r/melbourne • u/VelcroGenitals • 1d ago

Not On My Smashed Avo Massage Parlours are everywhere.

How the hell are there so many massage parlours in Melbourne and greater Melbourne? They're everywhere. Are most people getting massages regularly and I'm the odd one out? On multiple strips of shops near me in the eastern suburbs there are two different competing massage shops. All within a 5km radius of each other, and several other massage shops at larger shopping centres. I'm just so curious how this massive industry survives. I don't think I've seen people actually go into half of them before, half only look open ⅓ of the time. It's just an element of Melbourne I've never given any thought and don't really know anyone that gets them or works at them to ask.

Edit: Are people actually taking the piss or are we genuinely saying stone faced that there are several brothels essentially every few Km in the suburbs? That seems crazy to me. Also why the hell aren't Johns just actually going to proper brothels?! Going to deregulated shifty ones doesn't just sound dubious as fuck, it seems genuinely dangerous. And if it's such an open secret that they're all shady rub and tug joints, why TF aren't we closing them down. That's so wildly irresponsible of the govt/police to let the biggest human trafficking industry on earth just run rampant.

Edit 2: The username is a reference to how easy being gender fluid would be for a muppet. Just because my username has genitals in it, doesn't make me an expert on Melbourne prostitution rings. I appreciate the almost irony, but it's just a coincidence.

Edit 3: Why is everyone insisting I'm a bloke?

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u/OIP 22h ago

how many people are consistently getting that done

this part has definitely fascinated me. would love some analysis on it but my hunch is that it's a small percentage of the population really propping it up. i hope so anyway, the idea that >10% of dudes are getting questionably legal hand jobs on the regular is pretty grim

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u/dodgystyle 20h ago

1 in 6 Australians have seen a sex worker, according to a recent survey. But yes, most of them aren't going all the time. But you'd be surpised how many ordinary everyday people see sex workers.

I'm a sex worker and I get everyone from 20yo uni students, tradies, dads, office workers, retirees, couples, religious people, bikies, hospitality workers, CEOs, athletes.

All ages, nationalities, backgrounds, income brackets. It no longer surprises me but it would surprise people who don't participate, or don't have friendship groups where they're open about this stuff.

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u/OIP 19h ago

interesting thanks for the insight. 1 in 6 is kinda bonkers if true. amount of times someone has told me they have visited a sex worker is extremely minimal, i can think of twice in my entire life and i'm not a young guy.

that list has got me picturing a pretty entertaining doctor's office style waiting room

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u/buckleyschance 17h ago

I couldn't find a recent study, everyone seems to refer back to this 2003 survey: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1326020023031023

Which does say 1 in 6 men had ever paid for sex, and 2% had done so in the past year. Only 0.1% of women ever had; there's some recent news reporting that says that's increased significantly, but not by how much.

As the person above said, the percentage is pretty stable across income brackets, blue collar / white collar / managerial, education levels, etc. It's a little higher in the lower end of each of those, but not dramatically.