Anonymous Hooker Blogger Outed

If you’re a fan of Showtime‘s adult series “Secret Diary of a Call Girl” (or even if you aren’t), you may be interested to know that the real-life anonymous author of the blog and book that inspired the series went public earlier this week.  (Source)

Dr. Brooke Magnanti, Ph.D. in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science, in an interview with The Times, talks candidly about how she got into the biz of having sex for money.

Dr. Brooke Magnanti
(a.k.a. Belle du Jour)

I was finishing my writing — I was getting ready to submit my thesis.  I saved up a bit of money.  I thought, I’ll just move to London, because that’s where the jobs are, and I’ll see what happens.  So I did.  I submitted the thesis but I was still preparing for the viva — there was quite a lot of writing and studying still to do.

I couldn’t find a professional job in my chosen field because I didn’t have my PhD yet.  I didn’t have a lot of spare time on my hands because I was still making corrections and preparing for the viva; and I got through my savings a lot faster than I thought I would.  The difference between living in the Highlands and living in London is massive.  I hadn’t really thought that one through.

I have a pathological aversion to being in debt.  My mother’s family are Jewish; there’s this hoarding thing, saving, being prepared — if you’re in debt somebody could come and knock at your door and take it all away tomorrow.  It got to the point where I didn’t have quite enough money for my rent.  I asked my best friend if I could borrow some money and he posted me a cheque.

I was looking at this cheque.  It wasn’t even the total of my rent; it was a quarter of it or something, some stupidly low amount like £120.  I thought, ‘But once I deposit this cheque, I’ll still need money for next month.’  And I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t borrow this money knowing that I couldn’t pay it back and that I’d need more pretty much straightaway.  And that was when I started to think: what can I do that I can start doing straightaway, that doesn’t require a great deal of training or investment to get started, that’s cash in hand and that leaves me spare time to do my work in?  (Source)

The Times article, while a little on the long side, is still worth the read.  It discusses, in some detail, how Belle du Jour has *disproved* some of the time-honored preconceptions about the world’s oldest profession.  One of the reasons that she gives for coming forward is that so many doubt her story, claiming that it must be fiction.  How could a prostitute actually feel empowered by her career choice?  Even claim to enjoy the work?

When asked about whether she thought being a prostitute hurt her emotionally, Dr. Magnanti answers “I’ve felt worse about my writing than I ever have about sex for money.”  Somewhere, Andrea Dworkin is screaming in anguish, rolling over in her grave.

H/T Odie