The Las Vegas Courtesan

I got a little hate mail from a woman a few weeks ago which is really my first email of the sort. It brought up some things that I have issues with — how oftentimes police and governmental agencies, special interest groups of all sorts, and even society as a whole place blame on all sex workers for some of the dark sides of humanity. They all want to believe that any sort of prostitution is a bad thing and all prostitutes are to blame for horrible child prostitution and sex trafficking that goes on in the world. The act of prostitution is even compared to a parasite by the author of the email. Furthermore, she says that we (read: sex workers) are selling ALL of women’s sexuality. Really? I don’t remember forcing or imposing myself, my personal choices, and my occupation on any other women in this world or anyone else, for that matter. My existence in the sex industry does not mean that I am hurting or damaging fellow females, to say nothing of the other horrible criminal acts she mentions. In fact, I see it as quite the opposite. I am doing something that they do not want to do and I am not imposing myself on anyone and their sexual lives. Just because some husbands or partners decide to see a sex worker does not make me guilty of forcing them to call an escort agency or meet a working girl in a bar. They act in their own freewill and do as they please as a rational human searching for something they feel like they lack in their own private lives.

As far as the “parasite of human trafficking and forced prostitution” goes, you can only blame those who try to abuse the system and the girls and boys that they affect. To say someone like myself is somehow guilty by association of trade is not only terribly offensive, it is just illogical and plain wrong. This same sort of blame could be placed on a lot of other industries, but it’s usually forgotten or not done.  Let’s take, for example, the sneaker or shoe making market. There are people who consider themselves masters of this trade, true craftsmen, and sell their product to the general public. Just because this cobbler makes shoes ethically while there are children forced to work in factories in many countries for pennies a day to make similar shoes (for large U.S. corporations at times, no less,) you can not place blame on the cobbler for his trade having a dark side by greedy people who want to make money at the hands of those children or even underpaid workers. It would be completely ludicrous to blame the local shoe repair guy for indirectly “encouraging” the inhumanity going on in some countries. It’s the same with prostitution. You can’t blame a local sex worker for the greedy and inhumane practices that these criminals are known for, but this is all you see in the news or in the papers. Our society is heavily biased against prostitutes to the point of dehumanizing us, and the people writing the “news” articles or “reporting” on television are themselves very often biased just like most of the rest of our culture.  It’s so commonplace and accepted as “okay,” it seems sometimes that sex workers are the last “special interest group” in the United States that is still – daily – dehumanized in the media and not treated with the same care as every other group that gets coddled to.  Just think about it for a minute before you make up your mind if I am right or wrong – when was the last positive news article you read or television “exposé” you watched that was not heavily slanted? The government convinces everyone that the sex industry is only filled with bad people and abusers of fellow humans to make a buck and if it isn’t the government it’s people like this allegedly “pro-women” person who is attacking another woman.  They never point out the good people or the educated women making a decision for themselves to make a business out of pleasure. It all gets twisted into us selling our bodies like we sold ourselves to the devil unintentionally or someone forced us to do it because we are powerless – helpless, even. We can and have made up our own minds, and of our own accord, to be in this industry. We are not selling the sexuality of other women because that is their own decision to make. Our job doesn’t influence them just like their desk job at a corporation doesn’t influence me.  I think we need to stop pointing the finger at the profession and point them at the true criminals.

I have never seen anything of the sort since becoming a sex worker, but in case you ever doubted, let me make this point very clear: if I EVER come across criminal activity involving children in any shape or form, and in particular prostitution, I will be the first person to report it to the authorities.  That makes me sick.

Here’s this woman’s original email:

Beyond your cute “ha ha prostitution is such a crazy gig!!” blog entries, I have no doubt that underneath it you know that what you do is hideous. Making a buck for yourself off of how lucrative women’s bodies are in this world?   Besides the obvious issue of the parasite human trafficking/forced prostitution industries that will always follow that lucrativeness, there are lots of intelligent women who understand that what you are really selling is all women’s sexuality. And we don’t appreciate it one bit. While all of us have to put up with the consequences of our bodies being commodities (a concept you wholly endorse and encourage by being a hooker) we kind of really disdain women who, as I said, use that damaging image to make few bucks for themselves, selling what is not theirs to sell.  It’s very selfish and frankly, very ignorant of you.

I’m thinking about going on a tour of the brothels in Nevada and doing a little research.  I’m curious what the girls that work in them are like, especially outside of the local Las Vegas ones, and also, I want to get some pictures and more details to add to my Nevada brothels page and spruce it up a bit.  It seems like it gets a lot of traffic – it’s certainly something people are curious about – and I think I could make it even better than it is, which is primarily the brothel map, phone numbers, and addresses.

So my question to you guys and girls is “What kind of things would you like to know about the brothels?” Besides location and basic stuff like that, I thought about possibly rating them or something along those lines, but if I’m going to go on a big Nevada brothels tour I will need a plan of attack, so to speak.  😛

What kinds of questions would you be most curious about about the brothels?  I can narrow it down to a handful and then find out at each place and do a big report afterward.

The first one that comes to mind on my list that would be kind of personally curious is a survey of favorite condoms!

So I opened up the Las Vegas Sun website last week and saw this article plastered to the front page. Just by the mug shot blaring me in the face I knew it was prostitution/vice related, but when I read the headline a little part inside of me rejoiced! I was glad to see that the county had finally grown tired and caught on to these massage clubs scamming tourists out of money all at the expense of the trust of the local cabbies (which is why Nevada Taxicab Authority got involved). Here’s a previous blog post I wrote about it warning any readers about the huge scam.

At first I was glad about the raids, but then I started thinking about the effects this would have on other legitimate businesses in the industry as well. Over the years the scams the cabbies have pulled on these tourists have echoed throughout people’s thoughts on Vegas. More and more I hear of disappointed tourists and have had more verbally aggressive clients because they never want that same event to happen to them again. All in all it makes people have a soured mood about this town like we are all out to scam people out of whatever money they have. They already feel taken by the blackjack tables and now they can’t even have a good time with a girl without feeling like someone is out to get them. I always try to prove clients wrong that those clubs are different than us, but it’s hard to overcome. I know a lot of phone girls who have to sway the client’s opinion and explain that having a stripper come to their room is a totally different experience.

What I am really afraid of is how the local law enforcement will get the idea that ALL of us are bad. Like the agencies who sell strippers to client’s rooms legally, but the client ends up assuming something completely different because he didn’t listen and thought that prostitution is legal here. They then get upset and report us to police or security because of their own ignorance, and in turn we could all be thought of as a public nuisance. The difference between us and these clubs who were raided is this: the clubs sell men the thought that they are getting something much much more while dancing on the line of soliciting (I’ve heard of some places selling “hand jobs” when in fact they receive a hand massage) when in fact these girls never strip, dance or anything else. The agencies will tell you straight up that prostution is illegal here and the girl comes out for a striptease for a fee. People still read into this basic line and assume something different, but really there are no lines to read in between.

The other businesses that are hurt by these scam clubs? The legit massages therapists, reflexology specialists, and massage businesses. These “sex” clubs operate under several different types of business licenses that are all obtained under false pretenses. Several examples of these completely off licenses that are on paper with the county are: bookstores, art galleries, massage therapy parlors, snack stores, fitness clubs, and reflexology specialists. The real massage parlors and masseuses deal with crazy legal battles just to prove that their business that they want to open will not be a rub and tug joint. I even know of a personal friend who had to deal with months of issues with the county because she wanted to set up some massage chairs in a public area.

During the weekend I didn’t notice any real difference, but had one phone girl comment that calls seemed to be easier to book. Besides the clubs that were named in the article as being raided, I’ve noticed the rest of the sex clubs coming back and reopening, sometimes leaving their open signs off but taxis still are dropping unsuspecting clients off at the front and driving away as fast as possible once they are inside. My hopes is that the local government shuts these places down and doesn’t mess with the businesses that are running themselves properly. They are a real public nuisance and constantly use our tax dollars by calling police or clients calling police *constantly*. These places are constantly held up and robbed, pose a threat to other local businesses nearby, and most importantly gives Vegas a bad name (and even taxi drivers). The local economy has a long way to go to rebuild itself and more negative attention and reputation with the tourists is not what this town needs. This is Sin City afterall! Keep it Sin City and not Scam City.

So the magazine finally came out! I went and looked on Monday for a copy but the places I tried hadn’t received their new editions yet. I’ll have to look some more this weekend. Either way you can check out the full page view on 944.com in their magazine flip book page 44.

Here’s the original photo I took so you can have a better close up look and actually read the blurb underneith :

VEGAS COURTESAN

She’s unrecognizable on the street, and she goes to great lengths to keep it
that way. The Las Vegas Courtesan, an anonymous area escort of five years,
operates a popular blog where she shares her thoughts, x-rated photography
and humorous stories, and does her very best to educate the public on how the
adult industry really works. And while it is perfectly OK to look — as many as
several thousand people view her blog each day — don’t ask her to touch. “I
get crazy offers with people wanting to book me through my blog, but it was
created to be a creative outlet, not for advertising myself,” the VC says. “I never
have and never will use it to book an appointment with clients. My anonymity
is very important!”