When cowardice is made respectable…it easily becomes a fashion.
– Eric Hoffer
So, the saga of the “Zumba prostitute” comes to a close, and we have a new inductee in the Hall of Shame. But I’m getting ahead of myself; here’s the essential portion of the story:
A Zumba fitness instructor at the center of a prostitution scandal…told a judge who sentenced her…to 10 months in jail that she’s happy to have escaped her former life…Alexis Wright said she felt relief when police raided her business on Feb. 12, 2012, because she wanted out. “In my eyes I’m free. I’m free from this,” she told the judge. “I have an incredible amount of strength that I knew was in me somewhere. Now that I have the strength I want to encourage others to come forward”…The former single mother was accused of conspiring with insurance business owner Mark Strong to run a prostitution business in which she videotaped clients without their knowledge…the defense said…that Wright became part of Strong’s private investigation firm and was manipulated into believing she was an “operative” working for the state with the task of investigating “all manner of sexual deviants.” Her attorney, Sarah Churchill, said…said self-deception is a coping mechanism for women involved in prostitution…
Fuck you, Alexis. Fuck you for that bullshit story about how you were manipulated, for that bootlicking garbage about how you were “relieved” at being arrested, for calling your clients “deviants”, and for letting your lawyer mouth bogus prohibitionist “false consciousness” filth. It was obvious from the start that you were extremely unprofessional and had no clue about the ethics of our trade, but hundreds of thousands of your fellow-whores around the world felt sorry for you anyway, spoke harsh words about your persecutors, hoped and prayed that you would get a lenient sentence and be able to put your life back together after this public pillorying.
And how do you repay us? By throwing us all under the bus. By standing up there and embracing every fucking myth the prohibitionists have used to attack us for the past decade. By confirming all the stupid stereotypes of how all sex workers were sexually abused, that we never do it voluntarily, that there’s always a big, bad pimp “exploiting” us, that we’re “relieved” when the cops smash down our doors to “rescue” us by caging us, stealing all of our profits and subjecting us to public ridicule. And worst of all, by letting your fucking shyster stand up there and vomit out Farleyisms about how we “survive” the horrible assault on our sexual purity (which is a woman’s only important characteristic) by convincing ourselves we like our work when deep down we just want out. The message being, of course, “Don’t listen to all those whores demanding their rights; what they really want is to be ‘saved’ by the police.”
Some of my readers may think I’m being unnecessarily harsh, that maybe you really were abused as a child (after all, some people are), that maybe you are as dumb as the proverbial box of rocks and got yourself into a situation you couldn’t handle. Maybe you have such a supple spine that your lawyer bullied you into reciting that script as the best way to appeal to the judge’s and prosecutors’ pathologically-swollen egos. Maybe. But even if that’s all true, it matters not one whit in my opinion of you, because the difference between my level of contempt for evil and my level of contempt for moral cowardice is so minuscule I probably couldn’t shove your scruples between them. Even if you had made all the same revolting claims but left out the bit about being happy to be arrested, I might have found room in my heart to give you the benefit of the doubt. But to sanctify the actions of tyrants, to provide the enemies of all our kind (and that means your kind, sister, no matter how much you deny it now) with another excuse to justify their barbaric tactics to the Great Unwashed, is utterly beyond the pale. You disgust me. The judge said to you, “I know that you will succeed when you’re released,” and she’s probably right because, unfortunately, amoral quislings willing to collaborate with the oppressor to save their own skins usually do.
I practise Zumba… and I’m a prostitute. And I like doing both.
Good article Maggie. sometimes one has to be harsh to make the message dawn on people. 😉
VERY proud of you. I concur with the statement of evil AND cowardice. Just like what has happened in the former USSR ( still the same bulls**t) and the nazi government.
I’m with you on this, Maggie, well said.
I thought Zumba ws that little robot that hoovered your carpets.
Those things remind me of Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains.”
That’s the one with the radiation shadows of kids playing on the walls and the auto-nanny, right?
That’s Roomba. Then there’s the robot that will dance with you. That’s Ruumba. Okay, I’ll stop now.
Maggie,
I think that it was George H. Smith that pointed out the similarities between the War on Drugs and the Inquisition; they both had to have repentant sinners displayed to the public to justify their moral atrocities.
I think that Zumba-girl is just another example of that in a different sphere. Cuz the neo-fems really do buy into the sex as sin idea. It’s amazing how the authoritarian right and the authoritarian left can find such common ground.
When I read the words ‘rescued’ in the media I got knots in my stomach. Yes, we were thrown under the bus. The truth is that ALL women were thrown under the bus as the rescue script perpetuates a mythologized narrative of the ‘victorian/honorable woman’ that polices the lives of all women.
It is not easy to go public with a past (or present) of sex work. My own family struggles with it (shame and rejection ebbs and flows) and they want to associate the choice with abuse and not reason. I found the media often tweaks my quotes and story of choice and leans it toward a rescue motif. I’d like to get the transcript of her exchange with the judge.
Maggie, great blog and fantastic research all around. I really feel this post.
Sent you a private email out of some semblance of respect.
Hmm, I didn’t get it and it wasn’t in the spam folder, either. Could you resend?
Resent
The “false consciousness” argument is always the one that inspires a great contempt in me. Oh and here is the “broken doll” argument:
Suffer trauma and forever be manipulated? No. No doubt this happens to some people, but this just serves to reinforce the idea that women are weak as well as the “false consciousness” argument. If Wright had individualized her statement, I wouldn’t have an objection. But it wasn’t stated like that, just a generalized trauma=forever broken.
Exactly. One week today we’re going to have a guest columnist, and her essay delves into that exact syndrome.
I’m gratified that so many of my readers see this situation exactly the way I do. When I read this story Friday my response was visceral and these things had to be said, but I’m really glad nobody’s trying to argue with me about it (so far).
I’m not really going to argue with you, though the whole things reeks of grovelling to the judge’s biases. Or arse licking, as we call it here.
One question: do you think her Profession of Trafficking Faith was a condition of her plea deal? Because it looks like they were packing massive charges on her that could have ended with very long prison sentences. Reading that reminded me an awful lot of the Soviet show trials where part of the punishment was to denounce your former beliefs and compatriots.
Just to be clear: I’m not excusing it. But I do wonder, as the trafficking hysteria passes its nadir, if we’re going to see more and more of this as they authorities become desperate to preserve their power.
I was thinking the same thing; one could play a round of prohibitionist bingo just off her statement. It so perfectly fits the state’s usual talking points, I don’t believe it.
“I was a willing subject of Goldstein’s influence. I was stubborn and egocentric. When ownlife thoughts occurred to me, I reveled in them. I went into the proletarian zones… I had sex with prostitutes, I deliberately contracted syphilis. It was at this time that I made contact with the Resistance. I was personally contacted by the archtraitor, Goldstein…” — Winston Smith, 1984
“But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” — 1984
The judge seemed very pleased with her, so there must have been years on the table if she was “unrepentant”. I’m not sure if you can blame a person in this situation, though of course it would be admirable to take a stand for the truth
I think her lawyer is a prohibitionist and volunteered this as part of the deal; there were other, far less narratives that could’ve been used. My complaint isn’t the lying, which I did myself; my complaint is the KIND of lying.
Amazing. I was just thinking about that absurd bogus statement you had to sign in court. We always do seem to circle back to your “Only Working Girl in New Orleans” posts, dont’ we? If you ever write an Honest Courtesan book, you should start with that story. It encapsulates everything wrong with our legal system and the status of sex work.
I’m planning to start putting the book together in September, with an expanded version of that three-part column as one chapter.
When a person like you, Maggie, with a carefully developed, consistent morality and a lot of moral courage is confronted with a large number of the people around it’s bound to create anger. After all, a large amount people in my experience don’t have any consistent morality, they just respond to social conditioning. People, sadly, often just don’t measure up.
They operate in a way similar to the beast men on the Island of Doctor Moreau. They recite the law as cant, and claim morality (“Are we not men?”), but they really just fear the House of Pain.
Seriously, how often have you run into a lawbreaker who considers that breaking the law is fine for them, but don’t change the law or reduce the penalties for those who are caught. They certainly won’t participate in any action to change the law (or stopping a bad law that they will end up violating from going into effect) because apparently that would lead to anarchy (and they have no conception of any form of anarchy being a positive thing) and people eating each other in the street. (Try talking about reforming copyright law to a person with a hard drive full of pirated movies some time. If you want to get really depressed that is.)
Yes, I think u are being very rude with her. U are calling her a “traitor” but we should consider the great pressures she must have lived, probably her lawyer told her that the best thing to do was just to say what the court wanted to hear. Probably she would tought that to throw herself under the bus was no-sense so the best thing to both avoid social death and a huge punishment was to look like a poor, repentant victim. Her home was assaulted, she was robbed and her life destroyed… and u still think she can fight alone against the system? Maggie, I admire u, but I think that this time u are not right.
No, I don’t think anyone here will argue over this one. Who’s ever happy to be arrested? It was a dog and pony show to minimize her time in jail. Unfortunately, this is a whore that only thinks about herself and is willing to burn bridges if it means a nickel’s profit for herself. Coupled with the media attention, she’s willing to be an “example” of the other side’s crusade.
How many people, when faced with the prospect of years in prison unless you play the parrot and recite exactly what you are told to say, would stand firm? History tells us, ‘Not many’.
Finally, a compassionate voice
Well Rich, I can forgive her for saying what had to be said to save her butt a few years, but I can’t forgive videoing clients without their knowledge. THAT is what she should be going to jail for…
I can’t forgive her for complying with the establishment.
Hey look … a lot of us do things out here that we don’t necessarily want to see on the front page of the New York Times. The honorable thing though – is to take your beating when you’re caught. Also honorable I think, simply pleading not guilty to all charges and fighting it that way.
But suckling the crank of a screwed up system is not honorable at all.
But wait, there’s more! From the AP article:
This case involves much more than honest exchange among consenting adults. The predictably revolting aspect is that both prosecution and defense pretend that prostitution is the major issue. Prostitution practiced without ethics was merely the means she and her co-conspirator chose to use in commission of other crimes.
She and Mark Strong as easily could have been running a church and recording confessions of sins for extortion, while fraudulently collecting public assistance on the side. But that wouldn’t have the public pearl clutching cachet of prostitution.
And, behold irony of ironies, even the prosecutor doesn’t buy any “trafficking” story:
Isolation. The authorities don’t give a damn about the right to privacy of those individuals she violated with surreptitious videotaping. Then again, society, the courts don’t recognize an individual’s right to privacy when that individual is engaged in codified misconduct. Marginalization maximized. Maybe if we/i, Maggie and The CMC stood shoulder to shoulder with her from the beginning of her ordeal then maybe we can feel thoroughly justified in this chorus of condemnation as the oppressive weight of the State crushes her. Maggie knows my interest and concern over this case from the beginning.
It’s true that faced with prison people will do things they aren’t proud of, but this:
“The former single mother was accused of conspiring with insurance business owner Mark Strong to run a prostitution business in which she videotaped clients without their knowledge”
was done before the government got involved. Frankly, that’s bad on a number of levels. It provides extremely solid documentary evidence to the prosecutors of the crime you are committing (making it stupid). It also makes me wonder, was she running a sex business or a blackmail business? Also, it’s just kind of an awful thing to do, even if it’s just for your own entertainment (which lets face it, it wasn’t). I’ll guarantee you the prosecutor was rubbing his hands together when he saw those tapes, and that’s why the article knows so much about the clients who have been charged.
Also, I have to wonder now if there was ever a tape of me someplace. The women I saw were solid people (mostly) but I wouldn’t trust the places the worked (or the people they worked for) further than I could throw them. C’est la vie, I’m sure after all this time I don’t have any legal worries, and I’d just be amused if it showed up on the Web.
The judge said to you, “I know that you will succeed when you’re released,” and she’s probably right because, unfortunately, amoral quislings willing to collaborate with the oppressor to save their own skins usually do.
I wonder about this part too. Usually, women go into sex work because it’s their best available option among their career choices, or because it will allow them to pursue a career they are passionate about without having to make due on that career’s wages (like the arts, for example). So, if she gets out of the business, how will she then make ends meet?
So, looking at this, let’s see what changed. When she gets out of jail, she’ll be a semi-famous ex-convict, but I don’t think it’s the kind of fame that will translate into money. This case is full of enough twists and turns that even employers who feel comfortable hiring an ex-convict (and an ex-sex-worker) might go, “Ugh,” when reading about it. Sure, she can shill for the rescue industry, but is there a lot of money in that? I’ve got no idea about that, and I really don’t think she has an ideological commitment to the cause that will sustain her enthusiasm if it turns out there is a lot more money in sex work.
Okay, since you used the “F-Word” twice I’ll refrain … since you pretty much captured my feelings on this.
And damn … I just stared at that picture of the woman with the chains on her kissing that boot … I stared for like 10 minutes and then finally eased back into conciousness. LOL – that is sooooo hot!
The problem with prostitution is … any woman can get into it. Good women, bad women, courageous women, cowardly women …
Obviously this gal (though she IS very hot) is one of the “cowardly women” – she got busted and, faced with her world collapsing she decided to opt for the path of least resistance and that’s always easy to find – just lube the nose and take the hershey highway directly up the establishment’s ass.
The only job she’s fit for now will be raising money for trafficking “salvation” charities. I expect to see her online very soon with her pal Stella Marr.
Come on Krulak. Please explain how a CMC is the modern construction of an authoritarian establishment figure. Please explain how quickly you would have lost your rank and semi-ostentatious title had you stood publicly in support of Zumba Madam had you been one of her clients or in any other case involving an E-3 worthy of Salvation. You damn well know the written pronouncments in an Article 15 or Command Investigation Report NEVER overstate the gravity of the petty misconduct charged. Why should we accept the Gov’t’s hyperbole in this case. Wtf
I don’t need to explain those things – I’ve explained them numerous times here in various posts. The U.S. Government, and by extension all it’s entities (including the Navy) are hopelessly addicted to political correctness.
But … I was an “old school” Master Chief – which meant that I often gave Sailors permission to break the rules when a circumstance arose that the rule book never anticipated. I accepted the fact that if I made a wrong call that I’d hang for it – and I was determined to accept the punishment rather than the Sailor. On numerous occasions I made what the Navy believed were “bad calls” but I simply laid out the facts to my CO’s and they became complicent in the crime by agreeing with me and covering for me – and by extension – the Sailor involved.
Unfortunately – this is the ONLY way the Navy works – by people taking chances in order to skirt the rules and get things done. I doubt highly that you’ll find another CMC that would ever admit to this.
I don’t know why you have a hard-on for me – I’m a sweetheart. I know you have a problem with Navy justice but fella … one of the rules I repeatedly broke was declining to place Sailors on report for offenses that I did not feel warranted Captain’s Mast or Courts Martial.
All my Sailors loved me Rich – you would have too – all the O’s loved me too. 22 of the 33 Chiefs I had in my Goat Locker at my last sea command are Master Chiefs today. That’s astounding if you consider the fact that E9’s make up only one percent of the navy – and it’s partly because I taught them right.
Rich, relax – if you and I were to sit down and have a drink somewhere and tell stories you would leave that experience knowing that you have judged me completely wrong.
Just to make my position clear for those who don’t quite seem to get what I’m saying: She could have pleaded guilty and shown bogus “remorse”, said “boo hoo, I was wrong and misguided, please Father State forgive me” and I would’ve totally sympathized. She could’ve even used the “abused child” crap without provoking more than a sigh and an eyeroll. But claiming she was “pimped” by her lover, calling her clients “deviants” and signing off on that “false consciousness” crap? Sorry, that’s beyond the pale. There’s more than one way to satisfy the State sadists, and she chose the one that she thought would give her the most brownie points.
Yes, “I’m a puppet with no will of my own,” not only doesn’t win anyone any awards, but also, how can you trust that the words coming out of her mouth now? (Though I guess it works on those who haven’t figured out that our criminal “justice” system is populated by vicious sadists who enjoy compelling obedience.)
However, I will say this, her obsequious groveling and pandering to her new masters is almost evidence of the whole, “I’m a puppet with no will of my own thing.”
I mean all that pathetic servility and she’s still getting 10 months. Either she’s a terrible negotiator or she was looking at decades.
You’re an honorable woman who won’t throw people under the bus in order to save themselves. However most people aren’t as honorable as you. Here’s my opinion. She threw her partner and customer johns under the bus because she is dishonorable and under the spell of eternal solipsism. She only cares for herself and doesn’t care for others at all. Most of the people who are prostitution prohibitionists are this way. so are many if not most American wives these days. Think back to the story about how you asked a woman if she wouldn’t take her dog for a walk to let it urinate and defecate because she stated that her man would have to tolerate her refusing him sex on a whim. I’m disappointed but not surprised by this prostitute named Alexis Wright’s response.
I agree that her basic criminal actions (videotaping people without their knowledge) are reprehensible, and would be so absent any contact (sexual or otherwise) with the victims. (This sounds like a modern version of the ancient ‘badger game’.) And like many criminals, she saw nothing wrong in selling out everyone around her to save her own skin. (I’m sure that most of what she said will be used in any proceedings against Mr. Strong, and was scripted for exactly those reasons.)
And I;m certainly not excusing any of her actions; merely observing that many people, in similar circumstances, even with far less guilt on their conscience, have behaved in a very similar manner. Courage is respected not because displaying it is the ‘right thing to do’, but because without constant encouragement and example it becomes rare; even rarer when there are no examples and encouragement.
Oh, Maggie, we all know that was a lie. They even accussed her to run an “one person brothel”. How could this be? It’s weird. She was an independient (but very unprofessional) sex worker. She was working for a long time while having “alternatives” (her fitness classes), she could have quitted when she wanted and she even shared her “sessions” with her husband. She was a clear example of the prostitute the abolitionists don`t want to see: fully independient, with no mafias or economic pressures behind her, no problems and in perfect both physical and mental conditions. U see her like a Judas that is selling all of us for a few coins, but I see her as a SURVIVOR (not of the prostitution, but of the prosecution against it) that had a very clever behaviour and that is laughing of abolitionists. She is playing their game using their own cards: tear drops, lies, prejudices… oh, yeah. If any abolitionist would pretend to use her words against us I’d laugh SO LOUD! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Her main fault was to be so unprepared and left so many proofs. Beginning with videotapping her clients. What’s that? She also shared the files via internet and, being aware that prostitution is criminalized in the states, she was really fool in that. Many streetworkers I know here in Spain are much more clever and use many tactics to avoid police prosecution (prostitution is not a crime but pimping it is, and their couples and relatives can go jail for that). I understand that she was so reckless due she lived in such a small town she never had any troubles. Well, those things don`t happen… till they happen.
I had several friends that were arrested by police and all told me that was the most terrific experience they had in their whole life (I know from where comes the PTSD… from ur policies, dear abolitionists!). They have been threatened, beaten and raped in the police stations (activist Norma Jean Almodovar is well known for reporting this kind of abuses). While girls try to stand, their efforts are futile and they will break up sooner or later. I repeat you, it’s easy to criticize her for what she has said from our home’s comfort. But… what would u say if u were in her skin? I understand her, she can`t speak freely. She is a prisioner of war (of the war against whores, as Scarlot Harlot says) and she is just doing a strategy to survive.
We are missing our enemy. Alexis is not our enemy, the enemies are the ones that kidnapped her and want to act as the most awful of the pimps stealing around 60k US dollars from her. Do u really think that anyone that is busted, imprisioned and robbed can say that she has been “freed”? Thats a magistral use of irony. I have understand u perfectly, Mrs Wright. Lie as a whore, u are doing well.
So how long do you reckon ’til her book is out?
Speaking of, it’s really odd (lol) how many reframed survivors started life with a love of literature that helped them through terrible childhood trauma, became drug addicted, violently pimped hookers, found their way out, did some sort of writing degree, then found the “courage” to write their book.
Yeah, I agree with some other commenters that from the looks of it Wright’s acceptance of the plea is the least troublesome part of this story. The most troublesome part to me is that the state set aside the real injustices that it believed Wright to be guilty of, worth sending her to jail for 10-20 years perhaps, in order to use her as propaganda against prostitution. What’s next? For example’s sake, giving a plea bargain to someone guilty of 3 counts of homicide just so they can get him to say that it was the pot he was smoking that drove him to do it? Probably the families of the victims would object somewhat, no? But therein is the difference I suppose, the victims of Wright’s crimes are unlikely to demand justice (by exposing themselves as her customers), justice i.e. Wright not getting a plea bargain in the first place and serving her time.
Which (my previous comment) is not to say that Maggie’s stance is unwarranted, but that perhaps it is a bit biased in favor of exagerrating the importance of the assuredly selfish choices Wright made post-arrest, relative to the injustices she chose to commit pre-arrest. It is probably a given thing that most people, including ourselves, would accept the plea bargain. And given that, how big of a difference does it make if one adds “false consciousness” to the “abused child” argument? Sure it makes some difference, but as Maggie says herself, it mostly just shines a different light on the person making the claims (that they are enthusiastic about lying? big deal). As far as propaganda goes, which is what matters more, the difference is not crucial, as one would expect based on that the blackmailer (the State) should be satisfied by both.
I’ve been following and enjoying your blog for ages…but every now and again (and this is one of those times) I get the overwhelming sense that you are a man or team of men with an interest in legalizing prostitution.
Then…the feeling passes…even as there remains the knowledge that no one of your readers actually have a clue whether you actually exist or not. It is just an act of faith.
At least we know Amanda and Brooke are real. All we have with you is that they link to you, not even so much as written endorsements.
mmmmm…..
Yes, because I never appear in public anywhere, and nobody has ever talked to me on the phone or heard me give a radio interview or seen a video where I speak. It’s truly sad that some people’s minds are so mired in their own narcissism that they can’t understand that other people do things for reasons other than self-interest. Or that women are just as capable of good writing and passionate argument as men are.
You mean apart from that time you braved the plane to go to a conference? (http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/my-first-conference – link provided for Geoff) Granted, it was about drugs rather than prostitution, but it’s still a public appearance.
Actually, I drove to that one, as I did to the classes I taught in Oklahoma in April and will be doing to the Desiree convention in Las Vegas in July; I only flew to Albany because it was too far to drive. Next time, the train!
P.S. – The Atlanta convention was general harm reduction; my specific topic was sex work, though a lot of the speakers were indeed drug-oriented.
Sorry for the mix-up. Fortunately, the main point was about your public appearances: rare but not inexistant 😉
And then this, for you, Maggie:
http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/alt-news/art-draws-attention-to-plight-of-sex-workers-in-argentina.html
I featured one of those in TW3 #320. 🙂
“But even if that’s all true, it matters not one whit in my opinion of you, because the difference between my level of contempt for evil and my level of contempt for moral cowardice is so minuscule I probably couldn’t shove your scruples between them.”
This is one of the most scathing and well articulated sentences I have ever read. And I can (intellectually) understand your frustration with people like this. As someone who has had contact with feminist thought in academia and who is somewhat familiar with the blogosphere, it continues to confound me how little some feminists seem to recognize how similar their arguments are to Victorian ones.
My I was reading Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer for my seminar and one of the discussions that recurred (besides the hours-discussions on the sociopolitical significance of the word “cunt”) was how Miller’s character was even more misogynist because he indulged in prostitution throughout his Parisian excursion. “If Miller was gaining enjoyment from the exploitation of women’s bodies via sex work,” the argument went, “then he is misogynist because participating in the commoditization of the female body as a thing to be used and then discarded.”
None of the self-identified feminists were willing to consider that sex work gave the characters in the book a fare amount of power in a patriarchal world. It truly flummoxes me. If feminists have spent so long trying to dissect the Virgin/Whore dichotomy, why have they fought so hard against slut shaming and simultaneously for this infantilizing argument about sex work. Why do they want to destroy the Whore but keep the Virgin?
Because they don’t believe that women are as good as men. They think that the closest they can come to equality is to force men to act more like women (because that will weaken them) awhile forcing women to act more like men (because that will strengthen them).
This means that they can never win* because women are not men, and so, from their point of view, will always be inferior. And this pisses them off, so they try even harder to bring men down, because they don’t believe that women can ever be brought up very far.
* Winning a war means that the war is over. Winning a war means it’s time to stop fighting. When one’s whole identity and career are built on Fighting the Fight, the last thing one needs is for the Fight to end, either through victory or defeat.