Yahoo! Search Marketing Searches On Site: 384,545 according to the January 2007 report from Yahoo! Search Marketing.

Although the thrust of what they offer is basically the same, escorts or call girls can be distinguished as something completely different than prostitutes. Escort services generally restrict their hires to attractive, personable women without visible drug problems. Men who use escort services tend to be far more discerning clients than the typical john, and often enlist escorts for actual escorting services, such as for dinner and drinks, in addition to — or even in lieu of — sexual services.

Use of paid sexual services is a more prevalent practice than you think. In 1992, the National Health and Social Life Survey indicated that around 20% of American men paid for sex at least once. And that's probably a slightly low estimate, since there's good reason to believe that some of the survey participants chose not to offer full disclosure. So, though you might have a hard time getting one in five of your friends to admit that they've visited an escort, the sheer volume of sex services advertised on the internet says otherwise. With that in mind, here are five things you may not have known about escorts.

1- Escorts are rated on the internet

In this age of blogging, it is increasingly common for advocates and "experts" everywhere to take to the internet and offer both solicited and unsolicited opinions on any number of topics. As such, it should come as no surprise that the practice of rating and offering advice on choosing a particular escort has extended to the web.

 

On sites like BigDoggie.net, TheEroticReview.com and TopKitten.com customers offer ratings regarding the services of certain escorts and agencies as a public reference for others to browse. Of course, such sites are potentially victim to the usual pitfalls of anonymous internet postings, as agencies and escorts can plant positive comments to falsely tout themselves. On the flip side, customers have been known to blackmailescorts with the threat of giving a bad rating unless extra sexual services were offered.

2- Escorts go on tour

It may not invoke the type of glamour seen during a Led Zeppelin world tour (though the debauchery scales are probably reasonably comparable), but in Western Europe the practice of "City Tours" for escorts has become a more prevalent phenomenon. In essence, escorts leave home to increase their income streams.

 

On these tours, call girls from the more economically depressed Eastern European countries, such as the Ukraine and Hungary, are brought into Western European cities for two-week stays to service a parade of wealthy johns. Agencies book a room in a business hotel for each escort, who then receive customers all day long. Escorts are often exploited and overworked in these setups, but often go along due to the lucrative nature of the work.

3- Escorts can make a lot of money

Well, at least some escorts are able to. For the most part, North American escorts who work for respectable agencies pull in anywhere from $150 to $400 per hour, depending upon demand and services offered. More distinguished escorts (those with particular skills, fetishes, specialties or great beauty) can charge in excess of that. Finally, very high-class escorts, especially those catering to an executive clientele, can pull in around $1,000 per hour.

 

Know the laws and the lingo that surround escorts…

At the top of the pyramid, there is a very small group of elite escorts who generally work out of major cities and service the multimillionaires, celebrities and pro athletes. These escorts have the ability to pull in fees that would make the finest corporate lawyers in the world green with envy. In 2007, New York magazine stated that one particularly well-regarded New York-based escort was making in excess of $2,000 per hour during her heyday. There are reports of some select escorts making even more than that.

4- Different countries offer different services

The legality and status of escort services vary according to which country you're in. In Canada, prostitution itself is legal, but street prostitution is discouraged due to the illegality of services surrounding it, such as pimping and negotiating a sex-for-money deal in a public place. That's where escort services come in. To maintain a veneer of legality, agencies perform a middleman service; they arrange a meeting between the escort and the client without explicitly stating what will transpire.

 

Many other countries have similar regimes, but some countries have prostitution laws that are particularly arcane and nonsensical. For example, it is legal to pay for fellatio, but not for vaginal intercourse in Japan. Most Western European countries have more relaxed prostitution laws — in fact, in some of these countries prostitution is a positively respectable, mainstream occupation. In anything-goes Amsterdam, escorts are now tax-paying, unionized professionals.

5- Escorts have a secret lingo

In order to skirt prostitution and pimping bans, escort agencies are careful not to explicitly advertise that its escorts are exchanging sexual favors for money. As such, agencies and clients have developed a lexicon of coded internet slang and abbreviations that allow for the communication of what services will be exchanged. This practice was developed for use in areas (mostly in the U.S.) where prostitution laws are strictly enforced and the lingo has a strong presence on most English-speaking escort sites.

 

Examples of escort codes include BBBJ, which indicates that a client will receive oral sex without a condom, while a CBJ indicates oral sex with acondom. A "girlfriend experience" or GFE implies an experience that is more affectionate than the typical "mechanical" sexual encounter. The GFE features a "warm" escort who will engage in such activities as open-mouthed kissing and cuddling — you know, girlfriend stuff.

A myraid of governments have tried to eradicate prostitution by making it illegal and imposing harsh penalties; however, like similar attempts with other vices, such as gambling and drugs, such efforts have consistently failed due to continuous demand. Many men have trouble initiating a relationship, have little time for a relationship or simply enjoy the sexual variety, and escorts have provided an outlet for such desires with a safer, cleaner and more attractive reputation than street prostitutes.

Men will always be interested in sex and certain men will always be interested in paying for it. The rise of the internet has caused a huge boon to the escort industry. Aside from the obvious safety and cleanliness issues, internet sites provide johns with a greater choice, an opportunity to preview particular escorts and a modicum of confidentiality. As such, the number of working escorts, as opposed to street or brothel prostitutes, has increased significantly in the past decade.

Askmen.com’s Analysis
Longevity of this term’s popularity - 9/10