"Look At All The Lonely People..."

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice
in the church where the wedding has been,
Lives in a dream.
Waits by the window, wearing a face that
she keeps in a jar by the door,
Who is it for?


Just finished watching an interesting documentary detailing the lives of working girls in an American brothel. Most of the girls are comfortable with their jobs there, or find it better than working in the streets. Money is also often a huge factor for choosing to work in a brothel, with husbands and partners sometimes encouraging their wives to take the job.

Literary tales such as Belle du Jour romanticise and paint the picture of a sophisticated and elegant lifestyle, where clients are dashing and intimate moments are warmed with a touch of British banter and intellectual wit. The acts of sex aren't awkward but acceptable and charming in their quirky requests. The glamourous outfits, lacy lingerie and high class hotel rooms divide the line between "working girl" and "whore."

It's the oldest profession in the world, but it's easy to detach feelings to prostitutes and people who pay for their services. It's easy to separate yourself from completely understanding what possesses their reasons for their professions; simple to wrap them up in social taboos and place them under the label of people we will never know or be associated with. In reality, we've all probably met someone who has paid for sex or took money for sex. Ins some ways, one night stands and some forms of dating are surely that. Perhaps fine dining someone is an implication of what they expect later in the evening. Perhaps we should value those who are upfront about their requests; what they are willing to do in order to get a service.

These documentaries make prostitutes seem lonely and women who have left dangerous marriages and broken homes. None of these women are depicted as glamorous girls like Belle. After running from their lives and using all they have left - their bodies, they are held captive in a world where men still have the upper hand, and the dollars dictate the days.

I think we want to believe we're more complex to perceive sex as purely a physical act, and those that dare to detach feelings are destroying the complexity of it. Who are we to say what sex can mean to each and every individual?

Often I think loneliness, not sex, is the prime factor for wanting to visit a call girl, or wanting to romanticise your time with a client. We all need to be loved and to love; we all need to have faith someone will be there with us.

Perhaps we all show ourselves the way we want to be shown; imagine our alter ego's in forms we act out on a daily basis, or need that to survive in our lives. Perhaps we detach our conscience and moral obligations when we believe we're doing something wrong, as our way to cope with our actions. Perhaps we all have smiled when we didn't want to, put on our game face and thought it is better to have company than to be alone.

Perhaps we've all sold a part of ourselves to someone; whether it be our bodies, our minds, or our lies.