GLAM TO BE CALL GIRL? RUBBISH

By Maureen Koh from newpaper.asia1.com.sg
April 14, 2008

TREATED like a princess?
Rubbish.

Men showering you with gifts?
Rubbish.

Glam lifestyle?
Rubbish

MsCaimee, 27, said: 'Call it delusion or illusion.

'Ms Sufiah is definitely not telling everything as it is.'

Ms Caimee is a Singaporean Arts and Social Sciences graduate-turned-social escort.

She is one of six tertiary-educated Singapore social escorts who scoff at the rosy picture of prostitution painted by British mathematics prodigy Sufiah Yusof.

Ms Sufiah, 23, had boasted of her sordid lifestyle as a prostitute in a video interview with The News of the World last Sunday.

She had claimed that selling her body provided her with a far more 'glamorous' life than she ever dreamt of when she went to Oxford University.

She has no regrets because, she claimed, she's treated like a 'princess' by the men who buy her body.

Princess?

Puh-lease, Ms Charlene said.

A former law undergrad from a local university who dropped out and became a social escort, Ms Charlene said she was so badly abused by a client two years ago - she was sodomised - that she was hospitalised for more than two weeks.

'I had to stop working for about a month after that,' she said. 'That is one of the perils of the job.

'You don't have control over who your clients are, and you can't expect to meet gentlemen all the time.'

Ms Charlene, 29, has also contracted sexually transmitted diseases - twice.

'One of them was a regular client who refused to wear a condom,' she said.

What of Ms Sufiah's claim of being showered with gifts?

'Showered with gifts?' Ms Elise, 27, asked. 'Please, most of the stuff I own, I paid for with my own money.'

Ms Elise became a social escort when she found that the money helped pay for her 'love for branded goods'.

Ms Charlene said that being showered with attention is likelier: 'Well, they paid for the time, so of course their attention will be on you. Would you be expecting anything less?'

And then there is Ms Sufiah's boast that her expertise in mathematics was part of the thrill for her clients.

'My clients,' Ms Charlene said, 'don't get turned on by my intelligence in bed. I really don't think any of them would want me to recite the penal code to them while we are having sex.'

She laughed derisively and said: 'It would be a complete turn-off!'

But if the life of a social escort is so sordid, why waste a good education and sell your body?

Apart from the easy money, there are always extenuating circumstances.

Of the six who spoke to The New Paper on Sunday, Ms Charlene said she could identify with Ms Sufiah most of all.

'In some aspects, I think we're quite alike.'

PRESSURE

Unable to take the constant pressure of lectures and tutorials, she dropped out of her law studies in 2004. An only child, she said her life spiralled out of control from that moment.

She recalled: 'My mum was utterly disappointed with me.

'But what she did not realise was that the high hopes she had placed on me gave me tremendous pressure.'

Her parents had divorced when she was three.

When her mother found out that she had quit her studies, their relationship soured.

'She simply went ballistic when my dean called her,' Ms Charlene said.

She tried to reconcile with her mother, but was unsuccessful. Then she sank into depression.

'I had to put up with a friend. I had no money,' she said.

Her friend, also a law student, was working part-time as a social escort.

Ms Charlene said: 'Oh, they had different names - professional entertainer, lady companion - but ultimately, they all mean the same thing.

'I became a high-class prostitute.'

She added: 'Somehow, you feel the sex is all so sordid, but it's also the fastest way to get clients. You take as many as you can, to earn the money you want.'

Six months into the trade, MsCharlene decided to get her own 'agent' - a pimp - to manage her bookings.

She charges about $550 for an hour and 'clients have to book a minimum of three hours'. Her agent takes a 10 per cent cut of the first hour.

She does not serve Singapore clients.

'Most of the men I serve are businessmen from Brunei and Indonesian Chinese,' she said.

'They're usually more generous with their money. The tips are better.'

Ms Charlene admitted: 'It's easy money for me, however shameful that may come across.'

Yet there are risks and sacrifices.

'Now and then, the clients have odd requests such as role-play,' she said. 'And sometimes, the play gets too rough and turns ugly.'

EMBARRASSING

She also has to deal with embarrassing situations, such as running into former classmates and friends.

'If I see them from afar, I try to avoid them,' she added.

'It would be too humiliating for me if they knew the truth.'

Ms Charlene's mother died in September last year after battling liver cancer. Mother and daughter never got to make peace.

There are times, Ms Charlene said, when she looks at her mother's photos and wishes she had spent more time with her before she died.

'My aunty tells me that Mum died of a broken heart. And sometimes I think it's true.

'I don't think she has forgiven me.'

This is why Ms Charlene felt that Ms Sufiah should reconcile with her mother, Mrs Halimahton Yusof.

She said: 'I feel for both of them.

'From media reports, it seems that Ms Sufiah has led a warped life from young.

'Now that she has been thrust into the limelight, maybe she should reconsider her options and go back to her family.

'She must realise one thing: Easy cash does not pay for low self-esteem.'

Last year, Ms Charlene took up part-time studies at a university. She hopes to earn herself a degree in four years.

'There are just so many years you can sell your body. There'll come a day when clients are attracted to younger, prettier women,' she said.

'I don't want to wait idly for that day to come - it'll be too lonesome for me. There are many things I regret now... but I can't turn time around.

'I can only try to be kinder to myself.'