This summer, I'm finishing work on a novel that involves pirates. As the slowest writer in America, I've had seven years to research this aspect of a story that otherwise concerns three women friends on an island. I've become fixated on the contradiction between the terrorism at the heart of pirating, and our enduring love of all things pirate. Long before Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow appeared, my son was attending pirate-themed birthday parties. "All grown-ups are pirates," said Dustin Hoffman in Hook, one of our household's favorites. And of course, I can talk like a pirate ANY day.
Insight arrived after I saw a recent exhibit at The Field Museum in Chicago built around the excavation of a pirate shipwreck. Pirates were early democrats (small D)! Unlike the poor or orphaned young men essentially enslaved on the King's marauding ships, pirates formed independent societies based on equality. Decisions were made democratically. The "take" was split systematically and equally. This true economic brotherhood is the foundation for our cultural praise-song of the pirate. Read Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, and you'll be captivated by the pirate with the heart of gold…..
…..Which brings me to the courtesan. I saw Cheri last night, a new film by Stephen Frears with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend. Based on novels by Colette, the story immerses us in the lush life of the French courtesan in the Belle Epoch years before World War I. Pfeiffer's portrayal of aging and the pain of an unlikely love is haunting, but as the movie started, I worried. Was I in for another Pretty Woman, a Big Lie about the good life of prostitution?
I'd read Susan Griffin's 2001 work of nonfiction, The Book of the Courtesans, so I was able to settle in eventually. Cheri's version of the 19th-century courtesan's life is grounded in truth. Like the pirate, the courtesan thrived in a time when the economic options, in this case for women. were cruelly limited. Courtesans were wealthy, independent, well treated and, while not considered respectable, they were not breaking any laws…..
…..Which brings me to an item I missed in the news cycle while I was away last month. The Minnesota Nice Guys….
This charming spin on Minnesota Nice is the self-titled "club" of 30 business owners, lawyers, accountants, and mortgage bankers who "nicely" prostituted women allegedly brought to our town by an ex-Hennepin county prosecutor-turned-sex-trafficker. These men considered themselves Nice because they paid $500 an hour to prostitute these women, picked up a little sushi to go with the sex, and didn't use the illegal weapon one of them was found to possess.
The key line in the StarTrib story was: "None of the women was forced into prostitution, but Snyder explained many fell into the business because they needed money. None of them is from the United States. "
Are these women 21st-century courtesans?
No. I hereby reserve that term for the by-gone and cruel time when a few remarkable women created a legal economic arrangement and gained wealth, independence, and apparently their client's affections.
Prostituted women in 2009 America are rarely well paid or well treated in the manner of the courtesan. But even when a nice guy agrees to pay $500 for sex, the time we live in is our time. Prostituting anyone in our time is illegal. The State of Minnesota just passed legislation to strengthen our sexual trafficking laws.
We know more than we did in the 19th century. We know about the toxic combination of power and sex that can lead to exploitation and violence. We know that prostituted men and women suffer a high incidence of post-traumatic stress syndrome. We know we can do better. This knowledge mandates laws to protect those who "need money" against the damage so often caused by prostitution.
What's behind those legal decisions? Does anyone argue any longer that prostituting someone is a victimless crime?
What is the difference between being forced into illegal behavior and being driven to illegal behavior because you need money?
I'd like to hear from you all on this…..