'Escorts' or prostitution: "I make a conscious choice, I decide when, how and with whom I want to be"

Barcelona"I like what I do, it satisfies me", confesses Andrea with a smile. This 30-year-old Colombian calls herself a luxury "escort" or companion. Not everyone sees it that way: for a large part of society, Andrea is engaged in prostitution and the use of the term "escort" is just a euphemism. She has been living in Barcelona for five years. She works during the day in her apartment in the Eixample, very central, next to her sister. Both are dedicated to the same thing. They advertise on platforms like Escort Advisor and accept requests from clients they choose. "The day I don't want to work, no one forces me to", she says.

Despite the label attached to her profession, her life is not luxurious. In a normal month, she usually earns just over 2,000 euros, although she has occasionally managed to earn 4,000 euros in a couple of days dedicated exclusively to one man, accompanying him all day. Andrea started doing this when she lived in Colombia. At just 15 years old. "It all starts with a need", she admits. Without studies and without a clear future, that adolescent did it hidden from her family, until a cousin caught her and reported her to her parents. "They wanted to guide me down the right path, but they respect it", she adds, smiling.

Lucía is 33 years old and after a few years in Barcelona, she now resides in Madrid. She avoids "romanticizing" the work she does as an escort", but she passionately defends the difference between the two. "Prostitution carries a very strong historical and social burden, it is associated with exploitation, marginality, and lack of choice, but I do not identify with this narrative; I make a conscious choice, I decide when, how, and with whom I want to be", she argues. She has a well-rehearsed discourse. She has been doing it for years, and also reflecting on what it means to be a companion. She does not want to convince those who do not distinguish between prostitution and companionship, but she asks for respect for her choice and for people to move away from stigmas and prejudices. However, she is also aware that there are many girls who end up becoming escorts" out of obligation: "I don't want to minimize or deny the very harsh realities that exist within the sector".

"In our imagination, escorts" are a way of naming high-end sex work. Many people use this concept because it's a way to identify it without the stigma that prostitution carries," explains UAB professor Lorena Garrido. For her, everything revolves around "consent." Society is "bothered" by the debate about companions because "the exchange" happens "with acts" that have to do "with sex." But, for Garrido, there can be many professions where similar situations occur, in which consent is even less clear and exploitation is greater. Is a woman who accepts, due to her vulnerability and needs, a very precarious job, such as working in "domestic live-in service," consenting to the conditions offered to her? "I am not justifying prostitution. What needs to be worked on is whether there is consent or not in this sexual or sex-affective activity. There can be consent without desire," summarizes the professor.

However, the data is devastating. According to a survey of more than 10,000 people by the Sociological Research Center (CIS) in February, 7 out of 10 Spaniards consider prostitution to be a form of violence against women, and almost 80% believe that it endangers the dignity of people who are prostituted. This is why the escort sector insists on differentiating itself from prostitution.

Not everything is sex

"Adults can decide about their intimate life with complete freedom. I don't do it for money, I feel comfortable having these interactions," explains Lucía. Both she and Andrea emphasize that not all encounters end in sex. "I have friends who only pay me to go to dinner, they need me to listen to them. You end up creating a bond," explains the Colombian, who estimates interactions without a sexual component at 40% of her entire work. She has accompanied married men to buy lingerie for their wives, and has even had to tell "white lies" and play the role of an "actress." A client paid her to accompany him to a celebration at his home. "He introduced me to his mother and sister as if I were his partner," she recalls. "There are countries where people pay for friendship, to have a coffee and talk," points out Garrido.

However, most encounters have a sexual component. Andrea has had clients who wanted her to prepare them for their wedding night, and also female clients, women who came to her because they wanted to learn and start in the profession. This has led her to prioritize her professional life and, for the moment, rule out motherhood. She had a partner for three months, but he "couldn't stand it" and they each went their own way. Even some clients have proposed that she leave her job to be their partner, without needing to worry about money, but she has rejected it: "My obligations and those of my family belong only to me," she says. In fact, Andrea believes she no longer works solely out of necessity, as was the case at the beginning. "One always wants more, you become greedy," she admits with a smile. For her part, when Lucía has been in a stable relationship with a guy, she has set aside this type of "encounters" with clients because she believes they are not "compatible" things.

Regulation pending

Both women, but also the expert, believe that regulation is needed to allow them to work under conditions. It is not a minor issue. According to the Escort Advisor portal, during the first quarter of 2026, more than 9,200 women offered their services as escorts throughout Catalonia. For Garrido, in Spain there is an "abolitionist" stance in this field. The law of the "Only yes is yes, which was promoted by former minister Irene Montero, barely touched on the issue of prostitution, but it did ban advertising for exchanges of a sexual nature. And, of course, where there's a will, there's a way.

"People have found ways to make a living in other digital spaces. With prohibitions, you don't eradicate the activity, but rather make it more marginal," says the UAB professor, who believes that these women, since they cannot legally offer their services in Spain, may fall into a state of unprotectedness and greater vulnerability. In this way, the possibility arises for them to fall into exploitation networks that take advantage of them. "Invisibility and the criminalization of an activity generate more risk. They make it harder to report, for example, sexual assaults," concludes Garrido. A point of view reinforced by Lucía, who maintains that she does not work with "coercion, intermediaries, or obligations," but that working "in the shadows" makes it difficult to protect the workers.

"Arrive from outside and start practicing freely as a escort "it's not easy," admits the lawyer from the Municipal Unit against Human Trafficking (UTEH) of the Barcelona City Council, Begoña Martínez. She is used to encountering very difficult situations with girls who arrive in Catalonia deceived. They lie to them in their country of origin about the conditions they will have in Barcelona, they take away their passports, they force them into sexual practices they had not agreed to, and they have to pay back a debt, which increases due to a system of fines they impose. "They are trafficking victims who have come to Catalonia under false promises," says Martínez.

Sometimes under the promise that they would act as companions and decide on the limits of their work. This is what happened to 7 young Venezuelan women who ended up denouncing the couple who exploited them: a Catalan man and a South American woman who detained them and forced them into prostitution. They worked 12-hour shifts from Monday to Saturday and were fined every time they smoked, were late, spoke on the phone, or had a messy room. They were recruited by offering jobs as models, waitresses, and especially escorts. Andrea and Lucía denounce this situation and call for regulation to prevent them from ending up in prostitution networks.

In fact, within feminism there are two main positions around this debate. Prohibition, as happens in countries like Sweden, or regulation, an example of which is New Zealand. In Spain, the citizen security law and municipal ordinances set the legal limits of the sector, especially emphasizing public spaces and demand. Escorts are situated even more in a gray area. Some pay into Social Security, marking headings such as personal companionship service, while others work illegally. Like sugar babies, young women who offer an exclusive companionship service to older men in exchange for money or mentorships. For example, for them to pay for their studies.

When asked about the future, Andrea hesitates. Dreams? Projects? Does she see herself working as an escort in 20 years? Despite the initial hesitation, she ends up saying that some 60-year-old women who work as companions earn a lot of money. However, she doesn't know if she will get there. However, what she is clear about, and why she calls for regulation, is that her profession, whatever it is called, "existed, exists, and will exist".