Sex work is only inherently built around debasing and dehumanizing yourself if you consider sex itself to be debased and dehumanizing. It’s a service profession like literally any other.
Such a complete misunderstanding of the industry is the result of a flattening of distinctions between all work and a misunderstanding of Marxist theory. Wage labor is exploitative because of the surplus value extracted from the workers’ labor. Prostitution is sexual exploitation because it feeds off of extreme vulnerability to maintain a class of prostitutes, coerces sex through money and power, and exposes those women to high amounts of rape and violence. Not all work involves coercive sex, not all work comes with the high risk of rape and male violence in whatever legal context it operates under. Not all work puts the body and it’s component parts on the market to be bought, sold, and rented at will to the highest bidder.
I read the article and my main contention is that it doesn’t establish why we must treat the performance of sex as morally different to any other form of service work. As I said in the other comment I believe that the way we are compelled to treat sex as “different” is a manifestation of patriarchal thinking - there is nothing fundamentally different between a woman who is coerced by poverty into prostitution and a man who is coerced by poverty into agricultural work, and the ways to solve the exploitation in both cases is the same: organization of the workers against the bosses, the abolition of bosses altogether and shifting control of that industry to the workers in it, and ultimately the abolition of the capitalist mode of production that incentivizes maximum exploitation of all who participate in it.
It is not about sex, it is about money. Because money is something people need to live it calls in question whether or not the sex is freely given or coerced. If a person has sex with someone not because they want to do so, but because they have to, I do not think there is much difference whether or not the threat comes from say violence or starvation. If people want to have consensual sex I think that is great in all forms that can take. If the consent is contingent on monetary compensation I think there is a high chance, though admittedly not entirely certain, that the sex is being coerced in some way, which I would say constitutes rape. Why do you think it is okay to have an uneven allocation of money in a society so that those on the top can do with those on the bottom as they want?
Why do you think it is okay to have an uneven allocation of money in a society so that those on the top can do with those on the bottom as they want?
Of course I don’t think that’s okay, don’t put words in my mouth.
My contention is that sex is morally equivalent to any other form of labor, and I believe that the pedestal we put sex on as a society is a manifestation of patriarchy. It’s no coincidence that for most of human history, sex work has been one of the few labor markets where women have an advantage over men, and thus controlling sex work has been one of the major tools at the patriarchy’s disposal for controlling women’s bodies. The impulse to control sex work is the same as the impulse to force them to wear specific clothing, the only difference is that in Western societies one of those forms of control has had a massive philosophical edifice built around it and the other hasn’t.
It was not my intention to put words in your mouth, but to put to words what myself, and maybe others, think is wrong with sex work and why it is not “a profession like any other”. It has never been about it being morally okay to offer sex. It is about it being morally not okay to ask for it in exchange for money. While we are at it I think the real consequences of allowing for sex work is not empowering women, but extending the grip of the patriarchy, whose tool is money, to realms were they should not be.
Sex work is only inherently built around debasing and dehumanizing yourself if you consider sex itself to be debased and dehumanizing. It’s a service profession like literally any other.
This is such a lib take that it pains me to read it. The whole post is worth a read, btw.
https://proletarianfeminist.medium.com/the-problem-with-the-phrase-sex-work-is-work-bdac613eb2f0
I read the article and my main contention is that it doesn’t establish why we must treat the performance of sex as morally different to any other form of service work. As I said in the other comment I believe that the way we are compelled to treat sex as “different” is a manifestation of patriarchal thinking - there is nothing fundamentally different between a woman who is coerced by poverty into prostitution and a man who is coerced by poverty into agricultural work, and the ways to solve the exploitation in both cases is the same: organization of the workers against the bosses, the abolition of bosses altogether and shifting control of that industry to the workers in it, and ultimately the abolition of the capitalist mode of production that incentivizes maximum exploitation of all who participate in it.
I feel like your completely glossing over the whole increased risk of rape and violence aspect that prostitution involves compared to wage labor.
It is not about sex, it is about money. Because money is something people need to live it calls in question whether or not the sex is freely given or coerced. If a person has sex with someone not because they want to do so, but because they have to, I do not think there is much difference whether or not the threat comes from say violence or starvation. If people want to have consensual sex I think that is great in all forms that can take. If the consent is contingent on monetary compensation I think there is a high chance, though admittedly not entirely certain, that the sex is being coerced in some way, which I would say constitutes rape. Why do you think it is okay to have an uneven allocation of money in a society so that those on the top can do with those on the bottom as they want?
Of course I don’t think that’s okay, don’t put words in my mouth.
My contention is that sex is morally equivalent to any other form of labor, and I believe that the pedestal we put sex on as a society is a manifestation of patriarchy. It’s no coincidence that for most of human history, sex work has been one of the few labor markets where women have an advantage over men, and thus controlling sex work has been one of the major tools at the patriarchy’s disposal for controlling women’s bodies. The impulse to control sex work is the same as the impulse to force them to wear specific clothing, the only difference is that in Western societies one of those forms of control has had a massive philosophical edifice built around it and the other hasn’t.
It was not my intention to put words in your mouth, but to put to words what myself, and maybe others, think is wrong with sex work and why it is not “a profession like any other”. It has never been about it being morally okay to offer sex. It is about it being morally not okay to ask for it in exchange for money. While we are at it I think the real consequences of allowing for sex work is not empowering women, but extending the grip of the patriarchy, whose tool is money, to realms were they should not be.