If former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer had only had affair with that woman "Karen," he would not have been charged with a crime. However, in a bizarre spin of capitalist theory, because he paid for her services - whether it was $50 or $5,000 makes no difference - he could be sent to prison, not for fucking her, but for paying his debt to her.
Had it been a romantic date rather than a business transaction, it would have been perfectly legal for him to give her a costly piece of jewelry, take her out for a gourmet dinner, take her to see a high-priced Broadway play on opening night, and then fuck her. That way, he wouldn't have been busted for committing the victimless crime of renting a female body for the evening.
Usually, it's the chintzy street whore or the expensive call girl who gets arrested, not her client, but this was an unusual case. In the same Washington, D.C., hotel room in which Spitzer would spitz around with Karen, he had just written, in a Washington Post opinion piece about the subprime loan tragedy, that "not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye."
In fact, Spitzer had flown to Washington to launch a campaign to attack the arrogant Bush cabal and the arrogant corporations that empower them. In his Washington Post opinion piece, he wrote, "When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts the devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners, the Bush administration will not be judged favorably." Thus, the real motivation for Spitzer's arrest becomes clear.
But let's flash back to 1974. My friend Margo St. James, who once gave me a handjob in a porn theater while wearing a nun costume, organized the first Hookers Ball, which became an annual event. She founded the legendary prostitutes' rights organization, COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), the purpose of which has evolved into the celebration of International Sex Worker Rights Day, an unofficial holiday that originated in 2001, when more than 25,000 sex workers gathered in India for such a festival.
Since critics of the porn industry have equated adult-movie actresses with prostitutes because they both get paid for having sex, I thought it would be appropriate to seek Margo's take on that. After all, she was a pioneer in sex-worker activism.
"The Internet porn industry seems to be made up of amateurs, but the topic serves well as advertising for the real thing," she said. "Porn was legalized by case law. Although it fits the description of sex work, it is usually operated by third parties, mostly men. This seemed OK because there isn't sex between two parties for money. Though there are many people having sex together for the cameras, the porn actors are paid by a third party.
"Legalization of sex work in the de facto way our culture has developed it - under the heading of ‘massage,' ‘escort' and so forth - keeps the illusion alive that women aren't doing it for the money directly. So when we discussed the issue at our conventions, we felt that actual legalization would simply make the government the pimp. Decriminalization, on the other hand, would respect the nature of sex, that of a cottage industry, leaving the money in the hands of the provider.
"The prostitution prohibition criminalizes women for the money, not the sex. The law is clear that adults in private can have all the sex they think they want, as long as no consideration is offered or accepted. This is the foundation for keeping women's bodies firmly in the control of the government, as far as their sexuality and right to choose to have children. As long as this stigma is placed on women, Roe vs. Wade is on shaky ground. This is the bottom line for women's rights, and repeal is imperative for full equality."
I always thought prostitutes were on the front lines of the women's movement. As long as police can harass a woman on the street because she looks like a hooker, they can hassle any woman on the street. Ultimately, because of what Margo St. James calls "prostitution prohibition," Eliot Spitzer probably has forever lost his ambition to become president of the United States. But the other half of his one-night stand, Karen, probably will get her own talk show on HBO or maybe even the Oxygen channel.
Paul Krassner's latest book, Porn Soup, a self-published collection of his columns for AVN Online, is available at PaulKrassner.com.
This feature initially appeared in the July 2008 issue of AVN Online magazine. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscriptions .
