Toronto 'body rubber' advocates new laws for sale of sex
Guidelines should protect sex workers, says Onyx Ronin

Yorkregion.com
By Jeremy Grimaldi
Feb. 16, 2017

Onyx Ronin lives in the shadows when she's at work. She and countless women like her occupy the grey areas of law, somewhere between legitimacy and criminality. Society at large might prefer to forget her profession exists, rather than admit it's not only real, but a flourishing industry.

She's a "body rubber," as defined by the laws that govern her career. She has never been arrested and says she sees police “maybe once a year.”

People might think Ronin, her working name, and her peers destroy families and corrupt men. But she sees her job in a different light and believes you should, too.

"I feel that I relieve a lot of road rage," she said during a recent interview. "People are stressed in this world; when they're on the table, they are happy and relaxed. When I'm touching someone, I feel relaxed and comfortable and I'm sharing an experience with someone.

“It's about selling intimacy, the human touch, to feel connected to someone else.”

The 28-year-old employee of the female-owned MUSE Spa, which has locations in Vaughan and Toronto, is open about her work. She says “there's nothing wrong with having sex for money," although that's not what she does.

"People do all sorts of things for money," she says. "I don't understand why we are so stuck on this idea that sexuality can't be commodified in this one particular way when people accept it being commodified in so many other ways."

At the spa, she gives "full body erotic massages" largely to men aged 40 to 50. She says MUSE targets men at a higher price point, suggesting her clients are rarely, if ever, intoxicated, and very "respectful." But she says she can’t speak generally about her profession: "As for other girls, I don't know."

Ronin studied classical music at the University of Toronto, before studying sex work as part of her master’s degree at York University. After graduation, she worked retail jobs. She entered the industry at 25 and immediately saw an extraordinary jump in pay, she says, explaining she now makes between $80 and $300 an hour.

According to MUSE's website, 30 minutes with an attendant costs $120, $40 for a "door fee" and $80 of which goes to the attendant.

Ronin decided to share her story and opinions after MUSE's Vaughan location was robbed on Dec. 28, 2016. At the time, York Regional Police Det. Sgt. Dave Noseworthy said many massage parlours don't report robberies because neither employers nor employees want publicity. That, says Ronin, shows the law, in its current form, doesn't properly protect workers in the sex trade.

"I would like to see lawmakers looking through the lens that there's nothing morally wrong with providing sexual services for money," she said. "I would like them to ask, 'How can we help people work without shame and afford them the same rights that everyone else is protected by law?'"

The current law, a complicated set of guidelines, criminalizes the buying of sex and the advertising of “sexual services”, York police Det. Sgt. Thai Truong explained.

Ian McLeod, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, says any person who purchases sexual services, including manual masturbation, in any place, including a massage parlour, commits an offence. McLeod added that the Minister of Justice has committed to monitoring the impacts of Bill C-36, which regulates prostitution.

Ronin, like others in her trade, needs a municipality-issued licence that has her name, photograph and home address to work as a “body rubber.” She must also pass a communicable disease test.

She suggests the federal government needs to draft new measures to ensure women and girls are not being forced into the profession and exploited. She envisions a society where all sex workers are in constant contact with the authorities, which would improve the chances of helping those that don't want to be there.

“It should be legal and protected, just like every other job,” she said.

Ronin says her job doesn’t suit everyone and businesses see a high turnover, but she insists that her experience has been positive.

“As much as this job is not for everyone, it is for me,” she said. “I’m a normal person, I am a happy person. I am choosing to do this.”

Bill C-36

Bill C-36 was ushered in under the Tories in 2014 and considers the selling of sex as legal, but makes the buying of "sexual services" a criminal offence. It also makes it illegal for anyone to communicate for the purpose of prostitution and bans advertising the sexual services of others.