Thus much for thy assurance know; a hollow friend is but a hellish foe. – Nicholas Breton
There is a common misconception that Nevada is more whore-friendly than any other American state, but nothing could be farther from the truth (unless one considers a poultry factory-farmer to be a “friend” of chickens). Nevada was willing to allow a small number of politically-connected cronies to run brothel ranches (switching from one kind of livestock to another) out in the desert far from human habitation (so the “sex rays” from diseased harlots don’t contaminate real people), but this was only because the state needed a means of drawing tourist dollars; it was equally happy to accept gambling at a time when the majority of Americans viewed it as an unsavory activity. But while gambling has now become mainstream, Nevada still prefers to keep whores hidden away in the desert like a collection of mummified monsters and pickled curiosities in a roadside tourist trap, and to harshly persecute any who dare show themselves in town. And because of this, both cops and prohibitionists can sell the moronic and puerile “pimps and hos” masturbatory fantasy and the “sex trafficking” mythology just as effectively in Nevada as in parts of the US where more than a short drive or local phone call would be necessary to interview dozens of people who could debunk them. Here’s a recent example from a Las Vegas TV station:
Nevada has been named a top sex trafficking destination, where pimps force girls, young women and men into the sex trade. Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto says Interstate 15 in the south and I-80 in the north are trafficking routes for pimps. Major events attract the clientele, and the internet creates a cyber-gateway. “James” says he was a successful, non-violent pimp…[who] was a millionaire only a few years ago, making a lucrative and illegal income selling young women — even girls — for sex. “The youngest was 10 years old,” James said…“You make $8,000, $15,000 a night in cash, and you’re not paying taxes,” he said…he was never caught for pandering…“You lie to them, tell them you love them, basically say I’ll support you,” he said…at one point, he trafficked as many as 15 to 20 girls in five states…James left the sex trade, finding religion, redemption and recovery in a local church…He speaks out now about his life, hoping his experience will motivate parents to bond with their children…
This one short article is practically a catalog of every stupid myth, including the vast pimp income and Nevada’s entry into the “king of the hill” competition. And conveniently, “James” doesn’t even have to offer any evidence for any of it (not even assets or a tax return) because the idiots will believe him even without it. Similar unsubstantiated claims permeate this “sex trafficking” scare story; notice that the same person is behind the hysteria here:
…Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto…plans to introduce [a “sex trafficking” bill which]…would toughen penalties for pimps…[to] 20 years in prison…pimps who sell children on the streets, they would face life in prison…About 103 children, most of them between the ages of 15 and 17, were either arrested or recovered by the Police Department’s Vice Squad in 2012. But Sgt. Ron Hoier…said that for all the children who police manage to save there are always the ones who fly below the radar…there [are] a few naysayers…who warn…[that] tougher penalties don’t…deter criminals…District Judge William Voy…has been pushing for some sort of safe haven as far back as 2006…
Despite all the “child” nonsense, the average age of the arrestees is “between 15 and 17”, probably closer to 17. But people like Masto prefer to deny their capacity for decision-making and imagine “pimps” who largely don’t exist except in the sick minds of prohibitionists. Because the New Order requires “pimps” to be caged as sacrifices (rather than simply admitting sex work isn’t a crime), the prohibitionists have to come up with ways to manufacture them; Judge Voy’s so-called “safe houses” are actually prisons in which juvenile hookers can be held indefinitely until they are willing to tell prosecutors whatever they want to hear.
As for Masto, that bill of hers (AB67) was written by the Polaris Project and is modeled on California’s CASE Act; like it, the Nevada law would define virtually all sex as prostitution and a wide variety of normal human interaction as “coercion”. But that’s not all; it also broadens the definition of “sex” to such a degree that there is essentially no way to defend oneself against a charge. AB67 would empower Nevada prosecutors to charge nearly anyone with “sex trafficking” nearly anyone else, with no physical evidence or victim testimony whatsoever, and to lock that person up for decades…unless, of course, he is willing to plead to some lesser charge to avoid a sentence tantamount to death by slow torture. This is how universal criminality works: as long as a prosecutor has that kind of absolute power, he can force virtually anyone to do virtually anything he likes. The modern ruling class has become very good at using moral panics to secure such power, and since whores are the target of the currently-popular panic the worst of it falls on us…even in a state where most Americans wrongly imagine our profession to be legal.
LOL – Never been to Nevada – go figure. But I DO know guys who say the cops are the most fascist at persecuting clients and escorts. I’ve been told the stings are so bad – and so frequent – that there’s a whole “dance” a client has to go through when he steps into a room with an escort just to prove he’s not law enforcement.
While the Nevada brothel system is far from perfect, and I do support decriminalization, nonetheless , courtesans who work in the brothels have chosen to do so. Only a few counties require a lockdown. In most cases, the workers are free to come and go when they are not working. Those who live in the area can go home every day at the end of their shift. A few work by appointment only and only come to the ranch when they are meeting a client.
It is unfair to refer to the hard working courtesans as mummified monsters, pickled curiosities, or livestock just because the system is less than what it should be. Prostitution laws aren’t what they should be anywhere in this country. You know this better than I do. At any rate, if prostitution were decriminalized, as it should be, many courtesans would still choose to work in brothels.
As a client, I can’t make contact with local sex providers apparently because I never have and therefore can’t be verified. In Nevada, they were happy for my business from my very first trip, and have always given me better than my money’s worth.
Thanks for your blog, I always enjoy it.
I don’t do cocaine; I think it’s utterly disgusting. I am also grossed out by the smell of spinach or the sight of two dudes having sex. But you know what? I don’t think any of those things should be illegal, and I have absolutely nothing against anyone who enjoys them. In fact, I think it’s GREAT that spinach and gay sex are legal, and I think cocaine should join them.
However, how would you feel about a law that said the ONLY legal intoxicant was cocaine, or the ONLY legal vegetable was spinach, or the ONLY legal sex was gay male sex? How would you like it if the cops organized brutal stings to “crack down” on everyone else, and they and politicians spread insulting, evil propaganda about liquor, carrots and heterosex? How about if they actually proposed laws defining a guy having a beer and a bag of chips while watching porn as a felon who deserves decades in a dungeon?
Exactly.
Tom – you can.
There are two primary methods that can be used to get you verified and you don’t really need P411 or Datecheck.
The first method is the referral method which usually requires a good reference from two providers – but depending on the provider it could only be one. You can’t go this route obviously since you haven’t seen any providers in your local area.
The other route you CAN go – is through verification of personal details such as name, and employer. As a way to get your foot into the door – this almost always is acceptable to most providers. It does, however, require a certain level of trust on your part. The risk is vanishingly small though if you pick a provider who’s well established on ECCIE. She isn’t going to fuck you over and if she contacts your employer – you won’t know it and they won’t know why she really called. The girls are good at this.
DO not give your personal details to any girl on BackPage or other such nonsense.
P411 and / or Datecheck are also good things to join – because apparently the girls verify you in those databases and any escort in the country can call your name up to verify you wherever you go. I’m not a member of either because my ATF says I don’t need to be unless i intend to travel within the U.S. looking for providers. I have several references in the local area I live in – but my ATF is one of the best known in my area so she’s really the only reference I need usually. She deligently replies to reference inquiries though – and many girls don’t.
‘…out in the desert far from human habitation (so the “sex rays” from diseased harlots don’t contaminate real people), ‘
The Capitol Grounds are a ten minute walk from my house. Three brothels are a twenty minute drive for me. There is a lot of human habitation around me.
I see brothel workers often in local businesses. While not advertising, most people recognize them. Some might be called “stars” because of HBO. And as Tomcat noted, they are free to come and go. I have seen them make Starbuck runs while on shift.
I have seen them in the Nevada Day Parade. Some have carried signs in front of the Capitol.
I have never heard anyone in a private conversation worry about any of the brothel workers “contaminating real people”.
I don’t claim the brothels are perfect. I won’t claim that every lady there is happy all the time.
Maggie, I love your column. It’s the first thing I read every morning. I appreciate your stance on brothels. I wish you could see the brothels up close.
I talked to enough ex-brothel workers who have told me what it’s like “up close”, and what they will really say when the cameras aren’t rolling, the owner isn’t listening and their jobs are no longer on the line.
Fact: while 97% of California escorts surveyed reported an increase in self-esteem after they entered harlotry, only 50% of Nevada brothel workers did. And while escorts usually see their work positively, most brothel girls are merely “satisfied”. Another study showed that
I’m not making this stuff up; how do you think I first learned about the brothels? From girls who worked in them and eventually said, “No thanks”! You might also ask yourself why I decided to do this column at this time (Hint #1: I often answer topic requests. Hint #2: look at the endnote on yesterday’s column and form an analogy).
To clients, it all looks the same; to us it looks quite different. And I wouldn’t bad-mouth the brothels at all were they only one voluntary option instead of a bottleneck maintained by violence and lies.
A lot of guys just think “pussy is pussy” so they don’t really care about the manner it’s served up or who’s serving it up – as long as she’s good looking. They’ll say they care … and maybe they DO care – but they aren’t smart enough to figure out the different echelons or which service line they really want to be in.
The CHEAP Line – Street Walkers and Back Page (et al). There’s some really terrific girls in both these but you’ll have to sort through a lot of drug addicts and girls who are in the business for the wrong reasons. Fish in these ponds and you’ll be stood up on a regular basis, you’ll find yourself with a girl who isn’t the one you saw in the pictures online, her hygiene might be bad – in some cases horrifically bad. She might show up without condoms. You might find yourself in a “dive” for an incall in a part of town you wouldn’t even think about walking the streets in.
And then there is the more expensive line … ECCIE, TER, Bigdoggie, P411, DateCheck … here, you not only can be sure the girl’s pics are real but you can see reviews from DOZENS of her previous customers.
Escort agencies … well … you can find the good ones there too usually on ECCIE and TER and the other sites. I don’t use them really because I’ve found that most of the escort agency owners in my area are crazy drama-prone bitches … and some of them are actually “men”.
You are also right that a LOT of things happen behind the scenes that men don’t see – and the girl I’m seeing now has told me a lot of that stuff. She’s saved me from some really bad decisions.
Krulac, Thanks for the information. It made me nervous, but I sent all my info to a provider. Never heard back. I made a second try with no result. Maybe I’ll try a service.
I can assure you that I am not disinterested in the well being of my courtesans. They are intelligent , fun, and enthusiastic about providing good service. For my part, I am clean, courteous, and , to the best of my ability, interesting. At least, I try.
I may be wrong, as Maggie says, I can’t see everything, but I have always thought that the problem was not in the brothels, but in the lack of legal alternatives. Just as an attorney can choose to work in a firm or in private practice, some sex workers would prefer to work in an established business and others to run their own business.
Tom … get an account on ECCIE (it’s free) – hopefully you live in an area where there are a lot of gals working in the biz. Surf the providers in your area … look carefully at their reviews. Don’t care so much about looks but care about finding a girl with a LONG line of outstanding reviews. There’s a lot of them who have pages of reviews and not a single “NO” recommendation. Those are the girls you want. Guarantee they’ll hook you up if you’re cooperative – only a few aren’t “newbie friendly”.
Heard about a provider who had her “boundaries crossed” and that’s the kind way to put it. She didn’t screen the guy well enough – and he was a bad guy. This is a fucking dangerous job for these girls – if they even THINK you might be a problem – you won’t hear from them again. So be as nice as you can when you contact them. Don’t discuss her “menu” or any dirty details. Don’t discuss her rate.
I also tend to thing that newbies who are willing to schedule multi-hour sessions are received more favorably than those who are looking for 15 or 30 minutes. If you schedule two hours with a girl that is a great thing for her since it’s like doing two calls in one and it saves her a lot of time in cleaning up the incall after a client and bathing. A lot of girls will do three calls a day – tops … and if you fill two of those slots … it’s usually greatly appreciated by them.
That’s exactly the problem; if there were legal alternatives the brothels would have to shape up. There’s a reason most Western law frowns on monopolies and cartels.
I just wish we would enforce these laws and get rid of the laws that encourage cartels and monopolies.
Reading this, beats me why Maggie has such a downer for legalisation. I live in Oz, in a place where you must register to be a sex worker (exactly the same as you must register if you are in a food preparation business).
None of this bullshit. None of it. Just reasonable prices and safe working conditions.
The Nevada system IS a form of legalization, as is the Dutch system. Australian versions of legalization aren’t nearly as bad, but they’re still less satisfactory than decriminalization and open the door for abuses like Queensland cops arresting women working together and charging them with “pimping” one another. That’s why NSW got rid of licensing altogether.
It’s not “exactly the same” as if you’re in food prep; someone who works informally as a cook for a little extra money without a license isn’t persecuted by the cops.
Queensland is the Texas of Australia (what *is* it about the tropics that turns people into fascist assholes?)
It isn’t the tropics, it’s power. And the only way to stop it is to remove the power.
Lol I wonder my fellow employees at any job I ever had would report a 50% improvement in self-esteem. But never mind that. I don’t doubt that the courtesans would be more open with you. The Northern Nevada brothels (Carson City area) have a better reputation than the ones in the south. Can you provide any info on that?
Mariko Passion and Amanda Brooks both worked at a brothel in Nevada. The same one in fact as the madam had attended the Desiree Alliance Conference in 2008 and promoted her place like it was a whoretopia. Mariko and Amanda have different temperaments, so it is good to read their individual takes on the situation, at least in that one brothel.
I think brothels can be a good place to work, but as an independent sex worker, the ones in Nevada aren’t it.
“Whoretopia” is in the Dallas / Ft Worth area. 😉
For clients perhaps, but not for providers. The market there is flooded and there is a race to the bottom. One of my friends works in the area and she is hesitant to raise her rates (and she’d still be mid-range) because her clients may stop seeing her.
“Whoretopia”. Man that would be a good name for a blog…
Carol Leigh (Scarlot Harlot) is the activist who coined the term, if I recall correctly. At least for me, she was the first person I saw use it. 🙂
Nevada is a good example that shows how ‘legalisation’ works, also in Europe. In the Netherlands i.e. Amsterdam sex work has been ‘acceptable’ and ‘tolerated’ for a long time and was a unique selling point of Amsterdam tourist marketing. Due to ‘clean out’ policies in consequence of gentrification they start licensing schemes, expelled sex workers from their work places – the famous windows – in the inner city redlight district and enforced them to work from the suburbs. Deprived, isolated and far away from social infrastructure. Licensing means always to illegalise or criminalise unlicensed workers with all its consequences. Art dealers, artists & designers, hipsters moved into the shop windows, because it was totally exciting to live in a shabby road with all the hookers until they decided to marry or/and engaged in parenthood, then the hookers must be out and a clean view from the balcony must be ensured. The cool young hipsters over 30 want to live in urban areas and dont like to see the gap between rich & poor, dont accept sex as work, only as a reminiscence of their kitsch phantasies. Their hooker romantizism comes to an end and they demand organic food in proper surroundings.
As in many other cities of the world Hamburg/Germany – property value in the inner city doubled, tripled. In Hamburg – for same reasons – the city introduced high fines for soliciting to ban street based sex workers and their clients. They are still there and always on the run. A clean up means a further redouble of property value and housing prices. Indoor prostitution in defined zoning areas is still allowed and the guys who keep indoor premises over decades are not very sad about these developments. So to speak. Zoning and licensing always means good money, for managers, not for workers.
Ok Amsterdam: Because it is a feature and still a magnet of Amsterdam the city allowed some sex workers to stay as “pickled curiosities in a roadside tourist trap”. As in all European countries where sex work has been legalised but not decriminalised – ie.Netherlands, Germany, Denmark – many people from the East start doing work, also sex work to make a living. Because of racism and and different competition conditions between the established and the outsiders’ (Norbert Elias/John L. Scotson), lack of language skills and xenophobia, many of them are not welcome in proper brothels, must work in streets or self-organised in flats with low income. These migrant workers or domestic workers, fly-in/fly out, work on a legal basis. And because of this many outsiders from the periphery of poorer countries move to the richer countries to make a living. Because of the credit crunch, wasted tax payers money gambled away at stock markets, wrong tax policies the municipalities have not so much money anymore to refinance the social infrastructures to give immigrants support for a safe and better living. Economically spoken there is only interest to welcome skilled workers and academics and no will to integrate the low skilled people who want a better life for their children and/or themselves. Look at the high unemployment rate in Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, France among young people who cant see a better future in their home countries. If they can they leave. What all this matters has to do with doing sex work and licensing? First many, I think all, European countries try to stop migrants – EU citizens – by criminalising them. If sex work is illegal or restricted in strong zones, its easier to define them as criminals who are working outside established zones. Licensing, mandatory testing and more control in the sex biz is not only part of the agenda of conservatives who initiated the amendment of the German prostitution law, but of many established sex workers, allies and of course managers who welcome licensing. At the moment the amendment is off the table in current legislature; I spoke with some MP’s and joined consultations, but after Merkels re-election in autumn its on the table again. In the meantime hundreds of thousands invented ‘sex trafficked victims’ play not the key role anymore during this election campaign but ‘illiterate poverty migrants’ who exploit the welfare system. Because of the absence of parliamentarian and media control in Europe only selected journalists have the right to disinform public opinion.
Just because the brothel workers don’t have that much control over their work conditions isn’t an excuse to criminalize their clients as sex traffickers under Nevada AB 67.
Definitely not! But I think criminalization itself is their real aim; anything they represent as a “reason” is really just an excuse.
Is it me or does anyone else find it strange the guy speaking out about prostitution in that first bit just “happened” to find religion? Coincidence? Somehow I don’t think so. It’s like they wanted to kill two birds with one stone, make prostitution evil, and promote their morality as well in the process.
Things may have changed recently, and what I am going to relate IS anecdotal, but back in 2002 I had a conversation with a cousin of mine who worked in one of the large casinos in Vegas. To get to his “office” (the chip counting room), he had to walk in through the bar. He said he knew who the prostitutes were, the bar staff knew, and so did security. The impression I got was that it was illegal there so that the cops and town council had leverage for bribes to look the other way. Work for the right agency, in the right place, and you’d be left alone except for occasional pro forma attempts to “crack down” on the trade. From what you’re saying, things have deteriorated quite a bit.
The girls I’ve known who worked Vegas said that they were constantly getting popped, hit for fines and then released so the cops could “harvest” them again later; they found it so incredibly stressful they eventually left for a less exploitative environment.
“To clients, it all looks the same; to us it looks quite different.”
Not sure how to take this. Some of the girls I like a lot. Some, not as much.
All have their own personalities. Some I like to associate with. Some not as much.
“And I wouldn’t bad-mouth the brothels at all were they only one voluntary option…”
I totally agree. I would never suggest that brothels be the only one voluntary option. Many of the girls I have talked to really appreciate the safety. Others I have met left very quickly. Some have told me that they indeed feel “stifled” by the lineups and having to stick around for most of their shift.
“…instead of a bottleneck maintained by violence and lies.” I get the bottleneck comment. I am troubled about the violence comment. If I thought that these girls that I really, really like are controlled by violence, I would start to consider a celibate lifestyle, or worse consider a monogamous relationship.
Do I get “lied” to? Probably, but then again, I used to own a business. I was lied to on a daily basis.
Whoa, I didn’t mean the violence and lies were coming from anyone within the brothel industry, neither owners nor workers; I meant police violence and the lies such as I discussed in the column above: “Hookers are such stupid, pathetic women that unless we ‘protect’ and control them they will be exploited by pimps instead and invariably end up on the street.”
Though I liked the blog entry overall, I was really offended by how Nevada brothel sex workers are compared to livestock. As a vegan, I don’t even like calling animals life stock. I’ve worked in the legal Nevada brothel system and though the system is far less than ideal, I would never compare the brothels to factory farming. We’re not branded; we don’t have body parts mutilated without anesthesia (or having our body parts mutilated at all for that matter); we’re not crammed in living quarters so tight that we can’t even turn around; and we’re not being forcibly impregnated to create more meat, dairy, or eggs only to have our children taken from us so another species can have these. Excellent blog entry otherwise.
I live in Las Vegas. I worked as an independent provider here for over ten years (until last year) and even though Vegas is not whore-friendly, I never once considered working at one of the brothels. Several of my clients had visited the brothels and not one of them said they would return. The most common complaint was (and I don’t mean to sound catty) the physical appearance of the providers. My understanding wasn’t that they were ugly, just that they had a “hard” appearance. A couple of clients told me that when they went, every girl available was heavily tattooed. They also complained about the price. Every sex act is an additional fee and must be negotiated beforehand. Speaking as someone who provided full GFE, I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for my clients to be handed an itemized receipt.
Las Vegas is full of scam artists so men need to be careful but there are plenty of legitimate escorts. I advertised occasionally on Eros but got most of my business because I had great reviews on TER, Bigdoggie, P411, etc. I strongly recommend avoiding escort services in Vegas because they have been known to turn in client lists under pressure from vice. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE should a man ever agree to anything with any female that approaches him in a casino or anywhere else. She could be a cop or be working for them. The girls who work in the casinos are the ones who do the “trick rolls” so it is best to not even acknowledge them.
Thank you, Brooke! I’m always glad to get extra information from someone actually close to a situation or place I write about! 🙂
I can certainly see that, in a world where sex work is as free of criminality as is food work, there would be a place for brothels, just as there is a place for restaurants. Even if I’m so rich that I have a starred chef on call, there are times I’d want to go out for dinner. Well, even if I could afford any escort in the land, I could see that there might well be times I’d want to go out for sex.
But no, brothels, and especially forced-to-jump-through-scads-of-hoops-nobody-else-has-to-jump-through brothels, should never be the only option, either for harlots or for their customers.