Introduction
The amazingly frank "Memoirs of Josephine M. -The Story of a Viennese Prostitute as Told by Herself" is such a completely detailed life of a modern European prostitute, that it had been suppressed since its original publication. Available only in limited private printings, it has been known to collectors of erotica and psychologists as one of the most graphic descriptions of the day to day life of a whore ever written.
Unmatched for actual description, Josephine M. pulls no punches as she relates the intimate details of her seduction and her gradual entry into the life of a professional prostitute. Curiously attuned to the modern generation Josephine refrains from moralizing.
"This is how it is -this is what happens to me gin who sells her body on a daily basis," she tells us, and leaves us to draw our own conclusions.
As we are caught up in her story of surpassing interest, certain matters seen ti dawn upon us. These points have also been made the subject of much interesting speculation and new arresting studies on the psychology of the prostitute by psychiatrists and sociologists familiar with Josephine M.'s frank revelations.
Perhaps the most interesting concept concerning the modern prostitute or "call girl" is that they do not consider themselves "fallen women" who hate and despise what they do for money. They do not suffer from guilt complexes, nor are they motivated by suicidal or self-destructive subconscious motives. To the great surprise of most psychiatrists who have analyzed girls like Josephine M. in depth, they find that they prostitute enjoys and is happy in her chosen profession.
They have found that the prostitute is generally an attractive highly-sexed girl who secretly thrills to the large variety of males she is enabled to indulge in through her business. To get paid for doing what in most cases is a strong natural urge, is the irrestible bonus that keeps them in the business as long as their bodies can attract a man.
Studies such as "Josephine M." have so upset the traditional thinking on the true psychology of the prostitute, that it has led to radical revision in the laws on prostitution jn many cities in this country. For instance, prostitutes operate with considerable freedom in New York City and are now rarely arrested -we are speaking of street "hookers" now. The more expensive "call girl" who operate from a luxury apartment and has her own switchboard answering service, is practically immune from arrest.
Sociologists and psychiatrists who solemnly spoke of the call girl in terms of a "sick, neurotic woman" find themselves embarrassed with their so called "therapy and rehabilitation programs." How do you go about curing girls who throughly enjoy their lives of promiscuous sex? And in addition, these busy beauties are fast becoming a class of financially elite. It is estimated that almost fifty percent of the luxury high-rise apartments in the most exclusive sections of New York have been taken over by call girls. They are investors in the stock market, real estate and many end up married with very comfortable nest-eggs.
Undoubtedly to the last woman, the modern "joy girl" will be in absolute agreement with the Marquis De Sade's famous exhortation on complete sexual anarchy:
"The whore is the beloved child of nature, the abstinent girl is nature's execration; the whore is deserving of altars, the vestal of the stake. And what more potent insult can a girl fling in nature's teeth than to waste herself by keeping an illusory virginity, whose entire value derives from nothing but the most preposterous of all irrationalities? Fuck, my friends, fuck, I repeat, and sneer with effrontery at the counsel of those who aim to make you captive in the despotic irons of a virtue whence no conceivable good ever has or ever shall come. Abjure them forever, all modesty and reserve; make haste to fuck, be quick, there is only one age for discharging, take advantage of it. For time flies, and if the rose fades you'll find no lover who wants it........"
De Sade seems to have summed up part of the call girl's credo in a nutshell. Since nowadays the financial rewards enable an only better than average looking girl to live very well and attain economic independence fast, the problems facing the psychiatrist dealing with the prostitute come into sharp focus.
The changing pace of the prostitute in modern society is of tremendous concern and interest to all. The starkly revealing document of one such girl, written by herself, will fascinate and enlighten the reader with its vivid picturization of a hidden part of life.
This complete, authentic and unexpurgated Continental Classics edition is presented for the first time in this country. It is recommended for the mature adult reader only.
Allan Saunders, M.A. New York City, July 1967