Dear Mars Bound,
There are many girls who are "managed" by pimps. They are not boyfriends, they manipulate the girl in too many ways to count. As I have stated before, girls don't get into this because their lives are ticky-boo, they are desperate and therefore vunerable as prey.
These men systematically find girls who start out broken, hurt, naive, and they are convinced by a pimp that he will fix their immediate situation. He buys them clothes, gives them a decent place to live, takes them out, and it's all part of the seduction. He sleeps with them, goes for the heart strings to begin with. At this point, often the girls identification is taken, for safe keeping of course and then he has her.
The money she and the others make keep him in the money and he either hooks them on drugs or uses violence to keep them culled. These girls are usually in tragic situations, runaways or trying to escape the bad situation they are in. A few weeks of being pampered and they think they are in a good place.
But the good ends quickly, and the brainwashing is insidious. A pimp continuously undermines her sense of self worth, and convinces her of the illusion that only he cares, and that she has no where else to turn. Most never phone 911 because they are more afraid of LE for a myriad of reasons.
She believes that he loves her, he is her "man" and she toes the line. The pimp explains the 1st wife concept and most girls just accept it. They just want to be loved, and don't know what real love is, having come from places of sexual, physical, mental abuse and most often a combination of all three.
True independents choose this as a viable business option, weigh the risks and approach it like anything else they would do. What most pimps don't understand is that a true indie is not a viable target because we are far too strong willed and bull headed to be controlled. We are a stubborn lot, often choosing the long way round in order to maintain our independence. As I often say, pimps are not the smartest dogs in the pack, just the meanest, never underestimate their cunning ways....
Catherine