Girlfriend or Pornstar? Inside the life of an American Courtesan
“… if you are open to one-night stands, then it is just a small jump psychologically to being able to do escort work…”
________________________– Alexa
All human beings have sex… and to survive in modern society you need money.
But when you put the two together; sex + money — you get what’s colloquially known as the world’s oldest profession: prostitution — a woman selling access to her body for the means of completing a sexual act in exchange for some form of remittance.
I’ve always disliked the word prostitute – the derogatory connotations the word brings along with it have become somewhat unfair and disparaging to the women whose lives the word is often used to describe. To call a woman a prostitute is to denigrate everything else she is as a human being, and it simply focuses on what she does to earn her way in the world.
Like anything else in life… how we use words and language matters; with each word we invoke to describe basically the exact same thing having a slightly different meaning, and providing a slightly different perception – the words matter.
The word Hooker often elicits the mental image of a woman hustling herself on a street corner in some dark alley combat zone found in every American city. Yet the word Escort means something else; often because of how the media portrays these women and their illicit world with a tinge of glamor, sex appeal and ambiguity. Hookers are scary. Escorts are sexy. And then there’s the word Courtesan – alluring in its international connotations and mystery; the courtesan could be any woman who finds herself fulfilling the needs of dignified gentlemen on a long term basis.
But are they all the same?
Yes and No. Yes — in that the basic service these women all perform is prostitution… No — in that each of these women, who would assume such words as titles or descriptions of their lives, are conspicuously different from one another.
Meet Alexa – a drop dead gorgeous 22 year old college educated woman who has made the recent decision to become an escort. But beyond her ample physical beauty – Alexa has the brains to go with it. She’s graduated magna cum laude from a prestigious private university in Florida just last month, she speaks three languages and can read three others – and she’s decided to pursue an advanced degree in her field at another university in San Francisco – and she’s accomplished all of this while working as an exotic dancer in Miami for the last three years.
Today: Alexa has no debt. Her education is paid for in full. She has substantial savings. And she would appear to have the world waiting for her at her feet.
Your first reaction – like mine was – might be: why would any woman with as much going for her as Alexa does ever willingly choose the life of an escort?
Because the reality is: no matter what socio-economic rung on the ladder each of these women finds herself on, they still will lead lives which are, at least partially, lived underground as part of a world very few of us ever truly experience for ourselves. It’s a world filled with great risks and dangers, but also one which offers the potential for enormously lucrative rewards, which for some women at least… the money that they can likely earn as escorts outweighs the risks.
Because I don’t believe that we can ever truly understand another woman’s life, or her life choices, until we’ve walked across a hotel lobby floor in a pair of her Jimmy Choos – I asked Alexa for some time for an interview. She graciously accepted and was generous not only with her time, but also with her thoughts and insights. What follows below is our conversation.
I think it’s important to mention that I do not seek to justify prostitution as a lifestyle choice nor delve into any other issues surrounding it – I’ll leave those thoughts and questions to others. I simply accept and understand that this is the reality of the world we live in, and I recognize the disservice we do to ourselves – and especially to these women – by simply dismissing them, their lives, and their choices with a simple word: prostitute
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Nina: Why don’t you talk to me about what motivated you to become an escort? Let’s start there.
Alexa: There’s a lot that goes into that. First, as you know, I consider myself a student of human sexuality, so I’ve spent a lot of time reading about, studying about and researching a wide variety of different aspects of sex.
During one of my courses on Human Sexuality in undergrad, I was approached by a girl who worked as an escort in the Miami area. She told me I had the look and the attitude… to be good at it. I told her I was flattered, but that I wasn’t interested in that kind of work. We remained friends and talked from time to time about her work.
When it came time for me to pick a topic for my honors project, the one I developed involved interviewing over 100 women who worked in the sex industry, including streetwalkers, prostitutes in brothels, and escorts. Between talking with her and the incredible women I met working as escorts, I was just flabbergasted at how intelligent, well-carried and confident the escorts were as a group. And, despite all that most people hear in the media, these were women who truly enjoyed their work. Superimpose that on top of what I found in San Francisco… the move to escort work from dancing as it would have to be done in San Francisco seemed like a no-brainer.
I had been a dancer in the Miami area for about three years, and had planned to continue that with my move to San Francisco. When we (Alexa and her girlfriend Nikki – ed.) went to San Francisco to look at clubs to work in… it turns out they are almost all basically fronts for prostitution. You have to perform “extras” to be able to make money. In that case, you basically service clients that choose to come to you, and you have little say in it. By going into escort work, I can hand pick the clients I want to see, screen them, and basically control my own destiny so to speak.
Then there’s the money — Anyone who tells you they go into escort work for anything that doesn’t include money is lying. The money potential in escort work is far and above anything else I could earn at this point in my life. I made six figures working as a dancer, and managed to save a lot of it. I want to do something where I continue to have that kind of potential and can save money for what I’d like to do when I finish grad school. So, it’s a combination of several things that led me to this point, really.
Nina: Okay — two immediate thoughts and questions which come to mind… there’s a lot of misconception about dancers or strippers… most fostered I believe by a media which looks to sensationalize sex… but in your experience in Miami… can you talk about where the lines were in terms of contact with clients? And then, can you talk a little bit about why you were so surprised about the overall intelligence of the women you met while doing your research?
Alexa: You mean where the lines were with me in particular, or in general?
Nina: Both actually. Did you ever feel pressured to do more with patrons who would frequent the clubs you worked in? I guess my question really gets to: there’s a perception out there, I believe, that strippers are prostitutes, and I’m curious about the reality of that.
Alexa: Well, in some cases, they basically are… especially at the lower end of the spectrum in clubs. In many clubs… not all though, the dancers are expected – or in some cases, even encouraged — to perform sexual services… usually handjobs, blowjobs and in some cases, even full penetration sex in order to make money, both for themselves and the club.
The club takes a percentage of what the dancers make, and the more they bring in, the more the club brings in. So… it’s hard to find a club out there that not only doesn’t encourage it, but actively discourages it. I was fortunate enough to work in one that not only discouraged it, but which fired dancers who got caught doing something illegal. They had cameras in the VIP Rooms, for example, with security watching and if they caught a dancer doing something illegal, she was gone no questions asked. That made it a very safe environment to work in.
With a club market as big as Miami, you get clubs on both ends of that spectrum. And… sadly… there’s a lot of vice arrests in the clubs that tolerate that kind of activity. So what do you see on the TV news? The clubs shut down for prostitution busts. You never see the clubs that don’t get into trouble, and so everyone has this perception that all strip clubs are fronts for prostitution.
Some cities have it worse than others, too. For example, in Memphis, there’s no such thing as a club that doesn’t front for prostitution. In Miami, it was different, and I was lucky enough to have landed in a club that wasn’t like that. We did get customers in who’d been in other clubs, though… and they expected to be treated just like they had in the others. Some didn’t react well to being told we didn’t do that there!
So given that, we didn’t feel “pressured” to do that kind of stuff where I worked. The higher end clubs generally don’t put up with it because they have a reputation to uphold and don’t want the negative press associated with the busts. The lower end clubs tolerate it because that’s the only way they can make money. The dichotomy there is strikingly similar to street walking versus escort work now that I think about it!
When we went to San Francisco in January to find a place to dance — we found that every club we went into basically expected the dancers to perform sexual services for customers. San Francisco is – shall we say – more tolerant of prostitution than many other places are, and unless vice trips over someone fucking in the back room or some one complains, I don’t think they do much enforcement in the clubs. They bust streetwalkers on a daily basis, but rarely do stings on clubs - as they see it, if it is inside, out of sight, then who cares? This shouldn’t be a surprise coming from a city where a commission advocated doing away with most law enforcement activity related to prostitution to begin with. (see also COYOTE - ed.)
San Francisco is also the home to O’Farrell’s live sex theater, so I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was rather dejected that there were no places to dance without having to do that kind of stuff. In fact, many girls living in San Francisco who dance and don’t want to do that fly to Reno or Vegas every weekend to work.
Nina: That’s absolutely fascinating, and going back to the second part of my question, about your research and what you discovered; when people hear the word “prostitute” it often elicits the mental image of streetwalker, and in everything you’ve shared with me… was the decision to work as an escort, where you are the one in control of who you date and when, was that just a natural and logical conclusion given not only everything you yourself had experienced… but also in everything you learned thru your research? I guess my real question gets to the idea of control. Was the decision to move from dancer in a new city… who might be in a position to have to preform sexual services… to that of an escort about taking control?
Alexa: Very much so. In the club, you have zero control over who comes in, what kind of background they have… that kind of thing. And, in many cases, if you reject a customer who comes in, you’re “punished” by the club for refusing to service them… usually through “fines” which the girls have to pay out of their own proceeds. You may or may not have security that cares about you and will come to your aid if someone gets rough, and in many cases the clubs don’t enforce any kind of decorum on the customers to begin with, so you literally end up with people walking in off the street…not too unlike street walking, no?
By working as an escort, either your agency — if you work for a service — or you — if you work independently — can select and screen who you see. And of course, with escort work the prices are a lot higher to begin with, which tends to screen out the “average” person. Someone isn’t going to spend that kind of money – again, generally speaking – to cause problems for the woman. It’s by no means 100% safe, but it is safer to work as an escort than doing that kind of stuff in a club. So, being able to control whom I come into contact with was the single biggest factor in my deciding to make that jump.
With my honors project — I interviewed a little over 100 sex workers. About half of them were street walkers. Without exception, every one of them was doing it to support a drug habit or had to do it to make ends meet. And every one of them said they’d get out of it immediately if they could. These are the 20% of the sex workers everyone is familiar with - they see them on the street corners, on the news, plastered on police web sites. No one has ever advocated making that kind of prostitution legal. However… almost without exception, the women who worked in brothels – in Nevada — and those working as escorts were doing the work because they wanted to do it. Most of them of course were doing it for the money. But then again, that’s why anyone works.
I was particularly struck by the women who were working as independent escorts. Every one of them either had degrees — many had advanced degrees, or they were in college and were intelligent, confident, independent women who enjoyed the work they were doing. This was powerful to me, because like you and everyone else, before I had been exposed to them I had this notion that they were all drug-addicted, sexually-abused women who couldn’t hold a “real” job and therefore had to turn to prostitution to make ends meet.
That’s what those shows like 20/20 would have you believe. I found those strong, intelligent women inspiring. And I guess that’s what made me take that final leap once I’d come to San Francisco and figured out that dancing wasn’t going to be a valid option once I got there. I am no longer concerned about the stigma which comes along with being a sex worker. In fact, I look forward to the experience playing a major role in my future endeavors.
Nina: Let’s talk about that. Ashlee Dupree. Deborah Jean Palfrey. Two names which have been in the news; one as an escort working for an agency, another one allegedly running an agency. Is there an illusion of control for women working for an agency? And is the only way to truly have control would be to work as an independent?
Alexa: Well, by working as an independent you do have total control, and you get to keep everything the client pays. If you work for an agency, the agency takes a cut of the client’s fee – usually between 40 and 50 percent. The advantage of working for an agency is that they do all the legwork in screening and vetting clients, whereas as an independent you have to do it yourself. Typically, those who work for agencies are college students or women who are working to supplement their “real” job income.
Independents are typically those who use it as their primary livelihood. In the vast majority of cases, the women who work for agencies can refuse to see clients without any problem, so they still have ultimate control. In the “old days” agencies were run mainly by men and they functioned as just outcall prostitution services, and the escorts would be “fined” or penalized for not seeing customers the service booked them with. Sidney Biddles Barrow (the Mayflower Madam) changed the nature of the way escort services are run. Today, there are many that are run by women, including women like Palfrey, who are utmost concerned about the safety of the women who work for them.
And, just as it is with the clubs I was talking about, the lower end of the spectrum sees a lot more “problems” than at the higher end, like services that Dupree worked for…. As an aside… there are also a lot of what I refer to as itinerant escorts out there - women who use Craigslist and similar services to arrange hookups with clients for money. That is pretty unsafe as well because they typically don’t do the screening at all with their clients, and frequently end up as targets of law enforcement.
Nina: I’d like to change directions here a bit away from the ‘nuts and bolts’ of this into the more abstract aspects of this and then go back into the ‘nuts and bolts’ because I think it’s simply fascinating — The idea of sex for money, or being an escort, or just having that kind of control has crossed every woman’s mind at least once in our lifetimes! Do you see the idea of being open in terms of taking money for sex, even tho it’s known as the world’s oldest profession, but do you see this as a new generation of feminism? What are your thoughts on that? Because as someone who grew up in a generation of women just becoming aware of our own sexuality, in many ways I see this as the next step in that growth. What are your thoughts there? Personally?
Alexa: Wow, that’s a politically charged question…. I don’t know that I see it necessarily as a “new generation” of feminism. Feminism has morphed into just another form of control for a lot of people. It was supposed to have wanted to take us out of being controlled by men, and allowing us to make our own decisions, achieve what we can achieve, and so forth. Most feminists, even the so called “sex positive” ones have never embraced prostitution as a valid choice for any woman. And even today, feminists will tell you that you should be allowed to do what you want to do, but if you raise the specter of choosing to work in the sex industry, once again, you’ve been co-opted by the patriarchy and couldn’t possibly have made a rational, informed choice to enter the world of sex work. Invariably, these will be women who’ve never been in sex work, so they don’t have the first clue about what it is like or what it involves. They see the same thing everyone else sees in the media about prostitution, and see “research” from women like Melissa Farley decrying the coercion and forced sex work and believe that no one would choose to enter sex work voluntarily. And, if that were the case, then obviously, invalidating that “choice” would seem logical.
However, all of that comprises only about 20% of what actually goes on the world of sex work. The other 80% you never see or hear about to any great extent, and is filled with women who, to one extent or another, enjoy what they do and have elected, for a variety of reasons, to take that route. I know before I started researching it myself, I, too, would wonder what the fuck? when someone said they decided to go into sex work.
I think the two issues, while connected in some ways, are largely divergent in their goals. Feminism represents an ideal, if you will, whereas those of us who live in the real world and deal with having to live our lives, educating ourselves and making our own decisions for ourselves… deal with our reality. I think that young women today are headed towards a more internally-defined “what’s best for me in my circumstances” kind of approach instead of worrying about what some collective ideal would be or should be for them. So I don’t know that I’d say it is a new wave or new brand of feminism so much as it is about making decisions that fit what you want to accomplish. Women today do tend to see sex work as a more valid choice than it ever has been.
What does that mean culturally? Societally? I don’t know. I am not qualified to pronounce it a positive or a negative as I see it.
Nina: Interesting. In many ways I think the psychological obstacles to making that kind of choice have become easier to a degree for younger women, for a variety of reasons — but I’d like to talk about the actual sexuality aspect of this…. You are a sexual person, you’re openly bisexual and are involved in a relationship with another woman… yet your clients are primarily “presumably” all male, even tho situations may call for you at some point in time to be with another woman. How much of your own sexuality comes into what you do?
Alexa: Well, I am what I like to refer to as a “true” bisexual. I enjoy sex with both genders. And as I stated before, I consider myself a student of human sexuality, so one thing I am actually looking forward to is exploring sex with other people. Having said that, I also have to reposition my mindset a bit to focus on the fact that I am providing a service for the client, and as such, my own personal sexuality really doesn’t come into play as a general rule. I have read many women who’ve been involved in sex work who’ve stated that they often enjoyed the sex they had with their clients, and I suspect… and hope…that that will be the case for me as well.
Nina: Is there a psychological disconnect there? And can you talk about that a bit? I mean, at some point you realized that to a degree, someone may be using you to “get off” — so can you share your feelings on how that disconnect works?
Alexa: I not only realize it, I understand and accept it. I think if one can disconnect the need for emotional connectivity with someone as a prerequisite for sex, then there’s a lot less psychological baggage that would interfere with one’s ability to do this work. I mean, if you are open to one-night stands, then it is just a small jump psychologically to being able to do escort work. The obvious difference being that you’re generally not going to be the one getting off — which, presumably, is an incentive for the one night stand. To me, and I know this sounds like a cliché… doing this kind of work is not any different than anything else that relies on a set of skills. I just have a different set of skills I bring to the table. It is a job, I understand and accept it as such, and I do what I need to do to get the job done. I know there are people who can’t fathom how someone can treat “sex” like that, but then I can’t fathom how some people believe in certain things they believe in, so the universe balances out.
Nina: That’s really what I was getting at, and if I can share my own thoughts and feelings here for a moment… that barrier of requiring that emotional connectivity… that connection between the physical and the emotional would prevent me from doing this sort of work. Although… we have all had – most of us anyway — have had sex with someone we didn’t love, or have had the one night stand, or have some aspect of that in our own experience… I think it’s an incredibly personal decision to be able to decide if you can or can’t… not right or wrong, just incredibly personal… you’ve also decided to keep a blog about your own personal journey into this work… and you recently wrote about your “first professional fuck” as you put it… can you walk me thru what that was like?
Alexa: Well… I will say that in the days leading up to that… I was incredibly anxious. I mean, I have pretty much always been one who believed I could have sex with someone randomly if the chemistry was right. And have, in fact. But those were all women.
I found myself in a situation where I could “test the waters” if you will, by approaching a guy and offering my services for a fee. When he said yes, and we set a date for it, I went through a lot of internal evaluation about what it would mean if I succeeded and if I failed. It is one thing to fuck someone you have chemistry with, and I knew it’d be different in this case because that chemistry wasn’t going to be there. I had to ascertain if I was going to be able to do it, though, before I committed myself to using it as my means of earning a living in a new town.
When we met, it was almost like I went on auto pilot. I knew exactly what I wanted to accomplish, based on how we had indicated he wanted the scenario to play out, and things went very well. So much so, in fact, as I indicated on my blog, that he asked for a second appointment. Mentally, I walked away from the first time proud of myself for having had the courage to go through with it. I know in the past I had always wondered how someone could do that, and it turned out to be easier than I thought, actually.
He and I spent a good deal of time talking about random, useless shit, too, in the interlude between the two sessions of sexual activity on the second appointment, and got to a point where we were at ease and comfortable with one another. That made the last session easier, if you will. I might add that this is another aspect of escort work that I look forward to. In many cases, especially with agency workers, it is basically just a fuck session. But with the more courtesan approach that I plan to take… the appointments are basically like dates. I have a two-hour minimum, and most clients who book me aren’t going to want just a quick sex session. The higher end escorts – especially on the independent side – prefer to establish a long-term, recurring relationship with a client so that she has a guaranteed source of income. That will allow for a comfort level with a client and make it easier, or more fluid if you will, when it comes to the sex. That is kind of what I experienced with my first “professional” fuck!
I genuinely like to get to know people and find out what makes them tick, so my time/fee structure is designed to function within that framework.
Nina: As an aside, and this folds into your last answer…when I read about your first professional fuck, I have to admit that it took me some time to be able to “catch up” to the idea of that, especially because it was so graphic… which leads me to my next question and perhaps one you’ve already answered in a way… but going back to where your own sexuality comes in, and with what you described in what you wrote about your first time; are there things you will and won’t do sexually? Where are the lines for you? And do you feel that by having an established relationship with a client, that it makes those lines easier to cross?
Alexa: Quite honestly, I have not personally set any specific lines for myself at this point. I enjoy anal sex, for example, and I know some women won’t allow anal, or reserve it for their significant other or whatnot. I don’t know how familiar you are with the terms “GFE” and “PSE” in the escort world, but the girl-friend experience is what most escorts provide, which is basically straight sex with some snuggling, perhaps kissing, that kind of thing. And then there’s the porn-star experience where it is for all intents and purposes a sexual free for all.
I enjoy a lot of different things in my own personal sex life, and I see no reason to not provide those to clients who book my services. There will be some things that I won’t do with clients until we’ve established a trust relationship, including things like rough sex, water sports, or fantasy rape scenarios. There are a few hard and fast rules, such as requiring condoms for all penetrative sex, for example, that will never be crossed. I might also mention that I won’t do some scenarios that I know other escorts have mentioned, such as the daddy/daughter thing, or anything involving permanent marks on either of us, blood play, scat or anything involving or portending to involve underage actors.
Nina: That’s a remarkable perspective — and in reality, you’re in a fantastic position to comment on the male sexual psychology, not only from working as a dancer, but also an escort. I’m intensely curious — what are men looking for? The GFE or the PSE? Do you have a sense of that yet?
Alexa: There are basically three kinds of men who will visit an escort. The first are those who have issues forming intimacy relationships, and need/want the sexual release with someone other than themselves. They don’t want to have to invest – or can’t invest — the time into trying to develop a relationship with someone when there is no guarantee of sex in the offing. This also includes men who travel a lot… and where I suspect the bulk of my client base will come from.
The second are those who are in relationships where their wives/girlfriends won’t do something that they want to do or try, in particular anal sex and in some cases even basic oral sex. There are some women out there who just will not do oral, and believe it or not, there are some men out there who don’t want the lips that kiss their children to “defile” themselves by being wrapped around the guy’s cock. So they use the services of escorts to enjoy that.
And then there are the guys who can’t or won’t ask their significant other to indulge them in some activities because they are afraid that they’ll be seen as freaks, or, who are afraid that their significant other will freak out at the mention of it. This includes guys who want to be anally penetrated, for example, or who want to act out an unusual scenario — such as the rape scenario I mentioned earlier. It might also include water sports, or indulging them in some other unique or unusual fetish that they don’t want their significant other to know about. The first type is typically the kind that will seek the GFE, whereas the other two are more inclined towards the PSE-type experience.
I might also mention that guys who go into strip clubs can’t be compared to guys who seek the services of escorts. Typically, the guys going into strip clubs just want to ogle the free boobs and asses and have a little down time and that’s as far as it goes.
Nina: So what have you learned about yourself? And what advice most helped you and what advice would you share with other women or even men who would seek out an escort?
Alexa: As I said earlier… if you’d asked me a year or so ago if I was going to go into escort work, I would’ve just laughed at you and said “no way” — But, given the totality of what I have discovered about the work, and the women that I’ve talked with… both in and out of the profession, I’ve made the decision to give it a shot.
I have surprised myself in that I would even give this some serious consideration… though I have one friend who said she was wondering when I’d finally go down this road! I have always been one who tried not to forthrightly buck the system, and I have decided that I am at a point in my life where I just don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks about what I do - I will live for myself and build my life the way I want to.
What will be interesting is to discover what I will learn about myself and others as I move through this. Like I stated on my blog, I am new to this, and I am taking everyone else along for the ride. I plan to be honest and not sugarcoat anything. I am also surprised at the support I’ve gotten from friends, both in real life and online. Only one person has expressed anything approaching disgust at the decision, and they’ve all told me that they know how I make decisions – most have known me for years – so they feel if I am at comfort with it, they are as well. It is nice to know that I have those kinds of friends around me.
With respect to what I’d tell those seeking the services of an escort, I’d say do your research and make sure you know who you are getting. Be prepared to divulge a good bit of personal information because they are going to want to make sure you are who you say you are and not law enforcement, and they have just as much vested in keeping your relationship confidential as they you do. It is a necessity, though, for our safety.
Nina: Okay… last question, and perhaps my most significant… What is your biggest fear?
Alexa: I have two great fears. One is that I will come across a client that is a psycho. I have some tools at my disposal to prevent that and to deal with it if it does happen. The screening goes a long way towards preventing that, for example. And there are lists maintained by escorts in each city of clients who are not to be seen. I have access to those. I have a black belt in TaeKwonDo, so if something escalates into a physical confrontation, I at least stand a chance at defending myself. And there are other security measures that we take to prevent or inhibit such a thing, or that will allow law enforcement to be able to address it appropriately if something does happen to us. Obviously, I can’t talk about those publicly.
My second fear is catching something like HIV. Condoms go a long way towards preventing me from catching something, but they are not foolproof as you know. Though HIV isn’t the death sentence it used to be, it still creates a lot of problems for you, and I’d rather not deal with that. It is somewhat comforting to know that escorts have a much lower incidence of acquiring an STD than you find in the civilian population. I also have to worry about transmitting it to someone else if I don’t discover it in time as well, and would instantly be out of business.
I’ve got two years, but I expect to get through it okay.
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Alexa has committed to working as an escort for two years while she finishes graduate school. For privacy and safety reasons her contact information will not be published with this interview.
The choices women face in life are complicated, sometimes difficult, but always interesting. I don’t know that I could make such a choice, but I have a deep respect for Alexa and for the choice she has made. My advocacy extends to making sex work safe, legitimate and above the board. That requires political will – one which I don’t know currently exists in this country. If we truly cared about the lives of women, we would work to ensure that those who are sex workers, like Alexa, are safe and are not subject to the public scorn which often goes along with their profession – and make no mistake about it – it is indeed a profession. Professional companionship and entertainment is nothing new. What is new is the attitude and skills these women now bring to their chosen line of work. They’re not what you think, or what you’d expect.
Alexa, while beautiful, is also brilliant. Is she a hooker? An escort? A courtesan? I doubt even she knows what to call herself – but one thing we cannot do is dismiss her as simply just another prostitute.
She is much, much more than that.
note
Alexa had wonderful things to say about me and this experience of being interviewed here
Thoughts and discussion are welcome, too.