Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
20 minutes!  Geez.  I'd spend half that time just getting undressed
and dressed again.

Do you think that there are girls who specialize in kissing, just
like some other unusual kinks like anal or S/M?
  

    

So a call girl is much more of a business woman than a sex addict, it
sounds like.

One thing I've always wondered, and which your book doesn't touch on  -
not that it should! - is are there male professionals, too, available for
women?  I've always thought there should be, but it seems like it would be
much harder to do, no pun intended.
  

    
Jef, it doesn't really take 20 minutes to get dressed and undressed.
It just *seems* to. As for the girls who do put kissing on the menu...
It's more of a flourish, not a specialty item. Where there are code
words for the activities you mentioned -- and you will see these
code/slang terms in some of the raunchier advertisements for the sex
trade -- I have never seen a reference to kissing in a sex ad. (Have
you?) Even though Nancy Chan makes a big thing in the novel -- a
class-distinction fetish -- out of *not* advertising, the reality is
that sex ads tell us a lot about what makes people tick. 

I'm talking about some of the ads in adult weeklies, or the notorious
London phone booth cards which have been in the news lately. (The phone
booths of London are often chock full of these hilarious colorful ads
and tourists collect them like baseball cards, but the police have been
trying to clean up the phone booths...)
  

    
>One thing I've always wondered, and which your book doesn't touch >on
 - not that it should! - is are there male professionals, too,
>available for women?  

Yes, for sure.

In the Salon series, there's a miniplot -- when Jasmine met David --
about a male escort who is so discreet, so good at blending in, that
nobody suspects his true calling.  

By coincidence I had lunch today with a good friend who was the
inspiration for David's character! We met at a PONY meeting some time
ago and became pals.  My feeling, after listening to many of his
stories, is that "David" (the real version) has to be incredibly 
diplomatic and compassionate to succeed at what he does. The women he
sees are realistic and worldly but they can also get attached and feel
possessive... there are many more nuances to what he does. I have to
say, as a sex worker, I take my hat off to this guy for managing the
sexual and emotional isues presented by all these different ladies
...Men are way easy, by comparison!

http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/chan/1999/11/22/nancy38/index.html
  

    

Wow, I had no idea.  My hat's off to him, too.

So, how does the average citizen go about finding someone, assuming that,
like Nancy, she has a book, and a network who provide referrals, and that
basically you'd want to avoid someone who advertised in the yellow pages.

I read a lot more of the book today, still not quite finished, but did get
to the part about how Jason turns out to be Allison's "friend" - that was
quite a shock - and then copped out with a "bug" at the following night's
dinner.  The story is really good and is keeping me captivated.
  

    
Thanks, Linda... music to my ears!! 

"Finding someone" ... along the same lines as Nancy? Or David? I know
that the real "David" got into business by way of working as a
Chippendales type dancer -- when he was in college. Now, I think, he
meets his contacts by word of mouth -- though I think that is also
tricky because some of his contacts are so possessive. So I guess they
are not so quick to give his number out! 

Double standard alert:
I'm skirting around the word "customer" because I've never once heard
him use this term. In fact, one of the first questions that came up
when I met him was "What do you call a woman who pays you?" His answer:
"A friend." The exchange is less blunt. Linda, I'm wondering how you
yourself would feel about being called a customer if you were paying
for sex? 
  

    

Depends on how good the sex is.  %^)

I don't know.  I think I'd prefer "client."  But "customer" doesn't bother
me a whole lot.

About find them.  Well, of course, being female, I'd want to know about
finding "David" but I imagine our readers might also want to know how to
find "Nancy."

And what if a female reader wanted to find "Nancy"?  Is that out of the
question?  
  

    
Not out of the question but certainly atypical! Some call girls are
more bisexual than others and will visit married couples. I'm using the
term married rather loosely. (Sometimes I have found that the man and
woman entertaining a call girl are married -- just, not to each
other!)I think it's conceivable that Nancy could have seen a single
woman when she was working escort -- that's been known to happen. But
in her current circumstance, it's more likely that she would meet a
woman on a "couple call."
  

    
I want to say that, while Nancy the fictional character is a snob
about all forms of advertising, you have to be a fairly together person
to run an ad in the Yellow Pages. I don't think it's an advertising
medium that attracts a fly-by-night person, whatever the industry... So
a person running such an ad might be as talented as Nancy -- just not
as privately connected. 
  

    

Tracy, do you want to say something about the extent to which call girls
are moving onto the Web? I'm wondering if the New York magazine and Village
Voice ads are someday going to be wholly superseded by online advertising,
facilitated by search engines and online-review services.

Nancy is clearly not going to part of that first wave of early adopters,
but it seems likelier that Allison might (she's always following trends),
or that Jasmine might (she might object to the medium, but she also is
focused on going where the money and business is).

Also, could you say something about the differences between writing the
serial and writing the novel? I think some people are under the impression
that the novel is an adaptation of the serial, but they wee different forms
and different challenges, weren't they?
  

    
The book literally picks up the plot where the series ended -- when
her boyfriend Matt proposes marriage, still knowing nothing about
Nancy's job, and Nancy asks herself: "Can I get away with this??" In
the book, Nancy isn't yet living with Matt but she's already feeling
the high tension of leading a double life at close proximity to him. 
They are planning a wedding but something in her resists the finality
of marriage. His family is closing in on her, a quality some in-laws
have. I would argue that these are problems a lot of people wrestle
with when they know how to be single yet wish to be married. In all
professions and for both sexes. (I know an engaged couple going through
this right now, and neither party is a sex worker -- but the freedom
that comes with being alone is undermining their marriage plans.)

Marriage is like this beacon or what have you, which people like Nancy
are attracted to, but something starts to tug at us internally.
In many ways, she is a freer, more selfish, person than Matt -- she
indulges in her freedom privately, in secret, which makes her even
freer to do as she pleases ... and she makes up her own life as she
goes along which is something successful teen runaways know how to do.
So the book is as much about the problems of being single as it is
about being a prostitute.

On a more practical note, the energy of writing a book is different
from a weekly column. I developed what was surely the precursor to
carpal tunnel syndrome while finishing my book, had no life for periods
of time and literally forgot a manicure appointment on one occasion --
which made me feel ashamed and idiotic. The column did not have this
disruptive effect on my life, it was easier to control. The book was
more like a bulldozer, controlling and ruling my emotional and physical
life. Does that sound melodramatic?? 
  

    
Mnemo, I will say more about the sex ads in a bit ... I am currently
helping to plan a panel discussion on prostitution with some people
from New York University and PONY. Deadlines for that are looming...so
I will return to Inkwell later this afternoon! Looking forward to it!
BTW, if anyone here happens to be in New York, the event is October 2.
More later.
  

    
E-mail from Cindy Wales:

A question for Tracy Quan :  It seems that you live
with the illegality of your actions by believing that
they should be legal.  How do you live with the
ethical problems involved, for example, having sex
with other womens' husbands? Does it ever keep you
awake at night?
  

    <scribbled by castle Mon 24 Sep 01 12:05>
  

    
 E-mail from Anthony Cagle:
 
 Hi Tracy!
 
 An earlier response dealt with the whole kissing aspect: "Kissing is
 rather special and it just would not feel right, physically, to be
 kissing so many people in a given day or week! "
 
 I have read something like this before, regarding prostitutes who refuse
 to kiss because it is "too intimate", and some even refusing face-to-face
 intercourse for similar reasons. Do you think this has to do more with
 perhaps an avoidance of *eye* contact, rather than one of simple lip
 contact? Do johns try to avoid eye contact? Eyes are, perhaps, a person's
 most distinctive feature -- "mirror of the soul" and all that --  and it
 seems to me that is a way in which one would distance one's self in what
 would ordinarily be very intimate contact.
 
  

    

Response 39 scribbled and reposted by request of the e-mail sender who
asked that his .sig info be removed.
  

    
Q: "It seems that you live with the illegality of your actions by
believing that they should be legal."

A: Not exactly. I do believe the laws should change. However, I also
think prostitutes in this culture should be emotionally prepared for
illegality. If you go into the sex trade, you need to be strong enough
to handle everything from hatred to illegality -- two very different
things, because one is emotional and the other official. That's also
the conflict between the more traditional pros and the new age activist
pros, between girls like Jasmine and girls like Allison. Jasmine
thinks that any hooker who can't handle being illegal is an amateur.
Allison, however, wants to make the world a safer place for the
"amateurs."

Q:"How do you live with the ethical problems involved, for example,
having sex with other womens' husbands? Does it ever keep you
awake at night?"

Yes, that is to say: most hookers are forced to ask themselves some
very tough questions about sexual fidelity. I don't think the question
is ever resolved -- especially if you're a working girl who has herself
experienced marriage, love, jealousy or sexual complication. Many call
girls have a double standard -- like straying guys who want to believe
their women are faithful. 

One approach is to face the fact that my own partner might have sex
with a professional. Live by the sword, etc. As a former pro, that
doesn't bother me -- not much. But it *would* bother me if his sexual
straying were the result of unhappiness in the marriage -- and perhaps
I would still prefer not to know about it, even if it were just a
diversion. 

Call girls and madams view men as commodities and we generally see
wives as the ultimate owners -- a prostitute who might sell a client to
another or "steal" a client from a madam would still shy away from
doing anything to remotely piss off his wife. This is regarded as
sacred territory. 




  How do you live with the
ethical problems involved, for example, having sex
with other womens' husbands? Does it ever keep you
awake at night?
  

    
Sorry about the bad cut and paste job above! 

Q: "Do you think [the taboo against kissing] has to do more with
 perhaps an avoidance of *eye* contact, rather than one of simple lip
 contact? Do johns try to avoid eye contact?"

It's true -- there are sexual positions and activities which do not
involve a lot of face-to-face contact, and these are popular in the
profession. In fact, I'll admit that this topic makes me slightly
uncomfortable because eye contact is such a personal matter! (But that
is not to say it should be avoided; I am just "sharing" as the
fictional Allison might say.) 

There are different forms of eye contact. I would say that johns and
hookers specialize in the more playful variety. It's not possible to
avoid it completely -- that would be creepy! Sex between commercial
partners can be warm and friendly, rather than deep and romantic. A
prostitute continues to flirt throughout the sex act -- making the kind
of eye contact that a woman might make from across a crowded room. But
she's in bed. Lovers do not often do this if they are deeply involved.
(Do they?) 
  

    

To me it just sounds like how you behave when at work, being different
from how you behave when you're not at work.  I think it applies, to a
greater or lesser degree, whatever the profession.  You draw the line
where you feel its comfortable and then stay on your side.

Changing the subject a little bit, I'd like to mention that I have gotten
an e-mail taking me to task for having this interview at "a time like
this."  Perhaps I'm just more open-minded than most, but it sure seems to
me that if we are to get on with life, then sex, no matter with whom you
have it, it certainly a part of life, and should be gotten on with.

I'd be interested to know if you have any reply to that, Tracy, or if
anyone else feels like they want to weigh in on the subject.
  

    
Tracy and I actually talked about that on the afternoon of the 11th.
Not whether it would be appropriate to talk about sex, but whether it
would be appropriate to talk about anything at all besides the
attack.  While it is obviously still on everyone's mind, my call
then and now was that life goes on.
  

    

I think that was a good call.  The best things one can do at a time
like this are to (a) give to an appropriate charity, and (b) refuse
to let recent events destroy all life as we know it.
  

    
I think drsmith is right and a person has to be productive to be
philanthropic. So, those of us who are feeling cheerful enough and
stable enough to get on with our lives really must! My work, at
present, is about making people aware of my book. I cannot contribute
anything to society if I cease to be productive and I am acutely aware
of this!

I'm all for shutting down activities or discussions for legitimate
*security* reasons -- if they want to close theatres and restaurants
and have a curfew or a black-out for reasons of military security, I
will certainly cooperate. But there is no reason to stop playing
cheerful music or dealing with sexual reality if it's just a symbolic
gesture to people's feelings about a catastrophic event. When I lived
in London there were bombs going off and people got killed -- but the
theatres didn't cease to function, people just had to deal with it. And
the prostitutes didn't stop working, either because like everybody
else they had a living to make. 

It is not as if I am lying in a hospital with half my arm blown off.
Nor have I been laid off by an airline and nor do I have to apply for
government aid to get back on my feet after seeing my home turned into
rubble. 

In fact, I feel a bit of guilt about letting my productivity and
promotion of my book go off-course for about ten days after the
catastrophe when other people are truly devastated. I did lose some of
my concentration and so did other friends of mine who are freelancers
-- and sex workers. We have to be very self-motivated. New York is
filled with such people, by the way, people who work hard at some
freelance endeavor. I think that point of view -- no frivolity or humor
or naughty sex "at a time like this" -- is the minority viewpoint in
New York right now. Our entertainment economy -- restaurants, bars,
theatres, fashionable clothing, commercial sex --is very important to
our survival!
  

    

Tracy, you never did answer my question about Web advertising and outreach
to new clients. As you recall, my prediction was that Jasmine and Allison
would move to the Web (for different reasons!), but that Nancy wouldn't.
Am I right about this?
  

    
Perhaps the profession is more ethical when the workers aren't forced
into it by pimps and panderers?
  

    
No, I think Allison might be tempted but she's not really tough enough
to go online and screen out all those guys -- it takes a certain kind
of nerve to advertise, similar to the nerve required to work on the
street. Allison is too suburban and soft to deal with all that.

Jasmine would never advertise because she's a former drug dealer --
she knows too much about the dangers of getting busted. Jasmine
realizes she could be subject to all sorts of ramped up charges due to
interstate activity and goodness knows what else if she picked up
clients on the Web. Instead, she would invest in another black book --
or buy a ticket to a high-profile charity event where she could collect
business cards from the wealthier donors ... a practice she promotes
in the novel, when she tries to turn Nancy into *her* sidekick. (Author
note: To no avail.)

As for Nancy, she might shy away from the Web for aesthetic reasons. 
Those escort ads on the Web with the faces blanked out and the gals in
their come-hither outfits give poor Nancy the creeps! There is
something grotesque and deeply unfeminine about these faceless bodies
-- this is not a stylish approach to secrecy, in Nancy's view. Before
there was a Web, Nancy worked for a dubious operation that advertised
elsewhere. She took her share of risks as a teenager and now she wants
her life to be as pretty as possible.