A few days ago, a guy contacted me from my Eros ad, but was reluctant to provide me with the screening info I asked for. I patiently explained to him that sex workers face a number of serious risks in coming to hotels to visit strange men in private, and that screening helps us to stay safe; he replied that there are risks associated with being a client as well, and suggested I might not be the woman in my pictures, or that I might bring along muscle to rob him. Now, my advertising clearly describes who I am, including my book, articles, TV appearances and Twitter feed, but his response made it obvious that he was one of the many clients who don’t bother to read a lady’s ad copy before contacting her; I therefore simply suggested he Google me, since the first 7 pages or so are mostly me. Similarly, a Google image search leaves little doubt that I still look like the pictures on my website and in my ads. Now, I haven’t quite reached the “Don’t you know who I am?” level of celebrity, and it’s possible I never will (and probably better if I don’t). But as hookers go I’m pretty damned well-known, and it’s not exactly difficult to check the statements I make right there in the text of my ad.
Another, kind of arse-backward version of this is when prohibitionists pretend to have “discovered” some very public fact about my life, especially the rather prosaic one that I owned an escort service (which is not only in the bios I give out for writing commissions, speaking engagements, etc but also comes up in nearly every single interview I do). For example, in a recent hate-screed for Logos the prohibitionist arch-fabulist, Melissa Farley, wrote, “We have located 12 people from 8 countries who publicly identify as sex workers or sex worker advocates but who have also sold others for sex or who have been implicated in the management of sex trade businesses in various specific ways…” and included me along with Norma Jean Almodovar, Terri-Jean Bedford, Maxine Doogan and others. Apparently, her editorial “we” weren’t trying very hard; I could double the size of that list off the top of my head. And you know why? Because despite the efforts of prohibitionists to pretend otherwise, there really isn’t some unbridgeable gap between sex workers and management like the chasm between workers and “capitalists” in a Marxist wanking fantasy. A very large fraction of sex workers who’ve been around since before the turn of the century (and the rise of internet advertising) have at some point in their careers played some kind of management role; pretending otherwise can only work if, like my lazy client, the reader doesn’t bother to Google.
As I pointed out a few weeks ago, this isn’t only true for me; alongside my name and words (and often picture) in articles like this one and this one are the names and words (and often pictures) of women I work and socialize with, many of them dear friends like Endza, Mistress Matisse and Savannah Sly, who is now president of SWOP-USA. In fact, I’m now “out” enough that it scares a few of the more timid clients away (though I hardly think it likely I’ll begin to be recognized in public anytime soon); I’m just hoping I can soon get to the point where I don’t have to tell my clients to Google me if they worry about my dearth of reviews.
Well, of course they are ignorant about how sex work businesses operate. They are classic examples of the famous quote:
“You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”
The Doctor is always full of such wisdom.
I’d say you’re a very recognizable celebrity by this point. I recognized you the instant I saw you.
Of course, I knew you were going to be there, so that might’ve helped some.
Can’t say for sure that I would know you if I spotted you walking down the street, but I think I would.
what’s your opinion of this cracked article?
http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1578-5-strange-things-you-learn-as-madam-in-brothel.html
You’re right, there isn’t necessarily an unbridgeable gap between sex workers and management, but there also isn’t one between factory workers and factory owners. Many factory owners treat their employees well, and not a few employees rise to foreman and beyond into management. It doesn’t however follow that the factory mode of production (to use a wanking Marxist phrase) doesn’t generally lead to the exploitation of workers more so than say would happen if the workers were independent craftspersons.
You might therefore want to be careful lest your individualistic libertarianism prevent you from appreciating that the ways in which work–including sex work–are organized affect the likelihood of the workers being exploited. Organizing sex work under the direction of “managers” (if you prefer that term to “pimps”) is especially prone to abuse. It is because even where sex work is legal, it tends to be popularly regarded as seedy, and this attracts unsavory sorts of “managers.” Where sex work is illegal, not a few of these “managers,” who are already running a criminal enterprise, are hardly hesitant to expand into other criminal businesses, from drug dealing through arms sales.
No doubt there are a lot fair and decent people in the management of sex work, and neither is there any doubt that sex workers themselves can benefit by affiliating with managed organizations that provide them with more efficient advertising services, perhaps client screening services, and maybe even security. However, the way the operation is organized and managed can make a huge difference.
My rule of thumb would be that as long as the sex workers remain fundamentally independent contractors–that is, they are free to work or not as they choose, free to reject clients who they want to reject, free to set their own fees, etc.–all is probably OK. Management’s cut can then be seen as either a flat fee for its services, a commission, or some combination. However, the minute a sex worker becomes an employee, I’m afraid that organized sex work invites exploitation, as well as spinoff ills.
And BTW, I would insist that the independence of the sex workers be real rather than a legal fiction. In too many cases brothel owners say that their sex workers are independent contractors, but in reality “management” hires, schedules, fires, and fucks them, all the while setting a house fee that the workers must accept (although the sex worker’s share of that fee is often as low as half, since “management” takes the other half for the room rental). It can be and often is a pretty exploitative business, and while the workers therefore regularly quit, the perils of streetwalking often bring them back to that or a similarly exploitative brothel.
In sum, it’s one thing to defend the right of individuals to freely buy and sell sexual services–a right I affirm–and quite another to defend the right of “pimps” to organize sex work in any way they choose for profit.