I kind of hoped this would slip under the radar. The whole thing was ridiculous. That was obviously very optimistic. Two escorts contacted me about it within days of release, and there are three threads on message boards that I know of. Sussex Punting has scanned and uploaded the article, so you can find it there if you’re interested and haven’t seen it.
Late last year a woman called me saying she was looking for someone to join her and her boyfriend for a night. Some of the contact was by email, so I’ve been able to look back over it.
She said they were both students and was quite adamant that they wanted to see another student. I explained that I’d dropped out of University and said I might be able to point them towards a current student, but the only one I could think of isn’t bi, so I didn’t. She said they’d see me anyway but she’d really like to chat “so I’ll feel a bit like we’re at least friends..”
Most escorts don’t have much patience for that, which explains why she only managed to get me (not a student) and Kama involved in her article. I’m willing to meet nervous clients for a quick drink though. Normally only in Brighton, but I was going to London on Saturday and wanted to do some shopping on Sunday, so I arranged to meet her in a café in Covent Garden.
We had a drink and a chat. She asked if she could take a picture of me on her phone to show her boyfriend. I agreed (must trust people less). I wonder if she was planning to use that if I wasn’t cooperative about pictures.
A week or so later she called to say that she’d decided she couldn’t go through with it, but as part of her degree she sometimes wrote articles for Cosmo and her editor had asked if she could write one about her experience. She asked if she could use my name and a picture of me. I said my name was fine and she could use a picture that didn’t clearly show my face.
The scenario sounded unlikely so I asked some friends about it. They didn’t think a student would be writing for Cosmo or that the magazine would have writers sourcing pictures. Someone suggested that she might be trying to get something to submit to one of the Lunchtime mags, so I watermarked all my pictures that weren’t already and forgot about it.
Months later she called again. She said Cosmo was finally running the article and started asking me more questions about myself, taken by surprise I answered. I said I wanted to check that she was working for them so she gave me her name, I called the publisher and yeah, she was.
Over the next two weeks I had more calls from the reporter. I asked her why she was asking me about my life and history when it was an article about her experience. She explained that she was weaving in personal stories from the people she’d met. I tried to pull out twice: because she’d misrepresented her project; because I’m sick of people trying to make me fit their idea of a student trying to pay her way by hooking; because she came across as very unprofessional and it just bugged me. I don’t know if she came across that way because she was genuinely inexperienced or because it made it harder to say no to her. I didn’t think I could do anything about being mentioned in the article, it was their use of my picture that I considered not cooperating with. I said if I were to give permission I wanted to see the final text of the article. She agreed, but later said that her editor wouldn’t allow it but she could read me the bits about myself. I agreed to that.
She did seem to be trying to make the article acceptable to me, which was why I backed down the second time I tried to pull out. She called me a few times to run the current version by me. There were a lot of mistakes, some of which I corrected and some of which I didn’t bother with. Since she never actually interviewed me, just asked me questions and then tried to remember the answers afterwards, the supposed quotes in the article are all paraphrased. She originally had me saying that my housemates “know what I do and don’t mind one jot”. Does anyone actually talk like that?
Anyway, from what she read to me the article seemed fairly insipid but not offensive, so I was ok with going along with it although I wouldn’t have chosen to be involved. Having read the published version my opinion hasn’t really changed. I don’t think it’s good journalism: it’s quite obvious that she knew what she wanted to say and was just looking for some examples to demonstrate her opinion. She’s glossed over the fact that I wasn’t a student when I started working or when she met me: I didn’t do it because of student debts, I did it because I’m a pervert, thank you very much. I’ve been in the Adult industry for three and a half years and for one of those years I thought I should go to University. I’ve been told both by people who know me in real life and only from message boards that my personality doesn’t come across (which would have been ok if stuff about me didn’t make up the bulk of the article). There are also a bunch of factual errors, some of which I didn’t get the chance to correct.
So, here are my corrections:
“Minutes later, without embarrassment, she whips off her coat and stands in front of me in a skimpy Wonder Woman leotard teamed with black fishnet stockings and red baseball boots, and the rucksack is unzipped to reveal a baffling array of sex toys.”
I don’t have a Wonder Woman outfit, sorry. Also, did I mention that we were in a café? There was no leotard.
My outfit was eyecatching though, it was the one I’d worn to Erotica the day before. I wanted to dress up and thought my Supergirl outfit would stand out more there than some corset getup. Sadly I don’t have a picture to show you, but it’s made up of a Super baby-tee, red mini skirt, blue fishnet hold-ups and red Converse hi-tops.
As for the sex toys, we went to a fetish club after Erotica so I might have had some with me, but my backpack was mostly full of my sleeping bag so there wasn’t space for a baffling array of them.
She should have seen what I wore to the fetish club.
“After we’ve talked for hours, I agree to pay her £800 for her services for a night, plus drinks and dinner.”
We talked for about half an hour. Dinner plus overnight would be £850.
“On our first meeting”
… which was also our only meeting.
“She admits to being tired, having serviced six clients in the last few days, mostly at local hotels.”
When I first read this I thought what the fuck? I’ve never seen six clients in a few days. Then I remembered that yes I have, when I book a hotel room and take incalls, as I had that week. In that case they were all in one hotel, the one I’d booked. But yes, it’s an intense and tiring thing to do. I was also tired because I’d been to a club the night before, and in pain with what I was about to find out was a root canal infection.
“The first man she slept with was Turkish. “I managed to get £380 out of him for two hours,” she says proudly. “It was fine.”"
If I said it proudly, it was because he paid me that for a hand job. Neither of us had condoms. It wasn’t fine though, it was fantastic. I really liked the guy and had a great time with him. When I woke up the next morning and remembered what I’d done I was exhilarated. I was worried about telling my friends what I’d done, but I personally felt thrilled and liberated by breaking such a powerful social taboo. I was a nice girl and I was a whore. When I went back to the champagne bar that night the girls smiled at me and I felt like I was part of something. I used to love walking through some hotel lobby in Copenhagen, alone at four in the morning. That excitement at the trivial details of my job lasted for about six months before they became routine.
blah blah mortgage repayments
I did know about this bit but couldn’t be bothered to correct it. I said that I was a good way towards having a deposit for a house, not that I’d already saved one and had a mortgage.
“she winks at me”
No. No I didn’t. I don’t wink unless I have something in my eye.
Now this bit isn’t about me, but,
“I find a string of students advertising on the net who happily supply their phone numbers and don’t seem to worry about the risks of meeting men who haven’t been vetted online.”
Oh please, you can have as many phone numbers as you like, and just because they didn’t tell her about their security measures on her first enquiry doesn’t mean they don’t take them. I’d rather take care of my own security than leave it all to an agent, which she seems to consider the more sensible option.
Oh, one last one,
“I’ll carry on until I stop enjoying it,” she says. And from the look on her face, that won’t be any time soon.”
For all she knew I could have been gurning while I said that. She asked me on the phone.
So now I’ve seen the article and I know she was never serious about doing business with me. Obviously when she came out as a reporter I knew it was likely, but she always maintained a vague fiction that her initial interest was personal (and even that she went to agencies because she was interested in trying escorting herself). I wondered if she was really undercover all along or if she didn’t want to admit in an article that she’d considered paying for sex, but when I looked back at the emails it was clearly the former.
I said in a recent entry that my offer to meet potential clients casually for free hasn’t been abused, but I suppose I have to amend that now. I’m not going to rescind the offer though, several genuine and good clients have appreciated it, but no more juicy details outside the bedroom. You live and learn.
