Great interview Matisse.

"but the reaction from the press has been so stereotypical, so reductive. They are always looking for the pat, easy "explanation." Their agenda seems to be writing off any woman who has sex.'
This is why I cannot stand this woman. "If you criticize me for having been a prostitute, then you are a prude/sex-negative/a hypocrite/anti-women's rights/need to get laid!!" No, Brooke, there are some legit reasons for people to not be cool with you prostituting. Promoting this image of women's bodies as potential commodities, letting all manner of people into your body (yes, pederasts, murderers and rapists included) for some bucks they won't miss and calling it "empowerment," etc... Sorry, many of us don't regard you as a rawk star.

when will this person's 15 minutes of "look at me look at me I'm so provocative!" spotlight-hogging be over? All she did was get desperate enough to sell It, then go on to sell her brand of vapid-cute dating advice books on the wave of her "celebrity", (a la what's her name, you know, that Spitzer woman, with her atrocious dance music....) Forget all the Bible-thumping,"sex=BAD" "nice girls don't do that" sentiment. Being a vagina for rent (or ass, or any other appendage that procures sperm for a few bucks)is pathetic. Making someone into a superhero for it, like all the Good Charlotte-listening, black fingernail polish sporting lil punk "feminists" are doing, is doubly pathetic. Really, I've yet to hear this woman say anything worthwhile.
(Jamie 7, don't know if you're male or female but you've hit just what it is that makes many women dislike her. She's profiting from an image of women that is not hers to sell, and she's promoted the same old chauvinistic status quo that non-prostitutes are really sick of dealing with. But, it allowed her to go knicker-shopping and get a degree, so screw everyone else.)
So, IMO, Brooke Magnanti- PhD or no- fails at life. (Yeah, and I get laid quite often and happily, thanks.)

Jealous much, Jamie_7 and Davina? No matter what you say, women who are happy and satisfied with their own lives don't have to spew such vitriol. The ladies doth protest too much, methinks.

Serious question: Why does Magnanti consider what she did "sex positive"? I know my standards for what is sex-positive don't fit everyone, but I'm going to posit what I view it as:

Honest and respectful. Magnanti aided and assisted men in cheating on their partners. She did it knowingly and even felt guilty at times, but did it anyway, because of... Money.

Mutually respectful. I'm sure some of her johns really did respect her, but I'm equally sure many of them "respected" her to ensure that they could stay on the good side of the agency and keep getting sex. If she were to tell some of her clients her ideals, opinions, and expectations, they would have told her "whatever, now bend over like I'm paying you to."

And finally, how is sex as a transaction ever positive... a profession that men control, reap only the benefits and never the consequences (I could be wrong on that, but I dont' see how) and feeds this never-ending, destructive appetite for more more more vagina.. and there will never be enough willing women to satisfy it. If that were the case, we wouldn't have human trafficking today. Let's face it, for many of the clients, if Belle wasn't available, a 15 year-old would have done just as well.

So, just my opinion,I really do welcome responses to set me straight on this.

--LD

Diva, that's pretty sad that you think that is a valid response to valid commentary. Insecure much? Perhaps you should work on your own satisfaction with your own life, and then you won't feel this need to throw out unthinking, lame stuff such as that.

Diva; REALLY lame response to valid commentary. If you aren't willing to accept the other side to this discussion, you might want to look at why you feel threatened to do so.

Oops, looks like my first comment to "Diva" posted after all... owned by the posting time lag.

Thanks for this interview.

I followed the BdJ blog and thought it charming and funny. But yeah, like other posters here I've found it harder and harder to have much respect for her. She's obviously loving the adoration of her fan club but does not seem to think she has to discuss the parts of prostitution that do not meld with Belle-world. (And no, it's not just girls forced into white slavery.)

Full disclosure: I've lived in prostitution-heavy areas and saw the toll that it took on my female neighbors. so my opinions tend toward the "any profession based on a hurtful view of any segment of society cannot be fixed" side, but I'm still up for talking about it. That's why BdJ disappoints me. I know there's been a lot of hysteria and stupid comments about her, but methinks she's willfully ignoring difficult arguments too. if Belle is just going to put her critics into the kind of categories that she accuses her detractors of putting her in, that's not "discussion," that's just doing the old in/out, collecting money, and thumbing your nose at everyone who doesn't say "you kick ass!"

I think she's saying it was an okay choice FOR HER. I've never read her as saying it's totally cool for everyone all the time. Just because something wouldn't be cool for you doesn't mean it isn't right for her. I am an individual and I am different from other people. So is everyone.

And yeah, I think women getting all catty and talking shit about some other woman because she's omigod a SLUT, and saying anyone who likes her is stupid equals *jealous*, even if you try to call it feminist.

I gave sex work a try this past year since I've been laid off from my regular work and haven't found another job yet. I thought I could do it because I love giving pleasure and am very sexual. However, the problem was that I couldn't screen the men out very well until sometimes after I had sucked their cocks. I didn't want to have sex with assholes cheating on their wives, but apparently I did. That was way too yucky for me and so I stopped doing it.

Women will never have equality as long as twits like Magnanti think it's fine that women's bodies can be ordered up like pizzas. Other people have to be women in this world besides you, Brooke. Don't think for a minute the majority of us support you in parading around your selfish bullshit as personal choice.

naughtynanny: you don't have to be a sex worker to have full cred to talk about prostitution. Being a woman who is affected by prostitution (or a man) is cred enough. The experience of sex work is not the issue here.

naughtynanny: oh yeah, Mary Magdalene was probably not a whore. BTW: I don't see anyone giving a low opinion of whore themselves, just the profession. I see mostly respectful criticism here.

Diva, read the comments you are responding to. No one called her a slut. I think you just want to see "slut" in their arguments so you have some righteous thing to argue.

Sorry folks, Brooke Magnanti is just another victim of the system, not a folk hero. No amount of glitter or advanced degrees will change that.

ha ha, just given this link via a friend and went over to see Belle's blog. Quite delusional. She says:
"When someone says:"Stories like this glamourise a trade that enslaves and kills women."...What they mean is:"I don't actually know the difference between the separate issues affecting call girls, massage parlours, brothels, and streetwalkers, and I'm not going to bother finding out."
No, they are exactly the same. It doesn't matter if it's in a back alley or a hotel where it is stamped "high class," the demand it caters too is the same... men looking at women as suppliers of on-demand sex they feel entitled to. And where do you think those men who cannot afford high class (often white) women go to? that's right, the traffiked-in brown girls from Ecuador, India, Africa.
What a fool this Magnanti woman is.

"When someone says:
"I wouldn't pay £300 for that."
What they mean is:
"I think a woman's value, sexual or otherwise, is entirely based on her looks."

Actually with prostitution, it pretty much is. What does she expect, 300 was paid for her discourse on Jane Austen? She needs to get off her cloud.