Sex and the good employer

What would your employer do if he or she discovered that you had previously earned your living as what is now called a "sex worker"?

Yes, we are talking about prostitution here, the selling of sexual services. And, as in all markets, the prices of these services — let's not go into too much detail — depend fundamentally on the forces of supply and demand.

I wanted to ask Maynard, my pet parrot and economic adviser, for his views on the market for sexual services. Maynard, as you may remember, is named after Britain's most famous economist, John Maynard Keynes, and is an expert in matters of supply and demand.

Maynard, however, wasn't cooperating. He finds the whole sex industry utterly distasteful and won't even discuss the matter with me. He just shook his head and squawked "immoral". Fair enough.

Nevertheless, a story relating to the sex industry in Britain warmed my heart this week. Dr Brooke Magnanti, a cancer research scientist at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health, announced that she had previously worked as a call girl.

The positive point was that Dr Magnanti's employer, Bristol University, is standing by her. "This aspect of her past bears no relevance to her current role at the university," said a spokesman.

In fact, Magnanti was not just any call girl. As a PhD student in 2003, she wrote anonymously about her experiences as a high-class prostitute in a blog for more than a year. Her nom de plume was Belle de Jour.

The blog led to a lucrative book deal and a touching, funny and sexy TV series, The Secret Diary of a Call Girl, starring Billie Piper.

Magnanti was finally forced to identify herself before journalists or an ex-boyfriend did so. Nobody need feel sorry for her, nor should her humorous description of her experiences make anyone forget how grim the reality of prostitution normally is.

But Magnanti's employers get full marks for the way they have supported her. Even Maynard agrees with that.