My name is Maggie McNeill, and I’m a whore.
Well, more specifically, a retired whore. Or if you want me to be really specific, a retired call girl and madam who now writes a blog called The Honest Courtesan, in which I discuss the realities of harlotry. Sometimes I write about my personal experiences (sans lurid detail), sometimes about the history of the profession, sometimes about unusual aspects of it most outsiders don’t know about. Once a month I do a biography of a famous prostitute, and once a month I write a fictional tale in which a professional plays some major part, and sometimes I even do funny or whimsical columns. But the great majority of my posts are about the rights of sex workers, which are under heavier assault in the United States (and a number of other countries) than they have been in years. A lot of people enjoy flattering me by telling me that I write very well, and sometimes they do more than just tell me; a few days ago Mark emailed me and asked me to do a few guest blogs here on the issue of sex worker rights, and since I’m kind of easy that way I agreed. For the next few weeks I’ll be doing a weekly post on some important aspect of the issue, then after that I’ll pop in occasionally to weigh in on some story I think is important, or upon which the guys have asked me to comment. They haven’t required me to submit my posts for moderation before they go live (Heeheeheeheehee! The fools!) so if you have an issue with something I write, you can blame nobody but me.
Now, even though most of you think of prostitution as a libertarian issue for the straightforward reason that the government has no business regulating what two or more consenting adults do in private, many of you may not realize that it’s actually much bigger than that. Because prostitution is the only “crime” defined purely by motive (having sex with strangers is perfectly legal unless motivated by financial gain), in the absence of a videotape of the interaction it’s all he said-she said territory. And because professional escorts never, EVER directly agree to the such-and-such sex act for such-and-such amount of money by which prostitution is defined, cops are forced to either A) lie and say they did, or B) come up with some sort of “evidence” of intent to commit prostitution. In the past year in the United States, different districts have claimed all of the following as evidence: the possession of condoms or a cell phone, the lack of underwear, winking, dressing provocatively, loitering in an area known for prostitution, and many others. And Utah recently passed a law which defines “acting sexy” as evidence of prostitution, though the Utah legislature assures us it will only be used against “real” prostitutes.
This sort of “evidence” belongs in a 17th-century witch trial, not a modern courtroom, yet women (both prostitutes and non-prostitutes) are arrested on such flimsy pretexts every day in this country, and mainstream “feminists” say nothing because they accept the arrest and harassment of individual women as collateral damage in their jihad against prostitution. Nor are women the only ones who need to worry; in Sweden, radical feminists have succeeded in establishing a law which makes it legal to sell sex, but criminal to buy it. Let that sink in for a moment: it’s as though cops witnessing a drug deal were to haul off the junkie and just wave the dealer on his way. The rationale (such as it is) behind this madness is that prostitution is a form of “violence against women”, essentially “paid rape”, so the client is treated as a type of lower-degree rapist. The woman’s wishes are irrelevant; she is considered legally incompetent to consent to sex if there is compensation involved, just as a twelve-year-old girl is incompetent to consent.
This “Swedish Model” has also infiltrated Norway and Iceland (where strip clubs were also banned on the same grounds) and is now being considered in Ireland, France and Israel; radical feminists are agitating for it to be adopted in Canada and the United States as well, and it has already entered into the rhetoric of police departments in Texas, Colorado and Maryland. Georgia recently passed a law allowing the state to seize the assets of anyone accused of “sex trafficking”, and defined the charge so loosely that it can be applied to any male companion of a woman accused of prostitution. And given how easy it is to accuse a woman of prostitution…you get the picture. In the sex worker rights movement we have a slogan: “Sex worker rights are human rights”. Just as the “War on Drugs” has resulted in widespread havoc, tremendous waste and wholesale abridgement of civil rights, so has the “War on Whores” (though to a lesser degree). When the government is allowed to criminalize raw motives, thoughts and relationships, and when a woman can be arrested for how she acts or a man for whom he knows, no one is safe.
Your description of the kind of evidence used to prove prostitution reminds me a lot of the kinds of evidence used to prove a crime is gang-related. Think about that: How do you prove a defendant is a member of a gang? The cops can’t exactly ask for his records from the gang’s human resources department, or get copies of the checks he wrote to pay his dues. Modern drugs gangs try to hide their existence from outsiders — the days of representing with obvious colors are long gone.
So when some kid is on trial for robbing a liquor store, and the prosecutor wants to go for a gang enhancement to get a harsher sentence, he calls a “gang expert” to the stand. Now, gangs are secret criminal organizations, so real experts are few and far between, but that’ s okay, because this gang expert is actually just a cop.
The cop testifies that, based on his “training and experience,” the kid is a gang member. As proof, he notes that at the time of his arrest, the kid was wearing gang clothing and gang jewelry, he was hanging out on a known gang corner, he drives a type of car used by gang members, he has a tattoo of a heart with his girlfriend’s name just like gang members do, he has a carries his money in a roll in his pocket the way gang members do, wears an NBA jersey the way gang members do (baseball cap too), has a gang haircut, had more than one cell phone the way gang members do, made gang-related gestures…
It all sounds a lot like what you’re describing with prostitution investigations. Sigh.
Anyway, Maggie, thanks for taking me up on the guest posting idea. And by the way, great lede on this post. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Mark; I figured it would get the readers’ attention!
Courts don’t usually bother with “expert testimony” for whores because we’re little fish, but when a government is considering new and more Draconian anti-prostitution laws you can bet all the “prostitution experts” will be radical feminists quoting from studies they did of jailed streetwalkers, with all “evidence” that doesn’t fit the “theory” carefully excised.
So how many marriages did you ruined little-fish?(maggie-retired-prosti? Just curious…………….And hey!! Is he a big fish guy?;)
Not that you’re concerned about little things like “the truth”, but this answer is really for others who might read this than for someone whose mind is already made up: http://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/harm-reduction/
Married to a liar for almost 20 years and did not know, that he has been on strip clubs!! He insisted to me in the past that Las Vegas has no prostitutes. He spent hundreds of dollars while there w/in 2 weeks of TDY while I’m worked my butt off to help put food on the tables because the selfish-bastard can hardly afford because he has to buy things that want first. And BTW, he was a fucking military too! I used to have a huge respect for those men in uniform but now, when I look at them, they all look like a BIG VAGINA. So sad. My husband ruined everything in my life because of his lies. I dreamed of naked women, dark rooms before. I remember he called me crazy stupid woman. Dream are just dreams! according to him. But when I insisted, that, I DO NOT dream every night though. He still thinks I need psychiatric attention. It seems like there is an angel trying to tell me of what’ was my husband was up to. It made puke every time it flashes back thru my memory of what lies he had/has done. I used to ask him; have you eaten your meal yet? are you tired? every thing I did as a young-wife. I don’t understand, we are not lacking of sex at all. I was very young when I got married to him, he always demand of sex. So therefore, I would not suspect him of having fantasy with other women!:( I remembered peeling of the shrimps for him, deboning fish dish for him. Just to make him feel that I care and as duty of being wife. But still chasing for prostitutes!
By the way, he is even following you on twitter too. He is very fascinated with your intro. Believe me, that guy, he looks like he can’t break a glass. I guess looks really are deceptive. So now you why I despise prostitutes. I know you will then say; it’s the man’s fault and blah blah…
Because prostitution is the only “crime” defined purely by motive (having sex with strangers is perfectly legal unless motivated by financial gain), in the absence of a videotape of the interaction it’s all he said-she said territory.
Off hand, I can think of one other crime that’s just about identical: Bribery. It’s perfectly legal for me to make campaign contributions to politician X, and it’s perfectly legal for him/her to do me various favors. The two only become illegal when they are joined by a deal.
Even the techniques of enforcement have to be pretty much identical, except that the police can’t conduct a sting by having someone impersonate the politician (that would violate the right to petition our representatives); and hidden cameras at the scene are unlikely because only the Capitol Police, who report directly to Congress, are allowed to operate in the Capitol and the Congressional office buildings. So it doesn’t surprise me that nearly all of them are crooked.
great post, but you almost raised my blood pressure with ‘…it’s as though cops witnessing a drug deal were to haul off the junkie and just wave the dealer on his way.’ You redeemed yourself nicely at the end. It seems like a common thing for one group that’s oppressed to throw another oppressed group under the bus- ‘at least we’re not drug dealers’, ‘it’s not like she’s a whore or something’ etc.
You’ll never catch me doing it, Marty. I personally have no use for recreational drugs, but if someone else wants to use them it isn’t my business. I think the sign of a true libertarian lies not in opposition to government regulation of activities one likes, approves of or thinks harmless, but rather in opposition to government regulation of things one dislikes, disapproves of or thinks of as harmful.
But if it was my use of the word “junkie” which aroused your ire, I suggest you reread my first line. I don’t care much for euphemisms. 😉
Maggie, you sound like an incredibly bitter and delusional child-woman. Your willful ignorance really shows in your writing. Really, grow up.