Sex in Cyberia

A Kyoto Geisha by Yamaguchi Soken (1796)

CNN did a story about sex workers in the Silicon Valley (“Sex Valley: Tech’s Booming Prostitution Trade,” 7/14/13), attendant upon the overdosing of a Google executive by a prostitute (“Police: Prostitute killed tech exec with heroin,” CNN, 7/10/14) One wonders if CNN will do a follow up on the sex business in the Silicone Valley. Apparently the huge profits generated by the tech business have created a number pashas who spend their money on harems. Interestingly part of the story included an interview with a young women involved in the Silicon Valley sex trade who used a striking locution calling prostitutes, “professional sexual providers.” What’s interesting is that the syntax is derived from an expression that is usually associated with firms that provide connectivity to the internet, which as we know is one of the greatest sources of prostitution in the history of civilization. However having sex with a provider rather than depending on your internet provider for sex is tantamount to getting them while their hot or buying something wholesale instead of having to pay the middleman. In the interview the "professional sexual provider' explained that many internet moguls are very busy and don’t have time to be involved in relationships and so people like her are actually furnishing a service that is socially constructive. You had famous courtesans like Madame de Pompadour and elegant geishas, but  “sexual providers” may be one of the most artful euphemisms ever created to describe the world’s oldest profession. The nimbus created around these "sexual providers" is certainly a far cry from the old Mexican whorehouses, where one of the acts of degradation used to attract customers was to have ugly crones urinating on ingénues. Havana’s Superman and the mythology of Catherine the Great making love with a stallion are also eons away from sex in Cyberia. In the Silicon Valley, you tip your “server" and have sex with your “provider" before logging off for the evening.