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The Client List
Are all of you aware of the sexualization of massage therapy being promoted by Lifetime Network's "The Client List" which will air beginning in April? In this show, a beautiful young woman becomes an LMT who begins to offer "happy endings" to outcall clients. Just what our profession needs,right?
I urge everyone to sign this petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/clip-the-client-list-stop-the-degr...
Views: 850
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on
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I saw the billboard advertisement and I disagree that she is beautiful. Rather unattractive in my opinion. It is TV, they have stewardesses, sexy nurses, business moguls hopping from bed to bed. It is what they do to get viewers if they can't find good writers. Why should they ignore our profession. I am much to busy doing therapeutic massage to worry about what the entertainment industry is doing.
We need to concentrate on therapy. In America it is fact that there are few things most adults do naked that is unrelated to sex. It is sad but true and complaining about a sexual TV series won't change things. "Happy Endings" are a fact and complaining probably won't stop it as business. Should we stop massage being used between lovers during sex? From what I hear from people they see no connection with what I do. But they think the fuss seen on FB from MTs is much to do about nothing and just ruffled professional feathers.
Be the image you want to be seen as and it will be.
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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I don't understand your opposition. Adding your name to a petition with a click of a mouse is not parading down Main Street. But to each, his/her own.
I don't know about your part of the country, Daniel. But within ten miles of my home there are three businesses topped with a huge neon sign: Massage; Massage Parlour; Oriental Massage. One calls their moneymaker The Special, at another it's called outright The Happy Ending.
I intend to pursue referrals from doctors and chiropractors and PTs and the little lady down the street. How many are we likely to get if the doctor has to explain to his patient, "No, not one of those--I'm sending you to a real massage therapist!"
I don't give a blankety who sells what part of their body to another consenting adult. I do object to the denigration of therapeutic massage by cathouses, legal or otherwise. "Masseuse & masseur" and "massage" have been made an insult. In a promo I saw for this show, the "rather unattractive in [your] opinion" Jennifer is proclaimed to be an LMT who falls into sex trade to feed her starving child, the poor dear.
This absolutely is harmful to our entire profession.
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Gary, I totally understand the reaction this is causing. But Daniel really makes some good points in his post. From my perspective everything on Lifetime is trash. They call it "Television for Women" (at least they used to) but it's certainly not TV for me!
My clients see me as someone who solves pain issues for them. I had the usual jokes about happy endings when I first got started but not for years now; my image as a problem-solver seems to leave no room for people to think of me that way.
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Gary, don't you think the Doctor, Chiropractor, and the lady down the street know where they should go? In my opinion showing concern about the show simply gets it more attention. It isn't worth it. I think ignoring them is more effective than making it look like there is something to worry about. I have been asked by both men and women for extras but I only see a problem with it if they don't take no for an answer. I have also seen respect for the profession grow. 12 years ago requests were more common. Today most people can tell the difference as soon as they open the door or even before. I have an open window on the entry room with the massage chair visible. 5 of the other 7 places on this block have the windows covered. I've only been told of 1 offering the extras.
A petition won't change the fact that there exists therapeutic massage and erotic massage.
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I do understand your viewpoint, Therese. And I am not advocating a gigantic nationwide movement here. I sign dozens of petitions every month; occasionally one actually achieves the intended result. Admittedly, this one won't.
A few decades ago, my kids adopted a stray dog, which chased a mama skunk and her babies into the underpinnings of our home. Took serious effort to get rid of the stink. Comparing the spray of a horny male tomcat to the gas attack of a frightened skunk is akin to comparing the soft pop of cap gun to a suitcase nuclear bomb. The raised eyebrow of an amateur comedian at a BBQ when you reveal your profession is easily ignored; a nationwide television series that announces as only television can that, "Hey, some of them do sell it!" is comparatively a nuclear explosion going off in the minds of small-town Americans every week.
Incidentally, in the time it took you to draft your response to me, you could have added your name to a dozen petitions, meaningless as this one might be.
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Permalink Reply by elizabeth mount on
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just cause we know it's trash doen't mean the average veiwer does. This does hurt our profession. Think of all the people who have never had a massage. This will go into their minds and get mixed into what they think they know about massage.
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Permalink Reply by Relax & Rejuvenate on
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Would people be less offended if she did not provide happy endings but did the massages undraped and with the MT naked?
I seem to recall a thread here over the summer with practitioiners defending undraped massages.
Until MTs can agree on their own code of conduct, you can't fault the media for taking it and running with it.
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Now, doing certain things such as spa treatments, draping is minimal--as little as a towel covering the essentials.
MT conducted in a nudist colony? even there wouldn't regulations require genitalia covering? There's a vast difference between sensual and sexual; anyone experiencing either has no trouble telling you which he/she is receiving.
And, yes, hell, yes, we should fault the Media for sensationalizing lots of things. I sure as hell fault them for encouraging mommy to dress toddlers in full makeup and bikini and teaching them to wiggle like a stripper for a chance at a $20 trophy. Normal folk think oh how cute when watching one of those events. But borderline pedophiles are in the TV audience. If even one sicko is enticed to step over the line by a 4-year-old taught to be sexy, that is a very bad thing, in my opinion. I am a Liberal, anti censorship except when one's right to free speech or personal sexual perversions interferes with the rights of others, children and grown-up licensed, ethical massage therapists included
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It isn't about "offending." It is about creating impressions--but the woman MT in the series does in fact give massage naked to naked clients.
There is always some disagreement in every group larger than one person. But as an industry we are united under our long-established Code of Ethics ( a framed copy of which hangs above my massage table). Anything that tends to sexualize the practice of massage & bodywork in the minds of the majority of practitioners and their clients is clearly out of bounds.
Relax & Rejuvenate said:Would people be less offended if she did not provide happy endings but did the massages undraped and with the MT naked?
I seem to recall a thread here over the summer with practitioiners defending undraped massages.
Until MTs can agree on their own code of conduct, you can't fault the media for taking it and running with it.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Well that TV show is not going to help our profession, thats for sure. They ought to make a TV show about these mill chiropractors that see 80 to a hundred people a day...Thats considered 1st tier care? And we are portrayed as sex industry workers on TV? And our text books tell us to run to the medical doctors if we think we might have carpal tunnel? When massage can pretty much eliminate carpal tunnel to begin with?? Whatever...lol Thats why national certification doesn't mean poop to me. When I meet a new massage therapist and they ask me for advice.. The first thing I tell them is to forget everything they think they know about massage...Or you just perpetuate this entire dysfunctional system.
Gary W Addis said:It isn't about "offending." It is about creating impressions--but the woman MT in the series does in fact give massage naked to naked clients.
There is always some disagreement in every group larger than one person. But as an industry we are united under our long-established Code of Ethics ( a framed copy of which hangs above my massage table). Anything that tends to sexualize the practice of massage & bodywork in the minds of the majority of practitioners and their clients is clearly out of bounds.
Relax & Rejuvenate said:Would people be less offended if she did not provide happy endings but did the massages undraped and with the MT naked?
I seem to recall a thread here over the summer with practitioiners defending undraped massages.
Until MTs can agree on their own code of conduct, you can't fault the media for taking it and running with it.
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Gary W Addis said:Now, doing certain things such as spa treatments, draping is minimal--as little as a towel covering the essentials. Which is why most spas -- ours included utilize same gender pairings for body wraps and scrubs. Don't forget, most states don't regulate body wraps and scrubs via the MT licensing, so it really is not a relevant discussion.
MT conducted in a nudist colony? even there wouldn't regulations require genitalia covering? They would.
There's a vast difference between sensual and sexual; anyone experiencing either has no trouble telling you which he/she is receiving. But there is an even more vast difference in one person's version of Sensual vs. Sexual and another's, therefore impossible to determine which is which other than to regulate to one extreme.
And, yes, hell, yes, we should fault the Media for sensationalizing lots of things. I sure as hell fault them for encouraging mommy to dress toddlers in full makeup and bikini and teaching them to wiggle like a stripper for a chance at a $20 trophy. Mommys were doing this long before the TV series.
Normal folk think oh how cute when watching one of those events. But borderline pedophiles are in the TV audience. So you want to regulate what is on TV or better yet, who gets to watch it?
If even one sicko is enticed to step over the line by a 4-year-old taught to be sexy, that is a very bad thing, in my opinion. I am a Liberal, anti censorship except when one's right to free speech or personal sexual perversions interferes with the rights of others, children and grown-up licensed, ethical massage therapists included You are certainly a liberal, and hardly anti-censorship from what I can gather. LIke most liberals, your outrage is selective and NIMBY based...
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I don't know and don't much care what the rules are in other states, but MS reg states plainly that draping must be used to cover all genitalia-- nothing about the size of the draping, merely that it must be big enough to cover boy stuff and girl stuff. Breasts may be worked undraped but only with express written permission of the client. Goes on to add that only the bodypart being worked is to be undraped and only while being worked. And in practice here, males work on women clients and women work on men.
There have been child beauty pageants for a very long time. My daughter was entered into one, back in the '70s. I assure you that then, the children were not sexualized--the children were dressed like children, in frilly Easter dressy kind of clothing. The presence of TV cameras changes people--more people attend sporting events when camera will be present, people will go out of their way on the off chance they might appear on TV, if even just one face among 70,000. So, I absolutely do avow that televising kid beauty contests was a very bad thing for the kids, that it led to mommy teaching baby girl to wiggle butt and lick lips suggestively. Do YOU think that is a good thing?
You wish to personalize this, transmogrify it into a political argument? Bring it on. Liberal facts will always trump your RW opinions. I don't give a diddly squat what you or anyone else does in the privacy of their home. I don't think live sex acts should be shown on prime time TV, no. Children are introduced to sex early enough in their neighborhoods and in their reborn-Christian homes. What is this NIMBY you yelled at me? Explain it, please-- never mind-- you obviously intended it to be an insult
Tell you what, R&R, how about I send you my email address, or direct you to a political blog where you and I can fight this out without annoying others?
Relax & Rejuvenate said:
Gary W Addis said:Now, doing certain things such as spa treatments, draping is minimal--as little as a towel covering the essentials. Which is why most spas -- ours included utilize same gender pairings for body wraps and scrubs. Don't forget, most states don't regulate body wraps and scrubs via the MT licensing, so it really is not a relevant discussion.
MT conducted in a nudist colony? even there wouldn't regulations require genitalia covering? They would.
There's a vast difference between sensual and sexual; anyone experiencing either has no trouble telling you which he/she is receiving. But there is an even more vast difference in one person's version of Sensual vs. Sexual and another's, therefore impossible to determine which is which other than to regulate to one extreme.
And, yes, hell, yes, we should fault the Media for sensationalizing lots of things. I sure as hell fault them for encouraging mommy to dress toddlers in full makeup and bikini and teaching them to wiggle like a stripper for a chance at a $20 trophy. Mommys were doing this long before the TV series.
Normal folk think oh how cute when watching one of those events. But borderline pedophiles are in the TV audience. So you want to regulate what is on TV or better yet, who gets to watch it?
If even one sicko is enticed to step over the line by a 4-year-old taught to be sexy, that is a very bad thing, in my opinion. I am a Liberal, anti censorship except when one's right to free speech or personal sexual perversions interferes with the rights of others, children and grown-up licensed, ethical massage therapists included You are certainly a liberal, and hardly anti-censorship from what I can gather. LIke most liberals, your outrage is selective and NIMBY based...
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