The performance in front of the suitors lasts one minute. Then the stilettos of the high heels move away in all directions. A woman with dark brown hair enters the brothel lobby and carefully closes the door behind her. She adjusts the white thong, sighs: “I was not elected.”
“A bad day is when no suitors come. Or they don’t want you – or they are brutal to you, »says Gloria (25), sex worker at Eden, a brothel in Schlieren ZH. The bad days have been increasing since Corona. “My work is harder than it used to be,” she says.
Countess Viola is waiting for guests in the attic of the blue house in Reppischhof ZH. The studio would be ready: the whips hung up, sex toys in a glass cabinet, no dust. The dominatrix used to have two to three men a day. Now there are so many a week.
Customers want to “get rid of frustration”
The sex business has become more difficult because dominatrix and prostitutes agree. The brothels in the canton of Zurich have been closed for ten months since the beginning of the pandemic. They were allowed to reopen in June and now notice: The industry is no longer the same.
Gloria has only been back in Switzerland for a few weeks. She spent the second lockdown with her family in Romania, worked as a waiter in a restaurant, and just made ends meet. Her relatives think she works as a cleaning lady here.
“I notice that the suitors are more stressed,” she says. “You come to me to get rid of your frustration.” More men are arrogant, they treat them from above. “Some people tear my hair or ask for something that I don’t offer.”
More men want without a condom
Since the pandemic, more men would ask for sex without a condom. The clientele is drifting into two extremes: Some men no longer come because they are afraid of the corona virus. And others don’t worry about anything anymore.
Gloria doesn’t want to be vaccinated. She fears the long-term effects. She has to test herself every few days, like all sex workers at Eden. The women are not afraid of the virus. “None of my friends has been infected at work,” says colleague Lia (35). “Not even in other brothels.”
Lia has been doing business in Zurich and St. Gallen for six years. She has never seen many of her regular guests since the outbreak of the corona virus. A few weeks ago a suitor came by for the first time. “He used to almost devour me and wanted oral sex without a condom,” says Lia. “Now he’s completely changed, doesn’t want kisses and only sex from behind.”
Every second customer does not show up
In the Hades studio, where Countess Viola is the manager, one room has been set up as a hospital room. “My clinic” is what the dominatrix calls it. This afternoon she wears a skin-tight nurse outfit, her lips bright red.
Viola is vaccinated twice. She welcomes her guests with a transparent face mask. You need to provide the contact details. No vaccination certificate or tests are required by sex establishment authorities. Viola doesn’t understand: “Why do we have different rules than those for parties in the club?”
Her everyday life has become more bureaucratic, says the Countess. “Now I have to deal more with administration than with the wishes of my guests.” Many men write to the dominatrix, but then do not show up for the appointment. Around half of the guests are now doing this – before the pandemic, it was a maximum of one in ten. “You text me on Whatsapp or send me inappropriate photos,” says Viola. “That is not how it works!”
Domina is plagued by financial fears
The dominatrix’s clientele often includes young men under 30. They usually have responsibilities at work. “You come to me to let go and give up control,” says Viola. But because of Corona, many of these potential guests work in the home office and cannot leave.
This has serious consequences for the countess. She had to pay rent for the studio for the entire lockdown, received no compensation. She is plagued by financial fears: “I had to tighten my belt. And holidays are definitely out of the question. ” She is not giving up, hoping that the industry will recover, that it will not have to close again because of Corona. “Then I don’t know what to do next.”