Wednesday, April 16, 2008
SEX WORKERS OFF LIMITS AT RED ROOM?
A while ago I applied for membership as an author to Red Room Web site. It is a site for published authors. I was rejected. This was their reason:
Thank you for your interest in Red Room. We appreciate you taking the time to submit your information. Unfortunately, we’re not able to grant your request at this time. We consider a variety of factors during the approval process, including an author’s body of work and community involvement.
For an author who has published 11 books (one translated into Turkish) I believe I am entitled to be a member of Red Room. As far as community service is concerned, I have twenty years as a college instructor, and have been a public speaker at various organizations here and abroad. Regarding that prerequisite, I also qualify. In that case, why was I rejected?
My application coincided with the exposure of the governor of the state of New York who hired a female escort through an exclusive service, paying a small fortune for the privilege.
I have written three books about male sex workers. I went out of my way in my first book (A Consumer’s Guide to Male Hustlers) to point out the differences between female and male escorts. Very briefly, males are not usually in physical danger from their clients; they don’t have pimps to “manage” them; and they are not brought from abroad under false pretenses. Most importantly, they are not “fallen men.” They can “escort” one week and opt out of the “profession” the next one. If there is exploitation involved, it is usually the escort who has the upper hand. Of course, it is highly unlikely that the Red Room examiners read my book; probably they just looked at my own Web site (www.josephitiel.com) and saw the titles of my books.
Jean Genet (1910 – 1986) the famous French author (and convicted felon) avoided imprisonment for the rest of his life as a habitual thief because Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, and Andre Gide, appealed to the President of France to pardon him. One of Genet’s main themes was male prostitution. I certainly am not as gifted a writer as Jean Genet. But in France the quality of the writing is what matters, not the political implication of the subject. Genet would never have made it to the Red Room Web site. Had I been rejected by the Red Room for poor writing, I would have accepted it. However, I believe that they rejected me for the subject matter of three of my books.
Red Room is not a gay Web site. Had they read my books, or just asked me about them, they would have known that I write that male sex workers are (arguably, to be sure)) a boon to the gay community. They provide (for a price) a safer, healthier, and, in many cases, a more intimate choice than cursing the parks, drinking in bars, going to sex clubs, and often even answering ads on gay boards.
I am now in the process of appealing this decision to Red Room. I hope to report soon that they have reconsidered and accepted my request for membership.
AND HERE IS THEIR REPLY
Dear Joseph,
Our team researched your work online as thoroughly as possible, and I’m sorry that you are disappointed by our decision. We appreciate the time you spent applying to become a Red Room author. We sincerely believe that there are other supportive online writing communities that will be a great fit for you. I wish you all the best with your writing and apologize that we cannot offer you an Author Page right now.
Also, I should probably clarify that we cite community involvement merely as an example of one of dozens of factors we consider during our selection process, which we gauge through our online research and from the application itself. We value diversity both in the makeup of our staff and in the reflection and inclusion of gay and lesbian authors on our website.
Warmest regards,
Thomas DotsonMember Services Manager, Red Room Omnimedia Corporation
mailto:thomasdotson@redroom.com
http://www.redroom.com/ Where the writers are.
A while ago I applied for membership as an author to Red Room Web site. It is a site for published authors. I was rejected. This was their reason:
Thank you for your interest in Red Room. We appreciate you taking the time to submit your information. Unfortunately, we’re not able to grant your request at this time. We consider a variety of factors during the approval process, including an author’s body of work and community involvement.
For an author who has published 11 books (one translated into Turkish) I believe I am entitled to be a member of Red Room. As far as community service is concerned, I have twenty years as a college instructor, and have been a public speaker at various organizations here and abroad. Regarding that prerequisite, I also qualify. In that case, why was I rejected?
My application coincided with the exposure of the governor of the state of New York who hired a female escort through an exclusive service, paying a small fortune for the privilege.
I have written three books about male sex workers. I went out of my way in my first book (A Consumer’s Guide to Male Hustlers) to point out the differences between female and male escorts. Very briefly, males are not usually in physical danger from their clients; they don’t have pimps to “manage” them; and they are not brought from abroad under false pretenses. Most importantly, they are not “fallen men.” They can “escort” one week and opt out of the “profession” the next one. If there is exploitation involved, it is usually the escort who has the upper hand. Of course, it is highly unlikely that the Red Room examiners read my book; probably they just looked at my own Web site (www.josephitiel.com) and saw the titles of my books.
Jean Genet (1910 – 1986) the famous French author (and convicted felon) avoided imprisonment for the rest of his life as a habitual thief because Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, and Andre Gide, appealed to the President of France to pardon him. One of Genet’s main themes was male prostitution. I certainly am not as gifted a writer as Jean Genet. But in France the quality of the writing is what matters, not the political implication of the subject. Genet would never have made it to the Red Room Web site. Had I been rejected by the Red Room for poor writing, I would have accepted it. However, I believe that they rejected me for the subject matter of three of my books.
Red Room is not a gay Web site. Had they read my books, or just asked me about them, they would have known that I write that male sex workers are (arguably, to be sure)) a boon to the gay community. They provide (for a price) a safer, healthier, and, in many cases, a more intimate choice than cursing the parks, drinking in bars, going to sex clubs, and often even answering ads on gay boards.
I am now in the process of appealing this decision to Red Room. I hope to report soon that they have reconsidered and accepted my request for membership.
AND HERE IS THEIR REPLY
Dear Joseph,
Our team researched your work online as thoroughly as possible, and I’m sorry that you are disappointed by our decision. We appreciate the time you spent applying to become a Red Room author. We sincerely believe that there are other supportive online writing communities that will be a great fit for you. I wish you all the best with your writing and apologize that we cannot offer you an Author Page right now.
Also, I should probably clarify that we cite community involvement merely as an example of one of dozens of factors we consider during our selection process, which we gauge through our online research and from the application itself. We value diversity both in the makeup of our staff and in the reflection and inclusion of gay and lesbian authors on our website.
Warmest regards,
Thomas DotsonMember Services Manager, Red Room Omnimedia Corporation
mailto:thomasdotson@redroom.com
http://www.redroom.com/ Where the writers are.
Labels: Benign Censorship
