Commodification of sex

[Alex]

No, but the reasons don't have to do with the sex.

I also don't assume that the woman blowing a horse on a web site is a drug addict. I know enough people to know that isn't the only reason someone would do such a thing.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

No, but the reasons don't have to do with the sex.

To expand a bit. I don't equate doing something for bad reasons to the thing itself being bad.

Now, the bad reasons that lead people to prostitution and the sex trade are frequently more pitiable (to my view) than the bad reasons people end up living in a cube farm, even if in the end result both are equally miserable (how do you measure misery? five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes...).

Then there is the fact that because society as an average has decided that being a sex worker is distasteful, it is sad that a person who feels it is their only avenue (or simply because they like it) is burdened with the extra baggage that has nothing to do with the actual sex but rather the reaction of others.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

Bad jobs and bad treatment are bad. However, you can't seriously tell me that when you see an unhappy office worker, you feel as bad for him/her as for some tackily dressed hooker yelling at cars on a street corner in a bad neighborhood in the rain or for some drug addict on a web site blowing a horse.

An unhappy office worker can be far worse than unhappy. There are plenty of suicidal, lonely people stuck in jobs that drain their personality, energy, and self-esteem dry. That's why they call it "going postal".

There are also plenty of self-destructive people living in wealthy situations. It's not always about money. I personally think that people that let cameras into their actual lives for the entertainment of others (like Jessica Simpson or Danny Bonaduce) are the worst kind of whores there are. Game show-style reality series are a different beast than these my-awful-existence-is-on-display type freak shows. If my child came home saying they were doing THAT, I'd definitely be disappointed. That's where I start using words like "exploitation" and "degrading".

Making issues like exploitation supposedly gender and career specific is entirely off-point, IMHO. I truly believe that whatever makes people happy, honestly happy, is what they're supposed to do, regardless of designation.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

wow, another subject I know nothing about.


I think I'll go post in the Political thread.

[blueerica]

Oh, and Adam Smith. I've heard of that guy.

[€uroMeinke]

I have to wonder if the stigma of being a sex-worker is changing with the coming of the porn generation. Porn Stars have already become celebrities as the industry has become more mainstream. Los Angeles Magazine even did a cover story on one girl's dream to be a porn star - sure that was there to sell magazines.

Not having kids, I can't really answer how I'd react if my son or daughter decided to enter the sex-industry, but if I look the other direction, I somehow think it would be kinda cool if one of my parents one did a stint as burlesque act somewhere in Wiemar Germany.

[Prudence]

In theory, I don't have an issue with the commodifying sex. In practice, I worry (of course) about the bleed over into other areas. I have never, to my knowledge, been a guy, so I can't say for certain what it's like being a guy. But my experience being on hiring committees is that there is sometimes an association of "sexy" with "competent" that is applied to women, but not men. I'm sure that for some people the opposite is true, and "sexy" equals "slightly less intelligent than toast."

I've known my share of strippers and former strippers and porno chicks (video and magazine), and most of them were sharp, up-and-coming (har) women using what they were given to make a buck or two on the way to their latest PhD. Actually, I don't think I've ever known one that wasn't pursuing a regular, reputable degree. They were comfortable with themselves and whatever. But the customers? Very few customers were well adjusted. Most of them were delusional, desperate men.

This would probably be clearer if I were more coherent at the moment. It's like so many other things -- it's perfectly rational on paper, selling sex, but somehow when put into practice it gets all warped. Nothing really to be done about it - it's just another example of how humanity sucks.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Aside from abuses within the industry, I have take no moral stance against the sex industry, whether it's prostitution or pornography. Sex as commodity is nothing new under the sun. Erotic art is nothing new, it's just evolved to reflect new media.

I have some concerns that pornography can have an adverse effect on the inexperienced in that it may overly influence their tastes/expectations. But so do a lot of things.

When it comes to sexual partnerships, it's probably best if both people share similar interests/curiosities, etc. I have seen a few couples wrecked by their diverging sexual interests. In one case, a woman I know had to deal with her long-term boyfriend's escalating interest in pornography. He wanted to watch it with her almost every time they had sex, which wasn't previously the case. She had a pretty liberal attitude about pornography until it seemed to overwhelm her relationship - became the basis of their sex life. It made her feel like the sex was all about him.

I wouldn't blame him, necessarily. Frankly, he turned into a jerk. But in that instance, pornography had a negative influence on a relationship. Or maybe it was just their shifting interests. Maybe they were simply falling out of love.

You just have to like what you like and go with your instinct and find partners with similar desires or an open-mindedness about how one individually seeks his or her own pleasure, and how as a couple pleasure is mutually achieved. When it comes to porn, it's often to each her own. I can't claim to watch a lot of it (though I have watched some and enjoyed it too) and pornographic still images almost never do anything for me. But erotic art and writing very often strike a chord, because both are connected to the act of making or thinking about something erotic. Part of the stimulation is the thought behind what I'm reading or looking at.

[innerSpaceman]

My only problem with the commodification of sex is that it's too expensive.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

My only problem with the commodification of sex is that it's too expensive.

That's what third world counties are for