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Lunar newsletter: Sex work, dating apps and love in a pandemic
- Lunar is a weekly curated selection of news, interviews and features dedicated to celebrating women in Asia and sharing stories that matter
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Navigating the murky waters of sex, dating and relationships has never been easy, but it’s safe to say the current pandemic has made things much harder. It has also led to heightened risks for many already vulnerable women.
Cici, a mother of two young girls, has been a sex worker in Hong Kong for about four years. She is now struggling to make ends meet in one of the most expensive cities in the world. On top of dealing with lost income, quarantine and lockdown measures mean sex workers have limited access to clinics and support groups.
Some have found that clients are increasingly violent, while others have resorted to riskier ways of soliciting customers. Raquel Carvalho spoke to Cici and a number of advocates about the challenges sex workers are facing across Asia.
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In Tokyo, the government’s relatively lenient coronavirus measures mean oral sex bars and S&M clubs remain open with sometimes little more than cursory hygiene measures in place. Meanwhile, singles in the city say they are seeing a flurry of activity on dating apps, despite calls for the public to reduce human contact.
For those in long-term relationships, the pressure of enforced isolation has strained many to breaking point. Psychologist Huang Jing says the pandemic is putting a “magnifying glass” on relationships, bringing cracks into sharper focus.
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Others, however, have found the crisis has brought them closer together. Weiyu Qian spoke to four couples about how they were coping. One woman said that after spending two months with her boyfriend and his family, she had “never been more comforted and certain about the idea of marriage”.
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