<\/p>\n
A New Prostitution Musical Comes to Broadway<\/strong><\/p>\n I was just in New York for a week, and while I was there I went to see The Life<\/em>, the latest in what seems to be a grand tradition of Broadway musicals about street prostitution.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really know all the details about the previous shows with prostitute heroines — shows like The World of Suzie Wong<\/em> and Never on Sunday<\/em> — but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at much of what The Life<\/em> had to say about the world of street prostitution, and glad to think of its point of view being energetically and entertainingly offered up to some 7000 people a week paying $80 a pop at the historic Ethel Barrymore Theatre.<\/p>\n Critics have been quick to dismiss The Life<\/em> as one more clich\u00e9d serving up of the prostitute-as-heroine fairy tale, and to some extent they\u2019re right.\u00a0 We\u2019re talking Broadway musical here, not gritty drama verit\u00e9, so the play is all about showy pizzazz and sexy costume rather than subtle nuance and complex character development.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your well-intentioned, ethically impeccable lead woman who\u2019s only whoring for the moment, to get herself and her boyfriend (not yet a pimp) through a time of financial difficulty.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your bevy of tough, street-wise hookers with generally appealing taking-care-of-number-one and taking-care–of-business attitude.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your strutting, manipulative pimps with their various degrees of misogynistic nastiness.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got your sweet ingenue who hits the New York streets straight off a bus from the midwest, a Little Red Riding Hood ripe to be plucked from the vine by the various Big Bad Wolves.\u00a0 All the fixings of the standard prostitution soap-operatic melodrama.<\/p>\n But inside this basic construct there happens to also be a surprising amount of gutsy, sympathetic representation of prostitution as (more or less) one more difficult job in a difficult world, with an underlying unromantic, matter-of-fact message running something like \u201cwhy doesn\u2019t the world just get over itself and leave everyone alone to get on with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the songs in the show\u2019s long first act are in fact nothing less than anthems sounding the basic themes the prostitute rights movement has been trying to publicize for some time.\u00a0 \u201cMy Body,\u201d the song played to millions nationwide during the Tony Awards show in June (The Life<\/em> led the pack with 12 Tony nominations), enthusiastically makes the basic case that what a woman does with her body — including trading sex for money — is nobody\u2019s business but her own.\u00a0 \u201cWhy Don\u2019t They Leave Us Alone\u201d argues that the cat-and-mouse game of police chasing after and harassing prostitutes accomplishes nothing more than making the lives of prostitutes miserable and driving them into greater dependency on pimps.\u00a0 \u201cYou Can\u2019t Get to Heaven\u201d makes fun of street evangelists trying to save fallen women from the \u201cdegrading\u201d world of prostitution.\u00a0 \u201cThe Oldest Profession\u201d offers a sympathetic, unglorified view of prostitution as difficult, tiring, repetitious and occasionally dangerous work — a hard way to make a living, no more, no less.<\/p>\n Beyond the messages of the individual songs, The Life paints a picture of a strong, if fractious, sisterhood of women, despised and rejected by proper society, helping each other through hard times with police, pimps, and clients.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the themes established during the first act are largely ignored during the second — a truly simple-minded melodrama in which the heroine, despite valiant attempts at standing up for herself, is jilted by her boyfriend for the blonde ingenue, and then progressively degraded by the abusive, all-powerful king of the big time pimps, until she miraculously escapes the clutches of both the man and the life (with the help of a self-sacrificing sister in revolt) in the nick of time.\u00a0 But at least up until the intermission, a more thoughtful, non-moralistic, and essentially respectful picture gets to be painted.<\/p>\n The Life<\/em> has been running for three months, and has become well established as one of Broadway\u2019s current hit shows.\u00a0 It\u2019s grossing a more-than-respectable $350,000 a week, and selling over 80% of available seats, which means that some 7000 people a week are hearing and seeing what the show has to say.\u00a0 And the show received a big boost early in June when Lillias White (hard-working whore, Sonja) and Chuck Cooper (nasty big-boss pimp, Memphis) won Tony Awards for Best Featured Actor and Best Featured Actress in a Musical.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the energy and spark of the cast is a real plus, and even highly critical Ben Brantley of The New York Times<\/em> admires what he calls \u201ca raw, self-delighted vitality that compels attention.\u201d\u00a0 Judging from the performance I saw, tourists and Manhattanites alike are quite attentive indeed — hooting encouragement when the women proclaim their right to do with their bodies as they please, laughing in friendly amazement when Sonja calculates that she has had sex with 15,000 men over the years, and applauding like partisans at a decriminalization rally when hookers and pimps together call for the police to leave them alone.<\/p>\n Of course one popular musical is not going to miraculously change the people\u2019s general perception of prostitutes and prostitution, or persuade the American mainstream that this issue needs to be addressed in a more realistic and humane way than harassing street whores and locking them up from time to time.\u00a0 Still, thinking back to the 1960\u2019s, when teenage gangs were as stereotyped, demonized, and dehumanized in the public\u2019s perception as prostitution is today, the popularity and winning human sympathy of West Side Story<\/em> — for all that musical\u2019s undeniable romance and idealization — really did help mainstream, middle-class Americans think of youth gangs as a social issue needing to be addressed in social terms, rather than as a moral issue needing to be dealt with simply by judicial punishment.\u00a0 The basic stance of The Life about street prostitution is, all in all, quite similar to West Side Story\u2019s take on street gangs, complete with its challenge to middle-class arrogance and pretentious propriety.\u00a0 Perhaps, in a smaller way, it will have a similar effect on the public.<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n 20\/20<\/em> Strikes a Blow for Decriminalization<\/strong><\/p>\n A more realistic and journalistic step forward in changing public attitudes toward prostitution is evidenced in the \u201cSex for Sale\u201d segment of ABC\u2019s news magazine, 20\/20<\/em> on June 27th.\u00a0 Produced for 20\/20<\/em> by Mark Golden, who seems to have known exactly what he wanted to say and how to say it, and featuring 20\/20<\/em> correspondent John Stossel, the show featured a long list of articulate prostitute rights activists and all but endorsed decriminalization of prostitution as an effective alternative to the classic approach of judicial punishment.<\/p>\n Touted as \u201ca provocative report that could change your mind about \u2018sex for sale,\u2019\u201d 20\/20<\/em> offered an unusually straightforward opportunity for advocates of decriminalization to present their case, including Norma Jean Almodovar (organizer of the recent International Congress on Prostitution and leading figure in COYOTE\u2019s Los Angeles chapter), former San Jose Chief of Police Joe McNamara, San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan, brothel owners Jillian Bradley and Dennis Hoff, outspoken client advocates Hugh Loebner and Joe Lavezzo, and San Francisco COYOTE activists Veronica Monet and Carol Leigh.\u00a0 The role of token spokesperson for the classic punishment\/morality\/degradation\/decline of civilized society case was, appropriately enough, handed to Utah\u2019s conservative Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.<\/p>\n Prostitution \u201cdenigrates marriage,\u201d Hatch predictably asserted.\u00a0 \u201cIt denigrates courtship.\u00a0 It denigrates families.\u00a0 It denigrates young women.\u00a0 There are things in this life that are right to do and there are things that are wrong to do.\u00a0 A good society is one that stands for moral principles.\u201d<\/p>\n Ah, yes.\u00a0 But as correspondent John Stossel immediately pointed out, \u201cincreasingly another viewpoint is being heard.\u00a0 Prostitutes are saying what they do with their bodies is none of our business.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a line straight out of \u201cMy Body,\u201d the theme song from The Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n Veronica Monet presents the basic case of a woman\u2019s right to do with her body as she chooses, as long as she isn\u2019t hurting anyone.\u00a0 \u201cIf I can have the right to have an abortion… I can have the right [to make sexual decisions] about my body,\u201d including what Stossel describes as \u201cthe right to exploit [her] body for monetary gain.\u201d\u00a0 As Stossel pointedly notes, \u201cFootball players do it.\u00a0 Boxers do it.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t a prostitute?\u201d<\/p>\n Answering the argument from feminists (and from Orrin Hatch) that prostitution is degrading to women, Norma Jean Almodovar notes that not very many women \u201cwould choose to scrub toilets for a living.\u00a0 Nevertheless, because a lot of people might think that\u2019s degrading we don\u2019t put them in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution\u2019s recommendation for decriminalization is noted as an example of prostitutes getting \u201csome support in surprising places.\u201d\u00a0 District Attorney Hallinan and former Police Chief McNamara add the legitimacy of the criminal justice establishment to the case, arguing that the criminalization of prostitution creates more problems than it solves.\u00a0 \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing now,\u201d says McNamara, \u201cis worse than prostitution.\u00a0 It drives up the profits.\u00a0 It drives up the potential for corruption.\u00a0 It invites violence….\u00a0 We can never stop this.\u00a0 It\u2019s a consensual transaction between two people.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a crime like robbery or stealing or assault or rape.\u00a0 We\u2019re diverting a lot of resources going through the motions of trying to almost fool the public into thinking that we\u2019re doing something about these problems when, in fact, we\u2019re not.\u201d<\/p>\n Turning to the issues of violence and drugs so often associated with prostitution, Stossel assigns responsibility for these problems not to prostitution itself but to its criminalization, \u201cbecause the law drives prostitution underground, into the criminal world, where everyone\u2019s hiding from the police….\u00a0 Such problems occur much less often where sex for money is legal.\u201d\u00a0 Legalized prostitution in Nevada and Holland are presented as positive alternatives that \u201celiminates the exploitation of the ladies\u201d and promotes safe sex as well.\u00a0 \u201cHere we see a doctor,\u201d says one prostitute at Dennis Hoff\u2019s Bunny Ranch.\u00a0 \u201cOut there, who knows who has what and if they\u2019re really using safe sex.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course there are the familiarly seedy shots of street prostitutes in skimpy clothing soliciting guys in cars.\u00a0 But 20\/20<\/em> points out that, even by police estimates, street prostitution constitutes only a small percentage of the larger \u201csex for sale\u201d picture and pays attention to indoor prostitution as well.\u00a0 Camera crew and audience are taken on a tour of a distinctly pleasant, upscale \u201cfive-story multilelvel townhouse\u201d in a well-to-do neighborhood owned by cheerful and unapologetic Jillian Bradley.\u00a0 The receptionist at the door is Bradley\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 What could be more wholesome?<\/p>\n When Stossel, playing devil\u2019s advocate, accuses Bradley of \u201ccontributing to the decline of America\u201d by selling sex, Bradley pauses a moment before smiling and answering quietly, \u201cthat\u2019s ridiculous.\u00a0 Sex has been around forever and prostitution has been around forever.\u201d\u00a0 And when Hatch himself asserts that \u201cif something is made legal it means society has basically approved of it,\u201d Stossel pulls him up short, noting curtly that \u201cwe allow smoking cigarettes.\u00a0 We don\u2019t approve of that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s give women their sexuality any way they want it,\u201d says Veronica Monet.\u00a0 \u201cIf people want to exchange money, housing, marriage licenses, wedding rings… fine.\u00a0 As long as two consenting adults have decided, \u2018This works great for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The segment concludes with Stossel and 20\/20<\/em> host Hugh Downs summarizing the issue in heart-to-heart conversation.\u00a0 \u201cYou want strong laws against crimes that hurt people,\u201d Stossel says, \u201cmurder, assault robbery.\u00a0 But these are people who willingly do this.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAre consensual crimes really crimes [at all]?\u201d Downs wonders.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd are laws against them causing more harm than good,\u201d Stossel adds. \u201cJust because we don\u2019t like something doesn\u2019t mean we can make it go away with a law.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Downs concludes, \u201cI think that\u2019s been proved many times.\u201d<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n A Coffee Shop Called Nouvelle Justine<\/strong><\/p>\n While prostitution struggles to free itself from decades of social stigma, s\/m (or at least the accouterments of s\/m) continues to become nothing less than positively chic.\u00a0 How else can we explain the appearance in New York of a new, all day, every day s\/m coffeehouse<\/em>, would you believe, with the appropriately trendy name Nouvelle Justine.\u00a0 Here the titillated tourist can sip sweets and flavored coffees while being treated to the sight of faux dominatrices prancing around in fashionable leather and latex while doing such campy things as slapping tables with their whips and issuing commands out of the blue — orders like, \u201cYou will<\/em> behave!!\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, my, my, my.\u00a0 Nouvelle Justine indeed!\u00a0 The affect, it turns out, is strictly for show.\u00a0 Asked if she was really into s\/m, one of the whip-brandishing leatherettes replied, \u201cOh, no, not at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m just an actress.\u201d<\/p>\n The caf\u00e9, not surprisingly, is taking a good deal of heat, both from feminists who object to the large sign featuring a bound and trussed woman on the sidewalk out front, and from people who really are into s\/m and who don\u2019t appreciate the trappings of their sexual subculture being appropriated and trivialized by outsiders in the name of attracting suburban cash.\u00a0 When one of the wandering actresses whipped the table of a noted domina checking out the scene, and insisted that she<\/em> behave, she found herself face to face with an angry woman used to calling the shots in no uncertain terms.\u00a0 \u201cYou don\u2019t know who<\/em> you are talking to,\u201d she was informed in a voice cold as ice.\u00a0 Did the upbraiding pull this wandering bit of house scenery out of her role?\u00a0 Not at all, I am told.\u00a0 She just went on to the next table and did the same thing all over again.<\/p>\n I certainly have nothing kind to say about culture vultures out to make a buck off the latest kinky sexual trend.\u00a0 Still, it\u2019s a chuckle that in the space of a few short years s\/m, which recently enough seemed slated to become the new designated perversion onto which proper society could pour all its venom and loathing, has now become the sexual kink of choice among the hipper-than-thou.\u00a0 Not that dressing up in leather and latex or sipping cappuccinos in the presence of fake dominas really says anything about people understanding, accepting, or appreciating the complexities of s\/m, but methinks that even the most superficial of these social-sexual trends does tend to undermine attempts to associate s\/m with the distaste of the gutter.<\/p>\n And while relatively few people may be investigating the nuances of profound dominance and submission, or the ecstasies of intense endorphinated pain, I also suspect that lots of people have come to include a little spanking and bondage in their otherwise vanilla sex play, and that those people who feel drawn to deeper investigation of the s\/m mysteries are a whole lot less inclined to think of themselves as pathological perverts than they would have four or five years ago.<\/p>\n * * * * *<\/p>\n P.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n It would seem that even mainstream crossword puzzlers need to be in the know about s\/m these days.\u00a0 \u201cPart of the curriculum at Texas S&M\u201d reads one of the theme clues from Merl Reagle\u2019s recent \u201cSomething\u2019s Backed Up\u201d puzzle in the Examiner<\/em> magazine section.\u00a0 \u201cFlog courses\u201d (a pun on \u201cgolf courses\u201d) is the correct answer.\u00a0 Right up there with \u201cMary Yak Cosmetics\u201d (\u201cMost popular makeup in Tibet\u201d).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n July 25, 1997<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 1997 David Steinberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/p>\n A New Prostitution Musical Comes to Broadway<\/p>\n I was just in New York for a week, and while I was there I went to see The Life, the latest in what seems to be a grand tradition of Broadway musicals about street prostitution. 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