Randolph College is an elite liberal arts college in Lynchburg, Virginia. This is the same town that hosts Liberty Baptist Church, which was made famous by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Randolph, therefore is not exactly Reed or Oberlin, Hampshire or Wesleyan—schools where the children of the liberal rich go to get a degree. Rather, the school is a prestigious and historic Southern institution founded as Randolph-Macon Women’s College in 1891. Men were admitted so recently that the newly co-ed college does not have a single male student who was signed up for Randolph’s American Culture Program this semester, which recently came to Las Vegas to study the topic of consumption.
Can you think of a better place to examine consumption than Las Vegas?
Of course, sex is one of the things that Las Vegas encourages its visitors to consume. So, along with traditional visits to Bally’s and the Fremont Street Experience, the class of Randolph students headed by van to the Chicken Ranch brothel in Pahrump to meet prostitutes and tour one of the only legal brothels in the United States.
Randolph junior Johna Strickland, 22, did not see heading to the brothel as an eccentric choice at all for college credit. “I think our visit to the Chicken Ranch was a valid and important educational experience. We came to the Chicken Ranch because the place and the people had something to teach us. We came to learn, and I for one did just that.”
Only two of the working prostitutes at the Chicken Ranch were up for facing the students, along with the Chicken Ranch’s manager. The media were also invited, and the room where the brothel line-ups usually take place was packed with everyone from local television reporters to the Associated Press.
There was one tiny delay before class: Alicia, a prostitute, had a customer just before things started. But she was soon in her seat, with a short dress that offered not nearly enough fabric to cover her bust, ready to answer questions. Her colleague Alexis was already sitting, dressed in a more conservative outfit, gazing at note cards for her presentation.
“I decided to talk to the students,” Alexis said later, “because I really think there is a lot about this business that people don’t know, and some of it is positive. I am writing a book about being a brothel prostitute, and this seemed a good way to get the word out and see how people react. I hope the students learned we are normal people who provide a service that men need.”
And, apparently, in part, that was the lesson the students took away from their unique field trip. According to Strickland, “I was surprised at the normalness of everything. The dogs in the grassy yard, Alexis dressing just like us, the furniture that could have been in my living room, Alicia saying she didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs.”
But obviously there are also big differences between brothel prostitutes in Nevada and students at an exclusive Southern college. And, as a student, Strickland was also very aware of the courage the Chicken Ranch workers showed in talking to them:
“I loved that they saw themselves as feminists and were willing to discuss the intimate details of their lives with us. When I thanked Alicia for allowing us to visit and showing me her room, she thanked me for being willing to visit and bringing an open mind. I hadn’t fully realized what her part in our journey could have cost her. What if we had been condescending and condemned her career choice right to her face? That she was willing to take a risk to enhance my education really touched me. Makes me wonder how the American education system could change if all professors and people met on field trips were so open and honest in what they had to impart.”
It’s an interesting question. And, interestingly, despite the flood of graduate-level sociological, anthropological and feminist studies on prostitution, this is the first time that anyone attending could remember an undergraduate college class actually visiting a brothel.
According to the public relations manager who has been representing the Chicken Ranch for decades: “I can’t remember a more rewarding experience here than doing this.”
And, the all-female class of 11 students had at least one question that even surprised the workers at the Chicken Ranch: One asked if it was possible to get a male prostitute.
“I was totally surprised someone asked that,” Alexis said. “I have never even thought of men doing this job for women.”