Transcripts

MARGO ST. JAMES: From the practical point of view, no, because you're-- assuming you're the customer, and I'm the prostitute.

MARTIN BUNZL: Mm-hmm.

MARGO ST. JAMES: You are paying me a good sum, a good wage, $1 a minute on the average. And that gives me the money, mobility, and financial freedom to do what I choose with my time later on. It gives me time of my own. And certainly, that's not exploitative. It's exploiting the fact that you regard me as a sex object, yes. But I'm not degraded by that because sex is a fun activity.

And you think it's fun, and I think it's fun. We're both in it for the enjoyment. And I'm getting paid. Where does the exploitation come in? It doesn't. It only comes in when you're romantically oppressed, and you're giving it away for nothing, and you get nothing in return.

[CHUCKLES]

Like you get promises from men implying that they will take care of you and love you and so on and so forth until they get laid. And then suddenly, their attitude changes, and you're left high and dry. And what this does is make women feel very exploited, yes, about being a sex object. But that's because they aren't being paid. They aren't getting what they want.

MARTIN BUNZL: Is there any difference, do you think, between relationships with prostitutes and relationships in which money doesn't change hands? Aren't all sexual relationships really rather like relationships with prostitutes?

MARGO ST. JAMES: Well, the sex is probably similar, not much different than most housewives experience, with the exception that the prostitute probably experiences a lot more oral sex done to her. And she performs more, so she's better at it than the average housewife.

MARTIN BUNZL: What about the material payoffs?

MARGO ST. JAMES: But the material payoffs, I think the hooker is better off because she at least has the money to go to Honolulu on her vacation or wherever she wants to go, whereas the housewife is stuck at home, cleaning up the same dirt, pushing it around the different corners, and doing the same diapers, and realizing that baby powder isn't all that romantic.

MARTIN BUNZL: Yeah, but some people say the relationship's no different in that there's a material payoff for everyone. The woman gets--

MARGO ST. JAMES: One's [? subtle ?] and one's overt, yeah, right.

MARTIN BUNZL: The woman gets a nice house and doesn't have to work except to put out for sex.

MARGO ST. JAMES: Yeah, but listen. I mean, the housewife has a hell of a job. I mean, she's got to be nursemaid and chauffeur and everything else. And I would never go for that job unless it really paid off.

MARTIN BUNZL: When the word that you were coming into our studios this afternoon to be interviewed went around the radio station, a reporter came up to me and said, oh, you poor fella. You're going to be eaten alive. Do you think that you personally and your organization is threatening to men?

MARGO ST. JAMES: I think some men may be threatened. Or certainly, men are threatened by prostitutes because prostitutes understand the sexual nature of men. And they understand also and they realize the women's superiority in that aspect.

MARTIN BUNZL: Can you elaborate on that?

MARGO ST. JAMES: Well--

[CHUCKLES]

Do you feel eaten alive?

MARTIN BUNZL: No, I don't.

MARGO ST. JAMES: OK. The frailties of men, that's what we understand. And men don't want to be talked about.

MARTIN BUNZL: Can you elaborate on that?

MARGO ST. JAMES: They want to be the strong, the dominant, the master. And if women like whores are going to be allowed a voice, then that myth is going to be dispelled, and we're going to achieve some kind of equality. And that's what decriminalization of prostitution is all about. Decriminalization of prostitution will be the essential step for getting rid of the class oppression of women in this country.

MARTIN BUNZL: Margo St. James, thank you very much. This is Martin Bunzl.