Sex for Sale~Prostitution, Pornography and the Sex Industry (48 page)

These practices, however, are changing. The largest brothels in Northern Nevada allow women to go home after an 8–12 hour shift. And some women have or share apartments in the nearby towns. Brothel owners find that open shifts allow them to recruit and retain high-quality workers who bring in customers and money. They also use bedrooms more efficiently by having them filled with working (not sleeping) women more of the time.

It is limits on mobility that have led critics of legal brothels to charge that they are “total institutions” that violate the women’s human rights. Legal prostitutes, who are restricted in their movement due solely to the nature of their work, are clearly being treated differently than other service workers.

However, of the women we spoke to in brothels in frontier counties, none reported feeling constrained. A few who worked in the larger brothels did feel more constrained, but most voiced acceptance of the rules. Most often, we heard such comments as, “It’s like living in a dormitory or a sorority.” But among women working in brothels where they have more freedom of movement, there was enthusiasm for the more lenient rules. It seems that women may migrate to the type of house and work situation that suits her particular needs and preferences, and the brothel system is diversifying and changing in ways that make these kinds of options more possible.

House rules governing when workers may leave the brothel premises are informal and managed by the owners, and they were also not always strictly enforced. For many of the frontier brothel owners, the exigencies of today’s labor market make it difficult to attract workers to a remote brothel, let alone to confine them to their quarters. The rules requiring staying on premises are especially difficult to enforce if the owner wants to maintain good morale. As a result, the best workers sometimes write their own rules. The brothel with the loosest practice was in a frontier town that had only one worker. This prostitute went to a local home each night at the end of her shift. She had worked on and off for about 3 years and the owners justified the relationship by saying she had “never gotten into trouble in town.” Notably, however, these owners also had a very good relationship with the community, which made this liberal attitude acceptable locally.

The second point about these informal rules is that they reflect their historic roots in conservative, if libertarian, values. The informal relationship to the community is crucial in brothel culture. The owners walk a fine line
269

KATHRYN HAUSBECK AND BARBARA G. BRENTS

between doing their business and pleasing local government and community leaders. As one owner said, if you go outside of proper channels, local politicians can make things tough for you. A former county district attorney told us that “the secret to doing this is good relations with law enforcement.”

The norms of the Old West seem to prevail, and the law is whatever the community sees fit. In short, the politics of brothels is very local, very delicate, and very informal.

Some communities impose legally questionable regulations out of fear of making waves. Although many of the regulations seem to violate the prostitutes’ civil liberties, neither the workers nor the owners want to upset the delicate balance of running a prostitution business in a traditional community.

Brothel owners strive to maintain a good image in the community by donating scholarships to high schools, buying jackets for fire departments, participating in local parades, carnivals, and holiday festivities, and planning and running town events. By supplying the Little League with uniforms, organizing the Fourth of July parade, and making regular donations to the local rotary club, some brothel owners have become respectable members of their community who are rewarded with trust and support from local residents.

There are exceptions, and Nye County’s Maynard Martin Richards, aka Joe Richards, is one of them. The 74-year-old owner of three Nye County brothels, as well as two massage parlors and a strip club, was indicted by the Federal Grand Jury in March of 2006 on wire fraud charges related to a political bribe in an attempt to change a county ordinance limiting the location of brothels. The case was still pending as of 2009, and while it did not negatively affect other brothel owners, it did cast a pall across an already marginalized and stigmatized industry.

Some political leaders have proposed extending legal brothels to Las Vegas and perhaps Reno, because of the tax revenue that would result and to reduce exploitation of currently illegal workers. Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has publicly advocated this on several occasions and one state Senator proposed that the legislature should debate the idea.25 Although controversial, some in the media have supported the idea.26

W O M E N I N TH E B R OTH E L S

Despite the legality of the rural brothels, the occupation continues to be stigmatized. This raises several questions about the women who work in the brothels. What are their backgrounds? Do they want to be there? Do they like the work? Do they feel oppressed? We find that the women who work in the
270

NEVADA’S LEGAL BROTHELS

brothels are diverse in every way: their ages range from 19 to 55, but most were in their twenties and early thirties. They are predominantly white, but there are women of color. About half of the women we talked to are married or in a long-term relationship. About three-quarters have children. Half had an education beyond high school, a few had done graduate work, and some had graduate or professional degrees.

All the women we interviewed stressed that they made their own choices to enter brothel work. Their stories regarding entry are varied, like those of people in any workplace. Just under half of the women said they entered the brothel because their service industry jobs did not pay enough for them to survive. About one-quarter came to the brothels from some form of illegal prostitution. And about one-quarter came from other legal sex businesses (dancing or film) and see sex work as a career or calling. Workers in the smaller brothels, still governed by older protocols and more paternalistic values, likely experience their workplace differently than those in larger brothels near Reno and Las Vegas, but in all brothels we found that the women were strong, open, and often had close bonds with others in the house. They are in the business to make money, and some do quite well. For example, Ricki told us, “I ended up really successful; I made a lot of money. I had a real regular who paid for my boob job and helped me buy a house, furnished my house.” Alice, from a Northern Nevada brothel, did not plan to stay in the business her entire life, but saw great benefits to working in a legal brothel: “I’d like to go back to school. If you utilize your time and you use your money wisely, this is a wonderful business to do it in. It’s quick money, its good money, it’s all taxed, it’s legal.”

But many workers say they do it not just for the money but also because they like the work and the people they work with. Ricki found that the brothel helped her get her life together and after about 2 months she felt that it was home:

Whether you got along with everyone or not, it was your family. People are glad to see you when you come in. I’ve got tons of Christmas cards. I have people that really care, and I think that was something that was missing all my life. So for me, it was just like an extended family, it was a home. . . . So there was that camaraderie.

Misty, from a small rural brothel, also felt that it was a pleasant place to work: “You are actually given respect [by] the customer, [and] the girls respect you because they know how you feel. The customer has to respect you. They can’t be calling you a whore or nothing or they have to leave.”

271

KATHRYN HAUSBECK AND BARBARA G. BRENTS

All the women told us it was their choice to work in the brothels. None said that they were forced to work there or unable to leave if they wanted. We did not find anyone who was trafficked into a brothel, neither did anyone know of anyone else who had been trafficked. The regulations, work cards, contracts, and visibility of legal prostitution all reduce the chances of trafficking in the legal brothel sector. While we have no data on how many women had pimps, few women mentioned them. Some talked about using their time in the legal brothels to get away from an abusive pimp. The owners talked quite derisively about pimps and made clear that they were not allowed near the brothels. As one owner pointed out, if an abusive pimp shows up at a legal brothel, he goes to jail.

Safety was one of the most important advantages that women stressed in their choice to work in the brothels. They felt, and our research backs this up, that Nevada’s legal brothels offer the safest environment available for women to sell consensual sex.27 There are a number of mechanisms in the brothels to guarantee the women’s safety. To protect women from unruly customers, there are panic buttons in the rooms. Brothel staff listen to all negotiations between the prostitute and client, and they say they can usually tell at that point if there are going to be problems. Women can and do turn away any client who worries her. There is generally increased scrutiny of clients—from the moment they walk into a brothel they are in a public space, and even when they are in the privacy of the woman’s room, others are not far away. Finally, because these are legal businesses, managers can and do call police if a customer gets out of hand. It is in the brothel owner’s business interest to operate a safe house, both to attract customers and to retain workers.

Women’s health is protected as well. Women are tested regularly, but more importantly, customers are required by law to wear condoms. All the women we interviewed indicated that they used condoms; very few customers resisted, and those who did were quite easily convinced. Women also wash a customer before each sexual encounter, and at that point can look for external signs of diseases. Several of the women we talked to had turned customers away because of what they found in these checks. Importantly, the women told us they were free to turn customers away for any reason. There is a strong financial incentive not to do so, but the fact that they
could
contributed to the women’s sense of safety.

TH E N E VA D A B R OTH E L A S S O C I ATI O N

One way to analyze the present state of the Nevada brothel industry and its likely future is to consider the ways in which individual brothel businesses and
272

NEVADA’S LEGAL BROTHELS

their owners interact with one another. This relatively small and unique industry has formed a lobbying coalition to protect its collective interests from conservatives, gaming interests, and others who oppose legal prostitution.

The Nevada Brothel Association (NBA) was formed in 1984, largely on the initiative of Joe Conforte, in order to lobby for owners’ collective interests and to educate policymakers. The association’s lobbyist is George Flint, undeniably the most visible advocate of brothel prostitution in Nevada despite the fact that he is not a brothel owner or manager; he is a full-time justice of the peace at his own wedding chapel in Reno. For the last several years, and until recently, brothel owner Geoff Arnold was a close partner with Flint in his role as President of the NBA. Generally, the association brings together most of the largest, powerful brothels in the state, as well as some of the smaller rural brothels. The NBA reflects and reproduces the relative power among brothels. The executive committee consists of the owners of the largest brothels, and several smaller brothels report that they feel that their unique interests are overlooked by the NBA. In terms of internal organizational dynamics, most of the money for the Nevada Brothel Association’s operations has historically come from the eight largest brothels.

There are few NBA meetings, and most of the brothel owners participate only sporadically in organizational planning and decision making. Most of the brothel owners are geographically isolated from one another and in infrequent contact. The NBA offers a service to the brothel industry despite the tensions over specific issues and occasional regional and personality clashes. One rural brothel owner put it this way: “We don’t participate much. George works for the big brothels most of the time, but we know it’s out there and looking out for our interests. If something comes up, we’ll participate then.”

As the man at the helm, Flint is skilled at public relations and brokers media interest in the brothels by strategically participating in documentaries and news reports as an informed advocate of the brothels. According to most of the legislators and lobbyists we spoke with, Flint is a seasoned and respected lobbyist in the Nevada legislature. His passionate, experienced, and politically skilled voice gives legitimacy to the organization and the Nevada Brothel Association has been successful in maintaining the brothel industry’s legal status. While a state ban on brothel prostitution is a remote possibility, it remains a concern of the industry.

The NBA has not attempted to push for legislation to expand the rights of brothels. The laws regulating the location and number of licenses could conceivably be overturned as unfair restraint of trade, for example. These and similar policies remain largely unchallenged. Why this reluctance to fight for more favorable legislations? For one thing, owners recognize that the state
273

KATHRYN HAUSBECK AND BARBARA G. BRENTS

poses little threat to the general legal status of brothels, so most politics is still local. Most of the individual brothel owners can influence politicians and civic leaders individually, without the help of the NBA. As long as they remain good corporate citizens vis-à-vis local governments, and continue to bring revenue into the local economy, most owners feel little threat to their livelihood. They would prefer to accept traditional restrictions than raise controversy in their communities or across the state. And little economic incentive to change the system exists because licensing restrictions limit competition. As a result, a good profit often can be made even at a small brothel with only two or three women. In large brothels, the profit margin can be even bigger. All of this could change, however, if the brothels are drawn into national regulatory discussions about the relationship between prostitution (legal or otherwise) and sex trafficking. Should all forms of prostitution become conflated with sexual slavery, the brothels would face a much larger challenge than they have ever faced in their home communities or in Nevada.