I coined the term Half-Hooker which came out in New York Magazine a few years back. It was and still is appropriate for the time.
Today, a new term comes to light out of the twisting and turning through social circles of New York. The term describes women who shadow their activity, bouncing in out of the city with an element of inexplicable awkward mystery to them. To some, these women may simply be known by their first names. To others, they are friends or people who are considered an acquaintance and perhaps seen socially on a weekly basis. Each of them may be different in race, religion and heritage but share the same quality. That quality defines them as a Hybrid-Hooker.
hy·brid/ˈhīˌbrid/ – NOUN: A thing made by combining two different elements; a mixture. ADJECTIVE: Of mixed character; composed of mixed parts.
hook·er/ˈho͝okər/ – NOUN: 1. A prostitute. 2. A one-masted sailboat of a kind used especially in Ireland for fishing. 3. A glass or drink of undiluted brandy, whisky, or other liquor.
But what exactly is a Hybrid-Hooker in terms of every night or every day terms? There is not a precise definition but more of a series of recognizable characteristics or attributes of the individual. The term could be applied to a male, but more commonly is referred upon the female gender.
The stereotypical Hybrid-Hooker is the bootleg model (perhaps one of the more common forms). A girl is pretty, but doesn’t quite fit the image for magazines and catalogue work. People ask her, “What do you do?” Her response, “I’m a model.” I am a model, such an easy thing for a woman to say if she is semi attractive.
“A girl is pretty, but doesn’t quite fit the image for magazines and catalogue work”
Naive men are sufficed with that answer and often happy if they attract their attention. For those who know the genuine modeling industry, these bootleg models attempt to lay claim as REAL models. These women generally don’t possess an agency and may or may not book jobs themselves. They list themselves on various websites that claim to be model industry related to help their appearance as more legitimate. Perhaps they book one or two jobs per month that pay insignificant amounts compared to their weekly expenses. If they have representation it might be a bootleg unrecognized agency or manager who may even encourage “dates” or “partying” as a part of a modeling gig. How does that work? Well, a gentleman might come across a woman who he fancies, books her through the agent for a dinner party or to hang out on a boat, club, event or even fly somewhere to accompany him as a liaison-escort. The first occasion may not end up directly in bed as sex for payment. In fact, it could just be the introduction to develop a level of comfort. But the gentleman will make his play by demanding to cut through the booking procedure and offer to take care of the girl provided he is taken care of intimately. This is the exchange. It isn’t presented as obvious as cash for sex. No no no, this is definitely not street prostitution. In fact there is often an element of modeling involved (to keep up the appearance of actually working) but the ultimate goal is to provide escort or call girl services to provide income. Often, the woman is in denial of her own situation or reality. She has lied so much that she actually believes she is purely a legitimate model.
The move for the exchange may also be presented by the man in a phrase, “I would like to help you” or by the girl posing a question such as,”Can you help me?” One man explained during an interview, “I took her out. She claimed to be a model but I wasn’t sure because she is 5’4 or 5’3 and I don’t know of any models that short. I’m not an expert, but it just didn’t make sense. Then, at the end of the night, she said that she was interested in coming home with me. I was very turned on. Next, she said that she was short on rent $700 and would only come home with me if I gave her the money. I was shocked. I threw away her number.” The more direct bootleg models know exactly what they want and are upfront in asking the man to take her shopping. I watched another man during a private event at Provocateur a while back discuss with an attractive bootleg model the terms for the surrendering her sex. She said, “Take me shopping baby and I will stay with you. Shall we meet tomorrow at Bergdorf?” It was that obvious and no it wasn’t drunken jargon. The woman was not joking and claimed she doesn’t drink alcohol. The gentleman turned her offer down to acquire gifts for her in exchange for sexual intercourse. I later saw the woman leave with an elderly man roughly in his 60’s.
“She said that she was short on rent $700 and would only come home with me if I gave her the money.”
I interviewed a woman in Florida who wanted to go even more direct, “I’m tired of bags, stupid Chanel or Hermes bags. I don’t want bags from guys. I want them to start paying my rent. I will date a guy if he pays my rent and my car, not a problem for me at all.”
It is difficult to believe that these women actually take gifts or go shopping with men, get the receipt, then go back to the store a day or two later and exchange the product for cash, even if on a credit card (usually they have some connection with the retail person). Is this hooker-istic money laundering tax evasion? Quite the ingenious set up.
But not every Hybrid-Hooker is a part time bootleg model or just pretending to be in the modeling business. Some are licensed in real estate, some are bloggers, some are artists and some are in banking (or claim to be). The blogger career is an ingenious way to combine parallel careers because it almost legitimizes the hooking aspect. I mean, how could someone be so obvious to put their illicit lifestyle on the web for the general public to view? Perhaps that is the most powerful way to show an appearance of legitimacy.
Real estate is a difficult industry to police due to its commission based business model. For years and years prior to 9/11 the US Justice Department was cracking down on the real estate sector for laundering drug money. Post 9/11 unveiled laundering for terrorist organizations (Hybrid-Hookers technically do launder their money earned often in the form of luxury goods). However, the front end of real estate still remains aloof to most outsiders of the industry. Only the IRS knows the real income of the sales agent versus their monthly expenses. So then how does one recognize the Hybrid-Hooker if she claims to be selling or renting out properties? Unless you are the manager or owner of the office then you really can not. This makes it an excellent part time job to have, which could legitimately offer the woman an authentic amount of honest income (assuming she sells or rents a property, not just herself). But the boss sometimes knows and even encourages a woman to go out with potential clients to close the deal. So it used to be date the boss to get ahead. Now, it’s the boss who wants the girl to date everyone in order to makes sales – get ahead. So the range of a Hybrid-Hooker is from using real estate to cover hooking or selling themself, to utilizing hooking to get the sale of a property (convenient combination). The sad part being, a few bad apples tend to put the whole basket in one big room of judgment for others.
A rising sector for the Hybrid-Hooker is economics or banking. A colleague was speaking to a woman a few weeks ago who claimed to be a Managing Partner for some financial firm. The woman had business cards, a few words or knew a bit of the lingo and even made attempts of interacting with people in the business – attending conferences, meetings, seminars, etc. She claimed she was in banking for about two years. When questioned about certain aspects of the business, the woman literally had no idea what she was talking about and vanished from inquisitors of the social scene (who were also in finance-banking). However, she later re-surfaced on a large boat in the Mediterranean with a known to be Madame who arranges escorts for high net worth gentlemen from around the world.
But this is an old story. A girl claiming to be in finance or working on the fringe of finance, then finding out she is the “sex-etary” or in marketing and tries to sleep her way to the top. This is a tale happening since modern corporate America, nothing new here. What is different in recent years are the women who enter into the finance world specifically targeting men for a fake job or part time real job, in exchange for sex. Wall Street is a dirty street located in a run down neighborhood, make no mistake. If you work in finance and haven’t seen an escort pull up in a taxi or black car, go straight into an office and have sex with some 9 to 5 working stiff (pun intended) at 2pm in the afternoon – perhaps you haven’t lived in New York City long enough. But the Hybrid-Hooker is on the hunt for their next pay day or cash equivalent luxury item. Could it be with the economy still cracking like thin ice that the perverted convenient luxury of hooking must now be coupled with actual work? Or maybe it’s just a higher evolved form of hooking. The Hybrid-Hooker is definitely in the higher mind set. She is educated, well spoken, knows how to dress, often multi lingual, is not lacking confidence in a room full of elite social misfits and probably knows as much about fine auctioned art as someone working at Christie’s or Sotheby’s.
The evolution of prostitution to a higher, sophisticated and educated form is only natural. We are in such a high level of society and consciousness with free education on the World Wide Web at the tip of your fingers. With illicit activity becoming more and more difficult to shadow in the face of everyday people who are aware of what is right and what is awkward, the Hybrid-Hooker has adapted. She has accepted work as an integral part of the cover. Society is actually helping her to evolve into a better person. The working portion of her hybrid is forced to pay taxes on wages and commissions, to attend a job and see the legitimate side of life. Or, the Hybrid-Hooker satus could just be the paramount for the woman who is not interested in more than cash for sex. The combination of work-hook could keep her satisfied for years to come until she transforms into something else or not. One thing is for certain, the Hybrid-Hooker is not a fool and will not go away anytiime soon. She may not only take your money for sexual pleasure, but she could even take your job… THE END
