Updated August 29, After seven years as a sex worker she was introduced to the Sex Industry Network SIN , a support network for people in the business, and now manages the organisation.
In her time in the sex industry, Ms Jennings has seen just about every stereotype about the industry debunked. The amount of private sex workers has skyrocketed. The image of a drug-addicted woman standing on a street corner, too scared to report an assault to the police in case she gets arrested, is not reality. In Ms Jennings' experience, drug use is no more prevalent among sex workers than it is in the rest of the community.
Organisations such as SIN work to ensure sex workers feel safe to report crimes against them to the police. Though there is a small percentage of street-based sex workers, the majority operate out of houses in South Australia. Message boards, blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter have become the new medium for sex workers in Adelaide to peddle their wares. The penalties are outlined in the Summary Offences Act β 1. Legislation also outlaws landlords renting properties to tenants for the purpose of sex work.
The website I used at the time had three pages of adverts 36 individual ads A quick scan of tweets promoting services in Adelaide reveals many of the workers have found ways around South Australia's advertising laws. As she talked about her life before entering the industry, she said she was not a promiscuous teenager and grew up in a fairly normal family. Through her recent involvement in the fetish community, with an interest in BDSM, she met several sex workers.
Once the commitments had passed, Dominique left her job and began full-time sex work. She is hesitant to tell her friends about her work and has not considered talking to her parents about what she does. They range from previous checkout operators, office workers and managers to those who have only ever worked in the industry. Dominique sees her sex work as a normal job, but believes she could easily walk away from the industry if her circumstances changed.
