The pimpin' life ain't easy

According to an Associated Press news brief released last Friday, Margaret MacDonald has been convicted in Paris of "aggravated procuring." For those of you who don't know, "procuring" is the legal term for soliciting clients to perform illegal sexual activity in the interests of making money (better known as pimpin').\nMacDonald operated an international prostitution ring with over 500 female and 50 male employees. These call girls and gigolos were "leased" to MacDonald's clients in countries across Europe, Israel and even in the U.S., at the rate of $1,170 per hour.\n$1,170 an hour!\nIf it were worth my time to get paid for writing these articles, I would have to write 147 of them to make that much money. At my current job, I have to work over 116 hours … I'm in the wrong business!\nApparently I'm not alone here. The National Task Force on Prostitution estimates that "over 1 million people in the U.S. have worked as prostitutes." It also suggests that around 1 percent of American women have been professionals in the sex industry (Frederique Delacoste and Pricilla Alexander, "Sex Work").\nThe general conception is that all prostitutes are women. Though it's true the majority of sex workers are women, a COYOTE survey of San Francisco sex employees estimated that 20 to 30 percent of prostitutes are men. Of course, the same study also suggested that as many as 25 percent of the female sex workers in the San Francisco area are transgender (which is probably not representative of the entire industry).\nNow, MacDonald was not a worker per se, as she had a management position. These positions are harder to come by. But there are many others who have attained such roles in the field.\nAnother famous sex executive is Heidi Fleiss. Fleiss established her position as the "Hollywood Madam" by her mid-twenties. When she was finally arrested in June 1993, Fleiss, then 27, had a number of employees who earned $1,500 per night servicing her celebrity clientele. Now that she has been released from prison, Fleiss earns her living writing (she has a very popular book aptly titled "Hollywood Madam"), starring in and producing videos (such as "Sex Tips"), designing clothing (Heidi Wear) and hosting a radio talk show ("Sex Advice with Heidi Fleiss").\nIt would seem that individuals well-suited to prostitution management are also apt to perform well in other aspects of the business world -- particularly in entrepreneurial arenas.\nWorld famous pimp and author Iceberg Slim (from which the "Ice" in Ice Cube and Ice-T originated) explained the nature of sex management in a 1972 interview with the Los Angeles Free Press. Iceberg Slim noted the attraction to pimpin' is the same as the attraction to other executive positions. He said, "The male aspiration is … whether he is the president of a white corporation, of General Motors for example, it all boils down to the same thing … power." \n Granted, it is true that Iceberg Slim (who actually wrote the book "Pimp") pondered, "For really what is the bedrock of all male aspiration if it isn't (sex) and money?" Yet, he saw these things as the byproducts of power. So he argued the reason to become a prostitution manager is for power.\nWell, I think Mr. Slim might have been a bit narrow in his view. The aspiration for power isn't entirely a male phenomenon. It's my contention that women want power, too (consider Fleiss, MacDonald and Hilary).\nOr maybe, we all just want to make $1,000 an hour.