Brothel
Mustang Ranch and Its Women
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
What began as a public-health project by a Harvard medical student evolved into an intimate, ambitious, six-year study of the brothel ecosystem and a book that puts an unforgettable face on America’s maligned and caricatured subculture.
“A fascinating glimpse into a hidden lifestyle.... It's an instantly gratifying page-turner.... It emerges as a personality-filled memoir about an unforgettable group of women." —Seattle Weekly
Not a single legal prostitute in Nevada had contracted HIV since testing began in 1986. Why? Harvard medical student Alexa Albert traveled to Nevada in search of answers. Gaining unprecedented access to the infamous and notoriously secretive Mustang Ranch, Albert reveals a fascinatingly insular world where the women share their experiences with unexpected candor. There’s Dinah, Mustang’s oldest prostitute, who turned her first trick years ago at age fifty-one. And Savannah, a woman who views her work as a “healing” social service for needy men.
Nevada’s legal brothels are an incredibly rich environment for examining some of this nation’s thorniest social issues. From problems of class and race to the meaning of family, honor, and justice—all are found within this complex and singular microcosm. And in a country where prejudice is a dirty word—but not as dirty as hooker—these social issues are compounded and deepened by the stifling stigma that has always plagued the profession. But in the end, all of Mustang’s working girls are just women trying to earn their way to happiness.
Brothel is a landmark work that probes beyond the veil of desire and fantasy in which the sex trade shrouds itself—and uncovers the naked humanity at its core.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Perhaps the most prominent legal brothel in Nevada, Mustang Ranch held mythical status in contemporary Western culture until it was shut down on racketeering charges in 1999. As a medical student, Albert was granted rare access to this intensely private world in order to conduct a study on condom use, and lived periodically at Mustang Ranch from 1993 to 1999. Her routine study soon deepened in tandem with her curiosity about the politics of prostitution and about the prostitutes themselves. In this straightforward account, she details the brothel regimen (from the women's relative captivity to what happens during various "parties") and explores the private lives of the women who work there, as well as those of the "johns" and the workers who service the Ranch. Yet the heart of the book lies in Albert's exploration of the sense of family that thrives in the brothel with all the fractious infighting, competition and camaraderie inherent in any community. Her short history of the legalization of prostitution in Nevada revolves around Joe and Sally Conforte who officially owned Mustang Ranch until charges of tax evasion forced Joe into hiding in South America in 1990 while illuminating the confluence of public opinion and economic forces that spurred legalization. Acknowledging her own feelings (which range from disgust to profound respect), Albert convincingly dispels myths about this mysterious world and provides a strong defense for the legalization of prostitution.
