One of my favorite Louis Theroux documentaries is Louis and the Brothel (2003), in which he spends six weeks at a legal Nevada brothel and, by the end, not only knows the women who work there but considers them friends. Paloma Karr’s piece turns the lens the other way, onto the clients. At Sheri’s Ranch, another legal brothel, she is careful to point out that she is paid for her time, not for the service; many of the men are looking for something that runs deeper than sex. Over the course of a year, she comes “to understand the deep well of need in the men who surround me,” and the result is a fascinating, unsettling portrait of bought intimacy and genuine connection.
It took me a moment to absorb what he was saying. I had thought he might be depressed, but this was so much more extreme than I expected.
The moment of incomprehension rose into a panic. I wasn’t sure what I should do. Did he need to go to a hospital? To call someone? I took a deep breath and decided the first thing to do was to tell him he’d made the right decision, and to tell him something about me. Something true.
“I know that feeling,” I said.
He immediately softened up and actually looked me in the eye. For the first and only time, I decided to tell a client about a non-Paloma part of my life. We talked about suicidal thoughts, a conversation I won’t divulge.
More picks on sex work
I Went Undercover as a Secret OnlyFans Chatter. It Wasn’t Pretty
“Your online influencer girlfriend is actually a rotating cast of low-wage workers. I became one of them.”
We Are All Animals at Night
“’We know where she works,’ their faces said, but it felt less like a judgement and more like an acknowledgement.”
The (Un)holy Gospel of Suga Free
“There’s a thin line between isolation and serenity, and Suga Free needs nobody but Suga Free.”
The Sexfluencers
“What is new is how seamlessly a DM slide can become a business arrangement, how influencers of the Instagram-lifestyle variety and regular people alike have used this as a meaningful stream of revenue. Thanks to a pandemic that left many people at home substituting screens for IRL intimacy and the rise of platforms that merge…
Venezuela’s Secret: Crimes Against LGBTQ+ Migrants And Sex Workers
“A journey across two continents and four countries to some of Latin America’s most dangerous places reveals a humanitarian crisis that can no longer be ignored.”
Cash/Consent
Lorelei Lee reflects on her career in sex work and pornography, the gradations of consent in the industry, and the ways in which radical feminists and the religious right fight to keep sex work criminalized.
