The Oldest Profession

Like everybody else, I've been watching and reading about the whole Eliot Spitzer scandal on TV and in the papers, and it's amazing to me how people are missing the real issue involved.

Granted, it's easy to miss the real issue because people think the story is about Eliot Spitzer, and the fact of his incredible hubris and hypocrisy (which, you have to admit, is mind-boggling) does tend to cloud the issue somewhat. But there is a larger issue to be discussed and no one (as far as I know) in the mainstream media is discussing it.

Let's think about this in the abstract -- as a "thought experiment" as Bill Bennett might say.

A man, married and with three daughters, has trysts with high-priced call girls. He's wealthy and using his own money. Aside from his wife, whose business is it?

And even if it is a politician, why should we give a shit?

People get all moralistic about this to the point where they deny reality. Politicians are powerful men with powerful drives -- and such men have large amounts of testosterone and high libidos, libidos that are, more likely than not, not likely to be contained within the friendly confines of a monogamous relationship. That's just a fact, inconvenient though it might be.

The more powerful they are, the more likely they are to fuck around. You want a politician who stays faithful to his wife and never screws around? You get Richard Nixon.

These sorts of things happen every day and we're always shocked -- shocked! -- when they happen. Granted, Spitzer's was a particularly awe-inspiring, almost Swaggart-esque form of hypocrisy, but the principle remains the same. Powerful men have powerful drives, and one of those drives is sexual.

Isn't it time we grew up about this?

The internet has revolutionized prostitution, and it's time to admit it and to legalize it. What two consenting people do alone in a hotel room, even for cash, is no one's business, and it shouldn't be considered a crime. Other countries are far more sane about these things, and it's time that we as a nation grew up, stopped being childish and just admitted that there are men who want sex and women who want money and these two are going to find each other to take care of each other's needs no matter what obstacles, legal or otherwise, are put in their way.

A long time ago I had a conversation with a call girl when she was, so to speak, off the meter. She was the friend of a friend of mine and we ended up talking all night. It was a very revealing conversation, and ever since my take on the subject has been tinted by what I learned from her. I don't know whether I've written about this before in the blog (I suspect I have but I'm not going to look it up), but the inescapable fact is that, for young attractive women in New York City, giving it up for money is always an option. Always. I remember having a conversation some years ago with a struggling young actress and when I told her how much call girls could make in one night she sighed and told me, "I'm so glad I didn't know that when I first got here." Meaning that, if she had known that, she might have ended up a call girl.

From the media reports, Ashley Alexandra Dupre (the young call girl in the Spitzer scandal) is a party girl with a troubled past, ambitions for a music career and expensive tastes. She's also a dead ringer for the Australian actress Rachel Griffiths -- so much so that if I was a producer on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters," I would seriously think about giving the Walker clan one more illegitimate daughter. It would give the ratings for that show a much-needed boost.

She's young and gorgeous (if you can overlook the skanky tattoos, which I can't) and by all accounts very good at what she does. So why shouldn't she do it?

It's time to begin the discussion about legalizing prostitution. If not in the country as a whole, at least in New York City. And as the new governor takes the oath of office tomorrow, perhaps he should consider bringing up with the state legislature the idea of recognizing reality, and at the very least decriminalizing an act that occurs between consenting adults.

Politicians recognizing reality. Wouldn't that be refreshing?

Tom Moran