This job is very convenient for me,” she says.
She says she does not sleep with every customer, but mainly has sex with those who regularly visit her parlor and spend a lot of money for drinks—she has freedom of choice, a better situation than that of many other sex workers.
“There are various types of customers coming to the massage parlor,” Sophie says. “I don’t need to sleep with everyone. Some people just come for massage, touch me here and there, give me some pocket money and then leave. If I have a frog [slang for a rich man] of my own, it will be very convenient for me and the parlor. If someone can hook a few frogs, she won’t be very tired.”
Sophie’s story is representative of many girls who work in Rangoon massage parlors. Most of the parlors want girls like her who come from other areas of Burma, because once they take the job they normally do not leave for other occupations.
“The reason why such parlors have more and more girls from other areas is because when they first arrived in Rangoon they took jobs at tailors and other places, but their salary couldn’t cover their living expenses. So while looking for alternatives, some ended up being in massage parlors and KTVs [Karaoke television brothels], while some others became full-time sex workers on the streets. The main issue is survival,” says the manager of a massage parlor.
He says the life of the girls working in massage parlors is much more secure than those on the streets.
“If they are on the streets, no one will protect them. But if they are in the parlors, we have to take care of them when they don’t get along with customers or have some sort of problem. If a customer is drunk and not well-behaved, waiters will drag him out.”
However, he says that the massage parlor girls have to work about 18 hours a day, so they don’t have much time to sleep. They earn 10,000 kyat [US $13] salary and at least 500 kyat [US $0.6] for a one hour massage session. They will also get pocket money from their customers.
“If a customer and a girl agree to have sex, both the parlor and the girl will earn money,” he says. “In any case, a girl can make at least 250,000 kyat [US $325] per month, excluding expenses for living.”
During the run-up to Burma’s general election in November 2010, all massage parlors in Rangoon Division were told to shut down by the police. Then after the new government was sworn in at the end of March, the parlors once again had to close for several months as the regional government cracked down on them.
Sophie says that some girls continued to work at massage parlors that risked staying open, but many parlors were raided and three of her friends were arrested and charged with prostitution. When her parlor was forced to shut down, she instead contacted her regular customers and slept with them outside the brothel.
“Whenever there was an operation we had to stop working for months, so I had to call my regular customers and ask for help. But those girls who couldn’t reach their customers had to go out on the streets. They didn’t have any choice. Some even had to go to wherever they were taken in order to make money to buy food,” she says.