2002-11-20 � Brilliant

The sexually liberated student putting herself through college working as an escort has become something of a cliche. The old prostitute stereotype�a drug addiction, tenth-grade education, track marks, bad skin, a dozen STDs, an abusive boyfriend�has been replaced by this newer, more user-friendly stereotype. Patronizing a prostitute seems a little less opportunistic if your money is helping to put someone through school, which will ultimately get her out of the business altogether. So I was a little disappointed to find that Emily, the New York City escort I rented my first night in town, was not a film student at Columbia or getting her master's in social work at New York University. She was, Emily said, "just a ho."

"I find that putting-myself-through-college line tedious," said Tracy Quan, author of the novel Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and a member of Prostitutes of New York (PONY), an advocacy group that is seeking to decriminalize prostitution. "Most of the pros I've known were not going to college," said Quan. "Most of the pros are materialistic, very attractive girls who liked to shop."

Savage, Dan, Skipping Towards Gomorrah 264-65 (2002).

I had to read that passage three times before I fully grasped the entirety of it. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Posted at 2:48 p.m.

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