Grist takes on the idea of sex work as a legitimate mainstream industry. It’s an interesting article once you choke down the first paragraph that seems to lay every sex related societal ill at the feet of the commercial sex trade.
Can the sex industry ever be sustainable? Some find the very question outrageous. Prostitution and pornography have too much to answer for. There’s the global spread of HIV, the trafficking of women and children, instances of rape apparently inspired by violent porn, and unhealthy obsessions with body image provoked by sexualized clichés of beauty.
After reading it a few times, I have now reconciled it with the rest of the article by supposing it was meant to portray a popular, but erroneous, perspective for purposes of contrast. It does get more palatable:
The common assumption that sex work is inherently dangerous or degrading can, with bitter irony, actually make life harder for those involved. In November 2010, The Economist warned that laws designed to suppress human trafficking and sexual exploitation, leading to the closure of bars and brothels, have “helped the police to beat, rob, and rape sex workers ‘with impunity.’” Citing a report by Human Rights Watch, it asserted, “most migrant sex workers have left home for good reasons of their own — among them a desire to work away from their families, and to earn more money.”
Compared to the usual media drivel sourced from delusional rescue industry claims, that paragraph actually begins to sound like responsible journalism (although she could have left out that “bitter irony” crap). But, nothing lasts forever and what begins as a critical examination of current attitudes descends into an advocacy of some kind of Marxist utopia (aka Orwellian dystopia) where sex is completely relegated to government control. Apparently the universality of government incompetence has been cured by the time this evolves.
Feel like watching the latest Fair Trade-certified porn film? The actors all enjoy decent pay, health insurance, and pensions. The carbon impact of the set lighting and travel is offset through investment in clean, efficient cookstoves sold at affordable prices to women in rural Africa.
By this time they must have broken the cycle of perpetual African poverty reinforced by foreign aid to warring factions from western democracies bedeviled by an uncontrollable compulsion to see what monetary collapse looks like.
Perhaps you’d prefer a spot of ethical lap-dancing? You can be sure the performers are all willing and well-paid: It’s certified by Care and Consent, the highly reputable international certification body for ethical sex. You tip generously, knowing that 50 percent of the profits are promised to the local women’s community center.
Care Consent? Oh, I get it. After all, the rescue industry needs employment in the magical new world, too, and it’s not like civilization is suddenly going to abandon its responsibility to keep women from making the wrong choices.
Or, maybe best of all, you opt for an evening in with your sweetheart. You’ve got everything you need: condoms made from rubber tapped sustainably in Brazil, hand-carved FSC-certified sex toys, and delicious Fair Trade dark chocolate body paint.
Hand carved? So, in this new green economy we’ve apparently given up on industrialization and reverted to third world productivity standards.
So, if you think the current environment of persecution, incarceration, moral condemnation, violence, and police harassment are bad, just remember there are plenty of people out there who have the vision to turn it into something it far worse.
