2. Lesbians and Brothels

The pervasive perception in pop culture of lesbians in brothels is that lesbian sex workers see male clients but fall in love with each other (see "Hardcore," "Monster").  But Belliveau also reports in Romance on the Road that lesbian sex tourism (women visiting women) happens in many parts of Greece and Thailand.

In Sex Work: Writings by Women in the Sex Industry, Joan Nestle writes that there were once women-only brothels in Harlem where a lesbian madam kept a shotgun by the door. She also describes the brothels of the late 1800’s and a cross-dressing woman, Jeanne Bonnet who brothels, as a “John." According to Nestle, Bonnet  wounded up enlisting the prostitutes there for her all-girl gang” Now that's a film I'd like to see -- one set in a women-only brothel.