Talk:Massage parlor

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offtopic

The article is about massages yet all three paragraphs in the lede speak about prostituion. I say the lede needs a majoe overhaul/rework.Pass a Method talk 00:34, 16 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I understand what you're trying to say, and there was apparently some talk back in 2008 (above) about splitting/merging this article with the Erotic massage, which is a page that I haven't reviewed extensively yet. However, it's been my experience in the USA & Canada that massage parlors are mostly fronts for prostitution. If one wants to know what happens at a real establishment that gives massages, then one can go to the Wiki-link for Massage, which is in the first sentence of the current article here.

In other news, I'm giving fair warning here that I plan on setting up an automated archive of this talk page soon.

Any other comments are welcome. Guy1890 (talk) 02:29, 16 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I tend to agree with Pass a Method here, though I would go slightly further and say that not only the Lead section, but the body as well needs work. Most of the material in this article probably belongs under Erotic massage, and the rest should either redirect to, expand on, or duplicate the material at Massage#Venues. Re: "it's been my experience in the USA & Canada that massage parlors are mostly fronts for prostitution", my experience has been the exact opposite: all the massage parlors I've ever visited have been, well, massage parlors, for lack of a better word. I'm not sure what else to call it. ~Adjwilley (talk) 02:40, 16 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The legal situation - brothels are illegal in the UK and all but parts of Nevada in the USA - means that if you go to a brothel calling itself a 'massage parlour' and don't ask or otherwise make it clear that you are looking for sexual services, a non-sexual massage is what you will get (and the provider will be miffed that they're missing out on the money they make from doing the sexual stuff). Lovingboth (talk) 19:12, 18 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Again, in the USA & Canada (especially in RI, which recently changed its laws again on indoor prostitution), getting sexual services at a massage parlor is not that uncommon. Does it happen at every massage parlor establishment? Of course not. Guy1890 (talk) 20:25, 18 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at online dictionary definitions, and Google results for "massage parlor", it's pretty clear that the terms has sexual connotations. Massage providers who do not offer sexual services aren't going to associate themselves with the term. A pharmacist could be described as a "drug dealer", but no pharmacist is going to use that term due to it's illicit connotations. Sexual massage parlors (and their role in human trafficking) are a notable topic. I don't think the place of business for non-sexual massage providers is notable enough to be covered outside of the massage article. If an article on the legitimate businesses is needed, massage clinic is available as a title (and spa already covers another setting where non-sexual massages are provided). Plantdrew (talk) 01:26, 18 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Happy Ending

"it's generally understood that "massage parlors" may offer sexual massages. This article is not the place for content about the place of business for massage providers who do not provide sexual massages".

A massage parlor can be both sexual and non-sexual, legal and illegal. The article already covers the sexual aspects so i dont see why nonsexual aspects should be deleted. Even when it is sexual, it is usually in teh form of a happy ending rather than full on sex. Hence as a compromise i will add that aspect to the lead. Pass a Method talk 21:22, 25 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"it is usually in teh form of a happy ending rather than full on sex." Got a source for that kind of statement? Look, I was very surprised to see someone recently try & remove what has been some pretty obvious attempts to "sanitize" (for lack of better term) this article by removing large portions of the sexual side of things when it comes to massage parlors, which are pretty obviously sexual services-only establishments as opposed to an actual day spa, but this article here (as is) is almost worthless in describing what actually goes on in these kind of establishments. It's a pretty sad display of POV-pushing IMHO. Edit-warring over it isn't a solution. Guy1890 (talk) 02:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting ALL of the sexual content and replacing it with a sentence about happy endings is not a compromise. Again, technically a massage parlor could be sexual or non-sexual, just as a pharmacist is technically a "drug dealer". In actual usage, no pharmacist is going to call themselves a drug dealer , and a business offering non-sexual, legal massages is not going to call themselves a "massage parlour" due to strong sexual conotations for that term. Pass a Method added this reference to the article: ([1]). The only place the term "massage parlour" appears in that book is in the context of the segment of the sex industry regulated by New Zealand's Massage Parlours Act 1978.

I'm not convinced that people often consider the term "massage parlour" to apply businesses offering non-sexual massages. If there is indeed frequent confusion as to whether or not massage parlours offer sexual services, then massage parlour should serve as a disambiguation page, pointing to an article on the sexual establishments and a separate article on non-sexual establishments. Trying to treat both businesses in the same article is inappropriate, as is converting this article from one entirely about the sexual establishments into one covering the non-sexual establishments.

I'm reverting back to the version discussing sexual establishments. Making this article into a dab instead might be appropriate. I'm going to bring it up at Talk:Massage to see if anybody there actually thinks massage parlours are non-sexual. Plantdrew (talk) 02:36, 3 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This time i only made additions. And i'm not sure why you're opposed to covering both topics on the same article. As an analogy, there are thriller movies where almost half the scenes deal with nudity/sex. That doesn't mean we should recatogorize the thriller movie as a porno-only should we? Pass a Method talk 17:31, 15 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]