Thanks for posting this, Jessica! I was so disappointed when I turned on AC 360 Wednesday night and the CNN reporters were WAITING OUTSIDE OF HER CONDO BUILDING! That's all they would fucking talk about, whether she would come out or not, and they kept showing her MySpace page. It's all bullshit! People need to back. the. fuck. off.

Yes, she must be so happy about all the media coverage. That's why she hasn't granted any interviews, right?

And on top of all this, two of her "friends"/fellow musicians appeared on the Today Show yesterday. They claimed to be defending her name, but yet they didn't ask her if she wanted them to speak on her behalf. Now, if anyone is trying to cash in I'd say it's these two.

It pisses me off. I was talking about this and blogged about it, and a few friends have told me that she more than likely made enough money for her work, and that she'd likely come out with a book deal, so she's not the victim in this.

Since when did financial autonomy translate to living free of sexism and being objectified? She isn't a freak show. She's a fucking woman who had to make choices in life, probably because of the failures of the patriarchy to truly empower her.

The quote that bothered me the most was something like, "I am not a monster." I wonder how this woman is even made to think she's a monster.

Yet, the discussion is on Spitzer's "weakness," and never about sex workers' lives.

There was a very informative, fabulous press release from sex workers and organizations working for/by sex workers that I keep wishing to see in the press.. but alas.

Anyway, since it seems like we'd all prefer to hear a different side to this, I'll copy it below -

(apologies for the long comment... feel free to edit or delete if it's inappropriate to put here)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts
Shakti Ziller, Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK), swank@riseup.net 877-877-2004 x 2
Audacia Ray, 718.554.1714
Sarah Bleviss, Sex Workers Outreach Project NYC (SWOP-NYC), swop.nyc@gmail.com
Prostitutes of New York (PONY), pony@panix.com
Desiree Alliance, http://www.desireealliance.org/

WHAT ABOUT KRISTEN? New York Sex Worker Organizations Respond to Spitzer Scandal

New York, NY - In the last few days, Governor Eliot Spitzer has publicly admitted to being associated with an escort agency and is considering resignation. As sex worker advocates, we are concerned about the representation and fate of "Kristen" and sex workers who are being thrust into the spotlight because of the investigation into the Governor. We also share the widespread concern for Governor Spitzer's family.

Sex worker organizations urge the press and the public to focus on the violation of sex workers rights and the need to change these laws and policies, rather than simply on the story of one individual who has purchased sexual services.

"Nobody is talking about the impact of this story on 'Kristen' and other women, men and trans people who are currently working in the sex industry," Shakti Ziller of SWANK in NYC added, "Prostitutes disproportionately face punitive action after arrest as compared to clients. Whether or not she will face prison time, "Kristen" has been dragged into the spotlight and will be subjected to public humiliation. Shouldn't the police emphasis be on catching perpetrators of violent crime and protecting sex workers - not exposing adults who are consenting to a transaction? All she did was try to make a living."

"Governor Spitzer ran on a platform of being a different kind of politician and then portrayed an inaccurate image of himself. Being involved with the services of sex workers is a very common thing, if all forms of consensual sex work were decriminalized for adults involved in a consensual transaction, sex workers could access the services they need," says Dylan Wolfe of SWANK (Sex Workers Action New York).

Governor Spitzer took a lead role in developing the NY State Anti-Trafficking Law. Over the objections of advocates who worked directly with victims of human trafficking and with sex workers, Governor Spitzer pushed through penalty enhancements against clients of all sex workers. Sex worker advocates fought against such provisions because these policies drive people who need help further underground.

"Spitzer has stood up for workers' rights in certain capacities, but has not followed through with meeting the real needs of sex workers," Audacia Ray, author of Naked on the Internet, noted, "It would be great if the government could use money towards services, not punitive measures."

The press has picked up on the relationship that inter-state trafficking laws (under the Mann Act) have to this case. This connection illustrates a point that sex worker advocates have been making for a long time: Laws against inter-state transportation for the purposes of commercial sex are too often used for punishing people working as sex workers and those who work with and patronize them.

The exposure of Randall Tobias last year as a customer of an escort agency, Senator Vitter's rumored association with sex workers and now this recent news of Governor Spitzer, are continual reminders that the corruption and hypocrisy inherently associated with prohibiting consensual prostitution will always be brought to light. Shaming these men will do nothing to improve the nature of the sex industry and the deeply-rooted corruption that is associated with the prohibition of prostitution.

"The criminalization of prostitution breeds this type of hypocrisy and makes our politicians (and other public figures) vulnerable," says Carol Leigh of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA. "This vulnerability exists until our society recognizes that consensual sexual behavior is private and these private acts should no longer be criminalized."

"Many of our clients are politicians, judges, lawyers and even police," Monica S., 26 of Brooklyn said. "It's odd that they spend so much effort putting us into jail, but then turn around and give us their money in exchange for sex. Why do they think they won't get caught breaking the laws that they make?"

The commentary on Dealbreaker.com, a Wall-Street news site, says about Wall-street's anti-Spitzer reaction to the 'Client 9' story: "'There is a God' was the first thought on Wall Street. The next thought is, 'Please don't let it be revealed that I'm Lucky Number 7.'"

Ah, yes, because no escort has ever lived in fucking fear of being exposed to stalking and vigilante justice while the newsmedia makes the compassionate gesture of plastering her name and face all over the telly. (I really hope this poor woman has already moved and gotten a new haircut.)

I haven't had time to blog this, but I've been sickened to see it be turned totally on her. It's repulsive.

If Kristen's career does indeed benefit from the scandal, she'll probably just get called an attention whore who capitalized on her role in bringing down the governor for her own personal benefit -- despite the fact that she didn't choose to get dragged into this media circus in the first place.

On a related note, one of the news stations referred to her as the woman who "brought down" Eliot Spitzer. Kristen didn't bring down anyone; she was just doing her job (and I doubt she gets to choose her clients in the first place). Spitzer brought down his own dumb ass.

So why not leave the woman alone? Oh wait, she's a fallen woman -- can't turn a ho into a housewife, you know -- and thereby forfeits her right not to be publicly embarrassed. Ugh.

Sorry to rant, but watching CNN 7 hours a day at work makes me bitter sometimes.

On a slightly unrelated note, prostitutes in prerevolutionary Cuba were actually called "public women."

I agree with the general argument, but she is "cashing in" (and good for her). Her two songs, one of which she added yesterday, have sold more than 2 million copies at about $1 a piece. She gets roughly 70% of the total. If they sell at that rate for 2 more days, she'll pull in more than $2 million. It is an assumption that she added the song to increase sales, though a safe and not a gross one. However, i don't think it's a gross assumption to look at the facts and see that, regardless of everything else, she will make a tremendous amount of money when all is said and done.

Being stalked sucks and is a violation of basic american rights. This includes being stalked by a member of the media. Reporters need to back away from her front door, no doubt.

Myspace though is a little different. Now, I am not agreeing with implying that her Myspace quotes are responses to her current situation. But the internet and social networks are public spaces.

Also, I am not a big fan of slut shaming. But I am also not a fan of prostitute-coddling. Not all people who are products of broken homes, unfortunate circumstances and "failures of patriarchy" turn to prostitution. I am not saying her decision was easy nor was it based in greatest of circumstances, but the decision was hers. I agree she is a victim in this unfortunate story but she is a victim who put herself in that situation.

THANK YOU for posting about this, I am so glad to see other people feel the same way. I think it's disgusting the way that the media is writing/talking about her like they know all about her and have every right to publish details of her life, without any input from her... they're capitalizing on her like she's an object to be bought and sold, even as they damn her and Spitzer. Hrm, hypocritical much?
I'm particularly ashamed to see this from papers like the NYT and WaPo... you expect this crap from the the tabloids and the New York Post, but apparently now there's no distinction between them anymore.

Since when did money define freedom? Jesus Christ - money or not, Kristen is still seen as a whore and a slut. And it's not just Kristen we're talking about here - it's every other sex worker out there who are caught in this scandal. This is not merely about Kristen - but about a culture that makes sex workers into evil whores, while still focuses the attention on the men who were involved, instead of talking about the lived experiences of these women.

Thanks for the info Dio. Another example that sex sells. And now another story that I'll try to ignore because just talking about it keeps it living.

How is anyone surprised by this? Do we not recall the media camped outside of Heath LEdger's house to get a picture of his dead body? Or how about the media's obsession fascination with Drew Peterson/Scott Peterson (insert your Peterson in here).

We live in a TRASH CULTURE with TRASH media. Nothing they do is shocking anymore.

Reason #4,890,564 that I do not have a myspace or facebook page.

Oh yeah, that constant slide show of her Myspace pics on AC 360 was disgusting.

Any - and so we're to automatically assume that women who are prostitutes do so out of their own choices? Unless we allow them to tell their stories, we don't know jackshit about them. I am not a fan of this idea of "shit, she's making money, so we can harrass her all we want."

We're not coddling prostitutes. We're simply wanting to bring a dialogue forward, and making sure that it's their lives and their well beings and health that are the focus of the attention, and not Elliot Spitzer's.

No matter how many politicians get brought down, it seems the story is about THEM, and never about the reasons women choose to be sex workers in the first place.

That's silencing them. It's wrong, and it needs to be changed.

A lot of people decry abuse that happens in prostitution.

Is the behaviour of media not another example of such abuse? They are using Kristen without any regard for her feelings and wishes and profit from it.

Yet aside from pro-sexwork individuals and organizations, few people seem to be calling them out on it. I am happy to see compassionate and outraged voices on this blog. I just wish there were more of them.

All slut-shaming aside, using someone's MySpace page for quotes is just plain old bad journalism. If someone won't talk to you, you put "at press time Kristen had not returned our call" or "Kristen has declined to comment" or something like that, you don't pull random lines from her MySpace page and call them an interview. Christ on a cracker, people, you write for some pretty big deal publications, should you not know this basic, Journalism 101 concept?

A lot of girls who end up prostitutes choose to. A lot don't, and they get sucked into it. That's a big part of why whore-shaming is so disgraceful. You don't know how these girls get to where they are.

I actually don't have a problem with the idea of prostitution. Go ahead, rip me a new one. Tell me I'm not a good feminist.

I think if it were legal it would be a much safer profession, since the women could get insurance and regular STD/HIV/pregnancy screenings and GYN exams. Plus, if it were regulated the government could inspect the companies for conditions and the treatment of the girls. Just like restaurants are graded, brothels could be too. Plus they could impose safety restrictions, like the john MUST wear a condom/be able to provide prove he is HIV/STD negative and the girls should be on the pill. People are always going to pay for sex. It's the "oldest profession" for a reason. So we might as well make it safe for those who participate.

Except, you know, it's illegal so clearly it never happens. Just like jaywalking and not picking up after your dog.

ProFeministMale, I've read plenty of speculation about why Kristen became a sex-worker, but I don't think that's a good thing, because, as mentioned above, the speculation comes from her Myspace page. This is "news," and what "news" means today certainly doesn't broder on sociaological.

I'm abolutely certain Kristen could have almost any forum she wanted to speak out if she truly wanted to speak out.

If we can't blame women for making choices to prostitute in order to survive, can we still blame the media for competing to sell stories?

christ almighty, i didn't mean for that last sentence to come like that. I merely meant to shine a light on the issue of blame. Media : reader :: prositute : John.

ProFemMale: I don't subscribe to this thought: "shit, she's making money, so we can harrass her all we want."

I didn't say that or imply that. I spent the first part of my post stating how I think harrassment is wrong and a violation of human rights. She has a right to privacy. Further, I do not believe she is fine because she is paid. Prostitutes are not fairly compensated at all. But this isn't at all related to the points I was making:

1. Myspace isn't private and while I don't think you can use it for great journalistic integrity, it isn't a violation of her rights to look at her page or use her quotes from there and associate back to her. Myspace and other social networks are public. If you don't want just anyone viewing your page, there are security settings you can implement.
2. While I don't think slut-shaming gets us anywhere, I also don't think that making all prostitutes automatic victims does anything either. I didn't even imply that ALL prostitutes choose the lifestyle. I am completely aware that the choice has made for a lot of them. However, Kristin hasn't remained entirely silent. After the story became public she came out and said it was her choice.

Part iof my post was cut off...

To finish up, I am not looking to silence any discussions...but I do want to participate. I am not even looking to silence the woman herself. If she comes out and says anything that contradicts any of what I believe, then I will re-evaluate.

i'm a proud slut, i'll have sex with who i want to outside of heterosexual monogamous relationships!! perhaps i would even do it if the price was right!

if you can't respect a 'slut' then you can't respect women! this whole matter bothers me... it seems so much easier for the media to devalue a woman when she is outside of the perfect hetero-housewife and conservative role,

virgin/whore baiting again, at its best...

"I agree she is a victim in this unfortunate story but she is a victim who put herself in that situation."

You have no idea why she put herself in that situation. From what I understand, we're here to discuss issues, not to judge people for the choices they make, even if their choices happen to be ones you wouldn't make for yourself. Until the day she tells her story, can't we refrain from speculating about why she is a sex worker?

She could benefit from the situation. She has certainly profited from it.

EyeHeartNY - You hit the nail on the head. She didn't bring Spitzer down. He made his own bed.

I screencapped the front page of the NYT a few times, just so that I won't ever forget that they had the integrity to write about her without any consent and raid her myspace profile and plaster it everywhere with outrageous headlines.

They make me sick.

Good job calling them on it.

She can make her MySpace profile private, but she chose not to do that. No slut shaming here, I think Spitzer is a scum bag. But to say that she is so dumb as to not try to use this "scandal" to her advantage is to be very naive. She is absolutely crafting the content of the page for the media's use and only left one song on the profile, while deleting the rest. She has a single now! Yes, this is not something she wanted or expected, and no, she shouldn't be disrespected by the media, but she is using the situation very intelligently to promote and further her music career.

"Kristen" said on her MySpace that she left home at 17, abused drugs, and was homeless (I think it's implied that she became homeless when she left for New York City). And today, the local media tried to discredit her. The New York CBS affiliate interviewed "Kristen's" next door neighbor from a while back.

"I live next door to her. Obviously her parents have a lot of money. I feel like growing up you know, she got what she wanted."

Lauren [the neighbor] says [Kristen] lived a charmed life in a sprawling, million dollar home; a total contradiction to the abuse, drugs and poverty she writes about on her 'MySpace' page.

"I never witnessed or knew of any abuse. Or heard of any abuse here."

So apparently, the fact that she lived in a rich neighborhood and might have had doting parents must mean that she lived a charmed life. And the fact that a neighbor didn't know of any abuse must mean it didn't exist. And of course someone who doesn't seem to have seen "Kristen" in 5 years is the appropriate person to talk to. Unbelievable.

I am not sure that "Kristen" is shamed. If anything, making big money is highly regarded in this society. It is perhaps hard to imagine a former call-girl running for office, but from I can reconstruct, this is actually happening.

Execept that they are called "lobbyists". There was a Congresswoman about whom a reporter noted a quote that during her lobbying years she "fucked her brains out" (of course, she was one of the most conservative members of the House). Now, why would companies pay big bucks to lobbying firms to pay big bucks to easygoing nicely looking women to present their case to politicians?

"Kristen" gave a phone interview to the New York Times before they published her name and photo, so I'm not sure why everyone is so quick to jump to the conclusion she didn't want them to. But doesn't the nude glamour photo shoot she did for the New York Post remove any doubt that she welcomes the attention she's getting as a chance to advance her record career?

Doubtless it's because I'm not looking at the more unsavoury parts of the right wing internet, but the only place I've seen people suggest "Kristen" is an "attention whore" or that she should be blamed for what happened with Spitzer is right here.

I'm not sure why everyone seems to have concluded "Kristen" is a hapless victim beset by the press. People have jumped to the conclusion she's being publicly embarrassed, but what has she done which she ought to be embarrassed about? She's making this work for her, and hopefully launch her music career. Good for her.

Wait a minute. There's one more glaring error in all this...

"She can make her MySpace profile private, but she chose not to do that."

How do we know she's the one who made that MySpace profile in the first place?

Remember back when Facebook had two fake Bilawal Bhutto profiles up and the news media jumped on those? The real Bilawal Bhutto couldn't make those profiles private because he didn't have the passwords.

it's 2008. why are we still shaming sluts?

you'd think the media would be kinda pro-slut anyway what with rock of love, flavor of love, the bachelor, paris hilton's career etc.

Lauren [the neighbor] says [Kristen] lived a charmed life in a sprawling, million dollar home; a total contradiction to the abuse, drugs and poverty she writes about on her 'MySpace' page..

"you'd think the media would be kinda pro-slut anyway what with rock of love, flavor of love, the bachelor, paris hilton's career etc."

But it's so much more fun to start teaching them to be prosti-tots at age 3 and then dehumanize them as adults when they make a sexual choice you don't agree with!

Oh, please, this girl isn't an idiot and she isn't a victim (at least as relates to her profession).

She's a PROSTITUTE. Getting paid for sex is OK, but we're supposed to believe she's horrified and traumatized by being "exploited" by the media? While she's literally gaining fame and fortune? She probably should be embarrassed, but I'll bet anything she isn't (just look at her MySpace).

She isn't some poor broke girl who was roped into prostitution by a drug dealer/pimp on a corner. No reason to victimize her just because she happens to be a professional whore (or sex worker, which is apparently the PC term) She makes up to $5,000/hr for heaven's sake! I heard on the radio that her rent is over $5000/mo, and she probably makes 5-10 times that. And based on what we know about the "prostitution ring" she was/is a part of, she isn't being "coerced" into prostitution.

Plus, she edited her MySpace the day the story broke, posted her 2 singles for sale, and poured out her heart and soul online for the world to read. Sure, she may not have granted interviews (probably because she's hiring an agent first, as she should, and negotiating terms), but she sure isn't hiding either.

Playboy and Penthouse are each offering "in the high 6 figures" for spreads. Her songs have already earned her over 1MM. I don't feel sorry for her. This is the best thing that could have happened to her, given the choices she's made.

"She probably should be embarrassed... This is the best thing that could have happened to her, given the choices she's made."

eeeww. lay off the judgement and assumptions.

and I also love the "but she makes soooo much money!" refrain. Anyone who knows about the sex industry would know that the worker doesn't get to keep all the money - we have no idea how much Kristen kept out of that. There are often high agency fees.

And no, we really don't know the full story regarding whether she was coerced, nor can we speculate how much work she gets and what her expenses are. jeez.

I don't agree with the "shaming" going on, but to say she isn't coming out good here is just plain ignorant.

Case in point: http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/8771/prostitute-in-spitzer-scandal-scores-million-dollar-offer-to-bare-all/

The shaming isn't needed, but come on adming the truth.

I don't agree with the "shaming" going on, but to say she isn't coming out good here is just plain ignorant.

Case in point: http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/8771/prostitute-in-spitzer-scandal-scores-million-dollar-offer-to-bare-all/

The shaming isn't needed, but come on admit the truth.

She probably should be embarrassed

Why? She isn't the one who spent the best part of a decade cheating on a spouse who gave up his own career to support hers, and then put that spouse at risk of STDs.