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Belle de Jour called for legal prostitution
Nigel Rosser and Felix Allen18.11.09
The scientist who revealed she was the call girl Belle de Jour publicly called for prostitution to be legalised when she was a 20-year-old, the Standard reveals today.
Seven years before she turned to the trade herself, Dr Brooke Magnanti wrote to a newspaper in the US in support of sex workers, saying she would not mind if one of her family was a prostitute if it was legal.
The medical researcher, now 34 and working at St Michael's hospital in Bristol, kept her past a secret for six years until this week when she told how she became a £300-an-hour escort while an impoverished PhD student in London.
She turned her experiences into an award-winning blog and a best-selling book, Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, which was made into a television series starring Billie Piper.
The teenage Brooke, one of the brightest scholars in her home state of Florida, was a star pupil at Clearwater Central Catholic High School.
However, around this time, her father Paul, who ran a successful plumbing firm, split from her mother Susan and began openly using prostitutes.
One relative told the Standard: “Brooke was always very intelligent and took it hard, but not in the normal, teenage rebellious sort of way.
“She sought to intellectualise it which I think was a source of some frustration.” She began writing anguished letters to newspapers.
In one, on 13 May 1992, she wrote: “If every pro-life advocate who urged desperate women to choose adoption over abortion actually adopted an abused, addicted, or unwanted child, I bet the incidence of child abuse would decrease.”
After her father, by his own admission, had been meeting up to 150 prostitutes and introducing several to her, a letter penned by Brooke appeared in the St Petersburg Times.
In it she suggested “the possibility of licensing prostitutes in much the same way as many professionals are licensed”.
Perhaps tellingly, given her father's behaviour, she said: “Many people already engage in affairs, and someone married who would seek a prostitute would do so regardless of its legality. Such a person will have to face the consequences of his actions at home — or perhaps in divorce court.”
The 20-year-old, who at that time wanted to be a physicist, concluded: “Finally, if prostitution were legal, I doubt I'd have a problem with family members entering the profession.”
The relative told the Standard: “I don't think it's natural that a bright intelligent beautiful girl of that age should be entertaining even the idea of family members entering prostitution, or talking about embarrassing family occupation going on behind closed doors. It's not natural, surely?”
Reader views (26)
good to see for this reson please tell the truth Watever she has done is good tell the truth to the world but i dont advocate this kind of things to be done by any other girl
- Ganesh, mumbai
I take it all you men enthusing about prostitution as a job would be happy for your wives, girlfriends, mothers, sisters and daughters to be doing it then? I tried to read Belle de Jour but gave up part way through, finding it dreary and pointless. I think the writer must be a very damaged individual with zero self-respect.
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx
i have run an escort directory,for nine years.There is enough legislation on this subject.
the police have all the powers they need to deal with traffickers and moneylaunders.
This country has the most enlightened laws on prostition and the police are not corrupt and generally support the escorts when they have a problem and treat them like anyone else who is a victim of crime.
What most female newspaper correspondents cant undertand is that intelligent girls,like Belle,choose to become escorts.They are not all addelled by brink of cocaine addicts.
- Mark, london
Darius, You are a plank! So in your twisted logic, its better to be a prostitute than a public sector worker and the latter offer nothing back to society in return for a paltry wage and dodgy pension. I'm glad I don't know you. And who is paying Belle's wages now as a well respected scientist, muggins and the rest of the British public.
- Peace Maker, Battersea
Clive, Streatham - Immoral in your eyes maybe, but not in mine. One of the oldest trades in the world & still going strong. Legalise & control.
- Dom, london
Well we all prostitute ourselves in one way or another, our minds or hands in work are sold to the highest bidder for a wage, and she’s just selling different bits, surely?
It would seem that the real problem is that embracing prostitution is seen as illegal rather than immoral, and that leads to the poor girl having to survive in a world of seedy crime and drug addiction, etc.
Sounds like a good reason to legalise brothels to me, unless you have a moral objection to sex outside marriage, in which case most of the population (many who dress like prostitutes anyway) are being hypocritical if they "sleep" with boyfriend (esp after being taken out for a treat).
And of course, like female boxing, etc, it is the ultimate expression of a woman’s power and freedom to CHOOSE what she sells, either mind and fingers at the supermarket checkout or in the factory or the bank, or her other parts of her body for income.
And as for self respect issues, well, those who live off other peoples taxes are the ones who`s self respect should be in doubt, not those who seek to EARN a truly HONEST living.
- Darius, London UK
Legitimise, tax and control the trade. Take it out of the hands of criminals and protect the vulnerable.
Legalising Brothels will take away from the human traffickers and other illicit dealing of the under world.
It is an older trade than mainstream religions and is not going to go away any time soon. Time to grow up over this issue and adopt a pragmatic approach.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
I feel obliged to respond to the questions posed... Lee, you're deluded by the definition of a prostitute and someone who uses their minds to earn a decent crust. Dom, prostitution is immoral and degrading, for both parties involved. Scotty, the world is not level, some children/women are force into prostitution, only for you condone it, (you're in need of a serious reality check... Very Angry at MP's Expenses, Home Counties... look your Wife in the eye and ask her the same question you ask me.
- Clive, Streatham
David L, London UK. You cannot expect others to respect you if you do not respect yourself. I think this poor woman lacked self-respect to the extent that she allowed herself to be used and I think the broken home might have a substantial part to play in the damage that has been done to her. Her father introduced her to these people... how perverse is that? So, to answer your point, I don't think it is a matter of concluding she deserved a lot of respect, but rather thinking that she has issues that she needs to resolve. Doubtless people will think she is far from poor, because of the material wealth she accrued but they might reflect further on their values.
- Peace Maker, Battersea
@ Peace Maker 'She needs help.' How so? She is a successful author, holds a professional job, is publishing papers in quality scientific journals, and has managed her public emergence before she was outed involuntarily. When she was broke, years ago, she became a call girl rather than depending on friends, family or, heaven help us, the state. 'She deserves a lot of respect' might be more appropriate than 'She needs help', don't you think?
- David L, London UK
Clive - What is your discription of women who marry purely for money, security, UK (or US) passport, etc.???
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties
It's important that People like Clive understand that the world is a more multi-faceted and enlightened place, than their sheltered existences would have them believe.
and lets not forget this girl, is a highly educated, clever individual. Not some wonk, with neo-conservative, likely religiously based views from Streatham.
- Scotty, London
She needs help. Its an absolute shame that despite her education she saw this as an appropriate course of action. Her father has a lot to answer for.
- Peace Maker, Battersea
@AJ Child. Largely agree--- though I think your average punter is an ordinary chap looking for an hour's pleasure, not a potential rapist. Oh, and prostitution goes back beyond the Bible: Belle de Jour's high-class end of the business is recognsiable in the Hetaerae of Classical Greece, whilst prostitution itself traces back to the temple cult of Ishtur in Babylon, 4000 years ago. Not for nothing is it called the 'Oldest Profession.' Perhaps it goes back earlier, but writing doesn't so we can't be sure.
- David L, London UK
Clive, Streatham - Who are you to tell someone that having sex for money is wrong. It does not involve you. It is an agreement/transaction between 2 consenting adults, so what is the problem? They are not hurting anyone or causing harm to anyone or depriving anyone. Well, apart from upsetting you.
- Dom, london
Clive, Streatham. Well said.
- Louise, UK
Clive, Streatham - strong words in your message... those who sell sex is a Whore!
That makes us all whores... we sell our sexuality every day with work... we may not sleep with anyone but we are, in essence, selling to a degree...
I think you need to calm down mate and take a look at life from a better view.
- Lee, London
Just because an academic prostitutes herself to pay for her education (Phd) and writes an amusing (best selling) book about her experiences does not make it right. A whore (a person man/woman who sells sex for money) is still a whore be it a high or low class whore and should Not be celebrated by anyone.
- Clive, Streatham
Like most choices in life there is always a good and bad side to all of them, and this is no different. In principle I would support the legalisation of prostitution and the modernisation of the necessary additional legislation to protect both the prostitutes and the clients. Unfortunately I suspect that our society is not ready to properly debate this issue in an academic way, without emotion and true objectivity, as a change of this magnitude will have a huge impact on how we are shaping the moral framework for the future. Too scary me thinks.
- Gilbert, Canterbury
Prostitution was first recorded in the Bible so why are so many people against it. If women want to do this in a controlled and safe location they provide a service which no doubt takes off some of the dangers to women from frustrated men who might just take the situation into there own hands in a violent way.
Many girls in many countries use this work to live, pay bills and support there families, oftern only having a few boyfriends who they look after and who look after them. What is the problem then Nothing so get a life and leave them along there not criminals so lets treat them like normal people
- A J Child, Tunbridge Kent
Thanks Belle/Brooke, for a blast of common sense. Good luck. The law, unfortunately, in moving in the opposite direction with the police -under the recently passed Policing & Crime Bill- given more powers to close 'brothels', which may be just two women working together for safety and company. This law has been brought in on the back of a moral panic on trafficking. Yet, as the BBC, Nick Davies in the Guardian and the Police Operation Pentameter have all found, very very few prostitutes are the trafficked victims of the popular (or Poppy Project) mythology. Far more, whether UK nationals or migrants are simply honest women trying to make a living in a way that just happens to upset the moral prejudices of a noisy coalition of radical feminists and religious fundamentalists.
- David L, London
Prostitution is basically supply and demand.
It may seem exorbitant rates or easy earnings but like sports players etc, they (male and female workers) only have limited working lifespans (at top rates).
So if both parties are happy for the transaction, why not? As with drugs etc, which other professions do not face the same problems?
- Hk, london, uk
It is too obviously the only solution, which is why it will be doomed to never happen. like so many other things. Is there another way to get rid of pimps ?
- Roderick Mackintosh, berlin germany
Black Prince, London SW3 is spot on, if people want to sell sex then let them.
What right does anyone have to say otherwise, and at least she was supporting herself, and not sponging off the state, popping out new born kids every 9 months.
- P Staker, London
Prostitution is not illegal, therefore does not need to be legalised. There is currently no law forbidding the exchange of sex for money. What I would like to see legalised are mini brothels, where 3 or 4 women can work together, share expenses, hire cleaners and receptionists. This would be massively safer than the current system which forces women to work alone in order to work legally.
- Broomstix W10, London
As long as drugs and human trafficking are EXcluded, I cannot see anything illegal with prostitution.
The UK could do well to follow other European countries like Italy and Germany in this matter:
Legalise prostitution, wherby all prostitutes are required to have medical once a week/month in order they do not suffer from any VD. This would also offer them protecion under the law like any other profession.
They might even end up paying tax....... 
- Black Prince, London SW3
