33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Graphic at times - but why wouldn't it be?, October 7, 2006
This review is from: Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire (Paperback)
I bought this book at the bookstore by my office, and as is the case with all books I buy that I'm interested in, I started reading it immediately when I got on the train to come home. When I turned the page to the new chapter with its gigantic headline "Real Live Horny Girl Next Door", it occurred to me that the guy standing right next to me was reading every word over my shoulder and was now convinced I was a freak.
The author should probably take that as a compliment - I don't really care if he thinks I'm a freak, and he obviously cared enough to leer over my shoulder for my 45 minute commute home.
I wouldn't refer to myself as a prude in any sense of the word, but I admit I blushed a little bit as I started to read it. The language is necessar - after all, I can't describe my day at work without using the words "computer" and "rendering" (I work in 3D modeling at an architecture firm), so how could the author describe her job without a variety of different words of male genitalia? After you get past the first few pages of your own potential embarassment, all those "cock"s and "pussy"s are just words, as they should be, and the book reads smoothly. When describing a sexual act, it's easy to resort to overromanticizing on one end or an incredibly base vernacular on the other, channeling online erotica writers everywhere - thankfully our author doesn't do that for a second. Her job is her job, and she describes things just as they happen. It isn't sexy, but it isn't repulsive. Some people wait tables, she pretends to masturbate for money. We all put in our hours to make our rent, and this is no exception.
The book doesn't have any real conclusion, which seems to make a certain amount of sense as the writer is a blogger. It's more of an opportunity to glance into ten years of her life, as if you're reading the diary of a woman coming into her own and becoming comfortable with herself. It was a quick read and could be accomplished in a couple of open afternoons. The writer's style is easy to get into and offers a blunt, straightforward view into what it means to be a woman in the adult entertainment industry. If you're looking for smut, this isn't it, but if you're looking for an intelligently written account of a job few of us will ever experience, this is the book for your Saturday afternoon.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Like a Car Wreck, Can't Turn Away, June 26, 2008
This review is from: Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire (Paperback)
As a fellow ex-sex worker and aspiring writer, I am always interested in the perspective of other women in the adult entertainment industry. The author's perspective definitely reminded me of some of the women I have worked with as a pro domme -- punked out girls who first learn how to be femme when they realize it can earn them some cash, but who really have no passion or natural inclination for the work. She describes some pretty raunchy, degrading situations she gets herself into, seeming to not have any respect for her clients or herself as she performs acts that are completely unerotic and even disturbing to her. It's an us versus them approach that has very little sympathy or understanding for the men. She even describes picking clients pockets while lapdancing them! In my opinion, you get back what you dish out. If you expect sex work to be disgusting, despicable work then it will be. Definitely not my experience with it. But we each have our own story. This one was like rubbernecking a car wreck -- unpleasant but hard to turn away from.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good read but no real substance, June 12, 2007
This review is from: Indecent: How I Make It and Fake It as a Girl for Hire (Paperback)
I had to read this book since I have lived in Seattle for a year and a half now and I find it interesting to read about all the hidden places in the city!
This was definately a good read. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next and it kept me turning the pages but that was the only thing that made me give it four stars. To begin with, one thing I didn't quite understand was the naming of the chapters. All are named after songs and while some bear a slight resemblance to its contents, most do not. I am also not quite sure that I bought into the whole "It's okay for feminists to do this work because we get paid and thus have power". People get paid for working at McDonald's too and probably get about as much respect. The author also claims that she feels just great about herself and her work but that sounded hollow next to the more than frequent passages where she graphically describes her murderous rage toward her customers. I totally felt the depressive vibe that permeated this book. Nowhere does the author talk about having friends or family and it seems that when she is not working in the sex industry, she is at home watching television. The author is at pains to describe that she keeps her work personality seperate from her real personality but readers are not permitted to see that other reality, we are only led from seedy joint to seedy joint. Maybe in writing about the sex industry, she keeps her game face on. There were obvious passages where the author was conflicted about her work and I think that went a little way towards adding to the reality of working in such an industry. I also appreciated her humor, intelligence and the candid way in which she approached life in general.
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