Tipping point for leaving P4P?

[soiboy]

No, no, no, not the soiboy leaving the seedy world of P4P.  Don’t be ridiculous!  Rather, LBs leaving P4P.  I’ve been thinking about this since I returned from a two-week trip to LOS last month.  It was a short trip, but I needed a LB fix to tide me over until the fall.  First a few days of mongering in BKK, followed by a few days with a favorite there, and finally several days in Pattaya with another favorite.

 

Both favorites are real sweethearts; LB-next-door types.  Neither has any threads about them in any forum.  Neither has even been mentioned in any context in any forum as far as I know.  They are among the sizeable “silent majority” of LBs quietly working the scene to help themselves and their families.  No 60,000 baht monthly incomes, no multiple customers a day, no sponsors.  Life in the real LB world.  And both are now “thinking too much” about what it all means.

 

BKK - BKK sweetie actually has made 60,000 baht in a good month, not in P4P but from commissions made working in a call center.  She has drifted between P4P and mainstream jobs for several years.  Recently she has been out of P4P while living with a farang boyfriend in BKK, taking care of him and his apartment, but making no salary.  No money to buy herself anything, or to buy her family anything.  Farang boyfriend thinks that as long as she has a roof over her head then she should be happy, although while he is back home for a while this summer she has moved back to her old room.  She asked me what I thought, and I told her I thought she was being used.  But, she is pushing her late 20s now and is looking for some sort of relationship.  It was never easy money when working P4P.  Customers have been in increasingly short supply in the past few years, and especially so now.  As we left it, she thinks she will start to look for a mainstream job and move back permanently to her old room.  The writing is on the wall that there is no future with this particular boyfriend.  He may be a nice guy, but doesn’t have much money and doesn’t understand her wanting to spend time with her family and help them out.  She may go back to freelancing in the meantime.  She’s tired of living on a very slender shoestring budget.

 

Pattaya - Pattaya sweetie’s story has been told thousands of times before.  Finished high school in Isaan but no decent jobs available.  Worked 6 days a week in a crappy factory to make 5,000 baht a month.  Moved to Pattaya and worked as a maid in a hotel.  Was told one day that she could make more money if she didn’t mind having sex with farangs.  And so it began.  Three years later, though, she wonders aloud what she has to show for it.  But what to do?  Where to go?  Her parents work, and she only has one sibling.  Her main goals have been to build her family a decent house and make sure her little brother stays in school.  But even with these limited (and laudable) goals where will the money come from to finish the house?  Will there ever be money for little brother to go to college, something she never had a chance to do?

 

Low season is always the time when such thoughts come to the fore.  But things are different now in Thailand.  It certainly feels different.  Indeed, will there ever be high seasons again as we remember them?  It doesn’t look like it, for many reasons.  So, what is the tipping point for LBs to leave P4P?  Are we there yet?  Are these two there yet?  I don’t know.  What are some thoughts and experiences?

[pacman]

For most many LBs, life is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. For those not blessed with beauty or a big cock their prospects are poor. And even for the more fortunate ones, they still have a finite window of opportunity to lay the foundations for a decent standard of living in their latter years. Now the country is in another political crisis of its own making, tourist numbers will stay low, more bars will close, there will be more girls chasing fewer customers, things are not looking great for those in P4P.

 

But somehow they struggle on. Rumours of the death of the bar scene have been spread before & while many girls are forced back to the farm, the place will survive. These are not happy days for LB P4P workers but the pull of their unique talents combined with the "de-feminisation" of their western sisters means there will always be a market for their services.

[lance2546]

I'm skeptical that many good, decent, hardworking and trust worthy LBs can't find main stream work. P4P is easy money and some times very good money and its a career choice. I've never met a LB that was sold into sexual slavery.

About supporting the family, that's a good story, but again I'm skeptical as to the amounts actually sent home. Thailand has near zero unemployment, check out all the Burmese, Laos and Cambodians doing the jobs Thais refuse to do. Why should the family lay around idle and live off the proceeds of their "daughter" selling her ass? Well, because they can I guess, 555.

Any way, I do believe that P4P can be damaging to many GGs and LBs long term health, so more power to them if they make a bundle, then "Retire" :)

[bumblebee]

I was chatting to a respected member of our community only the other day about LBs leaving the scene after only........one day.  My own gf did one day in one of the popular LB bars in Pattaya when she first moved here.  She realised straight away it was not for her and also felt she was letting down her mother who had used what pittance the family had saved to put her through an administration course in Korat a few years previous.  He agreed and said it is not uncommon for girls to try p4p for a brief spell, even one day, and decide it is not for them and fall back on a more mainstream job even thought the financial rewards are not great..

[lance2546]

^ +1

The reason most GGs site for entering the "Industry" is that they are single Mothers, supporting their kid(s), which is plausible.

Since LBs can't become pregnant, that removes one major justification for entering P4P.

OT but I was perusing Pina Love the other day and came across one Pinay LB's profile with one of those 1,000 word introductions:

"Hi, I'm Ladyboy, 27 and single Mom -yes I adopted a nine year old boy..." 555!

Yeah they speak English in the Phils but I some times wonder whether it is to a punter's advantage or not. I mean, they can really spin some tall tales and even though I know its total BS, I do admit that it is pretty skillful BS :)

[pdogg]

  So, what is the tipping point for LBs to leave P4P?  Are we there yet? 

 

An extremely interesting topic SoiBoy!  

 

I guess we more often think about the tipping point for entering P4P and as Lance says with ladies the that tipping point is having a kid to support.

 

Most ladies or ladyboys in the East or West don't dream of being prostitutes.  Like any job, some find they can tolerate it, some hate it, and some like it.  I think most are looking for financial security and would prefer a relationship or perhaps sponsorship with one or more farangs.

 

So one tipping point is relationship/sponsorship.

 

Nowadays with the explosion of social media I think there is a movement from hard P4P to soft P4P.  So if a ladyboy is not enjoying and not making money at a bar, she can try "dating".  So a second tipping point of sorts for a dis-satisfied  bargirl is when she thinks she thinks soft P4P perhaps combined with a regular job is her way to financial security.

[pdogg]

 For those not blessed with beauty or a big cock their prospects are poor.

 

Great line Paccers!   

[SiamSam]

I wish I had that option to explore for financial security. Alas those day are gone and probably never existed. 

[bumblebee]

I hadn't heard that expression soft P4P before PD but it makes sense.  I guess this includes the numerous LBs who work in internet cafes and spend most of their day on FB etc, grooming guys who may be coming to visit.  They are probably looking for a lasting relationship but at the same time are not adverse to some cash for a few day's company.

[pdogg]

I never heard the phrase "soft P4P" before either. not sure what the best name for it would be;just made it up.