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 Treetops By Night
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Saturday, June 14, 1997  WASTED Rebecca Bernauer ... two weeks before her death, she was happy and drug-free. She survived childhood tragedy only to slide into teenage drug addiction and prostitution and end up as a murder statistic. ADAM HARVEY looks at what we can learn from the life and death of Rebecca Bernauer. REBECCA Bernauer was a late riser and would wake after midday in her cosy Potts Point bedsit. Above her, the walls were covered with posters of cute animals with letters from friends pinned between them. The 18-year-old would have money left over from the previous night's work as a prostitute, and would start her day with a fix, walking a few hundred metres to a supplier in a Kings Cross restaurant or back lane. Sometimes she had bought a $40 or $80 score the previous night and it would be waiting beside her bed, ready for her to inject when she woke up. Rebecca was a popular worker and would always finish work with money in her handbag. She would pull on one of the floppy hats that covered her ears and the side of her face. Some days she would meet a friend for lunch in the Tropicana, a cafe in Victoria Street, and have a relaxed afternoon, scoring more heroin if her wake-up shot wore off, before eventually getting ready for work. Rebecca's "spot", where she used to wait for business, was near the corner of William and Forbes streets, in a doorway to a block of flats beside the Wildcatz cafe. She would start work between 8pm and 10pm, and finish anywhere between 2am and 4am. Rebecca would often have six clients a night, sometimes more, and charged from $40 for oral sex to $100 for 30 minutes of oral and intercourse in a safe house in nearby East Sydney. The rooms are spartan, and rent for $12 for 30 minutes. She used heroin between two and four times a day. Her tolerance had built up and a standard $40 score no longer gave her enough of a buzz. This, according to her friends, was the life Rebecca led for two years. Three months ago she stopped using heroin. One week ago, Rebecca was murdered, and her naked body was wedged behind an abandoned refrigerator in a Darlinghurst back lane. Why, in a country with up to 100,000 heroin users, where hundreds of people die of heroin overdoses each year, has the death of one more user received so much attention? Perhaps because people who normally dismiss addicts as worthless outsiders who have brought their problems on themselves have been touched by the thought of a girl who suffered childhood tragedies yet became a school prefect, a girl who had a loving personality, being snared and dragged down by the drug. Perhaps because there is a mood in the country that it is long past time that something be done about heroin. We have poured millions into trying to suppress it, yet its use continues to grow, bringing misery not only to addicts but also to the people they rob and betray in their desperation to feed the habit, while handing untaxed fortunes to organised crime, and, as the Wood Royal Commission report has made clear, acting as the driving force behind much of the rampant corruption in the NSW police. Perhaps because in a week when we have seen emotional messages from the parents of addicts whose lives have been destroyed by the drug, Rebecca acts as a focus for people who want to understand the scale of this problem and think about what we can do about it. __________________________________________________ Pru Goward The happy hooker user By Pru Goward Pru Goward is Prime Minister Howard's new senior adviser on women's affairs. When this piece was first published in the Good Weekend on 27 July 1996, she was a political correspondent with ABC Radio National. Prostitution is an essential service for randy men, argues Pru Goward, and is to be preferred to the extramarital affair. Prostitution is one of the last great wars to be fought between the sexes. For the sake of peace and reconciliation it is time prostitution took its place, along with all the other service industries, as a necessary market solution to a fundamental difference between men and women: the nature of their sexual desires. The struggle to have prostitution decriminalised, if not actually legalised, has been part of the modern feminist agenda since the late 1960s. It has focused exclusively on the rights of prostitutes (women) to work safely, openly and with respect. As part of the prostitution debate, the rights of clients - for the most part men - to enjoy the services of sex workers has been recognised reluctantly, by default. The advent of AIDS has led to some recognition of their health and safety rights - again, by default. The need for such an industry has been accepted only with great moral biting of tongues. Prostitution is still generally seen as an unfortunate occupation, driven by the base chauvinistic desires of men who view sex as no more than a physical act, by unreconstructed men, emotionally and socially inadequate men, prepared to use women as spittoons. The modern feminist Judeo-Christian ethic says a mature man should only want sex with a woman he cares for, if not loves. He should value the person, he should - and here's the clincher - want a relationship, no matter how fleeting. This is the woman's angle. This is the way women, for the most part, see sex. History tells us, over and over again, in poetry, song and story, that this is not necessarily the way men see sex. Of course for some men, going to a prostitute is out of the question. After all, what sort of man has to pay for sex? Her consent is based solely on the payment of money and not at all on his charms. There is no confirmation of the man's maleness in a paid encounter. There are still other men who do not use the services of prostitutes because they only enjoy sex with people they love or to whom they are married. But there is many the male who will, from time to time, think nothing of having (or at least attempting) sex with a woman either the first time he meets her, or casually or hurriedly with the pleasure of the moment his main purpose. Women do this too. None of them would dream of paying for it. As one male acquaintance said to me when describing how he used prostitutes overseas but not at home: "You'd feel a bit of a loser if you couldn't get it for free in your own country." I am told this applies, for example, to groups of travelling businessmen or journalists, who quite like a night out in their destination's red light district but never in the equivalent location at home. The desire of men in these circumstances is no less real or pressing because it wants no relationship or can be focused on someone other than The Beloved. In an age when extramarital sex is accepted and widely practised, it seems a hangover from the Dark Ages to single out paid sex for special disapproval. (Child sex is, of course, another story.) When actor Hugh Grant invited Divine Brown into the front seat of his car for some sexual therapy, he paid his girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley a great compliment. Hugh Grant, one of the cinema industry's then emerging sex symbols of the '90s, could have had anyone. There would have been teeny-boppers (and starlets and even famous beauties) lined up every night, happy to offer him their bodies for nothing but the story they could tell their friends or because they had fallen in love with him in Four Weddings and a Funeral. He chose instead an anonymous black woman by the side of the road (who did not love him and may not even have known who he was) who wanted the money. Hugh Grant chose this form of sexual relief because that was all he was after: sexual relief. Perhaps he knew that the problem with free sex is that it never is really free and the horrible complications that can arise from casual sexual encounters for public figures are well known: kiss-and-tell books that are less than complimentary about the public figure's performance, love children and maybe disease. Ask Bill Clinton and the Kennedy men. These complications do not end with public figures, of course. Many is the marriage that has been destroyed by a call from the girlfriend to advise the wife she is pregnant and it is time to move out. More importantly, paid sex is not relationship sex; it does not require courtship, complicated foreplay, assurances and follow-up telephone calls. There is no emotional investment. Fiona Patten from the sex industry lobby group Eros Foundation says men are not allowed to kiss the sex worker during paid sex. Hugh Grant, who had been happily partnered with Elizabeth Hurley for several years, clearly did not feel the need for any of that, or he would have got it. He may even have felt guilty about relationship sex with anyone other than Hurley. Breaching an exclusive emotional intimacy is arguably a greater betrayal than breaching a sexual one. Grant could have tried self-denial, or masturbation. But nobody has ever seriously suggested either of these choices is as pleasurable as sexual intercourse, however limited that pleasure may be when bought. In an age where prostitution is relatively safe, well managed, accessible and contraception is widely used, only a true masochist need choose either of those alternatives. The same is obviously true of men who pay for sex in their home towns. Presumably these men cannot get enough for free. They may be happily married or partnered and enjoy regular and fulfilling sex - but not often enough. These men prefer bought sex to betrayal. Relationship sex, even with someone you love, can take time and be troublesome. The female half of a partnership may not want sex as often; they may be tired, preoccupied or less easily aroused. Perhaps there's no time for a full performance - and she may not want an edited version. Some men just are no good at turning on their partners. You know the type. He pinches your nipples, gives your thigh a bit of a frantic rub and then asks if you are ready. Ready for what? Hanging out the washing? There are also not-so-happily-married men determined to avoid affairs and stay with their wives. These husbands observe that at least prostitutes are nice to you; wives often are not. Good-natured quickies on a week night are out of the question. Prostitution - simple, uncomplicated, relatively inexpensive - is an ideal solution to unmet demand. It leaves intact the exclusive emotional bonds at the real epicentre of a relationship. However, for those men who like the thrill of the hunt, the gamesmanship of courting and conquest, the shock of the new, prostitution isn't the answer, more's the pity. Whenever I go away I instruct my husband to go to the local brothel district if life gets desperate - I do not want the phone call from a pretty young thing down the corridor. He always humphs in disgust but permission at least has been granted. Just please wear a condom and think of home. __________________________________________________ Wednesday 24 September 1997 Sex Street, 3182 By NICOLE BRADY THERE'S ALWAYS plenty of action in Greeves Street, St Kilda. The best-known of Melbourne's red-light streets attracts a steady traffic flow at all hours of the day and night. Street sex workers, or working girls, come here because it's poorly lit and they can melt into the shadows whenever a police car approaches. Men come to pay for sex at lunchtime, in the afternoon, on their way home from work or, most commonly, right through the night. And carloads of hoons come to Greeves Street. With lights flashing, stereos and horns blaring, these people stare, scream abuse and throw things (like eggs and empty beer cans) at anyone unlucky enough to step within range. All this in a residential street. It's a situation the residents are finding increasingly intolerable, while the sex workers are sick of the harassment and danger. The two groups, along with the City of Port Phillip and the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, agree on a solution: decriminalise street prostitution. That way, they argue, the sex workers could operate from well-lit, industrial, non-residential areas. The workers would be safer, residents could sleep easy and the police could concentrate on more pressing issues. But the State Government will not budge. When Attorney-General Jan Wade announced a revamp of laws governing the prostitution industry in 1994 she said: "I don't think we in Melbourne need street prostitution." A spokeswoman for her, Anne Stanford, said yesterday: "The Government's position is that street prostitution is illegal. There is significant danger to street prostitutes in that they get into strangers' cars, and this aspect will not change if legal street zones are declared." Ironically, the 1994 revamp, which cleaned up most of the prostitution industry, also contributed to an increase in the number of sex workers on St Kilda streets. Alison Arnot-Bradshaw, of the Prostitutes Collective, says the new laws mean it is almost impossible for sex workers with drug addictions to get work in a brothel or escort agency. Motivated by a desperate need for money, they sell their bodies on the streets. It's a victimless crime, more often than not the only person charged with an offence is the sex worker. Melbourne's prostitutes have always gravitated to St Kilda. The city's first record of the world's oldest profession dates back to Acland Street in 1886, when a woman was charged with undermining the war effort through prostitution. Since then, countless police blitzes and community efforts have failed to stop street sex workers plying their trade. They have been moved on, but as long as some people are prepared to sell their bodies and others are prepared to pay for them, the trade will never be eliminated. Chantelle, 19, is long legged and beautiful in a short skirt and boots. She's been working three to four nights a week in Greeves Streets for about 10 months. She'd rather be doing something else, but the money is good. "On the street I get to choose my clients; in an agency you're stuck with whoever you get. And you only get half the money," says Chantelle. Always using a condom, she charges $50 for oral sex, $100 for intercourse and $150 for both: and travels with clients in their cars to the beach or down a laneway or, less often, to a motel room. Chantelle says she doesn't use heroin, but smokes a lot of marijuana. She'd like to be a receptionist but is not sure how to find such a job. Louise, 34, first accepted money for sex when she was 14. She needed the money to pay for food. Her spiral into heroin addiction did not take long. Now she's on methadone, and hopes this will be her last year on the streets, but what else is there? "I've got a lot of jail behind me and not much else," she says. "I hate coming down to this street because it's residential and there are children around, but it's dark and I can hide behind the cars if I see the police." Louise has been hit by eggs thrown from passing cars; she's regularly abused by young men packed into passing cars: "There should be a section of the highway or an industrial area where we can go, not here where kids are riding their bikes around ... if I lived here I wouldn't want working girls in the street." The work is dangerous. Louise has been raped four times and assaulted too many times to remember. She's done many one-month jail terms for street prostitution. On the occasions she's received a fine, Louise has had to return to the street to earn money to pay it. Does she get scared? "I'm scared all the time. Look, I'm scared now," she says outstretching a shaking hand. Like all of St Kilda, Greeves Street is undergoing gentrification. Older homes have made way for new units, an old motel has been converted into OYO flats. Houses are being renovated and owner-occupied. A few industrial sites remain, as do some of the rundown homes, but the landscape is changing. The street's reputation means rents and prices are a little below normal for the area. Some real estate agents warn people about what they're moving into; others schedule open inspections on Sunday mornings. The residents have a lot to complain about and many are in regular contact with the St Kilda police and council, but their concerns aren't moral. Those who spoke to Metro say they don't mind the sex workers or their clients, who are usually discreet and keen to move on as quickly as possible. It's the sightseers who cause the trouble. Bill and his partner bought their home in Greeves Street two years ago. They did so in a rush, he says, and didn't check out the area before moving in with their three children. "There are needles and condoms in the street. At night there's virtually a convoy of cars going up and down the streets with people swearing and yelling," he says. Birgit, a single mother with two children who has rented in the street for nine years, says the violence can be frightening. "Just a few weeks ago I woke up when one of the prostitutes was trying to rip off my letterbox and smash a car," she says. Catherine (none of the residents wanted their surnames used for fear of repercussions) moved into a rental property last November. She is considering moving out when the lease expires. "To start with it didn't bother me, but it's got to the point where you can't leave the house without being perused, harassed or propositioned," she says. Women say that everyone on Greeves Street is seen as fair game. No matter whether they're walking the dog or carrying shopping they are targeted, particularly by the hoons. Many residents say they were aware of the area's reputation before moving in, but had no idea the situation was so bad. But Craig, who has lived in the street for five years, says new residents should have been better informed: "This is a semi-industrial area, it's never been quiet. People move to St Kilda wanting diversity, but they don't want it outside their front doors." The St Kilda police are in a difficult situation. Senior Sergeant John Donald says they do not have the resources to patrol the street 24 hours a day. "(Street prostitution) is an offence and we do our best to arrest prostitutes and their clients," Donald says. The hoons are more difficult to prosecute because there is rarely any evidence. A forum held last month and chaired by the former St Kilda mayor the Reverend Tim Costello, brought together sex workers, residents, the police, the PCV and council workers. A council press release says the meeting decided to lobby for decriminalisation of street sex work, and recommended improving lighting and traffic management, and installing syringe bins. But many Greeves Street residents, and one local business owner, say they also want the street to be closed to all traffic between the hours of, say, 9pm and 5am. At least one other St Kilda street already does this. The council and other residents realise this will only push the problem on to someone else's doorstep, who would then campaign to have their street closed, and so on. Mandy Press, the council's manager of neighborhood amenities, says it is "very unlikely" that the street will be closed, as that would not solve the problem and would be detrimental to some 24-hour businesses in the street. Press says a group of council and community representatives will soon visit the street to assess how to address the lighting and traffic problems and to look at installing syringe bins. "The real challenge is to try and get the message across to people coming down here for sport that this is a residential area." __________________________________________________ Monday 31 March 1997 Paid sex and the married man By ELISSA BLAKE Cassie, would you please come to the front desk. A MARRIED man is waiting at reception in a small brothel in Collingwood. His wife is out shopping. She thinks he is at the dentist. A filling perhaps, maybe just a check-up. He doesn't have much time, only half an hour. Here's Cassie. She's smiling and reaching for his $120. The man smiles back. Cassie is his favorite. Married men make up more than 70 per cent of Cassie's clients at Cromwell Heights in Collingwood, and that's the way she likes it. ``They usually have a bit more class. They're not as rough and they spend a bit more time on your needs too,'' she says. ``Married men just want the fantasy of seeing a sex worker. When they walk out the door that's the end of the fantasy.'' While the chap heads upstairs for a shower, Cassie loads up with towels and condoms. The other girls are flipping through magazines in the kitchen. It's a slow day. On the noticeboard is a newspaper photo of a new kind of pin-up girl. It's Pru Goward: ABC political commentator, recently appointed head of the Office of the Status of Women, and champion of prostitution. Ever since Goward described prostitution as an ``essential service for randy men'' in a Good Weekend article last year, the brothels have been celebrating. The Prime Minister's new senior adviser on women's issues even wrote that she granted permission for her husband to visit a sex worker if ``life ever gets desperate''. Great news for the sex industry. But it seems married men haven't been waiting for permission from Goward to see a sex worker. There are 5000 sex workers in Victoria each seeing an average of 20 clients a week. According to the Prostitutes Collective of Victoria, up to 80 per cent of these clients are married and the vast majority do not tell their wives. ``Most of the married men are quite happy within their marriages. Seeing a sex worker doesn't mean something is wrong,'' says Maria McMahon, project manager at the collective. ``A lot of negotiations are going on within marriages about secondary relationships that may be sexual or non-sexual. There's a shifting definition of marriage. For some married clients, being with a sex worker is just a licence to be themselves.'' Cassie, 33, says most of her married clients are well-educated professional men who visit during the day and then go home to their families. Most of her clients have secure marriages and have no intention of leaving their wives. ``Sometimes the wife isn't meeting their needs because she is pregnant, sick, going through menopause or on holiday. She might work odd hours or night shift. Maybe the wife is sick, or tired or not in the mood.'' She spots a married man by his wedding ring. ``They tend to be a little bit more reserved at first. Some of them want to experiment but don't want to push their wives into things that might gross them out. Things like being whipped, humiliated, smacked, or bondage. Everyone has their little thing that gets them off. They won't go to their wives for fear of not looking normal.'' She says married men like to visit sex workers because they know the sex will be safe, both physically and emotionally. All the women at Cromwell Heights must have a full STD examination every month and provide a medical certificate to prove they are safe to work. Tali, 27, says most of her married clients want basic sex and a lot of intimacy. ``They want a conversation and a cuddle, not just the physical act. Some of them want the opportunity to be with a beautiful woman and they say their wife is not interested in sex or they want to try a different position. ``Some of them are guilt-ridden at first and they feel like they're cheating on their partner. But it's a lot better than an affair. It's a business transaction, really.'' Tali says married men are more likely to visit one worker regularly rather than work through an entire brothel. ``They like a one-on-one relationship, like a marriage. But they are a lot less likely to fall in love with you. Most of them say they truly love their wives, they just want a bit more sex.'' __________________________________________________ Published by The Age Online Pty Ltd ACN 069 962 885 �1998 David Syme & Co Ltd __________________________________________________ In the meantime why not check out the link below to get your own 10MB of free webspace? | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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