Surrogate sex partner inspires story, film

Big Don

Sr. Grandmaster
[h=1]Surrogate sex partner inspires story, film[/h] Edward Guthmann, SFGate San Francisco Chronicle EXCERPT:

Tuesday, January 10, 2012
In 38 years as a surrogate partner - a profession formerly known as a sex surrogate - Cheryl Cohen Greene has helped all kinds of clients. She's worked with couples, with married men and single men, with disabled people, with men in their 60s, 70s and 80s who have never had sex.
One of her clients, the poet and journalist Mark O'Brien, was stricken with polio at 6 and spent most of his life in an iron lung. In 1986, when O'Brien was 36 and a virgin, he hired Cohen Greene as his surrogate partner. They met six times and remained friends until O'Brien's death in 1999.
Their story is now an independent film, "The Surrogate," which premieres Jan. 23 at the Sundance Film Festival. Starring John Hawkes ("Winter's Bone") as O'Brien and Helen Hunt ("As Good as It Gets") as Cohen Greene, it's adapted from a 1990 article, "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate," that O'Brien wrote for the Sun magazine of North Carolina.
Written and directed by Ben Lewin, "The Surrogate" was filmed in Santa Monica last spring on a $1.3 million budget. Cohen Greene, a paid consultant, spent a week on the set in May and plans to attend the world premiere at Sundance. "I haven't seen the whole film," she says. "But it's pretty frank from what I can tell."
O'Brien was also the subject of a 1996 Oscar-winning documentary short, "Breathing Lessons" by Jessica Yu.
At 67, vibrant and attractive, Cohen Greene still works as a surrogate partner, seeing clients in her Berkeley studio. She's married to her second husband, Bob Greene, and has a daughter, 46, and son, 43, from her first marriage.
Born and raised in Salem, Mass., she moved to Berkeley in 1968, and says her work as a surrogate grew from her years as a volunteer with the San Francisco Sex Information hotline. "It was fascinating to listen to people and not be judgmental, to learn about myself and see what buttons got pushed. ... Up until then I'd never even met gay or bisexual men or women."
In the early '60s, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, best-selling authors of "Human Sexual Response," started training surrogate partners at their research institute in St. Louis. Cohen Greene learned the Masters and Johnson approach from a Berkeley sex therapist. It incorporated the "sensate focus" method of sensual touch and genital exploration with verbal feedback.
END EXCERPT
Can anyone explain how "Sexual Surrogates" are NOT over educated prostitutes? Because, Merriam Webster defines prostitute as:
1

a : a woman who engages in promiscuous sexual intercourse especially for money : whore b : a male who engages in sexual and especially homosexual practices for money
That one does other things as well, doesn't, IMO, change the fact that they are selling sex.
 
No it doesn't change that basic fact.

But whilst it is not a profession that I would choose for myself (because I'd lose money rather than make it :D) neither is it something that I would condemn someone for out of hand if it is what they choose to do. At least they provide a useful service, unlike those leaches on the stock markets of the globe or professional politicians.

Where I think this differs from lasses who end up 'working the streets' is that those such as Cheryl Greene are not particularly likely to be suffering the tender 'management' of a pimp (who, in my '"Outraged of Hemel Hempsted"' opinion are the ones that should be relieved of having to bear the burden of life). So they are not 'victims' and neither are they creating problems for society at large by their activities.
 
Sounds like a Hooker to me. No different between her and the $2.00 crack head on the corner that meets you in the ally
 
Sounds like a Hooker to me. No different between her and the $2.00 crack head on the corner that meets you in the ally

I'm sure you're just as judgemental about all of Hollywood, then, since an honest appraisal of the vast majority of todays movies will lead to the conclusion that they're all about sex and violence. And violent sex. And sexy violence.

And of course, to be consistent, you'd have to condem all the athletes in the world. They also make a living by selling their bodies.

Or is it just S-E-X that bothers you?

It's her body. Who are YOU to decide what consenting adults can do?
 
I'm sure you're just as judgemental about all of Hollywood, then, since an honest appraisal of the vast majority of todays movies will lead to the conclusion that they're all about sex and violence. And violent sex. And sexy violence.

And of course, to be consistent, you'd have to condem all the athletes in the world. They also make a living by selling their bodies.

Or is it just S-E-X that bothers you?

It's her body. Who are YOU to decide what consenting adults can do?
Im not being judgemental I was answering the OP question if it was prostitution or not and as I said it is. She is no better then the Crack head that will do whatever for $2.00 in the ally.

The S-E-X is what makes it ILLEGAL. Its prostitution no matter what she tries to call it and last time I looked its Illegal In California.

Hollywood and athletes dont sell S-E-X.

I could care less what consenting adults do other then the fact that Prostitution is ILLEGAL and well since IM the PO-PO I have seen 1st hand that not all Prostitution is consenting.
 
Im not being judgemental I was answering the OP question if it was prostitution or not and as I said it is. She is no better then the Crack head that will do whatever for $2.00 in the ally.

And is there anybody else other than you who doesn't see that as judgemental?

Hollywood and athletes dont sell S-E-X. [/QUOTE}

What world do YOU live in? :BSmeter:
 
And is there anybody else other than you who doesn't see that as judgemental?
Lucky for me I could care less what you or anyone else thinks :bangahead:

Hollywood and athletes dont sell S-E-X. [/QUOTE}

What world do YOU live in? :BSmeter:
Selling sex appeal is not the same as selling intercourse. The thread is about intercourse not sex appeal. One is legal and one is illegal in most areas of the country.
 
Maybe she just does it for tips?

I couldn't help it.

BTW - this is prostitution and that doesn't bother me a bit. This sounds like a great business plan.
 
Maybe she just does it for tips?

I couldn't help it.

BTW - this is prostitution and that doesn't bother me a bit. This sounds like a great business plan.
And if this was the norm for prostitution it wouldn't bother me either. But its not the norm. There are way more woman kidnapped or tricked from other countries mostly latin and south amreica that are forced to prostitute themselves.
 
And if this was the norm for prostitution it wouldn't bother me either. But its not the norm. There are way more woman kidnapped or tricked from other countries mostly latin and south amreica that are forced to prostitute themselves.

Highest incidences of human and child trafficking are Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine afaik...
 
Why, I ask, is this legal but, the massage parlor girl giving a happy ending is not? Both are a separate service followed by sex...
 
An intriguing question, Don. I suppose it could be put forward that the 'surrogate' is providing a medical service as it is supposed to be 'therapy' of sorts? But that's a tad tenuous I admit.

It's a similar question when you consider where 'art' stops and 'porn' begins. Each of us has a 'guide-line' for ourselves about which is which but it is sometimes difficult to articulate it.
 
Prostitution is not illegal in the UK nor many countries in Europe. Kerb crawling, forcing someone into prostitution, living off immoral earnings ( pimping) and pandering is illegal. I don't honestly see anything wrong with what she does, it's honest and straighforward unlike politicians and their expenses or 'trophy' wives.
So she sells sex and? No-one is forced to buy. Trafficking is a different issue altogether and not at all similiar to what she's doing.
 
Highest incidences of human and child trafficking are Eastern Europe, particularly the Ukraine afaik...

Must differ by region. Here we have a higher concentration of latin gangs like MS13 that run huge prostitution rings. Not just in urban areas too. They found an MS 13. Brothel in my home town of 11 thousand people. It was linked to a crew out of northern Va. That town is over 2 hrs from N Va. The girls were kidnapped from central american countries and forced to prostitute themselves or die. We have found a few of these houses where i work as well.
 
Must differ by region. Here we have a higher concentration of latin gangs like MS13 that run huge prostitution rings. Not just in urban areas too. They found an MS 13. Brothel in my home town of 11 thousand people. It was linked to a crew out of northern Va. That town is over 2 hrs from N Va. The girls were kidnapped from central american countries and forced to prostitute themselves or die. We have found a few of these houses where i work as well.



Well, transport is easier....throw them in the back of a truck...
 
Big Don;[URL="tel:1452696" said:
1452696[/URL]]
Can anyone explain how "Sexual Surrogates" are NOT over educated prostitutes? Because, Merriam Webster defines prostitute as:That one does other things as well, doesn't, IMO, change the fact that they are selling sex.

From Wikipedia:

A sexual surrogate is a member of a sex therapy team who engages in intimate physical relations or sex with a patient in order to achieve a therapeutic goal. The practice was introduced by Masters and Johnson with their work on Human Sexual Inadequacy in 1970.
Most surrogates are women, a few are men, and there are married couples that practice surrogacy together. Some surrogates work at counseling centers while others have their own office. Some surrogates offer additional services besides surrogacy such as telephone counseling or sexological bodywork.

The majority of surrogates have professional certification in the fields of sexuality, psychology or counseling. This allows them to work closely with psychiatrists, psychologists, sexologists and other therapists in the best interests of the patient. Sex surrogates use a combination of three techniques — talking, listening and demonstration — to help resolve a patient's sexual problems.

 
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