f ... A . Y .1 n _f -- . 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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