Thursday, July 14, 2016
Daddies, “Dates,” and the Girlfriend Experience: Welcome to the New Prostitution Economy: A growing number of young people are selling their bodies online to pay student loans, make the rent, or afford designer labels. Is it just an unorthodox way to make ends meet or a new kind of exploitation?
5 comments:
Please pick a handle or moniker for your comment. It's much easier to address someone by a name or pseudonym than simply "hey you". I have the option of requiring a "hard" identity, but I don't want to turn that on... yet.
With few exceptions, I will not respond or reply to anonymous comments, and I may delete them. I keep a copy of all comments; if you want the text of your comment to repost with something vaguely resembling an identity, email me.
No spam, pr0n, commercial advertising, insanity, lies, repetition or off-topic comments. Creationists, Global Warming deniers, anti-vaxers, Randians, and Libertarians are automatically presumed to be idiots; Christians and Muslims might get the benefit of the doubt, if I'm in a good mood.
See the Debate Flowchart for some basic rules.
Sourced factual corrections are always published and acknowledged.
I will respond or not respond to comments as the mood takes me. See my latest comment policy for details. I am not a pseudonomous-American: my real name is Larry.
Comments may be moderated from time to time. When I do moderate comments, anonymous comments are far more likely to be rejected.
I've already answered some typical comments.
I have jqMath enabled for the blog. If you have a dollar sign (\$) in your comment, put a \\ in front of it: \\\$, unless you want to include a formula in your comment.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Doing your own thing is NOT exploitation. It is selling a service with a fair exchange of materials. Just because religious dogma has a problem with this is of no concern except maybe for your safety as the religious bigots do have power in this theocratically controlled country and can make your life a trial.
ReplyDeleteOther then religious bigotry where is the difference! You have a service (electronics Tech) or an ability (football) and you sell these for material gain...you are essentially pimping yourself to others.
But if a woman does this with sex, she is either a slut or a wife!
L.Long -- I agree with you for the most part (it's service, as long as all parties involved are consenting...)
ReplyDeleteHowever, he's another question. If she had OTHER employment opportunities (non-sexual) that paid just as well...would she still do this job?
If the answer is yes, then I don't think she's being exploited. But if the answer is no...isn't that a kind of exploitation? Sure, I can work this minimum wage job or I can make 100x the money doing...
Seems like a no brainer.
Not sure she'd still do it if she had a REAL choice. But NO judgment against her for making either choice. Her body, her business (the part I agree with you on).
I agree with Vizbones: consent is a complex concept. I have heard of evidence that when women have good traditional economic opportunities, they choose sex work less often. However, a quick search on Google scholar doesn't reveal anything, so I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteGiven the extremely shitty economy for the bottom 70-80 percent, it seems likely that a number of sex workers are economically "forced" into sex work. The sex workers' own dissatisfaction reported in the article supports this idea.
I also agree to a certain extent with L.Long: the problem is not at all "moral"; I do not believe that sex work is immoral per se, and given the diversity of human desire, there would probably be some who would choose it even given comparable alternative economic opportunities.
And, of course, this article explores only one slice of sex work; quite a lot of sex work seems obviously exploitative and some relies on outright slavery.
If the concept of sex work bothers you (and I confess it bother me), I believe these to be the possible explanations for that feeling:
ReplyDelete1) Sex should not be exchanged according to your system of values. Even within a marriage (or permanent life partnership), sex should be about giving rather than exchanging (giving in order to receive something of greater subjective value). Both partners give themselves to each other as a gift and in giving experience something beautiful that is immensely enjoyable for both of them. Sex becomes enshrined as an expression of love. You either love someone or you don't, and often not in response to exchange potential. Love is a sympathetic force, though, and it responds most vigorously to the presence of love in those close to us, especially those whom we have already opened our hearts to. I love you, you love me, and we live together with other people with whom we share the bonds of love. This is family.
You do not have to condemn or despise the sex worker if this is your reason for rejecting their profession. If anything, pity is the appropriate response. They are cutting themselves off from the joy and the beauty of sex when they exchange sex. How can I not pity them?
2) Sex can be exchanged, but all exchange must be equal and voluntary. Sex work is permissible as long as it meets these two criteria. The question then becomes how to arrive at the appropriate conclusion regarding these two criteria when examining any particular instance of a sex worker performing sex work. What is a fair price for this service and are they getting it? Is it acceptable to me that market forces or desperation should make it so that somewhere in the world a woman feels she must trade sexual access to her body for a loaf of bread to feed herself or someone she loves? Is sex work truly voluntary if performed in conditions of such desperation? We can say it is in a strict sense--they chose sex work, after all--but it affronts my personal sense of decency to suggest that further degradation of one's living conditions or, in the most extreme case, dying, are preferable to sex work. Maybe once I've walked a mile in their shoes, but not a moment sooner. I may want to offer alternative suggestions to the desperate sex worker, or create such alternatives for them if none exist, but I do so out of compassion for them, not condemnation of what they've heretofore chosen to do.
If you can think of a third general reason why sex work may bother someone, please share it.
Well you aren't much of a capitalist, because anything is OK in business...Ask any 1%-er!
Delete"Sex can be exchanged, but all exchange must be equal and voluntary. " All fine and OK except in most states controlled by xtian bigots is that this is illegal cuz their book o'BS says some crap about not doing it. And states are mostly democracies so the majority of bigots wont let it be OK. And they are really embarrassed with certain European countries that have a very low amount of sexploitation because sex aint illegal.
So yes in the Theocratic States of America sex business is sexploitation as it is controlled by criminal groups.
And a fair price?? Easy! What ever they can get! And if it aint enough get out of the business and do something else!