stereotyped as street worker

[MICHELLE192]

Somebody finally said something about me being transexual.  A MTF came into the store I own yesterday looking for work she was very open about things.  She came out and asked how long I was on hormons how long it took to get a chest my size.  She took a lot of things for granit asumed I dated guys and was shocked when she found out I had a wife for 18 years.  The thing that bothered me the most she is a street worker came in thinking this place had live nude girls and asumed I did the same thing in the store.  She wanted to take me down to the strip a place were MTF and guys sell themselves on street corners.  She was very surprised when she learned that I could never do that no matter how bad I  might need money.  She is the second MTF I meet in this place, but the only street worker.  The first girl has a normal life with a husband I think she knows about me but never said a word.  She comes in to get the gay newspaper once in a while and avon which my wife sells.   

[spacial]

Takes all types to make the world I suppose.

Still, now that you've sent her packing the word should get around and it's unlikely you'll be bothered again.

[tekla]

You know, Live Nude Girls might be a real good way to get people into your store.  Just saying.  Besides, we're all prostitutes at some time in some way, they at least are being honest about it.

[pebbles]

You know, Live Nude Girls might be a real good way to get people into your store.  Just saying.  Besides, we're all prostitutes at some time in some way, they at least are being honest about it.

Huh?

[rejennyrated]

You know, Live Nude Girls might be a real good way to get people into your store.  Just saying.  Besides, we're all prostitutes at some time in some way, they at least are being honest about it.

LMAO!  Tekla you are too much!

Actually I have to confess (and this may shock a few) that a couple of times when I was desperately short of money even I thought about adopting the "oldest profession".

I never actually did it and I'm probably a little too old now, but at one time the only thing which stopped me was the fear of catching some nasty and possibly incurable disease.

[tekla]

Hey, I work in entertainment where the number two rule is (the number one rule is when do we eat) Sex Sells.  If its not selling, add more sex.  We have topless bars, topless car washes, topless coffee houses in the US, because we love selling with sex.^*  Heck, if I thought that Live Nude Girls would sell more tickets to the shows, you bet we'd have them > Carmen Electra and the Pussycat Dolls opening for Jane's Addiction - sure!

And people tend to so marginalize working girls.  I know the ones out on the streets look like 53 by the time they hit 26, but the ones in the suites are doing much better.

And hey, I do so love doing Art and all that.  But Slightly Stoopid, Killswitch Engage, & Insane Clown Posse and the rest of that crap pays just as much money as Art does.
We're making music for money, records for bucks.  And that's prostitution in a way.  Years ago now the London Symphony backed up Procol Harum or Deep Purple or some such band and I was listening to some fool yammer on about 'how that proves that Band X has real talent and should be taken seriously because if they we're not good the LSO wouldn't play with them, yadda, yadda, yadda.'  And my friend, a professional musician turned to him and said: "The LSO is just a bunch of whores, you write the check, they'll play whatever you want."  And that's true.  Had nothing to do with the music, had everything to do with the check.  So, they prostitute themselves, play that crap, and cash the check.  Just like we all do.



* - don't try to sell sex though, that's against the law.  Here, you'll love this, because it's true (I'm not creative enough to make this stuff up).  If I were to say "Hey Jenny, how about we hop upon the couch of Eros and I'll give you $100 for a fifty/fifty." That would be against the law, because that is prostitution.  But.... BUT, if I said "Hey Jenny, what's say you give me a fifty/fifty and I'll film it and I'll pay you $100."  Hey, now it's art, now its commerce, now it's legal.  So weird. So, just film all your professional encounters, that way it's not prostitution anymore.

[MICHELLE192]

Tekla I could just see it the girls fighting over the gay guys attention.  About 70% of the business is gay/lesbian with about 10% of that being transexual.  If I want to take a walk on that dark path I would not have to sit on a street corner I have been offered and refused the offer sitting behind the counter while needle pointing holiday decorations.  I made my money by buying houses and fixed them up to sell for profit while working here as a clerk.  When my boss wanted to sell the business I took it over and will own it all soon enough.  It is a place for guys to meet up as long as they do the meeting outside I don't have any problems.  I do have some non gay guys that come in to watch the movies and they have been aproached by the gay and fights have broke out. 

[tekla]

OK, I'll bite, what kind of biz are you running.  I take it that it's not a coffee shop.

[MICHELLE192]

It is an adult bookstore I sell the adult movies, toys, and magazines, with private viewing booths in the back or sometimes called .25 peep shows which are movies. 

[rejennyrated]

"Hey Jenny, what's say you give me a fifty/fifty and I'll film it and I'll pay you $100."  Hey, now it's art, now its commerce, now it's legal.  So weird. So, just film all your professional encounters, that way it's not prostitution anymore.

Well I'm game if you are LOL     (Joke)

Can I write the "script" though?  I could do with a good on-screen credit to boost my writing career! 

[tekla]

Only if I can direct!

And yeah, a 'bookstore' (that sells lots of mags and other things, but no books?) does tend to attract an odd and diverse bunch of people.  I see pros in the local ones a lot, mostly to buy condoms.  And such a shame that the peep shows have been replaced by movies.  We only have one of the old fashioned live peep show left in SF (at the all-union, employee owned and operated Lusty Lady).

So, are you in a 'combat zone' or are you one of the yuppie/upscale sex stores like Good Vibrations or Toys in Babeland?

[JillEclipse]

How did you two find out that each other was MTF?

Did you know that prostitution is legal in Nevada?

Do hookers really look like they are 53 when they are 26?

[MICHELLE192]

How did you two find out that each other was MTF?

Did you know that prostitution is legal in Nevada?

Do hookers really look like they are 53 when they are 26?

I do not pass that well anymore been years since I did, She noticed my chest plus I was sewing and she told me she was transexual.  There are other costumers that might be FTM that come in here.  I don't know how or why I just get hunches about some but never say anything.  The other MTF is and has been friends with my wife

yes but I am far from neveda

yes the ones strung out on drugs look 53 at 26

Tekla I would consider this a combat zone I sit in a built prof enclosure behind the counter, and I do have some novels in stock

[tekla]

Yeah, bullet proof, that's pretty combat like.  CZ is a term for places where they zoned all the sex/drugs/rock/whatever into one neighborhood.  But somehow upscale places like Good Vibrations get to go into yuppie puppy neighborhoods.

Did you know that prostitution is legal in Nevada?
Not in the entire state, it goes on a county by county basis.  So Clark, which is were Vegas is, it is NOT legal, but the county next door... Cowboy Up!

Do hookers really look like they are 53 when they are 26?
Oh yeah, you see some pretty hard cases down in the Tenderloin, mostly its the crack, the meth and the heavy use of cheep vodka and gin that does the most damage.

[MICHELLE192]

this area is starting to get the way you descibed a combat zone.  Drugs, sex, rap instead of rock, and whatever with very little law enforcement caring to respond and it is most of the city except the downtown area were the police still answer calls.  I all ready decided to move the business once it is paid off even if I lose the private viewing booths to zoning laws in a different city or suburbs. 

[tekla]

Yeah, the movie booths don't offer what the classic peep show did.  And since we all know what goes on in them, you're better off without them in terms of attracting a more upscale crowd.  I don't know if you've ever been in a Good Vibrations, or Toys in Babeland or any of the more up-market sex retailers, we have a regular bookstore called A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, and GV is like that, its a clean and well lighted place for sex.  The merch is high quality, often focusing on couples stuff, the staff knows the stuff they are selling very well - hell, they are downright enthusiastic about it.  The interior is well lighted, merch is displayed in current fashion, people who never felt good about walking into a place where the owner is under glass, and you can just feel the whole 'backroom' masturbation vibe, and it's dirty, grimy (or at the least the neighborhood is) and women in particular will not go in.  They sell movies, but far more selective and not just BJ/cum shot shorts piled up onto a DVD, it's stuff with (gasp), a plot.  Anyway they seem to be doing very well.

[ivy]

Omg, Tekla, you are too funny! Have you been to this place or are they all the same?

[MICHELLE192]

I never heard of Good Vibrations, or Toys in Babeland I will have to look them up and see if they are on east coast.  I have been in the other stores around here and they are about the same as mine.  Some have live nude girls and deal with more "straight" costumers.  There are so many laws about what you can do with the girls some places walk that thin line while others play it safe and have so many restrictions. Then there are the ones downtown mostly gay and very expensive about twice the price I sell the stuff for.  Of course they have all the leather and bondage stuff which I don't carry.  My biggest sellers are the strap on toys and pumps.  For the back area I have it dark like a movie theature prevents drug users coming in and using the booths for that stuff.   I do have women come in to buy toys, dvd, or magazines very few want to use the booths and the ones that do I have to wonder if they are hookers.  As for the movies I have both kinds the compilations and the ones with plots to them.  The latest movies with plots are taken from old TV shows the brandy bunch, star trek, bewitched and so on.  In the area this is the only adult bookstore run by a MTF and a bisexual female the other ones have big hairy guys working behind the counter. 

[Erica L.]

It's funny you should mention that...

I was having a discussion with an ex-girlfriend the other day about outfits that I was most comfortable in (cute jeans and light-colored polos). I mentioned that I wanted to check the spring line-ups at the mall and see if any of the "winter" fashions were going on clearance. She was very confused why I'd be interested in jeans and polos.

Through to course of our conversation, I came to learn that from the day I told her about the real me, she just assumed that I was in it for the short skirts, tight shirts, stockings and heels. It made me laugh. I was quick to inform her that the real me couldn't spend her whole life dressing like a streetwalker, but that I was much more into the "normal" and accepted fashion lines.

It left me pondering why so many people have a preconceived idea of how we want to dress versus the way we actually present ourselves...

[Autumn]

Since I went 99% FT in the winter, and the winter is cold, I've spent most of my time in a suit. Definitely not your classic TS image :p

A former friend who's mentioned having some gender issues himself (though I think it's twisted sexual issues, myself), who used to always talk to people about my 'crossdressing' (I wore female cuts of male clothing styles but didn't try to pass as a girl for years) but didn't attempt to pass, couldn't understand why I wouldn't run around in tiny skirts, with big boots, and lots of makeup, and try to be an asian schoolgirl.

Because I'm not 14, I'm not a hooker, and I'm not asian, you dumbass.