I have to admit that I always watch "Cathouse" on HBO. I find it very amusing and enjoy comparing it to TER and hobbying as we know it.
To me, the show is not a very good portrayal of our pastime. The fees are extraordinarily high, guys seem to be not your typical clientele (I know there is a lot of material there, LOL), etc.
Personally, I think it would be interesting to do a documentary with an accurate depiction of our hobby...perhaps using an independent lady or two, usual hobbyists, etc.
Not that this would ever happen...simply thinking aloud.
Does anyone else have this reaction to the show or in general?
Real life and TV-land are sooo disconnected... Even the "news" places emphasis on stuff to make you think that some little event is a major item - when it is, in reality, a small bump on a nanoparticle... I am totally disgusted with the hollywood portrayal of life and fantasy... they are predictable and inaccurate in sooo many ways...
AND - often real life is 1000 times more interesting than most of what ya see. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - while cutesie... was not half as good looking as my ATF - nor was her conversation anywhere near real!
I think that those who have never been exposed to this hobby would really be shocked at some of us, both the hobbiests and the providers. The real us, are very entertaining - and refreshingly honest with real stories.... In short, worth getting to know! So, while I have never seen the show, I can honestly say that the media portrayal of the hobby in general is somewhat off the mark for the escort business...
I cannot comment on the street scene - as I have not gone that route... but I suspect that there may be some inaccuracies there also.
...revenue -- or, in the case of HBO and the other premium channels, to attract subscribers and to be able to charge more money to cable services who carry them. EVERYTHING on TV is slanted to achieve higher numbers.
Most of the hobby does not center around legal Nevada brothels. But in the US, that's the only legal form allowed.
Any documentary of say, activity that MIGHT be construed as illegal probably won't have alot of willing participants allowing themselves "accurately depicted." Just a suspicion. Although I'm sure LE will love it.
BUT, we (or at least I) am not suggesting that real people play themselves.... merely that instead of portraying the typical hobbiest as a sex crazed brutalizer of women and they typical provider as an undereducated doper who has sold her kids, they portry the more "normed" people in the hobby...
Me, fairly well edjukatid! with an ok job.... why hobby? maybe as a result of divorcing a true prostitute - my ex wife! when the $$ went - she went... and took whatever she thought she could.... I know that sounds cold - but you had to be there....
Most ok a lot of the escorts that I have met - have at least a BS or BA degree- at least 3 have advanced degrees and the ones that don't are pretty smart in any case... The encounters are for the most part, very friendly and with those that I know - actually a lot like a date - chit-chat kissing and a natural progression....
On the other hand, the fairly tale stories AKA "pretty woman" are also inaccurate for the most part as well (Just ask Charlie Sheene).
So what would I want? A realistic composite of what I see - fairly well educated, articulate, got into the business in a variety of ways, who actually enjoys aspects of the business - with another side to her - a marriage, hobbies, kids - PTA - problems with the school her kid attends... arranging day care etc.... all the things that ARE real - that she rises above to provide a fantasy for an equally real clinent....
LE? they get John Doe. Sam Smith in short everywoman and everyman for the most part. Would it be boring? Maybe - but I find that true stories are often stranger than fiction.... There are parts of my life - outside of this hobby - that hollywood could not have invented... or written - no one would believe them! Including me - but I lived through the stories.... so I do...
So, you see, they tell their fictional stories - that are fictional on two levels.... first they present fictional characters in fictional settings and backgrounds acting in an unreal fashion... I am asking for fictional characters (who act like real people) in real settings with real responses and situations....
Yes, I believe the media has a tendency to quote exorbitant fees thus glamorizing the hobby and ultimately deluding and luring young women who feel they have no other means of providing luxurious lifestyles, that why according to them we send all of our money on Jimmy Coo shoes and Le Pearla' lingerie. In other aspects of covering the hobby I find the portrayal of the average provider as either desperate, uneducated air heads way off key.
and not counting people we know and may be close with, there is a slew of evidence that would suggest that there is a plurality of women who get into this on their way to porn, to make fast money etc. and couldn't be more ill-suited. As to the lack of education, being forced into the lifesytle out of desparate means, I am sure that we all might be able to point to a few people we met along the way and have them fit those labels. However, there are a select few who truly understand and work the business with lots of determination and tenacity and you find out that they are real estate investors, homeowners, mothers, and all around solid individuals. Alas, that's the problem, you will find 50 cheap imitations for every good one. Stereotypes are never completely true, nor are they completely false, but they are completely shallow.
-- Modified on 7/20/2005 3:14:01 PM
-- Modified on 7/20/2005 10:14:09 PM
Don't forget HBOs other portrait-Hookers at the Point. It showed crack heads doing it in cars for $20. Again pretty ugly.
I was recently approached by someone making a documentary in NY. It seemed legit, but unfortunately they needed real faces, though they would give fake names. The purpose is to show both sides of the profession, both the street hooker and the professional escort. The idea was to communicate to the general public that it's not all about drugs, diseases, and forced prostitution.
I declined to be involved because there is no way that I would show my face like that. If it is legit, hopefully they can find someone to represent those of us who are not 'forced', into drugs or unhappy with our chosen profession or hobby.
-- Modified on 7/21/2005 1:17:33 PM
Those that could represent "the happy hooker" have sound reasons for not doing so, where the SW that does it in the car for $20 has almost nothing to lose. It's a shame, because the real story would prove to anybody even remotely open-minded that lots of "decent" people are doing this, both as provider and customer.