Jeannette Angell: Callgirl (Confessions of an Ivy League Lady of Pleasure)

Harper Paperbacks (Trade Paperback), ISBN 0-06-073605-4

You might pick this book up expecting a titillating read about what really happens when a guy phones a discreet service to hire the services of a callgirl for an hour or two, and you'll not be disappointed. You'll also find a no-holds-barred scrutiny of the business of escort agencies -- panning from the kinds of women who work in the industry to the kinds of men who make the business so lucratively profitable. But you might not expect to find yourself taking a long hard look at your own preconceptions about the sex industry. You might also surprise yourself by considering seriously Angell's arguments in vindication of the role of the women who work in it.

Angell picks apart, too, the patriarchal underpinnings of societal attitudes and laws governing the sex work industry -- the kind of thinking that makes it illegal in some countries (of which my home, South Africa is one) to sell sex, but not illegal to purchase it. So that effectively a prostitute becomes the criminal and her client in the mutually agreed business deal becomes the "innocent" witness for her prosecution. You might also begin to wonder why people refer to male prostitutes as "rent" boys whereas the females in the industry "sell" their bodies.

You might find yourself wondering in what ways a prostitute who rents out of parts of her body for pleasurable commercial purpose might differ from a photographic model who rents out hers for ultimately the same use. You might wonder how a college professor who shares his brain for the edification of his science students differs from the model who shares her body for the teaching of students of fine art.

Whatever you do think or don't think after reading of this book -- be assured that you will most definitely be provoked into thinking.

Moira Richards

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