An excerpt ON OUR BACKS, OFF OUR KNEES: A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BY A MODERN SACRED WHORE Copyright © 1995-2007 by Catherine La Croix. All national and international rights reserved. I am often asked why a whore, dominatrix, witch and lesbian, facing the possibility of both legal and community censure, would be so open and public as a sexual professional, activist, speaker, educatrix and writer. After all, I could not have chosen four more socially unacceptable and, it seems, so frequently affiliated designations if I had tried. To be quite honest, considering what it has cost me over the years, I am not altogether sure I really know at times. Some suggest I am public because I am a fool. Not hardly. Some hypothesize I am a closet masochist. Not even close. Some wonder if I just enjoy being colloquially described within far less tolerant society as a devil-worshipping, dominant lesbian whore. Perhaps. And some ask if I am just simply insane. Immodestly perhaps, no. Eliminating the basis for society's opprobrium and persecution of sex. Succinctly, I believe by eliminating the fear and ignorance that prompts the questions, society can begin eliminating the social stigma and basis for its disapproval and persecution of commercial and alternative sexualities. I also recognize that stigmatization is based a great deal on one's own perspective of the stigmatic behavior and whether it is by choice or affiliation. I am out as a dominatrix, fetishist, lesbian, witch and whore because being public begins diluting and eliminating the power of the alleged stigma. If I am unashamed of any of these societal labels, perhaps other whores, dommes, witches and lesbians may find the strength to be just as publicly proud. By revealing and promoting the reality, we begin replacing the distortion and that requires education. Besides, if I am openly proud of who I am, what can some intolerant bigot possibly do to Me? In the final analysis, I would prefer to be detested for the truth rather than loathed for the lie. I will always be an iconoclast but what can I say? I want to change the world. My second goal in this book is somewhat related to the first, in that having confronted the ingrained, obstinate stereotypes regarding commercial and alternative sexuality. we eliminate them and the oppressive anti-sex laws they have instigated.  I am not suggesting we will change anyone’s mind in the right-wing religious fascist camps since we obviously know where we stand with the crucifixion set. However, I am hoping to educate those who would not necessarily persecute or prosecute sex professionals, sacred or otherwise, or their clients but still unconsciously carry the same stubborn theocratic stereotypes. The same stereotypes that disapprove of and often persecute those alternative sexualities they love to think about but seldom publicly discuss. You know, the same fantasies that John Ashcroft has in his more lucid moments.  It's not sex that’s degrading but patriarchy’s draconian treatment of us.  Of course, priggish moralists and anti-sex feminists actually preach and oh-so-prefer their uninformed, hackneyed clichés of all pleasure professionals as constantly abused, drug-addicted and oblivious of our alleged plight. It makes it that much easier to pathologize and thereby indirectly criminalize us and our clientele. Contrary to the likes of anti-sex feminists Catharine MacKinnon and Kathleen Barry (whom, as far as I know, have never turned a trick in their lives), it is not the sexwork or even the sex that is s necessarily degrading (although I suspect these women are not in the kinky camp). No, it is patriarchal society’s and right-wing feminism's draconian treatment of those women who choose sexwork that is both humiliating and degrading.  This has far graver consequences than the seemingly obvious for the sexual rights of any woman are only as secure as the sexual rights of any whore. As long as whores, or any other adult sexual professional, are subject to the deprivation, marginalization and abuse prevalent in this country and abroad, no woman’s personal choice, safety, dignity or destiny is secure. For if a woman’s right to control something so basic, so primal, so personal as her own body and sexuality are coercively and then criminally suppressed, what is next on right-wing agendas? The enforced reproduction of Margaret Atwood's  "The Handmaid's Tale" is becoming less fictional all the time under the current Bush regime.  Just as women were historically kept from certain professions and even forbidden to vote, the same stereotypes concerning whores and dommes are applied in fallacious and pernicious arguments by law enforcement that female sexworkers need protecting from themselves. This rather twisted piece of logic posits that if a woman whores, as a courtesan or domme, she obviously needs police protection from her own waywardness. The fact this weirdly incongruous "protection" often takes the form of illegal arrest, coerced sex and humiliating incarceration seems lost on Joe Friday and friends. Yes, I feel safer already. Not unlike abortion, the criminalization of sexwork or any other sex between consenting adults, is just another heavy-handed and hardly subtle attempt by privileged white men to control women’s bodies, options and economics in the most possessive, and thus inherently degrading, means possible. Criminalization of sexwork and adult sexuality does nothing but contribute to the ongoing dehumanization of every whore and, by extension, every woman via an all-too-brutal masculine dynasty bent on reducing us to nothing more than numbers and arrest sheets. Or body bags. But, then, I suppose it is easier to rely on the banal caricatures that distill us all into street-walking, incest-surviving, drug-addicted losers (far and away not the case) instead of mothers, daughters, sisters, lovers and spouses. And, lest society conveniently forget, I was a woman before I was a whore and a domme. That being said, Goddess knows there are a host of women in this business who should not be. Of course, the same thing could also be said of a several other demanding professions. Among the female sexworkers I know, some work exclusively for money while others whore for sexual thrills or spiritual reasons while making a living in the process. Regardless of the multiple motivations, one is not inherently better than the other when freely chosen. It really makes little difference to Me whether any woman whores or dommes from enthusiastic choice or economic necessity as long as her freedom of choice and personal integrity are respected. Of course, like any other labor, it is better for all concerned if she enjoys her work. In that sense, it is no different from any other service industry requiring both brains and skill.  It is a very demanding profession and not one for the emotionally fragile. By personal integrity, I mean not violating her own sense of dignity and self. No matter what the scene has been during my years of sexwork, I have never felt I subjugated myself or my standards. I did however expand them over the years. Ideally, choosing such an occupation should result from a deliberate desire rather than simply disliking another particular occupation. For example, many women prefer not to type letters or flip hamburgers for a living but they do it to provide for themselves and their families. That does not mean they should necessarily choose sexwork as a more pleasant alternative. It is a very demanding profession and not one for the emotionally fragile or the intellectually challenged. Of course, the same is true of the less sexual forms of prostitution such as being an attorney. Succinctly, sexwork may not be every woman’s choice but the option is essential to the recognition of women as fully fledged citizens, as adults capable of making their own decisions in the wake of what life may deal them. However, as long as women are infantilized and denied the constitutional right to make our own sexual, spiritual and economic assessments and draw our own conclusions, we remain little more than children awaiting patriarchy's largesse or punishment. Paternalistic law enforcement and anti-sex feminists like Catherine MacKinnon, Kathleen Barry and the late Andrea Dworkin would continue to criminalize sexwork and thereby remove freedom of choice from intelligent, self-reliant women who knowledgeably, deliberately and freely select sexwork for a variety reasons, not the least of which are economic. And why shouldn’t they whore when most people in this country, especially women, slave their entire lives just to make someone else rich? Professional whores (and make no mistake, pro dommes are just whores of another flavor) make the best entrepreneurs. And, spirituality aside, I would much rather sell pussy (or the whiff thereof) than Amway. America's comic schizophrenia of fascination and hatred of sexuality. This book may make you laugh occasionally, particularly when one views America’s comic schizophrenia of simultaneous fascination and hypocritical hatred of commercial and alternative sexuality. It is somewhat like American satirist Dorothy Parker's acerbically witty comment that she preferred "a real whorehouse to the Theatre.” Despite oh-so-polite America’s rather clumsily disingenuous attempts to wrap itself in sexual sanctimony, my goals for this book are the restoration of whoredom’s originally spiritual context and every woman’s discovery of the whore within, sacred and otherwise.  And let's dispense with the ridiculous implication that any woman who so empowers herself and thus honors the Goddess, is inherently promiscuous. Far from it. Rather, she expresses the Goddess Incarnate to the one or to the many and thereby opens both her heart and theirs. No, I'm not suggesting that all sexwork is cloaked in magic and mysticism (there is obviously a pragmatic and commercial side to it as well) but I would go so far as propose it should be. Once, we were revered and respected as both priestess and whore and Goddess in the flesh and, although these goals are a bit more ethereal than the others expressed earlier, we have nearly ten millennia of recorded precedence to support them. After all, history's first whores were sacred. Do not presume this book is simply sexual  titillation garbed in spirituality. Having come this far, you have probably already deduced that this book is not simply another  revealing tell-and-sell autobiography of I came, I saw, I fucked. Or, conversely, I came, I saw, I flogged. In fact, it is not an autobiography in the traditional sense at all although the personal anecdotes are there. Rather, it's the exploration and revelation of a concurrently prehistoric and, paradoxically, new paradigm of what it is to be a professional whore, madam and domme and why. It is an exploration that will, optimistically, eliminate the stereotypical and illuminate the benevolent, therapeutic and life-giving aspects of sacred whoredom in its various contexts no matter how pervy they may seem at times. And they undoubtedly will seem pervy as you read this book. It frankly compares sacred and secular whoredom, without condescension or pretension, and illustrates the power and presence of the priestess who freely surrenders herself to the will of the Goddess just as I did. However, it would be a mistake to conclude that this is simply a book about and for whores, sacred or otherwise, madams and dommes. It would also be a mistake to presume it is simply titillation garbed in the guise of spirituality. Rather, it's a book for every woman seeking spiritual, emotional and sexual independence. And the women and men, of all sexual persuasions, who know and see them professionally or love them domestically. Or both (yes, it happens). More precisely, this is a book declaring how and why this woman found her independence by embracing her calling as priestess and whore. While it does promote female freedom, self-awareness and self-possessed power, it does not propose that any woman become, professionally speaking, a whore. That would be illegal. However, it does strongly urge every woman to discover and know the priestess whore within herself. And, yes, she is there. Hidden perhaps. Often repressed undoubtedly. But she is there. Women need but search their latent collective memories for the primeval archetype holding the mysteries of the moon and the power of the priestess. Her freedom and restoration is to know, reclaim, possess and exercise the once pre-eminent position now denied us. It is to clearly recognize who we are and once were: the hallowed priestesses of the Goddess and the exclusive possessors of magic, sexuality and creation. Not simply domestic drudges, not simply baby factories, not simply sexual conveniences and certainly not patriarchal chattel. Unfortunately, the worship of the eternal Feminine has been abolished in favor of all-too-sanguinary masculinity. Essentially all women, whores or not, still remain physically, politically, religiously, economically and socially subjugated. Accordingly, we have more genocide and war today than ever before with their attendant sickness and starvation and the primary victims are not the men who instigate them but innocent women and children.   A dog-eat-dog world where no one in public office admits to eating pussy. The renowned Greek poet Hesiod, during the 8th century BCE,  conspicuously notes that Aphrodite’s legions of priestess whores, the hierodule or Horae, “mellowed the behavior of men” with not only sacred sexuality but with their nurturing intellect, artistic culture, self-aware wisdom and healing arts. While Hesiod does not say so explicitly, it takes little imagination to suggest the Horae defused or healed many a feud, battle, war or other testosteronic dick-wagging. Ancient combat, although worshipped by its masculine constituency much like today, was nonetheless considered to bloodily separate men from female Divinity. The priestess whore’s consciousness and body not only restored the humanity of the warrior but provided the sacred pleasurable portal by which he rejoined less sanguinary society. A revival of the sensual magic of the Goddess and the decriminalization of our long and therapeutic traditions might indeed soften the violent behavior of men today. Before they obliterate themselves and more women and children in the process. Finally, as the title states, this book is a personal declaration of independence. Independence from patriarchal control and religion. Independence from familial rejection and disapproval. Independence from societal stigma and abuse. And independence from lesbian and feminist fascism. It is not so much about my career as a pro domme, courtesan, priestess, madam and the occasionally man-fucking lesbian, although personal, experiential and anecdotal content is certainly there. Rather, it is an examination of the feminist, legal, psychological, political, social, sexual and spiritual aspects of being a sacred whore in a sadly and distinctly profane world. A sexually hostile world where dog eats dog and nobody in public office admits to eating pussy. Yes, it is an incongruous world where millions go homeless and hungry while billions build war machines. A world where people as warped and hateful as George Bush, Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson can promote outright bigotry, intolerance, misogyny, murder and even war.  And it is all legal. The same world where, as the Goddess incarnate, I willingly communicate compassion, benevolent power and touching intimacy in a sexually healing context and it's illegal. Goddess help us all. Buy the book when published!