Marianne Fictitious became a massage therapist and enthusiastically began practicing massage. She hadn't worked at the Spa very long when her wrist began to ache. It was time to move the practice home. She would charge the same, and make twice as much on her own.
She didn't have enough "regulars "to support her yet. It would be unethical for her to take clients with her when she left, because the Spa invested the advertising money to bring them in. She would have to start over, and develop her own customer base.
After placing ads in several places Marianne's phone began to ring. Much to her surprise, most of the calls were from men. They were asking strange questions that surprised her.
"Do you do full body massage?" they said.
"Of course, is there any other kind?" she replied.
"Do you require draping?"
The word "require" confused her. The massage school taught her it was unethical NOT to drape. But she was losing 3-4 customers every day because people didn't want to be draped. She began to wonder about the ethics of instilling shame in massage therapists for honoring client preferences.
There was an unusual tone in some of the callers voices that made her uncomfortable. It quickly became apparent that some of them just wanted to talk to her on the phone. They were not interested in making an appointment. The hunger and need they conveyed was disturbing. The impoverished state of the human condition made her sad and angry.
Marianne quickly realized she would have to get a job doing something else in order to make ends meet, or start massaging people who didn't want to be draped. She chose the latter. At first she wasn't sure if it was the worst, or the best decision of her life.
To be continued....
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