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Page 4-Sunday; April: 9Athe Michigan Daily
prostitute
The Michigan Daily-Sunday,
(Continued from Page 3)
this point, I've been in it long enough
that they're always sorry when they try
to give me a hard time, because I've got
a mouth that'll make that thing droop,
and it'll never rise again if they don't
watch out. They're so damn psycho-
logically vulnerable that as soon as
they start saying something they stop
real quick. If they're a lot bigger than
me, I won't get myself up on the bed
with them. It doesn't scare me. But
some people are really filthy with their
mouths-I can be definitely grossed-out
by some of these guys.
Ernst-I think that in terms of
vulnerability and violence, it's really
tied to what class you are in the pro-
fession. Like the streetwalkers, who
of course are much more exposed and
vulnerable, experiencing much more
rape and attack.
Daily-Most feminists view pimps as
exploitative and abusive figures. Have
you ever worked for a pimp, and what's
your view of them?
Denise-I know guys that wanted to
pimp for me. It's not a bad situation
always. If I had a pimp that just wanted
to get customers and make some
money out of it, not someone who con-
trolled my whole life, all my finances, it
might make it easier for me to work.
But I don't need a pimp. I have enough
customers. The stereotypical pimp-
prostitute relationship is not that muclh
different from the sex roles in straight
society anyways-where a wife gets
certain kinds of protection and security
from her husband but still often gets
abused.
Daily-Who are your customers
generally?
Denise-Most of the customers that I
have are your middle-class average
citizen businessman type, that has a
home and a family and doesn't want
to get emotionally involved with
another woman, yet has the ego need
to be with another woman.
Daily-What "straight" jobs have
your worked in and how do they com--
pare with prostitution?
Denise-I was a waitress for two
years and I find that now I'm doing less
ass-kissing and making a hell of a lot
more money. I'm a lot more direct: I'm
not as servile, as smiley; I don't play
cutesy. I'm nice, but that's the way I
always want to be unless somebody
gives me a reason not to be. You sell
yourself in both jobs but in prostitution
you're not selling yourself cheap. You
don't hope for a tip, you're guaranteed
the money; it's less wear and tear on
the body. When I combine the facts that
I work two hours a week and make good
money, I feel powerful.
Daily-How conscious are prostitutes
generally of sex roles, from what
you've seen and know?
Ernst-I think a lot of prostitutes,
just like many other women in this
society, still have fairly conservative
attitudes and views about their sex
roles. In general, they may have a bet-
ter working knowledge about the kind
of filth that men can lower themselves
to. But that is not put in any kind of a
political context.
Daily-Can you create an awareness
among prostitutes of sex roles, of ex-
ploitative male-female relationships,
while these women remain in the
business?
Ernst-The only way you can do that
is to have the view that the service the
prostitute is providing is valid work.
Feminists fall into two groups
basically. One retains the viewpoint
that- the work would not exist ideally.
Others, including myself, feel that even
under the best circumstances it's valid
work that serves a useful function, and
there will be always a need for it. There
are so many customers-now mostly
men, but it could apply to women
also-that have needs that can't be
fulfilled by their partners. And a lot of
people, of course, don't even have par-
tners. But even those who do, maybe
work because-it fills a real need. Still,
one might argue that those "needs"
are really egotistical demands men im-
pose on women, -that stem from the
myth that men must satisfy their every
sexual impulse. Does this bother you?
Denise-Dealing with my customers,
I can begin to understand dominance
and submission, and how those ex-
tremes can be a real positive thing for
doesn't have nearly so much to do with
health concerns asit does with concer-
ns for intimacy. They just don't like the
idea of the skin against the skin. They
prefer to maintain that distance.
Daily-How do you, Denise, feel
about the men you've dealt with?
Denise-For me it has been an ex-
perience that has produced tolerance,
dealing with men in a situation where
A fresh force
stirs the politics
of prostitution
By Pauline Toole
fib
---
Reprinted from The Politics of Prostitution, by per. of Social Research Assoc.
they have a need for variety, maybe
they have a need for a kind of activity
that their partner doesn't care to sup-
ply, or they don't want to ask their par-
tner to supply. Things that are consid-
ered more exotic, you know, whether
it's oral sex or anal sex, or game play-
ing, fantasy playing, a little sado-
masochism-those are the usual kinds
of things that people can't get in their
"stable" relationships. There's also a
great attraction for anonymous sex.
First of all there are a lot of advan-
tages. There are no ties. You can have
your physiological and even emotional
needs met, though no other obligations
are require of you. Plus it's a titillation
and a high for a lot of people, the whole
phenomenon of anonymous sex-the
stranger in the night-it's a fun little
game.
Now many feminists believe that it's
an unfortunate aspect of our society
that prostitution exists. They believe
that we should decriminalize it, and
relieve the inequities the prostitute is
subject to, but they essentially look
forward to a time when no one is a
prostitute-then there's no way you
could set about to inculcate feminism
among prostitutes. I mean, your goal
would be to get them out of prostitution.
I think that what's going to happen is,
theoretically, as society becomes less
sexist then the business is going to
reflect that. More and more men will
become employed as providers of the
service and there will be more and
more women coming as customers.
Daily-You say prostitution is valid
someone to experience. Men have
always got to be so "butch" all the
time. But when they get with a hooker,
a lot of times they'll get into this sub-
missive stuff, being the slave.
God, so many of my customers want
me to dominate them. They want me to
tell them what to do. You know they
want to find one place in their life where
they can let go and be this whole other
thing, let this whole other side of them
out. That's not perverted.-
With a prostitute, a person doesn't
have to be embarrassed about a lot of
things that they're embarrassed about
with somebody else, because they don't
know you. I remember this one guy, he
got divorced from his wife. He didn't
want a divorce, and she had said some
stuff about his lovemaking. It wasn't so
easy for him to get it up all of a sudden.
So when he came to me, most of what I
did with him was talking, just trying to
get him to relax and take the pressure
off, let him know that it was perfectly
understandable, what he was going
through, and that there wasn't anything
wrong with it. We definitely get a lot of
people like that, who can't get it up to
perform. That's why I think there's so
much of this oral stuff, they don't have
to get it up for themselves, they have it
gotten up and off for them. They can
have it done to them for once.
Ernst-And most prostitutes prefer
doing orals, because it's not so in-
timate. That's a lot of what prostitution
is, oral stuff.
Denise--That's the majority.
Ernst-Frequently prostitutes insist
on using condoms when they do fuck. It
they really do let down, where in cer-
tain ways they're themselves, where
they don't have to put up a false front. I
know them, I know men. Therefore
they're not big Daddy over me. I've had
to learn how to deal with them in a way
I wanted to and it's made me strong, a
lot less likely to be intimidated by them
in a face-to-face encounter. They've
lost a lot of their psychological power.
Ernst-Going back to what Denise
said about how she helped this guy: the
point is all women have got to go out
there and make money in some way,
and most'of us are going to be dealing
with me, either providing a service or
interrelating with them in our jobs. And
most of us have a need to feel that we
are doing a good job. Hookers need to
feel pride in what they do. Yet when
you're talking about the work of
prostitution, suddenly it's not the same
anymore. We don't have the right, ac-
cording to feminists, to feel that we are
doing a good job.
Daily-Along with having real needs,
don't many customers have illusions
about what a prostitute 0 and what she
can do for them?
Ernst-Most of the customers do not
have the illusion that they're some
great godsend and that the prostitutes
are falling all over them.
Denise-But they have a lot of
illusions that they want to hang onto.
And when we come out saying what it
really is, about it being a job and how
we feel about it, a lot of them are going
to be upset. I know how my customers
are. Like this one I've got right now,
See PROSTITUTE. Page 8
HORE. MARGO St. James
doesn't flinch from the label.
In fact, she readily admits to
it and exploits it for all it's worth.
The convivial former prostitute is the
perfect politician-she hustles a little of
everyone. Fundraiser, theoretician,
bargainer, leader; all of these are
talents she combines in striving towar-
ds her goals: organizing prostitutes and
working for the decriminalization of
their trade. She has become one of the
nation's most widely recognized
feminists. Margo St. James, the tall,
dark-haired ex-hooker extraordinaire.
"Men are so fearful of their
domination rights being removed that,
historically, they set up little clubs-
exclusive clubs that say 'no foreigners,
no women.' The Elks, the Moose, all of
those things. That's why I called it
'COYOTE'," St. James explains,
describing the history of her
prostitutes' rights organization in an
Ann Arbor speech last week.
She sounded a bit like the passionate
labor organizers of old; perhaps a
Mother Jones or a Lucy Stone just a few
generations ahead of her time. Those
women were called rabble rousers and
immoral, and the same charges have
been leveled at St. James.
"You need regulation from within in-
stead of from outside. That's the crux of
it. You have to control your vagina. You
have to control your business-have the
say in what's going to happen," St.
James said emphatically. Blunt words,
perhaps, but it was these kinds of ideas
that captivated audiences during her
recent swing through southeastern
Michigan, where she was the star of a
huge media blitz sponsored by
COYOTE's sister organization, the Ann
Arbor-based group Alley Cat.
She glittered in her role. Speaking as
often as three times a day, with in-
numerable working sessions squeezed
between engagements, she radiated
strength at times when most other
people would have experienced an
energy lag.
Now 41 years old, St. James began
organizing prostitutes five years ago,
when she -founded COYOTE (an
acronym for Call Off Your Old Tired
Ethics), originally an organization of
San Francisco prostitutes. COYOTE
was the forerunner of what is now a
nationwide network of affiliates, all
working - diligently to remove
prostitutes from the dirty joke, hushed
tones status they have long been forced
to endure.
St. James enjoys a reputation as a
tough woman-a woman willing to fight
the powers that be ranging from the
more traditionbound feminists to
Congressmen. In the words of Florence
Kennedy, another noted activist, she's
Pauline Toole is a Daily staff
writer.
a woman with "taste and brains," and
hard as nails besides.
I'd heard about her, read her writings
and seen movies of her in action. When
she finally arrived in Ann Arbor, I was
far from disappointed with the real life
St. James. She more than lives up to her
long-cultivated image, and adds to her
personal style by using the salty ver-
nacular of the trade-hooker, trick,
whore-in everyday conversation. It is,
perhaps, an attempt to remove the
stigma associated with these terms.
The press has not always treated St.
James kindly, and I sensed a coldness,
a wariness in her when I was introduced
as a reporter. The media identification
built a shadowy barrier between us,
regardless of my personal politics.
On the Sunday I first encountered her
she was conducting a session on femin-
ism and prostitution at East Quad. Thirty .
people gathered in a scruffy lounge to
see a movie on prostitution and to hear
St. James speak.
"The exploitation that I see feminists
complaining about is that all women
are exploited for being sex objects,"
she *began explaining. "That ex-
ploitation is predicated on the fact that
women don't receive any renumeration
for that capitalization on their bodies."
She leaned back against a wall, a
trace of a smile upon her lips, perfectly
at ease in her role.
"This is where' prostitution is dif-
ferent. That is why it is illegal. The law
is set up to keep the money from getting
directly into the woman's hands. It's set
up so the middle people can get the
money.
"The act itself is not against the law.
Talking about it and agreeing to take
the money is the crime. So when you
look at it, it's not the sex that's
prohibited per se, it's the woman taking
the money-that's the issue." N
ST. JAMES embodies all the
attributes of a successful poli-
tician. Both witty and dynamic,
she is willing to play the power games
demanded by the women's movement,
while at the same time maintaining an
ebullient sense of humor which
frequently flashes through her
discussions of feminist politics. At one
point she delighted the assembled
crowd with a parody of a typical repor-
ter-St. James exhange.
"Are you still working?" she
questioned herself, imitating an unper-
ceptive male reporter.
"Am I still working, they ask, even
after I've given them a five page bio
detailing my life. 'Where in the world
would I have the time? It's not
feasible'," she continued, patiently an-
swering the imaginary reporter.
"Weeeeeel, maybe you moonlight,
just a little bit you moonlight," she
wheedles in a dry, high-pitched voice,
once again mocking the questioner.
"I'm too old," St. James finally con-
Margo St. James
cluded, and returned to the more
serious topics at hand.
Only recenlty has her outlook on
prostitution begun to find acceptance
among feminists. In an essay entitled
"The Hooker," ex-prostitute and
movement activist Ellen Strong echoes
and summarizes the views held by
women like St. James:
"From the time a girl is old enough to
go to school, she begins her education in
the basic principles of hustling. In
reality, all the hustler has done is
eliminate the flowery speeches and put
things where they're really at. Without
the games, she will trade what is
regarded as a commodity anyway, for
what she wants. All the prostitute has
done is eliminate the bullshit."
Until very recently most feminists
denounced prostitution as being
denigrating- and going against the
tenets of the movement. Today more
agree with Strong's assessment of the
prostitutes' role-working women, up
front and straightforward about the ex-
ploitation women face. Now feminists
and hookers from coalitions around the
issue, and prostitutes are increasingly
considered a valid part of the female
work force. Organizations like
COYOTE have brought these women
out of the dark corners of society.
HIS IS NOT to say that the
subject of prostitution does not
still evoke snickers and nervous
smiles from many people unwilling to
abandon the old morality.
Behind that nervousness lies uncer-
tainty. Four years ago, Margo St.
James would never have received the
attention or respect which the media
accorded her on last week's trip to
Michigan. She and her organization
have both gained political legitimacy.
Support for decriminalization is begin-
ning to come from such unexpected
allies as state governments and the
Catholic Church, including the
American Council of Catholic Nuns.
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