The Erotic Review: Axis of Evil

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“