Kristin "Billie" Davis, whom New York authorities are calling a madam, is the latest name linked to the Elliot Spitzer scandal.
Spitzer resigned from office on Wednesday, March 12, after it was discovered by federal wiretap that he had been using the services of a prostitution ring called Emperor's Club VIP. His prostitute of choice, Ashley Alexandra Dupré, has since become famous for her photos, her MySpace page including a lackluster attempt at R&B sung by herself, and now a surfaced 'Girls Gone Wild' video she appeared in when she was (surprise) underage. Because of her young age and tale of coming from a broken home, the public has reacted with pity and sadness that such a young girl reduced herself to such a low level.
The ring that authorities say Kristin "Billie" Davis runs is called Wicked Models. The ring is compromised of 15 high-priced call girls. They are rumored to have a client list of over 10,000 names. Do the math on that one and it averages out to be about 666 different men per girl. Not a lucky number.
Among the list of clients, a source close to Davis has confirmed are "some big people involved in the entertainment industry," sports superstars "a very prominent Yankee" and more involved in various levels of politics. In any case, you have to have money to afford one of the call girls who, the New York Daily News has reported, charged $1,600 an hour. Davis promised clients her girls would be Ivy League-educated. Imagine that. All that money on college to become a prostitute. Those must be some proud parents. In any case, I can't imagine clients doing background checks on these girls before enjoying time with them, anyway.
Davis, herself, is described as a "busty bottle blond" and was raised in a trailer park which can only be described as "rough and tumble," according to the Daily News.
Suspiciously, fearing authorities were about to close in on her, Davis shut down four websites for her call girl ring and moved thousands of dollars to a British bank account in the Isle of Man, where she planned on running to. Davis was caught anyway and was arrested on (date citation needed) and is now being held on two million dollars bail. She's looking at 15 years in jail if convicted.
Interestingly enough, Spitzer's attorney is denying that Spitzer ever used her services, though Kristin Davis says she attended to him personally. Maybe Spitzer only wants to claim he slept with attractive women? Anonymous sources claim that there are financial documents and other evidence to show that Spitzer was, indeed, a client of Davis. The blogosphere is speculating Spitzer is denying involvement with Davis because she looks like a man. The shock to many was that Spitzer's other prostitute, Dupré, didn't quite look like the poster child for a hooker. It fascinated men worldwide to see hookers could be pretty and frightened the sweatpants off housewives everywhere who started thinking they had better step up their game and put on some makeup and nicer clothes.
But is looking better and "taking care of your man" going to keep husbands away from prostitutes? Not likely. Many men with beautiful wives have been known to be unfaithful, but some think prostitution should be legalized, claiming it would decrease the number of rapes and give dignity to the world's oldest profession. That would be the one of the biggest mistakes we could make as a society.
Let's be real for a minute. What "dignity" is there in letting a man use your body not very much unlike the way he would use a public toilet and then leave? What "dignity" is there in having sex with married men and sending them back to wives who have been up all night wondering where they've been? What "dignity" is there in contracting venereal diseases that can be disgusting, disfiguring, or deadly? What "dignity" is there to pass these diseases on to clients who pass them on to unsuspecting lovers? What "dignity" is there in being an object of lust with complete disregard to all the things that could make a woman an amazing person?
Some argue that it could help stop the prostitution/drug trade correlation because if women weren't feeling bad about themselves for being prostitutes, maybe they wouldn't feel the need to drug themselves up to perform. What slice of reality are these people not seeing?
Legalizing prostitution will not make it more acceptable. It would still be reviled on a moral level for the basis of what it is. It's not so hated because it is illegal. It is the very nature of what this job involves that makes it so widely detested.
Let's not forget who is supported most by the money prostitution brings in - the "pimps". Very often, these people are linked to crime, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, etc. By supporting a legal sex market, all these things would also be supported.
In counties of Nevada, where the population does not exceed 400,000, prostitution is legal. The government even requires STD testing on a regular basis and requires the use of condoms in all sexual acts. While on a controlled scale, health-wise, it is supposed to be safe. However, if legalized, these standards would be difficult to maintain and it goes without saying that in the uncontrolled sex markets, prostitution and venereal disease go hand-in-hand. Many women who worked in brothels have equated the environment to be like working in a slave trade due to the conditions under which they operated.
The institution of marriage in the United States is dying and all the values that have preserved us as a country are being destroyed. Legalizing prostitution would be a direct hit to shattering of American family values. There are few out there that would never face temptation to cheat on their spouse. A legal prostitution market just makes it easier. Things don't need to be any easier when the survival rate of marriages today has drastically plummeted. The victims of shattered marriages are often the children who must deal with the aftermath of a parent's infidelity and the lack of trust brought about. Statistics have proven repeatedly that children are better off in two parent families. Preserving the family unit should be of utmost importance and there are many implications of guilt-free sex that end up not being so guilt-free after all.
Janice G. Raymond of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International (CATW) provides ten very good reasons why we should not make the trade of Kristin "Billie" Davis and Ashley Alexandra Dupré legal here.
As if any more reasons were needed, the fact is that prostitution is an abusive profession. Prostitutes often come from bad situations and go into a worse situation involving psychological and physical abuse. Not only is it one of the oldest professions, but it's also one of the most dangerous with a mortality rate 40 times the national average.
Before we glamorize prostitution, as is being done in today's news with the high-priced call girl rings, there is more to think about: "At the heart of the matter, prostitution is buying the right to use a woman's body. The "profession" of prostitution means bearing the infliction of repeated, unwanted sexual acts in order to keep one's "job." It is forced sex as a condition of employment, the [very] definition of rape and sexual harassment," states an article by Anastasia Volkonsky on the Bnet Business Network.
Perhaps most eye-opening is a documentary called 'Pleasure For Sale' by the Sundance Channel that shows what the rest of the world doesn't see: the operations of a brothel and the disturbing daily life of prostitutes. If you've ever been curious, it is something to see.
It's also something to think about not just for those who are thinking about becoming prostitutes, those who use prostitutes, or those who are onlookers in the situation. It's the madams and the johns who make the millions, not the prostitutes, and those madams and johns usually tend to use the money for no good purposes. The world's oldest profession is a profession that is no longer acceptable in today's world and when you look at the risks versus the rewards, it should stay that way.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Pictures of the New Spitzer hooker
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