On the wrong side of a Craigslist ad

When the website shut down its erotic services, I was relieved. I knew firsthand how dark that life could be


By Phoebe Kay
Salon.com

In light of Craigslist's decision to pull its erotic services ads, we thought Salon readers would be interested in this personal account from a woman who answered a call for escorts on the site. We changed the names of all parties to protect their identities.

I sipped vodka and orange juice for courage as I drove along the 405 freeway toward a beach city near Los Angeles. I felt like vomiting. I felt like turning around and going home. Drinking and driving is something I would normally never, ever do, especially early on a Saturday morning. But none of this was anything I would normally do.

I was about to embark on a career as an escort.

The week before -- with $75 in my bank account, no more unemployment checks and hundreds of résumés and carefully crafted cover letters sent and ignored in a rotten economy -- I bypassed the typical job ads on Craigslist and went straight to the "adult gigs" section, just out of curiosity.

What I found was an eye-popping number of help wanted ads. These ads weren't looking for how fast you could type or if you knew PowerPoint, but they were also discreet about what skill set, exactly, was required. One posting caught my eye: "Make up to $2,000 a week!"

(More here.)