The Client List is a new TV series on Lifetime that is based on a true story that did actually occur in Odessa TX in 2004. The story is about a massage therapist who is a wife and mom to 3 kids who is about to have her house foreclosed. In 2010 there was a full movie of the same name also presented on Lifetime. I just watched the movie and have to say there is no reason for alarm for the massage profession. There are many petitions and letters being written. The AMTA and ABMP have written letters to the network. Where were they when the movie came out in 2010?
I just actually watched the movie and am not sure what the whole issue is. In the movie, the struggling wife and massage therapist needs to take care of her family so they don’t lose their house. She initially walks away from the job when she realizes what she was hired to do but the large amounts of money make it to appealing. She continues to struggle with it saying that she will quit soon and she is doing it just to get out of the predicament she is in. She becomes the top girl at the Healing Touch Massage Place because she is attentive to clients in a way that their wives are not. She eventually goes too far and adds drugs to the story trying to balance the busy work and family life. One of the girls that work with her eventually turns the place in and -this is the most important part -She gets arrested!!!!! To reduce her sentence she is asked for the list of clients and she willingly shares it. She realizes her mistakes and wants to save her marriage, family and life. I guess we don’t know for sure how they will continue on with the TV series and they are using more sex scenes to promote it.
Massage Therapists seem to be up in arms about this all because they think it is portraying massage in a bad way. There was no legitimate massage happening in the place. When did it become such big news that massage is often used as a front for prostitution? No one is confused about legit massage and prostitution and the movie makes it clear that it is a place of prostitution and not real massage.
What I find most striking is the reaction by the many massage therapists about this series. I guess I am not sure how far the series will take it, but if it follows the movie -SHE GOT ARRESTED! That is a big support for the massage profession! Many massage therapists think it will make more people request happy endings or make more people think that they are doing something illegal. If TV shows and movies really did that then there would not be any TV shows allowed. I just watched the movie “Safe House” where the whole CIA was made out to be crooked except for a Denzel Washington of course. Were all of the CIA agents complaining? Maybe that’s a bad example. What about every TV show that bashes lawyers, doctors and housewives?
I think the real issue lies deeper than just this movie/TV series. Will a movie/TV show take clients away from us or not allow us to get the clients that we need to be successful? Will more clients come in wanting something extra after seeing the show? I used to get upset about things like this too until I realized that the answer isn’t fighting others about what they have said or done as in The View fiasco a few years ago (or when was that??). It is a deeper manifestation of our fears as massage therapists. It shows the clear lack of a defined profession that we are all working towards. It shows we have a lot of work to do in keeping our image separate from that of those happy ending places. But what will that really take?
While ABMP and AMTA jumped up to write letters, what are they doing to focus on a solution to the problem? What are we as a profession doing to help create a different image for ourselves? Can we really separate massage from being used as a front for prostitution?
The petitions are still going but I have to say I don’t really think that just a few thousand signatures or even if we got every MT to sign it (about 300,000 people) that it would make a difference for a TV network.
The many complaints are really cries for what we do want. We want to be seen as a legitimate profession that can help reduce pain, stress and heal the pain of grief, depression and the many parts of our lives that they influence. We want to be seen as professionals and we want to be a respected part of healthcare and respected in the spa/relaxation massage world.
What we do need is more education and programs like the AMTA WA Real Massage Campaign. What we need are more TV shows and movies that show what massage really does. What we need is more national ad campaigns that also show it. What we need is for every massage therapist to get involved in writing about it on their websites and their marketing materials. We need more programs like www.defendingourgoodname.com where a local massage therapist Lavon Watson (ex-cop) has started educating Massage therapists about what is going on and what can be done to stop illegal massage parlors and those questionable foot massage businesses.
Petitions at:
www.changeorg – as of this writing 1043 signatures
www.thepetitionsite.com – 3284 signatures at this time
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The Real List from mywesttexas.com
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If it was truly about just her story and what happened, then I would be with you. But take a look at the promos for the show…..that is where it seems they are taking it to sensationalize more than the movie. As we know, sex sells…….and they are selling their hearts out.
And why didn’t we jump on the movie? Frankly, you hope that this stuff just dissolves on it’s own at times. But when you see them continuing it…..and making it even sleazier from the looks of what they are presenting themselves….that’s when I feel we need to step in and have our voices heard.
I am disappointed that our leaders in the industry don’t get out in front of this issue; every LMT who says I am fine, I just have great boundaries etc. and don’t need to worry is just playing dead. The fact is that many states are deregulating massage or conversely zoning us back to the dark ages due to the repeated association of massage with sex trafficking. This in effect raises costs of doing business in some cities where the establishment permits are outrageous, due to local costs of enforcement. Rather than it be a “teachable” moment, we need to get political and protest the continued willingness of national organizations to make nice while they just take our money while not going after this stuff legally. My costs are high enough.
IF (given the proclivity for sensationalism with TV I believe that is a BIG IF) the “Client List” actually included any reference to the fact that the main character got arrested for her NON-massage illegal behavior, then I would not mind. I am willing to change my opinion based on actually seeing the show. However, the promo being run leads me to believe this show will cast our profession in a bad light and expose therapists to more solicitations from unseemly characters.
In a promotional video for the program, star Jennifer Love Hewitt is shown surrounded by men wearing towels around their waists and then dropping their towels; later Love Hewitt says in describing the series, “hot girls in lingerie is always a good starter [and] the men always leave happy.”
What message are they promoting? It certainly does NOT sound like this is illegal; real massage therapists don’t offer sex.
Massage need not be synonymous with prostitution. Penalties should be enforced for all establishments that use the word massage in any of their advertisements including signage, if they are not exclusively employing state licensed massage therapists. Credentials for all therapists practicing at the establishment should be requried to be up to date and kept on full display for clients. Penalties should include loss of all property associated with the buisness including real estate, forfiture of all licenses to operate the establishment and fines in excess of $100,000 for the first offense. If you’re a prostitute you’re not a licensed Therapeutic Massage Practitioner. Make it illegal to use the word massage. Again, it is not necessary to perpetuate a base and juvenile characterization of massage. Even the word adult carries a sexual connotation. Americans need to be made to examine their attitudes with regard to intimacy and this series doesn’t help with it’s endevour to tittilate the public.