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Effective PR: spinning sex for sale
Reputation Management Magazine
by Tony Seideman
Catherine La Croix holds down two jobs. First, she's a spokesperson
for her profession, chief lobbyist for an industry that employs an
estimated thousands of people. Second, she's one of the highest-paid
workers in that industry: a $500-an-hour whore. She talks with associate
editor Tony Seideman about her mission.
Catherine La Croix has no problems acknowledging she's a whore. In fact,
her immediate admission of the fact gives her the kind of power most
public relations people yearn for: the ability to seize hold of a
conversation at the
start and have a good chance of maintaining control throughout its
length.
It's a subtle kind of aggression, but an effective and almost essential
one.
As a spokesperson for an outlaw industry, La Croix has a job that's at
once horrendously difficult and outrageously easy. As a whore-and La
Croix
prefers the term over prostitute-who is willing to speak out about her
work, she is virtually guaranteed attention.
The trick is to avoid becoming a joke; to not just be heard, but to have
an impact, changing attitudes and, in the end, laws. In some ways, she
speaks like a scholar on the subject of sex for sale, in others like an
angry activist.
She is both. "The word 'whore' actually comes from the same root as the
word 'gracious' or 'charming,'" La Croix says.
"I don't like the word 'prostitute'. In Latin, it means 'she who stands
for unworthy purpose.' That's a patriarchal insult. 'Whore' doesn't
bother Me at all. When one goes through the transformation to become out
and proud, you take away the power the assholes have to stigmatize you
or put you into a box and say 'this
is what you are.'"
Yet La Croix understands that throwing strong words around is not the
best
way to keep hold of the mass media's attention. "I've got to be careful
about who I say it to," she says of the word whore "because it's really
shocking to some. It's such a socially loaded word." Understanding what
the difference between what will shock and what will move is a crucial
part of La Croix's media strategy. The approach has gotten her some high
visibility.
"When I was on Oprah, I did not get hysterical or all excited," La
Croix says. "Some people have taken the approach that if they scream
loudly enough,
you will have to pay attention to them. Of course, if you scream at
people, they just ignore you. Anything you say is marginalized. My
approach is to go at this the same way I'd present a business plan in
corporate America - talk logically, politely in an articulate manner.
Usually, they will listen to you."
Her voice projects a '90s sensuality. Deep and rich, it conveys words in
a smooth, rhythmic, precise stream. But money and power are powerful
erotic drives in today's corporate-driven world, and La Croix
understands this well.
So on her voice mail and Internet site, sensuality is a context, not a
broadcast. Everything is cool, clean, and sensible; conversations and
copy are far more intellectual than erotic. The tone, phrases and style
reflect a clean, clear
professionalism rather than an awkwardly intense eroticism. So when
she slips in the occasional obscenity, the impact is even greater.
La Croix understands that the modern media won't pay a lot of
attention
to someone who isn't safe in a number of basic ways. So she carries her
professional presentation right down to the discussion of her work,
quoting fees and price structures with the same bland calmness that a
dentist might describe the cost of a cap or root canal. La Croix doesn't
go into many physical details with the press. She does, however,
freely quote her rate, which is $500 an hour, a sum that at once
scandalizes and invites comparison to the amounts earned by other
professionals.
If all this sounds like a marketing professional at work, it is. "I
started out in advertising and marketing. I got a masters degree in
communications," she says. She then spent a number of years
working at Fortune 100 companies, before choosing a different direction,
and started putting her body on the block instead of her mind. Actually
both.
For La Croix, keeping her new life secret, under cover, was never an
option. She was far too well-aware of both the media's power and of the
incredible vulnerability of those who think there is safety in quiet and
concealment. So
she became founder and executive director of COYOTE/Seattle (Call Off
Your Old Tired Ethics), one of the world's leading sex workers' rights
groups.
She is, in effect, chief lobbyist for her industry, its most visible
spokesperson.
In that role, she has gotten a lot of media attention-and learned some
powerful lessons in terms of presenting a message about a difficult
business to a doubting world.
Stay on message: Wherever she goes, whatever she does, La Croix's
primary mission is to increase the legitimacy-and thus safety and
earning power-of her profession. "When I was on Oprah.... I was there as
a businesswoman.... and I am. I've been a professional ever since I got
out of college," she says.
She very much recognizes that talk shows aren't the only places where
looking competent and even managerial is a priority. "I sit on the
University of Washington's School of Social Work academic review
committee, and the first time I went to a meeting there and there were
two women professionals who consider themselves to be 'post modern
feminists.' They looked at Me like, well, they expected someone with too
much makeup and too little skirt. I
came in wearing Anne Klein. That's what I wear when I work - the same
kind of clothes I wore in corporate America. They were a little undone."
Disarm through honesty: This is an especially useful approach in
today's talk-show culture. Handled properly, it generates instant
respect simply through the power of the admission. "I'd rather be
detested for the truth than loathed for the lie," La Croix says. "When
someone asks what I do for a living, I tell them I am a whore. I'm
already an outlaw - socially and sexually. Being a lesbian makes
it even worse. In fact, I'm a witch, a lesbian and a whore."
Project professionalism: Sleaze, which seems endemic to the sex
business, has no part in La Croix's act. Though La Croix talks a lot
about being an outlaw, her dress, style, and even business approach all
project a comfortable, mainstream image. In speaking the language of
well-educated, trusted professionals, La Croix is polishing her own
image and style.
Use statistics aggressively: There are few better ways to conquer
media skepticism than having facts and figures at your command. The
constant stream of data is impressive and choosing numbers that go
against conventional wisdom is a good way to add power to statistics. In
a typical comment, La Croix says that "90 percent of my clients are
married. If we go to the public and confront the stereotypes, we find
that actually only 15 percent of the sex workers are on the street.
Those girls are there for survival sex - trying to get the next meal or
fix. They are victims. The other 85 percent willingly
choose this profession. There are all levels in this professional
hierarchy,
from my making $500 an hour down to the girls in the massage parlor
making 25 or 30 bucks a pop."
Bust paradigms: La Croix knows she has to hammer at conventional
wisdom from the moment she starts a conversation. Showering people with
unexpected insights and information both builds respect and enables a
speaker to keep the high ground. "First, I have to get people off the
stereotypes," she says.
To do this, she uses both herself as an example and as many statistics
as she can dig up. "For example, I have two bachelor's and a master's
degree. I was a
professional before... and I'm a professional now. Most women I know in
this business are sharp entrepreneurs. I'm involved in several
businesses..."
Detoxify the subject: Sex makes many people uncomfortable. So one
of the things La Croix does is to tell her audience that being a whore
is not really about sex. "People have a difficult time understanding
that in this profession physical sex is a very small part of it.
Attack unexpected targets: La Croix firmly believes that an
offense is the
best defense. But she's very careful about who she attacks. When it
comes
to managing a reputation, it's hard to do much damage by attacking
hardcore feminist ideologues. "Our worst opponents aren't the male
patriarchs. They're the anti-sex, anti-pornography feminists like Katie
McKinnon, Kathleen Barry, Andrea Dworkin. These women are not interested
in a woman's freedom of choice. The same women who screamed up and down
about a woman's freedom of choice in Roe v. Wade are telling Me I
shouldn't use my body
in the profession of my choosing."
Have a definite goal: With all the spinning, twisting, turning,
and maneuvering La Croix does, there's a real risk that it will begin to
seem that she's visible for no other reason but to get exposure. That's
not the case, however. Her stated mission is to "reach a negotiated
compromise-that we decriminalize sex work with certain regulations."
Accepting both decriminalization and the need for regulations is yet
another one of La Croix's strategies. Compromise when necessary.
Unwillingness to shift in response to public opinion is a definite no-no
in the modern media. By starting with a compromise position, La Croix
gains stature as a spokesperson
who understands how the world works and is willing to sacrifice to make
a solution. Though sometimes her description of the situation sex
workers
face is not something that would appear in the general media.
Activists who have called for complete legalization have probably harmed
their cause, La Croix says. "The hue and cry of the sex worker's case
for many years is the call for total decriminalization of sex work. It's
an all or nothing approach. The problem with that is it gets you just
that - nothing."
Cultivate empathy: It's a harsh world, and everybody deserves a
little sympathy. Whores are workers just like everyone else, La Croix
says. "What we want the public to see us as is professionals. We're just
another profession - it's what we do for a living," she says. Dealing
with distasteful situations is just part of life, she says. "I was a
Fortune 100 executive in marketing communications before I was a whore.
Often times, I had to deal with things that weren't universally popular.
But your role as a professional isn't always to have
people on your side - sometimes it's just to have them leave you the
hell
alone. I don't demand that every woman in America become a prostitute.
On the other hand, this career is my choice, made without coercion. So
get off my back." The principle is one that is applied in many disparate
arenas: informed consent.
Note that logic is on your side: La Croix scores points by
arguing that her
case is grounded in common sense and logic rather than raw emotion or
old-fashioned rules. "As far as convincing society, it won't come down
to morality. Law isn't - or, rather, shouldn't be - based on morality or
religion," she says. "We can make the case that we've been here for
millions of years, and we're not going away.
Also, we can make a case that decriminalization means fewer workers
assaulted by police, by johns, fewer girls on the street," she says.
Finally, she closes the argument by resorting to that most American of
dispute resolution strategies: focusing on dollars and cents.
"What clinches it are the cold, fiscal facts. I ask 'Did you know that
in Seattle this year they spent 7 million of your tax dollars busting
whores?' I tell them that New York City last year spent $23 million
busting whores."
Promoting an unpopular cause is never easy. But La Croix intends to keep
on her current path. For one, her very visibility is a kind of shield.
As a committed, vocal activist, she's too hard a target for the
authorities to touch. The fight is a lonely one; other groups, including
gay and lesbian activists, have rebuffed attempts to build alliances.
What's crucial, La Croix says, is to keep the pressure on. To stay in
the spotlight and keep a coherent message flowing. "Being out is being a
media whore - it's a term we use in the movement. Being a media whore
means that there is nothing the public can use to hurt Me."
-end-
Healer, Witch and Whore:
An Interview With
Catherine La Croix,
The Sacred Prostitute in Today's USA
Widdershins Magazine
by Sylvana SilverWitch
Catherine La Croix possesses many faces: priestess, sacred whore, pro
domme, lesbian, ordained minister, Goddess worshipper, Dianic witch and, above all, woman. Founder/executive director of the
Seattle chapter of Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics (COYOTE), La Croix
left an established corporate career in journalism and advertising for a
"far more honorable, honest and therapeutic calling" after settling a
sexual harassment lawsuit filed against a Fortune 100 company.
She has dedicated herself to promoting public awareness that all consensual adult sex
is an essential, spiritual and nourishing part of life and believes that
commercial sex (both sacred and otherwise) benefits humanity. Besides her sex work endeavors as courtesan, dominatrix and former madam, she is
an award-winning journalist and has been an "out" lesbian and witch for most
of her adult life.
Currently completing her first book, "On Our Back, Off Our Knees: A
Declaration of Independence by a Modern Sacred Whore," La Croix is also the
founder of COYOTE/Seattle, a
member of the San Francisco chapter of COYOTE as well
as an affiliate member of the North American Task Force on Prostitution
(NTFP) the International Committee for Prostitutes Rights (ICPR) and
Network of Sex Work Projects.
She makes frequent radio, television
and speaking appearances, including on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in
support of decriminalization of adult sexuality and was the first public
pleasure professional/sex worker on the Internet. She was a featured speaker
during the International
Conference on Prostitution in Los Angeles and leads
seminars and classes pertaining to sacred sexuality and feminine
power. I communicated at length with her about her work as a
priestess whore and sexual healer.
Sylvana SilverWitch: Who and what is Catherine La Croix?
Catherine La Croix: What kind of question is that? Look at the bio!
[Laughs] Frankly, I never know from one day to the next because I'm constantly
evolving, learning and expanding my boundaries as "Terminal Bad Girl."
However, I must admit my transformation from Good Girl to Bad Girl came rather easily. As they say, it courses in my veins.
My mother's blood lines
were Welsh and Irish, the Old People of Great Britain, and my father's
from Celtic Brittany. Despite a slight aberration or two into past Christianity, there
is an
extensive history of witchcraft, midwifery, healing and priestesshood
among my mother's forbears. So I suppose I could lay it at her doorstep.
She would not like that very much but maybe someday we can all
be Good
Girls no matter whom or why we fuck.
Succinctly, I belong to the Goddess, the Great Mother. I am her priestess, called and
chosen across time and space. I am neither chattel property, exploited
victim, lifeless statistic nor objectified woman. For these and other
reasons, of all and in all, I am consecrated to the Lady and it is to
Her alone that I answer for my actions.
SS: How did you come to be a sacred whore and
how does that connect with
your being a witch?
CLC: It began long before now. I am
an extremely old soul. I first took my
vows to the
Goddess nearly 6,000 years ago and, over various lifetimes and
incarnations, I have served Her as queen, priestess, sorceress, witch, healer and
whore. And mother. It bothers Me very little if that sounds a bit New
Ageish for some. I am hardly New Age but suffice it to say I became the face of Ishtar in Babylon and ruled as Isis in Egypt. I
danced for Diana in Corinth and exulted in Cerridwen' s Beltane
fires. Over the millennia, I have practiced the healing arts of the wise and taught
my
daughters, real and fostered, the wisdom and
power of the Goddess.
Continuing the tradition in this lifetime was, I suspect, inevitable.
Practically speaking, I am not sure I know how someone "becomes" a sacred
whore. I am
frankly rather surprised myself sometimes. I mean, it's
not like I had some sort of epiphany where Ishtar, Aphrodite or another
accomplished Whore Goddess suddenly inflamed my burning bush. Neither can I pinpoint a self-actualizing moment where I suddenly said to
myself, "Today, you're a sacred whore." It
was far more sublime
than that.
However, my personal transformation from Good Girl to Bad Girl began when
I
first embraced the Goddess and dedicated myself to Her service at 16.
Even
if I had known then I would someday serve Her in my current
capacity, it would hardly have lessened my ardor for Her. It was only
later that I realized I had the compassion, communication and other skills that
would make Me an
excellent whore and I use the term in its most
positive sense.
Let's be honest, we all whore. It's just that some of us sell
different parts of ourselves and provide a more socially beneficial
service.
Ironically, it was professionally prompted by ending my corporate career
after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit with a Fortune 100 company.
The spiritual seeds were already planted, the practical timing just had
to evolve. II knew then I would never willingly work for anyone else again.
Although I had
never really contemplated prostitution, sacred or otherwise, I
was well educated in its historical precedents and its effect upon the
world, particularly its male inhabitants.
It is a heavy responsibility and I am sometimes asked if I would still work
if I was not a sacred
whore. I must admit that the power, healing and divine descendance
aspects of sacred sexuality make Me wonder myself, but I certainly don't
frown on those who work without it. If I was not spiritually motivated,
I must admit the income, independence
and control would
certainly be strongly persuasive factors.
It should be
noted, however, that as a courtesan and sacred whore, more
often than not, I am being compensated for
my nurture,
intellect, articulation and companionship. Actual sex, in many ways, is
secondary. This is true for much of sex work including professional dominance.
SS: What is COYOTE and how long have you been in it?
CLC: I have been a member since
1995.
COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) is an organization of sex
workers and sex worker rights advocates, dedicated to the
decriminalization and deregulation of all BDSM, fetish, prostitution and other sex
work.
COYOTE is open to anyone now or formerly in the adult sex
industry, including actual whores, madams, erotic dancers, pro dommes
and pro submissives, sensual massage workers, peep show performers, phone sex
operators, erotic models, porn stars and sex writers. COYOTE is both
queer-friendly
and progressively feminist.
While we support any sexual act by consenting adults, we just as
strongly oppose the criminal coercion or exploitation of any person, particularly
minors. COYOTE does not subscribe to
the quite ridiculous notion that no one willingly chooses the sex industry.
We encourage anyone who decides to leave the Life but we strongly
opposed to the notion that the only good whore is an ex-whore.
I know firsthand how sex workers are treated by
police. That is why I founded COYOTE/Seattle in 1995 after being illegally arrested, searched and jailed just for distributing condoms to street workers with an
AIDS prevention organization on a well-known Seattle SOAP zone. (Editor's note: SOAP or Stay Out of
the Area Prostitute zones essentially allow any unescorted woman to be
detained and arrested for prostitution.)
Walking back to my car, a plainclothes vice cop pulled up pretending to
be a john. When I told him to move on, he arrested Me. The judge dismissed it in
less than 60 seconds but it clearly demonstrated to Me that the sexual
and civil rights of any woman--of any citizen--are only as secure as the
rights of any whore. I never forgot the lesson. Neither should you.
SS: Do you feel as though you are in service
to the Goddess as a witch
and whore?
CLC: Absolutely. But I would be the last person to suggest that even a
large minority of women whoring have the same spiritual motivations although there is a growing number. Nevertheless, I
truly believe that each
whore, even those operating without any sacred consciousness, provides a valuable contribution to society.
We are the shock absorbers of this world, especially the sacred whores.
We soothe the hurt, nurture the heart, dissipate the anger and relieve
the stress
of a rather profane world. It's an intimate, healing moment
shared with the Goddess. I have always educated my clients before seeing
them so that
they can better appreciate the gift of the Goddess.
SS: Have you always considered prostitution
a sacred healing
profession?
CLC: From the very beginning. By casting the circle and invoking the Goddess,
I create a temple
between the worlds and invite my clients to experience and partake of
the feminine mysteries within. It is a restorative process for them,
for
Me and the world in which we live. It is also the continuing exploration
of
a path to which I was at first drawn and then enthusiastically
embraced. But
it should be remembered that the sacred whore resides in
all women.
Contrary to some ignorant opinions both within and without the pagan
community, those so empowered and publicly honoring the Goddess are
not
inherently promiscuous. Priestess whores allow the full expression
of
the Goddess bodily and, in so doing, open both her heart and the
client's to
the Goddess and Her healing.
SS: Does sexual healing always involve charging money for sex?
CLC: No, not always. I often provide
sexual healing to clients and friends without charge and always
will. The ancient priestess whore, in contrast to
her contemporary counterpart, did not have to
concern herself with money or possessions because she had all these and
more by virtue of who, what and where she was. The priestess whore
wanted for nothing by virtue of protected temple residences, a Goddess-centered economy and
ever-faithful
and reverent correspondents.
Today's oppressive societal constraints and patriarchal criminalization of our temples and rituals demand a more direct compensation method since we
are forced to
fend for ourselves and pay our own individual expenses.
Obviously, we've
been around far longer than the Baptists and Pentecostals, but I don't
see anyone arresting or censuring Christian evangelists for receiving
offerings although perhaps more than a few should be.
Worse, the conservative Christian clergy continue to claim a moral or, at
best, spiritual distinction between themselves and pagan female clergy.
Contrary to ancient precedents, the contemporary sacred whore currently brings
both the Goddess and the temple to the client and rightfully receives
offerings for her ministry. It is an ageless tradition not easily broken
by repressive prohibition
or even outright ignorance.
Periodically, some
clueless moron, including a few claiming to be pagan, rather stridently tell Me
that as a sacred whore I shouldn't accept any offerings but do so from
pure devotion. I suggest
they pay my mortgage and car lease payments. No takers thus far.
SS: Does the sex always ring true as a
healing or does it sometimes
fall flat?
CLC: I wish I could tell you that my first
client in the summer of 1982
was a stellar emotional and spiritual experience. It was not nor
was my second or third. Or even my fourth. It wasn't that they were
abusive, profane or negative
in any sense, just not what I wanted them
to be for either myself or them.
Sexuality was a sacred, magickal and
healing experience for Me but in my initial inexperience and lingering
corporate drive, I was just a little dismayed that my times with clients
weren't a more obviously therapeutic experience for them. I now know
that they were indeed spiritually touched by the encounter,
but what I
was really hungering for were the mysterious accoutrements of
my historical
precedents and, honestly, the sensual theatre comprised in
mesmerizing candles, intoxicating incense and gossamer canopies.
However, I shortly resigned myself to the fact that these trappings
and the accompanying tableau were not going to be found in the typical
hotel suite unless I brought them. While I always bring my heart with Me, I
have since come to recognize that the efficacy of the healing is
incumbent upon both
the priestess and the client. The priestess cannot
carry it alone.
SS: How does being a lesbian figure into the sexual healing of men?
CLC: I'm not sure it does. Like most professionals, sacred or secular,
I do not confuse sex and love. My wife, also a witch,
knew I was a sex worker from the beginning and also knew she would never
have to feel threatened by my calling or its encounters with men.
Emotionally, I am a lesbian: I can only love women and I prefer them
sexually. But, physically, I am pansexual in play. Also keep in
mind that there are female clients as well who want to explore either
bisexual or lesbian fantasies.
During seminars or speaking engagements, I am also ministering to women
attempting to find the power of the sacred whore within, that freedom to
sexually express themselves without internal or external stigma.
Regardless of gender or various sexual orientations, I become the face of the Goddess for them.
SS: How does the lesbian community react to your profession?
CLC: Like the pagan community, it varies. Being a lipstick lesbian, I
was told right after I arrived in Seattle that I couldn't be a dyke
since I wore makeup and heels. Sorry, but I did not own any fucking
flannel and I still do not. The most insulting, stereotypical reactions have
oddly come from granola dyke anti-sex feminists such as Andrea Dworkin.
Yes, I have had pleasurable non-commercial het sex.
No, it was not earth-shaking but it was pleasurable and I'm certainly
not the first lesbian to do so.
The problem is most dykes will not admit it
even if most typical lesbian sex is incredibly vanilla and they have
occasionally fantasized about some hunk of burning' love at one time or
another. It is all right to admit it. It's not like the
dyke police
are going to jerk your lesbian license. But even if I have had
pleasurable het sex, it was not preferable. And I could never fall in
love
with a man. I am not missing anything, believe Me, I have tried it all.
I tried the bisexual thing when I was much younger and was even engaged three
times but I realized each time that I was only capable of loving another woman.
I may have fucked thousands of male clients but the fact remains, when
everything is said and done, that I prefer and love women without reservation or
question.
SS: What elements need to be present to have sex as a healing act?
CLC: Open hearts, honesty, integrity, knowledge and spiritual
awareness. The ritual can take any form the priestess chooses but it's
her inner heart and the openness of the client that matters. I might
not be installed in a public pagan temple but I nevertheless bring the
Goddess and Her healing with Me to the bedroom and my clients. Just as
Her priestesses of old, I demand respect
and reverence for Me personally
and the spiritual aspects of my work.
In exchange for that respect and
certain offerings to the Goddess and Her priestess, I bring them grace,
healing, generosity, compassion, intimacy and communication. If all they
are interested in is a wet hole in the mattress, they can look
elsewhere. I know that no matter when I retire from actively working
that I will always be a priestess whore. That consecration will never change.
SS: Are you happy in your profession?
CLC: Yes, otherwise I wouldn't still be doing it
all these years later. It demands a great deal of energy but the only really negative aspect personally has been criminalization, that
rather ridiculous governmental exercise in futility that pretends to
disapprove of prostitution while living off its proceeds.
If you don't
think so, then you obviously have no idea how many police, district
attorneys, judges and jailers we keep employed. Prostitution is
criminalized
for the same reason drugs are. Far too many people in
government and other types of organized crime make far too much money
from both to decriminalize either.
For those of us who work from a spiritual perspective, it is also the
illegal suppression of our First Amendment right to religious
expression. True, not
all whores are as happy with their
profession or apply such a spiritual context
to their profession. But
for those of us who are pagan or other adherents of the Old Religion,
it is a most sacred religious expression in the truest sense and one
happily lived.
I must also admit that not all of us in the sex industry bring that portion
of enthusiastic self traditionally found among the sacred whores. It is
also quite true enough that not every contemporary sex worker is graceful,
generous, compassionate, considerate, communicative, intelligent or even
honest.
I hear horror stories all the time how the "last girl just lay
there" or "she stole money out of my wallet" or "she was so jaded and
cynical." Not surprisingly, like most professions and avocations, we have our
less-than-stellar examples and solely mercenary ones, too. But that
hardly means we all are. You just don't see us in the movies or
television very often. When you do, unfortunately, Hollywood
consistently demonstrates it knows as little about whores as it does
about witches.
SS: One of the things people use when they argue against prostitution
is that women are forced into it or exploited; can you speak to that?
CLC: Unlike in the fast food industry, exploitation or coercion in the
sex industry is by and large the exception to the rule. It is
most frequently trumpeted by those who don't work in the industry. Most
sex workers, with the distinct exception of street workers practicing survival
sex and supporting a drug habit, are usually intelligent, educated
and predominantly middle-class women.
Far from exploited victims, they're independent entrepreneurs. My friends in the
business, for the most part,
share these characteristics and, like Me, were not coerced into sex work
but made a voluntary, premeditated decision. I strongly encourage those women considering
sex work do so with a sense of power, creativity and recognition of the Goddess
within. Realizing who she is and
Whom she represents, along with the
therapeutic responsibilities it
demands, will make her a far better
whore spiritually and otherwise.
SS: How do you see yourself in relationship
to the Craft or Goddess
communities?
CLC: Much like any other witch I suppose. I have previously been part of
various
covens--I was high priestess for three of them--but I currently practice as a solitary. I communicate with
several priestess sisters here in Seattle but also in San Francisco and
elsewhere. I'm not sure exactly when the priestess whore community I
mentioned will transpire but I foresee it in the not too
distant
future.
SS: Have you had any problems with discrimination
from the Craft or
Goddess communities?
CLC: Some but not extensively. Paganism is not immune to
bigotry and ignorance. Most have been quite positive. But Selena Fox, on the other hand, was far less hospitable. Keep in mind
that sacred whoredom did not originate with Wicca or other neo-pagan
religions but from the ancient shamanism from which Wicca later evolved.
Indeed, Wicca
has no history of sacred whoredom with the possible exception of the
Celtic Spring Maiden, Beltane festivals or the Great Marriage for the
land between king and priestess. However, while the principle remains
constant and is certainly similar in practice, there are neo-pagans who
have made a point of telling Me that they do not consider such
historical rites
ones of whoredom. Whatever. Take note though that I am not Wiccan but a
Dianic
witch. Dianic witchcraft is matrifocal and exclusively feminine
in its covens
and thealogy. Diane Wicca is not.
The priestess whore must really look back to the cradle of civilization
and dawn of Neolithic prehistory to find our rightful origins. We are
quite well documented in the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Egyptian
and Palestinian cultures of nearly 7,000 years ago and, lest current
pagans forget, it is from these civilizations that much of contemporary
witchcraft, Wicca and other neo-paganism springs.
It is quite true that not all priestesses in all Goddess traditions spanning
the millennia were the equivalent of Ishtar's entu, naditu,
qadishtu and isharitu,
the ancient Akkadian honorifics rightly accorded the various ranks of
priestess whores. But for those who made love to the many in the guise
of the Goddess, they were honored above all women, even queens. In fact,
many were queens. Flawless
in the loving and, regardless of station, they were entirely hallowed
to Her. In fact, qadishtu is literally translated "sanctified or
undefiled woman."
My decision to serve Her was deliberate and considered
at length. Being
a spiritual, social and sexual outlaw denies the
patriarchy that which it craves most: possession and control of female
sexuality, reproduction and attendant independence. Sexual and emotional healing
is not the only obligation of the priestess whore. Today, she has no
alternative in our current society but to stand, rebel and openly defy
the patriarchy. Such is her position, and such
is her devotion to the
Goddess.
SS: What would you say are the negative
aspects of working as a sexual
healer?
CLC: Other than a repressive patriarchy? It's peculiar to each
priestess but for Me it's the constant stress of possibly being jailed
for being practicing clergy and the sheer exhaustion the ministry
produces.
Even if a session has not been particularly demanding physically and
even if I am completely grounded and spiritually centered, I find myself
totally drained afterwards. Her incarnate Presence is something akin, if
you'll excuse the hyperbole, to diverting the
Nile through a garden
hose.
A successful and healthy whore, particularly sacred, demands far
more than just tits and ass and assumed willingness to market them.
Perhaps that is because the majority of sex, commercial or otherwise,
takes place between
the ears and not the thighs. In my own experience,
intellect, articulation, independence, intuition, compassion and
soul-sharing are far more
crucial than simply alluring physical
attributes.
I have never felt any regret or remorse but, sacred or secular, it is
not a choice for the emotionally insecure or intellectually challenged.
I do not say that lightly because even for true professionals, and
especially for those sacredly devoted, it is an extremely demanding
avocation. Unlike any other profession in the world, perhaps, it
requires the giving of heart and soul and mind and body
and the ability
to reclaim those at the end of each client session.
During each session, I invoke the Lady for protection,
awareness and the
expression of Herself to the client through Me. It is Her alone who allows
Me to
communicate that which is most needed today in our warped society:
tenderness, compassion, affection, sexual and verbal expression and
intimacy. But not without temporary cost to Me.
SS: What would you say are the positive aspects?
CLC: For the capable woman, power, assurance, independence, control,
financial security, sexual liberation and spiritual satisfaction.
SS: Can modern women utilize this healing
energy to reclaim their
sexuality and power?
CLC: Absolutely! It's what I teach and to a degree preach. Power, sexuality and magick are inherent to every
woman if she but knows it and knows how to use it. A woman who possesses
it can neither be intimidated nor subjugated. It is that combination of
power, self-assurance and mystery that truly enthralls men and women. It
is not the power of possession, profession or politics, which
can be
just as easily lost as attained. It is the mystery that makes a woman
as
pleasurable and elusive as a handful of fragrance. It is a confidence
bereft of arrogance and a power instilled with mercy, a combination of
strength and vulnerability.
This seeming contradiction is the essential element of feminine mystique that
perhaps most often leaves men befuddled. In the male context,
you can not be both powerful and vulnerable. Consequently, women either
entice or intimidate them. An accomplished sacred whore trades on this
in a positive way, learning to balance the enticement and intimidation
to make the moment with the Goddess all the more enjoyable. So can any
other woman.
A man's preference for a woman's confidence and power is
simply a reiteration and perceived reflection of his own. More
concisely, a man is known by the company and power he keeps if not
possesses.
SS: How about the male's role in all of this?
CLC: What about it? Do you mean as a client or as a worker? As a client,
men is there to worship the Goddess and Her priestess and receive
Her healing. If he can approach the scenario with an open heart without
succumbing to typical machismo, the session will be indeed all he wants and
more. As sex workers, most males are bi or gay and primarily service a bi or
gay male clientele. I get calls at COYOTE all the time from straight
guys who want to be straight male escorts. I tell them not to quit their day
jobs. Let's face it, if a woman wants to get laid she can without paying
for it.
SS: How can today's man learn to embrace sexual
healing both for
himself and the women in his life?
CLC: This is part and parcel of what I constantly do: teaching men to respect
the
divine and incarnate female. I sometimes find, paradoxically in our
society, that I'm the only woman they truly respect. That's extremely
sad. Our patriarchal society has so diluted femininity that they only
see secretaries, dependent wives and other subordinates.
However, with
Me or any woman equally aware, they can truly experience that
most potent of aphrodisiacs: true feminine power. Frankly, if more men
spent
a few sessions with an accomplished sacred whore, their wives
would be far happier. In fact, if the wives spent a few sessions with an
accomplished
sacred whore, they would both be far happier and sexually
healthier.
SS: Are there any other ways to use this healing
sexual energy other
than becoming a sacred prostitute?
CLC: Certainly, with your spouse or partners, as I mentioned earlier or for your own sexual empowerment.
SS: I also asked this question of Carol Leigh last year: What exactly
do you think is the problem for most people with prostitution? Is it
that people are having sex? Or that money is being made? What part of
those things is
bad? We don't think its bad to spend money for anything
else or to have
sex in other instances; why does it suddenly become bad
when put together?
CLC: I wish I knew the real answer to this one but our access to
personal freedom of choice is curtailed in the name of a selective
morality at best, one that distinguishes between business transactions
solely on the basis of any sexual involvement. We can debate the
"immorality" of prostitution until we're blue in the face but the fact
remains that this religious censure has no legal standing whatsoever.
Would there be prostitution laws if it wasn't for enforced Christian
morality? We live in a society that prides itself on the constitutional
separation of church and state yet outrageously allows the predominate
religious system to jeopardize my freedom and curtail my profession in the name of
specious morality. Any employment or professional service is nothing more than
an
exchange of energy for material gain. You may exchange 40 hours or
more a week to
receive a salary that is simply a substitute for material
property potential.
Sex work exchanges, between mutually enlightened consenting adults, are
not essentially different from any other economic activities,
particularly those
of a similar recuperative nature such as
psychological counseling, physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation,
acupuncture, licensed massage and even
a physician or attorney. In each
and every case, a service or energy in the form of knowledge, intellect,
judgment or physical touch is traded for cash. The fact that my
particular service involves sexuality does not alter the essential
nature of the exchange.
Logically, the question is begged whether it is lawful for the state to
use obviously discriminatory physical force against those making this
wholly voluntary exchange. What is the difference between a man hiring a
whore
and hiring a physical therapist or even a psychotherapist? In
either case, the parties are engaged in a voluntary transaction without
external coercion. It is
not an unusual transactional paradigm, with the
exception of sex, since each party openly acknowledges their own
self-interest just as with your attorney or accountant. Perhaps what
abolitionists resent most is our moral and mercenary lack of regret.
SS: Do you think prostitution as sexual healing should be
legalized?
How would that look? What might it accomplish?
CLC: I think all sex between mutually consenting adults should be
decriminalized, sacred or not, in recognition of the First Amendment's
guarantee of freedom of expression. It does not distinguish between
verbal, sexual or any other form of expression. America repealed the
unenforceable Prohibition idiocy but continues the same neurotic
principle regarding anything resembling sex work. Legislate an individual version of
morality and jail all of those who happen to disagree. Then as now, it simply serves to subsidize organized crime in the process of restricting
freedom of expression.
However, we should illustrate the distinctive differences
between legalization
and decriminalization from a sex worker perspective. Legalization would be the bureaucratic control of
sex work by the government. Remember, these are the guys who can't find
their asses with both hands.
Decriminalization means we are treated as any other profession without
undue governmental intrusion.
It is not enough that we have
police officers abusing, beating, blackmailing, raping, robbing and
killing us. Under legalization, we would then have licensing bureaucrats
also abusing, blackmailing, raping and robbing us with paperwork and
restrictive regulation. And they would still be backed by the cops. No,
thank you. I have no more confidence in a bureaucrat's alleged altruism
than I do in a cop's. Both groups have proven extremely unreliable over the past
100 years of protecting us from ourselves, as they put it.
The end result of decriminalization would be less abuse, violence and
coercion of sex workers, much happier clients and much happier taxpayers who would
save the millions of dollars spent annually to arrest us.
SS: Could you speak to the prejudice of people
thinking that
prostitutes spread disease?
CLC: The U.S. Department of Health consistently reports that only 3 to
5 percent of the sexually transmitted disease in this country is related
to both criminalized and legalized prostitution, compared with 30 to 35
percent among teenagers.
Although a minute percentage of prostitutes are
HIV-positive, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control state there are no documented cases of HIV transmission from prostitutes to clients. There is no statistical indication, again according to the CDC,
that prostitutes in the US are even a demonstrated, measurable vector of
HIV infection. Those sex workers proven seropositive have all but
exclusively been street workers and intravenous drug users.
The vast majority of non-addicted and non-street sex workers
consistently
use condoms and practice safe sex because they are keenly
aware of the increased risk of multiple partners. The most prevalent
STDs among sex workers, like the rest of the adult female population in the
U.S., are herpes
and chlamydia. The rate of HIV and hepatitis C infection in sex workers is directly proportionate to IV drug use. Sex workers are
far more likely to get
a disease from a client than vice versa.
SS: How has it figured in your own personal sexual healing that you are
a lesbian in a world that disdains anything out of the "norm" and also a
sex worker having sex with men when you are not sexually attracted to
them? Do you feel you've come to terms with these aspects of yourself?
CLC: It has taught Me never to be driven by conventionality, fear or
another's morality. For instance, I am frequently asked why a whore, witch and lesbian, facing
both legal and social censure, would be so open and public as an
activist, speaker, educatrix and writer. After all, I could not have
chosen
three more outcast and, it seems, affiliated designations if I
had tried.
More than likely, it's because I believe by eliminating the
fear and ignorance that prompts the question, we can begin eliminating
the social stigma and basis for persecution.
I also recognize that stigmatization is based a great deal on one's own
perspective of the stigmatic behavior, choice or affiliation. I am out as
a lesbian, witch and whore because by being public I dilute
and eliminate the power that stigma can bring not just to Me but to
others as well.
If I am unashamed of any of those three appellations,
what can an ignorant bigot possibly do to instill it?
This also applies to the lesbians-who-fuck-men stigma. I never had a
problem with it but more than a few lesbians do. But it's ministry, pure and
simple. No one asks that question about gay male pastors ministering to
women or lesbian ministers counseling gay males. My ministry
is no
different. It's just more inclusive of the entire being: spirit, soul
and body.
I've ministered to gay, lesbian and bisexual men and women and
also transsexuals without question. They were all people in need of the
Goddess' touch.
Some less-informed researchers using very small statistical samples have suggested
that prostitutes, in general, suffer from "negative identities" or lack
of self-esteem. However, an excellent 1986 study by Diane Prince found
call girls and brothel workers had higher self-esteem than before they
became prostitutes.
While I may have been accused of a few vices in my
time, apart from the seemingly obvious ones, a lack of self-confidence
or poor self-image was not one of them. I have always been happy as a
sex worker and sacred whore and have encountered no contradiction in being both whore and
lesbian. As I said,
I don't confuse love and sex.
SS: Any last wisdom you would like to impart?
CLC: I make no apology for who or what I am or for the ministry for
which I was chosen. Clearly, there's no shame to the pagan priestess
who doesn't publicly serve although she should indeed know the
sacred whore within and a mystic relationship to the Great Mother. Not every pagan priestess serves as sacred whore but every sacred
whore serves as priestess. It falls to those whom
She calls. Be quick to
answer if She does.
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