The Glorified Life of a Call Girl

I am so angry about this article. The more I read, the angrier I got. I'm not sure I can put into words how bad an idea this whole thing is. Every time a sex scandal involving "escorts" comes up in the news, the media goes on a whole run of glorifying and giving fame to the idea of prostitution as if it's commonplace, as if it's just another job, as if it's not extremely telling of how strong the patriarchy is that things like this still exist.

Did I mention I was angry? Women like this one are delusional. They are setting a terrible, law-breaking, unsafe, misogynistic, degrading example for women, girls, and everyone else.

The article is here.

This woman, who says that Pretty Woman is a the world's best fairy tale, who tells of a fellow sex class women who "lived happily ever after with a client". She's in the news, she's got a book deal. Somehow, she's more legit because she went to jail for a laughable 26 days (“Three more days than Paris Hilton!” she says, as if it's a thing of pride.)

When asked if the movie Pretty Woman is realistic, she replies:

It actually happens. There was a girl I knew who worked for the agency, who had a booking with a client, went on a date. They fell in love, and he whisked her off to London. They have a house in London, a house in Paris and a house in New York, and they’re getting married. Isn’t that great?

I'm sure this now-married woman is an equal partner in this sham of a marriage. What do you tell people who ask how you met? And if you have children? What kind of message are you sending? How many other women who are a part of the sex class get book deals and fame and get to rave about how this wonderful job of theirs allowed them to fall in love, buy Manolos, and travel the world?

Please tell me that someone besides me sees the utter bullshit in this presentation of how to sell your body to skeezy men and live the life of a fairy tale.

This woman even claims that she probably saved some marriages, since men who wanted to cheat would see her instead of sleeping with their secretary. Look at what she says:

A lot of the married guys, one of the things I used to believe at the time was that I was actually doing a service for these guys, because rather than having an affair with their secretary and potentially ruining their lives, they would come see me, satisfy their needs physically and some of the companionship they wanted — going on a date, having fun, relaxing — and being able to sustain their marriage. Apparently that’s what some people need.

What some people need is to cheat? To think so little of womankind and of the person they chose to marry to have sex with someone for money? That's calculated cheating. That's not a "whoops I drank too much and went home with that girl at the bar." That's a man who has learned that his position in a patriarchy allows him to have a woman on-call for sex and to patronizingly spend time with him and make him feel important as a result of his money and his gender.

I can believe that women who are in bad situations will justify a lot of things, and will make themselves believe whatever they need to believe to survive, but in this woman's case, I think she truly believes these things are true. That she wasn't selling her body and her dignity for the enjoyment of rich, despicable men.

Now before anyone jumps on me and says, "But what about the women? Have you no sympathy for them?" I do. These women, fame or not, are still prostitutes, and are not in a good place. I'd hope that this press would call attention to the fact that most of these women are exploited, and perhaps some change could come from it. Women do not choose to become prostitutes because they feel like they have options. It is not an ambition. It is for the lowest, poorest class of women, those who feel they have no other choice. My point has always been, until we have an equal society, there is nothing empowering about prostitution. It is not something we should be lauding. It is not a desirable part of society.