Sex workers slam online review site Punter Planet as dangerous
It is the online site that lets men to “rate” their encounters with sex workers – marking them on their looks and bedroom skills. But sex workers and advocates have slammed the site as “dangerous” and a “forum for fantasists”.
The online sexual revolution has also provided new opportunities for toxic masculinity to hide its ugly face behind anonymity.
It has created the likes of Punter Planet, a self-styled escort review website that compares women to cars and sex work to “mileage” and has been labelled as “dangerous” and “mostly fictional” by sex workers.
The website was established in 2010 as a forum for men to “rate” their experiences with escorts around the country.
The site, which bills itself as the “Home of the Escort Connoisseur” is made up of almost-exclusively male members who give detailed descriptions of their experiences with sex workers.
The site also acts as an advertising platform for escorts, charging female sex workers a fee of $66 per month to post promotional ads.
However one major sex worker outreach group slammed the site, saying that many of the reviews are the work of “hobbyists” — men who write fictionalised accounts of sex work encounters.
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Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) boss Cameron Cox also claimed that many reviews incite violence towards sex workers who don’t live up to their advertised photographs.
In one of the more disturbing post on the site — made soon after the murder of Sydney woman and sex worker Michaela Dunn in August — one “reviewer” wrote: “Probably a punter totally fed up with fake Asian ads. Won’t be the last. That’s for sure. Let the culling begin”.
The post has since been removed.
“Sex workers refer to Punter Planet as a forum for hobbyists or fantasists whose members are in no way are representative of the actual clients of sex workers,” Mr Cox said.
“SWOP finds it unfortunate that discussion that occur within Punter Planet Forums often showcase the worst aspects of toxic masculinity. And gendered violence.”
Celebrity escort and author Samantha X also dismissed the site as ‘insidious’ and said it had little to no impact on a sex workers’s business or reputation.
“Any online site where grown men rate women for looks, bedroom skills and the like is outdated, insidious and totally one-sided,” she said.
“I get that men have the right to have a place to talk but when it gets nasty, vindictive, abusive and sick is when there is a problem.”
Punter Planet’s creator, known only on the site as “Andy J”, defended the site saying: “We are a review forum and directory. We have guidelines available, and any reviews that may put anyone in danger or be inciteful, are swiftly removed or edited.
“We do accept reviews that are positive, negative, and everything in between; this sometimes does not make some operators happy, but we believe in sex work being work and in the decriminalisation of the industry across the entire country, and as with other forms of businesses, you do have happy and unhappy customers with the right to express themselves.”