Virginia, Prostitute

" 'Bitch.' That's the name I could have worn. "

I found this novel between two classics by visiting a church basement (for those elsewhere: I do not know how it is at home concerning churches, but in the province of Quebec, people make donation to Catholic churches of their used items, and churches sell them for pennies, which allows them to survive in a world that no longer attend their celebrations). In short, I found it sticked between Agaguk and La Sagouine, and I simply added it to my already big pile of books to buy.

Virginia, Prostitute vaguely resembles to Me, Christiane F., 13, Drug Addict and Prostitute ou "Moi, Christiane F., 13, droguée et prostituée" in French (published in 2000 by Gallimard), except, oddly, the author, using the pen name of Virginia, decided to get published by Éditions Quebecor (in 1979) in Evidence collection... Unfortunately, it is no longer in publication in Quebec, but it is still in France! I search for English publishing without success. In short, I am very disappointed by these searches.

I am disappointed because I was surprised by my reading: Quebec and English people should read it. Stella could easily use the words of the text to defend the profession of prostitution. At first, I did not think like that. I wanted to be morally challenged. Virginia surprises me: she doesn't sadden her story. She doesn't ask for pity. She began to prostitute thirteen years in a fugue performed with her friend, Sylvie. The two young people went from Montreal to Vancouver. They could easily live by prostitution with $20 for the "pass". What struck me is to read such a feminist woman of twenty-three years-old (younger than me!) whose prostitute by gaiety of heart, which is sensitive, but at the same time so independent.

" To feel a man I had never seen twenty minutes before, drooling for me, having a fierce desire for my body that is exhibited for him and for others too, to feel that he is overwhelmed or obsessed with my skin, my 'surface' only, gives me a feeling of intoxicating power. "

She's telling us the most important moments of her life, through her difficult childhood with an absent father and violent , emotional dependent mother, a "perfect" sister, and a brother too young to understand anything, to be "useful". The male figures multiply themselves in her life without showing any depth of heart. One man marks her, one heterosexual liaison yet devoid of the sexual aspect.

This is the story of a strong and resilient woman, still full of sweetness. As a child, who decides she will not be like her mother, she refuses to depend on any man. You could say, however, that this is exactly what her job is about. However, she does not allow men to abuse her, she only gives her body voluntarily to them for a period of time in exchange of money, making in one day more than some of us can make in a week; She choses her profession, prostitution has not chosen her; She manages to absolve herself from the widespread threat to work for a pimp; She works for herself. And, strangely, she loves what she does. She does not want to start a family, and her job gives her a good excuse. She looks so free while I thought she was a kind of slave...

"I see very well how all the girls in the art which have a protector get trapped  I know it is not the same support but it is always the same fear that motivates the use of, or the submission to both types of protection. The same fear and the same lure, namely that a woman is never major, that it always takes her dad or an equivalent next to her, so it can 'works.' "

We can agree that her life is far from perfect, and that's not what she is trying to say! Virginia is just opening a break in the society standards about her profession. She's demonstrating that prostitution is as  noble as any other. She also raises questions about what causes a woman to be deceived, to feel betrayed, what leads a man to deceive his wife, a couple to try a threesome, on fantasies, etc.

So, a young woman of twenty-three years-old, who's only talking about what she knows, which lies on paper as a prostitute lies down, but this time it is as an author who prostitute her history for her readers, highlighting a Virginia who loves people despite everything she could have lived, who loves herself and affirms it.

If you can put your hands on it, read it. She worths it.