Masquerading in the streets dressed like a Michael Jackson replica is a sure way to catch anyone’s attention. If that fails, try swinging from a flagpole in the middle of Castries, near the island’s government buildings! There really is never a dull moment with Ecstasy, a notorious working girl who’s more than made her mark on St Lucia’s entertainment scene.
“The only dull moment I have is when I’m sleeping,” she said this week in an interview with the STAR. “They call me the energizer bunny because I never slow down.”
The commercial sex industry and all that comes with it is the furthest thing from being a bed of roses, but even with all the reasons in the world one can think of to be unhappy, Ecstasy is high off life. Despite her profession she’s strict about her decision not to do drugs, but maintains high spirits no matter what.
“Life,” she responds when asked about the root of her happiness. “Look around you, there’s a lot of young girls who cannot be in my position. I’m very energetic and full of life. When I’m out there everyone has to have a great time. If I’m in a bar nobody has to be sad.”
Moments earlier the 26-year-old had materialized at the STAR offices decked in a tight fitting yellow baby-tee, short denim mini skirt and matching geometric print pumps. Her face was carefully made up, hair pulled back into a ponytail and she was a woman on a mission. She was looking for STAR contributor ‘Biky-B!’
Fortunately or not, Small Talk’s most sought after contributor was nowhere to be found! Ecstasy claimed to be an avid reader of the STAR, particularly Small Talk’s local gossip section and figured she was one of last weekend’s hot topics that had to do with an “exotic dancer” flashing her “special ring” to an unsuspecting female at a bar.
“I wasn’t pleased with that and I think it should have been put in a different manner,” she said. “I do have a ring down there, but the thing about the ring didn’t happen. Everyone knows my profession. I don’t think a woman of my standard and my class would go in a bar, put my foot up and show that. All the wild I wild, I don’t think I would do that.”
By now we’ve all heard about the Line Jam ‘flag pole’ incident. Those who weren’t there have very likely seen in photographs the heights Ecstasy can reach in her element. Her “freedom zone”, where she gets a thrill from having all eyes on her, and lives for the way she’s able to ensure everyone around her has a good time.
On her working girl hustle, her party life starts on Wednesday night and ends on Sunday night, during which time she says she hits up all the popular bars on the Rodney Bay strip. She goes about her carefully planned route making all the routine stops, then does it all over again the very same night!
“I love going out and I go bar hopping from one to the next,” she said. “I’m a party animal. A party would not be good if I’m not there.”
But what does it really feel like to have everyone around you looking and attempting to access and analyze you at every moment of the day?
“There are certain people you get a lot of discrimination from, but other people, even the smallest child in my village, Gros Islet when they pass they’d be like, “Mummy look Ecstasy”, “Mommy look the girl on the pole!” “Mommy look Michael Jackson!” I love the publicity and the entertainment.”
“I used to be a stripper,” she revealed. “I cannot say no longer because I got an invitation that I’m considering, to go to a strip club here to entertain the girls, teach them how to dance.”
By her own definition she is “a local performer” and by extension a “tourism worker.”
“I would not call myself a prostitute,” she explains. “Let’s put that in a different bracket. I am considered to be one of the most truthful working girls out there—entertaining and reliable because my clients always come back. I do not consider myself to be a prostitute, get this right. I consider myself to be a tourism worker, because I do not entertain black people. I only entertain white people, or foreigners.”
In a typical day Ecstasy can expect to get calls to “entertain” at any time. “Entertain” because in her words, “it’s not all about the sexual life.”
“I could go and entertain someone by cooking for them with nothing on, going to dinner with them or if they have problems in their relationship I talk to them,” she explains. “These are some of the normal requests I get. Some of the other requests are kinda strange but if I can do it I will. Some of them want to have sex without a condom. My status here is that because of the HIV and AIDS Foundation Alliance we have made a vow not to have unprotected sex in any way. They provide us with everything and you have to keep that status. When clients ask for that I tell them no. Some of them want me to urinate on them. I could do that for them. Some of them even request to have a ‘body feast.’ Some like to be rubbed with oil and others like to be whipped. I’m always prepared for whatever.”
Ecstasy says she’s always wanted to be a stripper. There was a brief moment she considered becoming a dentist, but was turned off by the thought of dealing with stinky breath! So it was full speed ahead to her dreams of becoming a pole dancer.
“When I’m on a pole I feel freedom, I feel light, I feel life,” she said. “Before I would dance on the ropes and I have to say, no one ever taught me to dance. I learnt by myself, with stress as a young girl growing up. I had to put my stress into something. I do not feel fear. I feel a lot of gladness when I’m out there. I know for one I get a lot of publicity when people are watching me once I start climbing the pole and that’s what I’m looking for. I don’t want to be walking and have someone say, “I don’t like that girl.” I want to hear everyone say, “Look at Ecstasy!”
Originally from a nearby Caribbean island, she’s lived in St Lucia almost her entire life. Her progress into the sex industry started when she ran away from her mother’s home at 16.
“I lived in St Lucia from the time I was 14, and started experiencing St Lucia’s “good nature” when I was 16.”
The story of meeting the man who changed her life starts with the line: “Apparently I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“We met by the market and I went home with him,” she retells. “He took my virginity, locked me in a room and taught me to dance. He didn’t want me to leave. He locked me in the room and gave me drugs. I had never seen drugs in my life. I passed through a window and split.”
With pole dancing dreams still in her head, it didn’t take much to get her into the strip club.
“I went to the strip club at seventeen and started entertaining,” she says. “When I got onstage everyone was saying, “that’s a “special breed”, so I put my all into it and just gave them what they wanted.”
Ecstasy didn’t have pleasant memories of growing up with her mother who raised 12 children on her own.
“That stressed me out,” she said. “I have to say, I grew up in church. I didn’t have a good life when I was young, growing without a father. I’m part of a quadruplet. Sad to say one is in jail, that’s why we migrated here. There’s another one here and the forth, a girl, died at birth. My umbilical cord was around her. It was two boys and two girls but only three survived. I’m closest to my brother in jail. We’re inseparable, right now as he’s in jail it’s kinda . . .” she said breaking off, showing the first hint of real emotion. “I don’t really like to buy tickets, that’s where my clients come forth. I have all kinds of men; all kind of status; I have a white man with a plane. If I want to travel today, I say darling what you doing, can I travel? He takes me to see my brother.”
Ecstasy had a firm stance on the issue of legalizing prostitution; she did not think it should be done.
“It’s not about legalizing, but the matter about security in it,” she elaborated. “You don’t want to legalize to say okay, everyone can prostitute because you’re going to find the youngest child on the road doing it. Right now there’s already a problem on the strip where young girls, some just 15 years old come and have sex for EC$50. I don’t want it to be legalized. It needs to be done in a way where you can do it, but know how you’re doing it. You don’t want it to be too free up. We’re looking for security and the discrimination to stop.”
Then came the unexpected revelation.
“Even I was raped by foreigners,” she disclosed. “When I went to the police I had endless blood on my clothes instead the officer ask me if I’m okay he’s like, “Did you enjoy the sex?” This is what we want to stop. If you legalize that you’re going to find more of the girls robbing the fellas, that’s where we have the problem. I haven’t gotten a business in six months, prospective clients are afraid to go around us.”
On a good day, particularly on a Friday night Ecstasy can pick up at least nine clients.
“It would have to be a good night, especially on a holiday Friday,” she says. “On the weekdays there’s less business and more clients who want company and not really sexual
action. They want you to go out and dance with them, come over and give them a massage.”
But how on earth could any woman deal with having sex with nine men in one night?
“Darling, as a woman it’s not too much for the body,” Ecstasy laughed. “You have to know how to do it because even if someone is paying you, you’re not going to have that person riding you like a horse. You have to know your mind and know how to do it.”
Her shameless secret?
“Tease the fellas first, make sure they’re on the brink of just poppin’ it, and then you do your stuff!
“I put myself in a different bracket from so many of those other women,” she said as our fiery interview winded down. “If I go with someone my price is from US$300 upward for an hour. When I go with you I want to entertain you. I’m not going to leave out anything. I dance for you, run around your house naked, give you the whole full speed, finish going down on you and entertain you sexually. Everything we do we do it protected, I’m always packing,” she says patting her handbag for added effect.
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