The Las Vegas Courtesan

Oh where do I begin with this nauseating program? First of all, I want to put it out there that I have no issue with religious people so long as their “word” is not forced or imposed on others in a brainwashing manner. I have no issue with people and their belief systems, no matter what they are, so long as they do not harm or make a person’s life more miserable than they were in the first place. I have mentioned Annie Lobert before — a couple of years ago — when she first made news in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about her ministry. In retrospect, I think I spoke a little too highly of her mission having now watched the show.

This show is new on the Investigation Discovery Channel — Hookers: Saved on the Strip. It follows Annie Lobert and her ministry of Hookers for Jesus, with Destiny House, and the The Church at South Las Vegas, in a reality show format. Since only one episode has aired so far, it has mostly focused on the story of “Regina” and her process of attempting to get out of the industry through Annie’s ministry. This is where things start getting under my skin. Regina obviously has a head on her shoulders and could get out of the industry on her own. She could easily be educated or trained to be in a good job.  From the start, though, she is frustrated because of being told by HELP of Southern Nevada (a non-profit community program) that she is pretty much only good for a minimum wage job at best in retail or the restaurant service industry. This degrading awakening that Annie seems to support, of course, only further frustrates Regina because she could not even cover her car note and insurance with that level of income. Her job search goes on for over a month before Annie ever gets the clue that maybe Regina should see a lawyer to seal her records to help with job placement. This should have been step ONE. Why disappoint someone and drag them through more emotional strain when they are already dealing with the inner turmoil of completely changing their life around and THEN realize “oh yea if we had done this one step first you might have saved yourself some heartache, embarrassment, and time?” Later on in the show, Regina says she has been in their “program” for seven months now (?!?!?!) and things were coming to a boil and she wants out, of course… still with no job. Tempers start to flare and Annie brings up the love of Jesus and somehow this is going to make it all better. Seriously??

Annie continues to further degrade Regina by taking her to some of the most ghetto apartments that I can only imagine being on Twain between Paradise and Maryland Parkway (if you know Las Vegas you know what a crap area that is) as if to show her THIS is what you are worth now, Regina. This rundown complex, living by yourself, with your minimum wage job (that you still haven’t found) and living paycheck to paycheck with no real training or education. But don’t worry you have the love of God, still! What a real swift kick in the emotional pants.

Here are some steps that could have been taken to avoid more suffering for these poor girls trying to change their lives:
1) Get the girls away from their pimps (this seems to be one step they are doing correctly)
2) Take the girl to a lawyer who can help with their police records. If they really want to change their lives and move on, I don’t think a judge would refuse the sealing of their records since they are usually a string of misdemeanors, anyway.
3) Help the girl find something profitable they are interested in and educate them in that area. Regina doesn’t have any real interests, she says on the show, so help her find something that would be of interest to her.  No one wants to be stuck doing something they hate in the first place and failure would just be reinforced in their minds.
4) Help the girl find a real well-paying job. Not a $9 an hour, not even full time job. Don’t make her feel like a cheap whore that got thrown out on the street because that’s all you feel like she is worth. No one wants that and these girls probably already felt that way when they were with their pimp.  Make them feel good about their prospects and their future if you really want your program to succeed.

Of course none of these steps are really easy but they seem like some simple and practical guidelines. When you throw religion and the “will of God” into the mix of someone already trying to make major changes in their life, things become more confusing and frustrating, and drastically raise the guilt and shame levels, which is completely unnecessary. Why would this God want them to suffer by living in a ghetto apartment, barely scraping by, or not even getting a job? That would only make someone wonder “if this God and his love is so great then why do I feel like I’m suffering?”  Or is that actually the point? I smell tired old misogyny (yes, I realize Annie is a woman, but these are very old, man-inspired attitudes towards women and control of their choices) and hatred of sex workers — even legal stripping — it’s all sin, isn’t it, Annie?  Eyerolls…

One thing that Regina pointed out that Annie completely disagreed with was her idea of returning to stripping in the mean time. Annie thinks stripping is to prostitution like weed allegedly is to drugs: a “gateway” from one to the other (her words on the show.) Though this is somewhat true in my own case it isn’t for the vast majority of the strippers out there. I think that if Regina really wants to change her ways from the sex industry then she would keep strictly to stripping and would be okay with the money she was making. This could definitely provide the income she needed while going back to school and getting a real education in something she could make a career of, instead of working a degrading, dead end retail job until the end of time. At the very end of the show, though, they finally have Regina talk to an agent that might be able to help her get a job in leasing sales — apparently seven months after she entered the “program,” if they edited the show in a truthful fashion.

When I was watching the show, Annie’s actions and ministry brought me back to a philosophy class I took in college. In the readings on his Groundwork of the Metaphysic(s) of Morals by Immanuel Kant, and his cases of duty that he explains in the book, people are only inclined to donate their time or money to others because it is pleasurable in some way to them and makes them feel good. In the class it made me realize in some ways that people do charity work only to make them feel better about themselves. And how sometimes this type of behavior is selfish. I get this feeling from Annie. Call me harsh or cynical, but in the end, I get the sense that her main focus is only getting the girls out of the business to earn herself extra Jesus points, and she’s not really seeing the huge picture of what these girls REALLY need to change their lives — pragmatic professional help. Preaching the word of God and blaming it all on the devil on a stripper pole is not a way to solve the real problems of their lives and start over.

In the end, I want to see Regina succeed and I know Annie wants to see that as well, but what would really help is bringing more professionals into the program and less of leaving it up to God to fix. Adding the aid of attorneys, psychologists, professional career counselors, professional recruiters, and above all professional education and training would be the ideal situation and program to have. If going to church to have others support you and your journey to recovery is what you need then by all means include that too but it shouldn’t be the primary focus forced on these women to succeed. It’s a far, far, larger task to accomplish than simply leaving it up to God.

So when I go out of town for a few days it’s hard to get back into a writing groove. Worked last night after being gone for the weekend. Apparently I didn’t miss too much and last night was okay though every client seemed to just want to pay the minimum prices. Oh well, it adds up and it’s still more than I would have made by working in a strip club.

So I have noticed a shift in the girls who freelance around Vegas casinos. A lot of times on my blog I have had people ask where to find such girls and where do they frequent. It’s all depending on the month and what I believe to be a change in the security management. I know that such companies as MGM/Mirage switch their upper level staff around until they find a perfect match for the needs of that casino, and I am sure they do the same with security when they see one of their casinos is being overrun with prostitutes and loitering pimps. One month the place to be will be at the Monte Carlo and the girls will be plentiful, then you hear of such stories of girls being written trespassing tickets for being in the parking lot walking to their car, being followed to rooms (which happened to me), or being told to turn around as soon as they walk in the front door. Last night I was walking through the New York, NY Casino after entertaining a client (he didn’t believe bars were open 24 hours) and saw 8-10 hookers loitering between the elevator and the parking garage. Total distance would be something like 20 yards. That’s incredible. It’s only a matter of time until New York, NY tightens their security like they used to have and becomes the next spot girls get harassed.

I am slightly annoyed with these girls and their thought process of how to work. Each girl hears through the grapevine of where to go and what casino is considered good with the least amount of security. It only takes a few weeks before said casino is infiltrated by a horde of girls, like New York NY is experiencing. Quickly the casino tightens up security and the fun is over for everyone. These girls have bounced around so much in these packs that now almost every casino is difficult to get in and out of for us girls who like to be more discreet.

I have also noticed a shift in girls who used to walk the track along West Tropicana Road have moved to the east side of the strip on Flamingo and up along Harmon by the Hard Rock Hotel. The funniest thing I see? Girls walking with their ass hanging out but threw on a pair of sandals or sneakers like it would throw the cops off. Who are they fooling? Not me for sure!

Well it seems as if Steve Wynn is all over the newspapers lately, and not in the best or most appealing way. Besides my previous blog story about being slapped by prostitutes on his own property, him and Joe Francis of the Girls Gone Wild fame have been flinging lawsuits at each other like they are going out of style. Joe has a 2 million dollar gambling debt at the Wynn casino and doesn’t plan paying it off which has resorted the casino in filing a case against him for unpaid debts. Joe Francis comes back with a lawsuit against Wynn and the casino saying that his tab is falsified and Steve Wynn used tactics like providing hookers to run up this debt. Now Wynn and his lawyers have filed a defamation suit back saying that these claims are untrue and are libel.

I just end up giggling at all of this mess that happens in Las Vegas. Only in May the casino had to file suit against Charles Barkley for his $400,000 in gambling debt at the Wynn casino. I think Barkley has since paid it back but has been bad mouthing the casino all over radio shows and appearances that the casino “will get theirs one day”. It’s a casino… that’s their job is to take your money so I can’t think of how they would get “theirs” like something illegal took place.

I had always heard rumors from girls who have worked in Las Vegas for 15-20 years previously as prostitutes and now as girls who answer the phones as escort services, that Steve Wynn used to be notorious for having ladies over at the Mirage in it’s opening hay days and that he was quite a party animal and spender. I am sure he has grown up since then and just likes to make his customers happy now with girls. Do I believe that Steve Wynn falsified documents and the $2 million in debt is untrue? No… I am sure it is completely true because this is not the mob days of doctoring books and the agencies track things really well now. I think Joe Francis has been getting away with a lot of things in the past years with his Girls Gone Wild empire but it’s all starting to catch up with him. Sorry Joe… not everything is for free. Especially girls!

I am always reading the local news here in Las Vegas to find stories or news related to the prostitution/strippers/adult entertainment that goes on in this city. I recently stumbled upon this article in the Review Journal about Hookers for Jesus. What is that all about, I thought.

I had heard about this girl or group of girls having their booth at the AVN (porn) convention this January but was baffled by it. I am not one for people forcing religion on those who don’t care to hear it, but at least this girl seems to have ulterior motives besides getting hookers to go to church on Sunday. Her main point to doing what she does is to get girls out of the business. I know that most girls that I work with have pimps, and I too wish I could help them get out of that trap. As much as I would like to see those girls be on their own, I wouldn’t want to deal with the drama that comes along with it. At least the girl, Annie Lobert, is brave enough to help people who want to truly leave the business on their own.

Anyway, its an interesting article and the poor girl has been through a lot in her life. I was shocked at the amount of things that have been thrown in her way. I also didn’t know that our current Sheriff was head of vice back in the late 80’s… I hope he doesn’t try to relive those days again!

So.. not much going around here. Had a friend in from out of town this past week which made my computer and blog feel very unloved. Sorry 🙁