Pimping V. Square Business
The law doesn’t know the difference
I remember the moment as if it were yesterday, though it was six years ago when the judge almost frothed “I take a dim view of pimping.” For a second, my reaction was to look around the empty courtroom to see who the pimp was before I realized not to bother. The pimp to whom he was referring was me!
The State of New York had just arrested me for promotion of prostitution — or what the law calls pimping. My actual crime was taking photos of prostitutes and running the website for one of New York’s most successful madams. Yup! As house photographer and webmaster, I classified as a pimp in the judge’s eyes.
In the sex-for-sale business, people who derive their living therein are pretty much either pimps or ho’s according to how laws are applied. The system does not take into account the different business arrangements the practitioners and their employers have available to them.
In the street — and to most people including many who aren’t part of the business — a pimp is a big, bad, dude who puts the girls to work, provides everything for them (room, board, bling, weaves etc.), and takes all the money they earn.
Mythology has it that the pimp beats his girls when they step out of line or try to leave him. That mythology happens to be true…
