WE ARE HOOKERS FOR JESUS? (70s ideal for revolutionary women and revolutionary sex of the cult group CHILDREN OF GOD)
WE ARE ALL PROSTITUTES? (80s state-of-mind remixed for the 2000s)
Mario Mentrup
Berlin/Madrid
January -March 2008
There was this one night at Babie Deinhoffs , a gay/lesbian bar in the todays hip-district of our town: Berlin-KREUZBERG ( means
americans & scandinavians buy appartments and houses like crazy here). Yes indeed Barbie Deinhoffs is a wild Bar and a silly Bar, crowded with nightlife-tourists waiting for doors to open at Berghain' s( Inscene dancefloor-place with a darkroom for everybody and Hardcore Hip-doorkeepers), and of course the usual Barbie Deinhoffs crowd: drugged and drunken egomaniacs; be they gay, straight or porn.
I had a big laugh watching this young -musican- guy trying to discuss the lines "WE ARE ALL PROSTITUTES" by the 80sAct Pop Group with two friends of mine. My two friends, veryveryvery drunken ladies, one of them a struggling actrice, the other one a quite popular Music Act, were not amused at all. The actrice pulled the minimal-electropop-artist from his chair outta the Bar into the dark of cold Berlin night, yelling at him: WE AAARRRE NOOO PROSTITUTES!!!!! The guy tried to get in again, wanting to explain himself, to make his point clear: "The line of the song was so full of truth, bitter and hard to swallow, but anyway true and..."
blablablablablablablabla..........
must the noise have been the ladies heard. No Mercy this time! Now they were two chicks gettin on him, kicking him out," Fucker! Fuck yourself, Pervert!!! Damn you!!!! callin us Prostitutes!!" 2 - 3 times." Fucker! Fuck yourself!"The guy had to give up and go.
People in the Bar went on being ego here ego there, babble and drink. I had to giggle real hard... I ordered another Beer.Yes FUCK yourself!! The damn drunken chicks had been right: neither they were prostitutes nor the guy because he was only a twenty/thirtysomethin Clubber/Electronicpopmusician wating to get signed by a label again.
So maybe the guy had felt a sensation of self-exploitation in front of a lower middle class Labelchef with typical GERMAN ANGST (the shit ANGST is nowadays more contagious than AIDS) but no!!! the chicks were - because of primitively sheer serious drunkenness not able to follow the guys' argument- absolutely right :"We are No Prostiutes..."
The Night went on and the old 80s paranoia- formed lines of POP GOUP had become sour.
2 or 3 months later I had a night in Madrid, a Bar crowded with artists, students and the usual Hip-Gayscene. I was invited by the german Goethe Institute to create art-for-hire (how stupid can you go? Yo!!! Hey but it's the modern times? I am gettin 43..I'm too old for Rock n Roll and especially ART goes POP) THATS WHAT I THOUGHT... A young British artist was playing Cds and Downloads- VERY sophisticated New York ..Iceland...Finland...Rock/electro/Kraut/Prog- as this spanish young Lady came to me and invited me for a double Gin Tonic...I remembered seeing her at the Goethe Institut and she told me she was doing German classes because she wanted to graduate at a Berlin actors school. She ordered some more Drinks, asking me about any manouvres and tricks how- to- become -an- actor BLABLABLA... She saw me looking at the huge glass of Gin Tonic. She must have read my thoughts: How-expensive-this night-would-become?
Her tone suddenly changed from an innocent art girl's voice to a darker tone : degrading me and my few euros in my jeans and damn all masculinity in general. Those were her words: "Don't you have a problem. I got enough money. The men think I'm so sweet... They think they fuck me, I fuck them, I fuck old men...Pays the rent, so don't you worry!" Having said that, she ordered another round of Gin Tonics. The night went on. We were visiting some more bars in Madrid. Finally I found myself totally pissed in her room-mate's bedroom. A former top model for top magazines. Now she was a nude model of another deranged example of masculinity.
I woke up with a BIG hangover, but i pulled myself together. I didnt want to miss my plane back to Berlin. In Berlin i stayed two weeks at home, not seeing a damn person, being sick of it all: No Money in my pocket. Street philosopy! In- Scene! Degradation! I went down to the cafe' in my street and read an article about those many many young women in Paris and Rome studying and financing their livestyle as escort girls or webcamgirls. We all know Youporn, pornotube etc. is giving the professional porn industry a big headache. The Californian burlesque strippers SUICIDE GIRLS were the hottest thing last year.
It seems like in the 20s and 30s in Europe or like after WW II: callgirls and hookers, cabaret dancers organizing themselves. A lot of of prostitution was also going on in WIRTSCHAFTSWUNDER Deutschland 50s and 60S . I remember as a kid listening to the damn jokes the adults made: First looking at the new born child then looking right into the face of the father , they said: "Doesnt really look like you, ha?!!!
Those were the days...
The ordinary uptight guy with no money extra in his pocket and whose aim was not to be a gangster or a pimp had only one choice.KEEP THE SECRET. Never ask your wife more questions than needed. Because he had no right to do so. If the tiny soldier couldn't bring enough money home to feed his wife and the family: No questions allowed. There is a whole literature genre about this situation: the most striking example is the novel CHINCHILLA by Renate Rasp, published in the 70s, during the Rise and Fall of sexual liberation in German Federal Republic (BRD)
Porno is a degrading media and even like so many TV-gameshows or Youtube-culture today it is a medium where the (male) Spectator/Voyeur can get a feeling of superiority watching others - in pornflicks mainly women - being abused and dehumanized or via youtube: celebs making asses of themselves.... Remember the silly giggles of the MTV cartoon characters BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD? Neoliberalism..Globalisation is empowering the act of dehumanizing ourselves....EVERYWHERE!!! Not only in Damascus, in Moskau and Bukarest , Tokyo EVERWHERE... It means for Daddy that there is no Dualism any more, no right and wrong, no Good and Evil, no pussy outdoors and meals at home..No more "la maman et la putain": It s your daughter!!! Remembering the frustrating Filmscene in MIIKE TAKASHIS VISITOR Q the cheap/sicko Adaption of Pasolinis THEOREMA : the Daddy, a customer of a LOVE HOTEL sees in the mirror that he's fucking his own daughter.
The Phallus has been in possession of the sun god and the state. No longer. Now dark powers expose the male security: rootless cosmopolitan elements.
Foxes, Hyenas, Eagles, Witches disguised as human beings: Hustlers!
The young musician guy from Berlin will be lucky as long as he can be sure the girls of his peer-group are no prostitutes, because he can't pay their rent anyway, with or without being a Hustler. But anyway. Maybe "Its the Beginning of a New Age" (Velvet Underground) or the decline of an "Empire" (Antonio Negri). But still now it forces us to rethink our sober- nonsmoking- clean -middleclass ideals of Motherhood Fatherhood Property Sex Bodypolitcs Sensuality Relationship Family Marriage Jealousy Possession Obssession Perversity Normality Love and Lust
