The Death of a Whore

Posted on | October 15, 2015 | 91 Comments

Pippa O’Sullivan, a/k/a “Grace Bellavue.”

In December 2012, “Grace Bellavue” published an article at an Australian feminist site about her wonderful career as a prostitute:

It is often the moment after sex, even with clients, that I relish the most. The vulnerability and nakedness as two strange humans with temporary paths entwined begin to hesitantly trade life stories, knowledge and experience.
This moment is why I do my job with joy, gratitude and amazement.

This “joy, gratitude and amazement,” her readers were expected to believe, was why she campaigned for the legalization of her “job.”

Crazy, you say? Then you anticipate the latest news about this famous Australian prostitute:

Pippa O’Sullivan, the Adelaide sex worker who went by the name Grace Bellavue, has died after a long battle with mental illness.
The 28-year-old escort, writer and decriminalisation campaigner is believed to have taken her own life after posting a message on her Facebook page in the early hours of Monday morning.
The status update revealed a dark frame of mind and prompted an outpouring of concern from Pippa’s friends.
But the messages of support tragically fell on deaf ears and Pippa’s family has confirmed she passed away shortly after posting the status update.
“As you can see, Pip was dealing with issues that in the end overcame her,” mother Lyn O’Sullivan wrote. . . .
Pippa O’Sullivan was an outspoken advocate for the decriminalisation of sex work, which is illegal in South Australia, and took a stand against stigma surrounding the trade.
“Decriminalisation works,” she told the New Statesman in 2013.
“It allows sex work to be socially contextualised and regarded as a valid profession to be afforded the same human rights as workers in any other job.”
Pippa made headlines in 2013 when, as Grace Bellavue, she became the face of a new trend of escorts marketing themselves on Twitter. . . .
The New Statesman published an in-depth interview in 2013, which charted her early foray into the industry, working in a brothel from age 18. In 2011, she struck out on her own as an independent escort, working from an apartment and marketing herself online. . . .
“We still have a lot of stigma, judgment and backbiting due to the nature of our profession,” Pippa is quoted as saying. “But social media has given sex workers a real opportunity to be heard.” . . .
More recently, she revealed her struggle to work while battling mental health problems in a Facebook post on October 12.
“To all my regulars who have kept me in the black to survive and keep a roof over my head when I’m going through extreme burnout, I can’t express my appreciation,” Pippa wrote. . . .
Pippa had been violently attacked by a former client, a paroled rapist, at an Adelaide apartment in 2012.
Her death came as a coalition of former sex workers launched a campaign for specialised mental health support catered to workers in the industry, and those who have left it, or want to do so.

Pippa O’Sullivan lived the life of a whore and died the death of a whore. The idea that her “profession” should be legalized belongs in the same dung-heap of bad ideas as the assertion that we should end the “stigma” of prostitution. There is a reason what prostitution is both criminalized and stigmatized, namely that becoming a whore is a very bad career choice, insofar as a whore has any choice at all in the matter.

The reality is that most whores come from abusive families and/or broken homes. They are also usually addicted to drugs and preyed upon by pimps who coerce them into prostitution as teenagers. Anyone who thinks there is any “glamour” to prostitution is ignorant, and has paid no attention to the ugly reality of a whore’s life. Prostitutes typically exhibit a pattern of dysfunctional, anti-social and self-destructive behavior that makes them unable to hold a regular job or form healthy relationships. A whore is generally stupid, lazy and dishonest. Becoming a “sex worker” isn’t so much a choice for women like Pippa O’Sullivan as it is the only kind of “work” they are willing or able to do.

What a sad and strange commentary on our culture that it is now controversial to say something as obvious as, “Don’t be a whore.”

Finally, a suitable career opportunity for Women's Studies majors. @DailyCaller @instapundit https://t.co/Y806G8V98X

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) October 9, 2015

Category: Sex Trouble

Comments

91 Responses to “The Death of a Whore”

Mike G.
October 15th, 2015 @ 4:57 pm

As badly as I want to say…”Tough sh!t is hard to chew”, I do feel some empathy for this poor young lady’s family in their time of loss.

What makes a young person think this kind of lifestyle would be uplifting and good?
robertstacymccain
October 15th, 2015 @ 5:01 pm

People publicly wallowing in self-pity do not inspire much sympathy from me.

“Pity me, I’m a victim!”

Yeah. Right. Go to hell.
RKae
October 15th, 2015 @ 5:07 pm

A guy has sex with a blonde. When they’re done, she says, “Oh, no! I forgot to ask you before we had sex: You don’t have AIDS, do you?”

“No,” he answers, reassuringly.

She sighs in relief. “Oh, thank God! I wouldn’t want to get it again!”

Do not have sex with strangers!

Here endeth the lesson.
Mike G.
October 15th, 2015 @ 5:13 pm

As a father and grandfather, I don’t feel sympathy for her as much as I feel a little bit of sympathy for her family.

She made her choice and she has to live or die by it.
Steve Skubinna
October 15th, 2015 @ 5:17 pm

This is just me freewheeling here, but I strongly doubt anybody can manage “work” in the “sex industry” without suffering damage. If you aren’t f*cked up when you get into it, you probably will be when you get out of it.

Self esteem comes with a price. So does abandoning it.
jakee308
October 15th, 2015 @ 5:23 pm

There is something to be said for legalization because it provides for better regulation particularly in the area of Health Hygiene.

That said, the announcement of her death seemed like it was some sort of battle. If so, she won because she was fighting herself. Or was it that she couldn’t square her desires with her conscience and her moral sense. Most of us have those whether we cultivate them or not.

Maybe she can be used as a cautionary tale. (in Australia because RSM’s done it for the US)
Finrod Felagund
October 15th, 2015 @ 6:03 pm

I never have been comfortable with the logic of making it illegal to charge for something that you can legally give away for free.

That said, I would be ok with a compromise that would make it illegal for someone that’s married to pay for or be paid for sex, without the consent of their spouse.
mole
October 15th, 2015 @ 6:08 pm

Lets see she says she had 12,000 customers.
For ease of maths lets say each had a 10cm penis.
Each of those went in and out 100 times.
That’s 120,000,000 cm of use.
Or 120,000m
Or 120km
That’s a serious amount of traffic.
I can feel some sympathy for her, in another age maybe she would have been warned away from the self destructive life by a society/family which could use shame as a method of social control.
Nowadays she was cheered on as a feminist ‘hero” and may never really have seen the hurt she was inflicting on herself.
marcus tullius cicero
October 15th, 2015 @ 6:28 pm

…is it just me but the main qualification to be a “lady of the night” is to be pleasing to the eye? Most of the crazy-cat-ladies that I have seen the last 4 years, do not qualify as lookers…unless you are attracted to blubber and tattoos.
Bob Belvedere
October 15th, 2015 @ 6:40 pm

Pleasing to the eye is certainly a big part of it, but many men are willing to overlook looks (1) for the thrill/danger of committing the act, (2) if the prostitute has a specialty, (3) if the prostitute has a body type [usually not average] that appeals, and (4) if her sexiness [acting] can overcome her looks.
CrustyB
October 15th, 2015 @ 6:43 pm

“Prostitute” is bloody fancy talk for a “human pay toilet.”
NeoWayland
October 15th, 2015 @ 7:04 pm

I don’t know about this particular case, but I have exchanged emails with some sex work advocates.

You’re making a lot of assumptions (again) about a general class of people based on a single case.

Most of the problems from vice crimes come because they are illegal, not because of the act itself. You’re talking about controlling someone’s sexual behavior “for their own good.” You’re saying that it’s okay for professions to be outlawed because a practice offends your morals.

Might I remind you that the FBI just wasted millions on an interstate “prostitution sting” that resulted in hundreds of arrests, mostly for unrelated crimes? What’s worse is that this in an annual event with the same dismal results year after year.
https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/15/fbi-sponsors-operation-cross-country-ix?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reason%2FHitandRun+%28Reason+Online+-+Hit+%26+Run+Blog%29

So, the next time I take one of my companions out to dinner, is she engaging in “prostitution?” What if I buy the other a necklace I know she’s been admiring?

Beware of slippery slops.
kilo6
October 15th, 2015 @ 7:06 pm

ever notice the massive manipulation of the English language involved with leftist/liberal/progressive moral reorientation campaigns?
abortion mill becomes “women’s health clinic”
whore/trollop/strumpet becomes “sex worker”
living a moral or chaste life becomes “repression”
religion becomes superstition & globull warming becomes “settled science”
alleged rapist and whoremonger becomes President Bill Clinton
etc, etc
marcus tullius cicero
October 15th, 2015 @ 7:19 pm

…like I said, is just me that looks are a predetermined item before whatever.
Of course, there are secondary qualities that I also consider…….mtc
Finrod Felagund
October 15th, 2015 @ 7:43 pm

Asking only workman’s wages
I come looking for a job,
But I get no offers,
Just a come-on from the whores on Seventh Avenue
I do declare,
There were times when I was so lonesome
I took some comfort there

— Simon & Garfunkel, The Boxer
Fail Burton
October 15th, 2015 @ 8:02 pm

That’s all fine, but some people have children to raise and it would be nice if prostitution wasn’t put on a level with being an engineer or architect. Hookers do not live happy productive lives.
RS
October 15th, 2015 @ 8:06 pm

As with many things, it is sad to see people who are truly messed up and involved in all manner of self-destructive behaviors try to convince themselves that they’re really “OK.” Postmodern thought together with the ability to receive endless affirmation on social media is a hindrance for those who may wish to help themselves. I grieve for this young lady’s lost soul. She may have chosen her path herself, and the denouement may have been obvious to everyone around her, but that doesn’t prevent us from mourning a wasted life.
Notapgan
October 15th, 2015 @ 8:08 pm

Don’t give us his nonsense about paying for someone’s dinner is equivalent to prostitution, Of course if you don’t mind your companions banging other men for money five or ten times a week or more that’s your choice. They’re still prostitutes and you’re a you’re a pagan, so no matter. Maybe it wouldn’t bother you if t your companions had sex with 1000 other men? Her “slope” gets very wide and very slippery after a while.

Poor woman, and you no doubt think prostitution is a noble profession. You get e-mail from sex workers extolling the glamor of the life so this account couldn’t possibly have truth for the majority of sex workers? Give me a freaking break.
Notapagan
October 15th, 2015 @ 8:14 pm

By the way, if you click on her picture within RSM’s article she looks at least 10 years older than 28. I guess thousands of clients didn’t help either her physical or mental health.
Steve Skubinna
October 15th, 2015 @ 9:03 pm

Boon:
I want you to fix Pinto up, but it’s got to be a very special girl.

Pinto:
Look, you don’t have to…

Boon:
Now, she should be good-looking, but we’re willing to trade looks for a certain… morally casual attitude.

Katy:
You mean you want someone he can screw on the first date.
Quartermaster
October 15th, 2015 @ 9:31 pm

Every woman I knew that got out was seriously damaged. Becoming a Christian will bail person out

of a lot, but the scars are deep and lasting. I personally never knew one capable of marriage even after becoming a Christian. I’ve heard of a couple, but I’ve never known one.
Quartermaster
October 15th, 2015 @ 9:33 pm

Alas, she forced that choice on her family as well. I can’t see loving parents not feeling a great deal of anguish over such a choice.
DeadMessenger
October 15th, 2015 @ 9:46 pm

Example #1: Hugh Grant
Southern Air Pirate
October 15th, 2015 @ 10:32 pm

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Trade-Gerrie-Lim/dp/9810510330

To add to some folks reading list. This is an interesting book. I read it some years ago and it’s weaker sequel. This was supposed to be about the sex trade in Singapore, but the author expanded to cover all of Asia. Most of the women and a couple of men seen proud if thier night jobs, but are also afraid of the social damage from being outed. Even in more liberal Australia a couple of the girls don’t profess to thier families what they do after school hours or in the summer months because of the stigma if being a call girl/hooker/escort/red light girl. The end to me wasn’t that liberalization of prostitution as the author pushed but rather increases in the wages and abilities of women to earn so they can have a good lifestyle without resorting to this life. As one lady said, “the allure of being able to make enough for 1st class travel everywhere is more awesome than seeing the pitiful experience of random sex between myself and some Japanese or Korean businessman on travel expenses. I am not going back to college to be a wage slave at a multi-national.”
Guest
October 16th, 2015 @ 1:43 am

“beware of…slops”

Beware of sloppy seconds…
Robert What?
October 16th, 2015 @ 4:58 am

Love you McCain and agree with you on most things. But we differ on this one. And I can see how it would be an incredibly sensitive subject to a father of daughters. But I think that paid consensual sex between two adults should be treated like any other professional service. Although the radical feminists would agree with you on outlawing prostitition, but for very different reasons: theirs is all about feminist controls on male sexual options.
Quartermaster
October 16th, 2015 @ 5:33 am

There are too many that are involved in the trade involuntarily. That aspect will never be stopped either.
Dan
October 16th, 2015 @ 6:46 am

Wow you are a fucking asshole. I will never read your shit again
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:15 am

Some of these land whales would have to get all of their teeth pulled to make it worthwhile.
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:26 am

Should one be permitted to sell his own organs? How about engaging in the trade or business of brokering others’ organs freely sold? If someone clearly consents to be killed by another for receipt of some consideration, should that be lawful as well?
Ilion
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:34 am

But the thing is, this is exactly how a very high percentage, perhaps even a majority, of modern western women have chosen to live their lives … only without getting paid for it.

And while I pity (salted with disgust) “Grace Bellavue” and her ilk for the pathetic messes they made of their lives, I respect whores far more than I do the women who make themselves mere sluts.
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:39 am

“Sex worker” advocacy is very clearly the result of cognitive dissonance on the part of the “sex worker,” be they prostitutes, porn actresses, or strippers. There’s also a real Oedipal/Electra thing going on.

If you haven’t seen it, look online for the 2001 British documentary “Hardcore” which follows the short career of a working class British girl in pornography. At the end she fairly explicitly admits that the whole thing was an effort to get the attention of her absentee father.
Ilion
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:39 am

“What a sad and strange commentary on our culture that it is now controversial to say something as obvious as, “Don’t be a whore.””

It’s a “sad and strange commentary on our culture” that accurately using the word ‘whore’ is “controversial.”
Ilion
October 16th, 2015 @ 7:47 am

At least.
Robert What?
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:00 am

And you compare these to sex prostitution … how? Should you be permitted to eat in the restaurant of your choice? I think not!
Gunga
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:08 am

Wow, i didn’t see that coming…said absolutely no-one. The current, “I’m OK, it’s society that needs to change,” movement continues to demonstrate it’s 100% rate of failure on the Z-axis…
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:16 am

Politicos have done more moral, financial, and emotional damage to your children than any sex worker. What’s worse, politicos have done it deliberately and in defiance of those who elected them

And they get celebrated on national TV.

It’s not the sex you object to, it’s the being paid for sex. How that is somehow worse than the politicos is beyond me.
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:27 am

The question of if gifts or dinner constitute payment for sex in a date is something that libertarians and others have been discussing for decades.

I define companion as something less thab a wife and something more than “good friends with benefits.” Neither of them are sex workers. We’re not exclusive.

The sex worker emails weren’t about glamour, they were their lives, their hopes, their dreams, their challenges. Since it’s not always possible to meet people, I find email a valuable tool to learn about other paths in life. Don’t you?

Now if you choose to be civil, we can talk again. The sock-puppet thing really isn’t all that interesting when you keep using it.
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:30 am

Okay, that was my goof.

I fixed it now.
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:36 am

Should one be permitted to sell his own organs?

Who else should be allowed to do it? Doesn’t your body belong to you?
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:39 am

Simple example.

A sex worker gets beaten or robbed. They can’t go to the police without being arrested themselves.
RS
October 16th, 2015 @ 8:58 am

The problem with your thesis is that there is a presupposition that there is always a quid pro quo in romantic relationships. That view has not existed for a very long time. Social convention with respect to courtship, placed the male in a position where he had to demonstrate his ability to provide for a future spouse. That necessity morphed into “dinner and movie” on his dime without expectation of anything in return. It is only following the Sexual Revolution of the ’60s with its denigration of Marriage and lifelong commitment that your question(s) became relevant. It’s a failure to be able to synthesize traditional morality with sexual promiscuity.
NotaPagan
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:01 am

Keep using it? I’ve used it twice. LOL I’ll use it once more this day I’m not a Pagan. ou certainly go to some length to tell us frequently how much better Paganism is than Christianity, No, I expect you wouldn’t be exclusive. You’re a pagan and evidently a libertarian. You don’t have to do any of those icky religious vow stuff before witnesses and God. If things get tough you can just bail out on your “companions” and not worry about any legal complications.

And you probably wouldn’t have the courage to tell sex workers that it’s is a dead end career being a sperm carrier in various orifices, a “career” in which nobody really loves them or honors them except for ways they can get off in using them as an object, and all the while you can feel great that you’re an open minded pagan who isn’t all judgemental and stuff and can listen to their “hopes and dreams.” What a weenie!
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:24 am

That’s not true.
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:25 am

The question is not whether one’s body belongs to one’s self, but whether one has the authority to commodify it.
Alec Leamas
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:26 am

You obviously missed Mr. NeoWayland’s comments about “ownership” of one’s body.
Evi L. Bloggerlady
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:39 am

The example is Jesus: He condemned the behavior without condemning the sinner, but there has to be some remorse by the person first to get redemption.

You can condemn the message this is all right and still be sympathetic to the train wreck that will result.
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:55 am

You have a presupposition that sex is a part of courtship and eventually marriage.

That view has not existed in sometime. Long before the 60’s in fact. Or even the 20th Century.

I agree that it’s certainly more obvious since the 60’s.
NeoWayland
October 16th, 2015 @ 9:58 am

Wow. So many issues.

I’ve used it twice.

You’ve used this handle twice, well, three times now. You’ve used sock-puppets here before.
Finrod Felagund
October 16th, 2015 @ 10:04 am

When something is already illegal, there’s little deterrent to doing more illegal acts to maintain it. I can’t imagine there is anyone engaged in legal prostitution involuntarily.