The Blowfish Blog

Caught in the Net: Oldest Profession

The internet forever changed the way people find prostitutes. You don’t have to drive around seedy parts of town with your windows down, or hear about a place from a frat brother, or read the ads in the back of the local free weekly rag, or visit shady massage parlors and hope for the best — anyone with an internet connection can find someone to love them (for a fee), and the professionals out there have a whole new way to reach potential clients.

But let’s say you’re lost, and don’t know how to begin — fortunately, sex expert Melissa Gira is here to help (at least if you’re in the tech corridor of California). Consider her simple instructions for how to get a Stanford girl to blow you, aimed especially at men more comfortable with compiling code than talking to girls. (Unsurprisingly, Craigslist is the key.)

The internet also provides a place for those in legally gray (or outright illegal) branches of sex work to talk frankly and, if necessary, anonymously about their experiences. Belle de Jour is the most famous example, an erudite call girl whose blog became a book (and whose book became a TV show starring erstwhile Doctor Who companion Billie Piper). A newer exemplar of the genre is Confessions of a College Callgirl, which includes write-ups about clients, interviews with people in assorted branches of the sex trade, and the usual personal bloggy stuff, all in a clear and often witty style.

Susannah Breslin of the legendary Reverse Cowgirl blog, has started a new project to give even more prostitutes a voice: Letters from Working Girls, featuring real letters from real working girls about their lives in the business. There are only three entries so far, but it’s fascinating reading. The same is true of companion blog Letters from Johns, which gives the men who pay for sex a place to talk about why they do so (and what it’s like). It’s great to find frank, anonymous discussion about a subject that is still largely taboo.

For those of you who prefer pictures to words (or at least like pictures to go along with your words), Susannah recently interviewed Peter S. Conrad, an artist who transforms the stories of sex workers into sad and beautiful comics. There are a few examples of his work in the interview.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, 13 February 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Caught in the Net. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.