Working Girls

Judge not, lest ye be judged...Jesus of Nazareth.


There's a track from the album 'Frontline' by the great Australian folk/rock band, Redgum. Released in 1984, 'Working Girls' is the story of a young woman who became a prostitute in Sydney.

It goes like this (edited).

She said she came from Portland,
Where the ashen skies...leaden ocean,
Left her like the local boys,
Barren of emotion.

As we talked, we watched the raindrops...
Running down the window.
Laundromat in Darlinghurst,
Like a fish shop from the past.

And her mother called her Mary,
After Mary Magdalene.
To deny her beauty,
Would have been the greatest sin.

It was a profile in the neon,
And a Kings Cross doorway lean.
And half an hour of tending,
Someone else's tangled dream.

There were lines of sailors, lines of speed,
Lines upon the footpath, where she stared,
When things were quiet,
As night deferred to dawn.

And the coke cups played red rover,
In the breeze that scuttled through the streets.
Taxi's left for greener fields,
While Sydney stretched and yawned.

And the wives would clutch their husbands,
Perhaps they shared the shame.
Working streets...wedding rings,
Sometimes much the same.

She tap-danced with the buskers,
Near the subway, shouting blues songs,
They remembered...
From their teenage years of Dreamtime radio.

And the years withdrew behind her eyes,
To let the little girl look out,
In simple childish innocence,
At drawings in the sand.

And her mother called her Mary,
After Mary Magdalene.
She had long dark hair and massage oil...
And a key to let you in.

The lines upon her face,
Were maps of roads she'd travelled...
Lined with people throwing stones,
'Cause, they didn't understand.

That half an hour of tenderness,
Perhaps they shared the shame.
Working streets...wedding rings,
Sometimes much the same.

I question why we, as a society, have an internal hatred of those we have no right to judge?

Mary Magdalene, for example, was one of Jesus' closest disciples, yet, an attempt was made to tarnish her reputation by men, who for reasons it can only be speculated as being based in envy and jealousy, by a patriarchal society, decided that calling her a prostitute and sinner; that she was possessed by demons, suited their agenda.

Why is there such a negative attitude towards women who choose the oldest profession (I am loath to use the word 'prostitute' as it conjures feelings of negativity)?

All the while, men who choose to pay for the services she provides are generally not looked upon in the same way.

Why doesn't 'John' receive the same social dislike/disgust as the women he pays?

I understand that there are women who are forced into this life by abusive men...and also by addiction. I imagine many working girls would not choose this life for themselves and that many others do so only to try to make ends meet; who may have no alternative. I'm sure many happily choose this profession because they can't make the kind of money they would in a nine to five, or because they love the job.

There's something to be said about why so many of the men who use the services of a prostitute have wives waiting for them at home?

And why any wife, if or when she finds out, would hate the prostitute, yet will often remain with their cheating husbands?

We humans sure are complex critters.