Virginity going once, twice, sold to highest bidder … or maybe not

Here's the latest The End Times are Nigh story to make the rounds.

A California college girl claims to be auctioning off her virginity at a Nevada brothel. Perhaps you've seen her swearing to her purity in the Church of Howard Stern & Tyra Banks, Inc.

She says thousands of bids have come in since her announcement a few months ago, including one for $3.8 million. She'll use the money to pay for college.

Ick, right?

Well, yes. But what else?

The story's an international sensation. The media love it. So, apparently, does the public.

Does that mean it's OK? Do we accept this as, if not normal, then at least not deranged?

"The most interesting thing about this story in the first place is that it is a story," said Lynn Comella, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas women's studies professor whose expertise includes the media and popular culture.

The girl, who's using the phony name Natalie Dylan, says it's no big deal.

She was too busy last week to talk to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but has said again and again elsewhere that the whole thing is simply feminist empowerment, a pretty smart way to make a buck.

But Comella isn't all that interested in discussing empowerment versus male domination theories.

She's fascinated, not so much by the story or the girl, but by public reaction to it.

"I think reality television has kind of primed us that anybody can be a celebrity," she said.

Dylan is certainly that.

Her story, in brief: She's a recent college graduate in women's studies. She's pretty in a too-much-makeup-but-what-gorgeous-eyes-you-have way.

She's 23 years old.

She had a sister who used to work at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, the brothel near Carson City that's featured in an HBO television series.

Dylan needed money to go to graduate school, after which she and her sister plan to open up a counseling practice. She approached the brothel's head honcho, Dennis Hof, with her virginity idea.

"My heroes are P.T. Barnum, Colonel Sanders and Andy Kaufman," said Hof, known more as a pitchman than a pimp. "I'm always looking for the angle. I'm such a whore for this, the media, I'm going for it."

So, the New York Daily News, Howard Stern, and a blog-tastic fit of talk shows followed.

Good publicity for the ol' Bunny Ranch, huh?

"Dennis Hof's good at that," said George Flint, a lobbyist for the state's brothels who, admittedly, has a strained relationship with Hof.

"The whole thing," said Flint, "is another example of Dennis Hof's entrepreneurship, his ability to come up with gimmicks and angles."

But it's good for the industry, right? Any publicity is good publicity, all of that?

Not so much, said Flint.

First of all, he's not sure it's legal. Yes, prostitution in a brothel is legal in most of Nevada. But there are a couple of obscure laws, he said, that forbid enticing someone to cross state lines for the purposes of prostitution.

So that's not good.

It is also, as we noted earlier, icky. Icky attention is not good for brothels. Icky attention can make legislators perk up, so to speak.

The brothels don't want icky attention, Flint insisted.

And besides, he said, there's no way this thing is legitimate.

"She's probably as much a virgin as I am," he said of Dylan.

It should be noted here that Dylan claims she has twice passed lie detector tests. She has offered to undergo a gynecological examination, if the, uh, buyer deems it necessary.

She won't identify any of the bidders, however. And, despite having her photos plastered all over the Internet, she won't tell anyone her real name. No one has come forward to say who she really is, either.

But all that's kind of beside the point, argued Comella, the UNLV professor.

"I think we can talk about it as a publicity circus whether it's real or contrived," she said. "It almost doesn't matter. They've done a really good job at spinning this story. And that is fascinating."

She picked up on Dylan's assertion that this can all be looked at as a sociological experiment.

Which brings us back to the question, What does it mean?

Did Nostradamus predict Natalie Dylan? And if so, what did he say about our reaction to her? Our acceptance of her?

Is it funny? Is it tragic?

Is it anything at all beyond a trivial piece of pseudo-entertainment?

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it's not going anywhere.

So said Hof, the pimp-pitchman-entrepreneur-media whore.

"I've got 24 more virgins lined up," he said. "And they're stunning."

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.