EDITED: Updated with a different point of view (sort of)
March 12, 2008
Op-Ed Contributors
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/opinion/12farley.html
The Myth of the Victimless Crime
By MELISSA FARLEY and VICTOR MALAREK
WHAT do we know about the woman Gov. Eliot Spitzer allegedly hired as a prostitute? She was the one person he ignored in his apology. What is she going through now? Is she in danger from organized crime because of what she knows? Is anyone offering her legal counsel or alternatives to prostitution?
“I’m here for a purpose,” she said in a conversation with her booking agent after meeting with Governor Spitzer, according to the affidavit of the F.B.I agent who investigated the prostitution ring. “I know what my purpose is. I’m not a ... moron, you know what I mean.”
Her purpose, as a man who knew patiently explained, is “renting” out an organ for 10 minutes. Men rent women through the Internet or by cellphone as if they were renting a car. And now, in response to the news about Governor Spitzer, pundits are wading into the age-old debates over whether prostitution is a victimless crime or whether women are badly hurt in prostitution no matter what they’re paid.
Whose theory is it that prostitution is victimless? It’s the men who buy prostitutes who spew the myths that women choose prostitution, that they get rich, that it’s glamorous and that it turns women on.
But most women in prostitution, including those working for escort services, have been sexually abused as children, studies show. Incest sets young women up for prostitution - by letting them know what they’re worth and what’s expected of them. Other forces that channel women into escort prostitution are economic hardship and racism.
The Emperor’s Club presented itself as an elite escort service. But aside from charging more, it worked like any other prostitution business. The pimps took their 50 percent cut. The Emperor’s Club often required that the women provide sex twice an hour. One woman who was wiretapped indicated that she couldn’t handle that pressure. The ring operated throughout the United States and Europe. The transport of women for prostitution was masked by its description as “travel dates.”
Telephone operators at the Emperor’s Club criticized one of the women for cutting sessions with buyers short so that she could pick up her children at school. “As a general rule,” one said, “girls with children tend to have a little more baggage going on.”
Whether the woman is in a hotel room or on a side street in someone’s car, whether she’s trafficked from New York to Washington or from Mexico to Florida or from the city to the suburbs, the experience of being prostituted causes her immense psychological and physical harm. And it all starts with the buyer.
Melissa Farley is the author of “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.” Victor Malarek is the author of “The Natashas: Inside the New Global Sex Trade.”
March 12, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/opinion/12quan.html
Really Dangerous Liaisons
By TRACY QUAN
AS a former sex worker, I’m puzzled by what is reported to be Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s preference for the riskiest form of indoor prostitution I have ever experienced. Escort agencies are constantly being investigated, infiltrated and spied on.
I worked for two escort agencies when I first started in the sex trade, and both were closed down - not by Mr. Spitzer, but under circumstances that he would recognize. I was terrified when the police raided the apartment that served as a booking office for the second agency. Those of us who were not arrested endured petty racist comments from the officers for about two hours.
I chose to work for an escort service because I was young, starting out in a precarious industry, alone in the city and, like those hapless customers who are arrested in street sweeps, without connections. Working for an escort service was a way to earn my living and keep a roof over my head. But when the chance to work for a madam with a steady supply of reliable clients arose, I was relieved.
That someone like the governor would shop for sex through an Internet escort service is mind-boggling.
Escort services are risky. When they are closed by the authorities, people’s lives are turned upside down. Many of us don’t recover. As one call girl told me when I was looking for a safer way to work, “If you get busted, I don’t want to know you.” Nobody wants to work with you if you’ve been in visible trouble, nor is just after a raid the best time in your life to start looking for a more conventional job. A conviction will sink your chances of getting hired.
I’ve never been in favor of arresting and shaming men who pay for sex. Most customers who get in trouble aren’t high-profile politicians like Eliot Spitzer. Their “crime” is that they’re poor or getting started in life.
Well-connected men, however, have typically sought out sex workers who have been recommended by their friends and who don’t have Web sites. Escort agencies are supposed to be out of the question for old-school rakes who want to protect their marriages and careers.
In my experience, a sense of personal connection in these customers’ sex lives makes them feel safer. Not all sex clients are junkies for risk or adventure-seekers. Many are cautious and can’t enjoy sex unless they’re in a calm, secure environment.
After the Spitzer news broke, Alan Dershowitz explained away Mr. Spitzer’s ill-advised choice by making silly generalizations about men who pay for sex - that they don’t use their brains. But I encountered plenty of men who used their brains just fine.
From all accounts, Eliot Spitzer doesn’t seem to be one of them.
Tracy Quan is the author of the novels “Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl” and “Diary of a Married Call Girl.”