Image via Huffington Post
What do Girls Gone Wild’s Joe Francis, former New York Governor Spitzer, and Natalie Dylan (selling her virginity) have in common? Oddly, the link here is not just the trace of prostitution, but also the story of Ashley Alexandra DuPree.
The fuss over Natalie Dylan selling her virginity to the highest bidder has brought about an onslaught of attacks and snap judgments over her highly public decision. We mentioned before that although Dylan might not be a prostitute, the act of selling her body in exchange for a monetary payment is prostitution.
The topic of prostitution is where Governor Spitzer of New York and Joe Francis enter our story. Spitzer’s national scandal broke out when it was discovered that he was involved with a prostitute (Dupree). Spitzer’s public shaming seemed well deserved because of his self-righteousness over prostitution and his blatant hypocrisy. He was not only a moralist as a public figure, but he also prosecuted two prostitution ring cases as the head of New York’s organized crime task force.
Joe Francis, witnessing the headlines Dupree was collecting, decided he wanted to feature her in his Girls Gone Wild video collection, so he offered her one million dollars to appear. He later realized that she had already been featured in one of his films, back when she was 17! The drama heightened when Dupree sued Joe Francis for exploiting her name to sell GGW videos, but later dropped the charges. She was tired of the negative attention and was working to move ahead with her life.
Similarly, The Huffington Post featured story of Debauchette, a sex worker who faced similar anguish when she was identified as a prostitute by her family. She discusses her side of the story here, after being discovered by her parents during a Diane Sawyer interview. The Huff asked in their article, Call Girl or Courtesan? Between the Sheets With a Debauchette. The funny thing is that if you read Debauchette’s blog, she clearly prefers the term “whoretesan” to that of courtesan.
Debauchette doest not sparse her words, and she provides genuine insight into the life of a sex worker. She not only humanizes the experience (as opposed to demonizing it), she relates the various challenges of the industry. It’s commonly expressed that prostitution is one of the oldest forms of employment, but it’s surprising just how much it can be vilified in today’s society, despite its timelessness.
It’s pretty clear that prostitution, in one form or another, will continue to exist as long as humans have sex drives, but the way we confront it and discuss it in society will surely keep changing.
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