When the term prostitutes first comes to mind, there’s a very good chance that you think of girls who need to have sex in order to make a living. In fact, you probably picture someone who is malnourished, maybe living on the street and addicted to something illegal. That may be what society wants you to think, but, in most cases, that’s not the truth.

Sure, prostitutes are people who are paid to have sex. In fact, they’re paid lots of money to have sex, with many of them being able to live (quite largely) off of doing so, as guys will pay thousands to have a night with them. But if you think that all prostitutes are created equal, well, you’re just being ignorant.

To prove that your perception of a prostitute is wrong, we headed over to YourTango to get some more information from the girls who live the profession each and every day. Talking about their lifestyle and describing themselves in a candid interview, keep on reading to see why there are plenty of prostitution myths that you need to stop believing.

Not all prostitutes are drug addicts

This should be a no-brainer, yet, unfortunately, there are still plenty of people out there who think that all prostitutes need to be on some sort of drugs in order to do their jobs. Not true. According to the YourTango piece, one of the prostitutes said that, while there is correlation between sex and drugs, it’s ignorant to think all girls in the profession use something to numb their minds.

Not all prostitutes have been sexually abused

Yes, there are unfortunate situations in which prostitutes have been victimized by disgusting clients or from an adult while they were younger, but, in actuality, most of the girls who have this career are just people who like to have sex more often than the regular person. So it shouldn’t be assumed that every single one is a victim.

Not all prostitutes are uneducated

All those girls who wear a tight tank top at Hooters or strip are doing the exact same thing that prostitutes are doing, except they’re doing it in a legal setting. Sure, prostitution is fun for the girls because a) they enjoy having sex and b) they get paid lots of money under the table to have it, but they know there’s a short shelf live do to it. Due to that, they use it as a stepping stone to make some money and save up for things like college or, in many cases, use it to invest in something else.

Not all prostitutes only do this because of lack other career options

Similar to the lack of education belief, prostitutes aren’t necessarily the high school dropouts who had no direction in life. Again, there’s a good chance they’re just normal girls who like having sex more than the normal person, and, because of that, decided they’d make it their career for now. According to the YourTango piece, the girl interviewed even admitted that the “vast majority of us have an exit strategy that involves education, building a career or, yes, marrying into money.” So it’s not as if they can’t do anything else. Hell, some may be using the job as a side hustle.

Not all prostitutes have kinky sex that you’d be afraid to ask your significant other for

Many people think that, just because a girl is a prostitute, she’s into doing all of your sexual fantasies. While some girls may be into anal sex or sex in public places, many others are just there to have protected sex without all the kinky stuff. Even though someone is paying for sex doesn’t mean that the girl is going to take the money and do something she’s uncomfortable doing.

(H/T YourTango)