Life For Rent

Tugging hard at the bottom-hugging short skirts of tart life Magalluf-style (27 August, "Pros and Cons") has come the police bust of a male-prostitution network in Palma. "The Boys From Brazil" was a documentary about Brazilian rent boys, produced by Trudie Styler, Mrs Sting. The latest generation has found its way to Mallorca, seduced by offers of work, only to discover that it wasn't quite what the brochure said.

Gay or straight, prostitution is flourishing. "The Guardian" yesterday ran a feature on the growth of sex for sale. It was in light of Potato Head's latest playing of an away fixture, but it dealt not just with Premier League footballers. There was, though, a footballing analogy. Free internet porn has created an appetite. "Like watching Match of the Day, and then being inspired to go out and play football, and try out something you've seen."

By coincidence, the day before there had been an interview in "The Diario" with a member of a group which studies prostitution in the Balearics. He was an organiser of a congress at the university in Palma which went under the seemingly alarming title of "good practices in prostitution". Chiming perhaps with what "The Guardian" discovered, he believes that attitudes towards prostitution among young adults (males) have not become more rejective; the opposite appears to be the case.

The Spanish Government has talked of banning sex advertising in newspapers, but it may well be shooting at the wrong target. The internet fuels much of the sex industry, be it in the UK or in Spain or Mallorca. And then you have the clubs.

Prostitution is not illegal, but nor is it sanctioned. The situation is a not untypical Spanish legal muddle. What is illegal, supposedly, is pimping or the existence of brothels. It is this that has caught the rent boys' controllers out, as it has been used to net others charged with exploitation. Yet there is a tolerance, allied to the grey area of the lap dancing or show girls' clubs. Everyone knows what their real purpose is, but they exist all the same. One of the clubs in Alcúdia has a large billboard by the horse roundabout. It's just up the road.

The tolerance is starting to erode, however. Recently, the police raided a well-known "establishment" on an industrial estate in Palma (see, these industrial estates have all sorts of entertainment, as I've mentioned previously). Whether this is a precursor to a more rigorous police approach elsewhere remains to be seen. But some might argue that to get tough with the clubs would be bad for business - tourism business; I once wrote here about the staggering level of sex tourism that Mallorca is meant to attract.

This can all be overplayed, though. While the clubs may hint at seediness, they don't have a negative impact on tourism in places like Alcúdia. They're not rammed down your throat, so to speak, despite the billboards. But the tourism angle isn't really the point. To talk of greater social acceptance of prostitution is probably wrong. The lessening of stigma is more accurate; in the UK at any rate. In Mallorca it is rather different. There hasn't been the same stigma associated with going to a girls' club, a situation that shows little sign of changing.

QUIZ -
"Life For Rent". Who?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.