Open Road

Monday Nov 16th 2009

Scientist + Sex Blogging = Dynamite Public Affairs

Ladies and gentlemen of the British science community I have two well-worn clichés for you:
1. Never look a gift horse in the mouth
2. Sex sells.

And with this in mind, I urge you to use the golden opportunity that has been given to you by the outing of Britain’s most famous sex blogger, Belle de Jour.

What’s that? You don’t know about sex blogs because you spend all your time in a laboratory staring at bacteria through a microscope? Allow me to illuminate you…

In 2003, an anonymous blog was started called Diary of a London Call Girl which recounted a young woman’s experiences of working as...a London Call Girl. It became widely read because it was:
a. Explicit
b. Well-written
c. Offered a glamorous view of prostitution
d. Was written by a mystery author that claimed to be a girl-next door type.

Anyway, the Guardian named it blog of the year; the blog became a book and an ITV2 miniseries with Billie Piper. And all the while, Belle remained anonymous unlike many of her contemporaries, safe from the scourge of all anonymous bloggers: the Sunday Times. But not anymore. She’s come forward/been outed and given an interview with India Knight.

And here’s why this is of interest to the British science community: Belle de Jour is Dr Brooke Magnanti, a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. Six years ago she became a £300 an hour escort to fund the final stages of her PhD thesis.

Now I have no idea what developmental neurotoxicology is but I do know a PR hook when I see one. And this is the perfect opportunity for the science community to squeeze some R&D money out of the government. I’m thinking: ‘Students forced to sell bodies to buy books’, I’m thinking: ‘Woefully underfunded science industry turns to sex industry to fund cure for cancer’ I’m thinking: Belle de Jour in a lab coat calling for bigger R&D grants for developmental neurotoxicology.

This could be very big indeed people.