MY NEW HERO
Alexis Wright
ALFRED, Maine — A fitness instructor who ran a prostitution operation out of her Zumba dance studio had as many as five clients a day and wanted her business partner monitoring the trysts, according to her emails and text messages to him. The messages between fitness instructor Alexis Wright and insurance agent Mark Strong Sr. were obtained Tuesday through a records request by the Portland Press Herald. The communications included spreadsheets Wright used to keep track of her clients, with names, dates, times, sex acts and payments. Wright pleaded guilty last month to 20 counts including prostitution for using her studio in Kennebunk, a village known more for its sea captains’ homes and beaches than for crime, as a front for prostitution. Strong was convicted of 13 counts.
Today’s story of capitalistic zeal gone awry comes to us straight from the “So What Exactly Is The Crime Here?” file…and I’m not certain that I have an answer.
Evidently having decided that running a Zumba dance studio wasn’t lucrative enough for her tastes, Ms. Wright (and I’ll leave the way too easy pun laying right there) decided to expand the scope of…um, “services” that she could offer clients. Personally, I’m beyond impressed with Ms. Wright’ stamina. Running a dance studio AND having sex with up to four or five male clients a day? That’s some world-class stamina there, don’tchathink? By all accounts an astute business woman, it seems Ms. Wright identified a need in the local marketplace and met that needly admirably. It wears me out just thinking about it, but being young and in excellent physical condition, Ms. Wright evidently possessed the drive and determination to keep her customers happy.
Now that I’m just about out of puns and double entendres, I find myself wondering exactly what the crime was that Ms. Wright and her partner were guilty of committing. It appears that the only harm done was to Kennenbunk’s collective morality, but Ms. Wright was providing a service that men in the community were willing to pay for. No one held a gun to her head- or theirs- and her services were limited to various sexual acts. Ms. Wright recorded the encounters- whether for her own protection or for the titillation provider to her partner isn’t clear. If she had used the video footage as blackmail material, I could see where actual harm might have been done, but that doesn’t appear to have been the case.
Outside of the scandal that the good, God-fearing (and evidently sexually repressed) people of Kennebunk created out of the case, I fail to see where Ms. Wright is guilty of anything. Except perhaps being an attractive, sexually active woman who just happened to be possessed of impressive stamina and the ability to get paid for said sexual activity. And what of the men- her customers? When last I checked, it generally takes two people to consummate a sexual encounter, and…oh, never mind. They’re getting theirs, too.
Authorities then set the town abuzz with word that they would be charging each of the johns, leading residents to wonder who they were. The scores of people charged with engaging Wright’s services include a former mayor, a high school hockey coach, a minister, a lawyer and a firefighter.
Oh, the humanity! People had sex with people who weren’t their spouses, and one party got paid for her services. The men involved certainly have some questions to answer and more than a few fences to mend with the families. I still don’t understand what the crime is- really, what harm was done to the community? This was in every sense of the word a victimless crime.
Hey, if I could make $150,000 over the course of a year for having sex…well, that’s another story for another time….
Remember, when sex is outlawed, only outlaws will have sex…and I kinda like the idea of living outside the law.
