And it won't get you tossed from the Senate either...

....so long as it's with a girl.

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert takes a wide-ranging swat at a staple of our local economy: whoring. No, not political whoring. The real whoring.

Herbert draws on the work of Melissa Farley, whose career has focused on researching prostitution the world over and who finally turns an eye toward Nevada. Yes, you'd think she would have started here.

If there's one way to make a column about prostitution in Nevada even more offensive and outrageous to people around the country living and working under the blissfully mistaken impression that the economics of sexual oppression and exploitation isn't happening in their town, it's including a substantial number of brain-dead quotes from Las Vegas' ass clown of a town drunk, Oscar Goodman. So of course that's exactly what Herbert did.

Thanks to Goodman's customary wallowing-in-sin schtick, hizzoner finds himself joking about how he's presiding over a market in human rights violations — seriously, he can't be this much of a moron so he must have been hammered when he gave the interview. But Goodman in performance mode should not detract from the more significant concerns in Herbert's column, concerns that don't get enough attention 'round here.

The column is hidden by the New York Times' ridiculous firewall, almost as if the paper deliberately wants to make sure that nobody ever sees it. So we posted it after the jump — courtesy of somebody who would probably prefer not to be mentioned because spreading the Times' firewall-secure copy around on the internets for free is illegal or some crap like that.

September 4, 2007

OP-ED COLUMNIST

City as Predator

By BOB HERBERT

Las Vegas

There is probably no city in America where women are treated worse than in Las Vegas.

The tone of systematic, institutionalized degradation is set by the mayor, Oscar Goodman, who told me in an interview that the city would reap “tremendous” benefits if a series of “magnificent brothels” could be established to cater to johns from across the country and around the world.

“I’ve said there should be the beginning of a discussion of that,” said Mr. Goodman, a former defense lawyer for mobsters who unabashedly describes his city as an adult playground where “anything goes — as long as you don’t go over the line.”

Most of the lines in Vegas have long since been erased. It is without a doubt, as the psychologist and researcher Melissa Farley, says, “the epicenter of North American prostitution and sex trafficking.”

Vegas is a place where women and girls by the tens of thousands are chewed up by the vast and astonishingly open sex trade. You can be sitting at a traffic light and a huge mobile billboard will drive past, promising, “Hot Babes — Direct to Your Room.”

I was drawn to this story by an advance copy of Ms. Farley’s book-length report, “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections.” It’s being published online today.

The report explores what Oscar Goodman doesn’t appear to understand: the horrendous toll that prostitution, legal or illegal, takes on the women and girls involved. If you peel back the thin, supposedly sexy veneer of the commercial sex trade, you’ll quickly see the rotten inside, where females are bought, sold, raped, beaten, shamed and in many, many cases, physically and emotionally wrecked.

Start with the fact that so many of those who are pulled into the trade are so young — early-20s, late-teens and younger. Child prostitutes by the hundreds pass through the Family Division courtroom of Judge William Voy, who views the hapless, vulnerable girls as victims and tries to help them. The girls he sees are as young as 12, with the average age being 14.

He told me about a 14-year-old who was seven months pregnant by her pimp. She was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease, had a drug problem, was undernourished and still craved a relationship with the pimp. “These cases will tear your heart out,” the judge said.

Ms. Farley was asked to study the Nevada sex trade and its consequences 2 ½ years ago by John Miller, who at the time headed the U.S. State Department’s effort to fight human trafficking around the world. Prostitution is legal in some parts of Nevada but not in Vegas, where 90 percent of the state’s prostitution occurs. Vegas is a world-class embarrassment to any U.S. official attempting to reduce prostitution and trafficking in foreign countries.

“We did surveys of people on the street,” said Ms. Farley, “and nearly half thought prostitution was legal in Las Vegas. Guess why that is? Massive advertising.”

There are more than 150 pages of ads in the Las Vegas yellow pages for “college teens,” “mature women,” “mothers and daughters,” “petite Japanese women,” “Chinese teens in short skirts” and every other variation imaginable. I asked Mayor Goodman about that, and he said: “We’ve changed that a little bit. They used to have pictures.”

Sex clubs with teenage girls dancing nude and offering lap dances to johns are legal, ubiquitous and widely advertised. Many of those girls are either prostitutes or one short step away.

What is not widely understood is how coercive all aspects of the sex trade are. The average age of entry into prostitution is extremely young. The prostitutes are ruthlessly controlled by pimps, club owners and traffickers. In the case of legal prostitution, they are controlled by their own pimps and the brothel owners — pimps who have been legalized by the state.

The women are exploited in every way. Most of the money they receive from johns goes to the pimps, the brothel owners, the escort service managers and so forth. Strippers and lap dancers have to pay for the right to dance in the clubs, and the money they get in tips has to be shared with the club owners, bartenders, bouncers, etc.

Huge numbers of foreign women are trafficked into Vegas. The legions of Asian women in the massage parlors and escort services did not come flocking to Vegas from suburban U.S.A.

Mayor Goodman said that he is no fan of illegal prostitution, but is convinced the legal variety could be a boon. He is proud of his city’s tourist slogan: “What happens here, stays here.”

Back in the ’90s, Las Vegas tried hard to promote a family-friendly image.

“That ended when I became mayor,” said Mr. Goodman.

Comments

[What?!]

*sigh*...but, this is who the small minority of populace, those who bothered to go vote, selected, with the help of donors who have given hundreds of thousands of dollars in reported and non-reported contributions.

I didn't know there were "sex clubs" in LV and I never bothered to look at the yellkow pages for escort service, let alone know there are 150 pages of advertising broken down into perversions. Maybe there are so many unseemly billboards on the roadside (and Reid had an ammendment to keep them there), that many of us don't even look at them anymore.....

Wonder if the MSM will comment on this book?

[RussBBinVegas@aol.com]

Unquestionably, prostitution in Las Vegas is legitimized by the mainstream corporate media here. Pick up a copy of the Greenspun newspaper "Las Vegas Weekly" or the magazine "944" and check out all the legitimite full-page glossy ads featuring near-naked young women in seductive "come-f*ck-me" poses. There is no difference between advertisements for strip joints or casino nightclubs. The unmistakable message goes out to girls in this community that their worth will be based on how much they doll themselves up to look like big-breasted Tijuana hookers.

[The Penguin]

Thing is, it just ain't for locals anymore. Wait at the airport for arriving relatives sometime and observe how many of our nubile young visitors enter baggage claim dressed like hookers. Vegas = getting laid no matter what. Except for us locals, of course.

[Keeping Them Honest]

I'm not here to defend Las Vegas. But I do feel better knowing that prostitution and sex clubs and advertising for them have totally disappeared from the rest of the country.

[whore]

Those poor, exploited strippers, forced to drive Lexuses and carry Bulova. Those poor Pahrump prostitutes, dragged -- er, I mean, emotionally coerced -- into a life of selling their bodies. Herbert's moral indignation only clouds his inability to paint Nevada with anything other than a mile-wide brush. I don't know what's worse: his creeping paternalism or his strident condescension. Guess what? There's underage drinking, too. Close all the bars! Close all the bars! And underage gambling. Close the casinos! Close the casinos!

I think the working arrangement he describes in brothels could fit the model of any functioning office. Like, say, the New York Times.

[sanctity]

Herbert couldn't have hit the nail any straighter! To reiterate, "There is probably no city in America where women are treated worse than in Las Vegas." THAT folks is the pure, unadulterated truth. It is not just about the prostitution. It is the male attitudes all over this town. From the police, to the DA, to the Judges. VERY unfriendly to women overall. And, women, if you divorce in this town, RUN! Don't live here! Get out of this cesspool of slime.

[Jason]

It is about time someone took on the thugs and pimps who run Vegas. Almost everyone has their hand in the cookie jar. Girls of 17 and 18 years old are seduced in with the promises of fancy cars and big houses. Once they discover they are expected to service a quota of at least 5 men a day, give them whatever they want, and split the money with pimps and cabdrivers and bartenders, the reality sets in. And once you're in, it is very difficult to get out. And if you have a violent pimp or work for a violent strip club owner you can just forget it, you are theirs. And can you call the police for help? NO! There need to be some services for women in Vegas who are trying to escape prostitution. Vegas has to stop using women like this. It is not right.

[Holly]

Bob Herbert wrote:
"Huge numbers of foreign women are trafficked into Vegas. The legions of Asian women in the massage parlors and escort services did not come flocking to Vegas from suburban U.S.A."

The above statement is xenophobic. Despite the stereotypes, not all Asian women who work in massage parlors or for escort services are trafficking victims. Amidst this xenophobia, migrant workers in the sex industry, many of whom are of Asian descent, are being subject to raids, arrests, and mass deportations. This does nothing to advance the status of sex workers rights or decrease forced labor in any industry. If these raids are mainly about rescuing trafficking victims and fighting forced labor, than why are sex workers being arrested and deported?
In response to Herbert's comment that these women aren't "flocking to Vegas from suburban U.S.A.," I say that the U.S.A. is a very diverse country and there are people of Asian descent who live in "suburban U.S.A." Even if these women don't come from the suburbs or from the U.S.A., that doesn't mean that they are all trafficking victims. In the globalized economy that we live in, many workers, including sex workers, cross borders to make a living. The conflation of all migrant sex work with trafficking combined with the criminalization of prostitution make it harder for workers in the sex industry to cross borders legally and work in the legal sex industry, so they are more vulnerable to trafficking and the abuses that are prevelant in the clandestine illegal sex industry, in which sex workers have no legally recognized labor rights nor equal protection under the law. Traffickers thrive in this illegal industry, and workers in the sex industry cannot report abuse without incriminating themselves in the process, which makes them especially easy targets for perpetrators.

[Iamcuriousblue]

A very good fisking of Hebert's piece can be found here:

http://sexinthepublicsquare.wordpress.com/2007/09/08/another-irresponsible-piece-on-sex-work/

The problem is that Hebert is deriving his views on prostitution wholly from the work of Melissa Farley. I think before you make judgments about prostitution based on this report, its a good thing to know exactly where Farley is coming from.

Basically, she's a very extreme radical feminist that believes any buying of sex under any and all circumstances amounts to an act of rape. Also, her research methodology is highly questionable and she's been called on this before. To say that she represents the interests of women in prostitution is debatable – there is a contingent of ex-prostitutes (who mostly have been involved in particularly abusive situations vis a vis prostitution) that support her. However, there's also a large sex workers rights movement who are very opposed to her.

The following Wikipedia page offers a good introduction to Farley:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Farley

In particular, follow the links to the articles featuring her debates with social scientist Ronald Weitzer, which should provide good background info for evaluating her recent report. Also note that this report is self-published, meaning its not a peer-reviewed study. There's good reason why Farley's questionable methodology has a hard time making it through the peer review process.

[Maxine Doogan]

I’ve never seen so many unqualified statements about prostitution in one article. How is it that such statements are published with no documentation?

"There is probably no city in America where women are treated worse than in Las Vegas."

Quotes from ill famed poverty pimps like Melissa Farley are not considered credible sources. Farley's sensationalistic 'he said, she said' has never been considered valid research.
One paragraph starts off with a 'start with facts..."
What facts? This article doesn't have any.

"Huge numbers of foreign women are trafficked into Vegas. The legions of Asian women in the massage parlors and escort services did not come flocking to Vegas from suburban U.S.A"

Get some real facts and read the Government Accountability Office Report which disputed the U.S. Governments assertions about the state of forced labor in the sex industry in its report from July of 2006.

You might be able to get away with making these racist and contradictory statements like the above to the pople in Nevada but insider veteran sex industry workers like myself don't buy any it.

It reminds me of the 'weapons of mass destruction' statements that lead to the invasion of Iraq where incalculable human suffering is taking place years later with no end in site. I wonder how much dept is being levied on the heads of the American children yet to be born in this country for because of this lie?

“The average age of entry into prostitution is extremely young.”

I challenge you to produce the documentation for the statement above or take it back.

There is lots to be complained about in the sex industry, but to hear these unsubstantiated statements from profiteers off the criminalization of prostitution like Farley when actual sex industry workers can't even get to the center of our own advocacy to be self determined to address how we want to handle the third party exploiters like Farley and advertisers are more unconscionable acts by poverty pimping newspapers like your.

[Frank]

The thing that makes me think Herbert and this research woman are on to something is the way these weirdos have mysteriously come out of the woodwork to attack them on various websites.

A person might be tempted to think that these attack dogs are being paid by people who have money to lose if the Vegas honey pot starts to dry up. Off the top of my head, I could come up with pimps, brothel owners, stripclubs, casinos, taxidrivers, doormen, escort services, and massage parlor owners. How come we don't see them come out and post on websites? I guess some of these posters must be some of those people but for some reason they don't want to identify themselves.

One reason I think some of these posts are by pimps and other jerks is that they aren't very intelligent. They just attack the research lady and the reporter over and over with high school level arguments which is just about the average intelligence of your average pimp.

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[TBill Thornton]

Was that comment from Maxine Doogan really about pimps?

Is this the same Maxine Doogan aka Mary Ellen Doogan who was charged with pimping in Seattle?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/conductunbecoming/pensions/docs/ring/5_statevdoogan.html

Talk about the pimp calling the kettle black.

Trying to keep all the profits for yourself, Mary Maxine?