Commodification of sex

[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.

[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.