misused terminology (those two words)

A client once told me about his son’s frustration with his senior prom date. Apparently, the boy spent a lot of money on renting a nice tux, a limo, flowers and dinner. The lucky young lady didn’t even have the courtesy to give the boy a blowjob for all this effort, much less sex (presumably in the back of the limo or a cheap hotel). Both the boy and his father were flabbergasted by the lack of sexual remuneration from the girl – especially after all that money had been spent on her!

You can probably guess what I was thinking, even though I didn’t say it. That’s right — if the boy wanted to pay for sex, why the hell did he ask a high school classmate on a romantic date? Why didn’t he just hire someone? There are women who do that sort of thing, you know. (Although I don’t know how many would want to attend prom with an 18-year-old.)

What would have happened to the girl if she had given in and had sex with her prom date? A boy with this kind of mentality probably wouldn’t have been discreet about it. He would think of her as a slut, as easy. If he’d connected his spending of money with her sexual availability, he’d call her a whore. Since he was pissed about spending money and not getting any, I’m sure this would be an easy connection for him to have made. And, I’m betting, if she’d enjoyed their sex and actively participated, he probably would call her a whore anyway. All teenage boys know that a woman’s level of whoreishness is linked in direct proportion to her sexual pleasure.

Many men never lose this perspective.

Read more

collateral damage from the war on sex

This is not the first time this has happened, but it’s the first incident I’m aware of.

A young woman was arrested on prostitution charges in February. She was mentioned by name in the article (both printed and online) and apparently was lucky enough to get featured on the local evening news. Two weeks ago, she killed herself.

I don’t know her or anything about her. I heard this through the Internet grapevine. Yes, it really happened. Her obit was published online with little fanfare. The details are few and far between. It has been made clear that her family doesn’t want the story to get out, so the few details I know will not be repeated here.

I wonder if the fallout has been brought to the attention of the arresting officers to see if they feel they’ve done their job in protecting society. I’ve no doubt they would be glad her recidivism rate has dropped.

Read more

jerked around

In January, I attended a party for $pread Magazine thrown by SWOP-USA. Overall, everyone was very nice. It was beyond disappointing to discover that my $2 bill article was not in the current issue (it was slated for the following issue, but I didn’t know it at the time).

What’s worse is that I talked, at length, to a guy who ran a bookstore and invited me to do a reading. We verbally planned the event. It was a done deal. I was very excited.

When I contacted him two days later, there was no mention of doing a reading for his store. He simply forwarded my information to another sex worker activitst in town. That’s it.

In that respect, the interaction was much like any client/provider social. The men want your undivided attention but never follow up. I should’ve seen this one coming a mile away.

medicinal sex (work)

I’ve become addicted to the show Weeds. In one episode the main character visits a medicinal-marijuana dispensary. It was quite amazing. I haven’t even seen a place like this in Amsterdam. Out of curiosity, I looked online for more info. Turns out these places are quite real and very legal in California (legal in the state – not impervious to federal investigation and arrest).

Almost immediately, I could see where sex work activists are getting it wrong. Forget trying to legalize or decriminalize sex work on a broad scale. Instead, they should be trying to get sex work the same medical dispensation as marijuana.

Why?

Read more

pet peeve questions

When I started stripping, it took only a couple months before I had my #1 pet peeve question. When I started escorting, it took only a couple months before I had my #1 pet peeve question.

I’ve been doing this writing/publishing thing for over a year, but now that I’m regularly contacting other people and trying to “network,” I’ve realized I have a #1 pet peeve question for both men and women in this business. Didn’t think it would happen, but it did.

Strangely, all the questions are related.

Stripping: So what’s your real name?
Escorting: What turns you on?
Writing/Publishing (men): Are those pictures really you?
Writing/Publishing (women): Can I get a [free] copy?

I have to decide how to answer.

Read more