I spoke with a public official this past week regarding the decriminalization of prostitution. When I talked with her, she told me she saw a TV show about a legal Nevada brothel. In this show, there was a man who was taking care of the girls who worked for him. She said that the girls looked really happy.
Three things bother me with this woman’s statements. One, she mentions a man who is taking care of his girls. Two, she is referring to what they do as work. And three, she is under the impression that these women are happy. I question whether selling human beings for sex can really be viewed as “taking care of”? It seems more along the lines of a human rights violation. If we look beneath the surface of all of this, we see that the women in prostitution are not happy. Has anyone asked the women how they really feel about the work they are doing? Here are a few quotes from women in Nevada brothels who talked to researcher Melissa Farley (Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections. Prostitution, Research, & Education, 2007) about what it was really like in brothels.
“From the moment you’re in one [legal brothel], you’re like a prisoner.”
“You have sex when they want, with whom they want, and it doesn’t matter how you feel or anything. You’re locked in a box for two weeks and guys come in and out.”
“The first words that come to mind are: degraded, dehumanized, used, victim, ashamed, humiliated, embarrassed, insulted, slave, rape, violated.”
The legal pimp that this public official was referring to is Dennis Hof, whose legal Nevada brothel is aired on HBO, a television company greedy enough to give him free advertising. Cathouse, which masquerades as a documentary, presents a distorted view of the legal system of prostitution in Nevada. Cathouse offers prostitution as a fun, career choice for girls and women while never looking at the downsides of prostitution or the grotesquely negative impacts it has on people’s consciousness.
Hof legitimizes the exploitation of women. By making a high-profile image of himself, Hof has infiltrated the consciousness of many Americans and has successfully convinced them that he is “taking care of his girls” and they look “really happy” in their profession. As most pimps are good at, he has hidden the horrors of prostitution: the women who are caught in the system, who got into prostitution because their sexual abusers told them when they were little girls that they were cunts, just like Hof and his johns tell them now. The impressions that this TV show left on this one California public official speaks volumes to what it is doing to the minds of young people, men, and women who tune in every week. If an educated, elected, public official can be fooled by the seemingly happy lives of Hof’s prostitutes, imagine what it is doing to the rest of America.
Yeah, did you talk to some working girls and their clients directly? If people want to believe somebody else’s biased opinions, you can’t help it.
Dennis Hof is a predator and a pimp of abused women, drug addicts, mentally ill, the naive and the poor. Mr. Dennis Hof would love for people to think he is a good man. There is nothing good about this man. He is spreading ignorance and lies in our community here in Carson City and on television. He is trying to persuade our daughters and sisters that prostitution is empowering and healthy for young women. Just recently Dennis Hof had his friend who is a wanted sex offender Philip Reed Yoder managing his apartment complex The Golden Dragon here in Carson City. The Golden Dragon houses some of Dennis Hof’s prostitutes. Dennis Hof also had Philip Reed Yoder working under the table driving prostitutes from the Bunny Ranch to clients, the clinic, to the store, to their apartment and picking up/dropping off girls at the airport. Dennis Hof never had Philip Reed Yoder obtain his sheriffs card. These are the kinds of people Dennis Hof has working for him. Philip Reed Yoder has been friends with him since he owned his publishing company T and A times. Philip was known as the “Strip King”, publishing information and advertisements for sex clubs. Philip Reed Yoder is wanted for multiple count felony rape and failure to register as a sex offender in Carson City and Oregon. Dennis Hof has his night club which is named Dicks in Moundhouse, Nevada where he has working girls try and recruit the young 18 year old girls. Most girls dont realize this is happening. They think they are talking to a girl who makes lots of money as a prostitute and loves her job. They dont realize it is a recruiter. Dennis has certain girls do this recruiting for him. He tries very hard to come off as if it is great fun and that very much money can be made. Denni does not tell you that he is catering to sex offenders and pedophiles and predators. Dennis does not tell you that 50 percent of the money goes to the house. He does not tell you that you must pay room and boarding, all clinic visits and runs to the store. If you dont have the money dont worry, he will front it to you. And you will have to pay him back by laying on your back with whomever is willing to pay. Remember, the house will take fifty percent of what they make so the prostitute will actually be paying back twice what they owe. He loves to loan money to his girls. He gets paid twice. Dennis Hof is very manipulating and traps his girls. Dennis has the girls sign contracts that do not allow them to work at other brothels. This ensures that they will work for him. Dennis Hof will not tell you that you will regret this decision for the rest of your life even though he and every pimp knows this. Sex slavery is the worst kind of slavery. Dont let him fool you. Dennis Hof has been trying to legitamize prostitution in Carson City and we will not stand for it. We dont want our children thinking prostitution is empowering and good for them as Dennis wishes. Dennis Hof is a good example of why we should not have brothels. Dennis wants to recruit your children and the Johns that come here would love to help themselves to them. No more toleration for prostitution in Nevada! Throw the pimps and Johns in jail!
I went to the protest against this display of slavery in NYC last year. I saw the effect of the normalization of prostiution on the men and women who passed by and laughed or turned their heads as not to show any sympathy for the cause we all are fighting. I was also stalked to the protest by a russian trafficker who told the organizing group there I was a prostitute and there as some sort of “front” to cover up illegal activity he wants me to get involved in with him. Trafficking is accepted in NYC, women are stalked, tracked with GPS. and harrassed until insanity or death on a daily basis. I went to the community court in Manhattan to try to help myself and women who are targets of traffickers and all I received for my activism was about 15-20 uniformed officers and the sargeant with whom I spoke with at the meeting gathered to arrest me for loitering in the attempt to prostitute. I was standing in front of a shelter that contained the women I was trying to help, and the only thing that saved me from arrest is the camera on my phone. They scattered like the cockroaches they are away from the shelter. This “cathouse” nonsense is the full acceptance of sex slavery by our society. It is a direct response to women who fight for equal rights and safety. Slander all women by showing that any women can or is a prostitute and the power structure thinks they have “won” the gender issue. Protests do nothing against this genocide, we need actual rescue of these women and children and protection of all against this transnational crime syndicate. Racial Slavery was legal when countries participated in the genocide, this is illegal and tolorated because of long living hatred of women. We need to save our country and our future from the destrustion of our moral fabric, not from “slutty” women, but from slave traders and their accomplices.
The armed forces could learn a thing or two about recruitment techniques from Hof’s quasi-documentary. It’s a deplorable life to live and one that I am happy to have left. I hope to read and post more here in the future.
-Kris
“I question whether selling human beings for sex can really be viewed as ‘taking care of’? It seems more along the lines of a human rights violation.”
This begs the question for me – if the women in question choose to work for Hof, for whatever reason (generally accepted even by sex-positive feminist culture as a lack of discernable other options that provide a living wage), is that different than saying a McD0n@lds or W@l-Ma*t employee is sold for menial labor?
It *IS* a job, and the worker chooses to engage in that particular path for various reasons, the basis of which we cannot begin to guess. All supervisors, regardless of career path, are in the business of selling the services of their employees. What makes sex work so distasteful to the McKinnon/ Dworkin enthusiasts? Using one’s body to further oneself is analogous to using one’s mind – both are genetic properties that can be cultivated to achieve a goal established by the owner.
How could anybody be happy having a lot of sex and making a lot of money as a prostitute? How could anybody be happy being a homosexual? How could anybody be happy dating someone outside their race? Hey at one time it was very hard to be happy being gay or dating someone outside their race because people who would not mind their own business said is was unnatural perverted and yes it was illegal to be gay or date or marry someone outside your race. It was oh such a terrible thing until it was socially acceptable and made legal. I think any forced labor not just forced prostitution should be a issue. Illegal sweatshops etc. Just because prostitutes have a lot of sex partners is not a reason to have a hangup. If a man can have sex anally with another man and that is considered legal and normal for them then I believe some women are naturally comfortable with being prostitutes. You have people who are manipulated or curious to have a lesbian or gay experience and realize it’s not for them or they try having sex with a person outside their race and it may not be for them. Some women try prostitution and don’t like it and quit. As long as they are adults and it is by choice and not force so be it. I might find the idea of me being a prostitute disgusting or me being a lesbian unnatural but that is because I am not a lesbian and I am not a prostitute. But what is disgusting or unnatural to you or me might be natural for someone else. Leave these women alone let’s legalize prostitution and regulate it. Also guys like Dennis Hof are not angels but they are not villains either. Try working for McDonalds for minimum wage or in a illegal sweatshop and you will see real exploitation. Crackdown on all forced labor rather than hookers who want to do this. Nevada brothels and Hof no matter how distasteful you find them are not forced labor sorry guys no cigar. Live and let live. Your daughter can’t be recruited to be a whore unless she is a whore in her heart already. Just like a gay person can’t turn a straight person in to a gay person. So find something better to do with your time. You can’t stop prostitution any more than you can stop interracial dating or homosexuality.
Anyone with 2 brain cells can see that prostitution (and its little sisters exotic dancing and porn) is a sleazy, borderline criminal world. The men involved are not wholesome people who have your best interests at heart. They prey on the weak–women who were abused, mentally ill, drug addicted or intellectually disabled.
At the same time, consenting adults should be allowed to make mistakes and do with their bodies as they please, whether that means taking drugs, selling themselves or drinking a gallon of cyanide. You will never rid the world of drugs or prostitution. Attempting to legislate morality is a futile endeavor. The only choice we have in the matter is whether to regulate it and make it somewhat safer or push it underground where murder, violence and disease are the norm.
I choose the former.