With the recent economic downturn, businesses all over the US are suffering. But to further commodify women through the use of prostitution, legal Nevada pimp, Dennis Hof is offering his johns a “recession special.” The pimp asks the johns to bring in their tax rebate checks and spend it all at his brothel. The john will be sold twice the party for the usual price of one. Hof has titled this the “$1200 George Bush Party” which includes “three girls and a bottle of champagne.”

In plain English, this pimpspeak translates as follows. As the U.S. economy tanks, women are being sold for even less money than they were before. It is likely that women are now getting even less money than they are used to. Pimps always get their cut. Pimps don’t offer “their” women at cheaper rates out of the kindness of their hearts. While no harm is done to the pimp or the john, the woman is forced to sell her body at a discounted rate. The cheap rates are coming out of the women’s pockets, literally out of her body.

With the current high gas prices, johns just don’t want to make the hour-or-two long drive to a double-wide trailer that serves as a brothel located in the middle of a Nevada dessert. To make it easier and cost effective for the john, Hof is offering them an incentive. This incentive additionally harms the women in prostitution who are pressured to then sell sex at a discounted rate. Most women in legal brothel prostitution in Nevada already have to give 50% of their earnings to brothel owners and/or pimps as well as to tip out the cooks and taxi drivers who deliver the johns.

With an incentive like the one Hof is offering, it begs the question: what is this pimp all about and just what are his intentions?
– Blair, PRE Summer Intern 2008