By Peter Berton

SOUTHERN U.S. – An open, intelligent and insightful look at the realities of sex work — that’s the mission of The Honest Courtesan, a blog written by a retired prostitute.

The Honest Courtesan offers “a new perspective on how some women make a living, and perhaps [illustrates] we’re not so different from any other women you might know,” blogger Maggie McNeill wrote in the introduction. “I can and will tell you how and why I became a prostitute, what some of my memorable experiences were and why I don’t do it anymore.”

Intrigued, YNOT contacted McNeill.

YNOT.com: Tell us about the life journey that led you into sex work.

Maggie McNeill: I was born and raised in the New Orleans area, attended Catholic schools for 12 years and then got my English degree from [the University of New Orleans] and my master’s in library science from [Louisiana State University].

I worked as a librarian until 1995, when my first husband left me with $90,000 of bills on a $24,000 salary. Since I had no intention of being in debt and spending my entire income on bills for the next several decades, I had to find a higher-income job.

In September 1997, I started working as a stripper. Then in January of 2000, I became an escort. I later married my favorite client, retired almost a year after Hurricane Katrina and moved to a place much farther from the coast.

What motivated you to start the blog?

The name of my blog is a literal translation of the Renaissance Italian term cortigiana onesta, meaning a courtesan who provided real companionship and intellectual stimulation in addition to sex. Of course, it has a double meaning, because my mission is to provide readers with honest information to counter all the lies and myths prohibitionists spread about my profession and to provide an honest assessment of news items about sex and sex work as I see them.

Even as a teenager I was fascinated by prostitution, and some of the great courtesans of history were my heroines. When I eventually started doing sex work myself at the age of 30, a friend of mine said, “I was wondering how long it was going to take you to get around to that.”

I was always interested in the topic long before it became personal. And I’ve always been praised for my writing skills, so I suppose it was inevitable that I’d eventually start writing about what I know best.

I started trying to write a book about 10 years ago, but I couldn’t find a publisher. So, it just sat for a while until I discovered blogging and realized I could basically self-publish my writings on the internet.

Even then I dragged my feet for a couple of years until the hysteria over “sex trafficking,” and the attendant anti-whore propaganda, got impossible for me to ignore. I knew I had to do my part to defend my profession and counter the disinformation.

What topics do you cover?

The blurb on the back of my book says the blog covers “the realities, myths, history, lore, science, philosophy, art and every other aspect of prostitution. [The Honest Courtesan] also reports sex work news [and] critiques the way her profession is treated in the media and by governments.”

I also write about human rights and individual liberties apart from those involving sex work, and occasionally [I write] about other topics that interest me like books, music and movies. Sometimes I even give recipes.

What are some of the most interesting or offbeat subjects about which you’ve commented?

Most of the topics I cover are of personal interest to me, so that’s hard to say. But judging by reader reaction, it would have to be Japanese sex bathhouses, the shapes and sizes of human genitalia, internet dating scams, keeping one’s husband sexually satisfied, the tolerated brothels of 1930s-40s in Honolulu, and prostitution in classical Rome.
Judging by press reaction it would be the myth that huge numbers of prostitutes flock to major events and the Secret Service prostitution scandal of two years ago.

What sort of response have you received?

Almost entirely positive. Nearly all of my correspondents either thank me for opening their eyes to the realities of sex work or ask me to answer some question or questions. I have a lot of interview requests from journalists and students, consultation requests from academics and lawyers, and even a few from politicians.

In the past couple of years I also have received a lot of requests for sexual and relationship advice unrelated to sex work. I answer those in my blog almost every Wednesday. Obviously, I get the occasional bit of hate mail from prohibitionists, but it’s surprisingly little. Maybe I intimidate them.

How has writing the blog changed you?

I’ve always been the kind of person who throws herself into her work, and I’ve always liked helping people. I’ve also always been a person others come to for answers, which is part of what drew me to librarianship. None of that has changed. I guess the one thing that’s really different now is that I’m known by a lot of people whom I don’t know, and it’s sort of strange being treated like a celebrity.

I’ve had to learn to say “no,” because I get many more requests for my time than I have time to give. That’s hard for me, because as I said, I’m a pleaser and hate to turn anyone down.

What would you like readers to take away from your writings?

More than anything else, I want people to recognize there is no specific type of person who does sex work.

The prohibitionists of the past painted us as sex-crazed hussies and Jezebels out to lure innocent men from their marital beds, and the prohibitionists of the present paint us all as the pathetic, broken victims of evil men and male lust and greed. Both of those views are nonsense.

Seventy percent of sex workers have children, and about 10 percent are male. Some of us have degrees, some don’t start until we’re older and some limit themselves to only certain kinds of paid sex.

Some of us love our jobs, and some hate them. For most it’s just a job like any other, selected from among the available options because it’s both more lucrative and more flexible than the other options.

The only thing we all have in common is that we all decided selling sex was the best way to make money. Other than that, two randomly chosen sex workers are no more alike than any two doctors, lawyers, secretaries, bus drivers, housewives or cashiers.