Fucking (With Theory) for Money: Toward an Interrogation of Escort Prostitution

This paper is intended as an introductory interrogation of the terrain of escort prostitution mobilizing terms from both The Telephone Book by Avital Ronell and A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

For the purposes of this paper, the client will be presumed to be a man and the model presumed to be a woman. We are not trying to provide a comprehensive account of all aspects of the terrain of prostitution, or even of escort agencies.

Cross-referenced terms are in upper case.

Contents: THECALLTHEMODELTHECLIENTTHEAGENCYCYBORGASSEMBLAGEB
ODYWITHOUTORGANSTIMESPACETHETELEPHONEVALUE/EXCHANG
EDESIREFACIALITYTOOLSFETISHISMDETERRITORIALIZATION

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T H E C A L L

THE CALL is the interaction of THE MODEL and THE CLIENT within a particular spatial and temporal frame (see SPACE and TIME). THE MODEL is a student, an actress, a nurse’s aide, a teacher, or a secretary.... THE CLIENT is a businessman, a dentist, a banker, a construction worker, or a computer programmer.... The temporal borders of THE CALL are delineated by THE TELEPHONE (which connects THE CLIENT, THE MODEL, and THE AGENCY), in conjunction with the watch, or instrumental TIME. The arm of authority behind THE TELEPHONE and instrumental TIME is THE AGENCY. THE MODEL gets ready for THE CALL, prepares to become a ‘fantasy girl,’ by imitating (media) representations of women as objects of DESIRE: she wears garters and hose and high heels; the nails of both fingers and toes are painted. These are signifiers on a fragmented, coded body, signifiers that THE CLIENT will be drawn to (through DESIRE), that will reinforce his FETISHISM and in turn contribute to the construction of his BODY WITHOUT ORGANS (BwO). THE CLIENT has a BwO which he is drawn to construct, which has an already written set of rules/conditions by which it must be constructed, conditions which include the fetishized system of signifying effects with which THE MODEL has attempted to encode her body (and which already encode her body as woman). THE MODEL goes to THE CLIENT’s hotel or motel or private home or apartment or to a bar or restaurant or hot tub spa.... When THE MODEL enters the SPACE of THE CALL, THE CLIENT gives her a substantial fee in EXCHANGE for an opportunity to spend a designated amount of TIME with her, an opportunity to interact with her cyborg subject-position ‘fantasy girl’ (a subject-position which is composed of both fact and fantasy), an opportunity to construct his BwO. After she has been paid, THE MODEL calls THE AGENCY on THE TELEPHONE to announce that the EXCHANGE has been initiated and that it is now time to begin measuring the length of THE CALL. THE MODEL and THE CLIENT now interact together, their bodies intermingling with DESIRE, FETISHISM, representation, the SPACE of the room, the TIME measured by THE MODEL’s watch as well as the TIME elusively marked by THE CLIENT’s memories, fantasies, and anticipation of orgasm (which is not the object of his DESIRE but a fetishized signifier which masks the perpetually deferred BwO, the plane of consistency of his DESIRE). When the end of THE CALL is announced by instrumental TIME (or by a telephone call from THE AGENCY if THE CALL has transgressed the boundaries marked by instrumental TIME), THE MODEL telephones THE AGENCY, says goodbye to THE CLIENT, and exits the SPACE of THE CALL.

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THE MODEL

AdrienneAlannaAlexandraAlexisAllisonAman
daAngelaAnyaArdenArianaAshleyAudreyAvery

She will become part of the CYBORG ASSEMBLAGE which you are purchasing (you want to purchase the fulfillment of your BODY WITHOUT ORGANS, to draw her into its logic, to name her through your DESIRE which is based on representations of women, on fetishization), after you have picked up THE TELEPHONE, after you have called her. What will you call her? You must first call her a partner in the EXCHANGE in which you are about to take part; you must call her the producer of the commodity for which you will give her $ (in an amount purportedly based on equivalence but in fact VALUE is measured by, determined by FETISHISM, DESIRE, and taboo...). I hear you’re looking for some company...