I was sorting through an assortment of books I've read, packing them up to bring 'em back with me when I take a trip to my homeland when I realized that I have an inordinately large collection of stories/biographies on people in the business of "serving" people.
Am not really sure why I have a passion for working girl stories :P But I seem to like to read "true accounts" (in quotes cos I can't be completely sure the retelling is all true) tales of life as a high paid escort. Maybe it's because my own life is vanilla in comparison to these women who live life on the edge. The ones that I like to read about usually are in the profession because they enjoy it. I'm not completely sadistic to enjoy tales of other women suffering in the sex trade business. My fascination is with the women who CHOOSE to be in that line of work. And not the ones where they are beaten up by their pimp or are mainly high strung on drugs. The biographies I read mainly relate to how these girls operate. The prep, how their clients are vetted, what kind of work are in their repertoire, those kind of things. Mainly these women work through an agency which are usually, in their retelling, managed by women.
I don't think it's my inner working girl that enjoys the salaciousness of the stories but mainly an avidly morbid curiosity of what drives these women to do the work that they do. There are two authors, both having worked/are still working in the business, who I enjoy reading. Belle Du Jour, who I think is the original working girl turned writer, and another one who goes by the name Miss S.
Belle Du Jour's book is titled "Belle Du Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl". Her story even inspired a TV series called "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" starring Billie Piper. When this book was first printed, there was an uproar (which is always great for book sales). People protested the release of her book, calling it a glorification of the skin trade when many other women, most forced, were not facing the life Belle talks about. From my perspective, yea, it may seem like she's making the life of a working girl to be glam and just like any other service related job. What I think a lot of people fail to see is that not everyone is forced to go into the business. Some of them actually enjoy the job. And that's part of my interest in stories like Belle's. For my whole existance, I've been fed the impression that all women in the sex trade are being taken advantage of but to see a whole different side where there are those who are willingly going about doing this job is something I find completely weird. Which is why I read their stories. And all I can come up with is they do the job because they like it.
Miss S has two published works: "Confessions of A Working Girl" and "Extra Confessions of A Working Girl". She started out in a working house/salon/brothel in one of the bigger towns in England, Manchester or something but in the second book had decided to move to London. Her story is slightly more varied. She gives the readers a background to why and how she got started in the sex trade. You follow her footsteps from being just a small town working girl to high-priced London escort. In between she did various other jobs related to the industry, stripping and whatnot.
Reading these books doesn't make me wanna chuck in my life and go join them. Nor do they make me feel disgusted by the lifestyle they have chosen. I know some people might think that I'm trying to fill voids in my life by living vicariously through other people's experiences. When I read books, especially those that have a biographical theme to them, I just read to see what other people's lives are like. Not particularly to absorb their experiences and go out and make some of my own but just a curiosity to know. I'm pretty satisfied with the place I'm in. My life might not be all high-charged sexy work but it's not completely vanilla nor is it too much of an exotic flavour that you can't take it. It's a finely balanced sundae :) And even if it is so, that I am void-filling, I say why not. Why not live through other people's eyes?
Am not really sure why I have a passion for working girl stories :P But I seem to like to read "true accounts" (in quotes cos I can't be completely sure the retelling is all true) tales of life as a high paid escort. Maybe it's because my own life is vanilla in comparison to these women who live life on the edge. The ones that I like to read about usually are in the profession because they enjoy it. I'm not completely sadistic to enjoy tales of other women suffering in the sex trade business. My fascination is with the women who CHOOSE to be in that line of work. And not the ones where they are beaten up by their pimp or are mainly high strung on drugs. The biographies I read mainly relate to how these girls operate. The prep, how their clients are vetted, what kind of work are in their repertoire, those kind of things. Mainly these women work through an agency which are usually, in their retelling, managed by women.
I don't think it's my inner working girl that enjoys the salaciousness of the stories but mainly an avidly morbid curiosity of what drives these women to do the work that they do. There are two authors, both having worked/are still working in the business, who I enjoy reading. Belle Du Jour, who I think is the original working girl turned writer, and another one who goes by the name Miss S.
Belle Du Jour's book is titled "Belle Du Jour: The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl". Her story even inspired a TV series called "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" starring Billie Piper. When this book was first printed, there was an uproar (which is always great for book sales). People protested the release of her book, calling it a glorification of the skin trade when many other women, most forced, were not facing the life Belle talks about. From my perspective, yea, it may seem like she's making the life of a working girl to be glam and just like any other service related job. What I think a lot of people fail to see is that not everyone is forced to go into the business. Some of them actually enjoy the job. And that's part of my interest in stories like Belle's. For my whole existance, I've been fed the impression that all women in the sex trade are being taken advantage of but to see a whole different side where there are those who are willingly going about doing this job is something I find completely weird. Which is why I read their stories. And all I can come up with is they do the job because they like it.
Miss S has two published works: "Confessions of A Working Girl" and "Extra Confessions of A Working Girl". She started out in a working house/salon/brothel in one of the bigger towns in England, Manchester or something but in the second book had decided to move to London. Her story is slightly more varied. She gives the readers a background to why and how she got started in the sex trade. You follow her footsteps from being just a small town working girl to high-priced London escort. In between she did various other jobs related to the industry, stripping and whatnot.
Reading these books doesn't make me wanna chuck in my life and go join them. Nor do they make me feel disgusted by the lifestyle they have chosen. I know some people might think that I'm trying to fill voids in my life by living vicariously through other people's experiences. When I read books, especially those that have a biographical theme to them, I just read to see what other people's lives are like. Not particularly to absorb their experiences and go out and make some of my own but just a curiosity to know. I'm pretty satisfied with the place I'm in. My life might not be all high-charged sexy work but it's not completely vanilla nor is it too much of an exotic flavour that you can't take it. It's a finely balanced sundae :) And even if it is so, that I am void-filling, I say why not. Why not live through other people's eyes?
