by Jessica Kuzmier

Created on: December 15, 2010   Last Updated: June 02, 2011

What is it like to be bought for sex?  What is it like to live the life of an escort girl?  For three years, former college lecturer Jeanette Angell lived that life.  In her memoir “Callgirl”, she tells her story of what it was like to live the life of an escort: a lifestyle scorned by some, secretly admired by others, and a little of both by even more.

    As the author notes, the big fascination with a book like this probably hinges on, why did you do it?  Add to it that the author was an anthropologist with a doctorate and a respected college instructor, and the question really gets interesting.  Angell writes this book to visit this part of her life and perhaps to help answer the question.   

    If you are looking for a victim tricked by men, Angell is not the stereotype you are looking for.  Then again, the author is not a streetwalker, and goes out of her way to make the distinction: to paraphrase, those people scared the hell out of her.   Though a drug user, she does not consider herself an addict.  She was not forced into the work by an abusive lover, or tricked by a salesman promising other kinds of work.  The absence of these factors, in addition to her high education and professional status, seem to eliminate her from the usual profile of those who enter the profession.

    However, she makes the argument that a man did force her into the profession.  A live-in boyfriend deserted her, maxed out her credit cards, and cleaned out her bank accounts, leaving her penniless with nothing to fall back upon.  As a low-end instructor with no tenure and only a couple of classes to teach, Angell felt desperation setting in.  It was in this state of mind that she decided that working as an escort was the only way she could save herself from life on the streets.  “Good girl” college professor by day, “bad girl” callgirl by night, the woman of intellect and the “woman of sin” co-existed for three years.  

    Angell recounts her experiences with johns, her “madam”, other escorts, and her own morality with a strong emotional memory.  She mixes her narrative with feminist commentary about her life, and is able to explain the moral dilemmas she faced as an escort and her double life.  The anthropologist comes out in her writing and in the voice of her “character”:

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