Modern Era
(1950 AD - )
Room Two
Dolores French
(circa 1955 - )
At the age of 27, French made the "informed decision" to become a prostitute. This has been her "chosen career" ever since and she unabashedly states, "Everyone should enjoy their work as much as I do."
French has been active in legitimating sex work. In 1982 she became the first prostitute to appear on TV and acknowledge her profession (without a disguise or a fake name) when she appeared on the early talk show Donahue. She is the founder of the Atlanta advocacy organization, Hooking Is Real Employment (HIRE). She also served on the Mayor's Task Force on Prostitution in the City of Atlanta from 1985 to 1986. In 1986 she also served as a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in a study on prostitution and AIDS. French continues to educate people on the myths of prostitution, "As a prostitute, I am safer from health risks than my sister the nurse."
French is married to a criminal defense attorney and writes a sex-positive column for the Atlanta magazine, The Scene. Her life is presented in her 1988 autobiography, Working: My Life as a Prostitute.
(Above information retrieved from DoloresFrench.Net on July 17, 2007.)
Links:
Jeannette Angell
(circa 1960 - )
In the mid-1990s Jeannette Angell was an adjunct professor in Boston. She was a graduate of Yale with a doctorate in social anthropology, but still found herself in a financial emergency when her then-boyfriend took her money and abandoned her. For the next three years Angell supplemented her teaching income working as a call girl. She chronicled her experiences in her 2004 book, Callgirl.
Links:
Robyn Few
(circa 1960 - )
In her early thirties Robyn Few came to California to pursue theater and become an activist. In 1996 she turned to prostitution to cover her bills. In 2002 she was arrested by an FBI SWAT team. The FBI had been able to equate prostitution with terrorism to get extra funding for the investigation which targeted medical marijuana growers and sex workers. Few was later convicted of one federal count of conspiracy to promote prostitution.
Frustrated by her federal bust she organized the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) in 2003. Few states, "Until prostitutes have equal protection under the law and equal rights as human beings, there is no justice."
(Few information retrieved from SWOP-USA.org, 28 July 2007.)
Links:
Few's Web Page at SWOP-USA.org
Valerie Scott
(circa 1965 - )
Valerie Scott wanted to be a prostitute from an early age and entered the field by applying to work as a masseuse in a "beautiful" gay bathhouse in Halifax, Canada. She cites sex-worker activist, Annie Sprinkle, as being an inspiration to her in high school.
Scott currently runs the advocacy organization, Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). Scott supports decriminalization over legalization. Decriminalization makes prostitution a legitimate business where legalization leaves it highly regulated. Scott points out that government tinkering in legalized systems has created problems for sex workers that cause many of them to continue to work underground. She points to decriminalization in New South Wales, Australia, as being an effective model.
(Scott information taken from Todd Klinck, "I Wanted to Be A Saloon Girl," Fab Magazine, Issue 266, April 2005, ret. fabmagazine.com, 17 June 2007.)
Links:
Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC) (has photos of Scott)
Anastasia Kuzyk
(circa 1970 - )
Anastasia Kuzyk of Toronto, Canada, started as a street prostitute at the age of 17 and still works as a call-girl specializing in domination. Kuzyk has advocated for sex workers' rights for 15 years with the Sex Workers Alliance of Toronto.
(Kuzyk information taken from Brett Clarkson, "I'm Okay With What I Do," Toronto Sun, 24 June, 2007, p. 7; and "Our Canada: The Sex Worker Advocate," video clip, Sun Media, ret. canoe.ca, 12 July 2007.)
Page last modified July 28, 2007.
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