Sex For Rent – Is it Morally Acceptable?

It is one of the big stories going on in the UK today. No, not Brexit (anyone else bored shitless over that one?) We are in fact talking about ‘Sex For Rent’.

Cropped image of man's hand holding a condom, sexy woman is lying on bed in the background

This as you know is where landlords offer rent-free housing under the proviso that the ‘tenant’ has sex with them. Needless to say, this has caused a great deal of controversy. Unsurprisingly, ‘The Sun’ have done a recent expose on the practice.

A Number of Adverts

Their research found that one landlord calling himself a “male City executive in his 50s” was offered a room for free in his “5* flat” in Canary Wharf that includes a gym, pool, sauna and jacuzzi.

But the catch was becoming his second “Kajira” – a female sex slave under the Gorean lifestyle, which comes from John Norman’s Chronicles of Counter-Earth book series.

He stated “Essential is someone who understands and is accepting of a Gorean lifestyle and will be happy being a second kajira. If you don’t know what that is, it is probable that this arrangement is not for you.

“If you Google it and you like it, then we’d love to hear from you.”

Another advert was was rather blunt, to put it lightly.

“Stay in my room for the night as long as you’re willing to suck/f**k. The details we will discuss beforehand.”

While one living in Hayes said: “Any females looking for a place to stay for a night or a week let me know I have a king size bed and it’s exchange for obey my rules”. Just so you know, that was how it was written.

Shocking yes, but it is the scale of the practice that shocked me. It seems that over half of spare room adverts on Craigslist are sex for rent.

Is This Acceptable?

We have to ask the question though; how big a deal is this? Is just an extension of sex work, where people use their body to get a commodity? Well, in short no, and I will tell you why.

Sex work should always be a matter of choice. There are many reasons why people become sex workers, and desperation should never be on that list. It is sadly, but not nearly as much as the press would have you believe.

If people are looking for a roof over their head for the night then this is because they are panicking for somewhere to stay which isn’t a cardboard box. Anyone who offers them a room for sex is therefore just exploiting their vulnerability. There is nothing more repulsive than that.

From a personal viewpoint, I would be happy to see this kind of advert made illegal. If anyone uses their body to make money that should be from a position of strength, or at least choice. And that choice shouldn’t be ‘have sex v freezing on the streets’.

Hopefully with all these expose’s this practice will die out on its own. There are plenty of things that as a society can do to help the homelessness crisis; rent caps, new social housing. We should never get to the stage where those without morals can take advantage of people’s desperation.

Rant over.

Martin Ward
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