When funds were tight for the then-medical student, Magnanti supplemented her financial situation with prostitution in London. She chronicled her experiences in a blog which, refreshingly, features high-class writing about high-class escorting. Her style is crisp, honest, and often quite lovely. She is -- in fact -- no hack. Her blog inspired the television series Secret Diary of a Call Girl and eventually the books The Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl and Belle de Jour’s Guide to Men.

To even write this column, I had to tear myself away from her blog archives, which incorporate direct narrative about her sex work as well as the day-to-day musings of a London resident. It's that good.

This recent "coming clean" raises the topic of whoredom. What is the difference between a whore and a slut? And are whores "bad"? Where does prostitution fall into the average person's sexual landscape? Do we even care about "real" whores?

And this: is being one always, inevitably, about "daddy?" Belle's father Paul Magnanti, 60, of Holiday, Fla., has admitted his own use of prostitutes, some of whom he lived with and introduced to his daugher.

According to my definition, a whore uses sex to acquire money. But does not a "slut" also acquire things through sex? Does s/he not acquire pleasure, experience, fun, and/or comfort?

What is it when I, or anyone hypothetically, fuck someone after they take me out for a nice dinner? Does someone with the ultimate goal of pussy who drops $100 on a luxurious meal differ from someone who drops $100 on 30 minutes of no-frills fucking?

And if we become a "whore'"or "slut," should we always blame our fathers?

I don’t have the answers.

There is a whirlwind of talk about the glorification of prostitution, especially since the television adaptation of the "Belle" blog took off. Being a whore seemed glamorous, though many critics though it promoted prostitution and glossed over the violent experiences that many whores endure.

These experiences of forced prostitution are heartbreaking, yet they must be viewed in a different light than the women who consciously, comfortably, and confidently choose to work as escorts.

Women who are impoverished, addicted, or manipulated into the profession are victims. These are the women who are subject to horrific abuse because they are tragically immobile. This was not the reality of Brooke Magnanti, and it is unfair to suggest it was.

Anna N. of Jezebel writes: "The truth is that prostitution as a whole is neither glamorous nor dangerous. Instead, it's as complex as the sexual urges prostitutes satisfy. Magnanti is well-placed to examine its complexities -- let's hope she does so."

I, too, hope Magnanti explores the implications of her story (when she gets a break from being, you know, a legit scientist and all).

In her November 15th blog entry, she insists that she does not regret her past.

"“It feels so much better to be on [the side of non-anonymity]. Not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about. To be able to defend what my experience of sex work is like to all the skeptics and doubters… stand behind every word with pride."

Although I doubt my own capability to be a prostitute, I admire Magnanti for all that she -- and her pseudonym -- embody.

On September 15, 2004, in her announcement of retirement from the sex industry, Magnanti wrote: "If I could add one thing, it would be this -- don't ever turn down pleasure because you were afraid of what other people might say."

She is not a woman who denies or censors herself, and that is inherently fantastic.

Thanks, Doc.

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