Valleywag: Department of Corrections

Getting off on the economics of hooking

Melissa Gira Grant — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:00 PDT

The continuing post-Spitzer articles about why-high end escorts make so such money are, let's admit it, porn. Wonking about the economics of high-end sex and money is a great way to pretend there's nothing titillating about it. This week, Economist blogger Allison Schrager asks how these girls can charge so much — that is, she asks everyone but the escorts themselves.

Who does Schrager poll?

Men in airport lounges
Men she works with
The male commenter who triggered the piece in the first place

Their consensus? Hookers are so unmarriageable after they leave the biz that they're calculating their retirement into their rates. True, no escort agency I know of offers 401(k). But after all her digging into the details of what the women who do this work look like and fuck like, she ignores the most basic Adam Smith answer: Supply and demand.

What makes a highly paid escort successful isn't mere ability to fake enjoyment on the job, but to convince the most boring hedge fund manager that he's James Bond — daring, sexy, and of a class above mere mortals. It's a luxury experience, one most women just can't deliver. You might as well ask why having Robin Williams keynote your conference costs so much.

Back to my original point: Why is it when journalists want to talk about hooking, they pass over the hookers themselves for a bunch of econ profs? It's not like there aren't any MBA or Ph.D. call girls out there that The Economist could have sourced. Seriously, Allison, how do you think they pay for those degrees?

(Photo: Mistress F)

The myth of the myth of the high-class call girl

Melissa Gira Grant — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:40:18 PDT

Sudhir Venkatesh, hooker economics expert, is back. Just yesterday he was on Slate saying New York governor Eliot Spitzer was caught with a call girl because he didn't pay enough. Today he's in the New York Times claiming that high-class hookers are imaginary — no matter how much they make, Venkatesh frets, the poor girls are all exploited, miserable and in physical danger. Is there really no one else to go to for expertise on the business? What about some of the high-end providers themselves — or has Venkatesh convinced reporters they don't exist? (Photo by jamesyu)

What Slate got wrong about Internet prostitution

Melissa Gira Grant — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 02:35:50 PDT

"Did Eliot Spitzer get caught because he didn't spend enough on prostitutes?" Slate contributor Sudhir Venkatesh deserves credit for reporting that Spitzer's alleged $4,300 date was not premium pricing. But his generalizations are far too broad for such a diverse industry as Web-powered prostitution. Were I his editor, I'd have sent back these redlines:

The Red Light District moving online didn't open up new markets. It gave existing businesses better infrastructure. Online escorting has gotten more sophisticated, but indoor prostitution isn't new. In modern times it has long made up the majority of transactional sex. Even some street-based prostitutes may advertise online and stay in touch with clients using cell phones.
$2,500-$10,000/session rates do exist, but ... A "session" in this case is, on average, at least two hours long, and at most a week. An on-call girlfriend is what's being bought here, not seven days and seven nights of straight sex. $10K for 15 minutes, as Venkatesh claims? Possibly — in a long-term arrangement, where a client is already paying a set monthly fee high enough that an in-office quickie runs at Daddy Warbucks rates.
40 percent of clients don't want to fuck? Oh, come on. It does happen, but it's highly unusual for a regular client to never go all the way.
An escort will wear your ring, but that doesn't make her like a second wife. A client once gave me a wedding ring so I could pretend to be his blushing new bride when we saw one another. It was sweet. But at the end of the night, what do you think? The ring came off.
Physical abuse is not a necessary danger of working as a escort. The biggest fear all prostitutes share isn't their clients. It's rogue law enforcers.

(Back by popular demand, gratuitous photo of San Francisco-based Elise Vanderhof)