Love em or hate em, TER is going to be around for awhile, I’m afraid, and even Dave Elms and his alleged unethical shenanigans aren’t going to change a thing. Do the math. TER’s ads on the Village Voice’s Backpage advertise they have “almost a million members.” The ad neglects to tell us what constitutes a “member” since one can be registered and not pay a dime, or choose to pay a monthly fee to access the VIP portions of the site. However, if even one-fourth of the “almost a million members” are paying $20 a month for membership, that’s $5 million dollars a month (or $60 million a year) in gross revenue. According to Quantcast, they maintain in excess of 866,000 unique hits per month, 93% of which are either “regulars” or “addict.” Even if Dave Elms got caught on an R. Kelly-style video pissing on a barely legal teen, TER would still be the Walmart of escort review sites. They’re not going anywhere.
As an escort, I’ve come to terms with my love-hate relationship with escort reviews in general, adopting a sort of “nature of the beast” attitude. What offends me about TER, however, is the exceedingly negative, hostile attitude toward working girls in general. Here’s a direct quote from the Backpage ad: “DID YOU GET RIPPED OFF AGAIN? Didn’t read her reviews, did you? Don’t let them get away with it. The reason why these rip-offs exist is because up until now there was nothing you could do about it. By submitting a review you are not only warning thousands of guys in your area, you hitting them where it hurts…”.
Well, here’s a big, fat, cherry-flavored FUCK YOU to all those who feel compelled to perpetrate the hooker-as-social-deviant myth while happily profiting from the very thing they seem to despise. There’s a revolution on the horizon, and it’s wearing ass-kicking stilettos.
See related New York Times article, “Sex Trade Monitors a Key Figure’s Woes“
Filed under: Sex Worker Rights | 19 Comments »