413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

everything. I collected the money, gave the orders” (E2). For some pimps, bottoms served as the primary
personnel manager while the pimp managed the money. One respondent explained, “My bottom had the
program, I was just around. They’ve done it before, they weren’t new to gentlemen’s clubs and
prostitution. She just put a little team together and I was basically the management to say we should do
this with the money” (G1). Another respondent explained that the bottom completed more general,
everyday management duties. He stated,
A bottom girl set dates, made sure girls are properly dressed, hygiene properly taken care
of, bills paid, need to go to doctors, had something they need to talk about but couldn’t
talk to me … When a female asks a blunt question, “How we do this”, instead of calling
me, “Hey Daddy what we do” Just ask the bottom and she will tell you. (D5)
Pimps exerted more direct control over and provided specific instructions to their bottom, which allowed
a pimp to impose rules and discipline indirectly over the rest of his employees. Speaking about the pimp
she worked for, one bottom explained, “He advised me a lot, he dealt with the money—keeping the money
on the cards, he was sort of the inside guy. Just because when females wanted a job they don’t want to
work for the male, they want to work for a woman, so he knew that money was coming in but didn’t know
… the specifics” (A8). Pimps could also instruct their bottom (or other women, as in the case below) to
incite violence as a means of control, without personally using force:
You had your bottom chick. I had female cousins also, that were [there] if I needed
assistance. I always enjoyed having a female doing the discipline rather than a male.
Women like to listen to women. A chick will buck on you because she wants you to hit
her; she knows she can get you locked up. A female-on-female fight is not as serious as a
male-on-female [fight]. (C4)
A pimp’s relationship to his bottom often extended beyond business-related job duties; one respondent
explained his relationship with his bottom: “We lived together; we took care of the household. It was
pretty much both our money. It was more like a relationship than pimping and prostituting. We both had
responsibilities” (E12). Personal intimacy often meant that the business management relationship was
complex. One pimp stated that while he had an intense bond with his bottom, their relationship would
end if she stopped engaging in sex work: “Me and my bottom had a bond out of this world, had a
relationship, not boyfriend or girlfriend, but real serious. But if she was ever to stop hoing, she is gone.”
(B3)
Non-Sex Worker Partners and Employees
Pimps sometimes employed individuals who did not engage in sex work to complete a number of different
duties associated with the business. Twenty-five percent of respondents reported employing people to
fulfill business-related tasks outside of sex work. The duties of non-sex work employees ran the gamut.
One respondent had a butler and explained, “I always kept an in-house nanny on standby in case anyone
had kids” (D18). Others employed people to assist with advertising; an interviewee noted, “My friend
would hand out the cards and help with the women and I handled the business side—the money” (G5).
As businesses grew, additional employees became increasingly necessary to answer client inquiries and
manage security. Drivers were also employed to chauffeur pimps and employees. A female pimp
explained, “I had a couple of drivers … It depended on how far they drove; they would get $50 for an hour
away and for gas” (F1). Employees could fulfill multiple duties. Another respondent explained, “In the
beginning, I was receiving the calls, but then my drivers started taking them. It was a different number in
each city, and the drivers were taking the calls and driving the girls. I had a driver for each woman, so I
had five” (H5).
Another respondent, who ran an escort service, hired a secretary to help her manage incoming calls. She
explained, “I answered the phones. No matter what time of day. We had myself and a secretary, another
lady. I didn’t have to pay her. She did it because she wanted to be cute and use her sexy voice” (H8). The
same respondent hired a full security team to protect herself and her employees while they worked:
I had security. At one point a girl got robbed at gunpoint by three guys. I got 17 guys on
security detail. Paid $200 a day. Fifteen would work in a day. Two security on me at all
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