Love is
a mirror
you see nothing
but your reflection
you see nothing
but your real face.
—Rumi

The above is from http://missrosen.wordpress.com/2012/05/14/it-is-always-here-for-you/

Miss Rosen’s extraordinary blog never fails to uplift, inspire and enchant.  Just had to share Miss Rosen’s beauty with you.  Our ability to perceive  beauty helps us survive.  So much love to you, XO

(Source: missrosen.wordpress.com)

I’m Stella Marr

I’m Stella Marr. I was a prostitute and call girl for ten years. This is my voice, my truth, my story. Never again will I be silenced. They tore out my tongue but I learned to regrow it. Now I will always speak. Thank you so much for visiting this blog.

I escaped prostitution when one of my Johns gave me a condominium across from Lincoln Center and kept me for two years. I sold the condo to fund my education at Barnard College, Columbia University where I graduated with distinction with a major in English Literature and Creative Writing. I’m a published author and a recent contributor to the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference.

I’m a proud founding member of Survivors Connect, an international online leaderless network of trafficking and prostitution survivors. We are sisters and survivors. Nothing will break the bonds between us.

Nevada’s Legal Brothels Are Coercive, Too

Stella Marr is a founder of of Survivors Connect, an international network of trafficking and prostitution survivors. She blogs at “My Body the City: The Secret Life of a Call Girl” and is writing a memoir.

UPDATED APRIL 20, 2012, 9:18 AM

Nevada’s Legal Brothels Are Coercive, Too

Stella Marr is a founder of of Survivors Connect, an international network of trafficking and prostitution survivors. She blogs at “My Body the City: The Secret Life of a Call Girl” and is writing a memoir.

UPDATED APRIL 20, 2012, 9:18 AM

(Source: secretlifeofamanhattancallgirl.wordpress.com)

My friend and sister survivor  Dublin Call Girl has written a brilliant new post about what she calls the pullback – a compelling drive to return to prostitution some of us survivors get after we’ve exited.  Prostitution is another country with its own  brutal rules.  That’s where we’ve been living, where we’ve been treated as if  prostitution’s the only thing we’re good for.  PTSD makes ordinary life painfully hard.   Each  difficulty we meet in the non-prostitution world reinforces that “being a whore is the only thing you’re good for” message.   Speaking frankly, we’re not used to people who are calm, caring or friendly.  We don’t know how to trust that.  We keep waiting for the meanness and brutality to kick in.

This drive to return reminds me of the  evil enchantment from a fairy tale, where the girl is allowed to be human for a few hours, but then she’s turned back into a raven or a swan. In her great memoir Girls Like Us, Rachel Lloyd notes that the conditions of prostitution meet every criteria on the Biderman scale, a tool created by Amnesty International to explain the torture and brainwashing of political prisoners.   The four factors that cause Stockholm Syndrome are almost always present in prostitution.  These factors:

• Belief the captors (pimps, madams, Johns)  can and will kill you
• Isolation from anyone except captors
• Belief that escape is impossible
• Imagining the captor’s smallest acts of kindness mean they really care about you — a coping mechanism that helps you survive