dLondon, 17 November 2009:  She was called a “by-numbers male construct” by India Knight, but this

weekend the blogger Belle de Jour revealed she was the real deal, a middle-class woman who funded her

PhD by becoming a prostitute.
In the reveal-all Web 2.0 world, with a generation of users who scream “NOTICE ME”, it seems curious,

even quaint, that someone should wish to remain anonymous. Dr Brooke Magnanti, though, wasn’t

blogging about what she was having for dinner: she was writing about her experiences of being paid for

sex. While holding down a job as a specialist in a hospital research group in Bristol, she secured book

deals and a TV spin-off and was lucky to be able to reveal her identity by choice (she says on her blog she

decided to do it because she could no longer face living a double life, but a fear of being outed by an ex-

boyfriend apparently also influenced the decision).
Some in the blogging community have congratulated Belle, while others believe she was pushed. The

author of troubled-diva.com, who says he knew of her identity for four years, is disappointed because:

“This had been my BEST SECRET EVER, dammit!”
Abby Lee, the author of the sex diary blog Girl With a One-track Mind, probably wishes her identity had

been protected so loyally; in 2006 The Sunday Times revealed that she was Zoe Margolis, an assistant film

director. And the Petite Anglaise blogger Catherine Sanderson lost her job in France after she was outed as

the author of a confessional diary.
Those who sweated over their keyboards at the thought of Belle in the flesh will not be disappointed by Dr

Magnanti’s looks. But if her appeal was her anonymity, there are plenty other blogs to fill the void. One

look at her blog roll (people she is linking to) reveals a host of kindred spirits, such as Mistress Matisse, a

woman from Seattle who describes her blog as “writer/professional dominatrix’s personal musings, rants

and life-trivia.”
Elsewhere there is Mon Mouth — the diary of a male prostitute, who jokes: “I have no tip jar, but you’re

welcome to send me encouraging naked pictures.”
A word of advice, though — sending intimate snapshots to a complete stranger from a Hotmail account

was not how Belle de Jour managed to keep her sex life secret for six years.
Source: http://women.timesonline.co.uk

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