Since hookers are the new black and by that i mean it’s almost acceptable to be a sex worker these days. There are T.V. shows, movies and articles written about us all the time now. Though its still not in the mainstream, it’s a lot more acceptable then it was just a few short years ago when i started working. As a result I’ve noticed a new trend. Though trend might be an over exaggeration. What I’ve observed is fake online sex workers. Yes i said fake. What that means is fairly high profile “escorts” that are not real working escorts. They are made up figments of their creators imaginations. With a little knowledge, a little research, it would be easy to make up a very salacious prolific online persona that was a sex worker and that is just what some people have done.
It angers me and makes me laugh my ass off, when I see people fall for this shtick. It angers me because these made up persona’s are setting themselves up to represent the profession I work in and they are not real. I work hard to give my honest account of the sex worker subculture and my place in it. To not sugar coat, sensationalize or glamorize what I do. I am as honest about it as I can be. When you see people who are just making up stuff out of thin air, being touted as “authorities” on the subject of sex work, when you see these sock puppets being as sensationalistic as they can be to draw as much attention to themselves as humanly possible…. its upsetting.
When you watch the blind masses falling for it, its often sad and hilarious. How betrayed will these people feel when they find out that hot sexy little minx they read the blogs of, follow on twitter or Facebook feel when its revealed that the “sex worker” isn’t a sex worker at all but some made up persona who doesn’t exist. Someone who capitalized on a trend that took the ball and ran with it and MADE UP a person? I think they will feel quite betrayed because they cheer for her, believe in her sexual freedom, encourage her to succeed and support her. They do get invested in her and she is not real. How much backlash will there be for us REAL sex workers when these fakes are eventually outed for what they are. For most sex workers who quietly go about their business it probably wont impact them much but for the activists who work daily to decriminalize and fight for the rights of sex workers and for a girl like me who does speak to the press, does write honest accounts about her feelings of being involved in this world, there will be just that much more work to do to convince people were not all drugged addicted, pimped out skanks, who cant do anything but spread our legs for a fast buck. That is the real disservice these fakes do. When it is revealed they are fake no one will believe that the intelligent sex workers who speak out…are real.
I was interviewed for the LA Times this summer. The reporter wanted to meet me face to face. I agreed after checking her and out ascertaining she was in fact real herself. She explained to me why she needed to meet me face to face, it was simple, she originally thought i wasn’t real. She wasn’t ingrained into the escort world (most reporters aren’t) She didn’t know how to asses someone legitimacy with reviews, screening services, etc.. she needed to confirm with her own eyes and a face to face interview that I, Jenny DeMilo was in fact the same girl who tweeted, wrote blogs and was in the pictures on my website.
She did this because she was a REAL reporter a professional journalist. That’s why i will acquiesce to certain media inquiries where they require a face to face. I know that professional journalists don’t just believe whatever the Internet tells them to believe and neither should you.
So think people. Use your noggin. Take the Woodward approach of needing two separate and reliable sources of information to confirm a fact. Don’t be so fucking gullible. Anyone can say hey are anything on the Internet. Astronauts, race car drivers, pirates, Tom Cruise and in the case of online hookers there are plenty of fake ones out there making up the most unbelievable crap and passing it off as legitimate and real.
I wont even get into the motivation behind perpetrating such a fraud because the Internet is a strange and weird world and people do all kinds of crazy shit from behind the protection of their computer screens. And no, i wont tell you who i know these frauds to be. If you use a little brain power you can figure it
It's about time someone spoke on this – Great Blog!
Thanks for posting this, especially the bits about how fakes can skew the public view of sex work.
I can think of one lady in particular I would *love* to see outed since her story just doesn't add up IMO.
Yeah, there's been a lot of discussion in among my friends about this. I was wondering if you were onto it too. I'm DM-ing you right now…
It's so frustrating that while some of us work hard to demystify and humanize ourselves to the public there are individuals out there falsifying our realities. It's a short-lived falsehood however. Soon it will be revealed that the Emperor wears no clothes and I share Jenny's concern about how this revelation will negatively backlash against women in the industry.
The only honorable thing for this person(s) to do is to come clean and/or wipe her identity from the web.
Just sayin'….
Jenny, as always, you are fucking awesome. I am dying to know if we all have the same person in mind and if so, if there's any good approach for cutting off her (or his!) shenanigans…
Perhaps it's time for some sort of confrontation of this person by others…if it hasn't been done already.
You have a very interesting blog. If there are people who are for real, there will always people who will just put us down.
Whoa – this is the first I've heard of this. You can be sure as shit I wouldn't be blogging, tweeting, etc if it didn't add to my bottom line. That is flat-out bizarre. Heck – these fakes could offer their cyber-services to real escorts. lol
It's 'acquiesce' not 'aqueous'. There are more important things in life than accurate spelling, but not many.
Ladies, thanks for your comments. It's very interesting to me just how many of you were already aware of this issue. Here I thought it was just me! Good to know!
@stevehem: Wow, that whole entry I made about someone perpetrating a fraud on an entire community and how it adversely effects those in it and what compelled you to speak up was my spelling error? I just took a gander at your blog, and its obvious you really do think spelling is more important then content. Sometimes "stevehem" it's good to actually have something original to say> try it sometime.
I will correct my spelling error so that you will be giddy with glee, so don't say I never gave ya nothing.
Congratulations?
Hello Jenny! I just wanted to say that I happened across your blog today and I think it's great. You go girl! Also, I'm a guy who has been in a serious relationship with a massage parlor owner/operator for about five years. She still "works" her business and I'd like to say that I respect you gals very much. Don't let the losers and assholes get you down. There's a lot of jerks out there. A lot of men don't know how to treat a lady and have what my girl and I call "mommy issues". LOL. I love and care about my girl and it doesn't bother me what she does for a living. To her it's a job and a damn fine paying one. There's nothing wrong with what you do and props to you for being proud of it. I'll be checking in often to read what you've written. Great job on the blog! BTE, you're fine!
Damn are you going to post the names of the fraud girls? I'm guessing she's in new York?
Let me start by saying,
"I respect Jenny, adore her blogging and Twitters, and see her as an asset to both the sex-worker activist union and the entertainment sector as a sex-work provider, a photographer and as a writer."
That being said, I am a firm believer in "freedom of speech," I adore reading both fiction and non-fiction, and I consider myself a sex-worker (from many sectors)…
Do these blogging sex-worker posers REALLY harm the "sex-work industry?" Derogatorily or glamorizing the field any more than any other work-field suffers the same. (Setting aside the fact that we just simply don't like posers muddling in "our" field).
Since the day I stumbled upon one particular blogging sex-worker I was reserved in "believing" what she said was based on fact — can I chalk that up to my sex-work learned mind — probably. In that light, I can only lay a value on any blog amounting to nothing more than anything above "entertainment" value (the same opinion/value I reserve for most media sources, written, televised, broadcast, etc).
I do not value my own blog above "entertainment value" nor Jenny's nor Matisse's nor Belle de Jour's nor Alexa's. But I gleefully and ravenously read them!
They are not in fact or fiction activist blogs, and I think the responsibility lay with the reader, not the authors. To author is to entertain, to broadcast the AUTHOR'S thoughts, views, etc… the responsibility is on the reader to take the parts they want and to reduce the balance to nothing more than "entertainment" value.
Now let me close by saying, I for one hope to heaven and hell and back that Jenny (and others) keep up their digging out the potentially faux sex-worker bloggers, because I LOVE being entertained by it all!
Love ya Jenny! Love ya to pieces and I hope your style of sex-worker blogging (and activism) continues (notwithstanding room to grow of course).
Silvia-McKenzie Navah aka La Femme Fetiche Fatale
http://www.Silvia-McKenzie-Navah.com
http://www.twitter.com/SilviaMcKenzie
I guess by now we pretty well know who you were talking about, huh?
🙂
Give 'em hell, Jenny!
@Chris: I'm glad you enjoy the blog and i hope you will come back often 🙂
@anoy: I don't need to post any names, seems someone is "claiming responsibility" and giving me some new traffic to my blog and twitter feed in the process!
Welcome new people! I hope you will come back often 🙂
@silvia thanks for the comment hot momma! Of course Free Speech! However free speech doesn't mean you aren't responsible for your words. As you well know if you yell fire in a crowded movie house you will be held accountable for your words. I guess the sex worker community is now doing that in their own way. I'm glad my blog sparked the flame (though not the one in the crowded movie house!)
@anony Thanks! You know I always do my best to speak my truth. It would be easier if i could just make everything up but I've found being honest with my readers and not pandering to the lowest common denominator though difficult emotionally sometimes, is much more rewarding.
You know, the M.A. program this individual claims she's enrolled in lists its grad students on the department website. I got curious one night and researched all of them…and none even remotely fit the profile. None.
Found this: http://ccexpose.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/BlueyedCass85 – "Alexa's other twitter page
http://www.blueyedcass.com/ – She is also a cam girl…funny how she had sessions while on vacation in Yellowstone
http://www.princessblueyez.com/ – and here she is again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogc7I-z5J0w …and here she is on Youtube
http://www.caitlainscorner.com/ – She's a sex expert here & creator of this site.
Plus she's a grad student, a courtesan, a writer of several blogs, a sex worker advocate & constantly twitters etc She is such a fraud!