 19th century, prostitution was not at all unusual, as legal brothels operated in much of Europe and were an important source of tax revenue. Today, prostitution is legal in many countries; However, social stigma still exists. As we will see, this stigma serves to understand the existence of escorts from a psychological point of view.

Differences between escorts and prostitutes

Many times, when we think of prostitutes, we can imagine a woman who has sex to pay for her drug addiction or because she is in a precarious situation. In short, this practice is historically linked to poverty and the most vulnerable people, in the vast majority of cases, or directly to slavery.

However, the figure of the escorts intends to break with these ideas and beliefs about this class of sex workers. The "escort" concept is associated with women of great beauty, many with studies, and capable of offering interesting conversations or even acting as companions for certain social events. The idea is, basically, to go beyond the sexual act itself when it comes to selling the body; the service includes the possibility to experience something similar to a real affective relationship.

Not everyone is very clear about the difference between escort and prostitute, since they can offer similar services (although not identical). Basically, the escorts usually perform services that a prostitute or prostitute does not perform. Prostitutes tend to charge less, and their services are closely related to sexual practice. In the case of escorts, they can have sex with clients, but they can also simply accompany them to events, parties or business trips.

Possibly, the main difference between prostitutes and escorts is that the latter can perform escort services, that is, they can attend social events with their clients. In other words, they don't limit their jobs to one or two hours, but to whole nights, days, and even weekends.

At times, they may travel with their clients for several days and may or may not have sex. That is, an escort is a paid companion and does not necessarily have sex with her clients. The price of an escort is usually more expensive, and this already indicates the type of psychological burden that the concept of escort has and how it relates to stigma.

• Related article: "Types of feminism and their different currents of thought"

The stigma that this profession explains

As we have seen, both prostitution and the practice of escorts belongs to the field of sex workers. However, what says more about what an escort is is the fact that it is a service designed simply to differentiate itself from prostitution, a field in which there is a great diversity of practices without the need for each person to distinguish themselves by using a different label to explain their job.

That is to say, technically, between the work of a prostitute and an escort there are no differences that cannot be found between two random sex workers. The difference between these two professions it has to do with classism.

Basically, the escort is a person passed through a marketing filter that keeps out all the elements of prostitution linked to poverty: precariousness, ignorance, etc. This makes the stigma linked to prostitution perpetuate (for something the only way to escape it is not to be from the lower class) and at the same time it serves to give the feeling that the escort has had total freedom when accepting and rejecting clients, something that brings her closer to a real couple.

What is an escort? A question of classism

To hire an escort, the usual thing is to go to a contact page (usually on the internet), in which it is clear that they try to give a good image to seduce men with high purchasing powerEscorts are considered high-class prostitutes. Traditional prostitutes, although they can also advertise their services on the internet or on contact pages and travel to the client's home, they can be found offering their services in the middle of the street, on the road and in "clubs".

These are practices associated with the lower classes, and although for centuries this has not been a problem for the wealthiest resort to them, the emergence of human rights and the rejection of covert forms of slavery have made stigma can be bi-directional: for prostitutes and for those who hire their services. Given this, the protection mechanism for people with resources has been to use classism, create another profession from what has been known for centuries.

Escorts, being expensive and refined, act as a retaining wall for stigma, causing it to reposition itself only on people who They can't afford the freedom to transform into fancy prostitutes. The reaction to the violation of human rights implied by the trafficking of women and the exploitation by women mafias is not to materially end the problem, but to rename the services that you yourself hires.

• Related article: "The 13 benefits of having sex, according to science”