Sub-Teen Prostitutes
During one short generation this country has seen unprecedented social, political and technological changes. This phenomenon is reflected in such terms as: population explosion, information explosion, mass communication, and sexual revolution.
Yet, a study of man, from his early beginnings, shows clearly that the one institution which never seems to change, nor can it be stamped out or legislated out of existence, is prostitution.
The astonishing fact about today's prostitutes is that they are becoming younger and younger. Where once the battered, used-up woman in her late twenties or thirties made up the great preponderance of the prostitute population, today it is almost impossible to find a successful whore or call girl who is over twenty-six, and it is fairly easy to find many whores who are not yet sixteen!
Since we are concerned in this book with the pre-teen sexual activities, let us look at some of these "junior whores."
It is an accepted fact that the pathological social environment, such as that of children raised in the slums or in disorganized, broken families that deprive a child of minimal cultural stimulation, produces many of our prostitutes and our criminals. But this is almost from necessity. In many cases these unfortunate kids have no honest, legitimate channels open to them. But what of the girls and boys who come from middleclass or even well-to-do families who turn to prostitution? We must, of necessity, relate such cases to the "generation gap." Somewhere along the line there has been a serious breach in communications between parent and child.
Sometimes this gap is so wide that the child is never taught moral obligations, nor observance of the laws of society or of the state. One such case is that of Samantha G.
Sam, as most everyone calls her, is a Negro girl who will be thirteen her next birthday. Several weeks ago Sam was apprehended for soliciting. Authorities were astounded to find that Sam's father is a very successful doctor, and that her mother is the director and administrator of a large trust fund which offers scholarships to needy Negroes who have chosen to enter the field of medicine. Both parents are college graduates, solid pillars of their community, and active in many civic and charitable affairs.
Yet Samantha, at age twelve, was a common streetwalker. It is fruitless to seek the reasons among her home environment. As her dazed parents put it: "We don't understand. She's had everything a fine home, good schooling, clothes, love "
Possibly the one thing that Sam never had was understanding.
Listen to her vitriolic, bitter account of what her parents termed, "a good, decent life."
"They're just 'out of it' as far as what's happening today. They're what my black friends call "Uncle Tom" niggers. They'll suck any white man's ass to climb higher or to make more money. They don't care about the rest of the blacks getting ahead.
"I didn't get with it, either until I started to go with Willie. He's only in high school, but he's real active in a lot of black organizations that are fighting for a fair shake for the black man. Don't ask me how I got the feel for all these things at my age. Maybe I was born with them. Anyhow, there are a lot of things that are more important than pleasing your family or friends, or just being a nice girl.’
"I had my first piece when I was eleven, and believe me, it wasn't my choice. Three white boys got me one night. They were animals. One shoved his prick into my cunt while the other held me, and the third one shoved his prick into my mouth. They took turns and before it was over I had fucked and sucked all three pricks. Oh, don't think I didn't try to kick them in the balls, or that I didn't think of biting a big hunk out of their pricks, but they weren't fooling. They would have killed me.
"I knew I'd have to get my revenge later, and I have, believe me. Remember, I'm the daughter of a doctor. My father gave me a good education on sex and on venereal disease. I knew inside a week that I had something wrong with my pussy. I knew enough to tell that it had to be gonorrhea because of the burning and itching when I urinated.
"Then I went after them the bastards, I had a nice shape a little thin, maybe but I had nice breasts. There were a lot of passes made at me in school especially from the whiteys. So, I began to take them on, one at a time and in a bunch.
"The more my pussy itched and burned, the more I wanted to spread it around among whitey. It began to be real painful for me, but I kept on moving around. I began to branch out and take on the older guys. I was too ashamed to have my daddy know, so I began to go into other neighborhoods. I found that I could actually get money for it as much as twenty dollars and I really went wild.
"I began to hang around a strip club downtown. When the show was over a lot of horny guys would come out. I didn't care if they were a little loaded, and it wasn't altogether just getting even with them, either. By then, I'd really begun to enjoy nicking. I had a black boy friend, but I always made him use a safety He couldn't understand it, but I insisted. But with the white guys, I used to get an extra bang out of knowing that I was giving V.D. to those white bastards.
"It got so bad, after about six months, that I had to go to a doctor. He was a Negro and a good friend of my dad. I thought I could trust him. But I was wrong. He called my daddy, and then he called the health department! Can you dig that? So, I just ran away. I had plenty of money, and I knew how I could easily earn more. I looked at least seventeen or so, and I got a room in a cheap rooming house in the slum section. I fit all right, because there were mostly Negroes there.
"I went out whoring. I was only at it four days when I got caught. After I get out, I guess I'll go home. My daddy wants me to. But I don't know what I'll do. I don't feel like a little girl anymore. And I don't know if I can take the treatment my parents will give me. Oh, they'll be kind, but they'll be so goddamned sugary and helpful that it will make me throw up.
"And I've become pretty used to having steady sex and being pretty much on my own. I just don't know… "
After consulting with psychiatrists, Samantha's father sent her to live with his brother in a large southern metropolis. His brother is a social worker with four children of his own. Samantha's parents hope that this wholesome atmosphere and the understanding supervision of her uncle will straighten her out.
Her motivation for prostitution is, admittedly, most unusual. However, one wonders what path she might have taken had her rapers been black. Psychiatrists who examined her very briefly were unable to determine much about her attitude toward promiscuity or normal boy-girl relationships.
Vengeance may be her undoing. It surely cannot lead to her salvation.
One of the behind-the-scenes battles in the sexual revolution is that of pre-teen-agers to resolve their relationships with their elders. They not only challenge with the question: "Who am I?" but they constantly ask: "Who are you to tell me what to do or how to act?"
A new phenomena has arisen: the rebellious child who turns to sexual promiscuity and even prostitution merely as a means of defying the Puritanical rules which their parents have inherited. Studies of case histories of today's youth make it abundantly clear that establishing their own identity breaking the "apron strings" involves a great deal of sexual activity. In earlier, less complicated times, the lives of prepubescent children were severely controlled. With today's working parents this is almost impossible. And the persons to whom parents look for help in controlling their children the teachers, the church, the neighbors all these are too wrapped up in their own upside-down world of revolt and strife to give the proper attention.
So we find a new kind of sexual morality prevailing. Some experts foresee a generation upcoming which will have no real concept of morality where sex is concerned, and they optimistically state that this will be good, for there will be few, if any, "guilt hang-ups." It is too soon to tell. The role of morality, identity and revolt reveal their influence in the case of Jessica R., who may be quite typical of thousands of youngsters who have not yet entered adolescence.
Until she was eleven Jessica's life was almost totally dominated by her mother. She lost her father when she was only two, and her mother, realizing Jessica's extra needs, sought to supply them by being a constant companion and "pal" to her child. They shopped, cooked, sewed and baked, and did the feminine things of life together. Jessie's mother was a good parent, but was very strict. And most of Jessie's early life was lived in her own home under the watchful eye of her mother. Her father left a sizable amount of insurance, and for several years Jessie's mother did not have to work. However, there were few luxuries, though the home was wholesome and adequate.
Recalling those times, Jessica told her psychiatrist: "I was lucky. My mother was a lady and a good woman." Later, her psychiatrist said that her mother was far too perfect for Jessie to have identified with her. She was too much of "a saint" and many youngsters today do not wish to identify with this image. They shy away from the implied sexual and moral restrictions that such an image places upon an individual.
At age eleven Jessica's search for an identity took the form of rebellion against her mother. For the first time, discord came between them.
"I don't know what happened," Jessie reported. "Suddenly I didn't agree with mother about anything even when I knew she was right. It was funny; the same things I agreed with the day before, I no longer could see her way. I was like a new and different person.
"We began to argue about boys. I was almost twelve and I wanted to date at least go to parties with boys. I had blossomed out overnight from a shy, introverted person, to a bubbling extrovert, especially when boys were near. (This change is not uncommon, psychiatrists claim, at this stage of development).
Jessie's mother was not overly strict, but she was very cautious about Jessica's early dates. She realized that her daughter was a sexual "know-nothing," and she didn't want her to encounter any sexual experiences that she couldn't handle. But when the arguments became disruptive, her mother agreed to let Jessie date under certain regulations: a ten o'clock curfew, no drive-in theaters or restaurants, and almost always, a double-date.
Jessica told her psychiatrist: "I was tickled pink because I knew I could break any of these rules without her ever getting wise."
A sixteen-year-old neighbor boy had been asking for a date with her, and Jessie finally agreed. Her mother thought the boy was too old for her, but she consoled herself that Jessie was mature-minded, a "home girl." 'and besides, the boy was a close neighbor with a good reputation. Their first date was at a neighborhood theater, and Jessie decided that she'd bend or break the rules early.
Her psychiatrist says: "Jessica was testing herself. On the one hand she was dependent and knew it, and on the other hand she was involved in the maturing process and was testing whether she really could be independent of her mother."
On her first date Jessie acted as seductively as she envisioned the most sexy young woman in the world would act. She deliberately teased Ted with the closeness of her body, fingering the palm of his hand with the secret signal for intercourse she had learned from schoolmates, and brushing against his tormented penis with her hand and body. They left the show early and walked to a secluded park. Once there, they traded kisses for several breathtaking moments. But that was as far as Ted would go. They arrived home at eleven-thirty and Jessie's mother was furious. She forbade the sobbing girl any further dates until she was at least fifteen!
Jessie began to meet Ted secretly, and in a short time their meetings had evolved into hot sex sessions that included oral-genital sex, anal intercourse and regular intercourse.
(Jessica's constant reference to her mother "being right" led her psychiatrist to believe that the girl was suffering guilt feelings and was subconsciously seeking a re-identification with the mother.) Four months after she had turned thirteen. Jessie tearfully -told her mother that she thought she was pregnant!
(Said her psychiatrist: "Hostility shows clearly here. What more effective expression of hostility is there than for a child to confess to her parent that she is pregnant with all the resultant heartaches and problems that attend such a pregnancy?")
Jessica's mother remained calm, and with the aid of a pastor of a nearby church, arranged for Jessie to be confined in an out-of-state home for unwed mothers. Here, Jessica first underwent psychiatric consultation. These sessions were also designed to help Jessica adjust to motherhood.
She had just turned fourteen when she gave birth to a healthy boy, who was immediately placed for adoption. She soon returned home, cautious, embarrassed a woman in a little girl's body, in a sense.
She began to date neighborhood boys, but she was cautious on dates, allowing only innocuous kisses. Then she met Ray, who was eighteen, handsome and forceful, and Jessie gave in to his sexual advances on their very first date. She went out with Ray many times, and each time they had intercourse. Eventually she again found herself pregnant. When Ray's parents refused to allow him to marry her, she again went to the home for unwed mothers and prepared to have her second illegitimate child at age fourteen!
Her mother died during the seventh month of her pregnancy. Jessie gave birth to a premature child who lived only a few hours. She returned home to an empty house and a bleak life. The house was sold and Jessica went to live with her mother's younger sister. From here on, her life was one of gross sexual promiscuity. According to her own testimony she made love "to anybody who wanted me or could show me a good time do things to make me laugh and be happy for a few hours." She had no control in following the dictates of her own passions.
At fifteen she quit school and went to work as a car-hop at a busy drive-in restaurant. She met a middle-aged customer who tipped her heavily and constantly asked her out on dates. Jessica finally gave in when the man told her: "I'll pay, and pay good."
Jessica found that there was just as much pleasure for her in haying sex for pay as there was for just the fun of it. The man was a good lover, according to her, and he paid her twenty-five dollars every time they slept together. Without quite realizing what was happening, Jessica had become a prostitute. When her companion pointed it out to her, she realized that a young body like hers could command much higher prices from much older men. Her companion was prepared to put her in touch with several such males, and inside three months Jessica had taken a plush apartment (paid for by her mentor) and was entertaining at least six customers a week. Her earnings eventually reached over three hundred dollars a week!
Jessica cleverly covered up her sexual activities by retaining her job as a carhop. Also, in this position she was able to make addition connections men referred to her by her male customers.
Jessica grew so proficient at prostitution that, at age sixteen, she took in two more working whores both of them under eighteen. She had learned the wisdom of dealing only with older men and had an unwritten rule that no customer under fifty was to be considered or encouraged. This type of clientele provided many advantages they had money, like young bodies, and were discreet.
Jessica's problem was basically one of identity, according to her doctors. Early, she could identify with a good mother, but during her maturing years she could not accept this identity with her mother. She sought her own identity, one that would be her own, remote from her mother. She sought it by a most dramatic reversal turning from the good-girl pattern to the bad-girl pattern that was to dominate her life.
Many deep-seeded emotional problems were evident in her psychotherapy, too clinical and technical to be discussed here. Needless to say, had she had the home environment that can be provided by only two parents, she might have turned out much different.
Denise learned about prostitution at an early age. Born in the slum section of a large city, prostitution, like poverty and crime, was a way of life for the older children in her neighborhood.
She was illegitimate, the third of a four daughter family raised by the mother with the aid of welfare. She grew up hating her poverty so badly that she determined at an early age to do anything to escape from it. She rebelled against it and against her mother, who was the symbol of poverty and failure to Denise.
Sex was not only a hobby in her neighborhood it was a commodity even in her own home. Her mother never denied herself the pleasure of sex. Denise observed at an early age that many men visited their home and that most of them stayed overnight. She also knew that the family had a little extra money right after a man had slept with her mother. Denise's mother was not a whore, but she did solicit or accept money and gifts for her sexual favors.
The small, cramped quarters of the slum dwelling made privacy almost impossible, so Denise saw many displays of sex. She also remembers that many of the men played "grab-ass" with her and her sisters. She didn't understand about sex and she described one incident for her therapist:
"I think I was seven, and me and my sisters were in bed and I heard my mother laughing in the living room. She seemed so happy that I smiled to myself. Then I had a big yearning for a glass of water. I got out of bed and started to go to the kitchen. I had to go through the living room, and when I got to the door I saw my mother with this man and they were both naked. My mother was on her back on the couch and the man was on top of her but not the regular way. He was in the opposite direction. And while he was sticking his tongue into my mother's hairy pussy, she was taking his pecker in her mouth and sucking it hard.
"She had one leg hooked around his neck. It was the craziest thing I'd ever seen. I just had to stay and watch. My mother's head and mouth were bobbing like crazy. She was kind of biting and sucking him, and I remember wondering how she could get all of his big prick in her mouth that way.
"I was eleven when I had my first fuck. A man that ran a garage nearby had a boy working for him, about fifteen, and he offered me a dollar. I went to the garage and he took my panties off and played with my cunt a little. Then he put me in the back seat of a car. He spread my legs wide open and just rammed his cock up into me. When he rammed it into me, I began to scream. It was like a hot, wide poker that was splitting me wide open, and all I could do was scream in pain. He finally shot, but it went all over the outside of my cunt, and I was screaming so loud that he shoved the dollar into my hand and hurried me out of the garage. I left my panties behind. Right after that, I began to menstruate.
"It confused me. I tied it in somehow with that boy shoving his big, ugly prick into me. I made up my mind that I didn't want any part of fucking from then on.
"There was an old man who lived on the same floor as we did. He was always nice to me, giving me candy, or a nickle, or talking sweet to me. One day he asked me if I'd like some ice cream. To me that was really a treat, so I went in and we had a dish of ice cream. While he was eating his, he was rubbing his hand over my pussy, but he was gentle, so I didn't mind. Next thing I knew, he had my hand in his, and was rubbing it over his pecker. He'd taken it out of his pants, and it felt kind of good. It wasn't big, and it wasn't very hard.
"All at once he asked me how I'd like to make five bucks!
"I’d hardly ever seen five dollars, so I said I would.
He took my hand off his prick and waved it around, so I could get a good look at it. He said, 'You've got to take it in your mouth and suck it good.' I remembered seeing my mother do that, and it didn't seem so bad, so I said I would. But I made him show me the five dollars first.
"I wasn't afraid of him. He'd always been nice. Actually, I guess I was just curious. Besides, he began to run his fingers over the lips of my cunt and I began to get pretty hot. He wiggled his fingers inside me and dug his nails into my little knob and he began to get me worked up.
"His penis got hard and I reached out and touched it, feeling it bob and throb when I closed my hand around it. I wondered if I could get it into my mouth. I asked him: ‘What should I do?' And he was gasping when he said, 'Suck it, kiddie, just suck it good.’
"He grabbed my hair and pushed my head down near it. I just opened my mouth and let it slip in. It tasted salty, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I remember clicking my teeth every time I pulled my mouth off it. He would lunge and moan, so I guessed he liked it. I began to suck it hard, and move it in and out, faster and faster. Then it began to go clear down into my throat, touching my tonsils I think, because it gagged me a little. But I didn't choke and in a few more plunges he gave a real loud groan and all that stuff shot into my mouth and throat.
"Then I gagged. It was running out of my mouth and down my throat all over the front of me and over his prick and pants.
"But he gave me the five dollars and that made it all right. I went back to his place a lot of times after that, and we did it again and again, but he never gave me five again usually, only two dollars. But by that time he had begun to play with my pussy and suck it, so it was all right.
"Once I found out I could make money that way, I took on a lot of guys. I was twelve when I had my first real fuck and I got three dollars for that one. It hurt a little, but the second time, with that same guy, was real good.
"I figured I'd stumbled onto a gold mine, and I didn't refuse anybody if they had some money to give me. I guess I had some 'comes,' but it wasn't until I met Joey, when I was fourteen, that I ever did it just for the fun of it. He was seventeen and when we'd done it for a lot of weeks Joey began to bring me a lot of customers young guys, this time not those old guys.
"I got caught the first time when I was fourteen. I've been picked up a dozen times in the last two years, but most of the time it's been dismissed. Most decent guys won't fink on a girl, I've found."
This is Denise's story. However, whether men who had shared her body will testify or not, her activities became so blatant that she was committed to a home for wayward girls. While there, she met and began therapy sessions with a psychologist. She has since been released, but still attends weekly therapeutic sessions.