Reader Summer James writes:
This Saturday, as I was lazily flipping through a copy of the Desert Companion I normally enjoy so much, I happened across a very hateful article entitled "The G-string theory of Vegas girlhood" by Corey Levitan. My eyes were drawn to the article, it had a flashy pink stylized photography employing barbie dolls, intended to make a "raunchy" photo safe for publication in DC. Sensing the article's pertinence to me, I began reading through Mr. Levitan's pestiferous account of sex work and sex workers, and their seemingly zombie-like infectious attack on the impressionable youth of Las Vegas. Mr. Levitan begins his account with a misogynistic description of some woman that he assumes to be a sex worker, painfully indicating that there is no way she's "patent lawyer" because of tired eyes and perfume clouds. I take it that like many people, Levitan has some extraordinarily biased and misinformed ideas about sex work, and especially about sex workers. Since I rarely see anything written from the side of those who actually do sex work in Las Vegas, which includes, amoung other things, escorting, porn work, go-go dancing, stripping, nude modeling, phone sex operations, web cam modeling and prostitution; I thought I'd write in order to dispel the myths and outright nasty claims made about sex workers that are clearly so commonplace that they were printed unobjectionably in place where thousands and thousands of sex workers reside. Claim 1: We're all dirty "skeezeballs" as Levitan so eloquently puts it in his article. Sitting with my circle of friends, who largely happen to be sex workers, myself included, I note that the vast majority of us, well, we look like regular people. We aren't marching down the street in spandex and vinyl, we're in fact dressed rather conservatively. None of us are advertising sex on our person in any fashion, we look, act, and carry-on like normal, everyday women, because, of course, we are. Notably, we're largely students, using the money we earn from sex work to finance our education in a time where the economy is less than fruitful and in a place where minimum wage jobs won't begin to pay our rent, let alone for an education. Several of my friends are currently using sex work to finance their Ph.D. studies, and I have used the money I make, ( doing a job I enjoy, for the record) to finish my bachelor's and begin my master's degree program, debt-free. Yep, debt-free, and damn that feels good. Most notably, at a time when boatloads of millennials are returning home to live with their parents $40,000 in debt, I opened a retirement account with a local bank several years ago, so that I will be able to continue to invest in my future. Claim 2: We are non-contributors to society, we make the world a less desirable place to live in, the town a less desirable place to be, and generally contribute to a sleazy atmosphere in Las Vegas. I cannot speak for all sex workers in this case, but the women I know who are sex workers spend a disproportionate amount of time contributing to their communities. We tend to have a larger amount of free time, and more flexible work hours, and I find that with it, I spend a large portion of my week volunteering. Often on Saturday mornings, I am delivering groceries to home-bound seniors in the valley, and offering my free Tuesdays and sometimes Thursdays at the Rescue Mission. I am an ardent supporter of KNPR public radio, The Animal Foundation, and food initiatives in the valley like Three Square. Two of my good friends, also sex workers, spend their free Saturdays helping shelter pets to get adopted, and another sex worker friend in the valley spends her time volunteering for homeless youth rescue initiatives. Some women who do sex work tend to spend their extra free time (if they have it) with their children or helping their families; I see this probably just as often. We are here, in your community, and we want to see the valley thrive and grow. We want to see our communities become better places; after all, this our home too. I know many people want to put us in this little box, to make us all the same, but, we're probably not who you think we are, and largely, your perceptions of us are mostly likely wrong. Claim 3: We're all amoral, unfit single mothers, because as Levitan puts it, "What stripper isn't a single mother?" Of the women I know who are sex workers and mothers, there are few. Some of us a married (gasp!) and others are single. What I do know is that all of the sex worker mothers I know aren't keen on "luring" your children into doing sex work. In fact, I guarentee your precious little one goes to school with someone who's mother is a sex worker, and not only do you not know it, but you never will, because there are no sex-workers who don't fear extraordinary discrimination from the public at large. We take great measures to conceal our identities, to hide ourselves and maintain a high level of decorum in public, for fear that someone might suspect us of being lascivious, and mothers do this double time. This is a promise I can make to you, we're not trying to convince anyone's kids to become sex workers, we're just trying to live our lives, and if anything, we tend to do so unobtrusively. Though these types of paranoid thoughts might just be strange fantasies in Corey Levitan's misogynistic mind, as he attacks "tramp stamps" and even a seemingly innocent "butterfly ankle tattoo" in his misguided and fear-mongering article. Many parts of Levitan's article published in the May Desert Companion under the Family section are plainly misguided and misogynistic complaints from a person who instead of just keeping their children away from what they deem to be morally inappropriate want to complain about their existence-- not unlike those who constantly remonstrate about the content tevelsion programs but don't monitor what their children are watching. Levitan alludes to sex work being the reason Nevada is ranked so low on the list of "desirable places to raise children"-- but I would guess it has more to do with Nevada having one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country, not to mention the nearly 20% (19.4%) of urban Las Vegans living in abject poverty. Lastly, I'd like to add that women who do sex work deserve your respect. They are everyday people in your community. They are mothers, volunteers, community advocates; and they are also just people trying to do their jobs. I'm not telling you that every sex worker is a great person, I am however letting you know that setting these ill-informed misogynist stereotypes for us is plainly bigotry. Unfortunately, your children will grow up, there is nothing you can do to stop that. They might partake in sex work, or they might partake in enjoying sex workers, as obviously many people do, it could absolutely happen, and as adults they have the right to do with their own bodies whatever they wish. We all deserve autnomy to make our own choices in life; and I know you want the same freedom for your children. The indications that my parents were somehow substandard, (they weren't) or that I am some sleazeball for partaking in a job I enjoy, make a very good living from, and have used to finance my education and dreams, is just beyond disrespectful. Frankly, Mr. Levitan, I think that you or anyone would be very, very lucky to have a daughter that turned out as well as I have; one as well-read, well-traveled and well-educated as I am, one who has made her own way and paid for it all by herself to boot. As much as you might want to make me into some terrible, moral-less person creating an atmosphere of sleaze, I am not that woman. I am sex worker, and I am an upstanding member of the community, your community and mine, and I am here to stay.