Sex and… Taxes?

They (whoever “they” are) say the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. A teen in Germany is learning about the second certainty the hard way. According to this article in England’s Daily Mail, Romanian-born Alina Percea, a student in Germany, could owe the German government approximately half of her 2009 earnings.

The teen auctioned off her virginity for 8000 British pounds. That’s just shy of 13,000 American dollars – a decent sum for one night of “work!” Even nicer, Percea said she had a great time with the 45-year-old Italian businessman, and would see him again, without charging him.

Then the government had to step in and ruin a good thing. Prostitution is legal in Germany, so that wasn’t the issue. But prostitutes pay a 50 percent tax on their earnings. Additionally, because the teen earned so much money in one night, she could get hit with a VAT (Value Added Tax) bill, too, which would typically be collected from the customer. She’d end up with not even $5,000 USD for her entrepreneurial efforts.

Of course, the government may end up losing out on the deal, too, if the businessman – as so many do – decides to find some way to justify the expense in that lovely little gray area of a business “entertainment” write-off.  I’m no expert on German tax law – and I have an accountant so I don’t even have to be an expert on US tax law – but I’m pretty sure you can deduct at least 50 percent of any business entertainment expenses, which means the money the government took out of young Percea’s hands would go straight back to the customer who spent it in the first place. I guess it’s another instance of the rich getting richer because, really, do you know many people who have $13,000 lying around to pay for sex?

A few other observations, courtesy of a close friend of mine, name withheld because he has no idea I’m quoting him on a sex blog, but I’m pretty sure he’d think it was cool.

- “Why would anyone pay $13,000 for a virgin? If I’m paying that much for sex, I want someone with some experience, who knows what she’s doing already.”

- “Why would anyone pay $13,000 for a virgin? I’ve bedded two and all it cost me was dinner and drinks.”

My friend (who is bi) then confessed he’d give up his ass-cherry for $13,000 but not for the paltry sum of $5,000, unless he was going to do it anyway, in which case, the cash would be a nice bonus.

Yours truly then began to consider what she might give up – and realized she’s got no cherries left to offer. Maybe a kinky S&M experience or two if the price were right?

My friend and I both realized there’s very little we’d want to do for $5,000 if we weren’t planning on doing it anyway. For most people, an extra $5,000, while it would be nice to have, wouldn’t exactly mark a significant turning point in your life, while losing your virginity is a memory to treasure or regret. Granted, it can be a memory to treasure or regret whether you get paid for it or not, and, according to reports, Percea has no emotional or physical regrets whatsoever about the experience.

I can only hope the teen learned an important fiscal lesson, which will serve her well in all her future endeavors, sexual and otherwise. Always, always, always factor taxes into your hourly rates, because the government will take their cut. They always do.

Darling readers, please share your thoughts. What would you do for $5,000? What about $13,000 (tax-free)?

Sticky Situations

The Internet is a funny place. (Okay, hang on and I’ll tell you something you don’t know.)

I’m talking, specifically, of how old news gets re-posted and recycled years later for continued debate. It’s even funnier when the story wasn’t true in the first place.

Since my co-blogger already busted the myth about gerbilling – which, admittedly, was circulating long before the Internet — what’s left?

A story that originated several years ago has now been revitalized due to our current economic climate: Since Germany legalized prostitution in 2002, the tale goes, a woman can be denied her unemployment benefits if she refuses a job in a brothel.

We’re not just talking about a hypothetical case, either. As The Telegraph, a UK paper reported, a 25-year-old unemployed IT professional phoned a brothel for a job after the job center said the establishment expressed interest in her profile. She thought she was calling a restaurant/bar and answering their ad or a waitress. By German law, any woman under 55 who has been out of work longer than a year must take any job offered. According to the article, the government considered exempting brothels from the law on moral grounds, but found it to hard to distinguish them from bars.

Thanks to Snopes.com, we find the story isn’t true—at least not quite. While theoretically, if a brothel were to recruit employees through a job centre, and a woman under 55 who had been unemployed more than a year refused the job, she could lose her benefits. But most job centres, according to Snopes, refused listings from brothels, to avoid putting a woman in such a predicament.

The actual waitress this allegedly happened to? It turned out to be a computer error and as soon as real-life bureacrats discovered the situation, they pulled the ad and permitted the woman to keep her benefits.

Of course, the topic begs the question: Is it fair to require someone to work in a job that contradicts their morals? If the waitress in question, for instance, were a vegan, should she be forced to work in a steakhouse?

But it also opens a host of other questions, not all of them related to morality and personal freedoms.

I’ve often joked that, should society collapse, there won’t be much of a need for bloggers, journalists and other freelance writers. (Fiction writers? More likely. There’s always something to be said for escapism and the town bard will always find welcome company, a warm bed and a cold beverage.)

Barring freelance writing, I have precisely one other skill.

I find it a compelling philosophical question: If prostitution was legal in the U.S., regulated, relatively safe and the pay was good, would I do it?

My answer: “Why not?”

I’ve always been intrigued by exotic dancers… not so much their moves, which I could never replicate, but their motives. During my one experience with a semi-private dancer, I found myself talking to a lovely Australian girl who was working her way through law school as a stripper.

That’s stripping, some may say. Sex is a whole different animal (so to speak).
I’m not talking about sex with animals, of course, just plain old garden variety men and women. And my answer is still, “Why not?”

That doesn’t mean, however, that I would force others into the job if they were uncomfortable with it, which brings us back to that whole sticky situation of forcing people to work in jobs they find morally offensive rather than collect unemployment.

For me, that would be a job as a telemarketer, which is far more morally reprehensible than sex with strangers.

What about you, dear readers? How bad would the economy have to get before you would consider sex as a means of income? And what job would be worse than prostitution?

Generation Sex: China’s Sexual Revolution

China + sex revolution are hot buzz words lately, with topics about China’s sex-culture flooding the internet. Once controversial subjects like promiscuity, homosexuality, prostitution, AIDS, abortion, pornography and masturbation would have be taboo in China. They are now the focus of passionate public debate. One documentary, China’s Sexual Revolution (2007) that first aired on CBC takes a covert look as the slumbering giant’s libido awakens.

The documentary opens with a scene of young people necking in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, only two decades after the massacre. This liberalization of a new sexual freedom is the result of various determining factors including modernization, urbanization, China’s “one child policy”, women’s liberation, and a half a century of Maoist sexual repression and conform.

Chairman Mao—leader of the PRC from 1949 until his death in 1976—was mainly responsible for making sex a taboo. Under Mao’s dictatorship, it became mandatory for everyone to wear the unisex Mao suits which concealed a women’s curves and transformed lovers into androgynous comrades. Sex was to be performed as a reproductive duty only. Citizen’s private lives were also extremely restricted, resulting in loveless, sexless marriages.

Shortly after Mao’s death, the “one child policy” was introduced in China in 1979 as a form of “population control” in an attempt to alleviate social and environmental problems. This policy has had distinct effects on China’s social structure. It liberated women from their reproductive responsibility allowing them to pursue higher education and careers. However, it has resulted in an unbalanced ratio of men to women, with an estimated population of 30 million more men to women by 2020.

China now has the fastest growing sex trade in the world with roughly 10-20 million sex workers. Schoolgirls are being lured into the sex trade at karaoke clubs, while prostitution is widespread in bars, beauty salons, brothels and concubine villages. An AIDS epidemic is sweeping the nation as well, with approximately 200 people infected daily, and an estimated 10 million people to be infected by 2010. According to the China Family Planning Association premarital sex, pregnancy and abortions are all on the rise, especially among high school girls. Many educators have blamed outdated sex education, with people uninformed about birth control. Xu Tianming, the president of China Sexology Society, says that sexual ignorance outnumbers illiteracy.

Leading sexologists, like Pan Suiming, from the Sex Museum near Shanghai where visitors can view 1500 artifacts from China’s 9000 years of sexual history. Liu also shows his collection at Hong Kong’s first nude photo contest to take place and soft-core porn to be published in magazines. This is just the latest sign that sex is infiltrating the mainstream media. And, although the government is trying to eliminate online porn, much of it still falls through the cracks.

Muzi Mei is a sex blogger who became an instant celebrity in 2003 when she posted audio erotica of her own lovemaking on her blog. The podcast was downloaded by more than 50,000 people at once, crashing the server. She has since become a role model and characterizes the sexual attitudes of contemporary Chinese women.

There is no doubt that China is undergoing a sexual revolution. But, they still have a long way to go as far as public education. While 60-70% of Chinese have had pre-marital sex, only 20% of the men know where to find the clitoris and just 50% of the women have ever experienced an orgasm. One thing, however is for certain: Sex—China’s great taboo—is back out in the open.

Domina Doll is a sex writer who writes articles and reviews for various magazines, zines and adult toy stores. Visit her sexuality blog CherryBoxxx at http://cherryboxxx.blogspot.com/.

Client 9 For Governor

When news broke yesterday of New York’s Governor alleged involvement with Emperors Club prostitutes, I couldn’t help but laugh at the perfect irony of it all. Those who know about Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s (otherwise known as “Client 9″) crusade against prostitution in New York state while still working as attorney general are either confused and shocked by the news, or rightfully pissed off at another supposed white knight politician who ended up guilty of the same sins he campaigned against.

In 2004, Spitzer indicted 18 people associated with elite escort services in New York City for “promoting prostitution” and related charges. That same year, he prosecuted individuals promoting prostitution in Asia, also known as “sex tourism”. As governor, Mr. Spitzer passed legislation for stricter penalties for “sex tourism” operators and “sex traffickers” who bring foreigners into the U.S. and force them into prostitution. That is all well and good, but while legislating and enforcing the laws, it seems Mr. Spitzer forgot that he, himself, was also required to adhere to them.

Gov. Spitzer can now hang out with the likes of Mark Foley, Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, and Larry King (not the talk-show host); and not necessarily for the heinousness of the crimes committed, but for their hypocrisy and sheer disrespect for the law. Foley was one of the House of Representatives’ top opponents of child pornography and introduced legislation to change federal sex offender laws. He resigned in 2006 over the now infamous “congressional page sex scandal”, turning out to be quite the offender himself. Larry Craig was an outspoken opponent of same sex marriage, even while lying to Matt Lauer’s face on The Today Show about soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom. The formerly respected Evangelical pastor, Ted Haggard, preached that ‘God hated fags and their disgusting lifestyle’ (to paraphrase), but was outed purchasing meth from a gay prostitute. Possibly the most gruesome and under-publicized sex scandal in the history of this country, however, belongs to Larry King – an up and coming member of the Republican party and Evangelical Christian church in Nebraska during the 80′s. King was alleged to be involved in a child prostitution ring that extended all the way to the The White House, but was acquitted and instead convicted and imprisoned on charges of cooking-the-books in a credit union criminal case.
(Watch Conspiracy of Silence – a previously un-aired Discovery Channel documentary about Larry King and Republican party VIP involvement in child prostitution.)

Eliot Spitzer joins a long line of dickhead politicians and public figures who have campaigned against the sins of infidelity, prostitution, and homosexuality to ultimately hide their own sweaty guilt. An overly simplified comparison would be the high school jock who called me a “fag” and who I ended up fucking the hell out of senior year.