A few final remarks...I'm amused, in a rather cynical way, how much more outraged people who aren't sex workers have been over the Eliot Spitzer issue than those of us who are. I'm hearing a lot about the hypocrisy!

Yeah, that's true. But that's the way the game is played, you know? I don't expect any different from a politician and an officer of the court.

I simply hope that giving that NYT interview nets the girl involved, "Kristen", the recording contract she's so clearly after.

I was masochistic enough to read the threads about this on a few feminist blogs, and good lord, I had to close the window and go do some deep breathing. Such a maddening combination of prostitutes are dirty whores whose lives should be made as unpleasant as possible AND/OR prostitutes are deluded victims who need to be protected from themselves whether they like it or not. The truly talented people are the ones who can hold both positions at the same time, switching deftly from one to the other as necessary. And don't bother trying to tell them there's another option, because look, they have statistics to back this up!

Oh, statistics? Oh well, all right then, those of us who actually are sex workers will sit down and shut up and let ya'll decide what we deserve, thank you ma'am. I do not even participate in such threads. I have learned through infuriating experience that this is not a discussion based in reason, it's based on ideology, and you will never argue an ideologue out of their position.

However, a pal sent me this little round-up of all the logical fallacies being bandied about. It was quite refreshing. (You'll have to click through a Salon ad, but it's worth it.)

EDIT: I see that the author of the article I linked to has linked back to me, how nice. Thank you, Glenn Greenwald.

I respect that he also linked to another piece with a different point of view than mine, that's what he should do. However, I am highly skeptical of this “Ruth Henderson” person. A lot of what she says about the behaviors of clients rings true enough, although it's nothing that hasn't been said before. But this part makes me shake my head.

And then one day, usually between the ages of 25 and 28, once they’d developed that knowing, experienced look that clients instinctively disliked, they found that themselves in a classic bind: they were addicted to high living but could no longer pay for it; they had no marketable skills...

She's saying that at 28, a woman is too old to be marketable as a sex worker anymore. And that's about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Who the hell was she booking for, Barely Legal Lolitas? I myself am definitely over 28. And I am doing just fine, as are all the sex workers I know - and that's a lot - most of whom are also over 28. What an absurd thing to put forth...