Gender, Sexuality and Law: Brothels 101
Harper Jean Tobin
Contributing Writer
I have come to the conclusion of late that our culture is obsessed with prostitution. We talk about it constantly; it’s a metaphor, an insult, a frequent topic of song, film, fiction, and academic and political debate. Yet very few of us know much about the business, or know anyone who's been in it -- unless you count the fifteen percent of American men who have paid for sex at least once. Likewise, we debate whether or not prostitution should be criminalized without really knowing anything about what it's like when it isn't. In an attempt to remedy this state of affairs, I present an overview of just one example of legal prostitution: Nevada.
Legal prostitution has been a tradition in the Silver State for over a century and a half. Nevada law allows counties (except for Clark County, including Las Vegas) to decide for themselves whether to allow prostitution. Prostitution is allowed only within brothels registered with the state and complying with state and county requirements. There are more than two dozen brothels in a dozen counties statewide, employing a few hundred prostitutes at any given time.
Since the emergence of AIDS, the brothels take safety very seriously. Would-be prostitutes must pass an HIV test. Brothel workers must be tested monthly for HIV and weekly for other infections. Condoms are required for all acts of intercourse and fellatio, while anal intercourse is prohibited. Though prostitutes may see dozens or even a hundred clients in a month, in the nearly twenty years these regulations have been in place not a single brothel worker has tested positive for HIV.
Brothel prostitutes are a diverse group of women. Some are happily married. Some support several children on their own. Others are beholden to lovers who are little more than abusive pimps. Some have been involved in the sex trade since they were old enough to do so. Others enter the business in middle age, after years of more conventional work. Some really like their work; some even see it as therapeutic and a service to society. For others, it’s just a steady paycheck.
In Nevada brothels, each woman generally has her own room, and she may dally there, at the bar or in the lounge while waiting for business. Customers must ring a bell at the door or gate, and generally this bell summons the workers to form a lineup from which the customer may choose. The customer and the woman (or, occasionally, women) of their choosing then retire to discuss services and price in private.
Whether regulars or vacationers on a lark, brothel clients are overwhelmingly male. Traditionally, women not working there were barred from brothel premises on the assumption that they were looking for their husbands and would only make trouble. Recently, however – and over the objections of some old-timers in the industry -- some brothels have begun to cater to couples and single female customers. Apparently there are no licensed brothels employing male prostitutes.
Periodic efforts to ban prostitution have routinely floundered in the face of many Nevadans’ attachment to the ideal of local control and the revenue brothels bring to small, rural communities. But many who advocate decriminalizing prostitution do not see Nevada as a good model, but as one geared more to enriching brothel owners and keeping “bad” women out of sight than to protecting the interests of prostitutes. While pimping is technically illegal throughout Nevada, it’s easy to see how, in the view of some prostitutes, the state and the brothel owners are just large-scale pimps.
Brothel workers often have weeks “on” at the brothel, living there and working ten to fourteen hour days, followed by weeks “off” at home. While staying at the brothel they cannot come and go without special permission even when not “on the clock." This isolation has produced a whole cottage industry of traveling vendors who cater to the brothel workers exclusively.
While they can generally set their own rates, they are often not allowed to turn down paying customers, but must instead count on naming a price too high for an unwanted patron. The brothel provides protection, typically including security staff and a “panic” button in each woman’s room, but also bugs their rooms to make sure they are not engaging in prohibited acts or lying about how much they’ve charged.
While the work allows lengthy vacations and can pay considerably more than many “straight” jobs, brothel owners may take as much as half of prostitutes' earnings. Freelancing is, of course, illegal.
While brothel owners have a business association that lobbies for their interests, brothel workers lack a strong organization, such as a union, to represent them. In fact, despite the far-reaching control the brothels exert over their working conditions, they are still considered independent contractors, without the legal rights and benefits afforded to employees.
Finally, the licensing system creates a permanent record of employment as a prostitute, which may make it difficult to find other work and leave the business.
All in all, the licensed brothel system offers good pay, safety from violence and disease, and a somewhat flexible work schedule; it's also safe and discreet for customers. But as much as half of workers' earnings go to the house; the stigma of being a prostitute, while less in brothel country than elsewhere, remains, and can follow them in the future; and most strikingly, their autonomy and privacy are severely limited. While friendlier by far than the risky business of street prostitution, it remains a business made possible by the labor and bodies of women, but run almost exclusively by and for men, on terms most convenient to them.
Of course, Nevada's system is far from the only alternative to criminalization. Just as the forms illegal prostitution takes vary greatly, its legal sister has been organized in many different ways throughout history, and practices vary around the world today. Sex worker rights advocates have generated a thoughtful body of literature on the possibilities for reform. But despite the occasional protests from brothel workers, I wouldn't expect big changes in the Silver State anytime soon; the wealthy men who own Nevada's brothels would like to see things stay very much the same.
For an in-depth, inside look at life and work in a Nevada brothel, see Alexa Albert's recent book Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women.