When breeding grounds for infidelity also promote prostitution

Social media has been ablaze with discussions about infidelity. But do you know what’s one form of cheating that rarely gets called out? Married men going to “KTV” bars to “table” GROs. You know the type—neon signs, dimmed interiors, private rooms, and SUVs with government plates parked outside. The menu? Overpriced drinks and a few hours of “companionship.”

The usual excuse? It’s not prostitution. You’re just paying for a lady to drink and sing with you. But let’s be real. From touching and kissing to so-called therapeutic massages and bar fines—the thinly veiled transaction for taking an “entertainer” to a motel—these places are breeding grounds for infidelity. In upscale clubs, GROs double as scantily dressed dancers, performing suggestively for an audience of old, moneyed men.

Husbands, especially fathers, have no business being there. Yet somehow ”tabling” a woman who isn’t your spouse over alcoholic drinks is deemed acceptable.

These places objectify women. They reduce a woman’s worth to how well she can entertain men, making her something to be rented for a few drinks. Many of the ladies are forced into such work, often driven by poverty or debt. Some are even married. More often than not, they are single mothers desperate to put food on the table or provide for their children.

Even when sex isn’t directly involved, these transactions turn both patron and provider into instruments. People become things: human dignity becomes negotiable; relationships become transactional.

Let’s not pretend this doesn’t contribute to prostitution. When money is involved, the lines blur fast for the potential for something more behind closed doors. In fact, many of these establishments are fronts for sex trade and human trafficking, with some even employing minors, a fact that has been repeatedly uncovered in police raids.

In these places, women do not have the power to say no—not when their survival depends on it. So if a woman works as a GRO because she has no other way to survive, is she really choosing the job freely?

The GRO’s family cannot complain if it’s a source of income. The patron’s wife, more often than not, couldn’t care less as long as their husbands don’t knock up the entertainer. This collective indifference sends a message: that marriage vows have loopholes, that men can treat women as commodities, and that being a husband and father doesn’t require moral responsibility.

Our society excuses this behavior. As long as it’s work and puts food on the table, who are we to judge, right? No, we’re not judging the women who end up in this profession—they are often victims of circumstances beyond their control. Some even argue for legitimizing sex work, neglecting the inherent dangers of a woman’s health and safety that accompany such a “profession.”

But we should raise our standards when it comes to the nobility of work. If we truly care about dignity in labor, we shouldn’t be so quick to defend jobs that thrive on the exploitation and objectification of women.

And just because this isn’t necessarily sex work, it doesn’t mean sex work isn’t happening. This is the real danger of treating this kind of “profession” as acceptable—it doesn’t just blur moral lines, it actively weakens them. It also makes it harder to rescue victims of human trafficking because when society shrugs this off as just another job, the cries of those truly trapped in the trade get drowned out.

Let’s be honest—behind all the excuses is usually a man looking to be sexually aroused. And in places like these, it’s only a matter of time before one thing leads to another.

Gabbie Ermitano,

womenforwomenph@gmail.com