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.

I have it recorded the CNBC show on prostitution but haven’t gotten the chance to watch it.. but definitely will write a review on it as soon as this headache goes away.

So I’ve been around. I have been just bored with writing or finding things to write about lately. Same stuff, different day just things seem to be a little different now when it comes to making money and working things out on calls here in Vegas as the economy tumbles. I think I am adapting pretty well though. I will definitely write more about my opinions on the impact of Las Vegas. Been getting a few requests for interviews as well about the subject and will soon when I get the chance.

Anyway I will post more interesting stuff soon.. just wanted to stop in

So I found another recording of the first episode and waited for the second episode to record so I could watch them both and give my little opinion on here.

So what did I think? I think that it seems a bit unrealistic. I have not read the books, I admit (I am terrible about finishing books! Hard to when you may get a call to go to a hotel in the middle of things then I forget what happened) but the first episode goes along with what I think most men hope and dream of happening with a prostitute: they want the girl to like them and enjoy them or fall for them. Its what I think a vast majority of my clients wish and hope to happen. If that wasn’t the case then I wouldn’t have people say things like “I’m not a fat disgusting man I am ‘attractive’ and ‘nice’ ”. Anyway I got the feeling that the show was going towards that direction in the first scenes. So far the only thing that I have identified with is the first part where she is passing through a hotel and onto the elevators. I think the same thing in my head, “walk quickly, don’t draw attention, and look like you know where you’re going”. Sometimes I tend to wander half aimlessly like a silly tourist would through the casinos. The actress who plays Belle, Billie Piper, I first thought was a bad choice for the main character. I am glad to see during the second episode she seems to get more into the role and loosens up and becomes more of a believable character. Over acting kind of spoiled it for me in the first episode.

Maybe I am a silly ol’ American but I really had to rewind some parts due to the mumbling of lines mixed in with a British accent made things hard to understand. Look forward to seeing some of the future episodes to see how things progress! I’ll try and update my thoughts..

Had a good night last night and what are good nights usually followed by? Slow, boring nights. At least I made a few hundred so far and I think to myself… it could be worse, I could be making $10 an hour.

Guess I won’t be going to any calls there tonight.. a 3 alarm fire started early today and the top floors were burned but mostly on the exterior. They said in the article I was reading that people ignored the fire alarm until maids were running down the halls banging on doors. If a fire alarm is being tested or erroring here in Las Vegas usually they have an announcement immediately afterward saying “there is a malfunction” or “this is a test”… if you don’t hear that within a minute, get the hell out of your rooms people! I’d hate to see another horde of people die like in the MGM fire in 1980… 87 people then and 8 people at the Hilton fire the following year.

You can read more here about the story. Craziness