The Charlatan (TC): Why did you become an escort?
Jean Hillabold (JH): It was a combination of things that happened in the early 1980s that made me desperate. I was a single mother and wasn’t getting any child support from my ex-husband. I was a grad student and my thesis adviser kept putting off reading my latest chapter. From time to time, I was threatened with being kicked out of the master’s program because I hadn’t finished my thesis in time. I kept going to government departments looking for a typing job but there was nothing because those jobs were being replaced by computers.
I had no source of income. I didn’t want to work full-time because I was working on a thesis and I figured this was better in the long run. There was a classified ad asking for “executive escorts.” And I realized that was a euphemism — making it seem as if being an escort was like being an executive (laughs). I went to the interview and the pimp who was running the escort agency basically asked, ‘Do you understand what’s involved?’ I said ‘Yes,’ I’d go out on dates with guys who would probably want sex.
I thought we would go out for drinks or dinner or something and then we’d have sex.
He said because they’re paying by the hour often they want it right away. You would meet them in a hotel room and then you negotiate for what kind of service you’ll provide for how much money. Then sex was part of the interview, which didn’t surprise me in a way. He said at that point, ‘Are you surprised?’ I said ‘No, when I applied for a typing job I had to take a typing test.’
TC: How would you describe your experience as an escort?
JH: I would work during the day when my daughter was in daycare. And I mean students and single mothers, I think to this day from what I’ve heard, are often drawn to prostitution in various forms. Partly because it’s the kind of work you can do part-time, on your own time. You can work your own hours. It can be combined with other things. Students and single mothers often desperately need money as well. And it pays in cash, which is tempting. It was more negative than positive. But it wasn’t as horrible.
Most people when they hear this about me they have one of two opposite reactions. Women will say, ‘Oh my God, that must have been horrible and traumatic, how did you ever get over this awful experience of being sexually abused over and over?’ And men often say, ‘Oh cool, that must have been fun, you got to have sex all of the time!’ And it was somewhere in between. It wasn’t traumatic but it wasn’t wonderful.
I would say in a way it was sad because often the [clients] were trying to escape from their regular lives, turning to sex with a total stranger as a way of distracting themselves from their problems. There was one man who was disfigured, he used to work in factories and I think he must have been in a horrible accident because his skin was permanently discoloured. I think he thought he couldn’t find women any other way. I saw him regularly for quite a while. This was a way for him to have regular sex. It was the illusion of the relationship.
TC: Had you told people about your experiences as an escort?
JH: I told some. I don’t talk about it a lot. I teach first-year students and of course I don’t discuss it with them.
TC: What has been the reaction from people at the university since you spoke out about being an escort?
JH: I’m really stunned at the positive responses I’ve had. I got two emails from people in my department saying good for you, including the head of the department.
TC: Has there been any discrimination because you spoke out about your past?
JH: No, but that could be because I waited quite a while. I mean first when I got a job at the university after I did my master’s I was very quiet about my past at the time. I only spoke out when I had a very secure job.
TC: Do you think if you had spoken out while or just after you were working as an escort it would have been a different reaction?
JH: I think it might have been. All kinds of people want sex workers to become reformed ex-prostitutes. Supposedly, if you get a respectable job and give up that life, then you’re an improved person. That might be how I’m seen now.
TC: What are the challenges to someone who is a sex worker and also a student?
JH: Actually, in some ways it worked out well for me. I would be sitting at my pimp’s kitchen table working on my thesis while I was waiting for calls. But I was terrified that my [thesis] adviser, if he found out what I was doing, he could just drop me and say he didn’t want to work with me. I was terrified of becoming known at the time. I felt that any opportunities I had to get out of that business and have a career would be closed.
TC: How frequent do you think it is for students to engage in sex work?
JH: Well, they don’t tell me. But I’ve been told there is a lot of sex work going on [at] our campus [by] a lot of students. I hadn’t heard that before but it didn’t surprise me because tuition keeps going up. And students are often young and attractive, so if they can do it they might as well do it. Realistically, at the age I am now, I don’t think I could do it. I don’t know how many customers I could attract.
